Goodbye 2008

It is the last day of the year. The year was eventful to say the least. Of the notable things of 2008:

1. I started a new job
2. We made a very controversial decision on Council that lead a group to form that will try to unseat us in the next election
3. I played in a WSOP event
4. I lost about 28% of my net worth in the stock market
5. I lost 10 pounds (not all loses are bad)
6. I stared taking Taekwondo
7. I shot par on number 1 at Oakmont CC

I am running so well in 1/2 Limit O8. I am just playing for the nuts, and it is working well. I also have started studying "Your Own Worst Enemy" again. It is insightful. With I think I will set a goal for 2009 that my online BR grows to 1k.

I am so sore from yesterday's painstorm. It was brutal. My body is also pretty sore from so much TKD in a few weeks. It will be good to have 5 days off.

We sparred last night, and I did pretty well. I really worked on attacking off of my oponents makes. Counter attack's do seem to work. During my time off, I will work on my form and one-steps. Just a little each day will do.

I have 20 hours of CPE to finish by year-end. I think I can do it.

I had a decent weekend. I played pretty good poker. I did not go for a run on Sunday, but I did manage TKD on Friday and Saturday. I do need to work on my sparring. I think I will get a few DVD's to try to improve. Otherwise, it was a pretty good weekend.

I went to our rugby Christmas party last night. It was great to see the old boys again. Gary had some "surprise" waiting for us at Pipers Pub. I don't know what the surprise was, I didn't see it, but Bill said is was some guy.

I made it to the gym this morning. I did a pains storm called "Lance". Power Cleans, Step-ups, and side lunges. It was pretty tough. With 4 workouts and 5 Taekwondo classes, it has been a pretty physical week.

The diet has been off because of the Christmas, but I haven't gone overboard.

I attempted a split jerk of 155 this morning. Notice that I did not say I completed. The weight failed to reach the top of the lift, I guess I failed to put it there. Really it was a failure of concentration rather than a failure of muscle. I was working with 135 and getting it without much problem. I attempted 145 and made that too. When I was getting ready for my 155 pound attempt, I somehow forgot where I wanted my legs to go, and I think it threw me off. The bar was probably 5 feet in the air and there was no way for me to catch it as it came crashing to the gym floor. It made an incredible noise. My lifts are getting better as I get more confident and strong.

I made it to TKD for class today by chance as my planned meeting ended earlier that it was scheduled. That makes it more likely that I will get in my required classes in before testing. Now I just have to learn my one-steps. I will work on them and the kick reverse-kick portion of the form this week.

I ran yesterday and felt good doing it. My fitness is at a pretty good level right now. My weight is also hanging at 150 like I wanted it. Where I am not doing well is sleeping. I went to be early last night, but I woke up at 11 or so and couldn't go back to sleep. I hate when that happens. When my alarm went off this morning, I heard it, but I thought it was part of a dream. Wierd. I will get to be by 10:30 every night this week, except possibly Thursday when I have the Rugby party.

I overslept this morning. I just cannot wake up early as much as I would like to. So, I only got up early once. I have managed to get to the gym during the evening and lunch though, so my workouts are on track. I will try to change the waking up thing next week.

My poker play has been good this week. Since I stopped trying to multi-table, my results have been better. I guess I knew that.

My personal productivity is pretty low lately. That has to stop. I will work on that post-haste.

Last night, I did the 50-40-30-20-10 double-under and sit-up routing. My jump rope sucked. After the workout I did 15 minutes on the bike and Tabata pull ups. Today I do Nasty Girls. This is going to suck.

I have slept in for the past two days. Yesterday I went to lunch after a meeting with a banker so I didn't get to work out. In addition, I ate like crap. I really have to watch what I eat when I go out. It seems like I am back -sliding on my eating. I will work out at lunch today and hopefully get to bed early so I can work out tomorrow AM.

I managed to place second in an O8 SNG so my bankroll is building. I need to start keeping track again. I have stopped recently.

I made my goal weight. I weighed 150 this morning. I just need to watch my intake for the rest of the month. With the Christmas holiday, I hope I can keep a clean diet. Really the issue will be exercise. I just need to keep it up.

I played pretty good poker over the weekend. I am working on a poker probability book. I will treat it like school work. Once I am through that book, I can read the second Harrington cash game book.

I got an hour on my bike yesterday doing hill repeats on Bear Hollow Trail.

I am almost finished with my Louis L'Amour book. It was an enjoyable read, as most of his books are. I just wished I was reading it in the woods.

I woke up late this morning, but I made it to the gym. I did tabata something else. Man, that was a killer workout. I was completely gassed on the pull ups and push ups. I will go to TKD at lunch. This work has been good as far as working out and diet are concerned. I am only a few pounds away from 150, so even with some Holiday events, I will be able to get there.

The weight is coming off pretty well thanks to a good diet and consistent exercise. I am well on my way to reaching 150 by Christmas. If I lose a pound a week, I will get there. It will be difficult with the Holidays coming, but so far so good. I just need to be mindful of how much I eat.

I had a terrible night of poker last night. I just made bad passive plays. I will pull off a few hand histories and study them and I will not play until Friday night.

Currently I am reading a L'amor book that is awesome, as usual. I really like his style. This book is "Last of a Breed". It is not his usual cowboy book, but it does involve a native American in the modern military.

I made it to the new gym last night. I was unimpressed. There are too many machines and not enough free weights. I guess that is the way people like it, but it is a terrible waste of resources. A fraction of the cost could have been spent buying a few bars and plates instead of all the fancy machines. Also, there are at least 5 different locations to do pull ups, but all of them are funky angled handle configurations. What the Hell is wrong with straight bars? I had a discussion with my wife last night about the bars. People don't use the straight bar, so why put these funny angle bars in. The place also has no concept 2 rower. All in all, I do not really like the place. the only thing it has going for it is the 24 hour access.

On the poker front, I played a HORSE SNG last night and won 2cd. Not bad.

My poker play has been getting better on the virtual felt. On the real tables though it has not been good. Really that is a misstatement. We played Friday night, and I had some great reads, but things did not go so well. Early on, I lost my stack when my overpair lost to 2-pair. I knew I was against 2 pair, but was pretty much committed. Later I pushed all in with pocket Jacks after a raise and a reraise. I figured I was ahead, and I was JJvs1010vs99. Tommy tanked for a bit and called, as did Dan and Tommy caught a 9 on the turn. Those were my 2 big beats. I also let Billy push me around a bit.

I have been losing weight. I dropped the 5 pounds that I wanted to by thanksgiving. Now, I would like to drop another 5 by Christmas so I can weigh 150. I should be able to get there.

I overslept this morning. I was close to getting up in time, but I did not make it. I am so close though. I need to at least get some running in before the Turkey Trot. I think I can make it on the treadmill today and then I can get to the gym Thursday and Friday. I also need to work on my form for the tournament on Saturday. I probably should shadow fight as well since I am going to spar.

My poker is going well. I have started to re-read Killer Online Poker. It really just reinforced everything I knew. I was playing distracted, multi-tabling etc. I have quit that and as a result, I am playing better.

We went to Columbus this weekend to see the Steve Miller Band. It was a great show, very entertaining. I fell of the eat well wagon though. Actually I did not eat too bad, but I did drink more than I should have. I guess that is OK occasionally.

My poker game is in a rough patch right now. I am not playing very well. I have been mult-tabling and playing while not engaged. I really need to make an effor to concentrate on my game.

I actually woke up this morning and went to the gym. I did oversleep a bit, but I still got there. I worked a bit on my form and did some shoulder presses. I really have to work on the round kick, reverse side kick combo. I will work on that over the weekend

nothing to say, nothing to post

The weekend was pretty good. We had a Birthday party for our daughter and I went to the football game yesterday. Both were rather low-key. I managed to not drink too much yesterday, but I did little exercise.

