Yes, I'm Protesting Math

Need to blog

bosoxx34 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:01:49 +0000

It's almost 1 AM, I can't sleep. The reason I used to blog so much when playing poker is it was a great stress outlet. Either way after a good or bad session it was a great way to unwind and relax. Now I'm back to that point where I need to just get lost in my words. Basically the days since black Friday have been humbling money wise. I had a plan for how 2011 was supposed to go and that was blindsided on April 15th. Deciding to put my degree to work in December of this year I started looking for financial planning jobs.

I immediately heard back from a number of companies and eventually accepted a job from Waddell and Reed. I was filled with all sorts of false optimism. I'm supposed to start today. Early Saturday morning I woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep. Something was bugging me, looking for answers I realized that being a personal financial planner isn't what I want to do. With a due respect to anyone reading in that profession, it seems as though it's much more of a sales job than anything else. While the money is very good if you can get people to invest, it's not something I want to do. The firms hiring seem to take anyone willing to come on that meet certain qualifications and see who sticks. I woke up my lovely girlfriend who was sound a sleep a said "I can't work at W&R". Some people enjoy that sort of thing, but it's just not for me. I emailed my boss tonight and said I have other opportunities I'm going to pursue.

So now, a week before my 26th birthday I have to come up with a new plan. Currently I'm coaching JV boys basketball for a small salary, although I do love it, it's not going to pay the bills. I have a B.S. in Management with a concentration in personal financial planning that's not going to get me too far in the business world, so what now? Well, I'm going to apply to a few local business schools. I had an unrealistic notion as to what my major was going to lead me to. I wanted to crunch numbers and figure out the best investment, I was captivated when I learned about stocks in high school and to a further extent options and futures in college. I want to be a financial analyst, forecaster, etc. I've spent all my life crunching numbers and coming to conclusions based on those calculations in baseball, I want to do the same with finance. I need to apply to business school.

So I have a list of 2 I'm going to apply to. Both are local and very expensive. My pipe dream is to become a graduate assistant at either school with the baseball team which would cut the cost. I'm going to E-mail both coaches tomorrow with a quick rundown of my baseball accomplishments just to try and plant a seed. I also need to start studying for my GMAT's tomorrow in order to get into business schools. However what I most desperately need right now is good advice. My parents and girlfriend have been incredibly supportive and helpful. I have a couple Emails out right now as to what the best course of action is to my finance contacts but for the first time in a long time I have no idea what the next year is going to bring.

I turned 25 with such optimism and now I'm filled with uncertainty. In the mean time I'm going to have to go back to my Dad's store, as well as looking to give baseball hitting and/or catching lessons. However while it's certainly a scary feeling, it comes with incredible optimism. For the first time since April 15, 2011 I'm going to be able to look forward to a future job. It may be blind excitement at this point but there's no reason in trying to make it in a job you don't enjoy especially when it's 100% commission like the one I was supposed to start today is.

So that's my dilema, a lot of uncertainty. Any advice would be appreciated and if poker wants to make its triumphant return, I'd gladly welcome that to help pay for tuition if the GA thing doesn't work out. I know the MBA won't automatically lead to a better job, but it's a step in the right direction.

Hope all is Well,

Mike

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People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing – that's why we recommend it daily. ~Zig Ziglar

Poker on Resume?

bosoxx34 — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:42:01 +0000

Been going around asking for advice on this. What are everyone's opinions of putting poker on a resume for financial analyst/financial adviser jobs. I'd obviously make it sound bette than just saying I played poker and made money.

PS Will be writing a longish update sometime after thanksgiving. My life is much less exciting without playing poker for a living.

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"The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be summed in these two: common-sense and perseverance."

Owen Feltham

A letter to the Redsox

bosoxx34 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:39:20 +0000

Dear Redsox,

Quit fucking around.

Thanks,

Mike

Hedge Fund Meeting

bosoxx34 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:05:46 +0000

So I'm lucky enough that I coach a kid whos Dad runs a hedge fund. He has always been nice enough to leave an open invitation to invite me in and see how the business works. I finally took him up on that offer and am glad I did as the whole experience was very cool.

They share office space with a mutual fund and I met with him and the hedge fund's CFO as I was able to learn about both funds. This part was very cool to me, the mutual fund was very quantitative and being a math geek myself it was cool to see them take data and formulate it into a strategy. One funny part about this meeting was standard deviation of the fund was somehow brought up. He mentioned they were in the low teens, the hedge fund was in the high teens then I mentioned that my standard deviation when playing poker was in the 70s.

The look on their faces was actually pretty awesome. From there they asked how I handled it and I talked about trying to remain emotionless, BR management, etc. Then after a bit more about the mutual fund there was a break in the action. I couldn't help myself, with him being such a numbers guy I had to ask if he was familiar with Sabermetrics (baseball advanced stats). He wasn't so then I had to go off on a quick tangent about how batting average is overrated and the goal is to not make outs. I could've gone on on an hour talking about it but decided to close it by just recommending the book Moneyball to him.

From there I met Andy who was a trader at the hedge fund and I got to see his desk which was like a poker players dream setup. He had 4 monitors with a bunch of info on each one. One thing I found funny is that he used AIM and when I commented on that he goes yeah "I only use it for business". Which is the same for me as none of my "real life friends" use it anymore. All the information they have to use is incredible and very powerful. However again it goes back to not using too much emotion and making good calculated +EV decisions.

Clearly there are a lot of similarities between the financial field and poker. Now if it were only easy to get a job with a hedge fund or mutual fund I'd be all set. Either way though I was lucky enough to experience this as a lot of people won't have this opportunity, it was a blast.

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"The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear" - Socrates

Black Friday- 6 Months Later

bosoxx34 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:39:44 +0000

A couple days ago I had to turn down US Open tickets. Not the first round like I saw last year, the US Open quarters at night. Something I watch every year and an event that would be incredible to see live I had to pass on. As Rick Pitino once said "It sucks...it stinks and it sucks". I've been slowly realizing the affects of not making > $100/hour over the lats 6 months but this is when it set in for good. In the immediate future, gone are the days of the random trips, and unnecessary spending while I'm making some money it's not nearly what it once way.

While I can't complain too much, this summer has been great this was the day I was scared of. It almost feels like whoever shut down poker in America has won. While there are many sad stories about people with gambling addictions playing poker I gotta imagine there are several with many successful poker players. Those who paid their taxes, worked hard to succeed, and turned a game into a living. There's always two sides to every story and it seems as though a few people in congress didn't care when they were trying to shut it down over the years.

