CARDRUNNERS

As the title suggests, there is only like 4% of my body that wants to play poker lately. I think it's a good thing. I had a great March booking over $30k in profits, and had another 5 figure April in about 20 hours of play. But mid-April I noticed that I'd stopped caring...I was playing on autopilot, stacking off with big draws, shipping it in every overpair. Obviously these are not EGREGIOUS errors, but I wasn't really paying attention to the games or my opponents. I know that everyone goes through this from time to time, but the last time I was in this funk/mood (in February), I lost $20,000 straight, so I figure I'll take my chances and just wait it out. I might donk around with some small stakes PLO or something, but I'm not going to head back into the games until I have a real desire to start playing well and making money.

I also did something which I haven't done in a long time...I cashed out. Ever since Neteller died, and now that ePassporte went under, I've had less of a desire to cash out. It just seems so laborious...cash out via check, wait 3 weeks, see money. I think that if they left the money in my account until I cashed the check, I would't mind it. But to have like $10k gone from my account and also not in my hands just doesn't sit right with me. But anyways, to the credit of the sites I've been cashing out from, they all seem legit and all got me my money with 10 days or so, either via bank wire or check. I had gotten pretty complacent with leaving money online until Taylor really yelled at me, because of how much virtual money I had unprotected. I would write the sum in this blog, but if my parents saw it, they'd be pretty angry. To be honest, I trust all the sites where I store money, but there's always a non-zero chance that a payment processor goes under, they get indicted by the USAO, etc. It was stupid and I'll continue drawing down my funds...

But while I've been taking a break from poker, I've really been focusing more on fantasy baseball and the stock market. I've been promising Wiggins for a few weeks now that I'd post my fantasy baseball team, so here goes...I should note a few things. I'm in a really, really tough league. I know a lot of you are thinking that you're good at fantasy baseball yada yada. I don't think I'm good at fantasy baseball. I'm actually a pretty big fish. But this is my third year and I've been working really hard to get better, study more, and gain an edge. That's hurt to do in my league...my league is made up of professional poker players, professional sports bettors, and highly paid options traders. I am EASILY the poorest person in my league. I know some of you might see "professional sports bettor" and think that those guys are degens, but rumor has it that they collectively returned 7 to 8 figures in profit last year -- by betting sports. They're apparently among the best in the entire world. I'd give names, but I might be shot :) Soooo, my team is currently in first place (YAAAY) but it's still early, so I'm going to wait till June until I actually start getting excited about my chances. ALSO, my league is American League ONLY. We draft using a live, silent bid process. Most of you are probably used to snake drafts, meaning that if you have the 9th overall pick you get to pick the 9th best player and the 11th best player. Then the 29th, and the 31st, etc. This is different. We all start with $260 bid dollars to draft a team of 23 players. Every round, a team owner brings another MLB player to the auction block. We all write down our bids on an index card and then hold them up to see who's won the bidding:

C - Jason Varitek (Bos)
C - Jeff Mathis (Ana)
1B - Ross Gload (KC)
2B - Ian Kinsler (Tex)
3B - Adrian Beltre (Sea)
SS - Orlando Cabrera (Chw)
MI - Maicer Izturis (Ana)
CI - Joe Crede (Chw)
OF - Torii Hunter (Ana)
OF - Raul Ibanez (Sea)
OF - Adam Jones (Bal)
OF - Carlos Gomez (Min)
OF - Jose Guillen (KC)
DH - Jim Thome (Chw)
SP - Jered Weaver (Ana)
SP - Dana Eveland (Oak)
SP - Daniel Cabrera (Bal)
SP - Nate Robertson (Det)
SP - Chad Gaudin (Oak)
SP - Justin Duscherer (Oak)
SP - Luke Hochevar (KC)
RP - George Sherrill (Bal)
RP - C.J. Wilson (Tex)

Ben - Alexei Ramirez (Chw)
Ben - Wladimir Balentien (Sea)
Ben - David Dellucci (Cle)
Ben - Joaquin Benoit (Tex)
Ben - Kevin Slowey (Min)

If anyone has any comments on the team, feel free to give me some feedback. Remember that this is an AL-ONLY league, so the quality of players will obviously be lower than in most mixed leagues.

