End of the year

I hope to play one more time before the year ends, because I would like to end it on a winning note, my last 2 sessions have been disastrous playing 30-60 limit and then 3-6 NL. I played yesterday like 10 or 11 hours non-stop no limit and quit because I just couldn't stand my last bad beat (posted below, BB Warning alert!!!), but I played pretty bad during the night, bluffing way too much on the wrong spots. I really need to study more, the competition is just too hard and you need to keep up with them if you want to survive.

Not really a "real" bad beat, but when you're losing you really want to win hands like this one.

PokerStars Game #23368436023: Hold'em No Limit ($3/$6) - 2008/12/29 12:33:32 ET
Table 'Ute III' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: needfood ($600 in chips)
Seat 2: jóember ($627.45 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($889.05 in chips)
Seat 4: WCG|Rider ($1345 in chips)
Seat 5: binda ($699 in chips)
russ0618 will be allowed to play after the button
needfood: posts small blind $3
jóember: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [3s 3c]
sirio11: raises $12 to $18
WCG|Rider: raises $60 to $78
binda: folds
needfood: folds
jóember: calls $72
sirio11: calls $60
*** FLOP *** [Ks 3d Tc]
jóember: checks
sirio11: checks
WCG|Rider: bets $114
jóember: folds
sirio11: raises $150 to $264
WCG|Rider: calls $150
*** TURN *** [Ks 3d Tc] [7d]
sirio11: checks
WCG|Rider: bets $1003 and is all-in
sirio11: calls $547.05 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($455.95) returned to WCG|Rider
*** RIVER *** [Ks 3d Tc 7d] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [3s 3c] (three of a kind, Threes)
WCG|Rider: shows [Ad Kd] (a flush, Ace high)
WCG|Rider collected $1857.10 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1859.10 | Rake $2
Board [Ks 3d Tc 7d Jd]
Seat 1: needfood (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: jóember (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 showed [3s 3c] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 4: WCG|Rider showed [Ad Kd] and won ($1857.10) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 5: binda (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

A wild 30-60 limit holdem hand

After playing some 10-20 6 Max NL yesterday (this morning?, how do you call to the 3-5AM hours anyway), I decided to play some 30-60 limit, I like to play limit because of the action, and I like specially to play short handed, more action !!, but here we were playing 9-handed, that's why I consider it a little wild for my tastes, but maybe not, I'm not even sure if I should have bet the turn with all the action, but for sure the river bet was fine. Here is the hand:

***** Hand History for Game 22935123359 *****
$30.00/$60.00 Limit Texas Hold'em - Monday, December 15, 06:24:07 ET 2008
Table Iva (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: sirio11 ( $1313.00 USD )
Seat 2: antibiotik12 ( $3077.00 USD )
Seat 3: hg1689 ( $2570.00 USD )
Seat 4: blazerLee21 ( $3223.00 USD )
Seat 6: jejun ( $675.00 USD )
Seat 7: julianherold ( $3805.00 USD )
Seat 8: krazieass ( $1878.00 USD )
Seat 9: blackground1 ( $468.50 USD )
Seat 10: 67 BAILAYHUM ( $1200.00 USD )
antibiotik12 posts small blind [$15.00 USD].
hg1689 posts big blind [$30.00 USD].
67 BAILAYHUM posts big blind [$30.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sirio11 [ Ks Jd ]
blazerLee21 calls [$30.00 USD]
jejun folds
julianherold folds
krazieass raises [$60.00 USD]
blackground1 folds
67 BAILAYHUM folds
sirio11 calls [$60.00 USD]
antibiotik12 raises [$75.00 USD]
hg1689 calls [$60.00 USD]
blazerLee21 calls [$60.00 USD]
krazieass raises [$60.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$60.00 USD]
antibiotik12 calls [$30.00 USD]
hg1689 calls [$30.00 USD]
blazerLee21 calls [$30.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, 6c, Kh ]
antibiotik12 checks
hg1689 checks
blazerLee21 bets [$30.00 USD]
krazieass raises [$60.00 USD]
sirio11 raises [$90.00 USD]
antibiotik12 raises [$120.00 USD]
hg1689 folds
blazerLee21 calls [$90.00 USD]
krazieass calls [$60.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$30.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5s ]
antibiotik12 checks
blazerLee21 checks
krazieass checks
sirio11 checks
** Dealing River ** [ 8s ]
antibiotik12 checks
blazerLee21 checks
krazieass checks
sirio11 bets [$60.00 USD]
antibiotik12 calls [$60.00 USD]
blazerLee21 folds
krazieass folds
sirio11 shows [Ks, Jd ]
sirio11 wins $1227.00 USD from main pot
antibiotik12 doesn't show [Qd, As ]

