Up From Rock Bottom? Knock on Wood...
Hopefully whatever follows doesn't upset anyone's aesthetic sensibilities too much....This is my first post & I have approximately...um...NO idea how these blogs work, so any charitable souls out there who feel like offering advice will be appreciated.
If, however, there is mischef in your heart, now is your chance to mislead me or mock me, while I am still a babe in the wood, so to speak.
There is something in the Army called the 10% rule. Basically, the 10% rule states that you must be 10% smater than a given piece of equipment in order to make it work. Failure to make a given piece of equipment work therefore implies that you are, at best, 9% smarter than said tool, be that tool a rifle, a hammer, a copier, a sack of hammers, or--a computer....
So, if it turns out that i require assistance getting over the 10% hump on this blog, don't be shy to give me a little push! I may not be as dumb as a sack of hammers (or is it "as smart as a sack of hammers?"), but if I am only 6 or 7% smarter than a sack of hammers, than you'd better not put your hard earned $$ on me, because you don't have enough of an edge to overcome the vig!
Ahhhhh....the inevitable segway (sp?) into odds....
I'm not sure how much of this blog will be stream of consciousness, but insofar as some of it will be, I suppose it was inevitable that I would start talking about gambling, odds, poker, sports betting, etc--
After all, that was sort of the point, this being one more poker blog & what not.
thats all the world needs--another f*****g poker blog--
Some of the poker blogs I've read have had something akin to a mission statement. The blogger would explain that he was inspired to take $50 and throw it onto Party Poker, and attempt to parlay that into millions, or at least bore us with periodic updates on his failure to do so. Or his goal might be to chronicle as many surreal or otherwise interesting experiences somehow relating to poker as possible, while hopefully not losing his shirt in the process. Or the blog might be primarily instructional in nature.
Well...this isn't exactly a mission statement, but there are a few things inspiring me to start writing here.
One is certain common threads I have seen running through other blogs, which seem to be almost universal within the poker-blogging subculture, such as calling pocket kings Hellmuths, pocket queens the Hilton sisters, and referring to 72, be it suited or otherwise, as the Hammer, if not the Holy Apostolic Hammer. Bloggers also seem to need to attempt to drop the Hammer on unsuspecting opponents as a matter of principle. While I must confess to having done my share of hammer-dropping in order to influence my table image (though generally in late position +/or suited, or at least in one of the blinds) I prefer to hammer my opponents with a couple of Hiltons, or Bullets, (or Kings, but since when is Phil Hellmuth so triumphant in the poker world that he deserves to supplant cowboys in our vernacular?--unless we are talking about his re-inventing himself as Phil the Shill, in which case i must admit that he reigns supreme in the sphere of poker marketing). But I must save my rantings on the Blogslang for another post.
Another is the terrific string of bad-beats I endured last weekend in Doyles Room. They are fading from memory surprisingly quickly, (the one that stands out to me was moving in preflop with pocket hel--er--kings, vs q9 of spades, flopping a set, but losing to [you guessed it] a kqjt9 straight.) I think I will try to keep the bad beat whinings to a minimum, however. I've waded my way through blogs that got so bogged down in bad beat stories that I started to wonder if I had wandered from Purgatory into one of the Nine circles. (--Note to fellow bloggers: If you must regale us with bad beat stories, at least have a sense of humor about it. What's the saying? You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar? If you MUST beat a dead horse, first dip your Louisville Slugger in honey. Then you'll attract flies--if thats what you want....um, what was I saying?
The final straw came last night. I dozed off at the tail end of a string of S&Gs on PartyPoker and figured I'd check my balance. It was...dramatic pause...$35.71....WHAT!!?!! I'd thought I'd aleady hit rock bottom, but this might be my all time low. Without checking my notes, since I must really be going to bed soon, this puts me down roughly at -$1200 lifetime on that site. Less than a year ago I had over $10,000 on PartyPoker, and for one blissful week had been winning about $1000 a day on the $15/30 limit hold-em tables. I was dreaming of money laundering my profits in the Caymans and starting up some cash businesses....Maybe I still am--DREAMING that is....
Well, was that rock bottom? Today I played seven $5 sit&go's, and finished in the money in five of them (3 2nd places, one 3rd, and one 1st). After my fist place finish I moved up to the $10 S&G's, and took 6th place, 1st place, and 3rd place in 3 tournaments, bringing my PP account up to $110.71. Have I finally somehow managed to regain my focus? Am I just getting lucky? Is this some sort of "dead cat bounce," like what happens to wothless stocks just before the company goes belly up?
This is where I find myself currently, and this is why I am knock-knock-knocking on wood.
Personally, if I stay focused, put in the hours, and don't ride my losing streaks into the ground (a BIG if, given my recent past history) I think I have at LEAST as good a shot at finishing the year in the black as the Orioles do of winning the pennant. I have $10 on them at $16-1. If my computer hadn't gone on the fritz, I would've had them at 50-1 before the line moved. Do I think the Orioles will win the pennant? Hell no, but at the time I liked them at 16-1. I LOVED them at 50-1--in the NL you could only get 40-1 on Cincinnati at the time Cincy-FREAKIN-nati!!!
Well, I must close, before I'm mistaken for an Orioles fan (I'm not). Meanwhile, my superstitious side reminds me that through most of my S&G success today I was wearing either a Brooklyn Dodgers cap, or a Brooklyn Dodgers sweatshirt I picked up yesterday that makes me look like a cross between Phil Laak and Anakin Skywalker after he turned and had that hooded, dark Jedi/Sith apprentice thing going on....Well, the color scheme is all wrong, since the thing is Dodger Blue & White, with red trim, & the hood is WHITE, of all things....& no, I'm not a Dodger fan either, but rest assured, I will be wearing that sweatshirt as long as this streak and my air conditioning hold up....
