Sunday, August 24, 2008

Winning Streak is still alive


My Poker winning streak is still alive. I just made made another $143 (cashed out $343 after buying in for $200). I made most of it just winning lots of little pots and staying out of trouble. I did get some big hands early on. I had three pocket pairs in a row. Pocket 77s, AAs and 99s. I hit my set of 777s but no callers on my continuation bet. I seen a guy earlier hit quad 7777s on the flop earlier. I raised $7 on my pocket 77s (hoping for a 7) and the flop was K7Q. I bet $30 on the flop and everyone folded. I didn't get any action on my Aces since I raised it to $15. I am pretty happy with this weekends performance. I did get a little lucky, but you need to sometimes to get ahead in the game. As my saying goes about poker "You need to get lucky to make money, but you need to be good to keep it..."

Current Poker Stats


Saturday, August 23, 2008

Poker Roller Coaster Ride!

Just got home from a crazy night of poker. It was a new 1/2 game that I found online 4 weeks ago. The guys finally got around to emailing me back and telling me where and when it was. It was suppose to start at 8pm in an office building. I got there around 9:10pm and they only had 2 players so I went to eat dinner at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant TC Noodle, on Lamar.

I returned around 10pm and played 6 handed. I bought in for $200 and quickly got up over $100. I hit a set of 33s with my first pocket pair. I also hit a pair with AK. This crazy Asian guy was raising every hand $12. Then he would make a $20 continuation bet, no matter what. I seen him buy in 4 times at $100 a pop. Then he decided to buy in for $500. He basically made himself the chip leader. He busted out a guy 2 times and before you knew it, he had over $1200 in front of him.

I finally get a hand against him with pocket 55s. He does his standard $12 preflop raise. I call. The flop is J43, with 2 spades. The maniac bets out his normal $20. I call. The turn is a 6. He bets $50. I call again. The river is a 5 of spades. I hit my set! He bets $150.. I cant put him on a flush draw, so I just call. He had 107 of spades!!! ouch!!! That hand took me for over $200 and now I am down to around $60.
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I start playing tight again. I manage to win a few hands with AK and pocket 99s and work it back up over $150. Then I go card dead for 2 hrs. I am back down to around $100. Then somehow I start slowly coming back. Just winning a few pots here and there. I double up first with AJ suited in diamonds. An Ace hits the flop with 2 diamonds and I check it. A guy behind me goes all in for $89. I call, he shows A8 and is pretty much drawing to 1 out. That now puts me up to around $250 in front of me.
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I am starting to feel that my game is turning good and I am happy that I managed to get back over break even after being down to $60. Then I get A6 suited in the big blind. Everyone limps in. The flop is A108. I bet out $20. I get one caller. The turn is a 6, so I bet out $50. The guy decides to push and go over the top of me $100. I push all in for the rest of his stack, another $100 approximately. He had AJ and my 2 pair hold up... Now I have $560 in front of me, all from the same poor guy I beat out before. I stay for another 30 minutes and give back $10. I cash out at $550, which means I made $350 in about 6 hours.. Not a bad night for me and a great comeback...
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Thoughts on Politics...

They say never to talk about politics or religion at the dinning room table. Do you know why not? Because it's to way to easy to get into a heated argument. Those are subjects that anyone can be passionate about, yet know one is ever sure who is right. So people can get into hostile debates about politics or religion with no real end. If you think arguing or debating is rude, you want to avoid those topics. Think about that... Whatever your politics are or religion is, can you be sure your belief is correct. If you think about it objectively, you can not be sure. Both subjects are based on faith and opinions that can never be truly validated to one point of view or another.

That being all said, it is another Presidential Election year and I used to love to follow government Politics. I have pretty strong opinions about government Politics and while it's considered rude to talk about Politics in friendly company, its okay to blog about it. So here I go....

I think most people are reasonable and down the middle somewhere in the political spectrum. I think we all have the same general goals in mind for the future. Those basic goals are a peaceful life, food on the table, a healthy body and a safe environment to live in. Now how we achieve these goals is where we disagree and that is what Politics is all about. How do we reach our common goals?

In the most general sense, the American system of Politics consist of liberals and conservatives. Also, know as the left or the right, respectively. Now lets take the goal of having peace. Both sides would agree that this is good for society. But how do we attain a more peaceful life? A liberal would say that we need more laws and rules to control peoples lives. A conservative would say that we already have enough laws and rules and don't need any more to complicate life. In a general sense, Liberals want change and Conservatives want the status quo.

Lets look at the goal of having food on the table. A liberal would say lets give them food or a welfare check. I conservative would say, lets educate them so that they can get a job and feed themselves. Liberals tend to like short term solutions and conservatives like long term solutions. Liberals tend to live and see life in the present, Conservatives tend to plan and worry about the future. Now both want the same end result. No one should be hungry, but the solution is vastly different and you can argue endlessly to which direction to take.