As for the stock market, I've been doing a lot of research and really working hard to become more efficient with my picks. I used to trust virtually any advice I got, but as I've studied and become more experienced, I'm starting to understand how to guage stocks on my own. One great one that my buddy Wayne turned me onto is McMoran Exploration Co (MMR). Wayne is a money manager in NYC...I'm not sure why he initially began tracking the company, but it's founded by the same zany, somewhat insane, Louisianian who founded FCX (Freeport-McMoran). The guy, Jim Bob Moffet is a mad genius. Whereas everyone else in the world had given up on the Gulf of Mexico as a source of natural gas, he believed that there was a lot of gas to yet to be discovered through "deep wells." Because the Gulf is so shallow (often no more than 10 feet deep) it was incredibly affordable to drill underwater -- whereas companies like Chevron and Exxon are often drilling through thousands of feet of water, making the process far more difficult. And whereas the other energy companies abandoned their geological research teams in favor of areas where it was easier to drill and gas more plentiful, Moffet went around hiring all these geologists to help study where the best bets were for finding deep-sea gas. It was amazing listening to the conference call, and hearing the executives discuss drilling into Miocene and Paleogene sands. I mean these are historical eras I learned about in Archaeology classes....and now this company is extracting gas from underwater sands thousands of years old. I think it's just such an incredible story. I got in around $14 and have returned 100% in about 3 months. Mmmmmmm....MMR :) Here's a little graph of the last 6 mos:

Love,

Ezra

Okay, so in my last post, I noted how I was about to board a JetBlue flight headed to Chicago.  The TVs had, unfortunately, malfunctioned, and they had announced that there would be no DirectTV service on the flight.  For shame.  I might actually get a nap in instead of wasting my life away watching VH1.

Anyways, I got the following e-mail today.  To see I was blown away would be an understatement.  I've never heard of an airline doing something like this before.  I mean, it's not like I even complained.  i didn't write, I didn't call.  Hell, I didn't even say anything to the flight attendant.  They did this entirely out of goodwill:

Dear Ezra,

Thank you for flying with JetBlue Airways on flight #907 from Kennedy on April 16, 2008. We apologize that the DIRECTV® was inoperable during your flight.

As a gesture of apology and goodwill, we have issued each customer on your flight a $15 JetBlue electronic Voucher. The Voucher is for you and is non-transferable. JetBlue Vouchers are valid for one year and can be applied towards airfare on JetBlue Airways reservations.

When you are ready to use your Voucher, please visit our website at www.jetblue.com. You will have the option to apply your Voucher, using the information below, during the payment portion of your reservation. You may also call...

I mean that is just unreal amazing.  It's not even the $15 I care about.  It's the fact that in an industry known for horrific customer service they actually ACKNOWLEDGED wrongdoing.  And even moreso, they offered compensation.  It's just such a breath of fresh air to fly JetBlue.  Man do I love them.

I also wanted to spend some time talking about creating opportunities -- both as it applies to poker and life.  I remember about two years ago my good friend Grimhogun totally opened my eyes to the beauty of No Limit Hold'em.  He'd been a fixed limit player for several years and had recently moved to NLHE.  He said to me one day "What I love about No Limit is that you actually manufacture money in situations where it wouldn't necessarily happen."  If you watch CardRunners videos, the pros do this without even commenting on it a lot of the time.  But for most of us, it's a concept which totally escapes our awareness.

Let's consider a few examples.  You're in the big blind with KQo.  The cutoff limps, the button limps, small blind completes and you check.  The flop comes down K62 with a flush draw.  Obviously you need to know your opponents.  But let's say that cutoff would've opened any pocket pair, and the button would've raised most pocket pairs and big face cards like AK, AQ.  The small blind could have any 2, but certainly nothing better than 99.  Your KQo figures to be the best hand.  In addition, your opponents aren't the smartest, we'll call this a 2/5 live game at the Mirage.  They like to go crazy with one pair hands.

