Poker table !

The poker craze continues, now we have a poker
table !! This is in addition to our poker chips,
and poker books and poker know how! Actually
i think only the latter is missing.

Two nights ago i had a dream where the poker table,
was at my house and i was sleeping, and everyone
came over to play a game, and didnt wake me up.
And then i woke up and they wouldnt let me
play, and I got very angry, and I kicked everyone
out of the house along with the table. I predict
the table will bring dooom and glooom, i think
it should stay at dooon...

Tho it did look quite good at CHS :)

Boys and Girls

According to the article, you can control the
sex of your child by the profession you choose. At least in this
group of friends i would have to say that there are probably
going to be a lot of boys. Engineers , computer scientists and
scientists , cant see many girls.

Does this hold true for you ? On my mum's side.
Dad - engineer - mum - house - 2 boys
Uncle - doctor - aunt - teacher - 1 boy 1 girl
Uncle - doctor - aunt - admin/house - 1 boy 1 girl
Uncle - engineer - aunt - science - 3 boys

May be there is some truth ?!

Poker 101 explodes !

I had 2 students this time to 101, kind of just
1.5, as one was more observer than active
participant. And if i could have kept the orginal student
then i would have been prolly unable to cope, with
the rapid increase in demand. Student T, played
two single table tournaments, coming 2nd and 4th,
with the second one unfortunately experiencing
ghey internet connection issues. Good to see
that student T was thinking, coz she identified
the fact that when playing with a short stack
she seemed to have much better results. The reason
was quite simple, as the bets she made with a
larger stack just encouraged ppl to call, but
with a shorter stack, she often entered the pot
with a raise, and perhaps pushed all in on the
flop, hence the opposition were put to a decision,
and won a lot more pots without having to show
the best hand. NL poker is about being put to
a decision, else limit is probably your game !

101 class

Monday nite From 7pm - Im running another poker 101 class, if
anyone wants to come. Have been dubbed as a poker stalker
so beware !

Blabbity blab blab blab

Sometimes ppl are pretty sensitive about certain
issues being leaked out to the general public.
For example if i was to say that so and so was
pregnant, everyone would be like, thats pretty
sensitive information, dont go telling everyone.
And so i wont tell everyone that xxxxxxx is
pregnant. Now ur instic was to count the number
of x s and see whether that corresponded to
anyone u knew, well i dont know how many xs i typed.
But as long as the information is not bad for
example, then it doesnt hurt for ppl to share
it around. I personally dont particpate in any
exchagning of information. These days brad often introduces me
as a poker professional, which i kind of feel
stupid about, and tanya says im a "poker champion",
which i feel even more embarassed about. But sometimes
good or at least interesting opportunities can spring
up from these pieces of information. coz as a result
i got an email today that one of the editors of ralph
was interested in having a chat with me and doing a story.
Unfking believeable. even if nothing comes of it, i can
at least thank freedom of infromation for giving me a random
opportuntiy to do something different. I wonder
whether i can get free subscription. Gold.

morning ...

Went to bed around 2, my mum was still up, asked
me what time id like to be woken up, and what id like for
breakfast. 10am and id like bacon, eggs and mushroom. Awesome.

Ive woken up, breaksfast is being made, I look in the mirror
and think fk i am the bomb. I look awesome. Ive got a
suave, high quality fibre shirt on. Ppl must do this
regularly, for me i cant really relate to it, but I
tried to slip into character. It kind of felt good,
to be highly delusional.

There are these people who think they are models, or rock
stars, but they actually just work normal jobs and lead
no more exciting a life than anyone else, but in their
eyes their some kind of superstar. Its interesting, if you
call yourself elvis presley you get put into a clinical
ward, else if you keep quiet your just some delusional rock
wannabe.

The Robe

Glossay

Robeworthy - to be worthy of wearing a robe
Rober - a person who wears a robe
Robelicious - a robe with remarkabley soft and
smooth characteristics
Robeanabe - Someone who wants to be a robe
wearer
Freelancing - Robe wearing with only minimal
clothes on underneath.
KKK - store that sells kuilts (quilts), kapes (capes)
and kobes (robes)

So word out on the street is that im not
robeworthy and that im a robeanabe. First of
all id like to say thats bull. I recently
bought a robe, and let me say it was a
robelicious. However as ive been in robe
hiatus, due to various circumstances, that
doesnt make any less of rober than the
next person. Ive been robing since i was
young, and am very serious about the whole
robing buisness. People may have questioned
my freelance ways and perhaps that has
put me on the outer edges of the robing
community, but i feel i have been unfairly
ostricised. One current rober, has criticised
my copying of him, but just because i went
to the local kkk store and bought a similarly
robelicisous robe, im some robeannabe. I
challenge him to be robe-duel, where we
battle to the sorry end, and one us is
forced to leave the dueling premises
without a robe. Do you accept, i
await your response !

