The Random Ramblings of One K-Dubs

Phatcorndog

This is from a few weeks ago, but I came across it again today and it still gave me chills reading this note sent from the Hoya Hoop Club.

What a season. 

Phatcorndog

I hate whining about poker, but wow, I haven't been able to catch any kind of a break since I got back into the game after a 4-5 month hiatus.

Since coming back from "retirement," to recap:

AC Trip during the Eastern Regional weekend: get absolutely no cards, but with the competition at Caesar's $1/2 NL game weaker than can be put into words, I still manage to finish up $180 during about a 4 hour session.

Tournament at John's: $150 buy-in, cold run of cards continues as I bust out 2 hours in.  Play in a cash game, hit one big pot and hung on to finish up $250 for a net of +$100.  Still not bad.

Club Rick: Here's where it gets dicey.  A weekly Tuesday night $1/2 NL game that the word "loose" doesn't do justice.  We're talking routine $15 preflop raises that are called by 5-6 people easily.   I lost $350 in my first two sessions, but came back to win $180 in the third.  A couple of bad beats were thrown in there (AA losing to 77, KK losing to AJ, flopped a set of 4's and the other guy turns a set of 8's while calling a bet and a raise with 2 overs on the flop, etc.), but nothing I haven't seen before.  The last two weeks though have been downright scary.  Dropped $400 in each session, and both were highlighted by just some awful beats (losing to pocket 10's to 74 on a T98 flop and missing a nut flush draw for a $700 pot while getting nearly 6:1 odds post flop hurt quite a bit).  The trouble is that I rarely got any suited connectors; thus, I appeared to be a lot tighter than I wanted to be because all I got were crap hands and decent PP's, making for less opportunities to limp and go unnoticed by the table.  I got less action than I wanted when I had the hands, and even when I did, I would somehow get outdrawn repeatedly.  Also, anytime I called down on a draw, I would invariably miss (i.e. AQcc vs AK after post flop of 2c48c and a turn 2... the odds of losing the pot are far less than either winning or chopping, but the percentages have not been in my favor at all recently).

The Club Rick game is disbanding for the summer, as Rick has grown tired of hosting week after week (can't really blame him, considering the game goes into the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday nights and everyone has to work Weds.), and also wants to do quite a bit of traveling.  There is a Friday night $1/2 NL game with most of the regulars at Rick's, but I can't continue to absorb $400 (the max I will allow myself to lose at a single $1/2 session) hits week after week for much longer, nor do I prefer playing cards on Fri nights as opposed to going out with friends.  This is also certainly not the kind of momentum I want to have going into AC next week.

I realize every player goes through this kind of downswing, but considering I'm basically one big hand away from not just losing in 5 of 6 $1/2 NL sessions, but losing big in all of them, it's bad.  I know I'm a better player than this, and yes I've made mistakes, but it's been more bad luck than my mistakes that have been critical towards causing my recent losses.

What I really need to do is get back online and start seeing more hands.  I tend to run a lot better live when I play online regularly.  Maybe it's because I usually take most of my severe bad beats online, so I get it out of my system ahead of time. :)  Now if there was only a way to get back on...

I'm done venting. 

Phatcorndog

While I do routinely read the Tabs of other people I know on the site, I've noticed I haven't posted a single thing since New Year's.  And it's the middle of May.  That's a long time.  I've got a lot to write about, but I won't do it all at once.  I should have enough material to last for a bit so I won't go on another 5 month hiatus anytime soon.

Enough dilly-dallying and on to the nitty-gritty.  I had been anticipating Linkin Park's new CD for the past few months.  They're one of my favorite bands (Hybrid Theory is maybe one of the five best rock CDs ever released), and the hype surrounding this new release has been enormous the past weeks, especially since the first single was released in early April.

The CD comes out this Tuesday (5/15).  I say: don't bother.

