There and back again….

Long time lurker, and long time posting. I’m hoping to revamp this blog so I can help focus on my massive mound of minis. With 2 small kids, an intense job, and my wife starting a new job, time is scarce. But if I can squeeze in a consistent couple of hours a week, i know I can make some progress.

i started miniature gaming with the industry standard games workshop. I have always enjoyed the fantasy genre so started with that. Being a collector, I branched into their alternate 40k universe which is set 40,000 years in the future.  Both of these settings are intended for use with their 28mm models.

This year I branched into historicals. My grandfather fought in World War 2, so that has always been an area of interest for me. I picked up Warlord Games Bolt action. This led me to do some research which led the to The Miniatures Page (TMP). I had read the compact history of the American Civil War (ACW) years ago, and always found it interesting.  So naturally I branched off into that, followed by Warlord Game’s Pike and Shotte.

I did some more research and the rules from Too Fat Lardies for both World War 2, World War 1, and ACW were pretty solid. I also picked up Bull Run to Gettysburg, Brother against Brother, and Disposable Heroes. So I’m pretty much set for rules.

That leaves me with starting to figure out what I want to paint. Short list below of what I will focus on, I will start by doing roughly a 10 man unit for each:

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

6th Edition Starter Set

1) Orcs

2) Empire

Warhammer 40k

Assault on Black Reach Starter

1) Orks

Dark Vengeance Starter

2) Chaos Renegades

World War 1

1) Early War Germans

2) Early War French

World War 2

1) British

2) Soviets

American Civil War

1) Confederate

2) Union

That should keep me occupied for a while!

Heading to Vegas

I’m heading to Vegas to escape the G20 madness here in Toronto. Hopefully will mostly be playing poker, but maybe also shooting some guns at the gun range. Meeting up with my good friend Mr Ne- Guy-En.

Hopefully there will be positive results to report. I’m hopign the trip is a freeroll. Flight is on airmiles and we got a decent room at Bally’s. Didn’t want to slum it too bad. I stayed at the Trop last year, and it wasn’t pretty. Mind you, I didn’t spend too much time in the room.

I’m just hoping I play well and run well. Not looking to run like God, Usain Bolt would be fine…
🙂

My Son is born…

Maximilian Karl-Heinz was born Monday December 29th at 9:29 PM weighing in at 7 lb 10 oz’s and 55 cm long. Mother and Baby are doing fine, and father is learning all sorts of new and interesting things.

🙂

Wife’s water broke…

It’s a lot calmer scene than how they portray it in the movies. Heading to the hospital now.

Developing…

Playing with the Lord Admiral Club- December Game

At the last session, I was introduced to Razz, 7 Card Stud, and Omaha. We played both stud hi and Omaha hi and high-low as well. After the session I asked the Lord Admiral as well as “The Man” for good books to read and they pointed me in the right direction.

I got to the game with a bit of a loosey goosey attitude. We started off with Omaha hi, and in my first hand I had a draw to the nut flush. There was a bit of raising and re-raising, but unfortunately, the river was not kind to me. A little while later, playing 7 card stud, I was heads up against the man. He had a J and a 10 showing, and I had a low pair. I was pretty sure he was on a straight draw, and I ended up making two pair. Once again, I did not get there, and it turns out he made the straight on 5th street.

After these two big losses, I was almost $40 down, the big loser on the night at that point. And then I began to hit. The Admiral had begun to whittle away his stack as well. We were heads up, and then with my QJ I flopped broadway. We rereaised each other so that he was all in and then flipped our cards over. He had A-10. There were two blanks, and I took down a fairly large pot.

I took down a couple of decent size pots, and then I had another large pot that managed to take down. It was Omaha an the board was Adxdxd??. I had the Kd. There was a blank on the river and then the river brought the 4th d. I reraised the raiser and he folded. At which point I showed my Kd. I then felt sheepish as the Admiral pointed out that I had to use two cards from my hand. So I kinda got away with one there…

🙂

So at that point I had managed to get myself to close to even. The next hand was a monster pot, the largest of the night and what ended up putting me fairly far ahead. It was Omaha High, and I had QdQs8dx? Both the Admiral and the Man were in the hand. The flop came QxAd6d? I checked, there was a raise, and then I reraised. Next card was a blank. Another round of raising with another reraise. The final card was another d(low one). There was a raise and then two calls. Mentally I had already allocated the money I was spending to the Man to see his hand. I knew he had a flush, and I was 75% sure he had the king.   The Admiral flipped over two pair, while the man showed his Jack high flush.