New Monkeys !

Nothing is more exciting than the discovery of
something new. Wait that sounds a bit stupid. How
can you disover something old, well i guess you
could find something which has been hidden for a
while. And actually the discovery of a new species
is really the discovery of something old. Anyway,
a new species of monkey in Tanzania has been discovered,
it is called the highland mangabey. "Unlike other
Lophocebus mangabeys, which communicate with a "whoop
gobble," the new species has an unusual "honk bark,"
the researchers said. Im eagerly awaiting any photos/
videos.

Wat day is it ?

If i can ever retire from my job, i will have
the problem of remembering wat day of the week it
is. In fact as i was trying to put coins in the
parking machine today, i forgot it was friday,
coz the machine allows for a special all day parking
mon-thursday, and i didnt know y it wasnt working.
Anyway someone told me wat a schmuck i was. So
im thinking of moving to a colour coded shirt
system. Usually friday, im in a very sarcastic,
cynnical, bitter and twisted fram of mind. So
black seems appropriate. Thursdays, im going
to wear army green. Monday - blue seems
appropriate. Tuesdays - brown. Wednesday, ill
go for white. Saturdays and sundays can be
free choice. In this way ill be able to just
glance at what shirt im wearing and no wat
day of the week it is.

Poker 101 cont..

I attempted to finish off at least lesson 1, to my
only poker 101 student, and it felt like i failed
miserably. The major tip was not to call weak/marginal
hands out of position, and whilst watching dayle
play, she probably saved herself a 100-150 chips.
However she got knocked out in 7th, and this was
after picking up Aces twice, Ak, aq twice and qs.
Also two players were eliminated in the first 5
hands. The key hand was 7s in the big blind.
Late pos made minimum raise. She smooth called, every
play was ok in this spot. Re-raise, call, fold
(weak play, but not terrible). Flop came
10 high. Bet half the pot then was called. Turn
came blank, she put her all in, this was the mistake,
i mean u had to give her credit for a hand here,
opponent had put 1/2 her chips in it was unlikely for
her to fold. Anyway dayle puts her all in the other
player has j-10, dayle is crippled and never recovered.
Well at least it means more lessons are required,
playing medium pairs are one of the hardest hands to
play. But still it didnt bode well, for my teaching
skills. I left appreciating that there was no silver
bullet solution. May be i take things for granted,
may be teaching takes time...

Make up

sometimes you see people whom usually have make up on
and then suddenly they dont have make up, and its
like argh, i didnt know make up could make such a
difference. It must be hassel tho, coz once u set
a certain standard, u have to live up to it. Its similar
to the Seinfeld, good lighting , bad lighting episode.

being a guy i obvioulsy have little idea about makeup,
and going over to england for tv poker was a rare entry
into the world of cosmetic manipulation. Initially i thought
they were joking, it was like ok, Rayan, we've
finished your interviews and then we'll send you through
to make up. Your kidding me, i dont need make up, do i?
Actually "Make up" is kind of cool, coz it was
the first time, you actually got to meet the players.
During the semi-finals, tony-g, t-bloom, l.flood , and
the other 2 players, were just talking casually under
thr brighlt lights of make up while each of us are
getting touched up etc., and it sort of relaxes u
before u have to go in and play against each other. It
was kind of weird tho coz they knew each other, and I was
just the internet qualifier.

Good thing about make up for myself, was that it took
30 seconds, apparently my skin was really good or something
so they just chucked some powder on and presto i was done.
I thought the make up person must just tell that to
everyone, but then the two female dealers and
the make up lady and the photographer were there talking to
me, saying how wonderful my skin was, etc. All that praise
must have given me a dose of unnecessary self confidence,
coz i then got a thorough beating in the semi-finals.

Spoofproof / Unspoofable

Saw the final star wars movie last night, hmmm, i guess
it was better than the other two, but wat does that
mean? Not a lot. And some of the parts were really.
cringeworthy. I mean the team from spaceballs, would
be thinking, we can't spoof this movie, it spoofs itself.
My main criticism, was the actors. They were wooden,
no one cared about them. They should leave hc in the
darth vader suit so he can't scare ppl with any more
woeful acting perfomances. In all fairness it might
have been tough acting out that script in front of
a blue curtain.

Foreign currency

after going overseas i still have foreign currency
lying around, the good thing is u can give away
your coins to unicef on the plane. However the
notes are ghey, like, wat am i suppose to do
with the notes. I think ive decided to collect
the notes and use them when im overseas again.
I just have to not lose them between the next time
i go overseas, 100 pounds is quite a bit, but
$20 singapore isnt much. My favourite currency,
is guilders. I like the name , plus, u can pick
up exciting and tasty products using guilders, and
they're colourful notes takes the seriousness
out of money. Unlike say US currency which all looks
the same. Oh and the other day i saw someone buy
monopoly, im surprised anyone is still buying
that gane, i mean doesnt everyone already own
a copy?