I started to track my food on Daily Plate. I hope I can weigh 155 by Thanksgiving. I need to run more so I can do the Turkey Trot, so I need to incorporate running into my training. I may have to use the treadmill in the evening for this, which will suck, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

On the poker front, I have been a little reckless this week on AB. Playing way above my roll. Luckily, it worked out ok. I am not down. My chances of getting my bank roll up to 1k by the end of the year is shot. I will attempt 500 and shoot for 1k by Dec 2009.

On the workout side. I have not made it up once this week. I have however gone to the gym 3 times (well it will be 3 if I go today). I also made it to TKD 2 times this week and we rode our bikes last night. I would like a run or an early ride tomorrow. We'll see what happens. Next week I will try to get back into the early morning workouts.

I donked off 40 playing o/8 last night. I just played poorly. I thought I was better. I need to make it back.

I had a good weekend on the table. I managed to get my FT bankroll up over 50 by playing some stellar O8. I have really been playing well. I made the adjustments that I needed and the results have taken care of themselves. I worked on my double of nothing strategy on PS, but there is a problem. They do not increase like I thought they did, so I have to re-work the plan. I think I will just try to win $100 net from DoN's and then play in a $100 SNG.

I made it to the gym last night, but I did not make it this morning as I was up too late last night. So much for that.

On the poker front, I did win my $10 double of nothing SNG, so that is on track. One think I noticed was that the Juice gets higher as the tournament goes, so I should find a way to win the juice before I go on. I think I will change the rules so that I have to win 2 $5's before moving on. That will get take care of the juice.

WSOP 2009

After watching the final taped show of the 2008 WSOP I made up my mind that I want to go in 2009. That being said, I do not have the 10k I need to get there. So, I have a plan. I am going to try to win my way there. The first way is to progress through SNG's to see if I can win the 10k. Failing that, I will try to satellite in.

Plan A looks like this. I will invest $5 in a Poker Stars Double-or-Nothing S-N-G. I will then use the winning to buy in to a $10. If I win there, I will do a $20. I will continue this until I can get $200. With the $200, I will buy into a $200 SNG. I will keep buying into progressively higher SNG's until I reach the 10k.

As an adjustment to the above strategy, I may start pulling some of the money off the table as I move up to fund my WSOP.

If I lose and end up back to zero, I have to win my $5 before I can start the climb again.

In order to get to the 100, I need to win 5 10 20 40 80..

I started plan A last night and I won the 5. tonight I will try the 10.

On the O8 side, I think I forgot how to play. I need to read Kreigers book again before I play for real.

We got back from our trip to Disney. We had a great time. The daughter really enjoyed it, and that made if great for me. It really amazed me that she actually thought the princeses were real. I think she even thinks that Mickie and Minnie are real. I guess I never thought about it, but to her they are.

We had to Disney tomorrow. The wife has a conference and we are taking the daughter. The daughter is quite excited. I too am excited as it will be the first time I am back at the Coronado Springs Resort since my time on the HUG board. Back then I was there every year. I have a lot of good memories of the place. Also, I am anxious to see the magic through my daughter's eyes. Hopefully I can exercise a bit while I am there. I will bring my running shoes and maybe I can hit the weight room once. If I can run twice and hit the weight room once, I will be ok.

I will be out of town for the TKD testing, so I need to schedule a make-up test. I did it once before, so it shouldn't be a problem this time as I am still a beginner and I know my stuff. I will call the school today.

I lost my bankroll at Full Tilt last night. It all started a few weeks ago when I took the big hit, and it continued from there. I will continue my NL O8 there for a while with my goal of bringing that bankroll up to 100 by year end.

An old friend of mine died last week. He died from the flu. Really, he died from a life of excess, but the flu was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was sad to see his parents yesterday. It is amazing that in this day and age someone could take such poor care of themselves to end up in this situation, dead at 36. How is it that Shane Macgowan can live and Jake Norwood cannot.

I tried the new Matrix SNG's on Full Tilt. They are fun action-fests. I am not sure if they will be profitable over time, but the are fun. I will play a few tonight and Sunday along with some PS double or nothings to see how they work out.

Speaking of working out, I did Snatches last night. I tweaked my back, but enjoyed them. I set a PR of 105. I failed on 2 attempts at 115 and when I went back down to 95, I was amazed at how easy the weight went overhead, so I went with 105. I was able to get it with enough ease that I was tempted to try 115 again, but with tweaking my back, I thought better of it.

I did not go to the gym this morning as my back hurt. I will stop after TKD tomorrow and do some pull ups and dips.

I was holding a board in TKD yesterday and when the kicker put his foot to it, it flew out of my hand and straight to my face where it bloodied my nose and knocked off my glasses. Kind of funny, and not too much damage.

I played a little poker last night. I broke one of my new rules (I played two games at once). I lost a little bit of money playing NLHE and I broke even on the new Double or nothing SNG's. I don't know if the Double or nothing SNG's will work out, you need 70% winning rate to come out ahead, but I think with minimal work I probably could. It might be an easy BR booster. I will try a few.

Mountaineer

I went to Mountaineer yesterday and lost $200. The day started well. I made some money when I hit a flush and then I stacked a guy when I made a higher full house. After that, my play went down hill. Two big mistakes (one medium mistake really and one huge one). The first mistake was when I had 55. There was a raise and a caller. The raise wasn't that big and I should have called to see if I could catch a set. Of course a 5 came on the flop and I would have made a full house on the river. I should have called that original bet, but that isn't too big of a mistake. The next mistake I made. I had KK and made a raise PF. I got one caller. The flop came 429. Nothing scary here, so I be the pot. I was raised and I called. I should have slowed down here, what can this guy have? The turn was a blank so I pushed all-in. He had 42 for 2 pair. I completely married my KK. I forgot small hand/small pot. After his raise. I should have slowed down. What was he going to call with that I could beat. Actually I thought he was making a play at the pot and he would fold. He wasn't.

After I got home, I reviewed my previous posts about mountaineer and I found much more insightful posts from earlier this summer. I need to go back and read Harringtons books.

My Poker improvement plan for this week is:

1. Drop down limits in PL08
2. Verbalize thought process for hand reading
3. Go back to book one of Harrington on cash

Challenges

I did my first round of the October CF challange. 1 round of Cindy. I missed this moringing, so I will make it up tomorrow.

My other challenge is a personal challange. I want to turn $10.00 into $100.00 at UB. I have 3 months to do it. I am going to use Chirs Furgeson's rules.

1. Never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go for more than 5 percent of my total bankroll; the only exception is at the lowest limits: I am was allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less. I can also buy into a $1 sng
2. I will not buy into any multi-table tournaments for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll; the only exception was $1 MTTs
3. If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represented more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I have to leave the game when the blinds reached me

I have officially quit the 100 burpee challenge. I got behind and it just proved too much with everything else. I made it over half way, so I feel OK. I like the idea of the monthly challenges, so I may keep with them.

I have only made it to the gym twice this week so far. I am going to try to go tomorrow before tae kwon do. On Sunday I may just do a bicycle ride and some pull ups. It will actually work out as my daughter will be staying with my Mom. If I can wake up early, I can get in a nice ride. That should be incentive to not drink too much on Saturday.

Played in a home game on Saturday. It was a nice game. I busted out of the tournament pretty early, but made some money in the cash game, which is pretty standard for me. I did drink quite a bit though, but I guess everyone did as well. I have fallen way behind on the burpee challenge. Hopefully I can catch up over the next few days.