The fact of the matter is and I'm preaching to the choir here I'm sure is that it is a skill game. You look at long term results and the true skill of a player comes out 99% of the time. This isn't like going to the casino and playing craps, the good players have the edge and it'll come out over time, I guess that's the most frustrating part. Along with the fact that I still haven't heard a good reason the government shutting it down.

However I think the most deflating is just that I miss playing. I miss just firing up 2-4 tables and going against whoever came along. When black Friday hit I was having a blast learning PLO and seeing the progress I was making. I was also going to learn mixed games (actually thinking about doing that during my time off) just because those seemed new and interesting to me. I miss making videos and talking about interesting situations. I've often said that some of the most interesting people I've ever met was through coaching poker and guiding someone from 50-200nl was a great feeling and I no longer have the opportunity to do that.

So here we are 6 months later and it's humbling. I've now seen the full effects of April 15th, 2011 and there just no good that has come from it. Right now I feel like Mike McD in rounders when people who know my situation ask how I'm doing I generally respond with "I've been living a little light" like he tells worm. Hopefully there's a time in the the future where I'm able to make a triumphant return, but for now I'm humbled and it's completely frustrating since it's 100% out of my control.

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"It is always the secure who are humble." ` Gilbert Keith Chesterton.

Jimmy Fund Telethon

bosoxx34 — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:20:54 +0000

I'm copying this post from last year as it's very important to me and the WEEI Jimmy Fund Telethon is going on the next couple days. I realize many poker players don't have excess cash at this time, but figured I'd float it out there in case anyone felt like donating. Plus the stories of these kids are awesome:

I've been incredibly blessed finding poker as a profession. It has allowed me to travel, create my own hours, and has set me up well for the future. Not to mention is a lot of fun, I'm basically playing a game for a living. I give a percentage of my winnings every year to the Jimmy Fund and honestly it's my favorite expense of the year. I first got into it because I wanted to donate to a charity and the Redsox message board I read has an annual fundraiser as well. However the point of the post is to highlight what happened on August 17 2007 and why it was so easy to donate after that day.

Typically I go to Boston every summer for a game at Fenway park, the summer of 2007 was no different. I was riding up there on August 17 to see a 3 game set against the Angels. There was actually a doubleheader that day which was Clay Buchholz major league debut but I only had tickets to game 2. Coincidentally that was the day of the Jimmy Fund/NESN radio-Telethon in which NESN raises money for the Jimmy Fund.

Jordan Leandre was a patient at the Jimmy Fund clinic. He was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma at an early age and has battled it for most of his life. He loves baseball and watching the Redsox. In 2006 he sang the national anthem at Fenway from a wheelchair. In 2007 he was out of the wheelchair and singing the national anthem again, ironically at the game I was attending. I can't imagine the mental and physical strain he has had to endure in his time on earth, but he along with every other Jimmy Fund patient I've ever seen interviewed has a great outlook on life.

After he was done singing the national anthem he was supposed to run to first base. Most of the crowd knew this and it got extremely loud as he was approaching first. When he touched it there was a cheer and then a bit of a lull. Sort of like awesome he did it and the noise lowered. Then, he decided he was going to run to second, that's when Fenway became incredibly loud.

Now I've been in Fenway for a lot of memorable games. I've seen adults crying after a walkoff win against the A's, standing ovations numerous times, Yankees/Redsox games, but I never saw the pure emotional energy that was coming from the crowd that night as Jordan ran around the bases. Not only did he run to second, he decided to run to third and then home. Furthermore when the crowd recognized what he was doing after he touched first, we became louder and louder as well.

It seems as though Jordan was just having fun. Being around baseball my whole life I can tell you the first thing that kids do after games when they get on the field is run the bases and they always have a blast. It's sort of like a natural reaction and they never stop at first or second, they always run to the plate. Jordan was no different, It's impossible for a kid younger than 10 to stop at first base, they just can't do it and he like everyone else before him was having a ball. It just so happened he was doing it in front of 35,000 fans in one of the most famous baseball parks of all time.

With both Angels and Redsox players looking on and applauding he raced for third, then home. Here is a video of it. I am convinced it would have been even louder if half the crowd was not crying as he was sprinting around the bases. It is really something I will never forget and why it is very easy for me to donate to the Jimmy Fund each year.

Cancer is really a vicious disease and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who has not had family or friends that have had it. I'm not trying to pressure anyone into donating but here's a link in case anyone is interested as the telethon is today and tomorrow. Or you can text KCancer to 20222 to donate $10.

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"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
- John Wooden

Running a 5k in a month, my plan

bosoxx34 — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 06:40:29 +0000

One of my good friend's wife is a cancer survivor. He mentioned that there's a race on the last Sunday in September and asked if I wanted to run it. Since I was getting lazy I decided to join. So having 4 weeks to train I'm going to start eating much better and running long distances 5 or 6 days a week the next 2 weeks. As I get closer I'll start training specifically for the race doing interval training and such but wanted to get a solid base as of now.

My goal for the 5k is 21:00. It's certainly doable with this much time to train. I'd love to be able run it sub 20. That's really the ultimate goal but not sure how realistic it is right now. I really struggle with hills and this course is very uneven. Either way it's for a good cause and gives me an excuse to get in shape.

Other than that not much has been going on. Just recorded an episode of Heyball and had to turn down US Open Quarters tickets. It's a bit of a reality check for me but the tickets, the hotel, and the flight is just too expensive for me with how many trips I've taken this summer. I'd have to liquidate more investments and that's something I really wouldn't want to do at this point. It's tough to complain considering that I've been able to go pretty much everywhere I've wanted this summer (except Vegas), but still hurts.

Just goes to show how much I miss poker as any time in the last 3 years I was able to take small trips like these anytime I wanted. You really do appreciate things like this after it's gone. To add to the pain it'd be very likely that they're going to be very good matches as it's in the second week of the tournament. Thanks again American government.

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"Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it" -Eliza Tabor

Golf and Quick Running update

bosoxx34 — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 05:06:08 +0000

I'm a really competitive and obsessive person. It was part of the reason I had success in poker. I was able to dive head first into it and do well enough to make a living. Quick tangent before I get started. I recently went on my photobucket account and had a ton of old graphs on there, so depressing. To see the money I was making before to the money I'm making now it's just so sad to me. I definitely took things for granted but for the government to shut things down, just one of the many examples of how life isn't fair.

Anyways being competitive and not being able to play poker this summer I've turned my focus to golf. Ironically I originally learned the game a few years ago in order to be able to play with clients and not embarrass myself. Anyways now that I don't have poker to occupy my time I've become much better. So far this summer I've shot an 80 twice and recently shot an 83 at a course I've never broken 90 at. Being a baseball player it's taken me a long time to iron out the swing and there are still some baseball tendencies however it's fun seeing the improvement.

