When a video game becomes too easy and boring you do things to spice it up. You start at a higher level with less lives or whatever to make it challenging. Life is the same way. When things like money etc come too easily, you do things to spice it up. Try making a living while walking on your hands or making friends with a speech impediment. It's just a fact.

Torn

Sometimes failing at online dating feels like getting rejected by 10,000 women at once. Some enjoy a nightcap to end the day, but I enjoy 5. Part of me thinks I may be developing a problem and the other part feels like this is the only way to enjoy life.

Friday

So I had my interview today with the big brother foundation. I was recently nudged into volunteering there this week by a close friend. Hopefully the fact that I gamble for a living and have over 7 drinks a week won't inhibit me from being a positive influence in a young person's life. I feel like I could give some solid advice and be a really good mentor. I suspect being involved with this organization will be a win win situation. The past few days have been profitable on the poker tables. I have been thinking a lot about new years eve this week. It is my favorite holiday.

Cheers,
gamblegambel

Brain

The other day I was thinking that the mind is the most amazing part of the human body. But then I thought to myself, look who is telling me this.

Works

I have been doing some more art lately. Here is an inflatable sculpture I put out on the sidewalk and a piece I made from wire I bought at Home Depot (not sure if you can tell from these pics, but the end of the wire just barely levitates above the surface of the table)...

HH's

Two nice donations during my voyage back to the high water mark...

M.ONTEIROZOR posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
SHOVEBOT posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SHOVEBOT [ 7c 9c ]
W.EEWAISEU folds
H.ARDCORY3011 raises [$30.00 USD]
M.ONTEIROZOR folds
SHOVEBOT raises [$95.00 USD]
H.ARDCORY3011 calls [$75.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5c, Qs, 7s ]
SHOVEBOT checks
H.ARDCORY3011 bets [$87.50 USD]
SHOVEBOT calls [$87.50 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]
SHOVEBOT bets [$255.00 USD]
H.ARDCORY3011 raises [$1482.00 USD]
SHOVEBOT calls [$1227.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
H.ARDCORY3011 shows [3d, 2d ]
SHOVEBOT shows [7c, 9c ]
SHOVEBOT wins $3352.00 USD from main pot

gamblegambel posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
N.egrodamus2 posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to gamblegambel [ 3s Ac ]
C.omeToButthead folds
a.palma folds
A.lGooohr folds
gamblegambel raises [$100.00 USD]
N.egrodamus2 calls [$75.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ As, 8s, 2d ]
gamblegambel bets [$150.00 USD]
N.egrodamus2 raises [$300.00 USD]
gamblegambel calls [$150.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
gamblegambel bets [$450.00 USD]
N.egrodamus2 raises [$1075.00 USD]
gamblegambel calls [$625.00 USD]
N.egrodamus2 shows [Jc, 6c ]
gamblegambel shows [3s, Ac ]
** Dealing River ** [ 7c ]
gamblegambel wins $2997.00 USD from main pot

Flash

While I was showering this afternoon I felt a small bump on the side of my chest. For some reason the first thing that entered my mind was that I have cancer. The thoughts that immediately followed were disheartening. One would like to think given the unexpected news that your existence is greatly compromised that the proceeding mental images would be humbling and reflective.
.
.
I think it is just a bug bite.

Monopoly

My current obsession is Monopoly. You know things are reaching a high level when you think about it all day and dream about it all night. The past two weeks we have had a few games for money. It is unfortunate that it has a bit of a bad reputation, because with a few adjustments to the rules it can be an excellent board game and super exciting to gamble on. Here are some house rules we play by:

Every property costs double: We do this because the standard setup for the game has a thoughtless buy buy buy formula. With this you have to be more selective with your money and more things go to auction; makes the game more about resource management.

Unsold property goes to silent auction: Most people don't realize that properties that aren't bought are supposed to be auctioned off. Our twist is we do a silent auction. Things tend to go for their true value. Accessing this untold worth is a huge skill.

Railroad warps: If you own more than one railroad you can warp between the ones you own. This provides some more mobility and makes being a railroad tycoon a real threat.

Creative trading: We allow immunity, profit sharing, short and long term passes etc. It's the name of the game, sorta.

Free parking: We put just the tax and jail money in free parking. It doesn't get too out of hand, but gives the guy in last place some hope.

...plus a few other tiny rules...