If one of your opponent is holding a hand like KT, which is extremely likely, you will naturally win a small amount of money here.  You will bet, he will call.  Turn will go check/check.  River you may bet half pot, you might check/call half pot in case he has 2 pair.  Something along those lines.  Or you can try to manufacture additional money above and beyond what should naturally happen.  Instead of leading, you decide to check raise large, representing a draw.  Yes, your opponent may have flopped 2 pr with K6, will re-raise you, etc.  In that case you can fold.  But in a situation like this, by making your hand look like a draw, even though it's thin, you can encourage your opponent to stack off with a King, worse kicker.  Yes, you need to be a good hand reader, understand your opponents, etc.  This is not supposed to be a hand in a vacuum.  But instead of getting a half pot on the flop, and a half pot bet on the river, you can manufacture a scenario where you obtain a lot more of your opponents chips.

Another example might be something like raising 98s in position with a caller, and flopping a board like 963, with two suits.  This is the perfect situation to create earning potential, because it's so draw heavy.  Again, you need to know your opponent, but just last night, on this board, I managed to stack my opponent holding A3o.  I made a standard continuation bet, he check/raised and I called.  The turn blanked, my opponent checked, and I fired a full pot bet representing a draw.  He called.  The river came something like a Jack, he checked and I shoved for a pot sized bet.  He called.  In this situation, many players would check back the flop, or almost certainly check back the turn.  And if they got to the river, almost always check the river.  But this is an amazing opportunity to confuse our opponents and make our hands look like busted draws.  On a board like this, I would almost always put 3-bets in on the flop with a real hand.  My opponent couldn't fathom I would be value betting a hand like 98 here.

This lesson applies to real life and the real world as well.  We always need to be aware of situations where we have the ability to create opportunity.  Sometimes opportunity presents itself.  But the MAJORITY of the time, we need to be the one's manufacturing it.  I have found that manufacturing opportunity is the best way to get ahead in the real world.

If something doesn't exist, create it.  If there's a leak, sell yourself in a way that someone will pay you to fix it.  If you see something where you would be a good fit, find a way to make yourself indispensable.  I truly believe that we're all capable of this.

I may expand more on this later, but I hope you enjoyed this for now.

Ezra

Yo yo kids:

So I'm sitting at the JetBlue terminal at John F Kennedy airport here in NYC about to take off for Chicago.  They just made the horrific annoucement that due to an "audio" problem on board the plane, none of the DirectTVs work.  I want to jump :(  They're also boarding the plane early and just to spite them, I'm planning to be the last person on the plane.  Effectively becoming a conscientious objector to the no DirectTV situation.

Anyways, last Friday night I went to a pretty interesting concert at University of Pennsylvania.  It was OK Go, Gym Glass Heroes, and headlined by Ludacris.  Now I gotta say that I've always liked Ludacris, I find his songs absolutely hysterical.  But in what may one of the most intriguining culteral phenomena I've ever seen, thousands of young adult women, many of whom carry feminist sentiments during their routine lines could be heard yelling "Hoe" and "Bitch" at the top of their lungs.  To give you an idea of what I mean, here's a sampling of Some of Ludacris' songs and lyrics:

• "Ho"  -- You doin ho activities/ With ho tendencies
• "Area Codes" -- I've got hoes / I've got hoes, in different area codes
• "Move Bitch" -- Move bitch, get out the way/ Get out the way bitch, get out the way

What I like about Luda is that he's almost a parody of himself.  I mean I doubt the guy actually even knows how to shoot a gun, plus I've always thought his music videos were hysterical.  But the larger point is that thousands of girls, all of whom would slap me silly if I ever used those terms in casual conversation were screaming at the top of their lungs, grinding on the seats, etc.  I'll never understand women...

Okay...just a couple more paragraphs because they're about to close the airplane doors (eep!).  I've decided that I'm going to make my first CardRunners video.  Most likely a $2/$4 NL HU or 6max vid.  I've been crushing the mid stakes games (already up $10k this month) and I really feel like my videos would add a sense of depth, humor, and entertainment that some of the mid-stakes videos lack.  This is all dependant on Taylor and co. actually approving a video by me, but I'm fairly confident they will :)  I hope....

Okay well final boarding call time.  Much love to all you hoes.  I've got a lot more to say, but I'll get a bigger blog going while in Chitown.

