Only lost 1 pound this month. But to coin a poker term: I think I "found my leak" this month. I guess it was that 12-piece pizza binge I went on that didn't do me much good. From what I have researched, 1 piece of a large-sized pizzeria pizza is 270-350 calories. So my pizza intake that day was around 300 x 12 = 3600 calories!! Also, regular crust is loaded carbs. I blame my binge that day on skipping lunch since I was cleaning up the garage all day. Bad boy!
But I feel like my fitness level didn't suffer. Seems like I'm still advancing in that department. I pulled another notch through my belt, too. I started reading "The Abs Diet" book by Men's Health magazine since that's where I think I need help. It's not so much a "diet" as it is a program or a plan. Seems pretty good so far.
The good thing is that I'm actually having fun at the gym AND having fun creatively putting together healthy meals in the kitchen. Now I'm in the kitchen more than my wife for the first time in 20 years. So only losing 1 pound doesn't discourage me. My fitness has still progressed and that matters most.
I'm 6' 3" and my goal is still 199 lbs. No timeline for that, so no pressure. Steady as she goes.
As I moved down to 25NL for "tuning" near the end of last month, I found myself somewhat adjusting to the style of play I ran across. I noticed that there was a lot of cold calling going on and not much respect shown to c-bets. In fact, I could read fake c-bettors really well. So I had to dial way back on my aggression and see more flops in position by over-limping or cold calling. Then there was often draw chasers or 2nd pair/underpair callers who would pay off TPGK or better.
That meant I had to revert back to a more passive overall style. Post-flop play became more important than preflop aggression, stealing, & squeezing. And it has worked so far! Here are my stats for the 1st 13 days of the month:
The stats that stick out to me here are the low 34.1% ratio between my VPIP & PF raises AND my high 68.2% Flop Fold vs C-bet at 25NL compared to my negative W$w/oSD at 25NL. But my showdowns are hugely positive, which is a big change from how I was running at 50NL.
I'm not sure if this style will work at 50NL so I think I'll just ride the wave at 25NL for a while. Besides an anemic amount of hands played this month, everything else is going better than planned. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.
Having been a radio DJ in the past and still having a very diverse & eclectic taste in music with some widely varied past musical experiences, I feel slightly qualified to bestow the title of "Greatest Rock Song of All Time" upon a worthy suitor. Of course, everyone's taste is different. Everyone's view is different. And everyone's opinion is different. Everyone has different criteria for what makes something the "greatest" to them. This all means that many people will most certainly disagree with my choice here. And that's fine. Free country.
But what makes something the "greatest" for me is difference. It has to be different from it's peers. Why is Muhammad Ali considered "the Greatest"? Because he was different. Michael Jordan? Different. I'm not going to run down all the little reasons why these guys were different. You just know. To the observant, it's obvious. Just as it is with other things like music. And in some of these areas, there is no clear cut "greatest". How different can food be and still be palatable? How can art be "great" when the human taste varies so widely?
So I'm not going to say that this should be everyone's "Greatest Rock Song of All Time". Tastes vary too much for that. But I'm pretty sure there are quite a few folks that would agree with my pick, even though this song was not a hit and didn't get a ton of play. Back when U2's "One" was released, Axl Rose actually called it "The Greatest Rock-n-Roll Song of All Time". Not too many people outwardly disagreed and I think it was because it was a pretty worthy contender at the time.
So now for my pick. It pretty much sums up what being "punk rock" is all about. It's not about the music or the clothes or the makeup or hair. It's a state of mind. It's about doubting the norm and being sick of the mainstream. Clones need not apply. It's not about being poor or abused, either. The video for my pick is it's own story that has more to do with Green Day's album "American Idiot" than with my song pick itself. There's plenty of punks who's parents are still together and/or are well off. But if you listen to the song (the video has subtitles to help you out), it's pretty much from the point of view of someone who has found out that there really are no white picket fences out there for most people. They inevitably have to find their own path and live & learn the hard way.
