Donkey's can win too.

As I very poorly wrote on this table, the poor bastard at UTG+1 raised and I shoved on him.  Although dominated I hit quads on the flop.  To my knowledge, this is only the 2nd or 3rd time this has ever happened to me (hitting quads on the flop holding only one of them in my hand) and the first time to happen when I'm all in.

It's not a huge deal, but I thought it was worth posting.  Here's my graph for today:

For the most part, I feel my game has massively improved in the past month and a half.  The best part is that I know of areas in which I can improve.  Through many years of playing this game, I don't think I ever really thought much about how I can improve, just usually thought that getting experience was all I needed to improve.  Sure I was getting experience and improving, but I was not using that experience to its full potential.

Anyway, I need another 500 VPP's by the end of this month which should be relatively easy.  In March I get a week for Spring Break so I challenged some other poker players to a VPP challenge.  The details can be found here under Forum>Poker Discussion>March VPP Challenge: http://www.pokerpoopy.com/

Click follow on the left hand side of your screen!

Epic Story

I'll try to have more posts about poker since that is what this blog is for, but I thought some of you may enjoy this...

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                There were only two things that entered my mind after watching my front yard become illuminated with 2,000 bottle rockets on the Fourth of July.  The first was that we were going to do this again.  After all, such an amazing visual display couldn’t just be put into memory.  I felt we had to relive it.  The second thing that entered my mind was that we needed even more bottle rockets to ensure that this is something that we would never forget.

                As the next Fourth of July rolled around, the hype spread wildly through Facebook.  People couldn’t believe that someone would do such a thing.  Interestingly, everyone who doubted this great objective were all people who did not watch it the year before.  Even the people that did experience it couldn’t believe how big it was going to be.  The faces of the firework owners explained it all.  Box by box I purchased 16,000 bottle rockets… enough gun powder for an entire battalion of soldiers, and it was all going to explode in mere minutes.

                The night of the fourth rolled around and the word had spread.  That night I received a phone call from my mother, begging me not to go through with it.  She insisted it wasn’t safe and made sure to note every possible thing that could go wrong.  It didn’t help my cause that someone from our town lost an eye due to a bottle rocket just a few years ago which my mom hastily pointed out…  It was too late though, we had to go through with the initial plans of lighting up the sky like no small budget display ever has! 

                As eleven o’clock rolled around, my stomach sunk as I realized that it was time.  I set all 16,000 bottle rockets in a 10 square foot area.  I grabbed a jug of gasoline and poured it on the fireworks.  In preparation, we were worried that only one or two areas of the fireworks would go off, but let me be the first to say that when that flame hit the gasoline, a 25 foot tall blazing inferno instantly appeared…

                For the next ten minutes, it sounded like a musician beating away at a snare drum.  There were constant explosions, followed by faint screams of terror (from my not so brave friends).  I could only imagine what it looked like from many miles away, but up close, it was epic.  For my annual Fourth of July party, we seemed to inherit a tradition of having the cops drive by inspecting our activities.  Ironically, this was the first year in which that did not happen and perhaps the first year in which it should have happened.  It was truly more impressive than any professional fire work display I have ever seen.

                After the bottle rockets had died down, putting the flame out proved to be difficult… but not as difficult as telling my father why there was a big patch of dirt where grass used to be.  Most importantly, to my mom’s delight, we were all safe.  When asked by friends and family why I would risk poking an eye out just for a few minutes of fun, I simply responded with … “In life, there is no point to having eye sight if you never see anything memorable.”  The launching of 16,000 bottle rockets was many things, but at the very least it was memorable.

My Career Path Frustrations

I don’t want this to be a political rant… although it could be.

As of right now, my major is Secondary Ed in Speech Communication.  Recently, Governor Daugaard has proposed a 10% cut to all education funds.  Not only does this add up to more than 1,500 teaching jobs (which is a lot in South Dakota), but some schools have even proposed cutting all extracurricular activities (including debate which is a big motivation for me to enter the field of education).

Before I make any illogical decisions, I will wait to see if the cut becomes official, but if it does I don’t think I can justify getting a teaching degree, which leaves me choosing between the lesser of many evils. 

I don’t know what to do…

Plans through March

As of right now I have 2,217 VPP collected this month and 7,246 collected for the year.  My goal for this month is to retain Gold Star which means I have to step it into gear.  I moved back to cash game simply because I was making a terrible hourly at SNG’s and almost no VPP’s (only about 300 per week if I played a lot).

Next month my minimum goal is to get Platinum (7,500), but I’m really shooting for 12,000 VPP’s.  In order for me to do that, I am going to have to get my ‘I don’t have a life’ grind on.  Considering that I have Spring Break and I have more free time in my personal life, I think this might be possible.  If I can manage to get 12,000 VPP’s, it will be worth about $450 in rakeback (which is a lot of money for a broke college kid).  It also begin to set me up for a summer grind the likes of which no one has ever seen.