Lates,

Ezra

New York City broke 70 degrees today for the first time in 2008 and I could not be happier.  What a stunningly beautiful day.  I welcomed in spring by doing some work indoors, getting a haircut, grabbing some Jamba Juice (buy stock pls!) and then doing some more work.  Now, I'm on a train heading to Philly for Spring Fling.  Per my last blog, I would've totally taken a bus to Philly, but doing so would entail actually looking up where the bus leaves from, schedules, etc.  it's too easy to log onto Amtrak.com where I know the train leaves from Penn Station.

Moving along to the title of the blog....maybe it's the warm weather, maybe it's that I'm running so good, but I just feel like one of the luckiest people in the world lately.  I've only played 4 days thus far in April, but am already up nearly $8k in extremely limited play.  When saying "luckiest," I don't mean that I've won 8/10 flips.  I mean that (1) things are going well and (2) we are so fortunate to live the lives we do.

I spent some time reading both Taylor and Raptor's (David B) blogs yesterday and they both spoke to the freedom and opportunity we have in our lives.  I can totally understand why David doesn't want to grind anymore.  If you put in 2,000 hours at your job last year, you probably wouldn't want to hit the office bright and early every morning with a ton of enthusiasm.  But you'd have to.  Because you need the money, need to support your family, AND, well, society dictates that you must have a job.  But in David's case, he's found a small niche in society that accepts his rejection of common labor.  While I do believe poker requires more skilll than the majority of jobs in this world, David has a few unique options as pertains his job.  He doesn't have to show up if he doesn't want to, and more importantly, NOT showing up might actually be the more profitable decision if he's not in the right mindset.  If I worked at an auto-body shop and didn't feel like fixing cars for a week, I'd probably get fired.

I'm not quite as free as David.  I have a number of major responsibilities as regards CardRunners.  If I took a week off, we wouldn't have a spread in Bluff Magazine, or Poker Player Magazine, we might not get new graphics and banners done.  But for the most part, my job is far more leisurely than alternatives, exemplified by the fact that I'm on a train right now to see my girlfriend.

I had hoped this blog would have a point, but it's evident that it doesn't.  I guess we can expect some good Gambler2k4 comments telling me how much I suck at life.  Go for it bud!  The point was supposed to be about how much we take certain things in our lives for granted.  For instance, in the past 6 weeks, I have made an incredible sum of money -- both from poker and the stock market.  An amount of money it would take many blue collar workers over a year to earn.  I go hang out with Whitelime, we see a movie, he checks his text messages afterwards and finds out he's made $20k while in the movie by taking a piece of someone.  Yes, things are going well right now, but when I look back on things, I'm always shocked to see how unsatisified I always am, that I'm always striving for more.  I use the word "striving" because I don't think it's "greed."  But I think it's really important to be happy and enjoy all that we've achieved.

In the poker world especially, you're never really on top.  Even if you are, you're not on top forever.  There will always be someone more ambitious, harder working who will figure out a way to beat you.  While just about everyone reading this wins at poker, none of us can "beat" poker.  Meaning that I don't believe that poker, like life, can ever be conquered.

I think the point I am slowly making (which took way too long) is to go outside, lie out in the sun, and enjoy your accomplishments and successes.  Everyone has something to they're proud of.  So go enjoy it.  You deserve it.

Ezra

What up homslices.

March ended with a bang. I wrote in my last blog that my goal was to close out March with about 25k in gains. On March 29th I was +17k. I finished March up nearly $32k. Holla baby. I've also been running sick, sick good in the stock market (ship the natural correction yo), basically netting me the biggest month of my life. Doing well money wise always feels good, but since I'm the world's biggest money nit, you need to be happy in other facets of your life too. And for those of you saying: "Ezra....you're not a money nit?!?!" let it be known that right now I'm on a bus from Wash DC to NYC because the bus (ewww) was $25 and the spotless, pretty, faster choo choo train was $92. I am a money nit. Nuff said.

As for other things, I really feel like I've been doing a nice job in April to live life more. My girlfriend would probably think I work way too much, but I've been trying to eat lunch outside everyday, and spend at least an hour outside every day. The only sad thing is that I woke up this morning with a major sore throat (oh, the horror) and that could spoil some weekend plans if it persists. Basically my goal is to be at UPenn this weekend (and fairly drink) for Spring Fling. Performing at their Fling are Ludacris (who's my boyeeee), OK GO! (think treadmills) and the Gym Class Heroes. But it would be stinky if I felt really ill (not like cool ill) because of some stinky throat sickness.

