I really need to update this more and I keep saying that but it never really happens.
Poker is going okay. Currently in a couple of challenges. First challenge is the King of the 45 man SNG's. This starts tonight at midnight. We have to midnight 2/27 to complete 20 45 man turbo sng's. You get points based on your finish and the top 3 scores with the prize pool.
The next challenge I am in is the Feb. $4.40 challenge. We are on teams, $50 a team. We have to play 30 $4.40 180 man SNG's on Stars between 2/1 and midnight 2/29. Drop the lowest 5 scores. We have about $1200 in the prize pool right now, tomorrow is the last day to register but so far so good. My team is in 6th after 8 games. I won one this past Sunday which helped. Looks like my partner had a bad day today but we have a long way to go and the early leaders have played a lot more games than we have so if we can keep it going we should have a good shot at a top three finish.
Other than that it's been the same old same old. Working, taking law courses, reading up on Buddhism, and playing Rock Band and Call of Duty 4.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
I Was a GameFAQs Moderator for 5 yrs.
It was an interesting experience that I have wanted to share from time to time but GameFAQs has changed so much that I almost feel a little worried that anything I write here will cause secret CNet/GameFAQs agents to kidnap my wife and kill my cat because some people over there get a little crazy when people tell their "secrets". Not that I plan to post screenshots of the inner workings of the place but I might say something that would freak one of them out and all hell will break loose somewhere in the world over something pretty stupid.
Let me makes some quick comments in case someone actually does read this and wants to start some sort of e-fight. GameFAQs is a great place for what it is intended to be. That is a place that people can go to to get info and help in a almost any video game created on a ton of different systems. The message boards are secondary to that. There are some great boards on GameFAQs and sometimes you may get some help on a game board but don't get your hopes up. As the days, weeks, months, and years go by, the level of help you receive has diminished. Some people will disagree but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see it.
I would also like to state that some of the things I will write could easily be hypocritical. I can admit that, unlike most other people. Some of the things that have lessened the greatness that GameFAQs once was were things that I myself used to do. It wasn't until last year that I realized it and did my part not to be that person.
GameFAQs for me was a place to waste time. When I had nothing to do or when I was playing poker online it was a nice place to mess about. When I first started going there back in 2000 it was quite small compared to today. I spent most of my time on the Final Fantasy 9 board getting help and helping others. Shortly there after I decided to take a shot at FAQ writing for the site and started to spend time on the FAQ Contributors board. That was the place to be. All the prolific writers and the moderators would hang there. Everyone was very nice and helpful and through that I made some cool e-friends. I started getting interested in the inner workings of the site and the rules. I was not a big internet person at the time and GameFAQs was the first message board I had ever participated in. I found it all quite fascinating.
Things were much simpler then. You had levels based on your time there and when you got modded you either got a deletion or you were suspended and then banned. No karma, no varying degrees of punishment, no purgatory, no contesting your deletions, etc. Delete or good bye. Maybe you would get warned. I can't remember but I bet you could, either way, it was much simpler. I started hanging out at Questions and Suggestions. That was the early Message Board Help (MBH). We had fun there, a small group of us. Things were not as volatile as they have been the last few years. Very little complaining and a lot of general questions.
As time went on I became quite knowledgeable of the Terms of Service and decided to apply to be a moderator. I got selected on the first attempt I took and that is where the fun began. It was a small group back then. Not many people knew the inner workings since there weren't all the leaks and screenshots and mod hackings there have been since. It was a pretty stressful job at first. At GameFAQs, if you are not aware, the sites users mark messages that they feel violate the ToS/ToU and that sends them into this queue. As a mod you have access to this queue and you go in there and can look at the marked posts and decide the punishment. I remember when I first started it took me forever to moderate. I would read the post, read the topic it was from, read the mod guidelines to get an idea on the rule it was marked for, check the users moderations history, read the post again, read the guidelines, etc because I didn't want to unfairly mod someone. It got easier. I would skip ones I wasn't sure of and then quickly mod through easy ones. Basically modding loses it's luster rather quickly and it just becomes a duty in which you want to clear the queue so you don't have to bother with the banner on the top of your page telling you there are posts to moderate. Some will disagree but none of them can honestly say they take the time to mod a post they way they did their first month. If they did they wouldn't mod as much as they do these days.
Early on the group was small and tight. We all got along and we all worked for the good of the site. Very little cliques going on and very little jockeying for positions. We were all moderators of this great site and we enjoyed it. It wasn't till I believe the next batch where things started to turn. A couple mods from the next batch were not the best choices. One being CronoGamer and the other being crimsonassasin. Crono was okay but after awhile he got sick of it I guess and decided to use his powers and go out with a bang and mod the living day lights out of a not so popular user on the boards. Did it really hurt anyone? No. Was it stupid? Maybe, but really, it is just an internet message board. If he did something like that in real life and at his real job he would have to suffer some consequences, but on the internet you just log off and be done with it.
Crimson was a different story. I didn't quite understand his game and what he was trying to accomplish but he was the first mod to attack other mods through moderation or just by posting violations on the mod boards at other mods. I won't go into great detail as this seems to be one of the "secrets" that could result in loss of life in my family, but CA was known to flame, troll, use SPI's against mods and even admins. For a long time he was left alone for some reason. One reason would be that mods had an unwritten rule back then that you could not mod a mod on the mod boards because then people using metamod would see it and OMG all hell would break loose. So CA's SPI towards me on Mod Social got to stay and truth be known, Ceej wasn't very active on the mod boards as many people might have expected so nothing much was done about it. I think the straw that finally broke the camel's back was when he posted some troll/flame towards a Gamespot Admin on the GS Mod/GF Mod board. After he got booted he knew the mods were not allowed to talk about the actions that got him booted so that gave him free reign to troll and cause problems on the board. Another by product of GameFAQs staff wanting to remain so mysterious.
Around that time is when things seemed to start changing for the worse in my opinion. By then the site had really grown to the point of Jeff selling the site to CNet, the need for more mods meant a larger group and the lack of any admin support resulted in chaos on the mod side of things. The level of consistency was ridiculous. I remember making topics on the mod boards that some of us worked on to try and get an idea on where people's heads were and it was amazing to see the complete mess it was. Some people would NKL one thing while some would warn for the same thing, a couple would suspend, and a couple would notify, and then about 50 mods would never even bother to read or participate on the mod boards. It was a mess. And I have no doubt that it still is but not as bad as I suspect that SBAllen contributes a lot more support than Ceej did.
I don't post much anymore on GameFAQs. I still visit every now and then and it is either to get help on a game I am playing, check reviews of a game I might want to get, or check out my private board, KGB. I no longer bother with the side of GameFAQs that I used to. The moderation/MBH side. Having gone on to other forums I can honestly say I have never ran into the oddness that is GameFAQs and it's users preoccupation of mods, moderations, and the rules. I have also not run into a site that allows it's users to contest deleted posts even once whereas you can contest a deleted post 3 times at GameFAQs. It amazes me how much hand holding goes on at that site. I was a cranky person when I was a mod. Not because I am cranky by nature, but because of all the ridiculous crap I had to endure. Moderate this, answer this stupid question, get flamed, get nasty emails, go into the contest queue and read how this one guy thinks that saying he wants to rape his cat and then cut it's head off should not have been deleted because this is America and the Constitution gives him the right too post that without penalty. Deal with that everyday and you can get an idea of why most mods who post a lot are complete fucking assholes. I was. But then I grew up a bit and realized how utterly lame and foolish I looked. Some people need to step back and look through their posting history to see they too might need to do the same thing.
Being a GameFAQs mod was fun at times, boring and annoying the rest of the time. The first 2 years were great. We were doing something, but after that it became this odd little society where people were backstabbing each other and trying to gain more power and control.
The rules are just odd as well. Some make perfect sense and back in the day they seemed to fit but as the world and internet changes I think some of the rules make GameFAQs...bad? How many sites out there use the ignore function? Many do, all of the sites I go to have it. Well GameFAQs got it not too long ago and since the site likes to try and control so may aspects of a users posts, you can get modded for telling someone you are going to ignore them. That is the perfect example of how uttely ridiculous that site's rules are. Fine, nude pics, swearing, graphic sex discussions, and hardcore insults are deleted, but modding people because they want to tell a troll they are ignoring him because that will annoy the user and he may respond in a flame? Give me a break, it is like elementary school, not a video game site on the internet. Does this mean the mods are at fault? Not all of them. Talking to some I know they disagree with that rule and many others, but they are instructed to moderate these posts so they are just doing what they should do.
The site does not allow you to post a hyperlink. Why? Because someone might post porn. ????
The site does not have a Private Message system. Why? Because the mods would have a hard time monitoring what is being sent through the PM system. ???
The site does not allow people to edit their posts? Why? Because people will post a flame, or a link to ROMs/Porn, etc and then quickly edit it to not get in trouble. ???
So the basic theme is that they think all their users are a bunch of retarded monkey children who will do anything they can to break a rule so may as well live in the old ages of internet forums. I understand no avatars and pics for speed and simplicity but the examples I posted show what the staff is all about.