In golf there's almost always gambling games going on, I used to be able to wager much more but now it's typically just a dollar a stroke or for a beer at the end of the round. One funny thing that has actually happened twice is coming down to the last couple holes the match has been very close. At this point invariably one of my playing partners starts talking about pressure and how well can I handle it? Saying stuff like "uh oh, they're in my head". I don't think much of it as it's part of usual trash talk between friends. However walking up to the tee both times I couldn't help but laugh at how ironic it is.

I felt no pressure in both instances thinking to myself I've been in pots for thousands of dollars in both cash games and tournies, playing for $10 here isn't going to affect me. Now obviously I can't say that as that would sound incredibly arrogant but it it's what I was thinking as I was about to hit my shot both times. I ended up winning each match.

My financial client list has started to build up so hopefully I'm able to make my annual golf trip to Turning Stone this fall with my brother. I always make it the last round of the year and it's so relaxing being able to have a room on the course, play 18 holes, and gamble the rest of the night. It's something I took for granted before but it's a trip I really want to make now more than ever.

I don't think I ever mentioned how I did in my 2 mile with the exception of my time. Anyways the top 10 in each gender place and I finished in 11th among the boys. Coming down the stretch this little kid sprinted by me and I could've caught him but remember thinking, "go for it kid, I'm not gonna try to catch ya." If I had known that that was for a top 10 place we would've had an amazing duel down the stretch. Now I gotta hope to get a little better to place next year.

In addition I'll be running a 5k in 5 weeks. I started training for it today. Right now my realistic goal for it is under 21 minutes but I'd love to be able to make the 20 minute mark. I'll keep everyone updated with my progress.

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"A great man will not trample upon a worm, nor sneak to an emperor." Thomas Fuller

Can't Sleep, lets blog

bosoxx34 — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:55:17 +0000

- Since I don't take sleep aids I still have trouble falling a sleep from time to time. Haven't blogged in a while so figured I'd just ramble a bit. Firstly wanted to talk about about the whole Girah scandal. I've followed it from the start and as usual when something like this comes up whether it be in poker or day to day life, when something doesn't add up, there's always more to it. That's certainly the case with Haseeb, I posted on the DC forums that this was like a 100 piece puzzle with 15 pieces missing. The sad part is, even though he has revealed a lot it's obvious he's still hiding something. The story still doesn't add up.

When I read about things like this I really do appreciate my upbringing. I forgot where I heard this, but Haseeb could do a lot better if he just listened to this advice "When you have a difficult decision, the toughest one is usually right." While it'll be difficult initially it's usually the one that has the least repercussions. However he insists on writing these long blog and forum posts where pieces of the puzzle become uncovered but we're just taking baby steps. I just don't get it, either disappear or come clean.

- One thing that I've come to realize from reading about this is that if I ever commit a crime and see Vanessa as the prosecuting attorney, I'm screwed. From her posts on this case it's obvious she figures out the tough questions to ask and can read between the lines incredibly well.

- This season of Curb Your Enthusiasm has been incredible. I mentioned to my brother that HBO really makes a huge mistake putting Entourage second as going from Curb to Entourage is like going from the penthouse to the outhouse. The Palestinian Chicken episode might be my favorite of all time and single Larry is much better than married Larry. I used to rank Seinfeld ahead of Curb but I may have to reconsider.

- One of my good friends was the first to get married this weekend. The wedding (or what I remember from it) was a blast and I wish him and his beautiful bride the best.

- With all due respect to Notorious BIG, I disagree with him on "Mo Money, Mo Problems"

- My fantasy baseball team the MoLesters is making a late season charge. I was 20 games back of first about 7 weeks ago, since then I'm 52-25 in second place and only 5 games back of first. I have a tough schedule the last 2 weeks, but its been a fun run.

That's all I've got, hope everyone is doing well. For those that can play online poker, hope you're crushing.

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Consider what you think justice requires and decide accordingly. But never give your reasons: for your judgment will probably be right but your reasons will certainly be wrong. ~ Lord Mansfield

Little Reality Check

bosoxx34 — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:06:41 +0000

Yesterday I worked with at my Dad's story for the first time in a long time and as I expected it was a reminder of how easy I once had it. Not much will humble you like being on the go for about 9 hours in an 80-85 degree warehouse putting cases of beer in peoples car and sorting empties. The good news is the actual work is easy the bad news is it's exhausting especially when busy which it was yesterday.

As far as how my finance job is going, it's slow. My boss says it's never busy in the summer and I have 4 or 5 clients lined up for the fall but in the meantime I've had to watch my spending since getting home from AC. While I'll have some income coming in in the fall it won't be near what I was used to. As the old saying goes "you don't know what you got 'til it's gone" and it's times like these that really make me miss online poker and the how easy it was to have money. In fact I was cleaning out my car the other day and saw an old bank statement from August 2008 and I'd give up quite a bit to be able to go back to how much I was spending back then.

On a completely different note I was channel surfing the other day and came across the last 20 minutes of Secretariat on a movie channel. Excited that I was going to see the Belmont I kept it on and was cautiously optimistic. It'd be awfully tough to mess up arguably the most famous and captivating race in history. Unfortunately Disney managed it do it. For some unknown reason they didn't use Chic Anderson's call and they somehow made the victory seem less dominant than it really was. It was almost a blessing in disguise that I was able to catch the last 20 minutes so I didn't have to waste my time watching the first 100 minutes of the movie.

Speaking of horse racing, after watching the debacle of Disney's recreation of the Belmont I decided to rewatch Zenyatta's run in last years Breeders cup. For those that don't know about Zenyatta, she's a philly (a girl) that was 19-0 in races against the boys. She was attempting to go to 20-0 against a very tough field, he style is that of a closer and she generally always like a bat out of hell down the stretch. I won't spoil the race for you, enjoy.

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"He who walks with the lame learns how to limp." Scottish Proverb

Atlantic City Trip Report

bosoxx34 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:34:59 +0000

Last week I went down to Atlantic City with a couple guys I know from 2+2. The plan was to golf and gamble it up and I think it's safe to say that it was pretty successful. AC is about 6 hours from my house so I set off about 230 in the morning to get there for our 10 AM tee time. Met up with Mike and his friend Brian at Harbor Pines golf course, which was in great shape and really really tough. I didn't participate in gambling between the two but did propose a game. I forgot the name of it but its basically this the pot starts at a $ amount, in this case it was .50. Then whoever 3putts first takes over that amount, then for each subsequent 3 putt the pot is doubled and whoever 3 putts takes it over.