The wheels have just fallen off the McCain Bus

I am furious at the core of our party right now. Paulson’s plan will work, Bill Gross has agreed to help for no cost , some “Mickey-Mouse” concessions were made so Barney Frank (a Dem, but the brightest guy on the Banking Committee) and his party would go along. In the end, the plan is more like a taxpayer loan ,(like we gave Chrysler) and not a give-away. The taxpayer would likely make out on the deal. http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080925/REG/809259973

And then John Boehner steps in with an alternative plan. The plan is unworkable. He wants Financial Institutions to buy insurance on their MBS’s. They have no F’n money. If they had cash on hand, they wouldn’t be where they are now. If they have to buy the insurance, any new money they receive will go towards the purchase of this insurance, not to new loans. We need new loans to grow the economy. The GOP plan calls for tax breaks and reduced regulations to solve the problem. If only this problems was caused by tax rates and tight regulations, those would be a good solutions. The problem is liquidity, the financial firms need cash.

History will show that W has been right on the biggest issues during his term. The war, the recession after 9/11 and this. Now, the GOP in an attempt to distance themselves from him, comes up with an imbecilic plan that cut his legs out from under him. And what does John “the Maverick” McCain do? He kowtows to the extreme right of the party, just like he did with the Palin pick and allows the original plan to fail. Joe Lieberman is a maverick, John McCain isn’t.

Maybe John McCain is really just ignorant when it comes to economics. That is hard to believe as he stated early in his campaign that economics was his weakness, an intelligent guy would learn it by now. He did get some economic advisors, unfortunately they are mostly buffoons. Jack Kemp and Carly Fiorina are about a qualified to be economic advisors as Gilligan is qualified to be Navigator. I have to conclude then that he is stupid.

I should have just gone to bed

Instead, I played poker and lost money and slept in this morning. I am on life tilt.

Broken Record

Last night, I intended to play poker online for 1/2 hour. So I opened 3 tables (wtf, I said I shouldn't play 2 tables) and played for 2 hours. Result-I lost $40 and could not wake up for the gym this AM

This 100 Burpee challenge is kicking my but

I am on day 53. It is getting hard. I think the cumulative effect is hurting me. I have done 1,378 thus far (52+1)(52/2). I only have 3,672 to go. Even though I am over half way there in terms of time, I am only 27% completed with the number of burpees. Day 71 will see me reach the 1/2 way point as far as numbers go. I think I will try for a couple of big days before we go to camp to "bank some burpees" so I can do less while I am away.

I am all caught up with my burpee challenge. It is really taking it's toll on me. I am quite tired of burpees now.

I played poker online way too late again. Playing O8 I get into some weird pattern. I start off not paying attention and lose a bit of money. I then tighten my standards, pay attention and win back my money. If I cut out the first part, I could actually make money. I think I have a knack for the game and I can be profitable. I just need to play it better.

I played O8 last night and won some money. I still called a few more hands than I should have,but I stepped in the right direction, calling fewer than my mess on Friday. With work and discipline, I will get better.

I also need more discipline to wake up in the AM. Truthfully though, I plan to ride tonight so with TKD and biking, I didn't really need to wake up.

I wrote a post, but deleted it accidental. It was a good one, but I don't want to re-type it.

In a nut shell, Friday, I played cards like a donkey and lost money because of it. I know better.

Saturday, my wife threw a surprise birthday party for me. I got drunk.

Sunday I recovered.

I overslept this morning as a result of undersleeping. See, I went to bed late and lacked the motivation to wake up. I really have to wonder if I want to be in shape. My actions do not indicate that I do. Actions of course speak louder than words. I will get to bed early tonight, and I will crossfit tomorrow. I will try a hero work out, possibly Murph, no definitely Murph.

I did manage to win 15 last night in poker by playing some H'sU NLHE. Pretty cool there, but I am still playing too loose in O8. I have to work on that.

I drank too much , spent too much, excercised too little, and played poker over my limit. Luckily no real harm came from any of it. I am fat and hung-over, but I won $175 playing poker. I am going to concentrate on moderating my drinking over the next month.

Let me see your war face

I found this clip on youtube. OMG, I could listen to it for hours. This would be a fantastic workout song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNx12PnROrM

I ordered a picture from the WSOP. It is cheesy, I know, and I do not look particularly good in it, but I had to buy it to commemorate my trip.

I bought new running shoes last night. I got quite a deal. They were only $20.00. They were display models, so that may be the reason they were so cheap, but it is was likely a mistake. In any case, I have new running shoes. My calf is feeling better, so I will get back to running.

I completed 36 burpees last night. Today I owe 75. I am going to break them up in sets of 15.

I have started playing HORSE SNG's again. I have not done too well in them. The reason is my O8 game has been too lose. I need to tighten up a bit. It would probably help to go back and review Kriegers o8 book.

I have fallen behind in the Burpee Challenge. I have to do 36 and 37 tonight.

I got behind a day on the 100 burpee challange, but I caught up this morning. Today I have to do 32. I think I am getting stronger. I will knock them all out in a row tonight.

There is big movement in MBIA this morning in pre-market. My options have really paid off. I might be able to sell them soon to pay off some debt.

I am getting back into the swing of crossfitting. I have been designing my own workouts lately just so I can concentrate on pull ups. I may do this another two weeks just to see if I can get improvement. My plan is to do Mon Wed and Fri with high reps 50-100 pull ups per day with Tues and Thurs dedicated to weighted pull ups and dips. I also am on day 31 of the 100 burpee challenge. The burpeess are getting hard.

Chris and I went for a ride last night on the new trail at the park. It was a blast. Mainly it was fun because it was short and fast. We were really able to bomb it. It is up hill about half way and then down hill the other half. There is only on climb that is difficult, and even that isn't too bad. I think I want to try my single speed on that trail. I am going to give it a try.

I had a great night on the virtual felt. I won a HORSE SNG and I won 26 in NLHE. I won the NLHE money by calling an all-in bet with a pair of tens. I raised to 10x's the BB after two limpers and a player after me raised me the size of my bet. I was getting 3-1 so I made the call planning to bail to a scary flop. The raiser was pretty aggressive, so I figured I might be good. The flop came jack high. I checked and so did he. I didn't know where I was at this point. He either had an overpair or two high cards. Another rag hit on the turn and I checked again. This time, villain fired a bet that put me all-in. I had put close to 1/2 my stack in already. At this point I figured I was either way ahead or way behind. I had already saw this guy bully me out of pots. Given what I saw, my feeling was that I was not behind 50% of the time, so I called the bet to double up. After that, I had a few more good breaks.

I did fall a day behind on my burpee challenge. I will have to make it up tonight before my meeting

100-Burpee Challenge

Today is day 22 of the 100 Burpee Challenge. I am so far on track. It is much easier now to do all burpees on the appropriate date as it would be difficult to do so many in a day.

I passed my TKD test. I am now a yellow belt. I did well in my form and my one-steps. Given that I was way behind in my classes, I am happy to have this testing cycle behind me. I will now be head of the "beginners" group. I now need to learn the oaths.

I also ran the "Beat the Heat" race this weekend. I ran it in a kilt, which was pretty funny, if I do say so myself. But, my calves are now killing me. I do not know if it was the camber of the road or some other reason, but I am am pain now.

I slept in this AM, hopefully I can make it to the gym tonight.

Golf at Oakmont was a blast. I did not play very well, but I did par the hardest hole, number 1. I hit a perfect Tee shot, a good 2cd shot and 2 putted. It was unreal

OMG, I get (have) to play Oakmont today. I am kind of scared shitless. I am not a great golfer, really I am quite bad. This is one of the toughest courses around and I am expected to play it. At least it is unexpected as I probably wouldn't have slept last night knowing I had to play it. It will be interesting to see how I do.

