So, as my last post stated I had a bad night. Well the next day, I check the mail and WOOT! a 5000$ check is in it. Hellz ya. My wife got her back pay... FINALLY!
It was nice cuz we didn't expect it until January at the earliest. The bad news is, it was about 3000 less than we thought it would be. Of course the stupid ass government just sends a check and no kind of explanation of anything. So, why was it less... no idea. My guess is they know that you aren't going to want to wait to cash it, so they send less than they are supposed to so they can keep some of it. Right before the holidays too. I mean by the time you finally get that check most people are probably in a lot of need, so honestly it would be smart to do it that way. Crooked and corrupt, but whatever.. it's the government. Then again, maybe they took out mad taxes, I don't know.. cuz they didn't say. Oh wells.
We opened a bank account for the first time in like 3 years and then we got to go around paying people back for money we borrowed from them over the past 2 to 3 years. They were all pretty thankful and my wife really enjoyed doing it. I mean yes, it was money they loaned us, so we weren't actually giving them money.. but I'm sure none of them actually thought they'd get anything back from us. Plus, most of them were in a bad spot themselves and it was so unexpected they were just happy. It made us feel good.
It's been nice lately living so comfortably. It makes me think of the time when my wife was working and making a lot of money. Everything is just such less stressful. It's like I know people say that money doesn't solve things or money doesn't fix all your problems, but in reality NOT having money is a BIG problem. Having some money takes away that BIG problem. How can you find happiness if you're too busy trying to find a way to pay your rent? or buy groceries? I've struggled for most of my life. I used to tell myself when I was younger that we were middle class... but in reality we lived in poverty. not living on the street poverty or kids starving in africa poverty, but just because it wasn't that bad, doesn't mean it didn't suck balls. ANyways, it's nice these days. I hope it lasts.
We actually opened a savings account as well. We got 1500 in checking and 500 in savings. It's a nice way to start a new account. The only other time we had a savings, it was just a flash in the pan. We basically put in money we knew we would be needing for something soon. It was pointless. Now we know there is no reason to touch that money and we should be able to actually add to it on a regular basis.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone!
My wife and I will be going shopping on Black friday, so hopefully I wont be trampled and I'll be able to write a post again. But if not, just know that I am with you always. :)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
UGH! Worst night of poker of all time.
So another poker night and this one didn't end so well for me.
About an hour into the game I get a call from my wife who is visiting her family on the wrong side of town telling me that our car was just in a 4 car accident, while parked. More specifically, a van ran into my brother in laws truck which was behind us, but now on top of our trunk and the front of our car was wedged up UNDERNEATH a car that was in front of us, that belonged to my brother in law's wife.
So, of course instatilt!
I didn't do anything outrageous but to say I was on top of my game, would be very misleading. I played super passive, just thinking about the car issues ahead of me.
Then I get owned... over and over and over again. At one point, after another buy in, I win a pot with AK, so I think sweet.. the bad times are over, time to make a comeback. Very next hand, JJ.. I raise. Ryan decides he's gonna "do me a favor" and pushes with his Q4. I instacall. Can you guess what hit the flop? Exactly.. i get 30$ all in preflop with JJ vs Q4 and again I'm left wondering wtf is going on. I quit for a while.
I get back in the game and drop another buy in. It was a weird game of poker, besides the hands I lost on. Quads hit like 3 times. A straight flush lost to another straight flush. Also a new player who Ryan brought with him, got hit by the deck for the first part of the night and seemed to win every pot or tied on a few pots that kept him the big stack bully. It was a fun night... wait.. no it wasn't.
So, with the car, my wife gets home and she actually said there was like hardly no damage on the car... how? I have no F ing clue. I went out and looked and besides some scratches there seems to be nothing that should keep it from driving as well as it did before becoming the burger between two buns. In fact, apparently all the vehicles were fine. The guy was drunk, with no insurance and was arrested. I only have liability, so I wont be getting anything for the car. But, thankfully, at least for now, it's fine. I figure in a week it'll just like break into a million pieces or the airbag will deploy while I'm on the highway or something.
I won't be having my poker game next week. my work schedule wont allow it. It's probably a good thing though after the way it went tonite. I need a week to regroup.