I've seen and heard of some insane amounts being wagered on a 6 foot putt by the end of the round, the main reason for starting it at .50. So going through the round there were quite a few three putts in the beginning and it sort of stabilized until I three putted 16 to take over the $32 tab, $16 to each player. I thought I was going to owe as the putting from both my playing partners had improved. On 17 Brian had a 7 footer on his first putt that he blew it 6 feet past the hole and missed his second coming back.

On the 18th hole he just made a mess of it going up the right side the hole time. By the time he finally got into the greenside bunker I just told him to pick up and stop the bleeding. Mike, his good buddy quickly interrupts me and syas no he has to finish out he could 3 putt. So he proceeds to blast out of the bunker and just roll up onto the green, leaving himself about 50 feet. He hits a nice lag about 6 feet away. From there I was holding the pin and couldn't watch just hoping he would drain it as any more money lost would just add insult to injury. Unfortunately I didn't hear anything hitting the cup and Brian owed $64 apiece.

From there we went to the Borgata to check in, it was my first time in AC so seeing the Borgata for the first time was pretty cool. It looked very Vegas to me and the rooms were great. From there we met up with our other 2+2 friend Hawk where he and went to the racebook for the free drinks and Mike and Brian went to the poker room. For me the rest of the night was filled with alcohol, losing $ in craps, and stuffing my face at fat burger. The next day all 4 of us went to register for the daily $100 + 20 poker tourney. We each swapped 10% and went to work.

I had never cashed in a live tourney before (I've only played about 4) and this structure wasn't great. A couple things that stood out to me. The younger internet players typically handled themselves much better at the poker table than the older players. Many times the "live pros" would stand up and scream when there was an all in, berate their opponents, and just typically be rude and disrespectful. We had one guy at my table who would constantly try and angle and act like he didn't know what he was doing. Also, this structure was terrible and it turned into a turbo within a couple hours.

Anyways, Hawk busted quickly and Mike's stack was going througha ton of ups and downs, however Brian and I were able to build workable stacks. I forgot how easy bad live tournies could be. I won my first 10-15 pots without showdowns and there was just very little resistance in the beginning. At about the 4 hour mark I had about 15 bigs as well as everyone else. I had chatted it up with some people at my table and it was certainly better than my previous live tournies as far as personality wise at the tables. Then my buddy Mike got moved to the one seat and I was in the 3. From here it was a lot of fun basically just chatting with him.

He's played a lot more live poker than me and immediately spotted that the angle shooter in the 10 seat was a piece of work, Like the second hand he gets to the table he gets it in with 22 against A4 when a kid in the 4 seat goes "Are you any good at coinflips?" Generally the typical response is I'm running really well, or I never win them. Mike just shrugs his shoulders and goes "Eh, I'm ranked top 10 in my neighborhood." Which i thought was outstanding.

Shortly into hour 5 I was short and pushed with 7s in EP, the 4 seat called me. Then the 6th, 8th, and 9th also called me. Mike just goes to me "well this is what you want." I rolled over my 77 and was against 99, jto, ATcc, and KK. I see the hands rolled over and just immediately go, "Oh hey I'm the favorite." the flop comes 758ccx. So I have to fade a bunch to quadruple up, the turn is an offsuit 6 giving the 99 a straight. So now I need the board to pair and the river comes a 7 for quads. I just smile and rake in the chips now having a very good stack.

Unfortunately the only bad part about this was we now had a few new guys at the table with 45 left (36 get paid) and they were all internet players. It had to be one of the toughest daily tournament tables of all time. For the next hour it was just a bunch of raising and 3 betting, then with about 40 left our other friend Brian got moved to the table making it that much tougher. On the bubble Brian shoved A9 and ran into aces. The person holding aces was another older gentleman who was immediately berating him for shoving with A9 on the bubble. The board rolled off 45678 which was great. What followed that hand was awesome too. The 5 seat was berating Brian, Mike and I proceeded to needle the 5 seat by me agreeing with him and Mike agreeing with Brian, I was talking in a sarcastic tone throughout but he never picked up on it.

From there I finished in 35th when 55<TT. Brian finished in the 20s and we were left turning in our drink vouchers while sweating on Mike. With about 15 left he got it in with 84 against TT and rivered a straight to stay alive. From there he got tot he final table and was playing really well, he was one of the few trying to steal PF and go from there. With 5 left he shoved KTcc into the chip leaders AK. I go, "show me a club in the door." The 8c was in the door followed by 9c and 5c. I go "boom, ship it." when Mike just points at the other guys cards and he had the Ac. So we had to fade 2 cards and fortunately we did. Mike eventually got HU and doubled early to get to even in chip stacks. He then called a shove with A5 against the other guys J6 and J6 won to ship the tourney.

No complaints, it was a fun sweat, Mike played well and I was then back to even on the trip. However, craps blows and I finished down a bit on the trip. What makes it worse is Mike and Brian had never played it before and I was talking about how it has to lowest house edge in the casino, blah blah blah and I don't think we ever stood at a table for more than 20 minutes. Either way it was a blast and it all but concludes the summer of Mike. There's a possibility I may be making one last trip to NYC at the end of the year to watch the US Open but that really depends on if I can score free tickets like last year.

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Things that hurt, instruct.
Benjamin Franklin

Blast From the Past

bosoxx34 — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:47:01 +0000

I miss poker, could only put in so many hands because of school.

My hands from March of 08:

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Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions." Benjamin Disreali

Lets Talk Baseball

bosoxx34 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:19:50 +0000

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, my life isn't that exciting without poker. However the good part about the summer time is baseball is in full swing. Out of my team totals bets Pittsburgh, Boston, Atlanta, and Milwaukee are all looking pretty good for the over. The only one that's in trouble is Philadelphia under 97.5 wins. Also if you look back to my original post I have a shot to pick 7 of 8 playoff teams, Oakland really let me down.
Cliff notes on a long boring post that I'm not going to write is the Redsox are really good, the Phillies are really good but their line-up is awful, I'm not concerned about the Yankees although a Sox/Yankees ALCS will take more years off my life, I'm rooting for the Pirates in the NL Central, the playoffs should be really exciting. What I'd really like to talk about is Jose Bautista, how awesome he is, and advanced stats.

These are some allegations of him using performance enhancing drugs however unlike some players in the past people aren't as loud about it because he's a very likeable guy. Someone who always had talent but always struggled a bit. I'm going with the naive approach on this one. In September of 09 he changed his swing to hit more flyballs, One of the great myths that go around little league clinics is you want to hit the ball on the ground. The opposite is true, you can't have too many extra base hits with top spin grounders through the 4 hole. Ideally you want to plug gaps and hit the ball hard in the air.