Do you bet the turn? What are their possible hands?

Best time of the year .... for movies

I'm a huge movie fan, I have always liked movies as far as I can remember. And for people like me December is the best month for movies, usually the best films of the year are released on these dates. Since I'm no movie critic, and live in a very underrated city like El Paso, where nobody cares to show advanced screenings, I have to wait just like everybody else to watch any movie, I'm really waiting anxiously to watch "The curious case of Benjamin Button" and "Slumdog Millionare", I think both will be nominated for oscar best picture, and even now, I still think The Dark Knight which impressed me a lot last summer, will be nominated too. I'll post my nominated predictions for the Oscars, I'm planning to deposit some money online to make some movie awards bets, since I have an excellent record in this area and of course I can use the money, lets see if I can break my betting quarentine, last time I bet (not poker of course), was last Oscar season, so most probably I'll do it again. But even if I don't, for sure I'll post my predictions to make the few people who still read this blog some money if they so want to.

"I have your AA cracked"; I insist sir, take all my stack

Sometimes you just don't lose enough with AA, even when people give you a way out, no, you must lose it all, you know you're beaten, but what the hell, you have aces !!.
Meh, I'm tired of these mistakes, when you can't let go AA. This is a hand from 5-10 NL 6 max which illustrates the point:

***** Hand History for Game 22553133501 *****
$1000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, December 02, 07:12:23 ET 2008
Table Fagnes (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: xCptMorganx ( $1705.00 USD )
Seat 2: alimali63 ( $1246.00 USD )
Seat 3: sirio11 ( $1070.00 USD )
Seat 4: Sekt1 ( $2154.25 USD )
Seat 5: Vision82 ( $1034.00 USD )
Seat 6: HT-Max ( $1452.00 USD )
HT-Max posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
xCptMorganx posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sirio11 [ Ac Ad ]
alimali63 folds
sirio11 raises [$30.00 USD]
Sekt1 folds
Vision82 folds
HT-Max folds
xCptMorganx calls [$20.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 7d, Th ]
xCptMorganx bets [$30.00 USD]
sirio11 raises [$120.00 USD]
xCptMorganx calls [$90.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
xCptMorganx checks
sirio11 bets [$270.00 USD]
xCptMorganx raises [$1555.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$650.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8h ]
xCptMorganx shows [7h, 7c ]
xCptMorganx wins $2142.00 USD from main pot
sirio11 doesn't show [Ac, Ad ]
xCptMorganx wins $635.00 USD from main pot


I don't like his line much, still I should have checked the turn, and since I didn't then it was an easy fold to save my last $650, but man, being dumb is pretty expensive.

National Mathematical Olympiad

This weekend I just got back from the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad held at San Carlos, Sonora. I was there as the leader of the State of Chihuahua team and we had a terrific showing. Our best participation in more than a decade. That had been one of my goals this year and I think I succeeded, for now I'll just write about some of our most important results:

- All our students got medal, 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze

Guillermo López Buenfil ORO
Manuel Dosal Bustillos ORO
Josue Isai Vazquez Garcia ORO
Karina Patricia De la Torre Saenz PLATA
Diego German Orozco Garcia PLATA
Alberto Astiazaran Tobin BRONCE

So, Guillermo ("Memo"), Manuel and Isai are preselected as part of the National team to participate in the 2009 International Math olympiad (IMO) to be held in Germany next July.