Ryan was the big winner with like 140, My youngest brother cashed out about 120, James cashed 113 and my other brother made like 50$ profit.
One hand that sparked conversation early on...
Flop
Q95
I have like 89 or something. I bet into my brother who raised preflop. He calls.
Turn Q
At this point, I put him on JJ and I want to bet an amount that makes him think I have the Q, so I put out a bet that looks like I want a call, but it still makes some money.
He thinks then Calls.
Now I know he has JJ.
River is a T.
He pushes all in, which was about half the pot.
I instafold.
He shows JJ.
I tell him that value wise it was a terrible bet on his part. He says he thinks I call with any pair I have and that it was okay. I say no way.. you played it like JJ before the river, but after the river you played it like a monster.
He claims he made it look like a bluff. No way. I told him the best way to make value on that hand is to check call that river, cuz only way calling all in there is with him beat.
Thoughts?
About an hour into the game I get a call from my wife who is visiting her family on the wrong side of town telling me that our car was just in a 4 car accident, while parked. More specifically, a van ran into my brother in laws truck which was behind us, but now on top of our trunk and the front of our car was wedged up UNDERNEATH a car that was in front of us, that belonged to my brother in law's wife.
So, of course instatilt!
I didn't do anything outrageous but to say I was on top of my game, would be very misleading. I played super passive, just thinking about the car issues ahead of me.
Then I get owned... over and over and over again. At one point, after another buy in, I win a pot with AK, so I think sweet.. the bad times are over, time to make a comeback. Very next hand, JJ.. I raise. Ryan decides he's gonna "do me a favor" and pushes with his Q4. I instacall. Can you guess what hit the flop? Exactly.. i get 30$ all in preflop with JJ vs Q4 and again I'm left wondering wtf is going on. I quit for a while.
I get back in the game and drop another buy in. It was a weird game of poker, besides the hands I lost on. Quads hit like 3 times. A straight flush lost to another straight flush. Also a new player who Ryan brought with him, got hit by the deck for the first part of the night and seemed to win every pot or tied on a few pots that kept him the big stack bully. It was a fun night... wait.. no it wasn't.
So, with the car, my wife gets home and she actually said there was like hardly no damage on the car... how? I have no F ing clue. I went out and looked and besides some scratches there seems to be nothing that should keep it from driving as well as it did before becoming the burger between two buns. In fact, apparently all the vehicles were fine. The guy was drunk, with no insurance and was arrested. I only have liability, so I wont be getting anything for the car. But, thankfully, at least for now, it's fine. I figure in a week it'll just like break into a million pieces or the airbag will deploy while I'm on the highway or something.
I won't be having my poker game next week. my work schedule wont allow it. It's probably a good thing though after the way it went tonite. I need a week to regroup.
Ryan was the big winner with like 140, My youngest brother cashed out about 120, James cashed 113 and my other brother made like 50$ profit.
One hand that sparked conversation early on...
Flop
Q95
I have like 89 or something. I bet into my brother who raised preflop. He calls.
Turn Q
At this point, I put him on JJ and I want to bet an amount that makes him think I have the Q, so I put out a bet that looks like I want a call, but it still makes some money.
He thinks then Calls.
Now I know he has JJ.
River is a T.
He pushes all in, which was about half the pot.
I instafold.
He shows JJ.
I tell him that value wise it was a terrible bet on his part. He says he thinks I call with any pair I have and that it was okay. I say no way.. you played it like JJ before the river, but after the river you played it like a monster.
He claims he made it look like a bluff. No way. I told him the best way to make value on that hand is to check call that river, cuz only way calling all in there is with him beat.
Thoughts?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Flamm poker night
So, we got to have another poker night and even though 2 guys didn't show up this week that did last week, we were still able to get 6 players going. My youngest brother played for the first time, my dad reminded us just how bad he is, and a guy from work, James, played as well.
Next week another new guy is coming, so it looks like we are going to be able to have a good game going. I need to find a better place to have it though, cuz my kitchen is just too small. My basement is pretty big, but it's not like a finished basement or anything and it will probably get cold. We could move everything in my living room and have more room, but then that might make the wife mad. We'll get it figured out. I also need some better chairs.