Tsunami

I havent been following the aftermath of the tsunami.
But it seems that it is no longer in the eye of
the public, which seems a shame considering the ppl
are probably still suffering. I was suppose to
go to sri lanka this month, but apparently due
to army problems, it can still be dangerous...

If your so smart why arent you rich ?

This is one of the more aptly named titles in batman
the animated series featuring the riddler.

I can only assume that ppl had a subject clash, and
that perhaps james' rival class dvd 101 was more
popular. In fact im hoping to make it to the
next dvd 101 class. Last time i went to james'
place to borrow dvds, i ended up borrowing 10
blank dvds instead of 10 movies, im sure such
topics will be covered.

Actually i know the notice i gave was quite late.

On a positive note at least one person sent me their
party poker transcripts, which upon analysis, i picked
up a few easy way to improve their game. However that
person could only turn up for 4mins, and spent 2mins
45sec on the phone, and the remaining time drinking
a beer.

Tho i figure most ppl are probably unwilling to listen
to me, which i find kind of interesting, because after
spending a week with mitch who had more of an open mind
and after giving a couple of tips, his game got to a pretty
decent standard. But the important thing is to have
fun, right !

poker 101

Struggling with your NL Holdem game, want to improve?
Then come to poker 101. Poker 101 is an open
class that runs from 6.45pm to 8.45pm this Wednesday
at my place.

All u have to do is rock up any time between that time,
with any questions you have? Class consists of mainly
playing online poker, with myself giving tips on
what i think people should do, and suggetions of what
to look for? Come and watch different people play
online poker at various levels, and hopefully you
can take something away.

Participants should be open to suggestions if they
want to improve.

You whine like a mule !

Funny how ppl complain when other ppl dont
do things for them. Seems a common complaint
when ppl dont get their favourite programs
recorded, may be learn how to use a video player?!

I used to get angry at ppl when they didnt record
stuff when i was a kid, thinking back its kind of
funny. Once i accused of my brother of some sort of
conspiracy theory, that he deliberately didnt record
coz he didnt want me to watch the program. ha.

And ppl have been complaining about the poker
table, the colours etc. For one i think the
other table looked better, but still at least
this table will always be useful and two wat
more can someone do then send a picture of the
table that we are going to get. And ppl wonder
y ppl are reluctant to organise anything. Zero
gain situation.

List of good things ppl have organised
- poker table
- brisbane trip
- house boat
- beach volleyball

please keep them coming !

Currently im investigating the possibility of hole
card cameras.

home home

Im kind of reverse housesitting, coz ive moved
back home at nights to keep my mum company.
As a result i get completely spoilt. When i
came back saturday night, my mum had switched
on my electric blanket, except the only
problem is i hate having the electric blanket
on, and couldnt sleep. Tho last night
as i sat wearily after soccer, my mum served
up spag bol (one of my favourites), and
then we watched / danced to some indian
dvd music clips. She showed off to me some
of these jewelry pieces that she had made,
which were extremely impressive. I think i have
to market them somehow.

Then woke up next morning, bacon and eggs
and mushroom, with a cover placed on top
to keep it warm. How good is that !

Also there are a group of peacocks that
have decided to visit our house in the mornings,
which is kind of bizzare.

tuday

lost soccer 4-2, frustrating, couldnt get any goals,
and we actually defended really well for most of it.
number of saves our goalie made was crazy, and he
still got yelled at i think. Need to learn iranian.

Matchroom 1-2

Coming first and second at matchroom on Sunday was
pretty decent, only disapointing thing was not going
out after to celebrate, and no one there to witeness
the match. Unfrotunately i lacked the patience
to try and take chad out heads up, but for $70,
and to stay up any later, seemed hardly worth it.
However chad did his best to give me a sporting
chance despite having over a 5 to 1 chips lead, i
got it back to even. But when he called a re-raise
with 5-2, and the called a check raise all in
on q-q-5 flop (i had a-6), he managed to take it down.
The hand b4 that managed to level it, was interesting.
I raised with 7-8, and he made a small re-raise
with A-10. I called, flop came q-8-5, he pushed
all in i called and took it down. Mistake not
re-raising me all in, classic error - not raising
enuff. Think about how much your raising, may
be with Aces possibly ok !

Earlier I potentially made a mistake when i didnt re-raise
with a-q, from the bb, but 2 ppl were effectively
all in. Chad meanwhile kept knocking everyone out
on the table, after flopping a straight and a straight
flush, and both players pushed all in against him. Woke up
the next morning at 5.30, to play in 250K tourney,
out first hand ! Came back from the bathroom,
saw i had jacks, got re-raised. Called, flop was 9
high, called his bets to the river, he had
Ks. Oh well.