Quotas were a sore subject on the mod boards. Basically Jeff always said that he would not set a quota since it was a volunteer position. That makes perfect sense. There were weeks were I would touch 200 marked posts/contests, and then there were weeks where I would mod thousands of posts and handle many contests. Whatever I had time for. Some mods would do thousands in a day. Those mods begged for quotas because some felt that it was not fair they would do so much and others would do so little. People wanted Ceej to set up a quota and boot anyone who didn't meet it or had not done anything at all in years, which sadly there were many people with mod titles that did nothing at all. They posted everyday but had not handles even 50 marked posts in over 2 years. Is it a big deal. I didn't think so for the reasons many said. I think you boot them because why not, they don't do anything. The reasons other people wanted them booted was because they might be leaking the big ol' secrets. The moderations staff love their secrets. Oooh, let's not let them know MMA still exists. Let's not let them know that there is another queue full of marks that during my time were left untouched for weeks and months until someone group decided to tackle them. If anyone is reading this, there was a day a couple years ago where MBH and the site when crazy when people started getting modded like crazy for old stuff. That was the time some mods decided to spend a weekend going through the queue filled with marks that had low MMA and the mods just let the ranting and raving go one without just simply telling people the truth. For some reason telling people that marks from low MMA users go into a different queue because 80% of them are bad marks and take time away from handling the marks where 80% of them are good marks is going to do something bad. As a smart person it makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the fact that we had to hide it. Stuff like that just made me start to think how utterly ridiculous things have gotten. OMG, don't tell the peeon users that we get stars based on how many messages we handle a day. That might cause some sort of rift in the time space continuum. The reason people get mad and frustrated is that keeping such ridiculous secrets does make it look as if the mods are vastly superior to the regs. Like the regs are too stupid to handle it. Excuse me while I take this time to make some phone calls to make sure my wife and family are still safe.
When I left the mod staff last year things were ugly. Quotas were imposed somewhat, some people thought it was wrong to set them on volunteers, others could care less, and others thought that the quotas were too lenient. Mods were urged to spend free time in the queues and not posting socially. Fights ensued and me being a blunt person never hid behind my feelings of what was going on. I rubbed a certain group the wrong way during the quota discussions and some consistency type topics but big deal. I still have emails from mods thanking me for saying what some were not in a position to say. Most mods just hide in the corner and just do a good job and doing their best to get rid of the crap that actually does get posted on that site, while others act as if it was their actual career. One mod told me that we owed it to CJayC to be on the site every time we had nothing to do and dig through the queue. I disagree. Help out when you can and when you want too. If you want to go hang out on Current Events and shoot the shit about some new movie or what someone did over the weekend, go ahead.
Overall it was a great experience and I had fun for the most part. When it stopped being fun and became more serious than the job I do for money is when I realized how it wasn't for me. If some want to sit there and moderate 2000+ posts a day then more power to them, it was no longer for me. I am sure this post will ruffle some feathers and create some controversy if it ever gets to GameFAQs but I don't care. My blog, my experience, my right to post about it. I never signed anything that said I could not talk about it. But maybe they make them do that now. It would not surprise me. At least I left out a lot of juicy secrets that should remain secrets. Or maybe that is just me creating more conspiracy theories for the pure hilarity of it.
Let me makes some quick comments in case someone actually does read this and wants to start some sort of e-fight. GameFAQs is a great place for what it is intended to be. That is a place that people can go to to get info and help in a almost any video game created on a ton of different systems. The message boards are secondary to that. There are some great boards on GameFAQs and sometimes you may get some help on a game board but don't get your hopes up. As the days, weeks, months, and years go by, the level of help you receive has diminished. Some people will disagree but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see it.
I would also like to state that some of the things I will write could easily be hypocritical. I can admit that, unlike most other people. Some of the things that have lessened the greatness that GameFAQs once was were things that I myself used to do. It wasn't until last year that I realized it and did my part not to be that person.
GameFAQs for me was a place to waste time. When I had nothing to do or when I was playing poker online it was a nice place to mess about. When I first started going there back in 2000 it was quite small compared to today. I spent most of my time on the Final Fantasy 9 board getting help and helping others. Shortly there after I decided to take a shot at FAQ writing for the site and started to spend time on the FAQ Contributors board. That was the place to be. All the prolific writers and the moderators would hang there. Everyone was very nice and helpful and through that I made some cool e-friends. I started getting interested in the inner workings of the site and the rules. I was not a big internet person at the time and GameFAQs was the first message board I had ever participated in. I found it all quite fascinating.
Things were much simpler then. You had levels based on your time there and when you got modded you either got a deletion or you were suspended and then banned. No karma, no varying degrees of punishment, no purgatory, no contesting your deletions, etc. Delete or good bye. Maybe you would get warned. I can't remember but I bet you could, either way, it was much simpler. I started hanging out at Questions and Suggestions. That was the early Message Board Help (MBH). We had fun there, a small group of us. Things were not as volatile as they have been the last few years. Very little complaining and a lot of general questions.
As time went on I became quite knowledgeable of the Terms of Service and decided to apply to be a moderator. I got selected on the first attempt I took and that is where the fun began. It was a small group back then. Not many people knew the inner workings since there weren't all the leaks and screenshots and mod hackings there have been since. It was a pretty stressful job at first. At GameFAQs, if you are not aware, the sites users mark messages that they feel violate the ToS/ToU and that sends them into this queue. As a mod you have access to this queue and you go in there and can look at the marked posts and decide the punishment. I remember when I first started it took me forever to moderate. I would read the post, read the topic it was from, read the mod guidelines to get an idea on the rule it was marked for, check the users moderations history, read the post again, read the guidelines, etc because I didn't want to unfairly mod someone. It got easier. I would skip ones I wasn't sure of and then quickly mod through easy ones. Basically modding loses it's luster rather quickly and it just becomes a duty in which you want to clear the queue so you don't have to bother with the banner on the top of your page telling you there are posts to moderate. Some will disagree but none of them can honestly say they take the time to mod a post they way they did their first month. If they did they wouldn't mod as much as they do these days.
Early on the group was small and tight. We all got along and we all worked for the good of the site. Very little cliques going on and very little jockeying for positions. We were all moderators of this great site and we enjoyed it. It wasn't till I believe the next batch where things started to turn. A couple mods from the next batch were not the best choices. One being CronoGamer and the other being crimsonassasin. Crono was okay but after awhile he got sick of it I guess and decided to use his powers and go out with a bang and mod the living day lights out of a not so popular user on the boards. Did it really hurt anyone? No. Was it stupid? Maybe, but really, it is just an internet message board. If he did something like that in real life and at his real job he would have to suffer some consequences, but on the internet you just log off and be done with it.
Crimson was a different story. I didn't quite understand his game and what he was trying to accomplish but he was the first mod to attack other mods through moderation or just by posting violations on the mod boards at other mods. I won't go into great detail as this seems to be one of the "secrets" that could result in loss of life in my family, but CA was known to flame, troll, use SPI's against mods and even admins. For a long time he was left alone for some reason. One reason would be that mods had an unwritten rule back then that you could not mod a mod on the mod boards because then people using metamod would see it and OMG all hell would break loose. So CA's SPI towards me on Mod Social got to stay and truth be known, Ceej wasn't very active on the mod boards as many people might have expected so nothing much was done about it. I think the straw that finally broke the camel's back was when he posted some troll/flame towards a Gamespot Admin on the GS Mod/GF Mod board. After he got booted he knew the mods were not allowed to talk about the actions that got him booted so that gave him free reign to troll and cause problems on the board. Another by product of GameFAQs staff wanting to remain so mysterious.
Around that time is when things seemed to start changing for the worse in my opinion. By then the site had really grown to the point of Jeff selling the site to CNet, the need for more mods meant a larger group and the lack of any admin support resulted in chaos on the mod side of things. The level of consistency was ridiculous. I remember making topics on the mod boards that some of us worked on to try and get an idea on where people's heads were and it was amazing to see the complete mess it was. Some people would NKL one thing while some would warn for the same thing, a couple would suspend, and a couple would notify, and then about 50 mods would never even bother to read or participate on the mod boards. It was a mess. And I have no doubt that it still is but not as bad as I suspect that SBAllen contributes a lot more support than Ceej did.
I don't post much anymore on GameFAQs. I still visit every now and then and it is either to get help on a game I am playing, check reviews of a game I might want to get, or check out my private board, KGB. I no longer bother with the side of GameFAQs that I used to. The moderation/MBH side. Having gone on to other forums I can honestly say I have never ran into the oddness that is GameFAQs and it's users preoccupation of mods, moderations, and the rules. I have also not run into a site that allows it's users to contest deleted posts even once whereas you can contest a deleted post 3 times at GameFAQs. It amazes me how much hand holding goes on at that site. I was a cranky person when I was a mod. Not because I am cranky by nature, but because of all the ridiculous crap I had to endure. Moderate this, answer this stupid question, get flamed, get nasty emails, go into the contest queue and read how this one guy thinks that saying he wants to rape his cat and then cut it's head off should not have been deleted because this is America and the Constitution gives him the right too post that without penalty. Deal with that everyday and you can get an idea of why most mods who post a lot are complete fucking assholes. I was. But then I grew up a bit and realized how utterly lame and foolish I looked. Some people need to step back and look through their posting history to see they too might need to do the same thing.