I got an advance copy, and as much as I want to love it just because it's LP, I can't.  I've never heard a band veer as violently off course from their previous sound as they have on Minutes to Midnight (maybe U2 with their whole techno phase can compare).  They went super-soft; at times, I thought I was listening to Coldplay or The Fray.  There are at least 2-3 songs on there that could have easily made a soundtrack for The OC.  Other times, they seemed to try to imitate Metallica, U2, and Hoobastank.  So many different sounds, and none their own.

Another huge complaint: Mike Shinoda only appears on 3 tracks and Joe Hahn is barely heard from on this CD.  Much of the appeal of Linkin Park came from the fact that they spanned the genres of rock, metal, rap and electronics and blended it into something more cohesive than any attempt before they came along.  And now?  They've essentially reduced themselves to your prototypical 4 piece band (singer, 2 guitars and a drummer).  Any one of a couple hundred bands out there could have put out this CD.  Musically, it's not a poor CD; there are some catchy tunes, the lyrics are pretty decent and Chester's singing is just off the charts good on this disc.  But it's not what we've come to expect from Linkin Park, and while they did have a lot to live up to after releasing 2 mega hits, their third effort was mediocre at best by comparison.

In a recent interview, Mike Shinoda declared that this new sound was here to stay, and that "if you want to listen to stuff like Hybrid Theory again, go out and buy another copy of it."  

Considering I don't own an actual copy of HT, I think I just might.  It'll remind me how great Linkin Park was and how they broke down the barriers in music and at times made the possibilities of sound seem endless.  It's a shame they declined the opportunity to continue with their trendsetting style and settle for a generic sound.

Phatcorndog

10 was a bit much last year, so I'm going to do 3 this year, and hopefully I can keep all 3.

1) Stay in shape!  Once this MCAT is over, I'm doing some form of running or lifting every day.  That is the ultimate goal.  Hopefully, I'll be able to invest in some sort of cardio machine to stash in the house soon to aid this resolution.

2) Get to bed at a reasonable hour.  No more staying up until 2AM for no reason.  8 hours a night was a little bit unreasonable, so this year we are going to shoot for 7 a night.

3) Be more patient.  I lead a very stress-filled life.  I think I have to really be a lot less anxious and frantic than I have been in recent years.  It's not doing anything for my long-term health, and it also probably kills my efficiency and productivity.  Take a deep breath every once in awhile!

Three simple ones.  Just gotta keep them now. 

Happy New Year! 

Phatcorndog

This was last year's list of New Years Resolutions (in italics).  Let's see how I did: 

1) Stay positive.  I tend to be a pessimist about a lot of things.  That's just the way I've been brought up: think of the worst and try to improve upon that.  I'm going to start doing the opposite; maybe being confident in instances where I shouldn't be will help out, and unexpected good things will happen. 

My time in Philly basically made it virtually impossible to stay positive.  I definitely didn't accomplish this goal, and I think pessimism is something that's just going to be a part of me for the rest of my life.  Sometimes, you can't change who you are.  FAILED

2) Don't waste time.  I'm talking about watching Sportscenter a second time for no reason.  Spending half an hour tracking the JMU basketball score because it impacts Georgetown's RPI by miniscule proportions.  Playing freeroll poker tournaments online.  If I can eliminate screwing around by about one hour a day, I'll be happy with myself.  That hour can (and should) go towards sleeping.

I've been a lot better about this.  A lot less nonsense TV watching.  I've gotten a lot better at multi-tasking in terms of daily routines (cook, do laundry, and do my usual surfing of the web all at the same time).  And as for online poker, I haven't played since late September.  ACCOMPLISHED

3) Be more efficient while studying.  I've decided locking myself in the library does not do me any good.  Neither does locking myself in my apartment.  I really do believe I need to study in a small group setting where all the members are focused.  I hope I can find one or two other people in my program this upcoming semester who are willing to do the same. 

Not as much as I had hoped, but I did get a little more efficient.  Definitely didn't play online poker and study at the same time.  ACCOMPLISHED

4) Stay in shape.  I always get in about 2-3 weeks of solid exercise, and then the process of staying in shape gets derailed by either sickness, exams, or just plain laziness.  After I return to Philly on Monday, I'm going to start going to the gym at least 3 times a week, regardless of the situation.  My most successful stretch academically this past semester was when I was in semi-decent shape and as a result, the least-stressed out.  That needs to continue.

