Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in richardthe23rd's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
12:15 am	By the Book Saturday night, I played what might have been the best game of my life. I did all right early on, then made some bets that didn't pay off and was down to about 1/3 of my original stack, but I called someone's bluff and was back in the money. The critical hand came when I was in for $600 on the big blind, with an 8-4 offsuit. and the player immediately after me (under the gun, if you will) went all-in for his last $1300. Several players called his all-in before the action got back to me. Now, as it happens, I had been reading an article in a poker magazine about this exact situation. His all-in might as well have been a call as a raise as far as I was concerned, since I was already in for $600, so there was no way I could pass on a chance to buy a pot for another $700 that was already worth about $5,000. And it didn't matter what my cards were. No matter how bad my hand was (and 8-4 offsuit is pretty dreadful), for another $700 it was worth the chance that any hand has of hitting the board. So, not only was my decision actually perfectly correct, what do you know...it paid off. I flopped a four, everyone checked all the way to river, and I ended up with two-pair, fours and threes, which was a better hand than anyone else had. It was the critical hand of the game, the one which put me in the upper ranks of chipstacks, knocked out a player to put us all in points, and led to me eventually taking it all (check-raising all-in when I flopped a straight). Feeling pretty good about finally having another victory under my belt; I'm a few thousand points behind the current top-rated player for this session, and time's a-wastin'. Got home and found out I'd folded my way to 1,401st place in the online PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge; this not only beats my record for being blinded out before I get to the table, but, I'm embarrassed to say, is better than I did in the game I showed up where I still had half my chips left. Am much enjoying my new iPod Touch now; amazing how much your favorite songs show up when that's mostly what you loaded it with. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Remy Shand, "Liberate" (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
6:53 am	You, Too, Apple Finally picked up my iPod Touch at the FedEx terminal, out by the airport (i.e. on the far side of town from where I waited all morning for FedEx the day before). Funny, in all my years of sweepstaking the one thing I could never win was an iPod, and now I have one that I didn't have to pay for after all. So I tried to set it up before I went out to play Friday night, but I got stalled in the iTunes registration process when Apple's credit card authorization process turned out to be down. So I called Apple's technical support, waded through a series of automated responses, and finally got a message that Apple doesn't provide phone support for iTunes for Windows users, so there was no way to alert them that their systems were down. Their support page says you can click on the Chat button on the upper left side of the Apple Store window, right where one doesn't exist. So I went to my first Flying Aces tournament in a week, had pocket Aces, bet $475 pre-flop, had someone call me with a Q-10 and then call my all-in with an inside straight draw. A nine on the river and that was it for me, then. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Shelby Lynne, "Bend" (Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
10:14 am	FedEx Broke My Heart I found a door tag when I got home telling me that FedEx had made two attempts to deliver a package (no doubt the iPod Touch which I claimed as an award for my excellent performance at the office), so I waited all morning for them to make the third attempt. Around eleven o'clock I opened the door and stood on my balcony and I saw the FedEx truck parked in front of my apartment building. I was so overjoyed I was a kid on Christmas morning. Until a couple of minutes later when I looked outside again and the truck was gone. I spent five furious phone calls on line with FedEx's customer support or the local terminal, during one of which they checked and said their records showed a third door tag had been scanned, which meant the driver was committing a bald faced lie; they said the driver had made two other deliveries to the complex ("Did he just scan their tags and drive off like he did for me?"), and it was the same driver who had left the previous two notices so he didn't have much excuse for getting lost on the way to my door. The upshot was that after having wasted half the day I could wait until 5:00 p.m. for the driver to make a return trip, or just go to their terminal (on the far side of town) to pick it up, which is an option I could have exercised in the first place if I didn't mind waiting an extra day for an eagerly anticipated package, thus saving myself this wasted day. (Wasted in the sense that I still managed to do a load of laundry, sew a button back onto my work slacks, and sew the strap back onto my straight flush hat from the Midnight Rose. Richard Brandt is a man who gets things done.) Having rehearsed this spiel I can run through it all again with whoever I talk to at the FedEx counter later today. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Julie London, "I Want You for Christmas" (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
