Poker Tourney tomorrow night…

I have to work through a valuation assignment all weekend. I confirmed the dates for my licensing exams: January 2nd, 14th, and February 10th. I also have to squeeze in an MBA paper there at some point in early Jan as well. And it’s heading into our busiest time at work. Wow the Holidays seem like they will be alot of fun… 

On a lighter note, I picked up Beyond Oil, an examination of the oil situation including current oil reserves as well as new possible fuels. This is what I will be writing my assignment on and at least I will be writing on something I want to learn more about. Should be an interesting assignment. I am on vacation in Asia for the last two weeks of January so I hope to do a bit of reading then as well. I’m thinking either Stephen Hawking “A Brief History of Time” or Brian Greene “The elegeant universe”.   Something more towards understanding the universe, how it was constructed, etc.

I also got Russell Peter’s latest DVD Outsourced,  and I look forward to viewing that this weekend as well!

Another big laydown… and our first two time winner!

Here is the pics of our two finalists from game 2. Another great hand was played in the head to head showdown. Marc raised preflop with KQ (offsuit?) and Daphne re-raised all in. Marc had Daphne covered (I think he had 3X as much as her) but laid down the hand!!! His rationale was that he wanted to pick his spot. It was a great play as it turns out that Daphne had A-K offsuit and had him dominated… A few turns later Marc picked a spot and Daphne called and it was all over.

Congrats Marc to a well deserved victory! Marc and Dave helped with the clean up and then coaxed me over for an hour of Call of Duty II. It was a blast and this will lead to the first ever Marc/Jav boys night out which will involve the following : Call of Duty head to head tournament capped off with a poker tourney.  We just need to finalize a date as I will be writing licensing exams + my final MBA assignment at the end of December + will be inundated with work. If you are interested in becoming part of this event, please feel free to comment or drop me a line. So far Team Jav looks like TS, Lane, and Thumbs. Team Marc will probably consist of Marc, Dave, Tim, and ???

Lane just picked up a Wii so we may have to “practice” on that…

Results from Nov 25th Game 2

Please note that the $ amounts are off as we rejigged the distribution with everyone’s consensus prior to the start of the tourney. 

11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Marc bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Jeff L bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Steff bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Barry bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Sami bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Neil bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Renee bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Brian T bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Paul M bought-in
11:30:53 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament Specialist bought-in
11:32:07 pm 11/25/2006: Dave bought-in
11:32:07 pm 11/25/2006: Jav bought-in
11:36:06 pm 11/25/2006: Daphne bought-in
11:38:31 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament started
11:44:29 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament Specialist was busted out by Marc
12:05:39 am 11/26/2006: Paul M was busted out by Dave
12:13:06 am 11/26/2006: Brian T was busted out by Dave
12:35:38 am 11/26/2006: Renee was busted out by Jeff L
12:37:28 am 11/26/2006: Neil was busted out by Marc
12:55:26 am 11/26/2006: Sami was busted out by Marc
1:14:14 am 11/26/2006: Barry was busted out by Marc
1:43:02 am 11/26/2006: Javed was busted out by Daphne
1:46:53 am 11/26/2006: Steff was busted out by Jeff L
1:51:38 am 11/26/2006: Dave was busted out by Marc
2:26:42 am 11/26/2006: Jeff L was busted out by Marc
2:26:53 am 11/26/2006: Daphne was busted out by Marc
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Tournament ended
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Total pot: $260.00
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Marc ranked 1st, received $130.00 and 25.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Daphne ranked 2nd, received $65.00 and 17.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Jeff L ranked 3rd, received $39.00 and 16.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Dave ranked 4th, received $26.00 and 14.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Steff ranked 5th, received 10.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Javed ranked 6th, received 8.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Barry ranked 7th, received 7.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Sami ranked 8th, received 6.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Neil ranked 9th, received 5.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Renee ranked 10th, received 4.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Brian T ranked 11th, received 3.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Paul M ranked 12th, received 2.00 points
2:26:56 am 11/26/2006: Tournament Specialist ranked 13th, received 1.00 points

Here’s a pic of Tournament Specialist with his winnings from the first tourney that night. TS actually taught me to play waaaaaaayyyyyy back in the day. He’s one of my best friends and I’ve known him since grade 3. He had some unlucky draws in the first couple of tourneys but kudos to him for pulling out the win!!! He’s also the World Champion in Academic Decathlon. And the only person I know who will actually intentionally choose Zangief.