The poker went pretty well. I felt like I played pretty solid. I had a few bluffs that didn't work out so well and most of my big hands didn't get paid off. yet I still made 30 bucks on the night. Ryan had a solid outing, making some money himself. We didn't play a pot past the flop that meant anything all night. I actually didn't even realize it til he said something along the lines of I was avoiding him. I'm like, um YA! lol. I think we both just kind of know what we are doing each time and so, we don't really mix it up. It's gonna happen though. Funny enough it's gonna suck for me the first time I do win a big pot against him. I lost a bet and the winner (him) gets his money back in any 1 pot against the other. I'm sure when the 100 dollar pot goes down and I'm raking it in, I'll have forgotten and he'll kindly remind me.
My youngest brother played pretty poor, I thought. One funny hand was where we were heads up and the pot was like 60 cents. K-9 straight was on the board and on the river I bet a dime. I had the Ace... and funny enough I didn't even notice there was 3 to a flush. I thought I had the nuts. So, he says 'you can't even bet that amount' so I took it back and bet 12 dollars. Lol. he's like wtf?! He's like really you have the flush. I'm like oh crap I didn't see the flush, but at least that means he doesnt have it. Then for some reason he just can't fold it and he calls showing the ace as well. We split the pot. But why would he call there? Not that it was a great bet on my part at all. I was mostly playing, but his call was like WAY worse.
A couple big pots happened, but I wasn't involved in any of them. And mostly it was just people overplaying top pair. But, it was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, again.
Nothing else going on. I'm really looking forward to doing nothing tomorrow. A guy at work told me that he's been doing a lot of buying off craigslist and reselling on ebay lately. The last couple weeks he's been reselling Red Bull refrigerators. He's buying them for 75 bucks off CL and selling them for 250 dollars on ebay. Pretty sick. He said he's sold 4 of them. I think I'll peruse Cl tomorrow myself and see if maybe I can find some sort of cash cow. WOuld be a great 2nd income. Even if I just make an extra 200 bucks a month that's my cable/internet/phone bill. Not that it's a new thing, but just something to think about and it would be not much of an investment of time or money.
Thanx for the comments guys, I was afraid me not writing for so long sent you all packing. Monkey, thanx for the support! glad I made you laugh.
Leo... I believe they said Cada was a poker instructor, so I'm guessing he was doing alright b4 the ME. Just hate seeing it end as a donk fest, when the whole reason I was so into it this year was because of the all the pros that lasted so long. Oh wells.
Next week another new guy is coming, so it looks like we are going to be able to have a good game going. I need to find a better place to have it though, cuz my kitchen is just too small. My basement is pretty big, but it's not like a finished basement or anything and it will probably get cold. We could move everything in my living room and have more room, but then that might make the wife mad. We'll get it figured out. I also need some better chairs.
The poker went pretty well. I felt like I played pretty solid. I had a few bluffs that didn't work out so well and most of my big hands didn't get paid off. yet I still made 30 bucks on the night. Ryan had a solid outing, making some money himself. We didn't play a pot past the flop that meant anything all night. I actually didn't even realize it til he said something along the lines of I was avoiding him. I'm like, um YA! lol. I think we both just kind of know what we are doing each time and so, we don't really mix it up. It's gonna happen though. Funny enough it's gonna suck for me the first time I do win a big pot against him. I lost a bet and the winner (him) gets his money back in any 1 pot against the other. I'm sure when the 100 dollar pot goes down and I'm raking it in, I'll have forgotten and he'll kindly remind me.
My youngest brother played pretty poor, I thought. One funny hand was where we were heads up and the pot was like 60 cents. K-9 straight was on the board and on the river I bet a dime. I had the Ace... and funny enough I didn't even notice there was 3 to a flush. I thought I had the nuts. So, he says 'you can't even bet that amount' so I took it back and bet 12 dollars. Lol. he's like wtf?! He's like really you have the flush. I'm like oh crap I didn't see the flush, but at least that means he doesnt have it. Then for some reason he just can't fold it and he calls showing the ace as well. We split the pot. But why would he call there? Not that it was a great bet on my part at all. I was mostly playing, but his call was like WAY worse.