I tried to take a balance approach. I try to look at both sides and make my own decisions. This can be extremely frustrating to some people, since I might seem to never make up my mind. but I don't make snap decisions, but I think it is necessary to try at look at the complete picture before making any decisions. This is why I love the study of Politics. You can be passionate about either side and yet never be right, but its fun to discuss and challenge each other as long as you have respect for each others point of view.

I consider myself a libertarian. Fiscally conservative, but socially liberal. If you are not sure what a libertarian is, then click on it and look it up. It's hard to define all your beliefs to one "label" but libertarian most closely matches my point of view. I will outline a few of my basic core beliefs and you can decide what I am.

I believe that governments primary role is to protect its people and property. Government should have a very limited role with its people lives and should let them live in freedom. Government should enforce the rules but not control your lives. People should be allowed to live as they wish, as long as they do no harm to others.

I believe that governments and people should be fiscally sound, meaning they should not spend more money then they have. I believe issues like health care, welfare, and social security should never have been apart of government. People should be in charge of there own health care, welfare and retirement. Whenever you have a large organization or bureaucracy handle things like this, it is inefficient and costly. People should be trusted to handle there own personal affairs.

Government does have a role in law enforcement, defense and building infrastructure for the common good. Things like maintaining a stable currency, build roads and enforcing the law should be the primary role of the government

I think the capital punishment is wrong (death penalty). If it's against the law to kill, then how can the government break its own laws? I think all drugs should be legalized and controlled like tobacco and alcohol. There should be education to teach people the harm that they do, but we do not need to be wasting our efforts on enforcing laws that mostly effect individuals. If some wants to do drugs in there own home, then let them. As long as it doesn't effect my life, then I am okay with it. I am pro-choice. Women should be allowed to decide what they want to do with there bodies. While I would hope that no baby is killed, we are talking about an embryo that has not really experienced life. The worst thing that would happen is that a baby is brought into this world to a mother that isn't truly ready for it.

I believe in long term solutions that address the root causes. I do not believe it short term fixes. I don't like the idea of government "hand-outs" or bail outs. There was a saying by Jesus Christ, "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime..." What ever solution is suggested, it should always look into the future as much as possible.

All this being said, who do I want for President this year? That is a tough challenge for me this year. For all previous years that I have been able to vote, I have always supported the Republican candidate. This year, I feel ambivalent. I am not excited by McCain. Obama is exciting, but I can't support his liberal views on things. I think Obama is brilliant, well spoken and very articulate. Everything that Bush is not.. But if you look at Obama's ideas, or lack of ideas, I can't support Obama. I will say there is something about Obama. He reminds me of Bill Clinton. He speaks in a way that is easily understood and non-offensive, even for a conservative mind like myself. I find myself liking him for his ability to communicate, even if he is communicating the wrong ideas.

My gut feeling right now is that Obama will be elected President. If I can like the guy, even though he has bad ideas, I would imagine a less informed public could elect him into office. It will be a historic time when we finally elect a "black man" as president of the United States. Technically Obama is mixed, half black and half while, but to look at him, you would think he is a light colored black man. In any case, it will be a historic time. We shall see if this country can do it. I would like to think Americans can elect a Black man, but I have some doubts. There is definitely racism still in America, but I think it is blown out of proportion by the media. This election will be really revealing. I know my own mom has said that she could never vote for black man. Mom voted for Clinton, because she thought he was good looking. If my mom thinks like that, then how many other misinformed voters are there out there. How many other people can never vote for a black man? I think times have changed, but this year we will finally know if times have really changed or stayed the same.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Another average Poker game night...


Just got home for another poker game. I made $155 in about 6 hours. Pretty good, considering I had no high pocket pairs during the entire session. The game started at 7pm with a free roll tournament. I basically got blinded out. I did hit pocket Aces in the small blind and doubled up, but was in no real contention for the tournament since it was late in the tourney.

The cash game started around 9pm and I hit a few hands early on and everyone just folded. I managed to stayed up all night long. It was a slow steady game for me, just how I like. I didn't get involved in to many large pots. Mostly just playing big cards and hitting. I did suck out once with KJ suited in hearts. The flop was A93 with 2 hearts. A guy bet $15 and then another guy went all in for $43. I was already up over $100 and hadn't hit a flush in a long time, so I decided to gamble and call. Luckily the heart hit on the river and I took down another pot. The all-in guy at A10.

This is the second time I have played at this location. The first time I cashed out $633, after buying in for $200. The game is $1/$2 with a $5 kill for pots over $100. I do like this level of game. There is another game where the blinds are $1/$2, but its always $5 to come-in. Basically its like someone straddling all the time. It's hard for me to consistently make money at that game, buying in for only $200. I think I will stick with the $1/$2 games. I feel that whatever the big blind is, or the come-in bet is you should start with 100x. You just can't play short stack poker at a cash game effectively in my opinion.
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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Final Household Sale Results...