JoeyBats has mastered this. In September of 09 he hit 9 homers, in 2010 he hit 54 and so far this year hes hit 31. He's been the best player in the AL this year although it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't win the MVP since the Blue Jays are going to finish in 4th place in the toughest division in baseball. If you go by WAR (Wins above replacement) hes been the best player in baseball this year and yet if you look at any mid-season awards that don't focus on advanced stats he's not on anyone's list. He has a 1.157 OPS this season. That's better than Pujols' best, DiMaggio's, and Griffey's. The guy is a machine.

If you want to read a bit more on advanced stats here is a blog that debunks a few myths. I can't tell you how many casual fans would choose Ichiro over Giambi but Ichiro has a very empty batting average with a low OBP which makes him incredibly overrated at the plate. As an all around player he's (or was) very good but as a hitter criminally overrated.

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Chuckie: Well why don't you give me your fucking sixteen cents you got on you and we'll put your sandwich on layaway. There you go, keep it right up here for you, We'll put you on a program. Everyday you bring your six cents and at the end of the week you'll get your sandwich.

Abby Wambach and The Women's World Cup

bosoxx34 — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:19:33 +0000

Abby Wambach is one of the better women's soccer players in the world. How do I know this? She's from Rochester. We've always known about Wambach just from the press she gets locally here, it's impossible not to. Also, the bar that sponsors us for our beer league softball team is owned by her brother so with the women's world cup going on it's impossible not to follow it. However, I wasn't really expecting the rest of the US to join in.

Let me first say that the United States loves jumping on the bandwagon, especially with soccer (I know my European readers, it's football). If the woman's team wasn't very good we wouldn't hear much about them. However, most people jumped on board last Sunday in the quarters against Brazil. Like I said, America loves to jump on the bandwagon so when you consider that, plus controversy, a few charismatic players and tangle all that up in an international event you have the perfect storm.

For those that missed it, the US went up early against Brazil until they tied it up in the 60 something minute on a debatable takedown in the box. Since it impeded a clear opportunity to score, a red card was given as well as a PK. The US goalie, Hope Solo guessed right and stopped the first penalty shot but the save was nullified as the referee, who had a rough game called encroachment on an American player leaving early. Marta, by far the best woman's player in the world stepped up for the retry and banged it home. This must've been when things started to trend on twitter as it seems most people turned it on around this time.

Very few things in sports make me stand up and say "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh" especially when the Sox/Bruins aren't playing. Off the top of my head it has to be something amazing and unexpected such as Pujols/Lidge in the 05 NLCS, Burress's TD catch against the Pats in the superbowl, or the David Tyree catch during that same superbowl. So when Solo guessed right and stoned the Brazilian shooter that was one of those moments.

Added into the equation is Solo probably being one of the most outspoken figures in woman's sports. She's a very good goalie, probably the best in the world and in a time when so many athletes speak in cliches she's one of the few that don't. She criticized the coach 4 years ago when she was benched against Brazil (a loss for the US), she'll criticize things via twitter, and she'll say things after the game like "You always want to see the better team win, and we're the better team." After it was clear that the kick was going to be retaken she must've said something to the ref and got a yellow card.

It was after this that a 2+2 thread started "The Hope Solo swag thread". Which was funny because soon after the game Blake Griffin tweeted this. "This will probably be my only tweet about women's soccer but Hope Solo has serious swag. Congrats to the us women's team #worldcup".

If this was a movie, this would be about the halfway point since the game because a classic after Brazil tied it. From there the game went back and forth, in overtime Marta scored a very impressive goal whether it be for a girl or guy. It was pretty much the only way they were going to be able to beat Solo. I wish I could find video of it, but my brother and I were in awe as we were watching it. Before this most fans were just hoping to get it to PKs down a man.

From there the US kept attacking but couldn't bang one home. Wambach had a good chance around the 100th minute but the Brazilian goalie made a nice save. In the second half the US brought in Megan Rapinoe who had a couple rough first touches. Since she has bleach blond hair my brother and I called her "chlorox" the rest of the game and the origin of the nickname wasn't positive. The ball kept finding her and she seemed to be just off with her crosses and set pieces (with the exception of one in the 2nd half).

With time winding down in the 2nd overtime a Brazilian defenseman ebellished a call to stall. It was obvious she was faking however was trying to milk the clock, because of that the ref added 3 minutes of injury time something I've never seen before in a 15 minute frame. In the 122nd minute Rapinoe made one of the best crosses I've ever seen from a girl. Coming up the right side she hit it with her left foot (she's right footed) into the box. The goalie misplayed it and Wambach who has to be the best woman in the air was there to drill it home. I really can't emphasize enough how good that cross was from her wrong foot. If you've never played scocer before go outside and kick a ball with your non-dominant foot, see how far it goes.

From there it came down to PKs. Pretty much every American fan was confident, probably none more than Solo. She stopped the 3rd shot from Brazil and the US made all 5 of their PKs. Here are the full game highlights.

The American's were then able to down France 3-1 in a very entertaining semi-finals, with Wambach scoring the game winner in the 80th minute (obviously on a header) and now play Japan in the finals on Sunday afternoon. They have America's support, they're really an easy team to root for. Yes they're talented but they're extremely well conditioned and have a level of grit to them that every sports fan loves their team to have. I joke around with my friends that aren't from Rochester that Wambach leads the way in that regard to the grittiness because she's from my home town and that's debatable but Rochester is a pretty blue-collar town and she fits in very well with that.

I'll be watching once again on Sunday afternoon, hopefully they can bring it home.

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"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."
---Bertie Forbes

The Summer of Mike

bosoxx34 — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:24:32 +0000

One of my all-time favorite shows is Seinfeld. There's one episode where George gets laid off by the Yankees and has nothing to do all summer. He then realizes he can do anything he wants and proclaims it the Summer of George.

That's sort of how my summer has been going so far. I've been laid off and am sort of having one last Summer of Mike before I have to enter the real world. That's not to say things haven't changed since Black Friday, I've had to cancel a few trips, cut down on my spending, etc. For example, now walking a golf course doesn't seem so bad when you're saving $15. Also in order to take some of these trips I haven't been going out that often so some sacrifices have been made.

However I have been fortunate to go to Boston, NYC, and a golf trip this summer and in all honesty I'd much rather save up by not going out on a couple of weekends to go to these places. In a couple weeks I'm going on a golfing/gambling trip to AC and to end the summer I'll be going to the US Open one last time. Things have been different but may as well enjoy myself. Poker wise I have been trying to stay sharp by downloading a few videos for if and when poker comes back. Honestly the sooner the better as I'm not going to make much money for a few years as a financial adviser.

