my journal

Haven't posted in a while...

2004-08-16T03:06:55Z

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Guess I got sidetracked.
I've been playing poker recently, as always.
I'm moving on Wednesday, I've been getting ready for that. Also, haven't been working for about a week.
Hrmm... I don't really have much to say. I'll have a big update once I move.

Fishing is fun

2004-07-23T05:19:40Z

I just got back home from fishing. I went with my dad and my brother to Baffin Bay, which is about 30-45 minutes south of Corpus Christi. Our guide didn't tell us before we went that we were going to be wade fishing, which means you get out of the boat, stand is waste-high water and fish that way. The idea is that the boat scares the fish off. Also, its more sporty to be in there with the fish without all of your high-tech gadgets telling you where the fish are. I was kinda weary of this wade fishing idea, but I have to admit it was very fun.

One downside to fishing was that I didn't get to see Sarah for a few days. I always miss Sarah. Its not that I anguish over not getting to see her or anything like that, but little things here or there make me want to be with her when I can't. For instance, when we went fishing with the guide, we left the dock just before sun-up, so that by the time we arrived at the fishing location, the sun would just be coming up. While we were on the boat riding to the location, the sun-rise looked really awesome. Not a "that's the prettiest thing I've ever seen"-awesome, but a "wow, that looks really cool, a unique sunrise that I may never get to see again"-awesome. It was something about how the clouds were reflecting the colored light, made it very cool. Anyways, I knew that if I were with Sarah it would have been something we could have enjoyed together, and even though I was glad to be fishing with my dad and bro, I also wished she was there, even if just for that part.

Over the last week or so, I've also made a pretty important life decision. I won't disclose the details, because I'm not sure exactly who I want to know about it, but it determines a huge focus of my time for the next few years, and what I will do immediately following graduation. It's a pretty big risk, but I've never been so sure about an important decision in my life. If you're still reading my blog in 3 years, you'll get to find out if it works out :).

An update on my life

2004-07-14T16:46:48Z

Soooo, nothing too interesting has happened recently, I guess. I've just been going to work, hanging out with Sarah , and chilling.
Kevin and I started playing gin rummy. It is a fun game.
Today, my boss is out of town so I'm working form my house. It's nice because I don't really have to work the full 8 hours, just get the work done, but I get payed for 8 hours.
Ummm, what else is new... Oooh, my mom got new drinking glasses to replace the ones we've had for like 15 years, at least.
Sarah is moving to her new apartment on the 30th, so we'll be away from each other for the most of 3 weeks. :(
I'm actually a little anxious to go to school. At the end of the school year, it gets so stressful, but I wanna get back to school for a few reasons: School is better than having a job, I'm anxious to see if my new apartment will be fun and if Ill meet new people, hanging out with Sarah is a lot easier when we live close to each other, and I'm also looking forward to getting back to playing poker in Austin.
Thats it for now,
Mike

Stuff

2004-07-11T06:08:39Z

So, I know I made you suffer through a poker story earlier, but I'm gonna talk about poker some more:

As a tangent, I'd like to discuss my OBSESSION with poker. A lot of people prolly think I'm addicted to poker, but I think that's kinda rediculous. I've been obsessed with plenty of other things before. I used to play Magic: The Gathering a lot and i would think about it a lot. I regularly drove to Houston, Dallas, and Waco to spend a whole Saturday playing it for a big tournament. I played online to test out my decks and make sure they were tournament ready. A lot of people made fun of me for it and called me a nerd, but no one said I was addicted. I MAKE money in poker, I spent a lot of money playing magic. People just automatically associate gambling with all the bad stuff that goes along with it. Here's the thing, I don't think you can be addicted to poker, only gambling. When you're obsessed with poker like me, you think about specific hands over and over trying to figure out what you could have done better, you read books a lot, and try to memorize the odds. You hope to climb the stakes because at the higher stakes you can play against better people and you can try to out think them. You dream of winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and think that the money you win would be nice, too, because your poker bankroll would prevent you from having to spend your regular money to play poker. If you're addicted to gambling, you love the idea that you're putting your money on the line. It gives you thrills. When you lose, you gamble more money thinking that you'll be able to win it back and you'll end up losing even more money.
Now, I'm not saying that poker is not gambling. It is. It is a superior form of gambling to casino house games because you get to adjust the odds and you're not playing as a statistical underdog. Also, there's an infinite amount of strategic thinking as opposed to the finite amount of statistical situation in blackjack, craps, etc. Anyways, Poker is gambling, and a person addicted to gambling can play poker as his gambling fix, but he's not the type of poker player that will study the game and strive to be better.
The point is, I'm not addicted to gambling(even though I sometimes joke to people that I am), I'm just obsessed with poker.