The rest of the night I managed to retain what I won, and for the last 1/2 hour we played no limit hold-em. All in all, I had another awesome time with the Lord Admiral Club. Great guys, great atmosphere, and I managed to draw even overall (-$20 first session, +$20 this session). Couldn’t have asked for more…

Unhappy People Watch Lots More TV

News Flash? I don’t think so. I think that the things that these people miss out on, like exercise, sex, social interaction, etc definitely contribute to their unhappines. And then it becomes a Catch-22 as they spiral downwards. Not sure how I feel about my (unborn) son and what constraints we will put him under. I’ve never liked to push things but if all he does is sit around and watch TV, I know that’s a sure fire recipe for disaster.

 

Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.

The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 as part of the General Social Survey.

 

While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.

In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.

The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness.

In fact, people say they like watching television: Past research has shown that when people watch television they enjoy it. In these studies, participants reported that on a scale from 0 (dislike) to 10 (greatly enjoy), TV-watching was nearly an 8.

But perhaps the high from watching television doesn’t last.

“These conflicting data suggest that TV may provide viewers with short-run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise,” said researcher John Robinson, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In this scenario, even the happiest campers could turn into Debbie-downers if they continue to stare at the boob-tube. The researchers suggest that over time, television-viewing could push out other activities that do have more lasting benefits. Exercise and sex come to mind, as do parties and other forms of socialization known to have psychological benefits.

Or, maybe television is simply a refuge for people who are already unhappy.

“TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it,” Robinson and UM colleague Steven Martin write in the December issue of the journal Social Indicators Research.

They add, “Furthermore, chronic unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating and can interfere with work and most social and personal activities, but even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV.”

The researchers say follow-up studies are needed to tease out the relationship between television and happiness.

Playing with the Lord Admiral Club

I had been invited out to play with the Lord Admiral Club a couple of times, but fate had just intervened in the way. I finally managed to make it out this week to their first game in a while. It’s a group of players who have been playing cards for quite a while. It’s a tight knit and very cool group of players. I knew that they played a tight limit Hold-Em game, but what I was unaware of was that they also played dealer’s choice.

Seeing as I know how to play limit only, that was a bit of a surprise. But the guys were nice enough to walk through the general play of the game and I tried to do the best I could. We played a couple of rounds of limit hold-em and I was able to make money in this game which kept me ahead of the curve. We played Omaha Hi/Lo Seven Card Stud, Razz, and finally 5 card draw lowball.

I managed to draw the nut low in Razz and lowball but I misplayed the lowball hand, and checked where I should have raised (I wasn’t drawing cards anyway, so I’m not sure if that was right or wrong). I managed to pull in a couple of decent pots in Omaha and Hold-Em, but the Hi-Lo games vexed me. I’ll try and get some reading done in these games before the next Lord Admiral game in mid-December.

All in all, it was a great game with a great group of guys (and great atmosphere to boot) capping off my “week of poker” I finished down $20 at that game, my first loss in a while, but it just motivates me to learn both seven card stud and Omaha. Looking forward to the next game. The hand of the night was the two brothers Mark and Sean going at it. With an A on the flop both of them re-raised and saw the hand down to the river where they both revealed… a pair of Kings…

🙂

3rd Place at the YVC Poker Tournament

My friend Chris had to work on some top secret project so I got called in. There were around 50 people there, mostly venture capitalists and other such types. It’s more of a networking event, with poker on the side. I get seated at the table with a variety of players, some good ( the eventual champ I think) and some not so much. First hand, I have a full house and fold it. The board is kk99 x and I have the 9. The other player is betting decently, so I assume he has the king. He says he doesn’t have it after. I still would lay this down, just a bad place for me I think.

Soon after I play against the “champ” and he says he has a big hand and I should lay it down. The tourney starts off small, but then the blinds start jumping so it becomes a bit of a push fest. I have KJ. Not a stellar hand, especially if I am against JJ or QQ, which is what I think he has. I lay it down and he shows me QQ. A couple of players get knocked out and I am a shorter stack when a big stack is moved to the table. He raises twice, second time I push, he calls. He has A8 and I have K10. Flop is K10 and that’s that. (All in #1 against him).

At the same table I raise it two hands in a row, both times with KK and get no callers. At that point I already know my luck has given out. I make it to the final table and there is some nervousness as no one wants to bubble (8 players, top 5 spots are paid out). I am medium stack and am close to getting blinded out. The blinds are 400/800 and there is a raise and 3 callers. I look down at 22. I think about it for a while. I don’t really want to push as chances are I am beat. I call and we go to a flop. Sweet mercy the flop is beautiful. A 2 5? I push and get one caller (All in #2 against him). I almost quadruple up. Later I get AJ basically two hands in a row and raise. First time everyone folds. Next hand a medium stack thinks about if for a while and pushes. If I call I’ll still have a fair bit left so I call. I’m thinking he has AQ or maybe KQ. He flips over A7. My AJ holds up and takes it down (All in #3 against him), so I am now the chip leader.