I had a good night of poker last night. I won a 5.5 HORSE SNG and I also won 5 in a NLHE game. I have gotten away from playing as much and tracking. I will start tracking again in earnest as I attempt to build my bankroll back up to $1,000 by year end. I need to win $100/month. I think I can do it.

I missed TKD last night as I was at my previous job doing some training and some pension work. I will be really short on classes, but I know all my stuff. Tonight I will go and it will be my 11th class in the cycle.

I now am behind the 11 12 and 13 days in the 100-burpee challenge. I will be sure to get them done tonight.

The big vote is over

It went as I expected. We voted 5-2 to implement an overlay district. The crowd at the council meeting was pretty unruly, but we did what we said we would do. My political future now hangs in the balance. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I am behind in my 100 burpee challenge. I owe 8 from Monday and 10 from wednesday and must do 11 today. Maybe I can do 18 before Tae Kwo Do and then the 11 tonight. Then I really need to keep with it.

Too much to drink

I have noticed an unhealthy trend lately. I appear to drink more than the people I am with. While golfing yesterday, I drank more than everyone I was with. Of course I feel like crap today because of it. Also I made some ridiculous claims because of the beer, wtf? Who am I trying to impress? Myself maybe. In any case, it is now time to ratchet back the booze.

I am on day nine of the 100 burpee challenge. I did today's nine, but I still owe for yesterday's 8. I will do those later.

After our town hall meeting we went for drinks, and then I made the foolish mistake of playing poker. I was lucky to only loose a few dollars. Given what I made this week, it is a wash, so I will just start keeping track from now.

I also need to do 4 burpees tonight to keep up with the 100 burpee challenge.

I did a crossfit total this AM and missed my previous best by 10 pound. I am also 60 short of my 675 goal for year end. I thing I have been slacking a bit in my workouts anyway, so this could be the shot-in-the-arm I need. Also with the new Logsitall.com site to track CF WOD's I perhaps will have increased motivation.

On the poker front, I was able to win my money back from Monday. This was a result of better play, I played more selectively aggressive.

I made a terrible play last night in poker. I called a raise with A5d as I was closing the betting and the flop came Qd 6d 4s. I checked and the PF raise bet. The PF raiser bet 3 into a 5 dollar pot. I had 9 cards to the nut flush plus and overcard unless I was against a set of queens. So I basically had 12 outs. It was 3 to 1 against me to improve on turn. Could I get $9.00 if I hit? I think so. The turn was a 7h, which gave me another 3 outs. There was now 11 in the pot and my opponent went all-in for 16. I would be getting 1.7 to 1, which was not enough to justify my call, and I should have folded. the river bricked and my opponent showed JJ, an underpair. He read me perfect for a flush draw and I should not have paid him off.

Where did I go wrong? I think the flop. I think I should have raised. I was not that far behind, it was only one caller, and I had no reason to think he was ahead. He made a continuation bet, which may or may not have been good, but I let him have control of the hand. If I raised, he may have folded or he may have checked to me on the turn, making it cheaper for me to see the river. Anyway I played it wrong.

I just heard about the 100 burpee challenge. I am so geeked. I think I will give it a go. It basically goes like this. You do one burpee on the first day, two on the second, etc until you get to 100 on the 100th day. If you miss a day, you need to make up the burpee on the next day. The # can be broken up with as much rest as needed between. These are full push-up burpees.
Ready, set, go.....

I am going to run the local 5K in three weeks. I have not run all summer of course. That does not leave me much time to train, but I plan to run 3 times a week for the next 3 weeks which will help me I think. I will just taylor my crossfit to add some runs to my regular workouts. All the while, I have to work on my forms and one-steps as testing is the same day as the race. I do not think there should be a problem.

We went to a baseball game last night. It was fun. We had great seats and our college alumni club had a tailgate before the game. It was good to see a few old freinds and meet some new ones. I hope that the club suceeds as it is pretty new.

I did not work out this AM as I was tired from last night's festivities. I will try to squeeze Fran in tomorrow to make it a 4 CF week, which right now is my goal.

I haven't plan cards much this week with the tour being on and all. I will play a MTT tonight.

Well, I am back from an extended break. We had a great vacation. NC was cool, and I really enjoyed Al and Mo. Our children got along great. Hopefully we can all go away together next year. Offshore fishing was ok other than Al getting sick. The poor guy was vomiting for 8 hours. The seas were rough and he drank the night before, not a good combination. We fished for tile fish. Not the gamest of fish, but at least you brought some fish into the boat. I would rather have caught some tuna. Perhaps next year, we can go inshore on an open boat.

I went to Mountaineer on Saturday and lost some money. My main problem was playing too weak-passive. I am going to work through Harrington's cash game book over the next month and really work on my game.

Since my cash in the MTT on Saturday, I am been on a downward spiral. It is totally my fault. I have been playing O8, and not playing it well. I won't bore you with the details, as I have repeated my faults many times.

I have played pot-limit O8 this week, aside from playing too many hands and playing for only 1/2 the pot, I have done ok. I think if I can break those habits, this game can be a huge winner for me. I will play and track this over the next couple of weeks to see. I have one week until vacation, which will be free of poker, so I want to really play many hands over the next week.

On the fitness front, I slept in again today, but I will go to the gym tonight. This will make 4 CF workouts. I will also do TKD tonight and tomorrow. because I am going out of town, in a week, I should try to get to TKD 3 times next week. I also should buy the DVD with this form as I only have 2 months to learn it and I feel I am behind.

We played cards on Saturday night. The night was really mellow. It was strange how mellow it was. The game played very weak-tight. I managed to win $41 mostly by waiting and picking my spots. I also took advantage of Billy's propensity to call all-in bets even when he knew he was beat. One mistake I made was when I flopped as set of Kings against Ken and he kept betting. He bet the flop and turn and I knew he had to either have an over-pair, a big king or 2 pair. I checked on the river expecting to check-raise. But, Ken checked too. I should have just bet out as I think he would have called. That move cost me about 6 bucks. Not bad, but it is a mistake I make too often.

On the fitness front, I am getting back on track. I have been doing 10 pull-ups per set in my warm up, including 10 straight on the first set. I still need to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet

We made our selection of the new pension provider at my old place of employment. It was a great accomplishment as I have been working on the issue for as long as I can remember. In the end, it did not go to the provider I would have chosen, but it did go to a provider that probably best fits WPJWA. I think everyone is happy.

It has been several weeks since my last post and many things have happened since then.

I started my new job
I went to the WSOP
My replacement has been found for my old job.

The new job is going well. I am comfortable now and will start really rolling pretty soon. Everyone is nice and I see a real future here.

The WSOP was a great experience. I busted out on the first day, but given the competition, it was to be expected. I got bored though playing in the various card rooms. It was too much like work. Now that I am home, I want to focus more on investing and less on cards.

I am in my transition week. The week between ending work at my old job and starting work at my new job. I am playing Mr. Mom. So far it has been easy. The daughter has slept in both days. We went to the Children's Museum yesterday and we will go to the park today. I do have to go to the new job this afternoon to meet the staff. It will be exciting.

Tomorrow I go to Mountaineer to get a full day of practice before WSOP. The funny thing is I have made the transition to NL and I am doing quite well. I think I will play NL tomorrow for most of the day. The key is just playing for 8 hours and trying to read hands, so I don't think it will matter much what game I play.

lll

I managed to donk off $25 last night playing o8. The reason was simple. I played like a clown. I played distracted, which is terrible in any game, but seems worse in O8.

I did manage the gym 3 times this week plus Tae Kwon Do twice. So that was good.