HH

I took a shot last night at a pretty juicy 200/400 PLO game. It ended up being my most profitable single day in poker I think. Here is the worst hand I believe I played...

gamblegambel posts small blind [$200.00 USD].
L.okoIsBack posts big blind [$400.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to gamblegambel [ 5d Js Qd Ad ]
s.brugby folds
gamblegambel raises [$1000.00 USD]
L.okoIsBack calls [$800.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, Qh, 9d ]
gamblegambel checks
L.okoIsBack checks I was actually going for a sorta loose check raise here
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
gamblegambel bets [$1775.00 USD]
L.okoIsBack raises [$7725.00 USD]
gamblegambel raises [$13025.00 USD] I had a hard time giving him credit for a 22xx hand and I figured he would have bet his big stuff on the flop so at most I put him on a combo draw or a Q2xx. Problem is I am dead to 222 and my gut said fold.
L.okoIsBack calls [$7075.00 USD]
gamblegambel shows [5d, Js Qd Ad ]
L.okoIsBack shows [2d, 5s 2s 4c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
L.okoIsBack wins $31999.00 USD from main pot

How Many Women Are There in the City for Me?

The population of urban Atlanta is 3,499,840

53% are female, 1,854,915

24% graduated from college, 445,179

17% are age twenty two-thirty one, 75,680

~50% are single, 37,840

~12% I'd find physically attractive, 4,540

~23% are relatively liberal politically and not too religious, 1,044

3500:1 seems like a needle in a haystack

Visualisation:Can you find the red dot?

Thoughts

Sometimes I get this weird anxiety over the smallest tasks. I want to go to nyc, but I have trouble just buying the ticket online. I have to pay my real estate tax, but it takes me weeks just to write the check. I wait til I am out of clothes to do laundry and there are no more cups and plates to run the dishwasher. I can't distinguish procrastination from distaste from apprehension.

Homestead Adjustments

I got in the elevator when I got home and it was eerily quiet and I couldn't figure it out. Then it hit me. Every elevator in Vegas blasts club music so there is this wild contrast in my condo elevator of utter silence.

Trying to Remember the Past Month

The drive out to Vegas was leisurely. Having a back seat and legroom on a five thousand mile road trip is overrated. It was great to see Matt of St. Louis. In Phoenix we took a little more time and alongside Sterling we had a camping adventure. Drinking under the stars is one of the better spices of life. Little Toph is also a trip.

The condo at Palms Place was pretty ballin. There wasn't too much room for private space, but we were practically the top floor and had a corner unit with a view of the strip. Early on I got food poisoning. The following 30 hours I proceeded to vomit with Old Faithful-esque predictability and force. It took me about 5 days to get out of bed and play poker again. The highlights of non-poker activities included two epic Catan comeback wins, a lot of time in various pools, and some super fun games of horse (in basketball fashion) played on the putting green in the backyard of the estate of masters. I did quite well on prop bets. Back in the poker world I proceeded to go 0/5 in WSOP events [including an uneventful main] and lost a 10k flip in my one shot at 50/100/200 PLO. I did however win 14k in craps and we got nearly 10k in comps from it. Manny (our casino host) got us whatever we wanted basically, free rooms, free ballin dinners, free bottles in the club etc. After all was said and done, I was basically even on the trip going into the last stand, which I wasn't even planning on playing the day before it started.

In the Venetian 5k I managed to double up in the first 20 minutes in a 500bb chip pot. A young kid raised I 3bet AK, bb calls and the young kid 4bet and I just called. He fired three barrels on a AJxxx board and I called his river all in and he showed JT. The next few days were a blur of winning and losing a lot of pots, my stack was all over the map. In the biggest pot on day 3 I got it in with KK vs JJ on a 854 two heart flop board and he rivered a J. Instead of being a solid 2nd in chips with three tables left I was left real short. I ran real hot on all my allins and than ran a big bluff check calling flop and check raising turn to jam river on A9492 three diamond board to get called by AK. Again I got short and ran hot on allins to make final table with decent stack. The most interesting hand from the final table I 3bet a CO steal with 57s in sb and called the Russian's 4bet. Flop came 6d4d24d (I had spades) and I check jammed his cbet to win a real big pot. I busted in 3rd A8o<66 for $131,983; my biggest tournament score to date.

Nick and I drove the 2000 miles home in 26 hours straight.

I don't want to write up all my depressing thoughts here; that is too predictable. I am just going to go to bed.

Vegas Update

I busted day 2 of the 3k in some standard sort of spots with a final exit losing a flip just short of the money. I played some craps last night and after the riffraff went to bed and we moved location to the Palms we crushed and I finished up over 4k. I played some PLO tonight and despite chopping a 7k pot with As6sQT v 88xx on Js9s8s after running it twice I profited 1615 on the session. I might take time off til the main event after the 4th...