10:01 am	I Should Have Taken a Later Bus I decided I had to get back to Cripple Creek Tuesday before they hit the $45,000 bad beat at the $5-$5 limit table. And I was right. It hit at the table right next to me. (They opened up a second table later in the day after more players showed up wanting in.) Ace-Seven and Ace-Six hit a Q-6-7 on the flop; then came another Ace; then came another Ace. I wonder if they ever saw it coming. The table share for those who just happened to be sitting at the table with the big winner and loser was $1420, which is exactly the amount I'm aiming to win now. And there's still the poker room bad beat to claim; it's up to $81,000 now. I ended up playing with one of the table share winners, Doc, in spite of anything Nelson Algren might have had to say. I have a feeling he might be open to giving me lessons. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: De La Soul (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
9:07 am	Snowed In Took a bus up to Cripple Creek on Saturday, right into a blizzard. I got in over my head in a 5-5 game where someone would keep upping the blind call to $10 or even $20 and ended up staying up all night trying to get even. I wasn't the only all-nighter there either; a whole table of us were up all night trying to catch a $45,000 bad beat for the 5-5 game which the casino is so desperate to give away they're daily dropping the qualifying hand to win. It's currenly at Kings full of sixes; lose with that hand and if all other qualifications are met, you get half that pot, the winner gets a quarter, and the other players at the table split the rest. That's on top of a $76,000 poker room bad beat which we would also claim if the winning hand was Aces full of Jacks or better. (At the 5-5 table, as one wag put it, all you need for a potential win is the Bachelor's Hand, or Jack-King Off.) Anyway, I wound up at a 2-5 table and had an incredible run of luck where anything I decided to play was hitting: If my blind hand was 2-5 I'd hit three fives. (Same thing happened in my blind later at the 5-5 table.) I had a hunch about a 7-10 after seeing 7s and 10s flop earlier, called and won with three sevens. The most absurd hand was when I stayed in with an A-10 of spades, stayed in even though the board was 3-4-5-7 (and all red except for seven of spades), and had a table full of callers. Turns out no one had the straight, everyone was staying because they had a pair, and I hit a 10 on the river to take it all. My intuition about which hand to play seemed faultless, and eventually I was up $100 for the table. After a couple of breaks to go across the street and play blackjack (ended up $200 ahead for one visit, lost a chunk of my bankroll on the next), I went back to the 5-5 table, played tight and tough and smart and took big pots playing only good cards, and before you know it I was up about $500 at the table. But after a while I'd been two nights without sleep and couldn't even be sure what was real anymore and what was only happening in my head, and thought I'd better leave the tables while I still had some chips left, although a big factor in my departure was that I wasn't really sure what it would be like if we had the big beat at the table, because so far that's something I haven't experienced. I'd hate to have hit the big beat and then found out I was only dreaming. Current Mood: awake Current Music: Lynyrd Skynyrd, "That Smell" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 13th, 2009
9:31 am	Down on the Ground Well, I was planning to visit my folks around Thanksgiving, but between yesterday and payday (when I can actually buy a ticket), the fares doubled, so maybe we should try for Christmas. I know it's foolish to look for good fares around the holidays, but I have 18 days paid time off left, and if I'm going to use them up it would be tough to find a time that wasn't close to a holiday. Last night I finally made it to my table at the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge in time to play a few hands, and did marginally better than before; 1,442nd, if I recall correctly. Actually played the first hand dealt to me and lucked into a winner, but I could still have folded a few more, obviously. (I already forget if this was the hand where I had two-pair Queens and Nines and lost to Queens and Tens; I play so many.) Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Stu Phillips, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" Soundtrack (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