I am excited/nervous about my new job. It is getting close

I skipped work yesterday and went to Mountaineer. I played 1/2 NLHE as it was the only game they had running when I got there. Plus, I figure that is the game I should be learning anyway. I was a bit intimidated because most of the people were regulars. As a matter of fact, the guy two seats to my left claimed to be a professional. The guy two seats to my right was a pretty good regular as well.

The day started off well when the pro raised PF and a loose player about midway around called. I looked down in the BB with 33. As I was ending the betting and there were 3 other players, I called. The flop came down 232. I checked, the PF raiser bet and the loose player called. I raised. PF raiser called and the loose guy folded. I thought I would get two callers. I bet the turn and the Pro started bitching about knownin he was against A2 and he called, even though he acknowledged that I was going to go all-in on the river. I did and he called. I doubled up. He then went on to bitch about my play chasing out money. I told him that I got him to put in $100, I bought in light. He then bitched about people not knowing how to play. Yada, Yada, Yada. I don't think he could be much of a pro. I bought in light and was playing a good small-stack strategy.

Later an uber-short stack looked in his wallet to rebuy and then went all-in on a raggy flop. The pro called and was beat by low pair when his flush draw didn't hit. He made to mistakes here. He was behind and could not make any money, so he should not have called the draw. Also he didn't understand the guy's motives. After hearing him bitch, I tried to explain it. I don't know why, I was just tired of hearing him gripe. Pschyologically, that guy attached no value to those chips and was willing that his cards were best. Not a great move, buy one you see all the time. The pro just didn't get it.

Towards when I was going to leave, I picked up KK ( I raised different amount each time I got KK) and raised. I got four callers. Not what I wanted. The flop came 3XX. I bet the pot and got one caller, the guy to my right. Uh Oh, what can he have. I wanted some pot control here. He either has a high pair or a set. Turn brought a K. Bingo for me. Maybe he has AK, or maybe he thinks I have it and will bet his set for value, so I check after he checks to see if I can make some money on the river. On the river, he leads out for 35. I raise 70. He starts bitching that he is going to call and before I show, he is going to call my hand. He puts his money in the pot and declares "you have a set of k's or J's and I know I am beat, you sucked out on the turn or river". I then asked him why he called if he knew he was beat. He said he wanted to show the table what a good read he is. Man was that just a dumb call. If he raised the flop, I probably would have called and won more, but why would he have done that without a set. Anyway, the guy was totally tilted.

In all, my reads weren't steller, but I picked my spots well.

I have been having success at poker once again. I think it has to do with PNLHE. I am playing small pot/large pot much better. I made money online this week and also made money at our home game on Saturday. On Saturday I picked off on of Billy's bluffs and called him down with Ace High. I called his turn bet because I just couldn't put him on anything and then he checked the river and I checked behind. My Ace high beat his king high. I also bluffed Chris of out a few pots with continuation bets. He would often call my PF raise but fold to a continuation bet, so I tried to isolate him as much as possible. In all it worked and was a productive night.

On the fitness front, I am still a slacker. I made it to the gym three times last week. Hopefully this week I can make it four.

I am sore. I did a CF WOD that consisted of 21-15-9 cleans and dips. I was very happy with my form on the cleans. I used light weight, but I was more concerned about form than weight. My traps are very sore today. I plan on doing the running WOD tomorrow and a CF workout on Friday. If I accomplish that, I will have completed 4 wo's, which is my goal. Yea for me.

On the poker front, I have been doing very well lately. Professional No Limit helped me a great deal. I am keeping small pots for my small hands and thus not getting committed. I would like to skip work one day next week to go play live. I was going to go Friday, but there are a few interviews for my job scheduled. I have to look at what is on my schedule.

I only blogged once last week. Not a lot happened last week though.

The big event was the annual Derby Party/Meatfest. I say it was a blast. It was a ton of work, but the food was great and it was great to see all our friends. My wife has said that it got too big and she wants to do the July cookout in it's stead next year. I can't say that I blame her.

I have one month to go until the WSOP. I really need to ramp up my training. I will start looking at the odds chart this week.

Mountaineer

I went to Mountaineer this weekend. I lost $200, but was generally satisfied with my play. My lost can be attributed to one hand. I pad pocket fours and called a limper immediately to my right. The flop came Kd4dTc. The limper bet out and I raised her. I had her on a King. She didn't raise pre-flop so AK or KK was out. Also, I didn't see her betting draws. Her Range here was KT KQ KJ. I popped here for a raise and she just called. She again bet the brick on the turn and I re-riased and she just called. The river brought another K and she went all-in. She either just filled up to beat me, or made trip Kings that would lose to my full house. Well, she filled up. I don't think I could have played it much better. I don't think I could have folded in that spot, with most of my money already in the pot.

Later I doubled up again when a LAG made a full house on the river against my higher full house. I lost some of that back when I had KK and couldn't shake a player that called my flop and turn bets. The river completed the flush and str8 draws. I checked the river and folded to a 1/4 pot sized bet. In retrospect, I probably should have made a $30 blocking bet or called the bet. The player was loose and was capable of making a play on my shown weakness. He acted like he wanted a call. I had it in my gut that I was beat, but I don't know if I win the pot 25% of the time. Looking back, there are many ways I could have played the hand differently, but I just don't know.

Reading Harrington has really helped. I made less mistakes that I normally make in NLHE. I exercised good pot control and I think I played better starting hands. I just to continue to study the text and work on the concepts. I also need to work on my hand reading skills. I think I can transition to NLHE. This might not be the best time to make the switch given that I am going to play limit in the WSOP, but I think each game will help the other.

My biggest challenge will be to practice my hand reading.

I put some Grubex on mom's lawn last night. I didn't see any evidence of grubs, but she has a mole problem. I think I will put some mole control on her lawn next. I also need to put weed n feed on her lawn. It is such a small lawn, it doesn't take long.

I played in one HORSE SNG last night and I came in 3rd place, at least I cashed. I have been reading PNLHE and Psychology of Poker. PNLHE is to improve my cash game performance as I have been playing NLHE recently the Psychology is to improve my overall game for the WSOP. One of the mistakes that I am making is playing distracted. I cannot apply rating of players if I don't pay attention. This has at added downside of hindering my hand-reading ability. If I don't know what type of player I am up against, I cannot properly put him/her on a hand. I will really have to concentrate on this. What is the point in preparing if I don't follow through on the things I learn.

Speaking of poker, I am going fishing this weekend which means that I am going to go to a casino. I will play Saturday night and Sunday morning. I think I will attempt NLHE. I think I am sufficiently through Harrington's book given that I read PNLHE to give it a go. The one adjustment I must make is playing small hands only in small pots. This means I cannot overplay top-pair hands. I will try to keep my cbets smaller on a dry board (1/2 pot) and I will also not cbet every hand (made hands or draws alike) . I may also play some limit, depending on how it goes.

Yesterday was election day. My predictions were came true. Hillary won big, and I really think she now has a real shot at getting the nomination. There are certain arguments that she can make, that will be palatable to the convention. Barrack is supposed to be a person that can unite people, but he cannot close the door on her. If he could do what the media portrays he can do, it would be over.

On the local level, my candidate for State Senate lost. While it sucked, and I feel bad for my friend, it was a result I expected. Our opponent was better known and better funded. Again is was Chris's first campaign so he was relatively unknown. Maybe he will do better next time. What really bothers me is that he was endorsed by his party. I do not know what good a party is if it cannot deliver the endorsed candidate.

I went for a long road ride yesterday. It was fantastic. My legs are a little sore today, but boy was it fun. I may take my bike with me this weekend to Racoon Creek.