- Two of them got selected for the Centroamerican Mathematical Olympiad to be held at Republica Dominicana next June 2009; Manuel and Karina

- Out of 32 states, we got 2nd place !!!

1- MORELOS 147
2- CHIHUAHUA 145 (Arrgghhh! just 2 marks)
3- YUCATAN 115
4- NUEVO LEON 112
5- SONORA 106

- The best student in the country is from our team

Memo got the highest score of all the 200 contestants with 40 marks (out of 42), it was an incredible performance since the 2nd highest got 34

- We won the "Copa Superacion"

1- CHIHUAHUA 46.70
2- BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR 25.05 pts
3- CAMPECHE 23.65 pts

I am pretty happy with the results, the co-leaders of our team were my friends Enrique Treviño and Hector Garcia, who did a wonderful job and we just make a great team.

For sure the Olympiad took a lot of my poker playing time this year, I spent way many hours in the Olympiad rather than playing poker, and that alone cost me a lot of money, but even when there's no money to be won in the Olympiad, it's something I'm very proud of.

Society is weird, I play poker and win money doing something with almost no meaningful contribution to society, while doing the Olympiad I contribute to society and get no money, I guess it balances out.

Some tourneys and some cash

This Sunday I played 3 tourneys, the $215 and $530 at Stars and the FTOSP $322, all NL, I made the money in the $215, and if I don't lose a 3 way all in with QQ vs AK and AQ, I'd made the $ also on the FTOSP. But the thing is, I'm not enjoying much to play tourneys, probably that's a good thing, since definitely I need to play more cash.
I recovered today some of what I lost yesterday, I was really ashamed of my play yesterday and I think I played pretty solid today, but there's still a long way to know if I can beat this level.

This week I'll be coaching my math Olympiad students for the national contest which is almost here, hopefully I find time to play some cash NL.

Argh

I just played terrible today and lost around 4 buy ins playing 5-10, really, all my big hands were played pretty bad, the only good thing I did was to quit. Days like this may me wonder if I'm ready for these levels. I played 6 max cash like if I was playing a tourney, just horrible. Oh well, time to sleep a little.

5-10 NL 6 Max Session

Playing 5-10 all night, more than 1200 hands, pretty good session.

These are the hands I won and lost the most this session:

PokerStars Game #21642703777: Hold'em No Limit ($5/$10) - 2008/10/31 10:27:53 ET
Table 'Terradas' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: PiS.ToTo ($1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Gomtv ($4591 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($4343 in chips)
Seat 4: sloppinu28 ($1018 in chips)
Seat 5: adtina22 ($1047 in chips)
Gomtv: posts small blind $5
sirio11: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Qd Qs]
sloppinu28: raises $20 to $30
adtina22: folds
PiS.ToTo: raises $80 to $110
Gomtv: folds
sirio11: raises $300 to $410
sloppinu28: folds
PiS.ToTo: raises $1090 to $1500 and is all-in
sirio11: calls $1090
*** FLOP *** [9d Ts 2c]
*** TURN *** [9d Ts 2c] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [9d Ts 2c 6c] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [Qd Qs] (a pair of Queens)
PiS.ToTo: shows [Ad As] (a pair of Aces)
PiS.ToTo collected $3033 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $3035 | Rake $2
Board [9d Ts 2c 6c Ks]
Seat 1: PiS.ToTo (button) showed [Ad As] and won ($3033) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: Gomtv (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 (big blind) showed [Qd Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: sloppinu28 folded before Flop
Seat 5: adtina22 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I think I played bad QQ here and it was a costly mistake.