Overload

Had a chad overload last weekend. In all fairness it
was my fault, coz i went over there. Thursday -
dinner at cm2, chad was there, poker at my place,
heads up with chad. Friday - dinner at mandarin house,
poker at apa, exeter (chad there), saturday -
went over to chs, lunch with chad, shopping with
chad (that was actually good fun!), dinner marcellina,
party etc., Sunday - matchroom (heads up with
chad , 1 and 2), Monday - drinks for barter,
and movie at chs, more chad. Im sure he feels likewise.

rejection, failure and bitterness

This can occur in any field any spectrum, but
in the world of poker its easily quantifiable.
Failure, amounts to a dwindling bank roll. It
is easy to see. There are 2 reasons for failure
in poker, one is a lack of skill and the other
is luck. The second is beyond your control,
but for a lot of people the second (luck) is
what controls a person's skill. When your running
hot, the decisions u make seem to be better as
well, and when things are running bad, you
can get caught chasing. Its hard to tell, but
its important to know whether its skill or luck
which is the root of the problem. Most of the
time i can confidently narrow down poker failure
to luck.

Bitterness is often caused by someone else's
success/failure. Its like in Seinfeld, when Elaine
is bitter about George getting married. I seemed
especially bitter on Saturday.

1. I had to watch the crows incompetent shooting
performance lead to a narrow defeat to Brisbane,
nothing worse than having to watch the entire game to
see them just lose.
2. At this party Brad invited us to, I ended up talking
to this reasonably attractive girl, whom i forgot her
name in the first 2 seconds. Then everything i said
got twisted around and back fired. And then she
was going out with some dweeby guy anyway. The
Brunatex t-shirt was recognisable, which was kinda
a surprise.
3. Went out to the grace. Apparently c0 has found
blissful happiness, i mean wat is the world coming
to. Not that im not happy for him, but ffs, you
cant be serious.
4. The girls i was hanging out with were merely
wallpaper.
5. Chad picked up in his stupid wig, my stupid russian
hat yielded nothing, not that by then i was even remotely
interested...

Unlike poker this had nothing to do with luck...

Boring

Im sitting at work, which is ok, except Brad is sitting
in on a telephone conference meeting, which is
the definition of hell, if i had to sit in a room
and listen to this i would go mad. eg. "Item
9 on the agenda...., but we will leave that to item 10,
wind energy ..., the review of joint interconnector,
and i would like to move forawrd..." Now the person
talking has a strong asian accent, and is difficult to
understand. I need to go home and get headphones.

Im so glad i will never have to listen to this again.

last nite - got back to belgium dinner and everyone was
going home, ghey, to do ironing and hang out clothes and shit,
"we have to work tomorrow", cmon. I will need to find
non-working friends, coz my work hours in the future will
be completely adhoc, and im most likely to be out of
sync.

Its that whole "Live to work" or "work to live" . Ok
i know the first one is no good, but the second one
isnt much better. Surely the goal is just to live. If
i had 20million dolllars id still play poker, id just
probably play less.

high roller

Ive been trying to find poker related movies of late to watch.
So far I have seen, Cincinati Kid, Card Player and High
Roller the Stu Ungar story. Cincinati kid is an old classic
steve mcqueen film, the poker is 5card stud, which is really
quite a boring game, but despite being an old film its pretty
enteraining. Good things about the film, were the ending
was different, and something about old films, there is always
a classic last line. People say the final hand is
so improbably its ridiciculous, so i decided to deal myself
a draw poker hand. (draw poker allows for a change of
cards, stud doesnt), anyway unbeliveable, i dealt myself
the exact straight flush (including suit) the guy gets
in the movie, and then the following day i dealt myself
Ks full of As, almost the same hand the other guy gets in
the film. Very weird !

The card player is to do with video poker, which is 5
card draw, and there is a serial killer who is challenging
ppl to beat them. And if they fail he kills someone,
its a pretty budget foreign type of movie, but was
watchable.

Finally High Roller - the stu ungar story. Ok, there cant
be a bigger stu ungar fan, than myself, the guy has
won 10 out of 33 major tournaments, which is beyond
phemonenal, he is the best poker player ever, and a
cards genius. But imagine Rounders, and take out
the good actors, some offcut takes of sopranos, and
the worst music in history, and remove any of the
card scenes, and increase the annoying girl scenes
10 fold, and have an hotel room tell my life story
thread, and u have the worst movie i have ever
seen. Considering wat the movie is supposed to be
about. The redeeming factors were that there were 7 of
us who had to suffer through the agony, and that
a lot of the latter half was in 4x speed. I have
never been so disapointed about a film ...