On the poker front, I managed to get my mojo back and win a SNG. I am pushing draws too much when I play HORSE. I also am playing too loose in O8. I should only play where I am playing to scoop or for the nuts with at least 3 people.

I had 3 Arrongant Bastards last night, and today I feel like crap. The same thing happened last week. I must check the alcohol content. It is my bet that it it high. I mean a 3 beer hang-over c'mon.

In preparation for the WSOP I have really started to concentrate on my game. I have re-read Weighing the Odds and I am re-reading Physchology of Poker. Two things have struck me. I pay little attention to my opponents and I play when I have no, or little edge when I play cash games. I need to slow down and really pay attention to my opponents. Last night I played 2 HORSE SNG's and I can pinpoint at least two mistakes I made. I will dissect them below.

A late-position player raised PF. I called on the Button with KJo. This was not a terrible call as his range could have been wide. I really don't know though as I hadn't really watched him. The flop came 9K6. He bet and I raised. He flat called my raise. What could that mean? The turn bricked and he fired out a bet. What could he have here. It should be clear that he is not afraid of the King and my raise. How strong is my King? Not very. How much equity do I have now? Not much. Should I call here? Nope, I should either raise or fold. Is my hand strong enough to raise with? Nope. Easy fold then. What did I do instead? You guessed it. I called the turn and river and my opponent tabled AK. I was beat, and I knew it. At least I recognized it. I need to take this thinking further and fold quicker.

The other mistake came later. During Razz I had a hand that I knew crushed an opponent on the flop and I just kept checking to let him in the hand hoping he would catch a little something. I should have just bet out and took the antes. He wasn't likely to call me later unless he beat me. Instead I checked a high probability winner all the way until it was a loser.

I also found on youtube Caro's tells. So I don't have to buy the DVD.

We I told the ED today that I am leaving. He took it quite will. It was not at all what I expected. He did hint at a counter-offer, but I told him that I wasn't leaving for the money, so no counter-offer would keep me. We will see how he acts going forward there is speculation that he will take it out on others

Tax season is almost over. I have 3 returns and 2 extension to do. I was going to go fishing on Friday, but it does not look likely to happen. I had campaign finance reports to do that took way too much time because the underlying records were a mess, I guess that is to be expected from the candidate. Anyway, with the 3 returns, I think I need Friday night and Saturday morning to finish them. Even as I write this, I still fancy going fishing. I will see how much I can crank out tonight before making a final determination.

We played cards on Friday. I did bad. I took a couple of bad beats and went on tilt. Combined with too much Shiner, I just generally donked it up. I Should have folded when I knew I lost to a full house, even though Ken should not have called with his two pair. My Ace Queen TPTK should have won, but Mark decided to play Q5 and I should not have gone all-in on Q5 with Burke's raise. Those were my big mistakes. Reading Professional NLE is helping though as I am starting to understand poker a little bit now. I will play only occasionally this week as I have a ton of work to do.

I am still on a huge poker down-swing. This is mostly from playing poorly. I must stay away from SH limit games, especially those above my roll. I also must stop playing distracted. I know these weaknesses, but I make the same mistakes over and over. The real issue is the way I am looking at the game. I have to play more focused. The object is to win money. I must seek out the weak players and exploit them.

I stayed up too late again frittering away good poker money. It is the same culprit over and over. Maybe I just suck. I think I am ok at the game, just bad at managing my psychology. I will add "why you lose at poker" to my current reading list. I also will make an effort to tighten up this weekend.

I did make it to the gym 3x's this week. I will go tomorrow and thus will have 4 workouts in. Pretty good, if I say so myself.

I bought Professional No Limit Hold'em last night and started to read it. My main goal is to improve my bet sizing so I can hold my own when I play. I understand limit hold'em so well because I have studied it so much. I am at a loss at no-limit, but since it is played more frequently, I would like to have a better understanding of how to play it. I still need to study limit hold'em for WSOP, but I should spend some time with this book to improve my NL game.

One mistake I made in my play last night was that I drew to an OE str8 with only 1 opponent. I was not getting correct odds, but I still made the play. I should have known better. I even used DIPO and knew that I didn't have the right odds, but I still made the call. That was just dumb. It is mistakes like this that I can not afford to make.

I played poker at my cousin's house on Saturday. I did pretty well, cashing in 2 of the three games. Competition is very poor there, so that helped my game. They do not know the importance of M. At the end of the night, there were only 4 of us left, and I explained M to them. Hopefully they do not explore it. I drank too much beer while I was there. I wasn't quite drunk, but I did have 7 beers over the 5 hours I was there.

We went to a buffet for Easter brunch. It was lousy. Maybe next year we can just eat at home. I know that isn't likely.

This week, I will try to get back into the groove of eating well and being productive.

I am in the middle of a terrible bankroll-busting down turn. It has resulted from playing distracted, above my roll, and in a pain tolerance level described by BT. This happens periodically to me and I guess it is natural. I just need to control it. So, I self-excluded myself from FT for 3 days and PS for one day. Once I start playing again on Friday, I am going to limit myself to 1 MTT tournament, maybe horse. This will give me a few days to cool off and I should be a couple of chapters through Weigh the Odds. Plus, it will give me time to work on some other areas of my life.

I have started to win again in poker. I am doing my best to keep my focus. The lack of focus is what usually costs me money. This is why I should not play distracted.

I have made my plan for WSOP. I pretty much have my trainning down on paper. Now I just need to execute. Basically it involves studying strategy books, hand histories and odds plus playing both live and tournaments. I will spend the next 2.5 months really concentrating on being a good poker player and hopefully I will cash in the WSOP.

I am also working on my personal finances. I have bought Larry Wingets new book and I am redoubling my efforts to eliminate my debts and then building financial security. It will not be easy, but it is so worth it. I want to be debt free by 12/31/2008. My hardest part will be getting control of the money my wife spends on my behalf. It seems like I am always blindsided when it comes to the bills she pays. I need to get a better handle on those. To that end, I am going to request an ongoing accounting of what she pays that I will owe for. This will allow me to plan better.

I donked off many dollars yesterday playing O8 like a moron. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I kept doing it. I don't know why. It is just one of those weird things I guess. I really should focus on playing my A game all the time. Again though, that is one of those things; everybody plays less than his A game at times, the person that plays his A game more often wins more often. I need to just play my A game more often. This means that I cannot play distracted, like at work with the minimized game looking over my shoulder.

I am a bit under the weather today. I have a touch of the could that my daughter had and my wife has. Luckily for me, it isn't really putting me down, but it did make it easier for me to skip the gym today. If I work out tomorrow and then run or ride on Sunday, I will still have a 4 workout week. Of course this is one short of the goal, but still not bad.

Tax season is heating up. Although I have pushed some stuff out the door, I still have a queue growing. At least I have some time this weekend to get some work done. I think I know where I need to be and if I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I can get it all wrapped up.

I increased my pull ups this morning as planned for my quest to do 100 pull ups. I was able to do all but one set unbroken. Given that I was pretty tired this morning, I feel pretty good with my result. In the next four weeks I will certainly be able to get through all sets with some extra work. After I can get through all sets I will work on time. My goal is to beat my Murph time of 56 minutes. After I get up to 10 on my pull up ladder, I will add some running before and after to simulate Murph.

I have gained some fat around my middle. I have to lose that. I will be able to do that by watching my diet and adding some cardio.

We had a great weekend skiing. We received 12 inches of snow on Friday night so Saturday skiing was fantastic. Hanging with the cousins was great. We also ran into some old friends that we went to visit on Sunday on our way home. Their house is fantastic. The are right near the entrance to the ski resort we will have to keep in touch with them.

