Went back to Hustler to try to get my playing edge back. Unfortunately my luck still haven’t changed. I did however played a more aggressive game and caught some good action. It felt good winning some hands. The first $100 lasted me about 2 hours and my last $50 lasted about an hour. The last $50 I tried to tighten up my game, but the blinds and raises chipped away at my stack when the flop didn’t prevail for me. I think I’m going to try a new stategy. That’s sitting out for awhile. I’m not in control these days. I’m either playing scared or playing reckless. I need to find a middle ground so I don’t become the fish of the table. Can’t wait to get out of this slump.
Finally sold my energy position yesterday at a loss. Can’t believe XLE fell over 3% in one day! Thank goodness SHY’s dividend will help ease the pain. I suppose the news that they found more source of oil may have caused this recent downturn. In any case September-October is suppose to be historically bad months for the market. I’ll just sit in cash and international position and watch. So far international isn’t so hot either.
An attempt to recapture the Vegas feeling, I went back to Hustler and played a round of NL poker. Busted out my $50 buy-in in about an hour. Man, what a string of bad luck. I haven’t won since the eve of my birthday camping trip. When you’re not catching cards, you’re not catching cards. I was fairly content with how I played.
My 30th celebration started with a marathon of a poker game. Received two buy-ins from Greg. Lost it pretty fast. Very hard to play serious when the money was given to you by someone else so I decided to pick up on the balance. After buying in for another $80, I made my come-back. At the end of the night, I walked away being up $60. Of course $40 of that was a gift from Greg. Didn’t get home from the game until 5am. Thanks guys for setting it up and hosting a good poker night!
I woke up the same morning at 8am to pack up and get ready for my Idyllwild camping trip. I was done packing by 10am and sat and waited for my ride. Didn’t leave my house until close to 1pm. We reached the camp site close to 3pm and began our feasting. It was a relaxing evening where we sat around the camp fire and just relaxed. The most ideal way of spending my 30th birthday with friends. I turned in at midnight. The tent floor was hard but I was able to fall asleep after having just 3 hours the previous night. I didn’t get up until 8am again. We made breakfast and cleaned up the place. Went into town to sight-see and ended up buying some souvenirs. We departed Idyllwild by 1pm and began our journey to our final destination, Sun City. We unloaded the remaining food in preparation for lunch. Took a long overdue shower and had lunch. I was completely surprised by a birthday cheesecake in my honor.
Needless to say, this was the best birthday I’ve ever had. There was so many people who came out and spent some time with me. Thanks to everyone who made this possible. Thanks to all that sent a card (paper and electronic). Thanks for the text messages. And thanks for all the wonderful gifts. Oh the gifts! I was fortunate to receive a Nintendo DS Lite game system, a bunch of gift cards/certificates, a poker set, DS Lite games, and a spring loaded BB gun. More are coming in the mail! 
Again, thanks everyone!
Murder mystery at Aphrodisiac restaurant (formerly Lunaria) in Century City went fairly well. They used props, served a dinner, and had over the top acting. It was definitely quite an experience and I would recommend going there once. I have to say I solved the case but they gave the prize to a 12 year-old kid. A new career in detective work.
We also had a delicious lunch on Sunday at Newport Seafood restaurant in San Gabriel. A 11 course meal with lobsters and crabs. It was awesome! Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera and wasn’t able to get pictures for the event. We went to Shon’s house and had a quick poker game. I dropped $40 in a matter of 30 minutes. I was playing too loose. Too much confidence in my game. I have to reevaluate my strategy. That’s the thing about Texas Hold’em, there’s always room to learn and the checks and balances to keep you humble. I need to take a break from the game for a little bit before I test the waters again.
Poker, Special Event
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Adalyn, birthday, Century City, food, Lunaria, murder mys, murder mystery, Newport Seafood, Poker, restaurant, texas hold'em
Just got back from a home game my co-worker Jeremy hosted. Texas Hold’em NL $30 buy-in $0.25/$0.50 blinds. After about 5 hours of playing I lost it all in another incredible hand. I was constantly up the entire night until this last play. I was holding a K-9 spades and the flop had a K-9. I thought I was good and was almost wanting my opponent to call me all in. This one guy, Heitor, basically the other shark on the table besides myself does call me all in. I call and he flips over cards that had so many outs. He flopped a gut shot, flush draw, and straight flush draw. The turn brings down a 8 of clubs which completed his straight flush, the biggest hand of the night. I was in disbelief. But was satisfied with the lost. I’ve been very good about stretching out my buy-in and end up losing considerably less every time I’ve played. The shark and I took turns out thinking each other whenever we go heads up. Hey may win a hand, I may win a hand or I just bluff him out alot of the time. I’d have to say some of those plays were damn good. I was so glad he didn’t call it at the time. I know this won’t be the last time facing off with him again.
