Oct 31st: Halloween and I lose!

I’m on a bit of a downswing right now but its all to be expected because I was running so hot. I think I’m taking it quite well but still don’t like losing K’s at a time…it just doesn’t feel natural. I’m down about $3k at $1k HU and another $2k at $600 HU. I think I’m up on Stars maybe $2k so its only a $3k downswing. I just keep getting owned by fish. One guy sat down for 23 hands and caught 3 flushes where I had a decent hand…one we got it in on the flop where I had TPTK, he had TPNK + FD and won. Other one he had like 52s and caught runner runner. He was so sick bad but ended up like $1.8k on me after quitting 23 hands into the match.

VEGAS IN TWO DAYS! Wohooooooo!

Oct 29th: Going to Vegas!

I just wrote up a longer post but I acidentally closed Mozzila. Whoops. Anywho, I'm going to Vegas Nov 1st-8th, staying at the Stratosphere and am going to play the venetion deep stack tounry series that runs all of Nov. Probably some 2/5 NL as well. Should be weeeeeeeeeeeee fun.

I'm dominating poker. Playing 2/4-5/10 on both FT and now PS.

I finished my rock wall. Here are some more pics.




The finished wall



Climbing



More climbing

Oct 26th: 25 seconds ago I was happy.

And then this happened.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8669449532: Table Paid (heads up) - $5/$10 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:02:39 ET - 2008/10/26
Seat 1: Ricky_Travel ($2,524)
Seat 2: SILVERSURFER123 ($937)
Ricky_Travel posts the small blind of $5
SILVERSURFER123 posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ricky_Travel [Th Tc]
Ricky_Travel raises to $20
SILVERSURFER123 raises to $100
Ricky_Travel has 15 seconds left to act
Ricky_Travel raises to $278
SILVERSURFER123 raises to $937, and is all in
Ricky_Travel calls $659
SILVERSURFER123 shows [7s 9s]
Ricky_Travel shows [Th Tc]
*** FLOP *** [Qs 8s Kh]
*** TURN *** [Qs 8s Kh] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 8s Kh 5h] [3s]
SILVERSURFER123 shows a flush, Queen high
Ricky_Travel shows a pair of Tens
SILVERSURFER123 wins the pot ($1,873.50) with a flush, Queen high
Ricky_Travel: so sick
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1,874 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Qs 8s Kh 5h 3s]
Seat 1: Ricky_Travel (small blind) showed [Th Tc] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 2: SILVERSURFER123 (big blind) showed [7s 9s] and won ($1,873.50) with a flush, Queen high



You can probably tell where in my writing I got owned.

No, I didn’t win the 100r last night and started to run bad playing donks at 5/10 (yes, everybody is a donk. Including Brian Townsend who I took for $200.) The good news is that I don’t really care at all. I used to hate losing a buy-in…now I want nothing less to sit there and play the guy until I get all my money back plus his. I think this a decently good thing.
I’m heading back to my parents house in Davis at noon. Going to do a little hike with my Mom and hopefully find some boulders to do some rock climbing on. Then doing some sushi with a buddy and tomorrow I’m going to South Lake Tahoe for even more hiking and rock climbing.

God, so so so sick. I own this fucking donk, getting all my money back and then this.
SDKLFJSKLFJSDKL
FUCKING COPY AND PASTE DOESN”T WORK IN MY MICROSOFT WORD.
Asjhljkasdfkdsf

Oct 25th: I play so much poker its redic!

I've been playing poker nonstop for a couple days now. Last night I went to bed about 7 PM after playing poker all day; only to get up at 4 AM and put in a quick session at 5/10 and rock 4 buy-ins off one dude. Back to sleep until 11 AM or so and put in another session, this time two doubling some reg at 3/6. I'm pretty sure he was really bad because I got him for like 4 buy ins really quick but then he came back and owned me for it all back plus like $1k from me. So whatever, it wasn't a huge loss but it just sucks to swing 3-4k every session.

I just started up a couple of tournies and will probably win the 100r on FTP. GO DONKAMONTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Oct 22nd: 3/6 and 5/10- I'm a real pro now?

Things are going well. I’m putting in a bunch of hands (this is good) and winning some money. I’ve also started to play more and more 3/6 and 5/10. For some reason I really don’t like the limit “3/6.” Typing in 18 for a PFR sucks and figuring out all those weird numbers (31, 48, 112, etc) really bugs me. 5/10, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. Everything makes perfect sense and I almost feel like it’s a $5 SNG because all the chips are red. All these crazy mental games I play with myself. I don’t use pokertracker anymore so I’m not really sure how much I’m up/down but I’m pretty sure I’ve won a couple thousand at 3/6 and 5/10 so far.