Results from Nov 25th Game 1

Please note that the $ amounts are off as we rejigged the distribution with everyone’s consensus prior to the start of the tourney.   

7:18:28 pm 11/25/2006: Daphne bought-in
7:34:48 pm 11/25/2006: Paul M bought-in
7:34:48 pm 11/25/2006: Jeff L bought-in
7:34:48 pm 11/25/2006: Brian T bought-in
7:35:09 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament Specialist bought-in
7:35:09 pm 11/25/2006: Renee bought-in
7:35:09 pm 11/25/2006: Marc bought-in
7:35:09 pm 11/25/2006: Barry bought-in
7:35:19 pm 11/25/2006: Neil bought-in
7:36:13 pm 11/25/2006: Sami bought-in
7:36:13 pm 11/25/2006: Jav bought-in
7:43:21 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament started
8:41:14 pm 11/25/2006: Jav was busted out by Paul M
8:44:05 pm 11/25/2006: Brian T was busted out by Tournament Specialist
9:02:18 pm 11/25/2006: Barry was busted out by Paul M
9:31:02 pm 11/25/2006: Sami was busted out by Paul M
9:44:14 pm 11/25/2006: Marc was busted out by Daphne
10:22:47 pm 11/25/2006: Jeff L was busted out by Paul M
10:46:42 pm 11/25/2006: Daphne was busted out by Paul M
11:13:51 pm 11/25/2006: Renee was busted out by Paul M
11:22:21 pm 11/25/2006: Neil was busted out by Tournament Specialist
11:23:59 pm 11/25/2006: Paul M was busted out by Tournament Specialist
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament ended
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Total pot: $220.00
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Tournament Specialist ranked 1st, received $110.00 and 19.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Paul M ranked 2nd, received $55.00 and 20.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Neil ranked 3rd, received $33.00 and 12.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Renee ranked 4th, received $22.00 and 10.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Daphne ranked 5th, received 9.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Jeff L ranked 6th, received 6.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Marc ranked 7th, received 5.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Sami ranked 8th, received 4.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Barry ranked 9th, received 3.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Brian T ranked 10th, received 2.00 points
11:24:02 pm 11/25/2006: Jav ranked 11th, received 1.00 points 

I busted out first on a really bad play. I had 77 and the flop came Q-8-4? I moved all in as I thought Paul might be waiting to hit something and he called. I think he had a higher pair or the queen. It was a totally awful play by me.

At the same table Renee made a great lay down against Paul. Paul had A-10, Renee raised $3K before the flop, and Paul called. Flop came ??? with no paint. Renee raised $3K again and Paul called. Turn was an ace. Renee checked and Paul raised at whcih point she folded. A great play.

Paul actually attributes his success to the years he spent in the Far East achieving a Zen like mastery over the game of poker to a secret pre-game ritual. With his permission I am unveiling his patented key to success at No Limit Hold’Em to the world…

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Wait for it….

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Chip Counts heading into the final table(s)…

Yes folks, we managed to get in two games last night. I ended up being up till 4 cuz I was out for another hour hanging with Marc and Dave playing Call of Duty on their pimped out X-Box setup. I think Marc and I owe Dave a re-match. Good thing I didn’t have to get up early to play soccer…

So without further ado:

Game 1:

1. Paul aka Glennfidich – $30,400
2. Tournament Specialist – $18,175
3. Sami Z – $15,350
4. Daphne – $14,175
5. Jeff L – $10,300
6. Renee – $10,000
7. Neil – $6,875
8. Marc $5,425

Game 2:

1. Dave – $35,000
2. Marc – $27,650
3. Jav – $20,450
4. Jeff L – $14,075
5. Sami Z – $12,050
6. Daphne – $8,450
7. Barry – $6, 950
8. Steff – $4,900

Welcome to my new readers!