Richard and I agreed on a start date. June 2 it is. A formal offer letter is forthcoming. This is later than I thought, but a least it is concrete. I will likely give my notice sometime in March so my current company has some time to fill my position while still giving me a chance at some consulting fees. Of course I won't do anything until I get my official letter. I would like to finish the Friday before Memorial Day and take that week off. I could then rest and get myself ready for my new job and the WSOP.

With my new job, I will start a new life. I am looking to become the person I want to be. Richard will serve as a better mentor than Tony for sure.

I am starting to make headway with my tax work. I will start pushing work out the door today. For the next 6 weeks, I will be busy, but I can really use the money.

I have been bad regarding the gym. I have only went once this week as I am staying up late doing taxes. I will go tonight and then again tomorrow.

I went to Wheeling Island on Friday. It was a disaster. I started at the 1/2 no limit table as there was no 2/4 table running. At 7:30 am on Friday there were only 2 tables running-1/2 and 2/5 no limit. I took a big hit when I raised preflop and only got one caller then made a continuation bet of 20. I had seen the villain call preflop and fold to bet on the flop before. He called my CB. I checked on the river and he fired a bet. I had to fold, but I put the move into my mental notebook hoping to use it again. That hand cost me $30. Several hands later, I raised early with AQo and got re raised. The raiser was fairly aggressive, so i checked the XZQ flop as did the other four players. The raiser bet and I was the only caller. He made so speech about "of course, one guy has to stay". I knew I had him beat. The turn brought an 8 and I pushed my remaining chips into the center. He called and showed 88 for a set on the turn. I do not think I could have played that hand differently. I reloaded and won back 50 before I got called to an open 2/4 limit table.

At the limit table I flopped a set and was between to players one with an obvious str8 and the other with an obvious flush draw. I was getting 2:1 on my money and putting in less than that, so I had to call the whole way. The board never paired and I lost 30 on that hand. Had I won, my day would have been better. After that, I do not think I won a hand for the rest of the day. Before I go again, I should look at the starting hands in WLLHE for a loose table.

I managed to come out ahead by $20 at the cabin. I played well in the 2cd and 3rd game. I played like crap during the 1st.

I have made it to the gym 4 times this week. I think I am finally in the groove. Even when staying up late, I have managed to wake up. I think I am in the right mindset. Pull ups have become amazingly easy. My kipping technique is pretty good. Also my Monday morning routine has contributed to an overall improvement as I figured it would. I am going to keep it up.

Tomorrow is skip day for me and Mark. We are blowing off work to play at Wheeling Island. Hopefully I can win.

We went skiing with our cousins this weekend. It was loads of fun. I think with my new training, I am a better skier. I guess it makes sense as my core is much stronger I am able to ski better. I did spend too much money as we went out to eat twice and both places were on the pricey side. We are going again in 2 weeks. Hopefully I can spend less money when I go up again.

I booked my flight to the WSOP. I will play in event 12. I will book the rest soon.

My bankroll keeps sinking. This is because I am playing so poorly. I am making the same mistakes that I have been making for years, and promising to stop. For some reason I do not stop. Calling raises with marginal hands, not being aggressive enough, but most importantly I am not paying attention to the game.

On the plus side of life, I have made it to the gym 3 times this week already and will hopefully go tomorrow for 4 days.

I had quads 3 times this weekend but still managed to lose. Because of the bonus at FT, I have been multi-tabling. I know that this is a mistake, but I wanted to clear the bonus. What good is it though if I lose more than I can clear?

On Friday I played in the $1.00 HORSE event at Stars. I went out in 78th place. 72 st paid, so I bubbled once again. I was playing another game at the time I played the tournament, so I am sure that lead to my loss. I think I can cash in this and I am going to work towards it. I just need to concentrate and tighten up a bit in OHILO.

So I deposited money into two of my poker accounts today. I did this at the end of a two-tableing mess. I played 2 short-handed tables this morning for some dumb reason. I know that 2 tabling is dumb, yet I did it anyway. At least I played short-handed to make it worse. Sometimes I just do dumb things. I guess that is the nature of poker. He that makes dumb moves less often than his opponents will win in the long run. This is a minor setback in the larger race.

I made it to the gym this morning. I slept in yesterday. I did my planed mini Murph today. I will keep doing that on Monday or my first workout of the week until I can do it up to 10. I did manage to run on Sat and bike on Sun, so I did work out 4x last week. I have noticed too much fat around my middle, so I have to clean up my diet and add some cardio. If I start getting to the gym on a regular basis, this should be no problem. Also, I need to cook more meals at home. When I cook meals, I seem to do better.

I do not know if it is my cold or some other force (laziness), but I just can't seem to wake up for the gym. Next week is a new week, and I will really concentrate on it. Hopefully I can run once and make it to the gym once this week for 4 days, which is not too bad. I want to keep the ladder workout every Monday as I think that will be key to increase my pull ups, plus it is a good workout. I will shoot to go to seven in Feb, 8 in March, and so on until I get up to 10 in May. If I get to ten, that what will be 100 pull ups 200 dips and 300 squats. That would get me into awesome shape.

Boy did I make a dumb move last night. Playing a $5 sng I was cruising along nicely in 3rd place with 6 left I found AQ on the button. Flop came TQ4. BB bet minimum as she was likely to do with small pair which she would fold to raise. UTG+3 bet 3x BB. I doubled UTG+3 bet. BB folded UTG+3 went all in. I though for a while. If I folded, I would still be in decent shape and I knew not to go broke with one pair. But, for some reason I pushed all-in and was called by Q4. IGH. I knew I shouldn't have played, but I was tired. I have no other explanation for what I did. I was just tired and made a bad decision. I risked my tournament life when, I really knew I was beat and I did not have to make such a move. I guess I will just file that in the things not to do again column.

Weekend recap

On Friday I played in a final 20-person SNG to tune up for Saturday's tournament. I won the whole thing. I did it by playing my M to perfection. It also helped that early on I eliminated 3 players on one hand. That is right, I quadrupled up in the very early stages with my nut str8. I caught the str8 on the turn and the betting went bet, raise, re-raise all-in me, call call call. I thought for sure I was splitting, but the guys had either 2 pair or the low end. This stroke of luck enabled me to withstand a ridiculouse suckout late and still win the thing. I was confident going into Saturday.

On Sat night, I played well. Maybe a little loose, but I was still in the final 2 tables. As soon as we got down to 2 tables my M was 4 and I started to go all-in. Luckily mostly I wasn't called and after 3 times my M was 7 and I was in good shape. Ken went all-in and was called by the player to his left who was short and I called with AK and had the other guy covered, but was short of Ken. The other guy and I both had AK and we split the side pot and I won the side pot. My M was up to around 10 and I could tell from table discussion (they were openly discussing the wild nature of our table with all of the all-ins) that most of the table did not know the proper strategy. With an M of 10 and hearing some moaning, I figured I would slow down a bit. Then this hand came up. Ken bet 600 and was raised all-in 1,700. I had the raiser covered, and possibly Ken. I looked down to find KK. I re-raised all in. Ken reluctantly folded and villian turned over AA. I did not improve. Looking back, I should have just called hoping Ken would have entered and then going all-in on a non ace flop. I don't know though, I had to figure that I had the best hand and was trying to get my money in the middle. As it turned out, that was the hand that crippled me. I lost a little while latter when Ken sucked out on me.

After the tournament I played in a cash game with some really bad players. I played my normal selective-aggressive play. I also took full advantage of a drunk guy on my right. I ended up winning 40 for the game and thus 10 for the night. The take-away is that I played pretty well. I am studying a NLHE tournament book and hopefully I can win the next one.