10:07 am	More News from Afghanistan We already heard from the first diplomat to resign in protest over the U.S. policy in Afghanistan that the primary cause of the insurgency there is, well, us: Rural Afghanis are territorial folk who don't have any truck with anyone as far away as the next valley, and resent our presence there as outsiders, which makes them prime fodder for insurgent recruiters. (Routinely killing civilians in the course of our operations hasn't helped, either, I'm sure.) Today, NPR quotes Hamid Karzai as contending that a primary cause of the endemic corruption in Afghanistan is, well, us, and the buttloads of cash that the West has dumped into the country with little oversight or transparency, accompanied by a willingness to turn a blind eye to any chicanery involved in getting the job done. And an analyst NPR talked to agreed. (Not wanting to affront the local warlords hasn't helped, either, I'm sure.) And along with the rise of insurgents came the resurgence of the opium trade, which from all accounts the Taliban had been oddly successful at suppressing during their reign. This may explain why some in the current administration are a little reluctant to keep plugging more American troops into the equation. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Rachel Portman, "War of the Buttons" (Comment on this)
9:39 am	Just Passing Through, I Guess Canada's military has announced it will not, after all, provide swine flu vaccinations to Afghanis it is detaining at the Kandahar airport, even though the Geneva convention stipulates you will provide the same treatment to prisoners of war as you do for your own soldiers. This is because, as the Canadians tell us, "We are fighting a counterinsurgency and thus the detainees are not prisoners of war." Um, okay...If you're not at war, why are you fighting these "insurgents" in their #@$%&! country? In poker-related news: Didn't fold often enough last night, I guess. At the Mill Hill Saloon, didn't sit out two hands where some fool kept going all in with crap; not a problem in himself, since even if he got lucky the first hand I'd beat him on the second; no, the problem was he was going all-in when another player had already raised; those were the ones I needed to worry about. If I'd sat out those hands, I'd have gotten rid of two players without risking anything. Still made it into the top 16% at Pokerstars' Million Dollar Challenge without ever sitting at the table; then got drummed out in Hold 'Em during an 8-game Freeroll when I had two pair, Aces and nines, and some lucky idiot who went all-in against me with a pair of Kings hit a third King on the river. Made it to second place in a WSOP.com tourney, though; actually managed to take the upper hand for a while at heads-up, but ultimately the other player just had better hands when it counted. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Rachel Portman, "Addicted to Love" (Soundtrack) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
3:21 pm	Hooked I sat down at an afternoon game that was already in progress, got dealt pocket deuces in my first hand, had a player go all in with his last $575, figured what the hell, somebody has to call him, so I did. He had an A-J. The flop gave him another Ace, but it also gave me four diamonds to a flush. But I didn't get another deuce or another diamond, so that was that. My next hand I had the big blind and got dealt a 5-6 offsuit. But I flopped 5-6-8, so I went all-in. I had just one caller, who turned out to have pocket Aces. Now, everything this guy had done was wrong. By slow-playing his Aces instead of raising pre-flop to get everyone out, he'd allowed me to limp into two-pair. Then he called my all-in, even though there were at best only five cards left in the deck that could help him: the two Aces, of course, and three eights, since a higher two-pair of Aces and Eights would beat me. Another 5 or 6 wouldn't help him, of course, since it would give me a full house. So there are the four cards that will boat me up, but this leaves aside the fact that except for five cards that will help him, every other card in the deck is good for me, because I already have him beat. So naturally the next card turned up is an Ace. At some point it doesn't matter how well or badly you play. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Peter, Paul & Mary, "If I Had a Hammer" (Comment on this)