The one depressing I've been reading lately is that it seems bots are becoming more and more prevalent and people are realized the potential profit in getting a winning bot going. I really hope the poker sites do everything possible, plus more, to stop botters as it’ll really, really hurt the game if they become mainstream. I’m actually more worried about bots than super users. Superusers mostly ruining the very highest limits and I feel like they are a bit easier to catch; primarily because superusers are playing super opponents who will pick up on their superusing. Botting is really only a problem at the lower limits but that is where the stupid players are and most likely won’t realize (and report) if a bot is playing.

Oct 21st: Rock wall near complition!

The rock climbing wall is finished and I am super pumped! It took about a total of about ~10 hours to build but that had a lot had to do with the fact that the screwdriver I was using would just stop working randomly for periods of time or just go on perma-resverse mode which was super annoying. I spent a total of about $100 on the 2x4’s, plywood and screws. The holds are expensive- I’ve already spent $100 on the 10 or so I have now but ordered another 50 for $400 online. Once the other holds come, it should look like a real climbing wall. Right now its tough to get more than 2-3 moves out of the whole thing. Anywho, on with the pictures!

The materials and the beginning of construction. Note super ghetto tools.



First screws don't go in quite as planned. No worries, we'll just hammer them to the side.



Doing some cutting.



The wall takes shape!



Yay! Nearly finished. Just need to add the holds that are in the mail and screw it down.

Oct 15th

I'm writing this as I take a break from one of the best projects I've ever done...building a rock climbing wall in my room. As I've mentioned before, I just got a membership to a rock climbing gym. I'm really into and have gone nearly everyday that my bloody fingers have let me. And as I was browsing the internet looking for how to fix my bloody fingers I came upon people who had made their own indoor walls. Needless to say, I went out and bought a bunch of 2x4's and am in the process of putting as many nails as the wood will allow.

I will post a full trip report with pics when its finished (hopefully >7 days).

(poker is also going good. I stacked a guy 3 times in about 20 hands this morning, woot woot.)

Oct 13th: Deepest Sunday Finish

Well, I couldn't quite pull together a back to back win but still finished 33rd in the 750k for 2.4k on FTP. Not awesome, esp considering I busted AJ < A10 AIPF for an average stack but I'm still pretty pumped I got that deep. I'm debating right now whether I want to play another day of tournies or actually go out and do something. Probably tournies...its too cold.

10-12-08: Winning money

Yay! I won the $100 50k Guar on Stars the other day. I played really bad in the four other tournies I registered for but then just kept one open while doing other stuff and after about 5 hours was super pumped when I realized we were down to 3 tables. Needless to say, I focused on up and used my MTT skillz to take it down. I was the short stack from about 15 down after losing 3 semi-big pots in a row. I was able to make a big comeback with around 5 people left.

This had to have been one of the worst final tables I've been at. The players were really just terriable. Limp/folding with 4bb, wtf!? limping 105s utg and calling a 4x raise? Calling gutshots for half your stack? At least it proves the games are a live and kicking.

I'm heading to the rock climbing gym right now to get a work out in but will be back at 1:30 for the $1m guar. BACK TO BACK WINS BABY!

Oct 7th: Bouncing around

Its been quite a swingy ride in October which I guess is better than a stand still which its been the last two months with me not playing. Some notable poker things;

- I got 2nd in a 5r for a little under $2k. This was cool but I 100% should have had first. I dominated the final table and ended up with like 4mil to 1.5 mil chip lead with blinds at 500k/100k. I get AIPF against him 5 times and was ahead each time (slightly) and he won every single time. It was insane. I kept chipping him down, getting AIPF and thinking "this is the time" but every time he hit his crazy hand. Oh well, still a decent score.

- I played about 1.5k hands against one guy who I thought I was really bad. He quickly dropped 10 buy ins in about 500 hands so I was up $4k on him. Sick, I'll play this guy all day, I thought. He had the sickest comeback ever and I couldn't hit shit for a hand and in the next 500 hands he won it all back plus one buy in from him. I made a slight comeback near the end and ended up +2k or so. Its fun playing 500bb deep though, which was a first for me.


Life is good. Yesterday I was super lazy and I didn't leave the house until 11:00 PM and that was just to take a quick walk around the block. I'm really into rock climbing now; I got new shoes, a harness and a membership to a gym here in Sacramento. I'm loving but my hands are killing me so its hard to go more than every other day. The yoga has sort of tapered out but I've got to get going again just to get my moneys worth. Today I'm heading home to cook some food with the parents and then a hike tomorrow morning.

That's about it!