Poker From The Rail
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Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
“So you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
–Harvey Dent
When I think about the entry I wrote last night I think it’s important to elaborate on a few things, especially the continuing to unfold Cornell Fiji story.
I failed to mention that Steve had a considerable hand in creating the TJ Cookier comic (though it was addressed in the post.) I originally wrote the script while relaxing in Macau then sent it off to Steve to get his input, additions, and editing. This was roughly a week before the drama began to unfold. When the thread went up and began exploding with views Steve sent me (as well as his backers) a private message doing his best to explain himself and everything that happened. I agreed not to share the exact contents of that message, though a considerable bit of it was made public with his approval.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
The poker world can be a depressing place sometimes. I’ve stated more times than I can count that I think poker is an awesome career/occupation, but every now and then something happens within the poker community that creeps me out and makes me do a double take at the whole of poker society. In the case of the last few months, there’s been a few of those.
I remember not long ago the topic of Dr. Pauly’s blog came up in the ‘News, Views, and Gossip’ forum on 2+2. A number of people mentioned they didn’t enjoy his writing lately because it seemed he intentionally focused on the seedy side of poker, ranting about the various degenerates that populate the WSOP landscape and how it seems just about everyone is an asshole or an angle shooter. Regardless to their opinions, the posters were more or less right that such items tend to be the favored topics of discussion in his blog. Lately I’ve been thinking that Pauly doesn’t set out to focus on the shit side of things around him, but that the shit is so constant and prevalent he can’t focus on anything else.
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Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
As much as I enjoy grinding online, it doesn’t exactly give me a lot of material to write about. After so long of being exhausted by forcing myself to get up at 11am I’m now exhausted by forcing myself to get up at 10am, though it’s much easier to get to sleep early in Melbourne than Vegas. All I’ve been doing for the last couple of days is waking up, putting in my session, then relaxing in the evening as a result of being drained from my traveling.
The online tournament scene has changed a bit since I last played heavily. I’m seeing a lot more people aware of +cEV shoves and open shoving a considerably wider range between 11-16 BB’s. I’m also seeing a number of guys who three months ago were unheard of playing quite well and aggressively. People also seem a bit more stack size aware than three months ago, with less blatant mistakes being made at the higher stakes tournaments. However, things are still clearly very profitable for the expert tournament players and there’s a larger variety of tournaments than ever.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
With a few days to kill before the start of the Vic Champs I’m back at the online grind, which I’ve missed horribly. My normal day online begins by forcing myself awake at 10am and stumbling over to my computer sans shower. Then I fire up every site I intend to play on and register for all the tournaments in advance, preventing the all too common failure to register in time. After that I spend the next seven to nine hours playing up to about fourteen tables, though I normally average around eight or nine.
Although I honestly enjoy playing tournaments online, staying focused and genuinely interested for the entire session proves difficult. While I refuse to go so far as turn on the TV or watch a movie I’m always listening to music and browsing the internet, as well as occasionally having programs like AIM and MSN up, though I normally close those down when my session gets more hectic.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
The 90th day is finally upon me. A full three months of going to tournaments around the world and trying to write up every day of my life. Obviously, I’m a little tired. When I look back at what I’ve accomplished over three months I feel mostly proud, both of my work on and off the felt.
I feel like the blog has mostly been a success, although my falling behind by double digit days during some periods in the trip is a disappointment. I think the blog works more successfully on the reporting angle when the information is very recent, but to be honest if I forced myself to write up my day as soon as I busted each tournament I would’ve ended up killing myself. I’ve found trying to find something interesting and clever to blog about every day is actually quite difficult, as many days are kind of ordinary or bland. Also, since tightening up in live poker a little bit I think the hand histories themselves are somewhat less interesting, though I think the adjustments I’ve made are very much for the better in terms of my equity in the tournaments.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
Celina and I wake up around 2pm without the slightest disturbance from the hotel. I’m fairly certain the Chinese version of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign hanging on my door translates to “Get the fuck out of here. That means you house keeping.”
We leave the hotel in the evening after grabbing dinner and show up at the airport early. The airport staff has some problem about my passport and some kind of glitch about my not being allowed in the country, likely a left over from my ban two years ago. Celina does her best to translate the issue between us, and after half an hour of waiting around they clear everything up and let us advance.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
The live poker is over for a time now. All that’s left is to enjoy a day in Macau hanging out in the spa and browsing my various websites.
Spending all day in the spa is the kind of activity you can get used to, if not addicted to. I almost feel bad sitting here while people wait on me and give me massages, but then I remember how awesome it is. After three months of non stop travel spending a few days doing nothing but relaxing is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
I wake up a little before 11am, not bad given how late I got to bed and the fact that I knew I’d be jet lagged to the point that sleeping in would be difficult. I get dressed and eat one of the breakfast bars Kyle gave me in a gift basket. There’s a deep stacked tournament in the poker room at 12:30 that I have assurances will end before the 7pm start of the Red Dragon Macau Cup main event.
I go down to the poker room and play the event but wind up busting out early after being mostly card dead and cramming an open-ended straight flush draw on the turn which gets called by a made straight and misses.
Tags: Bond18
Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18
When we arrive at the hotel the front desk does not have our reservation. It takes a while for them to call up to the poker room and sort everything out while we sit in the lobby reeking of 30 plus hours spent on planes and in airports.
We get up to the room and I find it’s currently 10am. I don’t quite feel like sleeping anymore so I go down to get some lunch then try and find the poker room. We’re in the same hotel as last November and while the poker tables on the main casino floor are all still there with posters of various players, there is no actual poker in sight. I go back to the room and tell Celina I’ll be hitting the spa with the laptop to do some writing.
Tags: Bond18
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