I was so good for about a 2-3 month stretch this summer after I finished up in Philly and wasn't working yet.  Then, I started working full-time, and  that along with MCAT studying has basically chewed up any free time I normally would have.  This will continue to be a goal of mine, and I hope once the exam is finally over in late January, I can get back to getting (and staying) in shape.  FAILED 

5) Call my parents more often.  Granted, I am very busy most of the time when I'm at school.  But, I have been leaving my parents in the dark too often.  I plan to call them at least once every other day starting Tuesday.  They deserve at least that much.

They are generally two of the most unreasonable people I have ever met in my life.  If anything, my relationship with my mom has deteriorated (mainly because of her insistence to put her newfound "religion" ahead of everything else, including me sometimes).  So, I didn't get this done, but it wasn't my fault in the least.  FAILED 

6) Eat healthier.  This goes along with #4.  I'm setting a 1 cheesesteak limit per week, despite how good and cheap they are.  Less soda, more juice and milk.  And less late night snacking, which can easily be avoided if I accomplish #7.

Woo hoo!  I got this one done.  I've cut down on carbonated drinks by a ton, and I've done my best to eat healthy (occasional salads for lunch, less late night snacking).  ACCOMPLISHED 

7) Get no less than 8 hours of sleep a day.  It's taken me forever to learn this, but I do not perform well under conditions where I am sleep deprived.  Others can get away with it and be successful.  I am not one of these people.  By avoiding wasting time and being more efficient while studying, I can hopefully achieve this.

I wish.  FAILED

8) Write in my blog at least twice a week.  Even if I have nothing to say, it's a real killer when you've sat down at your blog and realize that you haven't posted in 2-3 weeks.  I want to make sure I chronicle my life so I remember months and years from now what exactly the hell happened.  And I do need to stop writing solely about times I've gone out, ran into people, etc.  A commentary about a viewpoint, a conversation, etc.  That needs to be added.

I have stretches where I'm productive in writing, but it's not sustained. So I can't say I kept this one.  FAILED 

9) Don't hold grudges.  Probably will never accomplish this one.  But as a friend bluntly stated to me a few weeks ago, "People are not perfect."  I'll probably go to my grave believing otherwise because I have been blessed with a group of friends and family who have never cross the boundary into imperfection.  But I need to be more realistic and forgiving than I have been in the past.  I hope this can happen.

This is a tough one to evaluate.  I've stopped hating several people whom I've held long grudges against.  I think time has healed many of those wounds, and if I saw them in person, I would have no problem being cordial to them.  Having said that, I think I've formed new grudges against several people (some of whom I considered close at one time) for not keeping in touch... at all.  Sure, out of sight, out of mind. But, don't blow me off every time I try to have a conversation with you.  I'm not stupid.  ACCOMPLISHED (I'm usually NEVER forgiving... at least now I'm somewhere above the level of zero in that category)

10) Play poker for real.  Enough with playing with chump change online and small friendly games.  I've got to realize that I am an above average player who can succeed at poker on a larger scale.  So here's to fulfilling my potential and cracking games I know I can be a force in, such as the Club Rick game, the 1/2 NL tables at AC, etc.  There's a good amount of money to be had in those games, and I need to take advantage as often as I can. 

No time, and although I did make a good profit during the summer bonus-whoring online, it wasn't enough to make a solid foundation to take with me to AC to build upon.  Add in the fact that the Club Rick game was forced to dissolve on account of shadiness, and this was a full-fledged no-go.  FAILED 

Someone remind me maybe in April if I've been keeping up with these resolutions.  My goal is to keep at least 7 of them.

By my count, I kept 4.  Some of them turned out to be slightly unrealistic, so that's something I'll have to keep in mind as I write up a new list for next year.  For someone who hasn't made life-altering changes in awhile, I think 4 out of 10 was a good start.  It's something to build upon for next year.  Hopefully I can do better this time around.

Coming tomorrow: 2007's list.