CARDRUNNERS

Well I WAS doing well this month until last week at some point the doomswitch came on. I think it might have been my worst 4/5 day stretch ever. At the moment my pokertracker is not working so I'll just have to give what I have from memory and a graph I uploaded before.


For anyone who doesn't quite understand it, basically the blue line, given normal luck, should be with the red line. Like how it is for the first part. This is from November 13 to present time and around the 75th all in hand, it appears the doomswitch comes on. This also does not take into account really the oft number of coolers and other unfortunate hands. From what I remember during the stretch, I was down on AA, AK, up less than half buyin on KK. Also, I was down 2k with two pair hands(often losing to straights it seemed). All of these are not the norm and usually am well up with each of these hands. Overall I went from being up like 3500 on the month- and looking good to acheieve my 4k profit goal to down 100.    Fortunatly lately I think I have righted the ship. Been playing a bit more simple/ABC type and have gotten back up to almost 2k for the month. I doubt I will be able to reach 4k, but hopefully can get to 3k.

As I'm writing this, it appears the Eagles season is unoficcially over. If they lose to the Ravens here they have basically no shot at playoffs. And by pulling McNabb for Kolb,which I agree with, it appears Reid realizes this. Significant changes need to be made, and probably starting with the head coach. I also expect McNabb to be gone at end of the year, probably traded to Vikes or Bears. The time has come its course and it is apparent this team, as constructed now, has run its course.

This blog will be pretty long- so just a warning. It's been 2 weeks since I  updated and quite a bit has happened since then. Poker, sports, and other things will all be talked about.

     First, the Phillies offseason has been crap as far as I'm concerned-especially when you consider the mets are improving with signing of K-rod and trading for Putz. I believe it was a huge mistake by not offering arbitration to Moyer and Burrell. Why would you not offer them arbitration? They are negotiating with Moyer still on a contract but he wants multiple years and I'm sure the Phillies aren't prepared to give him that-for good reason. By offering him arbitration here's what can happen: A. he accepts and you get him for a one year deal probably for 8 million I'm guessing( a couple more than last year) or B. he declines, you still have the option of negotiating but you can get compensatory picks if he signs elsewhere. Unless for some reason the Phillies assumed they could sign him for a 1 year deal with $6 million or two years for $10-12 million- that is a horrible assumption. Same thing pretty much applies to Burrell. At worst you would have been stuck with a one year deal at 16 million or so instead of possibly resigning him or another player for $10-12 million per year, although for multiple years. But if he declines- which would still be very likely given he's 32 and would rather have a multiyear deal, you would get more comp picks if signed elsewhere. In addition he was a grade A free agent, which means a 1st round pick and a sandwich pick.
     Ok so the Phillies opted to offer neither compensation, what's the next plan? Let's sign Raul Ibanez to a 3 year deal for $30 million. Offensively Ibanez and Burrell are close to a wash. However, Ibanez is 36-4 years older than Burrell. He's not going to improve with age. Many say Burrell is bad with defense(and rightly so) and needs to be taken out in late innings for defensive purposes(which I never agreed with). But, Ibanez is just as bad defensively, so where is the improvement with that? Additionally, the Phillies have to give up their first round pick this year! Their farm is already one of the worst in baseball, and it's not like they will go above slot money to pay for slipping players in the draft or shell out big money in Latin American prospects. They need all the picks they can get. So far, Amaro has been a zero.
     Burrell actually liked it in Philly even with all the crap he has been given over the years. It's ashame to see him go. Even Phil Hellmuth likes the guy.... "Also, another text came in at exactly 11:32 from Young MC saying that two Phillies players wanted to meet me. So I walked across the room and had a great time chilling with Jeff Jenkins and Pat Burrel for about an hour. Those guys are still on cloud nine! They were in such a great mood and in such a high spirit that it was awesome to see! We had a great time talking baseball and poker, and Burrel and I started needling each other back and forth. That was so much fun! Burrel just tells it like it is, and that is refreshing, and fun. ["Phil I love watching you because you're such an asshole."](from Hellmuth's website). One funny Burrell story I hear on a message board involved him saying "Believe me, there's no greater confidence builder than sitting at your desk in your house, getting a BJ from some hot chick you met 45 minutes ago, while playing with a bobblehead.....of yourself"
Does it get any better than that?