Also this summer I have been attending some of my players, current and former summer league games. I have a good relationship with a lot of my players and have never had a problem with getting kids to play hard for me. If there were any, they just didn't make the team the next year, but as a coach you never know how much your kids like or enjoy playing for you. That's why it was satisfying last game I attended when I had 3 players playing on 2 separate teams, all 3 kids came up and said hi during the game including one running across the field before he had to go to centerfield for the inning. It's things like that which make it easy to come back for another year of coaching.

Finally it was extremely depressing not to be able to go out to Vegas this year. I would've loved to play in the trampoline dodgeball game and it looked awesome to be able to play in. Hopefully with some good fortune I'll be able to fly out next year for the series, I'm not sure what dodgeball team I'd align myself with, probably the one that made the biggest offer as I'm a free agent.

Hope all of my readers are doing well

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"Wink at small faults, for you have great ones yourself." Scottish Proverb

Blah 13:28

bosoxx34 — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:49:08 +0000

Long story short, ran the first mile way too fast again. The pace felt really slow but when I got to the mile marker the guy said 6:20, I knew I was in big trouble as the 2nd mile is much more hilly and had nothing left the last half mile. Thanks for the advice all, I'll try again next year.

What to eat/drink day before the race?

bosoxx34 — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:38:50 +0000

Last year for the July 4th race I cramped up in the middle of it, I really would like to avoid that this time. Trying to make good time while it feels like a bunch of swords are piercing your stomach isn't a whole lot of fun. Right now I'm planning for pasta the night before and am just hoping for the best but any help would be appreciated.

In the meantime running is going well. I've been able to move my daily jog to 5.6 miles and tomorrow I plan on doing a test run jog of 2 miles as a smimulated race out on the pavement. In the meantime I hate not eating junkfood, I have a huge sweet tooth and to pass up on it hurts so much. I usually go to my buddy's house every 4th on the beach and there's an ice cream place right across the street. After the race I may have to head there before going to the party. It sounds so good right now.

I'm a competitive person so to beat 13:15 would mean a lot and I also have a couple bets going on this. So the tentative plan is tomorrow to run 5 miles in the morning followed by a 2 mile simulation at night. On Saturday I plan on running 5.5 miles and on Sunday another 2 mile simulation leading in to Monday. It should be interesting.

In the meantime I went to Pittsburgh this weekend to see 2 Sox-Pirates games. PNC is such a nice ballpark and we had great seats for both games. I was thinking about this earlier but as sad as it is I wouldn't chose Fenway park as a place I wanted to relax and watch a ballgame. Much of what makes that stadium great is the atmosphere and the history. However the seats are extremely uncomfortable and if two random teams were playing there I wouldn't go unless I had any interest. In the meantime newer ballparks like camden yards, jacobs field, PNC Park, Yankee Stadium, etc are all very nice places to kick back and watch a game.

In Pittsburgh we played this course, Cranberry Highlands that was in great shape and just an awesome course. The picture below is the 3rd or 4th hole and is a great par 3. With water on the left and behind the hole with it being 80' downhill. I came up short and left of the pin, duffed my chip then 2 putted for a bogey. Still a sick visual.

Won't blog again until after the 4th, for all the Americans have a fun and safe 4th of July. To the Europeans, run well.

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Worry gives a small thing a big shadow.

- Swedish proverb

Preparing for my Race

bosoxx34 — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:57:49 +0000

So taking the advice of CalvinLinus a fellow DC member I set out to run some longer distances without the interval training I normally do. The first day I decided I was gonna run a 10k at a 9 minute mile pace. How hard could it be? I usually run at a 7-730 mile pace with no problems. Well, I had to stop at like 3.75 miles. There's was no way I was getting to 6.2. I gotta say I knew that Ashton's running prop bet was incredible difficult (70 miles in 24 hours), but coming off a night of drinking I'd figure it was impossible. I had gone out Saturday night and was in no shape to run even 6 miles the next day, that's incredible.

On Monday I ran for 4.5 miles, yesterday I ran 5 miles, and today I ran 5 miles in my morning run and 4 in my evening run. My legs felt so good going into the afternoon I figured I'd get another jog in. I do plan on running a few simulated races on pavement to push myself as I agree with nowhereman that I should try to run a bit faster. Right now my goal is 13:15 for my race and I don't see that changing as it;s 12 days away and I'm going to Pittsburgh this weekend which means alcohol and fatty foods. However those are the only 2 days I plan on drinking leading up to the race.

We'll see what happens, after running a 13:45 last year I know what to expect. I'd offer to make some bets but it'd be sort of impossible to pay/get paid so I'll just have to go on personal motivation. Speaking of that I saw this clip the other day, I'll probably put it on my ipod and watch it before the race. First time I heard this I was ready to run through a wall.

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Common sense hides shame. - Gaelic Proverb

Attention Rob! (And other runners)

bosoxx34 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:54:39 +0000

Last year I ran my first ever race. It was just a two mile on July 4th. My goal was 13:30 and showing my inexperience I ran my first mile in 6:30, thought I was gonna shatter my goal, and finished with a time of 13:45. I wasn't displeased but would like to do better this year. My only problem is I have no idea how to train for it. Last year since it coincided with me losing weight I would just run my regular 3 miles however it wasn't all in a row. Typically I'd run at about a 7:30 mile pace on my treadmill for 8 minutes then walk for 2 until I got to 3 miles.

This year I'd really like to train for this race but have no idea how. It'd also be nice to know how to get ready for other races if and when I decide to run 5ks, etc. I also have no idea what to eat or how much water to drink the night and morning of of the race. Last year I cramped up after the first mile and it hurt my time. Besides that it wasn't a whole lot of fun running with shooting pain in my stomach.

This year my goal is 13:15 for 2 miles, however I have no idea how to get there and figure DC is a better source than just googling "how to run races"

Thanks in advance.

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To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
Steve Prefontaine

Game 7, Best of 1, For Everything

bosoxx34 — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:00:42 +0000

Firstly, I hope that nobody went with my drinking game I posted before last game. After the Bruins scored their 4th goal in 4 minutes i immediately thought of my latest post and figured someone might be dead after playing the drinking game.

When I first started writing about hockey I never thought I'd make so many game 7 posts. In that aspect I've been very fortunate as the Bruins have been competitive enough to make it to these do or die games. Now as we reach the finals I really don't know what to think. I'm excited for game 7 but not really nervous. The Bruins in my mind are free rolling. This year they've answered the bell so many times beating their biggest rivals on the way to the cup that I'm pretty much emotionally drained hockey wise.

I know that sounds like emotionally hedging but the fact is I’ll still be extremely disappointed if the Bruins lose. The Bruins have had an opportunity to steal all 3 games in Vancouver and have lost them all. If they had lost to Tampa I’d be upset but not crushed. Tampa was actually a pretty likeable team, Vancouver on the other hand not so much.