I think my game has gotten much better through the years and feel good even after another losing tonight. This has been 4 consecutive losing poker sessions. I’m not giving up yet. It’s a price to play to really sharpen these skills. I’m exhausted from the crazy mind games and have a slight head ache on the way back till now. I feel poker works the entire brain. To be able to calculate odds works the left brain and the reading and feeling out a player is intense activity for the right brain. I love this game!
An impromptu game on Sunday turned unfortunate for me. It was just the 4 of us. 3 of us battled it out and took turns being the big stack. There was 2 amazing beat that night, both of which I took part in. First one was an all-in call between Drew and I. I had pocket 7s and he had a heart flush draw. There was a pair showing on the board. So on the river a 7 of hearts came out. Initially I thought I lost that because we saw it was a heart, but then Drew pointed out that I had the boat with the 7 so that was a bad beat for him. Of course karma came to play at my last hand where Shon checks to me on the river. I had 9-4 off suite and caught my third 4 on the river. Thinking I had the hand won, I call all-in and Shon quickly calls it without hesitation. WHAT THE HELL? He throws down his hooks (pocket Js); with the other J on the board and the pair of 4s gives him the boat. He takes the last of my $60 buy-in. Great play Shon! Especially when he was looking to bust me out since he did not want to go heads up with me the whole night. He patiently waited while the others took each other out and timed it with great precision and went in for the kill. Very nice play!
I was involved with 2 ring games over Thanksgiving break. The first was a $5 buy-in game during a Thanksgiving party. I was doing well earlier with a commanding chip lead but slowly lost it all. Rebought and was up and down until I pulled out even. So I was down $5 at the end of Friday night.
Come Sunday afternoon, I was in my usual group of friend’s ring game for $20. I was catching lots of cards earlier on and was in the chip lead. That dwindled down to $20 but never lower. Ended up cashing out $177 and making $157. I was able to maintain the same strategy and made a few tweaks. I have to say I was lucky catching some amazing suck-outs on Shon. One, my A-5 off-suite versus his A-K where we both have top paired but I catch runner runners to complete my club flush. Overall, I’ve been happy with the adjustments I’ve made. I’ve managed to minimized my losses and improved my chances of coming up on the positive side of the money. Will get to test this out again in 2 weeks. So far so good with this new play schedule. I’m sure Shon will be looking for me next time. 
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I typically write about what I’m thankful about. So here it is.
I am thankful for…
- an understanding and loving girlfriend who I adore.
- great friends who provide years and years of memories.
- being closer to my parents ever since I started living away from home.
- the emergence of Texas Hold’em as the favorite pass-time amongst my friends and I.
- the ability to to hop on my motorcycle and ride wherever I want.
- understanding co-workers and bosses who value my opinion and looks out for my best interest.
- Dave Ramsey for his podcast on teaching financial responsibility.
- not wanting anything for Christmas because I already have everything I’ve ever wanted.
That is all for now. As for my Thanksgiving activity, I went over to Peuv’s house and had an awesome Thanksgiving lunch. Very delicious food. Even had the effects of tryptophan hit me and napped for a couple hours afterwards. Thanks Peuv for everything!
So who’s getting ready for Black Friday tomorrow? I haven’t decided if it is worthwhile digging up bargains while fighting the other crazy people who would wake up in the middle of the morning to save a few bucks. I know my sister thinks its worth it. She’ll be at Sears and I might get dragged into it. We’ll see.
Yes I am hooked! After seeing this site on my company’s intranet, I decided to sign up and see what’s going on. I did not think I was going to be this into it but I am. This is a free Texas Hold’em site which lets you play multiple tournaments for a chance to play at the final tournament in November for a prize.
For a free site, it is alot of fun. People are not calling you down like the other free sites. You don’t have to download any 3rd party programs to play. This game is based off of a good Flash program. From time to time, it does lock out, but for the most part it is very good for what you get. I recommend joining and play a few rounds. I’ve been able to make it to at least top 100 every time I play. So look for me there. I’m jonthelam. If anything this is a good place to practice for your next ring game. Its definitely made me a more patient player.
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