Annoying update....Bus just kicked everyone off so that it could refuel in the middle of icy cold New Jersey....not good for my throat though I did get to buy Airborne (!!!!!) in the rest area.

Anyways, back to reality (snap there goes gravity). I've been thinking some really deep thoughts lately. I haven't kept in touch with a lot of my professors from College and I'm planning to write a number of them e-mails this week to let them know where I am and who I've become. Hopefully they're not horrified. I've also been thinking about some really positive things I can do with my money...I want to start a scholarship program at my old High School for one student in the French program. As bad as I was at French, it was my favorite subject because I loved the books so much. The Little Prince and Candide are probably two of my favorite books ever. But why do I need sponsor someone? Well, basically with the proliferation of Spanish in the US, parents are encouraging their children to take Spanish over French (and, frankly, rightly so). So because of decreasing enrollment numbers, the French program at my high school is in danger of being dropped. I can't say I blame the decision, but if I can offer some incentive to keep young people learning French, I'd like to do it. I'm thinking that one scholarship student per year gets an all expenses paid trip to France, or something like that. I'm going to call up some of my old classmates and see if they're all interesting in donating $100ish so that I won't have to pick up the entire burden.

I have so much more to write, but I don't want to bore everyone. I have basically only played 2 hours of poker this month after my huge March. i think that my reward was a few days off the grind. There's always time for playing poker...

Love,

Ezra

Given how many member blogs I see that say things along the line of "I need to play more," or "my goals this month are to play 2x the hands I did last month" it might be kind of shocking that one of main goals in April is to play considerably less poker. I'm honestly thinking that about 10 hours/week is where I'd like to be. Assuming I can do $250/hr, I could still have a nice, 10k mnth.

I love poker. And I had a good month. I didn't finish too strong, but I still posted about $20k in profit. But I'm just concerned that I'm growing older, I;ve been playing poker for 4 years, and I'm starting to wonder what else is out there. This doesn't mean I'm planning on leaving CardRunners or anything...my job and co-workers (aka the biggest winners in high stakes poker) are amazing. But it does mean that I'm going to try and do things a little differently this month:

• Limit myself to 10 hours/week of poker unless games are simply too good to quit (not like...well this guy blows, let's play him....but more like: if i play this guy for 30 minutes, there is 5% shot he has any money)
• Get away from the computer and watch some TV! I've started watching this show on HBO called "In Treatment" and I am absolutely blown away by it. There's already like 50 episodes of it, so I have a lot to watch.
• Spend time outdoors! I sponsor an underpriveleged student here in New York City. I pay his tuition to go to private school, talk to him on the phone every month, and hang out with him like six times per year. He's insanely good at handball (is playing on his school's team as a freshman) and he taught me how to play yesterday. Though I'm a bit sore, it felt so much better than just hitting the elyptical at the gym. Afterwards, we went to the arcade and I schooled him at air hockey :) I dunno what exactly I'd do outside, but I'm going to try and spend more time reading in the park eating lunch on my balcony, etc.
• Get serious about some writing projects. I've had ideas in my head for some time, but haven't gotten super serious. I've jotted down pages of notes here and there, but simply haven't buckled down and banged out a couple of chapters. The reasons for this are that every time I'm at my computer and have free time, my first instinct is to play poker. In fact, I've done the most writing on airplanes where there's no internet connection...it's kind of sad. Hopefully I can get into a different rhythm this month.
• Call up my friends more. Before poker/job I was one of those people who was pretty cool and people wanted to hang out with so I got lots of calls/invites. After I started playing poker at night, but more importantly, started travelling a ton, people stopped inviting me to things because I was always busy. It's really depressing to feel left out of a lot of the groups I used to be in. Even though my poker friends are really awesome, I miss just hanging out and goofing off with the people I used to. That is a major goal for this month -- to hang out with some old friends, see them smile, and have fun.
• Buy myself a beach condo. One of my goals for a long while now has been to get a really nice luxury condo at the beach. I don't really care where...Myrtle Beach, Dominican Republic, Delaware, pretty much anywhere but Florida :) Even though I'm planning on moving to Chicago for CardRunners, I want to seriously start looking into getting a beach condo. That means not just surfing Craigslist and online real estate listings, but actually talking to a broker and maybe making a couple of weekend trips to check out some places. Given the current real estate market, I should be able to get a nice 1 bedroom for as little as $15-$20k down and I know it would make me happy. Plus, I really want to be able to decorate my own place and have a nice little retreat for myself. Given that my apartment in Chicago would probably be pre-furnished and I've never had the opportunity to decorate/own a place before, I'm really looking forward to it.