If you've ever wondered why punks are punks, listen to this song. The whole song. It's about 9 1/2 minutes long (video has an extra 30 seconds of dialog) and has 4 parts. With most TV shows being 30 minutes long (with breaks), consider this a shorter 10-minute audio documentary. And remember, the video action is really different from the song's meaning. The song is the key.
So now I present Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia". Enjoy:
For those interested in the video also, this version is a bit different with some more story on how St. Jimmy breaks up with his girlfriend at about the 6:10 mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7o0X9lcb7I
It didn't used to. I used to have a tight overall game that I could tweek when I had to. But then I started to increase my pre-flop aggression and steal %. This seemed to result in my perceiving opponents playing back at me more and pulling off aggro bluffs since they don't believe me. At 50NL, I was getting 3-bet more often than usual and it led me to think they were bluffing since they thought I was bluffing first.
So I'd either get my money in bad preflop/flop OR I'd get committed on the turn. I even took off a total of 13 out of 31 days, sprinkled in between bad sessions to make sure I wasn't tilting or something. The only thing that seemed to help was moving back down to 25NL the last couple of days of the month and playing a bit more passively there.
I did win $9 at a Halloween party home game, though. So the total end result was a -$364 loss for the month.
I even tried a few FT points SnGs and sucked at those.
So I've started to play a few more SnGs this month in hopes I can work on my post-flop play more. Since tournament chips are more valuable, maybe I'll be less inclined to get committed. We'll see how it goes.
Personally, I always thought of SBC as Sacramento's main craft brewery and every place else was just a part of the category. Not sure why I did. Maybe it was because it had the word "Sacramento" in its name. Or maybe it was because they had a bigger reputation than most, especially after they started bottling. Sure, it's not the oldest in Sacto. But to me, it always seemed to do well in carrying the weight of having the city's name in it's own name. Whether I planned to buy some or not, I always noticed the SBC packaging when I browsed any particular craft brew isle. "Oh look. They have Sac Brew here." In my mind, I guess it gave the store more credibility.
So away goes the beer with the city's name. A craft brewery making stellar beers, but apparently the victim of a less than stellar frontside restaurant in our less than stellar economy in which only the "stellar" seem survive. I know the beer could still live up to carrying the name. It just can't carry the restaurant any longer. I've celebrated a few Father's Days & birthdays there and the frontside seemed fine. Just not award-winning to me like the beer. Too bad they can't just close the dining room and keep brewing.
But it seems we in the Sac area will still be blessed by having SBC's brewmaster, Peter, brewing in Sacramento. More on that here: http://odonatabeer.blogspot.com/
So let's not forget to support our local Sac area on-site brewers. Our local culture can't afford to lose any others, imo. Here's a link list of those I know of or have learned of:
A surprising thing happened today. I had been struggling at 50NL this month, so I decided to try 25NL for a couple days. I am still rolled for 50NL, but I just needed a confidence boost. So I played a 25NL session today and my 25NL stats miraculously appeared right where I want them to be at 50NL. Hmmm.
Is it the type of play or the players at 25NL that suit me better and at 50NL they're tougher? Or is it just me being more confident skill-wise at 25NL? Or even roll-wise? Hmmm. I think I'll spend a few days at 25NL and find out. I've never really "crushed" 25NL. I just moved up when I had the right bankroll.
A while back, I had read a book on poker odds & probabilities and was a bit lost on the subject. The book by Matthew Hilger seemed thorough enough but was a ways over my head, I guess. So when I saw this book, "Practical Poker Math" by Pat Dittmar, in the book store and thumbed through it, it looked a bit simpler and more my style. (Not that I'm stupid or anything. Just that it takes a bit longer for new concepts to sink in with me and simpler explanations help with this.) So I thought that maybe this book could help me build a base for my poker math knowledge so I can understand the more complicated stuff later.