Being a GameFAQs mod was fun at times, boring and annoying the rest of the time. The first 2 years were great. We were doing something, but after that it became this odd little society where people were backstabbing each other and trying to gain more power and control.
The rules are just odd as well. Some make perfect sense and back in the day they seemed to fit but as the world and internet changes I think some of the rules make GameFAQs...bad? How many sites out there use the ignore function? Many do, all of the sites I go to have it. Well GameFAQs got it not too long ago and since the site likes to try and control so may aspects of a users posts, you can get modded for telling someone you are going to ignore them. That is the perfect example of how uttely ridiculous that site's rules are. Fine, nude pics, swearing, graphic sex discussions, and hardcore insults are deleted, but modding people because they want to tell a troll they are ignoring him because that will annoy the user and he may respond in a flame? Give me a break, it is like elementary school, not a video game site on the internet. Does this mean the mods are at fault? Not all of them. Talking to some I know they disagree with that rule and many others, but they are instructed to moderate these posts so they are just doing what they should do.
The site does not allow you to post a hyperlink. Why? Because someone might post porn. ????
The site does not have a Private Message system. Why? Because the mods would have a hard time monitoring what is being sent through the PM system. ???
The site does not allow people to edit their posts? Why? Because people will post a flame, or a link to ROMs/Porn, etc and then quickly edit it to not get in trouble. ???
So the basic theme is that they think all their users are a bunch of retarded monkey children who will do anything they can to break a rule so may as well live in the old ages of internet forums. I understand no avatars and pics for speed and simplicity but the examples I posted show what the staff is all about.
Quotas were a sore subject on the mod boards. Basically Jeff always said that he would not set a quota since it was a volunteer position. That makes perfect sense. There were weeks were I would touch 200 marked posts/contests, and then there were weeks where I would mod thousands of posts and handle many contests. Whatever I had time for. Some mods would do thousands in a day. Those mods begged for quotas because some felt that it was not fair they would do so much and others would do so little. People wanted Ceej to set up a quota and boot anyone who didn't meet it or had not done anything at all in years, which sadly there were many people with mod titles that did nothing at all. They posted everyday but had not handles even 50 marked posts in over 2 years. Is it a big deal. I didn't think so for the reasons many said. I think you boot them because why not, they don't do anything. The reasons other people wanted them booted was because they might be leaking the big ol' secrets. The moderations staff love their secrets. Oooh, let's not let them know MMA still exists. Let's not let them know that there is another queue full of marks that during my time were left untouched for weeks and months until someone group decided to tackle them. If anyone is reading this, there was a day a couple years ago where MBH and the site when crazy when people started getting modded like crazy for old stuff. That was the time some mods decided to spend a weekend going through the queue filled with marks that had low MMA and the mods just let the ranting and raving go one without just simply telling people the truth. For some reason telling people that marks from low MMA users go into a different queue because 80% of them are bad marks and take time away from handling the marks where 80% of them are good marks is going to do something bad. As a smart person it makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the fact that we had to hide it. Stuff like that just made me start to think how utterly ridiculous things have gotten. OMG, don't tell the peeon users that we get stars based on how many messages we handle a day. That might cause some sort of rift in the time space continuum. The reason people get mad and frustrated is that keeping such ridiculous secrets does make it look as if the mods are vastly superior to the regs. Like the regs are too stupid to handle it. Excuse me while I take this time to make some phone calls to make sure my wife and family are still safe.
When I left the mod staff last year things were ugly. Quotas were imposed somewhat, some people thought it was wrong to set them on volunteers, others could care less, and others thought that the quotas were too lenient. Mods were urged to spend free time in the queues and not posting socially. Fights ensued and me being a blunt person never hid behind my feelings of what was going on. I rubbed a certain group the wrong way during the quota discussions and some consistency type topics but big deal. I still have emails from mods thanking me for saying what some were not in a position to say. Most mods just hide in the corner and just do a good job and doing their best to get rid of the crap that actually does get posted on that site, while others act as if it was their actual career. One mod told me that we owed it to CJayC to be on the site every time we had nothing to do and dig through the queue. I disagree. Help out when you can and when you want too. If you want to go hang out on Current Events and shoot the shit about some new movie or what someone did over the weekend, go ahead.
Overall it was a great experience and I had fun for the most part. When it stopped being fun and became more serious than the job I do for money is when I realized how it wasn't for me. If some want to sit there and moderate 2000+ posts a day then more power to them, it was no longer for me. I am sure this post will ruffle some feathers and create some controversy if it ever gets to GameFAQs but I don't care. My blog, my experience, my right to post about it. I never signed anything that said I could not talk about it. But maybe they make them do that now. It would not surprise me. At least I left out a lot of juicy secrets that should remain secrets. Or maybe that is just me creating more conspiracy theories for the pure hilarity of it.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Back in the Game
Well things worked out and I won a little contest on FCP that got me $50 put on my Full Tilt account. That was good because I was missing poker a lot.
I had money on Stars but it was the money I was holding for the Sickie Threads Fantasy Football pool. Pat said he would be forwarding my money last Monday so I was home sick and decided to jump in a $4.40. It went well...
That helps. That night Pat put $50 over at Full Tilt and I let it sit there and I played a bit at Stars with the $216 I won. I played a couple more $4.40's and finished near the bubble. I was feeling good, playing smart, confident, etc.
So this weekend I decided to jump back on Tilt and see if I can build that up.Played in a $3.30 Knockout. Some 800+ players, knocked out 3 to get $1.50 back and then finished somewhere in the money for another $6 or something pathetic. Then I played a couple low limit SNG's and won some more money. Played a Sat into the Midnight Madness. Finished 76th for $32. Not bad. Was doing really well for awhile. 1600+ started but I really wanted to get deeper.
Sunday I played a few $750 and Sunday Million Sats with no success. That is fine since a fellow FCPer took down the Sunday Million last night. I jumped in a $5.50 MTT with 450 players and sadly again finished 44th for like $8.xx. just can't seem to finish these things.
Jumped into 2 $2.25 180 person SNG's. Finished one in 50th and won the other for $97.50. So that brough up my FT account to $166. So in one week I turned the $50 into close to $400. So that means I get to play some more.
Tonight I played a $7 Sat. Won that for a seat in FT's $55 $50K Guaranteed. That didn't go well. Got it all in early with a very aggressive Bruce Buffer (Ringmaster of the UFC) with AK vs his 66. Tough spot. I raised in EP to 90 (4xbb) and I got two MP callers and he repopped on the Button for 680. He had been doing this and either folding to more aggression or taking the pot down there with no showdown. So I reraised all in, the others folded and that was that. He is a "pro" so if i beat him I would get the buy-in back and have a decent stack early. Figured it was the right play. Left with about 355 after that. Doubled up with KK two hands later. Then doubled again later with 66 and then lost it again with AK<66.
Jumped into a Midnight Madness Sat and took that down and jumped into another $2.25 180. MM was a mess and I finished 17th in the 180 for some little stupid amount.
I am getting deep and playing pretty well I think. Some missteps here and there but nothing I can't work on. Good to have a roll again as I love this game.
I had money on Stars but it was the money I was holding for the Sickie Threads Fantasy Football pool. Pat said he would be forwarding my money last Monday so I was home sick and decided to jump in a $4.40. It went well...
That helps. That night Pat put $50 over at Full Tilt and I let it sit there and I played a bit at Stars with the $216 I won. I played a couple more $4.40's and finished near the bubble. I was feeling good, playing smart, confident, etc.
So this weekend I decided to jump back on Tilt and see if I can build that up.Played in a $3.30 Knockout. Some 800+ players, knocked out 3 to get $1.50 back and then finished somewhere in the money for another $6 or something pathetic. Then I played a couple low limit SNG's and won some more money. Played a Sat into the Midnight Madness. Finished 76th for $32. Not bad. Was doing really well for awhile. 1600+ started but I really wanted to get deeper.
Sunday I played a few $750 and Sunday Million Sats with no success. That is fine since a fellow FCPer took down the Sunday Million last night. I jumped in a $5.50 MTT with 450 players and sadly again finished 44th for like $8.xx. just can't seem to finish these things.
Jumped into 2 $2.25 180 person SNG's. Finished one in 50th and won the other for $97.50. So that brough up my FT account to $166. So in one week I turned the $50 into close to $400. So that means I get to play some more.
Tonight I played a $7 Sat. Won that for a seat in FT's $55 $50K Guaranteed. That didn't go well. Got it all in early with a very aggressive Bruce Buffer (Ringmaster of the UFC) with AK vs his 66. Tough spot. I raised in EP to 90 (4xbb) and I got two MP callers and he repopped on the Button for 680. He had been doing this and either folding to more aggression or taking the pot down there with no showdown. So I reraised all in, the others folded and that was that. He is a "pro" so if i beat him I would get the buy-in back and have a decent stack early. Figured it was the right play. Left with about 355 after that. Doubled up with KK two hands later. Then doubled again later with 66 and then lost it again with AK<66.
Jumped into a Midnight Madness Sat and took that down and jumped into another $2.25 180. MM was a mess and I finished 17th in the 180 for some little stupid amount.