I think the last thing I wanted to talk about was money. I have far less money than I did 6 months ago. Even though poker has been going nicely, the markets have plummeted to quickly that I have lost probably 30% of my net worth in a couple of months. But you know what? It's not so bad. I used to be absolutely terrified of losing money...I'd sweat over my bank accounts and investment accounts daily. If I got stuck even 1 buyin at poker, I'd bemoan what that money could've purchased in the "real world." But y'know what? It's not so bad. I have lost a lot of money....well over six figures. But it hasn't really affected my life in any way. And if there's been some changes, they're all psychological and positive. Maybe I take the subway more instead of cabs. Maybe I buy out of dinners instead of credit card rouletting it. But the point is that the important things in life haven't changed at all. I'm still having a ton of fun, get to see amazing places, and be with amazing people. I was walking home past World Trade Center last night when I randomly looked up at the 80-story tall buildings and realized how much I take it all for granted. I live in the one of coolest cities in the entire world, and live a life most 23 year olds could only fantasize about. Yet how do I react? It's never good enough. I always want more. More success, more money, more happiness. But I think it's time to calm down. I think it's time to enjoy what I have. Call up some friends and spend a bit more time outdoors...

Love,

Ezra

I don't know...I just haven't felt like blogging lately. For one, the whole FTP situation made pretty much all of us at CardRunners want to stay out of the limelight. I tried to be as public as I could for most CR-related questions during the period of uncertainty, but it feels good to be past that. It's really nice that the CR community has overwhelmingly bonded together to support us. I feel like we've reached a really professional, classy solution with Full Tilt and I'm excited to really get our relationship going.

New Orleans was really incredible and I'm so glad I went. I honestly figured it would just be a college kids get drunk and party kind of town but it was so much more. The French Quarter might be one of the most beautiful areas in all of America. It's just so elegant. Yes, there's Bourbon street which is rowdy and loud...but you can one street over and there are beautiful art galleries, cute boutiques, etc. I also had an opportunity to do a bayou tour with the alligators as well as checking out some of the devestation from Hurricane Katrina. And what I saw would really blow your mind. Nearly 2 years later there are still miles of the city which are just entirely levelled -- I mean it's just open grass for several square miles with a couple of tree stumps sticking up here and there and a few broken down houses that haven't gotten trashed yet. It is just unbelievably depressing. I also heard a couple of interesting stories which suggest that the horrors in the Lower Ninth Ward were only partially a result of Katrina. That the levies would not have broken merely from the hurricane, but that a barge from a company called Ingram wasn't anchored properly and the winds pushed it into the levy walls cracking them open. I really don't know what to believe, but if anyone knows more, post some links.

Poker is also going really well this month. Clearly, you've seen that February was a disaster, but I'm up a little over $20,000 this month which feels great to get back in the black in a big way. In addition to that, I think I'm running pretty miserably. I have lost more than my share of coinflips, and taken some sick sick disgusting beats. But that's all part of the game, right? I'm going to take a couple of days off and then hit the tables strong the last couple days of the month and try to book a $25k-$30k month. I can't remember the last time I had one of those...maybe October or November.

My aunt is having a gallery opening tonight in New York City which I'm really excited about. My girlfriend is coming as my date and all my family is coming into town. She does really cool sculptures/installations with lighting effects. If you're in NYC, you should check it out:

http://www.reevescontemporary.com/upcoming-exhibit...

www.bethgalston.com

Anyways, that's it for now. I had my fantasy baseball draft in my high stakes baseball league yesterday. Despite being a fish, I drafted decently well and I'll post my team in my next blog.