--LATER
If, however, there is mischef in your heart, now is your chance to mislead me or mock me, while I am still a babe in the wood, so to speak.
There is something in the Army called the 10% rule. Basically, the 10% rule states that you must be 10% smater than a given piece of equipment in order to make it work. Failure to make a given piece of equipment work therefore implies that you are, at best, 9% smarter than said tool, be that tool a rifle, a hammer, a copier, a sack of hammers, or--a computer....
So, if it turns out that i require assistance getting over the 10% hump on this blog, don't be shy to give me a little push! I may not be as dumb as a sack of hammers (or is it "as smart as a sack of hammers?"), but if I am only 6 or 7% smarter than a sack of hammers, than you'd better not put your hard earned $$ on me, because you don't have enough of an edge to overcome the vig!
Ahhhhh....the inevitable segway (sp?) into odds....
I'm not sure how much of this blog will be stream of consciousness, but insofar as some of it will be, I suppose it was inevitable that I would start talking about gambling, odds, poker, sports betting, etc--
After all, that was sort of the point, this being one more poker blog & what not.
thats all the world needs--another f*****g poker blog--
Some of the poker blogs I've read have had something akin to a mission statement. The blogger would explain that he was inspired to take $50 and throw it onto Party Poker, and attempt to parlay that into millions, or at least bore us with periodic updates on his failure to do so. Or his goal might be to chronicle as many surreal or otherwise interesting experiences somehow relating to poker as possible, while hopefully not losing his shirt in the process. Or the blog might be primarily instructional in nature.
Well...this isn't exactly a mission statement, but there are a few things inspiring me to start writing here.
One is certain common threads I have seen running through other blogs, which seem to be almost universal within the poker-blogging subculture, such as calling pocket kings Hellmuths, pocket queens the Hilton sisters, and referring to 72, be it suited or otherwise, as the Hammer, if not the Holy Apostolic Hammer. Bloggers also seem to need to attempt to drop the Hammer on unsuspecting opponents as a matter of principle. While I must confess to having done my share of hammer-dropping in order to influence my table image (though generally in late position +/or suited, or at least in one of the blinds) I prefer to hammer my opponents with a couple of Hiltons, or Bullets, (or Kings, but since when is Phil Hellmuth so triumphant in the poker world that he deserves to supplant cowboys in our vernacular?--unless we are talking about his re-inventing himself as Phil the Shill, in which case i must admit that he reigns supreme in the sphere of poker marketing). But I must save my rantings on the Blogslang for another post.
Another is the terrific string of bad-beats I endured last weekend in Doyles Room. They are fading from memory surprisingly quickly, (the one that stands out to me was moving in preflop with pocket hel--er--kings, vs q9 of spades, flopping a set, but losing to [you guessed it] a kqjt9 straight.) I think I will try to keep the bad beat whinings to a minimum, however. I've waded my way through blogs that got so bogged down in bad beat stories that I started to wonder if I had wandered from Purgatory into one of the Nine circles. (--Note to fellow bloggers: If you must regale us with bad beat stories, at least have a sense of humor about it. What's the saying? You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar? If you MUST beat a dead horse, first dip your Louisville Slugger in honey. Then you'll attract flies--if thats what you want....um, what was I saying?
The final straw came last night. I dozed off at the tail end of a string of S&Gs on PartyPoker and figured I'd check my balance. It was...dramatic pause...$35.71....WHAT!!?!! I'd thought I'd aleady hit rock bottom, but this might be my all time low. Without checking my notes, since I must really be going to bed soon, this puts me down roughly at -$1200 lifetime on that site. Less than a year ago I had over $10,000 on PartyPoker, and for one blissful week had been winning about $1000 a day on the $15/30 limit hold-em tables. I was dreaming of money laundering my profits in the Caymans and starting up some cash businesses....Maybe I still am--DREAMING that is....
Well, was that rock bottom? Today I played seven $5 sit&go's, and finished in the money in five of them (3 2nd places, one 3rd, and one 1st). After my fist place finish I moved up to the $10 S&G's, and took 6th place, 1st place, and 3rd place in 3 tournaments, bringing my PP account up to $110.71. Have I finally somehow managed to regain my focus? Am I just getting lucky? Is this some sort of "dead cat bounce," like what happens to wothless stocks just before the company goes belly up?
This is where I find myself currently, and this is why I am knock-knock-knocking on wood.
Personally, if I stay focused, put in the hours, and don't ride my losing streaks into the ground (a BIG if, given my recent past history) I think I have at LEAST as good a shot at finishing the year in the black as the Orioles do of winning the pennant. I have $10 on them at $16-1. If my computer hadn't gone on the fritz, I would've had them at 50-1 before the line moved. Do I think the Orioles will win the pennant? Hell no, but at the time I liked them at 16-1. I LOVED them at 50-1--in the NL you could only get 40-1 on Cincinnati at the time Cincy-FREAKIN-nati!!!
Well, I must close, before I'm mistaken for an Orioles fan (I'm not). Meanwhile, my superstitious side reminds me that through most of my S&G success today I was wearing either a Brooklyn Dodgers cap, or a Brooklyn Dodgers sweatshirt I picked up yesterday that makes me look like a cross between Phil Laak and Anakin Skywalker after he turned and had that hooded, dark Jedi/Sith apprentice thing going on....Well, the color scheme is all wrong, since the thing is Dodger Blue & White, with red trim, & the hood is WHITE, of all things....& no, I'm not a Dodger fan either, but rest assured, I will be wearing that sweatshirt as long as this streak and my air conditioning hold up....
--LATER
posted by roQQ | 7:55 AM
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