I am getting deep and playing pretty well I think. Some missteps here and there but nothing I can't work on. Good to have a roll again as I love this game.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Busto!
Yup. It happened. Busto. Terrible but oh well. I just don't get it. Was running great. Making strides in my game, winning by playing good more than getting lucky and then boom, the hammer fell and it has just been a sick long ride to $0. Yesterday was pretty much the end of it. KK lost to 45 when I got all in on the flop of 24Q. A on turn, 3 on river. All in preflop near the money of an MTT with 66 all in preflop against 98o. Board was QJQ4J. Last week I lost 4 times with KK and the best hand I was up against was JTo. Yeah, bad beats, blah blah, we all deal with them. Yes we do, trouble is that is all I have experienced the last month and a half is bad beat after bad beat.
I realized when it started sometime last week. I was at my monthly home game and it struck me...I was in the BB short on chips. SB was aggressive and playing at me all game long with his nice large stack. It folds to him and he raises 3xBB. I look down and see 66. I call. Flop comes 556. He immediately pushes all in. He flips over 77 and I flip over 66. Turn, 7. GG me. 2 outs and he hits and knocks me out. Since then I have gone busto.
Oh well. I will be back. Still an overall winner the last 4 years but I need a nice long break. Guess I go back to playing WoW and my new Xbox360. I still have a $26 token sitting on Full Tilt. Have not decided what to use it for yet but I will use it soon.
I realized when it started sometime last week. I was at my monthly home game and it struck me...I was in the BB short on chips. SB was aggressive and playing at me all game long with his nice large stack. It folds to him and he raises 3xBB. I look down and see 66. I call. Flop comes 556. He immediately pushes all in. He flips over 77 and I flip over 66. Turn, 7. GG me. 2 outs and he hits and knocks me out. Since then I have gone busto.
Oh well. I will be back. Still an overall winner the last 4 years but I need a nice long break. Guess I go back to playing WoW and my new Xbox360. I still have a $26 token sitting on Full Tilt. Have not decided what to use it for yet but I will use it soon.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Bubble Boy
I swear to go I am tired of finishing on the bubble or short of the bug prize. Played 2 $5.50 MTT's at Full Tilt. 29th and 57th. 27th and 54th paid. The first one was the killer though. I was top 9 stack for over 2 hours. Playing great, picking my spots well, etc. Then I get half my stack all in against another who has TT to my JJ. He spikes his ten. I then get AT suited and lost half my stack to A8o who hits his flush. 2 hands I go from top 9 with 30 left to 28th. And soon after I was out. Sometimes it is just better to bust on the first hand.
Then yesterday I played a $3.50 Triple Shootout for the Sunday Million. Top 2 get a seat. Crush the first two tables and as expected finish 3rd. Sure it was for $70 but I want the $215T! Gah!
So Saturday was the final month of the Grand Prix at my monthly home game. I have explained this before but quickly, we play 2 games 1 Saturday out of a month for 6 months. We gets points based on our finish. Buy in is $25. $22.50 goes into that tourney and then $2.50 from each player goes to the Grand Prix. We have anywhere from 7 to 16 players that play. Going into Saturday night I had about a 3 point lead.
The first game had 12 players. Lots of points to be had. We have a guy that comes that plays the big games like the Belaggio Cup and such. He finshed well last year and got a big head over it. We were on two tables and he was on mine and he was just killing our table which is opposite of how he usually runs at this game. I got into a big hand with him with JJ on a T high board and he played it well just letting me do all the betting then showing me his KK at the end to take 60% of my stack. I was pissed. I was on tilt. Next hand I get Qs9s. I limp and see the flop which comes 942 one spade. John bets, Danny (who is 2nd in points) thinks and makes the call and I push for 420. All fold to Danny who quickly calls and flips over 22 for a set of ducks. I hit runner runner spades to win the hand. I would have been out 12th at that point. Not good for the points!
I tighten up and slowly build my stack. With 5 left I look down at AA. I raise it 3xBB and get 3 callers. Flop comes 672. Gary leads out for about half the pot leaving him with just about 400 behind. It folds to me and I take some time and then push all in. He goes into the tank for awhile and eventually says there is only two hands he thinks can beat me as he believes I don't have a set. So that means obviously, he has QQ. He finally gives in and calls I show the AA and they hold. Eventually I get heads up with Ray who has the monster stack and lose with 75s vs AK. I finish 2nd for 7 points and $81.
So the start of game 2 has only 7 players. For Danny to win he needs to win this game and I need to end up last. Well without going into much boring detail, I finish last and Danny wins. I end up losing the Grand Prix by .39 points. .39!!!! Ugh.
I hate this game.
Then yesterday I played a $3.50 Triple Shootout for the Sunday Million. Top 2 get a seat. Crush the first two tables and as expected finish 3rd. Sure it was for $70 but I want the $215T! Gah!
So Saturday was the final month of the Grand Prix at my monthly home game. I have explained this before but quickly, we play 2 games 1 Saturday out of a month for 6 months. We gets points based on our finish. Buy in is $25. $22.50 goes into that tourney and then $2.50 from each player goes to the Grand Prix. We have anywhere from 7 to 16 players that play. Going into Saturday night I had about a 3 point lead.
The first game had 12 players. Lots of points to be had. We have a guy that comes that plays the big games like the Belaggio Cup and such. He finshed well last year and got a big head over it. We were on two tables and he was on mine and he was just killing our table which is opposite of how he usually runs at this game. I got into a big hand with him with JJ on a T high board and he played it well just letting me do all the betting then showing me his KK at the end to take 60% of my stack. I was pissed. I was on tilt. Next hand I get Qs9s. I limp and see the flop which comes 942 one spade. John bets, Danny (who is 2nd in points) thinks and makes the call and I push for 420. All fold to Danny who quickly calls and flips over 22 for a set of ducks. I hit runner runner spades to win the hand. I would have been out 12th at that point. Not good for the points!
I tighten up and slowly build my stack. With 5 left I look down at AA. I raise it 3xBB and get 3 callers. Flop comes 672. Gary leads out for about half the pot leaving him with just about 400 behind. It folds to me and I take some time and then push all in. He goes into the tank for awhile and eventually says there is only two hands he thinks can beat me as he believes I don't have a set. So that means obviously, he has QQ. He finally gives in and calls I show the AA and they hold. Eventually I get heads up with Ray who has the monster stack and lose with 75s vs AK. I finish 2nd for 7 points and $81.
So the start of game 2 has only 7 players. For Danny to win he needs to win this game and I need to end up last. Well without going into much boring detail, I finish last and Danny wins. I end up losing the Grand Prix by .39 points. .39!!!! Ugh.
I hate this game.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Just more Poker ramblings
So let's see. What poker adventures have I gone on since last posting?
$4.40 and came in 6th. I wished I finished higher but I was card dead once I hit the final table.
Full Tilt just started some 180 mans and I tried one out at the $2.25 level. Little tighter than Stars' $4.40's but they get the job done. I finished 11th for something weak. Need to make the Final Table to make any real money.
Played a $6.60 Super Sat to FTOPS $1,000,000 Tourney. Was doing well early on. Doubled up on the very first hand and was good to go and was down to 3 out of the starting 20 or so. The chipleader was pretty aggressive and I got QQ on the button, decided to limp hoping one or the other would push or raise. SB folded and on cue the BB raised and I repopped him for my remaining chips. If I win we would be close and the SB was really short. He showed A5o and hit his wheel straight on the river. So I won something like $14.xx. Bah!
Played a $1.25 90 person Deepstack SNG. Finished 10th i beleive for a whopping $1.80 or something. lawl
Played in a $5.50 MTT. 534 players and I finished 143rd I think? Somewhere around there. Was doing good and just played on hand stupid and that killed me.
Played a $3R to the Sunday Million. Finished 9th. Top 8 got a seat. *sigh*
Played a $2.25 18 person tourney. Was sitting 2nd out of 12 when I got it all in after an A high flop with AK vs AQ. Q hit on the river. Then I got it all in preflop 10 hands later with AK vs AQ who hit runner runner runner for the flush. Yup.
Big home game this weekend. Last month of the Grand Prix and I am holding onto a slim lead. I will let you know the results when I can.
$4.40 and came in 6th. I wished I finished higher but I was card dead once I hit the final table.
Full Tilt just started some 180 mans and I tried one out at the $2.25 level. Little tighter than Stars' $4.40's but they get the job done. I finished 11th for something weak. Need to make the Final Table to make any real money.
Played a $6.60 Super Sat to FTOPS $1,000,000 Tourney. Was doing well early on. Doubled up on the very first hand and was good to go and was down to 3 out of the starting 20 or so. The chipleader was pretty aggressive and I got QQ on the button, decided to limp hoping one or the other would push or raise. SB folded and on cue the BB raised and I repopped him for my remaining chips. If I win we would be close and the SB was really short. He showed A5o and hit his wheel straight on the river. So I won something like $14.xx. Bah!
Played a $1.25 90 person Deepstack SNG. Finished 10th i beleive for a whopping $1.80 or something. lawl
Played in a $5.50 MTT. 534 players and I finished 143rd I think? Somewhere around there. Was doing good and just played on hand stupid and that killed me.