9:36 am	It's True: You Really Can't Fold Too Often Pokerstars is holding nightly tournaments at their website where an eventual winner will get to play heads-up on TV for a shot at a million bucks, so I'm signing up even though the last tournament starts at nine each night and I'll probably still be playing cards somewhere. I ran home just in case I was still seated and hadn't run out of chips, but when I arrived I found that they had, indeed, dealt me in, but by the time I got home the blinds had eaten away the last of my stack of chips. However... I managed to finish 1,489th out of a field of 10,000, without ever even sitting down to play my seat. In other words, simply by folding all of my hands, I managed to outlast 85% of the players in the tournament. There's got to be a lesson in this somewhere. Case in point: At the Carey-On Saloon last night, I had an A-8. Some fellow raised to $250 or so on the blinds, and I decided to call, because, what the heck. The flop came up 6-8-10, so I had a pair of eights and an Ace for a kicker. Everyone checked to the big bettor, who bet big again. Now, I knew he hadn't raised pre-flop with a 9-7, so I figured him for a couple of high cards. So I called. And indeed, he had an A-Q, and in spite of not having hit anything on the flop, he had continued to bet big, trying to buy the pot, until he put me all in. I had him beat all the way...to the river, where he hit a 9 and filled an inside straight draw he probably hadn't even been looking for, the lucky inheritor of canine traits. Moral, I suppose: You can afford to fold a lot of good hands. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Primus, "Pork Soda" (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
8:40 am	Further Adventures in Grocery Shopping I bought three tubs of Land of Lakes Butter with Canola Oil, one pound of King Sooper butter quarters, four boxes of Cheez It White Cheddar baked snack crackers, one bag of Nestle Toll House morsels, and two bags of Halls honey lemon cough drops. The final tally? $1.40. If you guessed from that eclectic list that I was using items that were on sale and which I also happened to have coupons for, you guessed correctly. In other news, if the last several days have taught me anything, it's that if anyone raises to $1000 pre-flop, and I have an Ace-Jack, I need to call. (Ace-Queen or Ace-King? Not so much.) Hey, ESPN2HD is showing the final table of the World Series of Poker tonight. I have my DVR set to record in case I'm still out playing poker myself when it starts. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Panda Bear, "Young Prayer" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
8:52 am	Vaguely Familiar If you ever wondered what Memento would look like remade as a Bollywood musical...well, you have at least two choices. The one I saw, Ghajini, was actually the Hindi remake of an earlier Tamil version by the same director. You actually get two movies for the price of one: A remake of Memento...to say it was "inspired by" is too kind, although it quickly veers off into a straightforward revenge fantasy (our hero in this one is an unstoppable fighting machine), lacking either the irony or the resequencing of its model...and the other, a light romantic comedy rather at stylistic odds with the gritty suspense film sharing the bill, and which actually takes up the vast bulk of the film's running time. I suppose in Bollywood this is par for the course. There are some interesting twists, such as our hero's doctor and colleagues trying to eradicate all of his reminders, and star Aamir Khan handles well a scene where he loses his train of thought just after kicking a bunch of lackey ass, and stands there wondering where he is and what the hell just happened. In other news, I finally scored points at last night's Finish Line game, squeaking into fourth place. I called an all-in with an A-7 suited; my opponent would have had us believe his K-Q offsuit was a little stronger hand than it was. Unfortunately he hit a Q on the turn; once again, there were only six cards left in the deck that could hurt me, etc. Let's hope there's a brighter week ahead. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Panda Bear, "I'm Not" (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
8:57 am	The Beast Must Die What a weekend. First of all, I had to stay late at the office Friday. There was a fix my bosses wanted me to test and get migrated that night, only my logon to the domain where we do our testing had been mysteriously locked out, and it took an hour and a half to find someone in Data Security who could clear it for me, most of our I/T resources being occupied trying to rid a virus that had attacked our corporate network. And, lo and behold, Saturday morning I discovered some kind of malware had attacked my computer as well. The first sign was that all the links I clicked on were redirected to advertising sites; ultimately, some FakeAlert trojan interrupted every one of my computer's actions with a message telling me that file was infected and I needed to download and install their company's antivirus software. McAfee told me several times it had quarantined that intruder but was ultimately helpless against it; I finally had to restore my system to an earlier backup to rid myself of the problem. Friday night's game, I