Well, I was right in a way. It was simpler, but not in the way I thought. This book is nothing more that an over-explanation of what most average players already know. Every non-beginning poker player worth his salt should know that the odds of flopping a set or boat with a pocket pair is 7.5-1 and the odds of being dealt Aces is 220-1, etc., etc. So all this book does is tell the reader how to calculate those figures. Every... single... one of them.
(NOTE: I skipped reading the Omaha parts of the book since I am concentrating on learning Hold'em for now.)
The sections of the book address odds of hitting certain hands on each street including preflop. Each section begins with some barely useful poker tips and a very useful table of odds pertaining to an array of different hands for that section's situation. Then it goes on to explain how to calculate each and every one of those odds in the table. And the author shows how to calculate each results, not 1 but 2 different ways. Here's an example of the calculation for a pocket pair flopping a set or boat:
OK, so I left out some words in there. But why does the reader need to know how to get an answer when he is given the answer first? This isn't studying for a college exam. This is poker. All I need to do is memorize the odds (the answer) for a situation and apply it to my current implied odds, etc. Tell me how to apply and calculate that next step. I don't need this overkill, imo.
Anyway, the author is in the "trading" industry so it figures he'd be caught up in calculations. The tables at the beginning of each section and towards the back of the book are great. But I bet you could find most of them searching the internet. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm missing something here. But this still just seems like overkill. It's like showing me how to slaughter a cow when I'm just going to McDonald's. Not necessary, imo. And to top it off, the retail on this book is about $30. On the high end compared to other more popular poker books on the market.
So I can't really recommend this book for any purpose other than math/stats geeks getting their fix with a poker flavor. Not useful for anyone wanting to improve their game. I can't even recommend this book for beginning poker players. I think it could do some damage by muddying the basics that they need.
Good News: I ended up the month +$114 profit. Tuned my aggression some more and had another flat NSD Winnings red line.
Bad News: The +$114 was only possible due bonuses totalling $208. I would have ended up -$94 without them. Still getting crushed at showdown, too. I think my PF & flop aggression has still been getting me committed on the turn. But I also have been running into some killer suckouts. I included my "All-in EV" line in the graph as proof.
(Only played 1 MTT all month.)
During the last few days, I brought back just a smidgen of my old passivity and it seemed to pay off some. Maybe in a "changing gears" respect. Still kept up my Steal % and 3-bet %, though. I think I'm getting a feel for a good balance. Yay!
Still gotta play more hands. Averaged 600 per day. Would be nice to double that. But I still played enough to clear my Take 2 goal on FTP and I made Goldstar on Stars. So not too bad, I guess.
I've been spending a decent amount of time on Twitter and Facebook as of late. Might be worth tuning into (Twitter, at least) as I talk about my new bicycle, my weight loss progress, and a feature/series I call "My Gym Observations". Up to part 5 now.
I'm reading another poker book right now and should have a review very soon. I know I've said this before, but this book seems to be a breeze ...and that's actually a bad thing in this case. Stay tuned.
I just discovered the coolest little desktop app called "Yoono" that ties all your social sites (like Facebook and Twitter) and your instant messaging (like AIM and MSN) together. No more having to check the sites or IM client separately.
So when any of the accounts you linked to Yoono gets updated or receives a message, it gets listed in the app. You can also turn on these little pop-up notifications that pop up and down in the bottom right corner of your screen as updates happen. The settings are easy.
So far, it doesn't seem to slow down my computer. Plus, I like how you can adjust how much or how little you see in the update window and/or pop-ups. Thumbs up!
Good news: My NSD winnings are steady (flat or slight up-curve) for the first time since I can remember.
Bad news: I'm getting crushed at showdown. My SD winnings (or lack of) are killing me.
I'm playing 11/7/1.8 and loving it, but W$SD% is 42 and I'm -$209 for the month. I have made quite a few bad calldowns and stack-offs when I have felt either committed or disbelieving. Plus it would be nice to get my AF over 2.