Played a $3R to the Sunday Million. Finished 9th. Top 8 got a seat. *sigh*
Played a $2.25 18 person tourney. Was sitting 2nd out of 12 when I got it all in after an A high flop with AK vs AQ. Q hit on the river. Then I got it all in preflop 10 hands later with AK vs AQ who hit runner runner runner for the flush. Yup.
Big home game this weekend. Last month of the Grand Prix and I am holding onto a slim lead. I will let you know the results when I can.
Monday, July 30, 2007
My sad weekend of poker
Right off the bat I will say that I played pretty well this weekend. Sadly though I got nothing much out of it.
Friday night I played a $5.50 90 man deepstack SNG on Tilt and played well and finished 19th. 18 get paid. JJ < QQ.
I played a whopping 281 hands in one session of .01/.02 NLHE while nursing a huge headache on Saturday evening. I started with the usual $3 and got it up to $5.65 then all the way down to .56 and then finished off at $3. So no lose no win, just even. Oh well.
Yesterday I felt adventurous and jumped into a $500K sat on Full Tilt where the winner wins a seat to the $50+5 qualifier that was giving away some 200+ seats. I of course did what I do in every sat I play well in, finish 2nd.
Then I jumped into a $24+2 $17.5K Deepstack. Got nowhere fast and finished somewhere around 62x out of 1199. That was just bad cards IMO.
Then I was upset and jumped into a $4.40 where I promptly got knocked out 15xish when my flopped set of J's got runner runnered by a dude chasing a Q high backdoor flush draw. *sigh*
Finally I jumped into the FT $5.50 at 8pm and played wonderfully till it got close to the money. I raised with 99 and had the SB push all in on me. If I fold I was going to lose 60% of my stack in the next two blind rounds so I called. He had KK and I was done even though I flopped an OESD. Oh well. 67th out of 576, top 54 get paid. I played well I think so I am fine with it but it just sucks being on the bubble so much this weekend.
Taking a few days off I think and then get back in it. Maybe.
Friday night I played a $5.50 90 man deepstack SNG on Tilt and played well and finished 19th. 18 get paid. JJ < QQ.
I played a whopping 281 hands in one session of .01/.02 NLHE while nursing a huge headache on Saturday evening. I started with the usual $3 and got it up to $5.65 then all the way down to .56 and then finished off at $3. So no lose no win, just even. Oh well.
Yesterday I felt adventurous and jumped into a $500K sat on Full Tilt where the winner wins a seat to the $50+5 qualifier that was giving away some 200+ seats. I of course did what I do in every sat I play well in, finish 2nd.
Then I jumped into a $24+2 $17.5K Deepstack. Got nowhere fast and finished somewhere around 62x out of 1199. That was just bad cards IMO.
Then I was upset and jumped into a $4.40 where I promptly got knocked out 15xish when my flopped set of J's got runner runnered by a dude chasing a Q high backdoor flush draw. *sigh*
Finally I jumped into the FT $5.50 at 8pm and played wonderfully till it got close to the money. I raised with 99 and had the SB push all in on me. If I fold I was going to lose 60% of my stack in the next two blind rounds so I called. He had KK and I was done even though I flopped an OESD. Oh well. 67th out of 576, top 54 get paid. I played well I think so I am fine with it but it just sucks being on the bubble so much this weekend.
Taking a few days off I think and then get back in it. Maybe.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Poker Poker Poker!
Really that is all that I have to talk about these days as it has been pretty much sleep, little World of Warcraft, sleep, headaches, sleep, GTA, and poker. The most exciting bit of news I guess would be the fact that I one a tourney. Not anything monumental, just a small one. It was the Full Tilt $3.30 HOSE tourney. What is HOSE some of you may ask? Well it's a mixed game tourney, after each 10 minute blind level you change games. In HOSE you play:
Limit hold em = H
Omaha Hi/Lo = O
7 Stud = S
7 Stud Eights or Better (Hi/Lo) = E
Now I thought I was in a HORSE tourney where Razz is played after the O and before the S! I was quite surprised when that didn't happen as I can honestly say Razz and hold em are my two strong games. But 3 hours later I finished the winner out of 68 person field. I started heads up with 22K in chips and my opponent had 80K and I quickly widdled him down to 0. It was quite impressive I believe. I don't really remember. He was easy to push around actually.
It was good to get this win. Add it to a final table earlier in a MTT and I seem to be on a good run. Let's hope it holds for a bit.
Haven't played much of the .01/.02 NLHE. There is only one new session of 85 hands and only a .18 profit so I am up $7.18. Blah!
I think I am going to play a couple semi-big tourney's this weekend and will post my outcomes. Wish me luck!
Limit hold em = H
Omaha Hi/Lo = O
7 Stud = S
7 Stud Eights or Better (Hi/Lo) = E
Now I thought I was in a HORSE tourney where Razz is played after the O and before the S! I was quite surprised when that didn't happen as I can honestly say Razz and hold em are my two strong games. But 3 hours later I finished the winner out of 68 person field. I started heads up with 22K in chips and my opponent had 80K and I quickly widdled him down to 0. It was quite impressive I believe. I don't really remember. He was easy to push around actually.
It was good to get this win. Add it to a final table earlier in a MTT and I seem to be on a good run. Let's hope it holds for a bit.
Haven't played much of the .01/.02 NLHE. There is only one new session of 85 hands and only a .18 profit so I am up $7.18. Blah!
I think I am going to play a couple semi-big tourney's this weekend and will post my outcomes. Wish me luck!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Weekend of Poker
Got a little poker in. In regards to the .01/.02 Challenge, I only played one session. 147 hands and lost the $3 buy in. So I am up $7.
At FCP TB17 started a fun thing to do to go along with Star's in $11 100K Tourney on Sunday. He got 10 people to become captains of a team and pay $50. They would hold a draft, send out stakes, and then the team with the most money won at the end of the tourney wins $400 and 2nd gets $100. Ten captains quickly signed up and they held the draft Thursday evening.
I was drafted 29th by Zsta's Flying Assholes. I decided to keep the stake instead of buying myself in and seeing if I could do better on someone else's dime. 17500 people start this tourney, 2625 is when the payouts begin. I had finished about 10K the first two weeks of this tourney.
Started off slow. Played tight. 10 minute levels are fast but you start with 3000 in chips so I think I have time to find good spots. I finally got dealt a decent hand, 99 UTG. I decided to limp as someone in MP just got donked and I want him to make a move. A few callers and my guy on tilt wasn't and folded. The SB raised it 3x the BB and three of us went to the flop. Flop came A9K two diamonds. SB bet 300 and I raised to 900 and the other guy folded. SB pushed. Please don't have AA or KK. Whew. HE had AQ, no diamonds. Shortly after I raised with KQ suited and a low stack pushed, one called and I called. Flop came KJx. I bet, the other guy called. Blank on the turn and I put him all in and he called with J7. The other guy had J9 and I knocked them both out and was sitting nicely with about 10K in chips. Then the cards went cold. I got through the second break, already into the payouts when I was UTG with KQs and an M of about 2. I pushed and got one called by one player who had KTo. Of course as the you would expect it was all good till the river when he spiked his T and I was out in 2150th.
By that point there was only 2 of my team left. Seacucumber dropped out around 1850th and it was left up to Donkmeister.
Well the wife jumped on the computer and I did something else and I came back an hour or so later to find Donk looking good. About 300 left and he was in the top 50. Make a long story short, we are down to 18 players. Donk is still playing and tobeytobey who plays for Naismith's Unmentionables is left. Donk has to finish one payout higher if we want to win. A deal is made between both captains to chop the payout. Each team gets $200 and $100 is left for the winning team instead of $400 for 1st and $100 for second. Soon after, tobey exits in 18th. Donk needs a final table to win it for his team and he does so in impressive fashion. He ends us sadly though finishing 7th after his QQ runs into AA. Still a great achievement to finish 7th out of 17,500. He as kind enough to send $250 of his winnings to our captain to be split amongst us. Class act. Sadly we redraft this week. :(
At FCP TB17 started a fun thing to do to go along with Star's in $11 100K Tourney on Sunday. He got 10 people to become captains of a team and pay $50. They would hold a draft, send out stakes, and then the team with the most money won at the end of the tourney wins $400 and 2nd gets $100. Ten captains quickly signed up and they held the draft Thursday evening.
I was drafted 29th by Zsta's Flying Assholes. I decided to keep the stake instead of buying myself in and seeing if I could do better on someone else's dime. 17500 people start this tourney, 2625 is when the payouts begin. I had finished about 10K the first two weeks of this tourney.
Started off slow. Played tight. 10 minute levels are fast but you start with 3000 in chips so I think I have time to find good spots. I finally got dealt a decent hand, 99 UTG. I decided to limp as someone in MP just got donked and I want him to make a move. A few callers and my guy on tilt wasn't and folded. The SB raised it 3x the BB and three of us went to the flop. Flop came A9K two diamonds. SB bet 300 and I raised to 900 and the other guy folded. SB pushed. Please don't have AA or KK. Whew. HE had AQ, no diamonds. Shortly after I raised with KQ suited and a low stack pushed, one called and I called. Flop came KJx. I bet, the other guy called. Blank on the turn and I put him all in and he called with J7. The other guy had J9 and I knocked them both out and was sitting nicely with about 10K in chips. Then the cards went cold. I got through the second break, already into the payouts when I was UTG with KQs and an M of about 2. I pushed and got one called by one player who had KTo. Of course as the you would expect it was all good till the river when he spiked his T and I was out in 2150th.