A couple big pots happened, but I wasn't involved in any of them. And mostly it was just people overplaying top pair. But, it was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, again.
Nothing else going on. I'm really looking forward to doing nothing tomorrow. A guy at work told me that he's been doing a lot of buying off craigslist and reselling on ebay lately. The last couple weeks he's been reselling Red Bull refrigerators. He's buying them for 75 bucks off CL and selling them for 250 dollars on ebay. Pretty sick. He said he's sold 4 of them. I think I'll peruse Cl tomorrow myself and see if maybe I can find some sort of cash cow. WOuld be a great 2nd income. Even if I just make an extra 200 bucks a month that's my cable/internet/phone bill. Not that it's a new thing, but just something to think about and it would be not much of an investment of time or money.
Thanx for the comments guys, I was afraid me not writing for so long sent you all packing. Monkey, thanx for the support! glad I made you laugh.
Leo... I believe they said Cada was a poker instructor, so I'm guessing he was doing alright b4 the ME. Just hate seeing it end as a donk fest, when the whole reason I was so into it this year was because of the all the pros that lasted so long. Oh wells.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Meeting Ryan (finally, in person), starting my home game off right and a disappointing winner in the WSOP ME
Okay, so longest title to a post, ever.
Started my home game I've been talking about for like ever... we got 5 people going, not bad for the first time and with only a few days notice. Ryan, from Poker Dynasty came over and we met for the first time. He's a lot taller in person. Everyone seemed to enjoy the night. A few big hands but nothing insane. I think 3 hands after ryan got here he was all in with AKs vs AA. Obv he's a fish. He made a good comeback though and funny enough played just like he plays shorthanded online cash. He ended up 15 bucks. I pretty much owned, at least in my own head. I played vs my brother a lot, mainly because he raised my bb from UTG like EVERY time, and obv playing out of position to a raiser is the nutz. The best hand of the night is when I called my brother down with Q hi, knowing I had the winner. I dont remember the hand exactly, all i know is I called on the turn knowing that I was calling on the river to win with Q hi. Sure enough he bet the river and I instacalled. He shows J hi, I BOOM my Q hi on the table and that was the talk of the night. WIsh I had a pokertracker hand history for that one. I ended up 38 bux and was the big winner of the night.
I did have a hand with Ryan. I almost made a tremendous laydown. I really wanted to, but man, if i would've folded and he didn't show me he had it, it would've eaten me up. Basically, I caught a flush on the turn. The river hit a 7 on a AAxx board. He bet into me decently. I knew I was beat, but come on.. first time playing the guy live and I'm supposed to fold a flush to him? SO, I called and yep, A7. Damn fish hitting the river... of course. Would've been sick to lay that down though. He had to have me beat, really. But... come on.. right?
I actually played very well and my hand reading was great. I barely had anything all night, but I just kept taking pots in great spots.
As far as the WSOP, I'm sure I was with the rest of the poker population wanting IVEY to win and bring some legitimacy back. But, he went out 7th. The guy that did win sucked out like 400 times at the final table. Plus he was hella busted looking. Now he's hellas rich. There was definitely a lot of action, but seeing all in after all in with 50-100 times the big blind is ridiculous. My brother got all anal and pissed about it... it's like dude, every online tournament ends this way. Did you really expect to see poker being played at the final table of the WSOP? Not to mention the nerves these guys were facing. They probably couldn't have played a hand out if they wanted to. I'm sure part of them is just like, let's get all in so we can relax and get it over with. It was nice watching all year though. Felt good to enjoy some poker again. Now if i can just play some more!
Started my home game I've been talking about for like ever... we got 5 people going, not bad for the first time and with only a few days notice. Ryan, from Poker Dynasty came over and we met for the first time. He's a lot taller in person. Everyone seemed to enjoy the night. A few big hands but nothing insane. I think 3 hands after ryan got here he was all in with AKs vs AA. Obv he's a fish. He made a good comeback though and funny enough played just like he plays shorthanded online cash. He ended up 15 bucks. I pretty much owned, at least in my own head. I played vs my brother a lot, mainly because he raised my bb from UTG like EVERY time, and obv playing out of position to a raiser is the nutz. The best hand of the night is when I called my brother down with Q hi, knowing I had the winner. I dont remember the hand exactly, all i know is I called on the turn knowing that I was calling on the river to win with Q hi. Sure enough he bet the river and I instacalled. He shows J hi, I BOOM my Q hi on the table and that was the talk of the night. WIsh I had a pokertracker hand history for that one. I ended up 38 bux and was the big winner of the night.