They’re constantly diving, trying to get under the skin of their opponents when there’s no need to. They’re a very skilled team who doesn’t have to resort to those tactics and yet they do. The Sedin’s go down at the drop of a hat on the first touch after the whistle. Lapierre putting his fingers in Bergeron’s face was a joke after Burrows bit him in game 1 was ridiculous. They run their mouths constantly to the media and are just a very arrogant bunch.

Boston also has its flaws. They’re perceived by their fans as a blue collar team but they pretty consistently venture over into that grey area between physical and dirty. However one thing that’s great about rooting for them is they won’t be pushed around. If Marchand was a Canuck and hit a Bruin like he hit Sedin the face 5 or 6 times like he did in Game 6 the gloves would’ve been dropped. Also most of his teammates would’ve come over and said something. As a fan of the Bruins it's easy to cheer on.

The fact is that this Bruins run couldn’t have come at a better time for me. It started right as black Friday hit and has been a welcome distraction over the past couple months. Every couple of days I’ve been able to dive into a hockey game, win or lose its been awesome. I’ve learned from watching hockey for most of my life and seeing the last few Bruins playoffs failures that it isn’t easy to get to the Stanley Cup.

If the Bruins get the first one I think they’ll be alright. Luongo is one of the weakest mentally athletes I’ve ever seen. He seems to be very shaky after a few things go wrong and he’s not in the lead. He’ll have a short leash tomorrow but if the Bruins can get one early I’d expect another to follow.

I really have no good way to end this blog so I’ll say go Bruins and give you a few CBC intros. They really put all of the NBC/Versus teasers to shame.

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"It takes 4 wins, 4 times to get your name on that beautiful trophy" - Bob Cole

Stanley Cup Drinking Game

bosoxx34 — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 20:10:42 +0000

Here's a game we played at Chuck's the other night for the Bruins 8-1 win. You have a bottle of liquor and 2 beers, one recreational and the other one is your game beer. You can play this game with 2 or more people, each person picks a side. For example if I pick the Bruins I need to take a drink from my game beer every time they go offsides, ice the puck, or Tim Thomas freezes it. I can take sips from my recreational beer whenever I feel like it.

The fun part comes on powerplays. When that happens you have to finish your game beer before the other team scores, so there's a bit of strategy involved. If I have Boston and they take a penalty I can take my time finishing my game beer hoping the Canucks don't score. If they do score before I finish it and it's a powerplay goal I have to take a shot. You also have to take a shot if the opposing team scores a goal. As a result you could be doing 2 shots if you don't finish your game beer before a PP goal.

Any member can quit at anytime. I can't blame my opponents during game 3 as the Bruins scored 4 goals in the 2nd with 1 being a PP goal. If done right this is what it looks like:

Have fun, go Bruins!

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“They’ve been supportive of this team through thick and thin,’’ said 43-year-old Mark Recchi. “Tonight, we could hear them while we were still in our [locker] room, before warm-ups. We were like, ‘Oh, they’re ready.’ ’’

Long Update

bosoxx34 — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:38:50 +0000

While the government forced me to cancel a few of my Summer trips, I was able to salvage a few. I just got back from NYC last night. I went with my good friend and his fiancée. I was supposed to go with another buddy but he had to cancel at the last minute. We went from Saturday-Tuesday. He's a big Braves fan so we saw two Mets-Braves games at Citi field and then a Yankees-Sox game on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. This trip was a little different than my last for a few reasons.

One I stayed in Queens. My buddy's fiancée has a cousin with a house where she let us crash. It was an awesome situation as they were a great family and we were able to save a ton of money on no hotel costs. Two, we took the Subway practically everywhere. It actually got really easy by the end of the trip with the hopspot ap. The toughest was going to Yankee Stadium during rush hour. Three, unlike last time I was in NYC I hung out with Chuck (Danzasmack). He met us out on Saturday night then invited us over to his place on Monday night to watch the Bruins-Canucks game, creating a great drinking game. It was so good, I don't really remember any of the third period.

I'm always unsure of how my non-poker friends will get along with my poker friends but here's basically what happens on Saturday night. We head out, Chuck comes into the bar with his friend, introductions are made. Within 15 seconds he's buying everyone shots and within 2 minutes he was getting an invitation to my buddy's wedding. And not just to go to the wedding, to be an usher. Things went well on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium too when we had an extra ticket and invited my friend who coaches baseball down in NYC to the game. He was also nice enough to give us a ride home after so we didn't have to deal with another jam packed subway ride.

I thought Citi Field was great. Awesome sightlines and a fun ballpark. My only problem with it is they have too many clubs/restaurants. So instead of people being at their seats, many aren't watching the game from the field. Yankee Stadium is incredible. They spent a ton of money on it but everything about the place is immaculate. We did have an overly intense dude in front of us that looked like he wanted to say something to me in my Sox gear about 10 times but he never did. However the unintentional comedy in the seat in front of us was awesome.

During the ride home I was thinking that it's funny that I quit coaching legion because I wanted to travel during the summer and thanks to what's going on in the poker world I could've just continued to coach as I only was able to go on trips for one summer. This is the 5th year I've coached varsity baseball and for the first 4 I was coaching during the summer. I also thought about how easy I thought it was going to be to transition from a player to coach, I'd just emulate all of my favorites and it'd be easy, wrong.

It took about 3 years until I actually became comfortable running practices, creating the team mentality that I wanted, learn how to discipline kids, among a bunch of other things. It really is hard to become a good coach and it's something that takes a ton of time and effort. I've been fortunate enough that I've had quite a few people top help me speed up the process and while it took a little while I now know I could run a team with very little problems.

The Bruins tied up the Stanley Cup Finals tonight against the Canucks as it's now 2-2 in series. I was unable to watch game 2 since I was at the Braves-Mets game and it absolutely killed me. They were up 2-1 in the 3rd and lost 11 seconds into overtime. To make matters worse, Burrows scored 2 goals and had an assist after biting Patrice Bergeron in game 1. The league decided not to suspend him and he goes onto be the first star of the game. Following on your phone at a baseball game was next to impossible.

However the Bruins came out flying in the next 2 games at home, winning 8-1 and 4-0. As the West started to get figured out I wanted to play the Canucks all along. The Bruins have a ton of trouble with quicker teams and although Vancouver is very skilled they're much more physical than most Western Conference teams. The series has become very chippy which in my opinion suits the Bruins much better than the Canucks, we'll see what happens. Game 5 in Vancouver is going to be ridiculously intense, I just hope the Bruins can continue to play well.