Ezra

So basically I've been stressed out. I've been working my ass off for CardRunners, managing a whole slew of projects, and travelling nonstop. I got home this Monday which was my first day home since Feb 11th. Sigh. So what did I do to relax???? Well, I left NYC and went on vacation..LOL.

My girlfriend and I packed up and decided to take a vacation to New Orleans. We've had this planned for about a month, but the timing couldn't be worse. We have some major things going down at CardRunners, but to be honest...we're always going to have stuff going on. If not this, then it will be something else, so I don't feel too bad. I'll still be putting in a couple hours of work everyday, I'm just not gonna be sweating my GMail 24/7.

So anyways, we arrived in New Orleans around 7pm and are staying at the Crown Plaza on Bourbon St, and HOLY SMOKES, this town is INSANE. This is honestly like a better Vegas. They serve alcohol 24/7, music is constantly blaring (the hotel provides ear plugs to fall asleep), there's no curfew so the bars stay open all the time. If you haven't been to Bourbon St (and I hadn't), it's like 16 blocks long filled with bars, clubs, jazz clubs, strip clubs, restaurants, sex shops, etc. One of the things that's always intrigued me about Vegas was how out of touch with reality it is with the rest of the world....and then I experience the French quarter in New Orleans and I simply wonder how many places like this exist in the world. May be the rest of the world is out of touch with true human nature...and what if human nature basically boils down to lust, desire, and debauchary? Who knows. I'm pretty content with my "conservative" life, so I don't see myself moving here anytime soon, but I must admit that my first night was pretty shocking and pretty fun.

Saturday day we're planning to do a tour of the Bayou and head over to the Aquarium. It also so happens that New Orleans is a gambling friendly town, so there are some casinos here :) I'd have to assume that they're fairly busto casinos, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. I'm thinking that the girl and I will head down there one night to shoot some craps or play some poker or something...just small stakes stuff. I assume that given the extreme poverty in this city, they'll have $5 tables. I know it's not very baller, but I'm not here to gamble, just to have fun.

As for poker, things have turned around pretty nicely and I'm on a $12k or so heater in the past week. I actually wouldn't call it a heater so much as a correction. I've had aces vs queens twice and held -- both for a buyin. These hands were flipped during my downswong. My last 4 sessions have been +8k, -3k, +1.5k, and +5k so I'm definitely feeling pretty good about my game. After the +8k session, I lost another two 95/5s and tilted off a buyin before quitting and feeling sorry for myself. But when I got back in the games a few days later, things felt pretty good, and I had a really nice control over my tables. I'm feeling great about my game right now and even making some big folds. Taylor (who sweats me from time to time) has always criticized me about my inability to fold big hands, and he definitely has a point, so I've been working on letting things go in spots where I just can't be good. I would post some hands, but I'm on my Mac right now, and don't have access to them. I remember one hand recently that exemplifies this, but I think it's closeish.

HU 5/10NL. I am playing a total and complete wackjob. I open AA on the button to $30 and get a call. The flop is A47, with 2 diamonds. My opponent check/calls a $45 bet and we go to a turn of an offsuit 5, for board of A475, 2 diamonds. He leads for $60 into $150, and I bump it to $240. He insta calls. I think his most likely hands are almost certainly 56, 76, 46, etc. The river is an offsuit 6 which is a really interesting card as it makes the board A4756, with a bricked diamond draw. The nutjob opponent thinks for maybe .5 of a second and insta pots for $630. In spots like this Taylor always tells me "are they really bluffing here?" I always convince myself that he has 2 pair and is looking for value, whereas they'd almost certainly check-instacall 2 pair here. I called and he showed me 85o, for wtf, but the win. It's something I need to work on, but at least "I kept him honest." LOLO.

Okay, I'm gonna go sightseeing. Thanks for reading.

OH - if you live in New Orleans, drop me a PM or an e-mail to ezra@cardrunners.com. I'd live to meet any CardRunners members in the area and we can go grab some drinks.

Ezra

I am currently in the midst of my worst downswing since late 2006.  It's really really sick what's going on.  I don't want to complain too much, but I mean.....c'mon...everyone needs a place to vent.  I'm going to post some hands from today.