ILLUSlON

Rough Draft of Essay... Feedback?

Media: The Enemy of Skepticism

                Dictatorship is the most efficient form of government.  One person can do anything he wants for any reason at any time.  There is no fight for power because there is no power to be attained, which is ultimately why skepticism has no value in a dictatorship.  America, on the other hand, is a Republic in which the people essentially run the government.  In this type of society, individuals have power over its government.  In contrast, citizens in a Republic attain value in their political beliefs.

                 In this transition of power, suddenly people’s opinions matter, and when something gains value in a society, it becomes something people want to control.  Thus is born the media.  During the implementation of their aggressive strategies, they use the common man as a means to their end.  In politically driven mediated messages, the individual is overwhelmed with information that they lose their skepticism.

                Although it is evident that within the United States there are differing opinions.  That much is obvious.  The more appropriate point of analysis is how people got those opinions to begin with.  There is a slim amount of difference between a business’s goal to get your money and a political party’s goal of getting your vote.  The means to achieving that end are numerous, but they all share a common trait of corruption.  Politics in the realm of America has lost its initial intent of two people presenting their honest views and the citizens electing whom they agree with more.  It has instead evolved into a game in which candidate’s platforms and running mates are strategically chosen.  The media does not, however, expose such ludicrous games, but rather, they act as an outlet that amplifies the result.

                It is not so concerning that politicians whom employ such strategies are applauded, but that politicians who chose a unique platform are dragged down by all media organizations.  These sorts of politicians, also known as members of third parties, have been demonized by the media as illegitimate parties.  While not their intent, they are also planting the idea in the public’s head that it does no good to be a skeptic.

                The examples of this are staggering, but unfortunately not well known due to the lack of media coverage.  Let’s analyze the 2008 Presidential election.  Many people don’t know that in order to get on the ballot in each state, you must get a certain number of petition signatures.  The Libertarian Party struggled to get their petitions in at each state and in many instances they were left off of the ballot entirely.  In Texas, they had their signatures in on time; however, the two main political parties missed the deadline.  It would seem logical that they also be left off of the ballot, but the deadline was specifically waived just for them.  Out of all 24 Presidential candidates, the rule was only waived for two of them.  Even more irresponsibly, the media failed to sufficiently cover this.  If anything should be a check on government it should be the media.

Good start to my SNG grinding

I was quite disappointed in Pokerstars decision to drop the micro-stake CAP tables.  However, I switched my attention to Sit 'n Goes.  Although VPP's will be tougher to get, it seems that I'll make more per VPP I earn.  My ROI (return of investment) is around 100, but considering that this is a small sample size I'm not holding my breath.

Also, if you happen to actually read this, please follow me (found on the left hand side).

Thanks and wish me luck!

Welcome to my blog!

There are a few reasons why I have decided to start a blog:

1.  This year I am going for Supernova status on Pokerstars.  Successfully doing this will result in about $6,000 worth of profit (and that's if I break even).  Doing this won't be easy.  As a SNG player, I may have to play as many as 40,000 tournaments throughout the year.  Essentially I will need to earn 100,000 VPP's by December 31st.  As of right now I have only 6,971 and I was recently forced to play games that earn me about one/fourth as many VPP's per hour.

2. I think a lot of people are getting sick of me posting all of my results through my facebook status.  My experiences, however, are just too interesting for me not to tell people about, so anyone willing to listen may come here and anyone who doesn't care can stay in their own world.

3. Pokerstars awards various monetary opportunities for people with their own blog.  If I can manage to post enough throughout the year, Pokerstars will literally allow me to play in freerolls worth thousands of dollars in tournament entries.  Furthermore, it seems that they have been more and more willing to award Micro-stakes players with the "Team Pro" honor which is worth loads of $$.  Although I have to bring a lot to the table and honestly I think that my chances are extremely low.  Although I might as well give myself the best chance I can.

4. There are some days where I just need to tell some people what's going on.  Out of all of my friends who know of me playing poker... not a single one understands the difficulty nor the opportunity of the game.  Anyone who knows me well will see me get dedicated to one thing and focus on nothing else until I master it.  Usually I come to a point where I can't get much better, and I move onto the next thing.  Well, I have been playing poker for 12 years, and I have yet to even see a light at the end of the tunnel for ways to improve my game.  There is not a more complex game in the world ...  I love the challenge!

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I've been asked numerous times whether poker is a game of skill or luck.  I hope to be able to post some videos throughout the course of this blog in which you can watch me actually play.  During that time, I hope to be able to prove to you that this is without a doubt a skill game.  Sure... at the end of the day, luck effects your profits... but at the end of your life, it was skill that determined how much you made/lost.

Maybe this will help: http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-search/nanonoko

I will update as much as I can so long as you post as much as you can!