And now the "good" hand:

PokerStars Game #21643513146: Hold'em No Limit ($5/$10) - 2008/10/31 11:14:03 ET
Table 'Terradas' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: foxfox1 ($1045 in chips)
Seat 2: Gomtv ($4487 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($3180 in chips)
Seat 4: sloppinu28 ($971 in chips)
Seat 5: adtina22 ($1165 in chips)
Seat 6: Deldar182 ($2293 in chips)
Gomtv: posts small blind $5
sirio11: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [8s 8c]
sloppinu28: raises $20 to $30
adtina22: folds
Deldar182: raises $70 to $100
foxfox1: folds
Gomtv: folds
sirio11: calls $90
sloppinu28: calls $70
*** FLOP *** [9d 8h 4d]
sirio11: bets $120
sloppinu28: folds
Deldar182: raises $230 to $350
sirio11: raises $2730 to $3080 and is all-in
Deldar182: calls $1843 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($887) returned to sirio11
*** TURN *** [9d 8h 4d] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [9d 8h 4d Jh] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [8s 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
Deldar182: mucks hand
sirio11 collected $4688 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4691 | Rake $3
Board [9d 8h 4d Jh 3h]
Seat 1: foxfox1 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Gomtv (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 (big blind) showed [8s 8c] and won ($4688) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: sloppinu28 folded on the Flop
Seat 5: adtina22 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Deldar182 mucked [Ah As]

Probably against another player, I play the hand differently, but against him at that moment in time, I think this was exactly the way to play it to make him commit all his stack.

I played 3 tables for about 5 hours straight. I stopped because Stars server went down.

I'm doing good playing cash games, tournaments are not fun these days, so for now I'll keep playing cash.

The election is almost here, don't forget to vote, GO OBAMA !!!!!

Long session

I'm playing more these days, and I just finished an all-nighter (and all morning). I just wanted to play, I played 10-20 NL 6-Max, 15-30 Limit, 30-60 Limit, 5-10 Razz, even 5-10 Stud Hi/low. I lost on Razz (How the hell can you lose playing that stupid game), won on stud H/L, lost playing limit and won playing 10-20 NL; it was a very nice session. I think I played well despite the long hours and this time I played a lot just because I wanted and not because I was stuck.

The hand I won the most money is the following (not necessarily the one I played the best, I think my best hands were on limit despite losing a lot there, I played nice a lot of 2nd monsters). Well, this is the hand:

PokerStars Game #21272979665: Hold'em No Limit ($10/$20) - 2008/10/17 15:55:35 ET
Table 'Dares' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DeanoSupremo ($1964 in chips)
Seat 2: ADZ124 ($2000 in chips)
Seat 3: tiltphanatic ($4101 in chips)
Seat 4: sirio11 ($2631 in chips)
Seat 5: ibback ($4898 in chips)
Seat 6: Killer_ooooo ($4609 in chips)
DeanoSupremo: posts small blind $10
ADZ124: posts big blind $20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Kc Ks]
tiltphanatic: raises $40 to $60
sirio11: raises $160 to $220
ibback: calls $220
Killer_ooooo: folds
DeanoSupremo: folds
ADZ124: folds
tiltphanatic: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 4d 4c]
sirio11: bets $460
ibback: calls $460
*** TURN *** [9s 4d 4c] [Kh]
sirio11: checks
ibback: bets $560
sirio11: raises $580 to $1140
ibback: calls $580
*** RIVER *** [9s 4d 4c Kh] [Td]
sirio11: bets $811 and is all-in
ibback: calls $811
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [Kc Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Fours)
ibback: mucks hand
sirio11 collected $5349 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5352 | Rake $3
Board [9s 4d 4c Kh Td]
Seat 1: DeanoSupremo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: ADZ124 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: tiltphanatic folded before Flop
Seat 4: sirio11 showed [Kc Ks] and won ($5349) with a full house, Kings full of Fours
Seat 5: ibback mucked [Kd Ac]
Seat 6: Killer_ooooo (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The thing I liked the most on this hand (besides winning it of course) were my timing tells, but those are not in the hand history obviously. I think I'm getting better at my timing bets, calls, checks. They are pretty important tells when you play online and you need to be difficult to read based on how many seconds you take to make a decision.