can't really complain about much; although the last to sit and therefore almost by definition short-stacked, I hung in, played strategically timed all-ins and won, and made it all the way to the bubble at the final table before the increasing blinds ate me up. I did end up passing on a chance to double up; I folded an A-J offsuit to a $1000 raise, by a player who turned out to be holding pocket Aces. This looks like both a tough fold and a smart one, except that I would have ended up hitting a 9 on the river for a Queen-high flush. But I can't beat myself up too much about that; if I went all-in chasing cards on the river all night, how long could I expect to last? With few chips left at the end, I went all-in on my small blind with A-3 and was called by the big blind with K-J; I flopped three spades for a nut flush draw, had a straight draw on the turn, but ended up rivering a pair of threes, not quite enough since my rival flopped another King. But it's about as well as I could have expected to do. Back to Saturday at noon: Went to the game at Benny's ended up calling two all-ins with a pair of sevens. Knowing them, I figured they each had an Ace and a kicker, and I was more correct than that even: They each had A-K. The flop was a little troubling because it came up Q-10-10, but even though a Jack will give them a straight, with them holding each other's cards there are only six left in the deck that can possibly harm me. And the turn and river card? Another Ace, another King. There are only six cards that are a problem, and two of them come up? What fresh hell is this? I move on to the Mill Hill, where the game ends up starting an hour late because no dealer showed up, so I ultimately had to go back to Benny's and drag the dealer from there. And I do really well; at the break I have everyone at the table massively outstacked. Then after the break I start playing like a total idiot, playing crap hands and calling all-ins when I have an inside straight draw at best, and end up distributing my chips to all the goons playing the rest of the table. And what goons they were; they kept going all-in with crap hands...In fact I understand the last hand heads-up one went all-in with pocket fours, and was called by a 7-2...who beat him. All I had to do was sit on my chips waiting for a good hand and start taking these bozos out. It's like after the break I left the table and some asshole came back and started playing in my place. And if I ever see that guy, I'm going to kill him. This is troubling, not merely because I desperately needed a win for points after a week of losses (not to mention free pizza), but since it makes me question whether I am, in fact, a player or a gambler. A player is determined to win, whereas a gambler, as we all know, desperately seeks to lose. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: A.H. Rahman, "Ghajini" (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
2:52 pm	"Democrats: Worse Than Terrorists" WASHINGTON (CNN) - A Republican congresswoman said Monday on the House floor that she believes Americans have more to fear from the Democrats' health care bill "than we do from any terrorist right now in any country." Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina said people in her home district tell her they are frightened of the health care bill expected to be debated by the House as soon as this week. "I share that fear, and I believe they should be fearful," Foxx said, "And I believe the greatest fear that we all should have to our freedom comes from this room - this very room - and what may happen later this week in terms of a tax increase bill masquerading as a health care bill. "I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country." http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/02/gop-congresswoman-says-health-care-bill-scarier-than-terrorism/ Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Madeleine Peyroux, "Don't Wait Too Long" (4 Comments |Comment on this)
8:47 am	Street Life The kids at the Presbyterian school I pass on my walk to the office must be passing treats to one of the squirrels, because whenever I walk by he darts up to me and begs for scraps. I finally broke down today and gave him some crumbs from my hot dog buns. Can't bear to see the little guy look all crestfallen and disappointed when I don't have anything for him so I guess I'll have to start bringing some snacks along. Otherwise he'll just start following me around, the persistent little beggar, and I've already explained to him that he can't follow me home. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Madeleine Peyroux, "Dance Me to the End of Love" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