By that point there was only 2 of my team left. Seacucumber dropped out around 1850th and it was left up to Donkmeister.
Well the wife jumped on the computer and I did something else and I came back an hour or so later to find Donk looking good. About 300 left and he was in the top 50. Make a long story short, we are down to 18 players. Donk is still playing and tobeytobey who plays for Naismith's Unmentionables is left. Donk has to finish one payout higher if we want to win. A deal is made between both captains to chop the payout. Each team gets $200 and $100 is left for the winning team instead of $400 for 1st and $100 for second. Soon after, tobey exits in 18th. Donk needs a final table to win it for his team and he does so in impressive fashion. He ends us sadly though finishing 7th after his QQ runs into AA. Still a great achievement to finish 7th out of 17,500. He as kind enough to send $250 of his winnings to our captain to be split amongst us. Class act. Sadly we redraft this week. :(
Friday, July 20, 2007
$2.67 to $?????
I like poker still, just don't play it as much or study it as much as I did. Actually I have been much more successful since not thinking and reading it all day at FCP and TK. So I have some money in my Stars account and decided to take $2.67 ( I think I did that because it made my BR an even number lol) of it and sit at a $.01/$.02 NLHE table and start playing to see how much I could run it up to. I have tried this before but got bored and played that Smash style and it got boring. This might too but we will see what happens. I started on the 18th and I am keeping a spreadsheet of the action. Here are my current stats:
7/18 103 hands +3.58
7/19 239 hands +5.26
7/19 115 hands +0.84
7/20 114 hands +0.32
571 hands +$10.00
So from this point on I will update and discuss anything interesting as I play.
7/18 103 hands +3.58
7/19 239 hands +5.26
7/19 115 hands +0.84
7/20 114 hands +0.32
571 hands +$10.00
So from this point on I will update and discuss anything interesting as I play.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Praying for Money
That is what the new WSOP Main Event Champion did early this morning. Everytime Jerry Yang had to make a big decision at the table, he would pray. He would pray to the Lord that certain cards show up and that he wins. He would pray for $8.25 million.
Isn't that a bit selfish? Okay, so he is going to donate $825,000 to three charities. Ok. So that makes it ok? I don't see it. What about the other 6,000+ players. Don't some of them need the money? Did God decide he hated everyone else and only like Jerry and gave him the bracelet and the cash?
Well from things I have read around the web it seems like a hot topic. Some are saying the guy is a tool for doing it. I agree. It's no different than a super bowl champion saying god was on their side that day. Does God really hate the Bears and loves the Colts? You would think if he really liked a team enough to help them win the Super Bowl we would see that one team win year after year. If the devil liked another team than maybe the Super Bowl would always just be the same two teams each year.
Others say we have it all wrong. Supposedly he was saying..."God let me win and I will glorify you." Oh, so I can just tell the big man I will glorify him if he puts an Audi RS4 in my driveway and in the trunk $3,000,000. I will get a "I love GOD" license plate holder and a GOD money clip! Sweet. If this is all you had to do I would have done it long ago.
I don't mind praying. I don't do much of it, but I do think seeing grown men pray to god asking for such things to be quite telling. I am not a Christian, I am not a religious man, I believe in God, but maybe I missed the part in my church days where God will heed the prayers of selfish individuals if they promise to glorify him. I will see if it works. You will be able to tell if all of sudden the entire Bush administration disappears and I am driving a brand new Black Audi RS4.
Isn't that a bit selfish? Okay, so he is going to donate $825,000 to three charities. Ok. So that makes it ok? I don't see it. What about the other 6,000+ players. Don't some of them need the money? Did God decide he hated everyone else and only like Jerry and gave him the bracelet and the cash?
Well from things I have read around the web it seems like a hot topic. Some are saying the guy is a tool for doing it. I agree. It's no different than a super bowl champion saying god was on their side that day. Does God really hate the Bears and loves the Colts? You would think if he really liked a team enough to help them win the Super Bowl we would see that one team win year after year. If the devil liked another team than maybe the Super Bowl would always just be the same two teams each year.
Others say we have it all wrong. Supposedly he was saying..."God let me win and I will glorify you." Oh, so I can just tell the big man I will glorify him if he puts an Audi RS4 in my driveway and in the trunk $3,000,000. I will get a "I love GOD" license plate holder and a GOD money clip! Sweet. If this is all you had to do I would have done it long ago.
I don't mind praying. I don't do much of it, but I do think seeing grown men pray to god asking for such things to be quite telling. I am not a Christian, I am not a religious man, I believe in God, but maybe I missed the part in my church days where God will heed the prayers of selfish individuals if they promise to glorify him. I will see if it works. You will be able to tell if all of sudden the entire Bush administration disappears and I am driving a brand new Black Audi RS4.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
National Don't Use Mirrors Day
I don't know if you knew this or not but it seems today is the day where people, especially rednecks driving big 18 wheelers.
The wife and I were driving back from the rental car place and this large North American Van Lines Van simultaneously puts on his blinker and turns onto our lane and we were beside him.
I was driving to work this morning and a car changed lanes on me and I had to go into the center turn lane to keep my car in good condition and then late on another big rig decided to turn on his turn signal and enter the lane at the exact same time. At least this time he saw me and swerved back before he hit me because I had nowhere to go. One guy on my ass, another guy beside me. Would have been a fun ride I suspect.
So all you readers, head on out on the highway and do whatever you want. It's a free-for-all out there!
The wife and I were driving back from the rental car place and this large North American Van Lines Van simultaneously puts on his blinker and turns onto our lane and we were beside him.
I was driving to work this morning and a car changed lanes on me and I had to go into the center turn lane to keep my car in good condition and then late on another big rig decided to turn on his turn signal and enter the lane at the exact same time. At least this time he saw me and swerved back before he hit me because I had nowhere to go. One guy on my ass, another guy beside me. Would have been a fun ride I suspect.
So all you readers, head on out on the highway and do whatever you want. It's a free-for-all out there!
Friday, May 04, 2007
You know what I find completely lame?
People who claim to be drunk when they are posting in a message board. They do all the cute things like leave out letters and transpose letters and such to give the full effect...but it's just plain BS. If you are one of these people, stop it. You are lame.
Hahahahahahaha...hahahahahahaha!
Don't go ganking people in WoW
WoW player harrasses woman in-game, gets beat up by woman's husband IRL
Bronco Carson, a World of Warcraft player from Mexico, reported to police on Saturday that three men broke into his home and beat his arms with clubs and totalled his computer. The reason? Carson had been repeatedly ganking the WoW character of the wife of one of his assailants.
Carson reportedly told police that he had been "making it hard for her to get far in the game." The woman had already threatened Carson online, and Carson said that he had already been constantly harassed in-game two weeks prior to the attack.
And then Carson made the mistake of giving the woman his address, telling the woman that "if her husband was man enough to just come meet me to settle this."
The result? Carson got two broken fingers and a fractured wrist during the assault. His computer and entertainment center were also totalled by his three attackers before they left. "I knew that I might be messed with in the game but I didn't really expect her husband to come looking for me," said Carson. "I couldn't have been more wrong."
Now let this be a lesson to everybody. Taunting people behind the relative safety of the Internet may be fun, but don't be stupid enough to give out your real home address. If you do, then it's a whole new ballgame.
WoW player harrasses woman in-game, gets beat up by woman's husband IRL
Bronco Carson, a World of Warcraft player from Mexico, reported to police on Saturday that three men broke into his home and beat his arms with clubs and totalled his computer. The reason? Carson had been repeatedly ganking the WoW character of the wife of one of his assailants.
Carson reportedly told police that he had been "making it hard for her to get far in the game." The woman had already threatened Carson online, and Carson said that he had already been constantly harassed in-game two weeks prior to the attack.
And then Carson made the mistake of giving the woman his address, telling the woman that "if her husband was man enough to just come meet me to settle this."
The result? Carson got two broken fingers and a fractured wrist during the assault. His computer and entertainment center were also totalled by his three attackers before they left. "I knew that I might be messed with in the game but I didn't really expect her husband to come looking for me," said Carson. "I couldn't have been more wrong."
Now let this be a lesson to everybody. Taunting people behind the relative safety of the Internet may be fun, but don't be stupid enough to give out your real home address. If you do, then it's a whole new ballgame.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Why is it that?
People who have large SUV's drive like complete idiots? Nothing more enjoyable than sitting in your lane doing 75mph while the big SUV driver behind you rides your ass and then starts changing lane after lane for over 1 mile almost killing himself and 4 people and you pass right by him and he ends up right behind you. They don't like it when you laugh at them.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Monday, April 02, 2007
Movie Review Monday
Every Monday from now on I will review movies I have seen in the last week. This week there are 4 movies to be discussed, Blades of Glory, Pursuit of Happyness, The Prestige, and The Illusionist.