Well, now to sleep a little, I'll play some volleyball at night and tomorrow I'll coach my Olympiad Students, We already have the State Team (Chihuahua) and I feel pretty good about the team to bring some gold medals from the National Math Olympiad next November.

My first 25-50 NL session

Yes, I'm not kidding, I barely play cash or tourneys, when I play cash it's usually 3-6 or 5-10 6Max NL, I don't have a bankroll, I don't have the passion for poker I used to have, never study anymore and today I just decided to play a little 25-50 NL, ha, I'm such a strange gambler.

My session went pretty smooth, I lost about $1500 playing 5-10 earlier, so I just wanted to win some $2000, easy right?, just sit down with better players than you, more experienced than you and the money will come.

Well, for once I was pretty concentrated, these high stakes made me take things seriously and to be honest, I really enjoyed the session, at one point I was down some $3000 (total), but I ended winning $2100 in the 25-50 table, so, I won some $700 for the day and I was pretty happy my gambling didn't cost me a leg.

Probably my most interesting hand played today was the following:

PokerStars Game #20342650078: Hold'em No Limit ($25/$50) - 2008/09/12 7:34:53 ET
Table 'Sculptor' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: IamTazz ($850 in chips)
Seat 3: Krazyball ($1025 in chips)
Seat 4: fumbo420 ($7907 in chips)
Seat 5: sirio11 ($5424.50 in chips)
Seat 7: FUTURE102 ($3322 in chips)
Seat 8: firas71 ($5337 in chips)
Seat 9: good2cu ($5075 in chips)
fumbo420: posts small blind $25
sirio11: posts big blind $50
Bullitos: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Qd Td]
FUTURE102: folds
firas71: raises $100 to $150
good2cu: calls $150
IamTazz: folds
Krazyball: folds
fumbo420: calls $125
sirio11: calls $100

*** FLOP *** [8s Jd Ts]
fumbo420: checks
sirio11: checks
firas71: bets $450
good2cu: calls $450
fumbo420: folds
sirio11: calls $450

*** TURN *** [8s Jd Ts] [Th]
sirio11: bets $650
firas71: calls $650
good2cu: raises $1750 to $2400 !!!!
sirio11: folds
firas71: raises $2337 to $4737 and is all-in
good2cu: calls $2075 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($262) returned to firas71
*** RIVER *** [8s Jd Ts Th] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
firas71: shows [Kd Js] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
good2cu: shows [Tc Ad] (a full house, Tens full of Eights)
good2cu collected $11547 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11550 | Rake $3
Board [8s Jd Ts Th 8d]
Seat 1: IamTazz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Krazyball (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: fumbo420 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: sirio11 (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 7: FUTURE102 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: firas71 showed [Kd Js] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Seat 9: good2cu showed [Tc Ad] and won ($11547) with a full house, Tens full of Eights

KJ guy was a litle on tilt, and that made me think about calling the turn raise with my set and straight draw, but I thought good2cu had 88 or ATs and decided to fold. I think it was a good fold, but of course I'm not used to this stakes, but I felt good about it, even before I knew the showdown. Good thing firas decided to call, so I could see their cards. Don't know if I'll play more 25-50 in the near future, for sure I don't have the bankroll, but I liked my overall play in the table and to be honest it's pretty nice to be able to concentrate and enjoy a poker game played at a pretty good level.

This weekend I'll be training my students for the next Mathematical National Olympiad, if I have the time, I'll probably play the WCOOP tourneys on Sunday.