I did have a hand with Ryan. I almost made a tremendous laydown. I really wanted to, but man, if i would've folded and he didn't show me he had it, it would've eaten me up. Basically, I caught a flush on the turn. The river hit a 7 on a AAxx board. He bet into me decently. I knew I was beat, but come on.. first time playing the guy live and I'm supposed to fold a flush to him? SO, I called and yep, A7. Damn fish hitting the river... of course. Would've been sick to lay that down though. He had to have me beat, really. But... come on.. right?
I actually played very well and my hand reading was great. I barely had anything all night, but I just kept taking pots in great spots.
As far as the WSOP, I'm sure I was with the rest of the poker population wanting IVEY to win and bring some legitimacy back. But, he went out 7th. The guy that did win sucked out like 400 times at the final table. Plus he was hella busted looking. Now he's hellas rich. There was definitely a lot of action, but seeing all in after all in with 50-100 times the big blind is ridiculous. My brother got all anal and pissed about it... it's like dude, every online tournament ends this way. Did you really expect to see poker being played at the final table of the WSOP? Not to mention the nerves these guys were facing. They probably couldn't have played a hand out if they wanted to. I'm sure part of them is just like, let's get all in so we can relax and get it over with. It was nice watching all year though. Felt good to enjoy some poker again. Now if i can just play some more!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Computer blew up
Okay so it didn't blow up. But, I started it one day and I saw sparks fly out of the back and it smelled like burning computer guts in here. SO, I have been computer-less til my brother moved in. We should get ours back this week, turns out power supply fried. Not the first time, but it was the first time I saw sparks.
In good news, I got a table finally, so now I can host the home game I've been wanting to host. Which is good for my blog too, since I never talk poker anymore. I'll have some to talk about again! Other than that though, I've just been enjoying the newfound freedom having money in my pocket has given us. We get to go grocery shopping when they have bargains now and shop for value instead of the cheapest thing. We can spend 100$ without worrying about the bills not being paid. It's pretty sweat. We still haven't gotten the big check yet, but my wife's monthly checks have been a real help. She seems happier about being able to do these things as well. It'll be nice if it lasts for awhile. I'm sure at some point our bills will increase, especially if we ever have a baby.
Speaking of babies, I guess I never mentioned that I finally got "tested". Turns out a bigger than usual percentage of my sperm are deformed. Basically, everyone has a percent of sperm that are misshaped, headless, etc, and they aren't able to reproduce, but mine for some reason are an even higher percentage. The DR said my volume is good and the other ones are able to produce, its just that some are not moving forward when they need to. I dunno. My sperm is half special bus I guess. My wife was also tested and found that she was not producing an egg each month. More like every other month. So she has been put on meds to help that happen. Basically, both of us were only doing about half our job. My wife is really stressing out about all of this. I'm okay with it. I mean it's nothing I did to myself it's just the way it is. I mean it could be due to being overweight, and not having enough testosterone, but again, it's whatever... I'm not one of those guys that is all uptight and embarassed when they find stuff like this out. We'll get things going, I think.
At work things have been busy. This is our busy time of the year. I've been pretty fortunate though, because I haven't had to work on my days off in a long time, well I guess that's not true. I worked a double last week, cuz closing mgr couldn't come in. But other than that, my new 2nd in charge has been awesome. I also don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I got a 4 star on my OER audit. This is the audit that Domino's Pizza does 2 times a year and my first one was 9 days after I became a GM. We got a 1 star, but I got to blame that on the former gm, because it was his fault and i had only been there less than 2 weeks. But this one, was all me and I was staring to stress about it. It ranks you on service, image, operations, and just overall the way they want you to be running your store. Most of the points we lost was due to stuff out of my control and a few service points. The highest score we could've gotten with the things we knew we couldn't fix soon enough was a 91 out of 100. We ended up getting an 83, which is really good. A few months ago I wanted a 5 star, but I knew that probably wasn't going to happen when round 2 started. My boss was stoked and everyone else will be happy too. Next time though it's 5 star or bust in my book. I feel a little rededicated to my job lately.