8:42 am	If You Can't Stand Today I finally complained about the heat in my broiling office, so we'll see if there's any improvement soon. I'd hate to have to start showing up to work in a towel and a bathrobe. Yesterday I went to see my counselor again; a lot of the discussion revolved around my poker game, which is only right. Last night, Adrian (he of the famous runner-runner trip Kings at the Mill Hill) called with another crap hand...he had two spades and called $500 after flopping one spade and an inside draw...and that was the end of my Wednesday night at the Mill Hill. (In the long run, he is going to lose big, and often, as I will be sure to point out to him when I inveitably take him down. I might also tell Cowgirl to go fook herself for vocally relishing my defeat after I had earlier taken her out of the game, but since she was a little under the influence at the time, I'll content myself with relishing knocking her out of her next game.) I went home and played on WSOP.com (qualifying to win a seat at the World Series main event next year), and managed to make it to third, my best finish yet in one of their tourneys. I also signed up at PokerStars.net, trying to win a seat at a tournament in the Caribbean. (I really want a spot on their new Million Dollar Challenge TV show, but the registration and game schedule for those free-rolls conflicts with my live poker nights.) I wound up going all-in in a five-card draw game when I was dealt a full house, but I was short-stacked at the time and my bet didn't have the pressure on the other players that a larger one might have; I only managed to squeeze out everyone except the one guy who drew to four sixes. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: June Christy, "Sorry to See You Go" (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
8:21 am	Near Miss Some idiot ran the stop sign at the intersection just ahead of where I park my car, and I came literally within inches of smashing into him. Don't really need that kind of thing right now. Last night I remembered that one of the automated payments being debited from my checking account is about $40 more than it used to be. All of the payments I was expecting hit my account today, but I may still have time to transfer some funds from another bank before I get socked with all manner of overdraft fees. Hey, it could happen. Voters just rejected a property tax increase here, and it looks like they'll support TABOR inventor Doug Bruce's proposal to kill stormwater fees, so the city is in almost as dire financial straits as I am. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Van Morrison, "Astral Weeks" (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
9:35 am	Stayed an hour late broiling in my overheated office waiting in vain for someone to figure out how to get imbalances to work in our test environment (a brilliant idea finally occurred to one of our I/T folks this morning). So I was already in a foul mood when I showed up at Cleat's for my nightly game. I actually made it fairly deep into the final table; I'd earlier flopped quad three's and had someone with pocket Kings go all-in against me. (Why do they always ask the same question: "If I'd raised $1000 pre-flop would you have folded that pair of threes?" A: "You never do, so why are you asking me?") But I made the mistake of not going all in pre-flop on my A-K, since the big blind with a 10-3 bet $2000 when the flop came up A-10, and the happy idiot hit another 10 on the turn and a 3 on the river just to add insult to injury. I was so peeved that I walked out and have to remember to go back tonight and settle my tab. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: The Mars Volta, "De-Loused in the Comatorium" (Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
9:50 am	Well, That's Redundant November 20 is "Take a Turkey to Work Day." The following day, my local branch of Chase Bank is moving from across the street to a few blocks uptown, repeating a pattern in which Adams Bank closes the branch across the other street from my office (compelling me to drive past my home to conduct my business there), and our credit union moves from one floor downstairs to seven blocks away. Yes, my money keeps getting further away from me. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: My Bloody Valentine, "Loveless" (Comment on this)
8:25 am	Pretty Scary, Eh, Kids? Had to come in to the office Saturday to babysit the implementation of our big project (seamless nominations across two pipelines). By and large, the only issues were things that our I/T team forgot to add to the migration list. Woo hoo! Last night I had a dream that I actually had some money. Then I woke up and remembered another bill that's going to be debited out of my checking account. Then I remembered I have a dentist's appointment this week and I still owe them from last time. (Maybe I should reschedule.) I'll probably have another dream in two weeks when I need to pay four hundred bucks and change to renew my insurance, and I'm supposed to be buying a plane ticket home for the holidays. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Madredeus, "Lisboa" (Comment on this)