I'm running in a 2 mile race on July 4th again. I've been running quite a bit in the last week or so and although I know it's only a 2 mile I was curious if any DC members had any tips on how to prepare for a race. Before I would just continue running about 3-4 miles a day on my treadmill and I fell short of my goal last year. I plan to do much more street running for the upcoming race but I also cramped up too. I know I'm about a month away but any dieting tips for what to eat leading up to the race would be huge as well.

Last year my goal was 2 miles in 13:30 and I finished in 13:45. I did such a bad job pacing myself as I ran a 6:30 first mile. This year I'd like to run it in 13:15 or less. It isn't going to be easy but I'd be willing to bet that I can do it.

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If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. ~Latin Proverb

Game 7 Bruins-Lightning Trip Report

bosoxx34 — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:37:35 +0000

After the Bruins won game 5 against Tampa on Monday night my brother started planting a seed in my ear that if it's a game 7 we gotta go. I've mentioned before that he's always willing to take a road trip for something and this was no different. When Tampa won game 6 on Wednesday it started up again. I immediately dismissed it saying we can't tickets will be too expensive, etc. Later doing some quick research I found a cheap hotel across the street from the garden now the only problem was tickets. Fortunately, despite being expensive tickets went on sale on Thursday at 11. Now it was just a matter of beating the virtual line.

I got through at like 11:10 clicking best available on ticketmaster after about 40 failed attempts and we were able to get 3rd level tickets. Not great seats but at the same time it's really difficult to have a bad seat in a hockey arena and we were in the building. So the next morning we started on the 6 hour drive from Rochester to Boston. Got in around noon, our hotel wasn't ready yet so we took the T to quincy market to kill time and grab lunch. After taking a power nap it was game time.

I've been lucky enough to attend a lot of great sporting events in my life (baseball, basketball, football, hockey). As much as I love baseball, nothing really matches the energy of a big hockey game. There are no planned breaks so you're holding your breath for 3-4 minutes at a time with very little time to think and analyze what's going on. Everything is on the fly. Pre-game was awesome especially with about 10 minutes before the game started. Here's what Johnny Boychuck said pre-game

"You could hear the crowd all the way from the dressing room stomping their feet and yelling." Here's a video from youtube of some of the pregame.

The game itself was about as exciting as a 1-0 game could get. Being in attendance you always have an inflated opinion of the game, however after reading about it everyone was in agreement that it was an awesome game. It was 0-0 going into the third period and the Bruins had really carried play so everyone in the crowd was basically worried that Roloson might steal on for Tampa. When Horton scored with 7 minutes left pretty much all the tension was released out of the building.

For the goal we were on the opposite side but had a great angle for it. I thought Krejci was going to shoot the puck. It wasn't the best angle but he was in a prime spot and though he was gonna short side Roloson. The pass he made was obviously outstanding

The crowd was loud before the goal but it was pandemonium after. For about the final 6 minutes it was touch to hear the whistle and the final 4 minutes you could barely hear the music playing on the PA. Under a minute you couldn't hear anything. With about 45 seconds left Tampa went offsides and they actually played "Teenage Wasteland" and it was impossible to hear any part of the intro. After the game the party filtered out into the streets, I had to retire a little early as I needed to get up at 5 AM the next morning to drive back but the whole experience was outstanding.

Now onto Vancouver.

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There isn't a person anywhere who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can. - Henry Ford.

Some Poker Content

bosoxx34 — Wed, 25 May 2011 04:32:56 +0000

I've been preparing this post for a while. It was going to be my first one when I got back from my golf trip that I left for on April 14th. Needless to say i never got around to writing it. Anyways I wanted to talk a bit about preparing for your session. Before the government shut it down I was starting to get a good feel for PLO and really enjoying it. However I would always drop a couple buy ins to start my session. This was past the point of variance which is what i told myself it was for the first week or so. Furthermore, I've read posts on 2+2 and DC saying, "It seems like I always lose a few buy ins in the first few minutes and have to grind it back up after."

Thinking about it a bit more and to bring up a baseball coaching comparison is the best way I can explain it. Coaches hate to see their guys lazy right before a game or practice. We hate to see screwing around in stretching, laziness during infield/outfield, etc. Bad habits creep in and it generally leads to a slow start. Well the same can be said for poker, when I was still playing when I felt like it I would sit down and fire up some rush PLO tables. That'd be equivalent to me just rolling out of bed and trying to hit a baseball. Is it possible? Sure, but it's not likely that I'm going to be at my best.

I talked to Joe a little about this and the best advice I can give is to come up with some sort of pre-game routine. Much like stretching and throwing in sports, something that gets you ready to play. Whether that be watching a video for 15 minutes (I'm not a fan), reviewing some hands, writing down a list of things to focus on, etc. Anything that'll get you to playing your A game as fast as possible. When you think about it, it makes no sense to do anything else.

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Be prepared and be honest.
John Wooden

The Anatomy of an Upset

bosoxx34 — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:16:33 +0000

Our baseball season is winding down and although I've mentioned this has been a fun and different experience, its also been a bit frustrating. Many of the teams we play have kids on it that wouldn't be that good at bigger schools but act like they are. The same with a lot of the coaches, just the things they say makes it obvious that their baseball IQ isn't very high. The worst part is when you know the opposing team is going to do something yet there's nothing you can do about it. With better, more experienced players there's 3 or 4 things you can do to counter something with baseball so it's a bit of a helpless feeling at times.

With that being said we're going into our first playoff game as a coaching staff doing everything we can to be competitive. We'll be pretty big underdogs for sure, if there was a betting line my guess is my team would probably be like a 20-1 underdog. However we will have a bit of a scouting report and our number one pitcher on the mound. In the past I've coached teams that were expected to win and lose. I've watched games where upsets happen, basically everyone has the same storyline.

The lesser team hangs around for a bit for the first couple innings then in the middle innings something happens. It can be the pitcher getting out of a big jam, someone getting a big hit, a great defensive play, etc. Something to show the favored team that this is going to be a game, and they're going to get your best effort. So I'm hoping for something like that on Tuesday. We'll be prepared, now it's just a matter of our players playing well.

Lost in all of my Bruins posts lately is the Redsox have been playing really well lately. The baseball season is so long that every team goes through slumps, while most teams don't want to start off 2-10 something like that will inevitably happen over the course of 162 games. The cream generally rises to the top and hopefully the Sox can stay healthy. I'm going to 3 of their games in June and was worried they they were going to be fighting to get to .500 and back in the race at that point, good thing I shouldn't have to worry about that.

Also, sorry for the lack of poker content lately. My next post will be poker related and could be my last poker strategy content for a while.

Go Bruins!

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We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.

Oliver Wendell Holmes