I put my house up for sale or lease after relocating to Austin, TX for a new job. I realized that Michigan is probably the worst Real Estate market in the country. Anyone that I know, that has tried to sell a house in Michigan has had to sit on it for years and typically if they are fortunate to sell it, it goes for less then they purchased for it. Michigan is automotive country and as the American auto industry struggles for survival so does the local economy. In fact, when I purchased the house 4 years ago, I got it for $39K below the original owners cost.

After about one month, my agents found someone interested in renting my Michigan house. The potential tenants intention is to buy it someday, but have some credit issues that they have to work thru first. They wanted to move in by Aug 15th 2008. So I had about 2 weeks to move everything out.

I decided to sell everything on Craig's list. Amazingly, it went really well. Here is a list of everything that sold... and the prices, as much as I can remember. I initially used my neighbor and friend to show the items and collect the money. I gave them my bank account and they deposited the money into my account. Last week, I flew down to have a "garage sale" to sell all the small stuff. I sold 95% of everything I wanted to. I posted the sale on Saturday night and had people lined up at the door at 10:50AM to be the first to check out the place.

If you haven't tried Craig's List, I highly recommend it for selling anything. It is free and very effective. The advantage over EBay is that you get cash right away and it is organized by location. You can meet the sellers and you don't have to worry about shipping and hoping to get your stuff. If this company every goes public, I would buy stock!!!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Last day in my Michigan House










This is my last remaining hours in my Michigan House on the Golf Course. I have spent the last 3 days selling all my possessions and packing a few personal items and shipping them to Texas. I will have very little after today, except my car, allot of clothes and paper work. I even sold all 4 of my beds. I have been sleeping on the floor, ontop of an old feather bed. I do still "own" 3 houses in Michigan, but I dont live in any of them. The are all rented out, while I share a home in Texas. The picture to the right is the last remain items I need to sell. I was able to sell just about everything. Now just allot of odds and ends and tons of cables. You know you are a techie, when you have a house full of cables and cords. Do you need anything? Just drop me a note. Maybe the new owners will mail it for me.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

My first Blog...

Wow.. I finally got my own Blog.. For a guy that is so into technology, you would have thought that I would have done this a long time ago. For most people, I seem like an early adopter of most technology. But to me, I always see someone else ahead of me and that makes me want to leap ahead. I guess it all depends on where you are in the technology road map. There is always someone that knows more then you and then someone that knows allot less then you. That's what makes technology fun. Everyone is at a different point and you can always share something with someone about something. I am learning something all the time. Blogging has been around for a while, so its not really new to me. It's really just something that I finally decided to do like the last few things I decided to get on board with:

Gmail account (atn1972@gmail.com)- I moved recently and had to cancel my Comcast cable.. I should have known better and stuck with a web mail account years ago. Hopefully, Google stays around for a while and I don't have to change my personal email for awhile.. I do have a Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail account, but yahoo has to much junk, AOL sounds like they are going under soon and Hotmail is just to slow. Gmail is simple and works on my phone, a Motorola Q9c with IMAP protocol. It also has a cool Photo upload feature to share photos. I used it to sell all my stuff on Craig's List. You can check out my public album at http://picasaweb.google.com/atn1972

New Cell Phone - My current phone is a Motorola Q9c, from Sprint. I had to get a new phone after losing my job. I had Razor before, and several Blackberry phones from Sprint, Nextel and ATT. We tried them all. The Blackberry's are nice, but a bit to expensive for a personal phone. I got the Q9c using the Sprint SERO plan. $30 for 500 minutes, free data, unlimited nights and weekend. It was the best cell phone deal out there. The cost now is double that. So I was lucky to get it. I also got $100 off the phone. The best part is that I can use the phone as a "modem" and its unlimited data for about $35/month with taxes. The speed is like 128Kbps and plenty fast for what I need. It has really come in handy when I travel for work and cant get Internet access. I use a USB cable most of the time, but it can also connect with Bluetooth which is just a bit slower and kills the battery. Using the cable keeps the phone charged, which is convenient. The phone also works during the data session, but if a call comes it, it will drop the Internet connection until you hang up. All-in all its a great phone with great features... The phone also has a GPS chip in it, which means I can use google maps to navigate with my car. It comes in handy especially if you want to do a search for something local.

MySpace Page - I finally got a MySpace page. It seem everyone was doing it, so I did too.. Not to much on it, but I have meet a few interesting people on it and found some old friends. I think I might try Facebook next. It seems to be more professional and less junk. MySpace has lots of junk and people trying to get you to sign up for some porn site.

CraigsList.org - This site is simply amazing. Its a free online classified ad site. You can post things for free and buy or sell just about anything. It's like an Ebay, but better.. Its all local. You sell you stuff to people that live around you. Or you buy stuff from people around you. There is no bidding, just the stated price and you go to pickup your items. I sold all the contents of my house in about a week. 80% of my large furniture was sold within 6 hrs. I was simply amazed!