     The Eagles are playing well. Much better than before. We still have a shot.
     The Sixers fired Mo Cheeks. This won't solve the problems. They are screwed for many years as Webber 2.0 is signed forever and big money. Not to mention our center has the basketball IQ of a penquin and also signed for long time and big money. Not to mention there's Iguodala who'se range maxes out at the paint. This is not how to build a champion.
     I went to a Sixers game with my friend Tay and wow, it was empty, even with Lebron in town. It's ashame to see it like that. The days of that 2000-2001 season are long gone.

     My birthday was earlier with month. I didn't get drunk or anything. Just hung out at bar for couple hours. Nothing really noteworthy.

     I'm in process of redoing my resume and to apply to some more jobs in NY and LA. I haven't even gotten an interview from anyone even though I know I'm better than other candidates out there. I'd really like to get the process going of movin out to either those places or Philly.

     My friend insists I am depressed cause I don't go out that much but I never meet anyone when I go out, so what's the point really-especially when everything else is not that fun and I can drink at home if I wanted for cheaper. I've gone enough times where either it happens or it don't and Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

     Now for poker. I started out so far the best I've started since began playing a lot more-even though I'm stil slacking off with hands and probably not meeting most of my previously mentioned goals. I've been playing more PLO lately and NLH rullring to go along with nlh 6max. I may stick with the former two more as the games appear softer and my winrate has been higher-albeit in a small sample size.
PLO(mostly 100plo and 200plo):


NLH(6max and Full Ring) I didn't have enough patience to seperate them for now.

Wow I can't believe the Eagles got in the playoffs. Raiders beating the Bucs was a miracle. And then destroying the Cowboys was that much sweeter. I wish I was there. I won this Eagles prize pack from WYSP(radio station in Philly) and qualified for drawing to go to the playoff game in Minnesota, so I'm really really hoping I win. I think that would be tremendously fun. This Eagles team reminds me of teams over past few years where they sneak into the playoffs and are talented enough to go far. They have one of the best scoring margins in the league and other league leading type of statistics. They should be able to confuse and raddle Tavaris Jackson, forcing a couple of interceptions.

I have not been posting for awhile as I really just not have been up to it since been having some personal issues I'm now attempting to correct. Hopefully its the first step of improving myself in multiple areas.

As for poker, this month was a personal best month for me. I finished up just over 8k between NLH6max, NLH Full Ring, and PLO. The players are much worse at PLO where I think if I could get good, you can almost print money. One thing I noticed I need to fix on my game there is $ won without showdown as its atrociously bad. Even if I can improve it by a couple Bbs/100, it would be a major step. This upcoming month I'm going to attempt to play some more 400nl Full Ring, and maybe some 400nl 6max midway through the month if I am still doing well at 200nl. I also need to get holdem manager. Cardrunners just put up a special discounted price with it and now is probably a good time for it.

Anyway here are my graphs from this month....
NLH 6max




NLH Full Ring



PLO

 

Following up from last month's success I have started off this month well also- primarily playing 400NL Full Ring. In fact, I'm almost as much as I was all last month combined. I haven't even really ran “great” either as I'm up less than a buyin according to PokerEV on all in luck before the river. With FTOPs coming around, yet again, this bankroll booster couldn't really come at a better time as I can now play in more events without feeling really negative about losing. But I will think more about that when the time comes. Hopefully I didn't jinx myself already.

While I am writing this at around 10:30 P.M., I'm waiting for my friend Justin to call on whether or not he's going out tonight. If he don't it looks like I'll be staying in unfortunately. One of the weekend nights I want to go out and it is looking like a no go. I have a couple ideas on things I could say wherever we go, if the opportunity is right, whether or not I'd actually use it is another question entirely.

UPDATE: It's 10:53PM and appears we are not going. It's not worth it at this time now anyway. Time to get unchanged. One rare night I was in the mood to go out too. I really really don't feel like going to this one place tomorrow night as apparently a crap band is playing there which means you'll need the usual sign language and lipreading to communicate. So I have no idea on what to do now.

Big game this weekend. It's going to be really tough- much more so than last week. One thing that concerned me last week is after moving the ball, we couldn't get it in the endzone. If that happens against the Giants, chances are we won't win. I was hoping to win tickets somehow but that did not come to fruition. As for the other games, I'm thinking Panthers will crush the Cards by at least 20. Titans and Ravens could go either way as I really wouldn't trust Flacco or Collins against either of these defenses. For the sake of not picking all favorites, I'll go with the Ravens. For the Steelers game, I'm always concerned about their line giving up sacks but I don't think that will be much of an issue in this one. I also can't imagine Turner outcoaching someone two weeks in a row.