I then get two hands which lose me a fair amount of my chips. I have Qh10h and call a raise to 5K from my BB (2K). flop comes J 8 5? I push for 5K and I see a re-raise. I think about it for a while and fold. It’s against the same good player from my 1st table. I find out he has KK. Later on another hand plays out similarly, and I lose another stack, where he once again had KK. I made the right choices in folding, as another of the stacks get’s blinded out and I am in 3rd place against two monster stacks. I have Kc6c in the big blind and call a raise. Light’s out for me against QQ held by my nemesis, and that’s all she wrote.

All in all, I think I did well, and was happy with all my decision making. The blinds run really fast so later on it really comes down to cards. I was happy with how I did. So my two big live tournaments this year I placed 1st and 3rd. My own tournaments? I’m too distracted running around and taking care of people, so we don’t talk about those…

🙂

Angry Comments

So I ended up playing one Sit n Go and ended up 2nd. I had to run to a hockey game so I was a bit under the gun. I came back sitting around $30. I then managed to donk off $18 on 5 straight tournament losses. First an all-in JJ (me) vs QQ. What was I thinking (that he had 10’s or a big ace actually). From there it went downhill. Another bad call and then a couple of suckouts later, and I was gone.

So there I was sitting at $13. I decided to take a shot at a $3 9 man SNG and a $1 18 man SNG. I only had a couple of tough multi table decisions. Such as when I called an all-in with my 7 2 and the board was rainbow A 7 5, doubling someone up (I had $5k in chips, while most people had around $1800). In my $3 SNG I was a lucksack. AA twice then AK, and then K10 on a flop of A-Q-J. Not much skill there, but I managed to pound down the last guy and finally win a $3SNG!!!

So now my bankroll is +13.50 and up to $24. In my $1 SNG I get down to the final table and lose a big hand to a cool player at the table (froggy). I have a Q-5 and the board is Q-Q-8-6. Turns out he has Q-J and takes away my lead so I am the small stack. I go all in with A-10 get a caller and flop is A-10-X. I go all in against someone else and win as well. I then end up being the big stack and doing pretty well. It gets down to heads up and some random guy trolls my game. I’m playing almost all my hands and he starts offering his comments “What a donk calling with 7-4”. Sure, but they were suited…  🙂

Anyway after a battle where he takes me down from $18K to $8K (swapping roles basically) and I get fired up and just blast away at him. I get the merciless baiting from the two of them bit end up taking it down. They just don’t understand “Jav Style” poker. Final hand with me leading @$15 – @$10 is me calling his all in. My 7’s hold up against his 5’s. End of game. End of my post! Total Bankroll now back to $30!

Huzzah!

🙂

The King Of Queens

I managed to squeeze in a couple of tourneys Sunday AM and I was flat. Placed 3rd in one and got donked by a runner runner straight after slowplaying a set. Out of my control + made the right decision = I don’t care.

I just played two tourneys. The first one I had QQ back to back. Busted one dude then lost to AJ on the next one. Managed to dance around and knocked out the other chip leader with my straight. It was an “intuition call” out of position but it worked with 98o. From there the little guys got blinded out and I scooped pot after pot as no one wanted to tangle with the guy who would call with anything. Funny thing is I kept pushing on the very first hand of the tourney with nothing. I lost a large pot, so everyone thought I was a donkey after that. Person on my left started calling everything I bet. Due to that first hand I scooped a straight and flush all in against two different players as they thought I was pushing with nothing.  I had to show them the nuts yo!

I was running another tourney at the same time. I’m not using any software. I think I can do it, although there are tight stretches where I am forced to dance between the two tables. The other table I blew to a big lead early, but I can’t remember why? I had QQ at the end but someone folded to my raise. I had 2d3d and saw the flop with only 4 players left against the other chip leader (We both have @ $4K) . Flop 2h 4s 8s They bet 1000 I call. Next card 3h. I bet 1500 they reraise I go all in they call. The flip over… AA. Man, that sucked for them. next card blank, and I do the Jav dance and weave as I have @10K against @2K, @1K, and 500.

So two tournaments, two first place finishes. The best thing about these are that I can squeeze them in and be focused. The bad thing is that they will be harder to do when the kid comes as sometimes they drag on later than an hour. My bankroll is now $27. I think they are a better bet than the 18/27/45 man tourneys, as the prizes for first are not as good vs the time payout.

Anywho, off to chill with the wife, so I am out!