By the way, I've been playing some pretty good poker recently and I've been winning in my live games. I think I'm getting a lot better.

Also, I love Sarah Gonzalez.

Indepence Day

2004-07-04T22:03:19Z

I'm chillin' with Erik and his little brother and Sarah right now. It's pretty cool. My parents are going to a wedding so we are going to go swimming and chill out some more. Sarah invited Rachel and Emily and a bunch of people over. I just hope it doesn't turn into a party. It should all be fun. I've been learning card tricks lately so I've been impressing Erik and his little brother with my awesomeness. I picked up a book yesterday about coin tricks. I haven't gotten good yet but I just need some practice.

I played poker 3 nights in a row. The first two nights were cash games and I won a total of $50 or so. Then last night was the biggest heartbreak I've had at the hands of a turn of a single card. So I'm playing in a tournament, and I haven't been seeing any decent hands so I fold for about half an hour. Then Mario raises and I look down to see QQ so I reraise. Mario folds and then tells me later he had AT. For another hour or so I fold all my hands because I see nothing worth playing. Then Everyone fold to Kevin who in on the button. He raises, Alex calls. I look down to see AJ. I think: Kevin could have anything semi-decent because it was folded to him on the button so he's in a steal position. Alex could have anything because he calls raises with any face card. I think about my options: Calling, and seeing what happens on the flop. But I'm out of position because I'm on the big blind. So I decide that I have the best hand at the time and I should put my money is while I have the best hand. So I raise. I forgot to see how much Kevin had left and my raise ended up being more than he had. I would have done the same thing anyway. Anyways, Kevin calls his whole stack. Alex folds. Kevin has K4 and hits a 4 to take about half my stack away. Again, I fold for about an hour until the break and end of rebuy periods. I have the option of adding on for $10 or $20. I decide that I'm playing pretty disciplined poker, and if I have a decent sized stack I could have a good shot at taking the whole $170 first prize so I add on for $20. A few hands later, I get AQ under the gun. I raise to 500 (blinds are 50/100). Mario raises another 500, and I start to think that he may have a better hand but since he raise was the minimum, I decide to call and find out what happens. The Flop is AJT with the jack and the ten hearts. I'm first to act so I bet all-in for 1505. Mario thinks for about 10 minutes and calls. He has KK. This means he has 3 outs because he can't hit a king - it gives me a straight. He can only hit a Q to give him a straight but I have one Q so there are only 3 left in the deck. The last card is a Q sending me out of the tournament. I calculated that I had an 87% of winning that hand. If I had won that hand I would have had the biggest stack and all I would have had to do was play my solid tournament strategy to make the money and give myself a chance to win the huge first prize. Instead I lose $30 for the night. A couple other factors make it so hard to stomach (even though I've lost after being a much bigger statistical favorite): 1) I haven't won a live tournament this summer. I keep getting close but still no first place, and I know that I'm good enough and that I've been playing well enough to deserve a win. 2) Mario wins all the tournaments, and it felt so good to finally have him beat in such a dominating position. 3) The only other hugely bad beat I've taken this summer was to Mario too when he had two outs and hit one.
Anyways, I thought sleeping this one over would make me feel better, but it hasn't and I'm considering not playing live No Limit tournaments for a while. I'm going to try and hone my online limit game and see if I can get good at them.
Also, I'll focus on my new magic hobby I guess.
Oh well.

-Mike

Racking up the postcount

2004-06-29T02:01:54Z

So, here's my second post. Are you proud of me?
I've been hassled to change the attributes of my journal and to post more, so thats what I'm doing now.
Wanna know what I've been up to?
I've been playing poker, watching movies, hanging out with Sarah, working, blah blah blah.
The other day when I was at Andy's party he had Top Spin for Xbox. I played it and its the best tennis game ever, so I bought it. I've also been meaning to get Tiger Woods for the PC so I get it too.
I guess thats about it.

I dunno

2004-06-24T04:52:05Z

So my arm was pulled until I signed up for a livejournal account. So here's my first post. Like it?