Questionable daddy skills

Last night my daughter wanted to go out, and I didn't feel like staying in the house either, so I took her to Barnes and Noble. I knew that we were going to violate one rule, that being bed-time at 8:30, but I figured since we break that rule every time mommy is away, it wasn't a big deal. The other rule I broke was the "always watch the daughter like a hawk rule". I usually break this rule every time I am responsible for the daughter (it isn't saved for the special occasions when my wife isn't home for bedtime). So we get to Barnes and Noble and I grab two personal finance books and head to the children's section with Abby to let her play with the train and look at books. I was seated at a small table and Abby was wandering around checking everything out. The place was pretty empty, which by the end of this event I was glad of, and thus it was pretty quiet. A strange sound broke the silence. It sounded like a large deck of cards, large in size and number, was just riffle shuffled. Immediately following the strange noise a sweet voice said "I guess I better pick these all up". I immediately recognized the voice as the one that belongs to my daughter. As I walked over to where the noise came from, I noticed thin children's books scattered all over the floor and a half empty rotating wire display rack. Abby was calmly putting books back into the display. I asked here what happened and she replied that she was spinning it and she guessed she got it going too fast. I guess she somehow overcame the centrifugal force that should have kept them in their place. It was funny to see her response was so laissez-faire we just picked up the mess and moved on. This shows her nature I guess.

I managed to get to the gym this morning. I was late, and my workout was short, but I made it. Tomorrow I will do 4 X 400 on the treadmill with a 2 minute rest between sets and then I will make it back to the gym for Friday. Hopefully I can squeeze in a workout on Sunday for 4 x's this week.

I also did a little work on the investment club. I have really slacked on that task. I am going to shift a portion of our holdings into a S&P 500 index fund and then shoot to have 5 other stocks. I think this is a strategy that will work. The ETF will get us market returns while the other 5 can outperform. The amount that is in either category will depend on how confident I am in my stock picks.

I have got to get my groove back

I have been slacking in the workout category lately. I just seem to stay up too late and not wake up. I know how to change that, I just need to commit to wake up early to Crossfit. The wife is away so I can do it tomorrow, but I will not be able to leave the house early on Thursday. I can still get 3 workouts in if if make it to the gym on Wed and Fri and do a treadmill run on Thursday, so that is the plan.

I ate well last week, but so far this week I haven't done so well. I think a large part of this is that last week, I did the shopping and the cooking. Jane has done it this week thus far, and she isn't as nutritionally motivated as I am. I have to pack my lunch for the next few days and try to incorporate some more fruits and vegetables into my daily diet.

I went to DC this weekend to spend some time with and old friend. We did all kinds of guy stuff. We drank too much, rode mountain bikes, ate steak, and went to the NRA shooting range. It was all good stuff.

Job

I had lunch with Richard yesterday, and we are getting closer. He has the re-org plan almost done and I a going to start going to his office next week to look over the company's financials and his personal financials so we can finalize the re-org plan. The fact that he is opening up his personal financials to me is a huge step in the processes. He has several large projects right now and he is realizing that in today's market without adequate forecasting/budgeting mechanisms in place he is potentially losing money.

We are still on track for spring, so end of March is still looking good, possibly April 1. So I think I will give my notice for the Feb board meeting. That will give this company 4 weeks to find a replacement and still probably provide some opportunity for some consulting.

Playing HORSE last night, I made one big mistake. I had about 1/2 of the chips at the table with four or five players left and I decided to try to complete a draw against the next biggest stack. About midway through the hand I realized that I was drawing for no good reason. If I won, it would be great, but a big stack would not be playing a speculative hand, so I was drawing against a made hand when I did not need to. Of course I folded, but I lost precious chips. If I had not played, I would have accomplished two things. First, I would have maintained my chip lead, and second, I would have denied the other big stack more chips, As it ended up, I finished second to the guy I gave my chips to. I can chalk this up as a lesson learned.

The new year has started, but my new habits really haven't. Well, that is not entirely true. I am budgeting my money and I am eating better. I am still playing too much poker and not waking up in time to crossfit. Also, I am not keeping up with our investment club. I really need to get on the stick.

My wife is out of town for a few days, so I will try to work out at home and do some productive things in the evening.

The Fisher Rides again

The Fisher is now a single speed. I was able to get the chain line right by replacing a spacer with a cog that I wasn't going to use. Ultimately, I was able to use mathematics to calculate where the rear cog should go. Also, I was able to remove two links from the chain and thus remove the chain tensioner. The looseness of the chain may have been a part of the problem as well as the alignment. I do not know, but the bike seems to run. I will take it our for some further testing over the next few weeks. I do not know, but it seems to work.

My diet is a bit off thus far this week as I haven't really planned my lunches well. Next week I need to plan better.

I have only cross fitted once this week. The wife has had to leave early the last two mornings so I haven't made it to the gym. I will attempt tonight. Cindy is the WOD, but I might do a slight modification where for 20 minutes I do the Cindy exercises substituting dips for push-ups. It will go something like this: do as many pull ups as possible, once you fail move to dips and do as many as possible, once you fail move to squats and do as many a possible. Once you fail, repeat. I think I will just stick with Cindy

No luck with the singlespeed

I still cannot get the rear wheel lined up on the Fisher. Just when I think it is good to go, I hop on and pedal to the same effect. Some times it is smoother than the other attempts, but it ends up the same. I have a few choices now. I can give up, I can get a different spacer set, I can take it to a bike shop, or I can give it one more try.

On the surface, I would like to give it up. I don't really need a single speed, I just thought it would be fun experience to build it. I don't think I have this in my heart though. I just hate to quite on anything. Especially something that I think I SHOULD be able to do. If I don't quit, I must then take another action. For now, I won't quit.

I have tried various methods of lining up the cog, but I have failed in each attempt. This is not really a surprising outcome as I am not very talented when it comes to these kind of things. I cannot do a lot by sight. The Surly web page had an article on how to use measurements and math to calculate where the rear cog should go. I think I will calculate this tonight to see if I can line it up with my current spacers. If I cannot, I will call Dirty Harry's to see how much they would charge. I will then evaluate at that point what to do going forward.

The Fisher Single Speed is giving me fits. I cannot seem to get it right. The chainline must not be straight. I have tried many different configurations of the spacers, but none seem to work. Also, I did not completely follow the directions on the chain tensioner as I did not have a cone wrench, so that may be an issue. I think it is more likely though that the spacers are not adequate. I think I will try to shorten the chain and just ride it without the tensioner for now.
This project is not as easy as I tought it would be.

I overslept again this morning. I do not really know why. I was in bed at a reasonable hour. It was later than I originally planned, but I stayed up to watch the Iowa Caucus. I just do not remember hearing my alarm. It is time to switch the tone and go to bed earlier.

Today is the first paycheck of the new year, so it is time to implement good budgeting. I am going to work on budgeting each paycheck first so I can get a good handle on my finances. After I have that dialed in, I can move to monthly/yearly budgeting. I will incorporate that into my weekly review, that I am also going to start implementing today.

The new year has started off pretty much like the old one ended. I played poker too late and slept through my last two scheduled work outs. I guess that will have to fit into my resolutions for 2008.

In the past, I have made elaborate lists of several resolutions. This year I am going to keep it simple as there are only a few areas that I truly fall short of my ideal behavior.

1 First and foremost, I am going to spend less than I earn. The first step is better personal budgeting. With the earning that I am not spending, I will pay off debt.

2 I am going to sleep more. I will aim to be in bed by 10:30 every night. This will enable me to crossfit in the morning.

3 I am going to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetable per day. This won't be hard, it is just something I must do.

4 I am going to keep up with the BBBIC. This project has not been well-managed for the last 2 year.

5 I am going to implement and follow GTD