I went through a rough stretch where upper management was getting me down. All the rules all the restrictions and then just the plain ignorance they seemed to show sometimes. But, lately, I've just come to the conclusion that I can't care more than they do. It just isn't going to work. So, if they are not allowing me to have amazing service, all I can do is my best and try to figure out the best I can do without their help. Also, I really want to get my bonuses. I feel like I work too hard for what my salary is. Last month I got my first labor bonus and it excited me. I hadn't even come close before. So, now I am pushing for that full bonus. It would be nice. It's a few extra hundred dollars as well, so that doesn't hurt either. Hopefully, I can maintain my zeal for my job. I can't believe it's been 18 months at Dominos. Time really flies.
In good news, I got a table finally, so now I can host the home game I've been wanting to host. Which is good for my blog too, since I never talk poker anymore. I'll have some to talk about again! Other than that though, I've just been enjoying the newfound freedom having money in my pocket has given us. We get to go grocery shopping when they have bargains now and shop for value instead of the cheapest thing. We can spend 100$ without worrying about the bills not being paid. It's pretty sweat. We still haven't gotten the big check yet, but my wife's monthly checks have been a real help. She seems happier about being able to do these things as well. It'll be nice if it lasts for awhile. I'm sure at some point our bills will increase, especially if we ever have a baby.
Speaking of babies, I guess I never mentioned that I finally got "tested". Turns out a bigger than usual percentage of my sperm are deformed. Basically, everyone has a percent of sperm that are misshaped, headless, etc, and they aren't able to reproduce, but mine for some reason are an even higher percentage. The DR said my volume is good and the other ones are able to produce, its just that some are not moving forward when they need to. I dunno. My sperm is half special bus I guess. My wife was also tested and found that she was not producing an egg each month. More like every other month. So she has been put on meds to help that happen. Basically, both of us were only doing about half our job. My wife is really stressing out about all of this. I'm okay with it. I mean it's nothing I did to myself it's just the way it is. I mean it could be due to being overweight, and not having enough testosterone, but again, it's whatever... I'm not one of those guys that is all uptight and embarassed when they find stuff like this out. We'll get things going, I think.
At work things have been busy. This is our busy time of the year. I've been pretty fortunate though, because I haven't had to work on my days off in a long time, well I guess that's not true. I worked a double last week, cuz closing mgr couldn't come in. But other than that, my new 2nd in charge has been awesome. I also don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I got a 4 star on my OER audit. This is the audit that Domino's Pizza does 2 times a year and my first one was 9 days after I became a GM. We got a 1 star, but I got to blame that on the former gm, because it was his fault and i had only been there less than 2 weeks. But this one, was all me and I was staring to stress about it. It ranks you on service, image, operations, and just overall the way they want you to be running your store. Most of the points we lost was due to stuff out of my control and a few service points. The highest score we could've gotten with the things we knew we couldn't fix soon enough was a 91 out of 100. We ended up getting an 83, which is really good. A few months ago I wanted a 5 star, but I knew that probably wasn't going to happen when round 2 started. My boss was stoked and everyone else will be happy too. Next time though it's 5 star or bust in my book. I feel a little rededicated to my job lately.
I went through a rough stretch where upper management was getting me down. All the rules all the restrictions and then just the plain ignorance they seemed to show sometimes. But, lately, I've just come to the conclusion that I can't care more than they do. It just isn't going to work. So, if they are not allowing me to have amazing service, all I can do is my best and try to figure out the best I can do without their help. Also, I really want to get my bonuses. I feel like I work too hard for what my salary is. Last month I got my first labor bonus and it excited me. I hadn't even come close before. So, now I am pushing for that full bonus. It would be nice. It's a few extra hundred dollars as well, so that doesn't hurt either. Hopefully, I can maintain my zeal for my job. I can't believe it's been 18 months at Dominos. Time really flies.
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