Batman: The Dark Knight

Just went to the midnight opening of The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento).
My first impression is I need to see this movie again, and what a fantastic movie it is. Write it down, Heath Ledger will be nominated to the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and not only because of his tragic death last January, it will be because his is a magnificent piece of acting, I can't believe you can't forget now about Jack's Nicholson performance of the Joker, who was pretty, pretty good, but Heath gives the character a new dimension, a new deep, man, I almost felt identified with the Joker and his vision and philosophy about how society as a whole is not worth it. Definitely a great movie and you have to see it. I liked Aaron Eckhart and Christian Bale as well and in general all the cast did a pretty good job, and the directing and editing was amazing. Thumbs up for sure.

WSOP: To go or not to go

The WSOP is running at full speed as I write this, I have been there every one of the last 4 years, but probably I'll miss this one. We already have booked some nights in Vegas (at the Rio) for the end of June and the beginning of July, but most probably I won't play any event. It's a mix of money management discipline and self-impose punishment because I haven't played the hours I should have played this year. It's a punishment because I love the WSOP, oh man do I love it, I seem to play my best there, since online I'm always distracted, and over there I'm all over the table absorbed by the action and enjoying every moment, most of my online poker players peers feel bored by the slow action, and of course it's slower compared to online, but for me it's not boring at all, and the mix of characters playing is really interesting, I have some very good memories from my playing there. I have 8 cashes there and one final table out of about 28 tourneys, but my number of cashes won't increase this year, besides I'm pretty busy with the Mathematical Olympiad, I think we have a real shot to be the #1 state ranked in the National (México) Mathematical Olympiad this year and if we do it I'll be very proud. It would be nice to go to the WSOP and win some bracelet and then go to the Olympiad and win first place, have a happy life with the family and in the meantime solve the oil crisis, but I have to accept no WSOP plans will be better this year, that's the plan as today, but I know the day I will be in Vegas at the Rio in the middle of the WSOP environment with all those strange characters who call themselves poker players from all over the world, it would be pretty hard not to play, the WSOP, such a beautiful temptation ..... and Vegas is sin city after all ......

Our students go to Math International Contests !!

Yesterday I received the news that 2 of our students will be representing Mexico in 2 international Math contests. Manuel Guillermo Lopez Buenfil will be representing Mexico at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO 2008) next July in Spain, and Manuel Enrique Dosal Bustillos will be representing Mexico at the Centroamerican Mathematical Olympiad in Honduras. Both students are high school students from Ciudad Juarez (for the Geography-impaired, Juarez is the Mexican city that borders with El Paso, Texas), the Mathematical Olympiad is one of my hobbies, I have been involved in the Olympiad since 1991, some friends and I have a pretty good team to prepare students for the National contests in Mexico, we do it for free, because of our love to solve challenging Math problems and working with gifted students, and we are very happy with such fantastic results and very proud of "our boys". This is for them, hoping they can bring home those Gold Medals.

Baseball bets Sat-Apr-12

WAS +158
CHN +158
NYY +148
ARI -128

Year to date: 24-26 +3.00 Units

I use to post these on the Sports Betting forum on 2+2, I'll try to post them here too.

Coaching

Ultimamente me ha estado tentando la idea de ser coach de poker, para jugadores hispanos. No se si haya mercado para ello, pero pues ando explorando posibilidades, siento que seria una buena forma de combinar el ensenar con el poker, ademas de quizas ganar algo de dinero. Ahorita no se de la existencia de sitios de training en Espanol, quizas los haya por ahi.

Ademas siento que me ayudaria en mi juego, siempre el concentrarse en ensenar ayuda a hacer mejor las cosas. Anyway, just rambling about it.