I played around 3,000 hands and *SOMEHOW* managed to only lose about $2k.  I am stuck about 17 buyins since mid-February and I'm feeling pretty low overall. That said, I think I'm playing really well.  I made a couple of small mistakes today, but nothing major.  My opponents on the other hand continuously play like they're trying as hard as they can to incinerate money yet they still somehow sucked out.  This is the first time in over a year that I've honestly felt the deck was rigged against me. 

Not included in here are the 475874876549 times I ran KK/QQ/JJ into one better.  Sigh.  Also the hands from Cake Poker often say AK at the end bc of a weird converter thingie.  I'm not doctoring these.

Getting us started.  Nice lil 2 outer:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2196910

His equity here isn't horrible, but just the way it went down made me want to puke:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2196828

I've been playing this absolute monkey headsup a lot lately.  I am down 5-6 buyin to him bc he runs like an angel and it makes me want to puke.  Here are a couple gems from today:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2196830

This isn't even a close decision vs this guy.  I just called his min-raise so that I could keep the pot small in case a nasty card peeled on the turn.  He plays his big draws like this too, so I snap shipped the money in:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2196821

This guy always opens for 4-6bb so sometimes I just shove it in his face with decent holdings.  I'm going broke with this hand vs him and he's shown a propensity to call with worse:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2196838

There are more hands than these, but I don't feel like searching out the times idiots called down light and hit their guttys and stuff.  Needless to say I don't think I titled at ALL and quit right after that 76 vs J7 hand.  I figured it was just for the best if I let bygones be bygones for today.  I had hoped to get off to a good start in March, but sadly, that won't be the case.

My only concern is the amount of money I have online.  I just bought a lot of a friend and don't want to have to buy anymore.  If anyone wants to throw some sympathy my way, I'd really appreciate it.

Ezra

I busted out of the Heartland Poker Tour pretty early in miraculous style.  I lost about half my stack on one of the first 5 hands. 

With blinds at 100/100 I opened 6h8h for $400 in MP and got 2 calls.  The flop was a pretty spectacular 7h5h4x.  I bet about half pot, and got one call.  The turn was something like a Ten, I again bet about half pot and got a quick call.  At this point, I really thought my opponent who was a fairly old guy had something like JJ or 99 and just didn't know how to anything but call bets.  The river brought a King of Hearts completing my flush.  I made about a half pot bet hoping to get a crying call and the guy insta-shoved.  I tanked for about 5 minutes, and finally folded after asking him if he had a flush and hearing his "Ooooooh, there's a flush out there????" response.  LOL.  He showed me AhJh which makes sense I guess.

I pretty much didn't play anything postflop until I picked up Aces a couple hours later with blinds at 300/600.  A guy opened in MP to $1800 and I had about $7500.  I don't know what the best way to play this is, but I had been so tight that I figured he might even fold a hand like TT (these live guys love to make folds), so I slowplayed by putting in 25% of my stack PF (lol) but was kind of horrified to get 2 calls out of the blinds.  The flop was a pretty miserable QT9 with 2 hearts.  The original raise thought for a bit and shoved allin which was like 2x pot.  I had nfc what to do, but with $8000 in the middle and less than <$5k left, I wasn't going anywhere so I called it off.  He had flopped the joint with KJ.  I actually turned an ace, but couldn't suck out.

So I'm bored somewhere in the middle of Minnesota.  The cash games have gone poorly and I'm stuck something like $3,000 on the trip which is a nice cap to a pretty miserable February.  After running super hot in January, I'm down something like $15,000 since then which is annoying.  I really need to get my game together...I just read Sixpeppers blog about how he's up $25,000 in his LAPC trip and I'm really jealous.  I don't think I've been focusing properly and maybe just not playing all that well -- it might be that I just don't care as much.  And after experiencing huge swings in the stock market lately, I couldn't care less about losing a few thousand dollars which is really really sick.  I DO think that I've been running atrociously, but there's no doubt that the focus isn't there.

Anyways, I'm gonna try to stay occupied until I can fly out of here tomorrow.  I have pieces of a couple other guys in the field, so I'll root for them and maybe, MAYBE, get unstuck on the day if they go deep.  Here's hoping.  I'll also get to stay busy with a couple of meetings this afternoon and the televised final table tonight which should be fun to watch.  Anyways....I'm off for a bit.

Ezra