Hi,

If you are familiar with blogs you know that they are just collections of thoughts and ideas, almost like a personal diary. It’s really cool to be able to look back and see where your thought process has been and where it is now, both in terms of personal development and self actualization.

The blog also allows me to work on my creative writing skills, by writing on a variety of topics, some mundane and some not. This skill will be important in communicating information in my new job. Feel free to poke around and explore and leave comments. I hope to see you out at one of my poker nights!

Jav 

Way behind…

I just got home and it’s time for me to hit the sack. Couple of quick notes…

1) Yorkshire you are dead on. The wierdest thing is last night I got down to the final 3 tables and had $300K while most people had $100K, and I still managed to lose. I can do well for the first 300 players (out of 328) I just seem to falter with the final amounts. I think I need to get my head wrapped around relative values instead o absolute.

2) I spoke at the strategy meeting today. That was pretty exciting! Actually I was a bit nervous but the fact that I was getting props from the head of Equity Research at the country’s top research institution was very cool.

3) I have the 2nd to last project for my MBA to focus on over the next 3 weeks, a residual income model valuation of CVS and Walgreens drugstores.

4) I met up with my ex-girlfriend for dinner. It was great to see her. She told me a story of how she got groped by airline security guards (female) and she is pretty pissed and is wondering how to proceed. It’s instances like this in which the media actually come in handy…

Improving my poker game…

I’ve been doing a fair bit of poker reading lately, which has now stopped as I need to focus on doing core readings for my big MBA Valuation project due in mid December. I’ve also been watching High Stakes Poker just to watch the pros play, and trying to squeek in a couple of tournaments here in there in my poker simulator at home. One thing I’ve noticed is that I play really well at the start of the tournament, but when I get about half way through I tend to lose my focus as well as rules that I’ve created to try and guide my game.

One thing that I’m trying to move away from is coin flips. Before I was a highly mediocre player, and as a result I would prefer to outplay my opponents before the flop. Now that I am a mediocre player, I want to try and go further into the hand where possible. I am also getting better at reading hands. Not tells but through betting patterns. I want to be on the same level I was when I played cards professionally in university: To be able to make most decisions automatically. This will allow me to focus on other details that can improve my decision making, such as tells.

Playing against computer players is a lot harder in so much as it is harder to assign traits to them. Then again that may be a good thing as you are more open minded. However I do want to make sure that when I play this Saturday that I evaluate my opponents better and also work at determining their pressure points. I also need to work on incorporating more game theory into my play, which is something I will work on Saturday as well.

On an unrelated note, I am sitting in on the high level strategy meetings for our company tomorrow and may even be speaking. I am pretty excited about that!

Work Mishap

Technology problems have forced me to work late tonight, so I won’t really have a real post. Looking forward to the poker event this Saturday, should be fun. I’ll probably have the next events (after Dec 1st) in January (if possible) or in February as I will be in Asia on holidays for two weeks leaving in the middle of January. I have to write a licensing exam at the end of December, so even though my MBA technically finishes Dec 18th (classes) the last assignment is due Jan 4th, and I may need to ask for an extension in order to finish it before my trip!

Borat falls a bit flat…

Don’t get me wrong, I find two naked men wrestling and chasing after each other just as funny as the next guy, but the movie was was just kind of dull. After the first five minutes you could feel what was going to happen in all the rest of the scenes. Basically most of the premise falls a bit flat after the first 30 minutes, and it seems like a Saturday Night Live skit that went on just a bit too long. The movie does have it moments of hilarity, and I won’t spoil any of those for you. Overall a 3 out of 5. A good movie to kill and hour and a half, but not a great movie (It’s no Pumping Iron…)