OBAMA

I just can't wait for the Bush administration to go, man, these have been like the dark ages of politics in the US. I can't believe the guy has been in office for 7 years, hopefully the nightmare is over and the Democratic nominee will be the next president. As today there are still 2 candidates standing for the democrats, Sen Hillary Clinton (NY) and Sen Barack Obama (IL); I like Hillary, but for me this election is all about the Iraq war and that's the main difference between the 2, I have always been an antiwar advocate, since the beginning, now it's easy and even kind of cool to be anti-war, but back in 2002-2003 we were in the minority; Hillary voted for the war and as you can see in this youtube video, Barack was against it from the beginning, I have read the whole Barack's speech of October 26, 2002; and there are 2 amazing things, one, how right he was and how he predicted the whole mess the war is right now, and two, it's like hearing me talk back then at the antiwar rallies we were.
The man is amazing, after I listened to his keynote speech at the Democratic convention on 2004, I told my wife, this guy is going to be president.
Yesterday we went to a meeting with the Obama campaign here at El Paso, my wife and I are volunteering and we have some phone calls to do and many other things between today and Tuesday. I'd say Texas is looking good for Obama and I have no doubt he will beat Sen John McCain (AZ) on the general election next November to became the next US president.
Now let's hope the change is for real, USA and the world can use some of it.

Dinero que deje ir en los Oscares: Gambling discipline

Me fue muy bien con mis picks, 18 de 24 is pretty good; lo unico malo es no haber podido apostar por no tener dinero en los sportsbooks, mala planeacion de mi parte, en vez de apostar un monton en la NFL debi haber dejado para invertir en los oscares. Como quiera pude ganar algo, a traves de mi amigo Oscar aposte a No Country For Old Men a mejor pelicula y a Tilda Swinton a mejor actriz de reparto, ganando ambas apuestas (unos $600). Ademas gane $1200 en la polla que se hizo en el MTT forum en 2+2, asi que no me puedo quejar, fue un buen dia, aunque de haber tenido el capital, hubiera ganado bastante al igual que el año pasado. Las apuestas que hice en la NFL a pesar de perderlas, siento que eran buenas apuestas, pero para nada se compara con la ventaja que tengo en las apuestas de Oscares. Un error tactico de mi parte que espero no cometer el año entrante, rompi una regla basica de un gambler profesional, dado un capital limitado, no usarlo de la manera mas eficiente posible.

Note to self: If you have a finite amount of money to invest with 2 possibles option investments A and B where A is marginal and B is HUGE, just wait bonehead !!

My Oscar Predictions

Since after my January NFL debacle, I'm not betting for a while; I won't bet this time for the Oscars, but still I love to predict the winners and here they are my predictions:


BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

Since Julie is the overwhelming favorite (I don't know exactly why), there's value in betting for Cotillard. I still think Julie has the odds to win, but I liked Marion more and as a gambling man, I'm taking Marion.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Here I think there's value betting both, Swinton and Ryan; Cate is the favorite but I don't see her winning this.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort, Israel
The Counterfeiters, Austria
Katyn, Poland
Mongol, Kazakhstan
12, Russia

ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

ORIGINAL SCORE
Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard, Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino, Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami, 3:10 to Yuma

ORIGINAL SONG
"Falling Slowly", Once
"Happy Working Song", Enchanted
"Raise It Up", August Rush
"So Close", Enchanted
"That's How You Know", Enchanted

ART DIRECTION
Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino, American Gangster
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer, Atonement
Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock, The Golden Compass
Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Sweeney Todd
Jack Fisk, Jim Erickson, There Will Be Blood

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Seamus McGarvey, Atonement
Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky, Across the Universe
Jacqueline Durran, Atonement
Alexandra Byrne, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Marit Allen, La Vie en Rose
Colleen Atwood, Sweeney Todd

Here, I'm split between Atonement and Sweeney; if the Academy decides Atwood has already too many Oscars (2), Durran may end up winning

MAKEUP
Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, La Vie en Rose
Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji, Norbit
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

No end in Sight is the favorite, but I just love Michael Moore, and Sicko is a pretty good film

SOUND MIXING
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis, The Bourne Ultimatum
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland, No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane, Ratatouille
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe, 3:10 to Yuma
Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin, Transformers