The First movie is Blades of Glory with Will Ferrel. I am a big fan of Anchorman and Talladega nights so I was excited to see this movie. I needed a good laugh after a bad Friday. The movie just didn't hook me like the other two movies did. It had some really good laughs but they were few and far between. I agree with my wife that Will and Jon Heder just didn't have a good chemistry to make it work.
Will Arnett was excellent in the film. Amy Poehler was iffy. I just find her better suited for the lame skits on SNL rather than on the big screen. She is an excellent overacter that might pass on SNL but should not be allowed to do it when I have to pay $10 to see it.
Jenna Fischer was the best part of the movie for me. She is so cute. Her and Will were the main reasons I wanted to see this movie and it was well worth it to see the scene between her and Will. I won't spoil it but it was pretty funny.
All in all I would wait till DVD to see this or possibly even wait till it hits HBO or whatever. Cute, funny in spots, but no real cohesiveness to it.
The next film is Pursuit of Happyness
This got a lot of hype when it came out and obviously good enough to get some Oscar nominations. Maybe I was expecting more than what I got. I have to admit I didn't give this movie my full undivided attention. It again, just didn't hook me. Don't get me wrong though, it was an good movie. But many told me it was GREAT and AMAZING and it just fell short in my opinion. But that usually happens to me when movies are hyped up and I wait too long to see them and then I get disappointed.
Will Smith was excellent and his kid, Jaden Smith, was just as good. It's a story about a salesman who is having a hard time making ends meet. His wife leaves him and he takes his kid and starts and internship at Dean Witter. It's a pretty basic movie and doesn't thrown any surprises, just straight to the point. I would see it if you haven't yet, even if you don't think it is the best movie ever, you will still enjoy yourself.
Next on the list is The Prestige
This was a good movie. This was far superior to The Illusionist which I will bash soon enough. This movie was enjoyable from start to finish. The characters were well developed, the actors were good, the writing was great, and even though it through twist after twist at you, when it was over you felt satisfied.
I cannot find anything bad to say about this movie other than I think it was vastly underrated. It seems to me that people either like the Illusionist or this and rarely both. I have to agree 110% with the people that liked this movie over the Illusionist. It did everything right that the Illusionist failed at. So why not get into the Illusionist then...
This might contain spoilers and I will try and warn when it does.
This movie fails on so many levels. The movie crawled at a slow pace and barely kept my attention. It was so slow that it took me 4 or 5 tries to get through it without falling asleep. This movie had so much potential but for some reason it tried way too hard to pull off what it wanted to pull off that it missed the mark by a mile. Watching this and then thinking back on how they tried to set up the twist made me think about the movie The 6th Sense. The formula that M. Night used was attempted here but when it was all said and done it didn't work. When the final twist was presented the motivation of the character who figures it out was missing. It was just a, "okay, this has gone on way too long, we need to wrap this up so let's just show the whole twist and call it a day". And that is exactly how it comes across. There is no rhyme or reason on how Giamatti's character figures it all out when he does.
I like Edward Norton. But I don't like Edward Norton in this. Bad writing and bad directing clearly made this one of his worst performances. He was dull, unemotional, cold, and monotone throughout the movie that it made it painful to watch almost the entire movie.
This movie was a waste of my time and I will say with no reservations that if you haven't seen it yet, do not bother. You didn't miss anything. Unless you are sick and/or have insomnia, then go right ahead and watch it as it will help you sleep.
The First movie is Blades of Glory with Will Ferrel. I am a big fan of Anchorman and Talladega nights so I was excited to see this movie. I needed a good laugh after a bad Friday. The movie just didn't hook me like the other two movies did. It had some really good laughs but they were few and far between. I agree with my wife that Will and Jon Heder just didn't have a good chemistry to make it work.
Will Arnett was excellent in the film. Amy Poehler was iffy. I just find her better suited for the lame skits on SNL rather than on the big screen. She is an excellent overacter that might pass on SNL but should not be allowed to do it when I have to pay $10 to see it.
Jenna Fischer was the best part of the movie for me. She is so cute. Her and Will were the main reasons I wanted to see this movie and it was well worth it to see the scene between her and Will. I won't spoil it but it was pretty funny.
All in all I would wait till DVD to see this or possibly even wait till it hits HBO or whatever. Cute, funny in spots, but no real cohesiveness to it.
The next film is Pursuit of Happyness
This got a lot of hype when it came out and obviously good enough to get some Oscar nominations. Maybe I was expecting more than what I got. I have to admit I didn't give this movie my full undivided attention. It again, just didn't hook me. Don't get me wrong though, it was an good movie. But many told me it was GREAT and AMAZING and it just fell short in my opinion. But that usually happens to me when movies are hyped up and I wait too long to see them and then I get disappointed.
Will Smith was excellent and his kid, Jaden Smith, was just as good. It's a story about a salesman who is having a hard time making ends meet. His wife leaves him and he takes his kid and starts and internship at Dean Witter. It's a pretty basic movie and doesn't thrown any surprises, just straight to the point. I would see it if you haven't yet, even if you don't think it is the best movie ever, you will still enjoy yourself.
Next on the list is The Prestige
This was a good movie. This was far superior to The Illusionist which I will bash soon enough. This movie was enjoyable from start to finish. The characters were well developed, the actors were good, the writing was great, and even though it through twist after twist at you, when it was over you felt satisfied.
I cannot find anything bad to say about this movie other than I think it was vastly underrated. It seems to me that people either like the Illusionist or this and rarely both. I have to agree 110% with the people that liked this movie over the Illusionist. It did everything right that the Illusionist failed at. So why not get into the Illusionist then...
This might contain spoilers and I will try and warn when it does.
This movie fails on so many levels. The movie crawled at a slow pace and barely kept my attention. It was so slow that it took me 4 or 5 tries to get through it without falling asleep. This movie had so much potential but for some reason it tried way too hard to pull off what it wanted to pull off that it missed the mark by a mile. Watching this and then thinking back on how they tried to set up the twist made me think about the movie The 6th Sense. The formula that M. Night used was attempted here but when it was all said and done it didn't work. When the final twist was presented the motivation of the character who figures it out was missing. It was just a, "okay, this has gone on way too long, we need to wrap this up so let's just show the whole twist and call it a day". And that is exactly how it comes across. There is no rhyme or reason on how Giamatti's character figures it all out when he does.
I like Edward Norton. But I don't like Edward Norton in this. Bad writing and bad directing clearly made this one of his worst performances. He was dull, unemotional, cold, and monotone throughout the movie that it made it painful to watch almost the entire movie.
This movie was a waste of my time and I will say with no reservations that if you haven't seen it yet, do not bother. You didn't miss anything. Unless you are sick and/or have insomnia, then go right ahead and watch it as it will help you sleep.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
My Treck Across the Globe! (World of Warcraft Style)
So in light of the post about my addiction to WoW on my wife's site (see links bar) I decided to do a little story about what I did today in World of Warcraft.
I started off in the The Charred Vale in Ashevale. I was there working on a quest for Collin from Stormwind where he needed me to get 8 Crystalized Scales from Basilisks from this specific area. I got most of them the night before but I needed 2 more before I could head off on my long trek to Stormwind on the other side of the world. Finally after killing about 20 I got my final two scales and thus began our little story. The first leg was a quick teleport back to Darkshore by using my Hearthstone. Once in Darkshore I jumped on a boat to Menithil Harbor across the Sea.
Now we have set foot in Menithil Harbor, located in the Wetlands.
You will see a Red X on the above shot. That is where I decided to stop off and play with the tiny red dragons called Lost Welp. Here is a photo taken while we played with them. Cordy especially enjoyed them.
From there we headed to Dun Algaz. This is a mountian pass that will get us to our next area, Loch Modan, where we spend little time as we just hang a right to Dun Morogh.
Dun Morogh:
Cordy was very excited to see snow that I asked one of the Dwarves to take a picture of us.
From there we headed to the Dwarven Capital of Ironforge. From there we could take a tram to Stormwind and finsh this trip.
Us at the entrance of Ironforge:
Cordy was happy to get inside. She was excited about the snow but she got pretty cold and decided to warm herself up...aggressively.
From there we headed to the Deeprun Tram that will take us straight to the Human Capital of Stormwind where we an drop off the Scales to Collin and be done with this quest.
Tram:
Once we got to Stormwind we head off to the Mage Quarter to meet with Collin. Luckily I remembered he was there or we would have been searching for hours as Stormwind is HUGE!
We recieved a nice wand that I cannot use but should make some good money from selling it so off we went to explore. Cordy got excited when she saw her favorite shop in Stormwind, the Cheese Shoppe.
We grabbed her some cheese and then headed to the gates and on our way to new quests and adventures. Here is a shot of us leaving Stormwind.
I started off in the The Charred Vale in Ashevale. I was there working on a quest for Collin from Stormwind where he needed me to get 8 Crystalized Scales from Basilisks from this specific area. I got most of them the night before but I needed 2 more before I could head off on my long trek to Stormwind on the other side of the world. Finally after killing about 20 I got my final two scales and thus began our little story. The first leg was a quick teleport back to Darkshore by using my Hearthstone. Once in Darkshore I jumped on a boat to Menithil Harbor across the Sea.
Now we have set foot in Menithil Harbor, located in the Wetlands.
You will see a Red X on the above shot. That is where I decided to stop off and play with the tiny red dragons called Lost Welp. Here is a photo taken while we played with them. Cordy especially enjoyed them.
From there we headed to Dun Algaz. This is a mountian pass that will get us to our next area, Loch Modan, where we spend little time as we just hang a right to Dun Morogh.
Dun Morogh:
Cordy was very excited to see snow that I asked one of the Dwarves to take a picture of us.
From there we headed to the Dwarven Capital of Ironforge. From there we could take a tram to Stormwind and finsh this trip.
Us at the entrance of Ironforge:
Cordy was happy to get inside. She was excited about the snow but she got pretty cold and decided to warm herself up...aggressively.
From there we headed to the Deeprun Tram that will take us straight to the Human Capital of Stormwind where we an drop off the Scales to Collin and be done with this quest.
Tram:
Once we got to Stormwind we head off to the Mage Quarter to meet with Collin. Luckily I remembered he was there or we would have been searching for hours as Stormwind is HUGE!
We recieved a nice wand that I cannot use but should make some good money from selling it so off we went to explore. Cordy got excited when she saw her favorite shop in Stormwind, the Cheese Shoppe.
We grabbed her some cheese and then headed to the gates and on our way to new quests and adventures. Here is a shot of us leaving Stormwind.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
I Gotta Point This Out, It is Really Good Stuff
My wife has created a new blog, The Park Bencher. You can find the link right over there ---------------------------------------------------------------------->
Seriously, check it out. It is pretty funny and it has been getting some serious traffic in a very short time. This is your chance to get on the ground floor. Do it. Then come back here.
Seriously, check it out. It is pretty funny and it has been getting some serious traffic in a very short time. This is your chance to get on the ground floor. Do it. Then come back here.
Monday, March 26, 2007
The Poker Gods Have Finally Smiled Upon Me
Yes, the poker gods took a little hiatus but returned to my part of the world yesterday. After entering yet another tourney on Stars with the intention of keeping myself entertained for an hour or so I ended up playing in it and winning the damn thing. I have been obsessed with winning this tourney for months now. I have finished 2nd twice, came in 3rd 3 times, 5th twice, 9th, and a handful of 10-18th place finishes, but the coveted 1st place just never came.
Started out like any other tourney, not very exciting. I seem to play a few hands early and then shut down and go into tight mode in this thing. The play is horrendous and you can accumulate chips by being extra patient and wait for your spot. It's not hard to get paid off nicely with your good hands. I got to the first hour without a hitch. Sitting a little under average and about 86 people left.
Second hour was a roller coaster. Got up quickly to above average and then slowly bled off chips for a half hour till I blew all but 800 chips or so on a race with a shorter stack. I obviously lost that race and was I believe 51st our the 53 remaining. I had a full round before the blinds came around so I tightened up and hoped to see something pretty before the blinds caught up and I would be pretty much forced to push. Sadly nothing came and I was in the BB w/ T8o. Got to the flop cheap and saw an 8 hit and pushed. three callers and was happy to see another 8 on the river and I tripled up to over 3200. From there the cards were not cooperating and I got moved to another table with someone from FCP. I got dealt AA shortly after the move and got a couple callers on a big raise and one caller when I pushed with my flopped set. I was now up to around 10K and was looking to hit the money.
In no time at all we were down to 18 and in the money. Nothing to get excited about but I felt a little good about it since the day before I finished 19th and 24th. Sadly I don't remember much of how it all went down from here to heads up but I remained patient and made sure not to put myself into any sketching situations. Soon enough we were down to 5 and me and the other guy from FCP were still alive and running well. With 2 people from FCP on the FT we had some railers from the site cheering us on. I think knowing people are watching who know me makes me play better. Makes me not make the usual dumb moves I make in the end game. My boy left in 4th or 5th after his AQ ran into Ben's AA. He was pissed but there was no way to think he had AA in that spot. Unlucky, nothing to hang his head on.
I ended up heads up with Ben. I will state right off the bat I hate heads up and the pressure to be here at this juncture again made me uneasy. I wanted to win this. I am tired of 2nd. I like the the second place $ but for me, I wanted to win. I have not won anything over 18 players in a looooong time and I wanted it badly. Luckily Ben was very passive. Usually I get heads up with maniacs and I can't get any decent cards to fight back and eventually push with crap and lose. This was different. I was getting terrible cards and he had the deck hitting him in the face every hand for the first 20 minutes of heads up but since he was passive he would fold to many raises and fold to me preflop a lot so I knew I was not in any rush. We started off pretty even, then I was down to around 50K to his 220K, then I get back to around 100K. It was a teeter-totter for a good 40 minutes. But the time came after taking the lead and then blowing it that I had almost given up. I was dealt A8 and pushed my 90K in. He insta called and I though I was done. He flipped over 88 and I knew I made my one stupid move. But right there on the turn was an Ace and I sucked out and had a good chip lead. Two hands later I flopped a trip 7's and took all but about 14K of his chips and then finished him off in the next hand to win.
It was a good feeling. I liked my play all up to the push with A8. I still had plenty of chips and no reason to do it but I was on tilt and was getting tired. But I am happy to have some money to play with online and happy to get that monkey off my back. Here are my personal stats on the tourney to prove how tight I am. Also, before heads up my won at showdown was at 89%, a 45 minute heads up match killed that.
You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #9085015484).
453 hands played and saw flop:
- 27 times out of 120 while in small blind (22%)
- 35 times out of 118 while in big blind (29%)
- 28 times out of 215 in other positions (13%)
- a total of 90 times out of 453 (19%)
Pots won at showdown - 26 out of 38 (68%)
Pots won without showdown - 90
Started out like any other tourney, not very exciting. I seem to play a few hands early and then shut down and go into tight mode in this thing. The play is horrendous and you can accumulate chips by being extra patient and wait for your spot. It's not hard to get paid off nicely with your good hands. I got to the first hour without a hitch. Sitting a little under average and about 86 people left.
Second hour was a roller coaster. Got up quickly to above average and then slowly bled off chips for a half hour till I blew all but 800 chips or so on a race with a shorter stack. I obviously lost that race and was I believe 51st our the 53 remaining. I had a full round before the blinds came around so I tightened up and hoped to see something pretty before the blinds caught up and I would be pretty much forced to push. Sadly nothing came and I was in the BB w/ T8o. Got to the flop cheap and saw an 8 hit and pushed. three callers and was happy to see another 8 on the river and I tripled up to over 3200. From there the cards were not cooperating and I got moved to another table with someone from FCP. I got dealt AA shortly after the move and got a couple callers on a big raise and one caller when I pushed with my flopped set. I was now up to around 10K and was looking to hit the money.
In no time at all we were down to 18 and in the money. Nothing to get excited about but I felt a little good about it since the day before I finished 19th and 24th. Sadly I don't remember much of how it all went down from here to heads up but I remained patient and made sure not to put myself into any sketching situations. Soon enough we were down to 5 and me and the other guy from FCP were still alive and running well. With 2 people from FCP on the FT we had some railers from the site cheering us on. I think knowing people are watching who know me makes me play better. Makes me not make the usual dumb moves I make in the end game. My boy left in 4th or 5th after his AQ ran into Ben's AA. He was pissed but there was no way to think he had AA in that spot. Unlucky, nothing to hang his head on.
I ended up heads up with Ben. I will state right off the bat I hate heads up and the pressure to be here at this juncture again made me uneasy. I wanted to win this. I am tired of 2nd. I like the the second place $ but for me, I wanted to win. I have not won anything over 18 players in a looooong time and I wanted it badly. Luckily Ben was very passive. Usually I get heads up with maniacs and I can't get any decent cards to fight back and eventually push with crap and lose. This was different. I was getting terrible cards and he had the deck hitting him in the face every hand for the first 20 minutes of heads up but since he was passive he would fold to many raises and fold to me preflop a lot so I knew I was not in any rush. We started off pretty even, then I was down to around 50K to his 220K, then I get back to around 100K. It was a teeter-totter for a good 40 minutes. But the time came after taking the lead and then blowing it that I had almost given up. I was dealt A8 and pushed my 90K in. He insta called and I though I was done. He flipped over 88 and I knew I made my one stupid move. But right there on the turn was an Ace and I sucked out and had a good chip lead. Two hands later I flopped a trip 7's and took all but about 14K of his chips and then finished him off in the next hand to win.
It was a good feeling. I liked my play all up to the push with A8. I still had plenty of chips and no reason to do it but I was on tilt and was getting tired. But I am happy to have some money to play with online and happy to get that monkey off my back. Here are my personal stats on the tourney to prove how tight I am. Also, before heads up my won at showdown was at 89%, a 45 minute heads up match killed that.
You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #9085015484).
453 hands played and saw flop:
- 27 times out of 120 while in small blind (22%)
- 35 times out of 118 while in big blind (29%)
- 28 times out of 215 in other positions (13%)
- a total of 90 times out of 453 (19%)
Pots won at showdown - 26 out of 38 (68%)
Pots won without showdown - 90
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