SOUND EDITING
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg, The Bourne Ultimatum
Skip Lievsay, No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers, Ratatouille
Matthew Wood, There Will Be Blood
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins, Transformers

VISUAL EFFECTS
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood, The Golden Compass
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier, Transformers

FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse, The Bourne Ultimatum
Juliette Welfling, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jay Cassidy, Into the Wild
Roderick Jaynes, No Country for Old Men
Dylan Tichenor, There Will Be Blood

Prery rare a film without best pic nomination wins here, so NCFOM may be a better bet, but I still think Bourne will take the Oscar

SHORT FILM – ANIMATED
"I Met the Walrus"
"Madame Tutli-Putli"
"Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)"
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)"
"Peter & the Wolf"

SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION
"At Night"
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)"
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)"
"Tanghi Argentini"
"The Tonto Woman"

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
"Freeheld"
"La Corona (The Crown)"
"Salim Baba"
"Sari's Mother"

Card Player Article: Sirio11 plays back at the bubble abuser

On the last Card Player Magazine, there was an article by Craig Tapscott on the Inside Straight Authors section (well, at least looking at the online version, since I don't have the magazine with me), about a hand I played in a $1000 buy in online tournament. Craig made very good questions and I think the article is pretty good.

This is the link, there are some other pretty good articles in that section, like the one by Dani Stern (a must read), a 2+2 friend and a very successful online player.


Sirio11 Plays Back at the Bubble Abuser
By Craig Tapscott

Want to study real poker hands with the Internet's most successful players? In this series, Card Player offers hand analysis with online poker's leading talent.

Event: PokerStars $1,000 no-limit hold'em tournament
Players: 313
First Place: $70,425
Stacks: sirio11 - 19,494; Villain - 56,984
Blinds: 400-800

Craig Tapscott: Set up the scenario at the beginning of this hand.

David "sirio11" Cossio: This hand happened on the bubble with about 47 players left. It shows a way to play versus bubble abusers, like the Villain was in this hand. He was the chip leader at the table and was raising a lot, since 46th paid nada and 45th, $1,700. His activity had increased proportionally as we approached the bubble. I knew his range was huge, and decided to take advantage of his play, based on his image, my image, and the stage we were at.

CT: What was your image at the table previous to this hand?

DC: I was involved in very few pots, so my image was solid/tight.

Villain raises to 1,800 from the cutoff. Everyone folds to sirio11 in the big blind, holding the Jd 9d.

CT: Do you reraise him now or wait to see what the flop brings?

DC: One option here is to reraise, but with my stack, I don't like the play. I think that by just calling, I can win the pot most of the time when we both don't flop anything, and I can win even more when I flop something. Even when my play backfires, I'm not afraid to lose half of my stack, since I play pretty well when short-stacked.

Flop: Kh 8s 8c (4,000 pot)

DC: Perfect flop, as he most probably doesn't have anything.

Sirio11 checks.

CT: Why perfect? You missed. What are you going to try to represent?

DC: There are no draws at all, and no coordinated board. So for him, if I play back, I "must have" the 8 or the king at the very least (I can't be drawing), and he may fold a hand like 9-9.

Villain bets 3,400.

CT: I'm sure you were expecting the continuation-bet. What's the right bet size here to take it down and why?

DC: Yeah, I was expecting it. My bet size of 8,000 will look like I want to take the pot now. I would be check-raising almost any continuation-bet versus this player.

Sirio11 check-raises to 8,000.

DC: I had a good image, and that helped me with the check-raise. With my image, he'll think I can't be bluffing, since we're on the bubble. And he can't bluff me back, because it looks like I'm committed.

CT: Some people will call with medium pocket pairs here. When do you know that someone is a thinking player and "knows" from your bets that you're committed?

DC: Given the flop, my image, and my action, I think it is pretty hard to call me with a medium pocket pair, even if you're a bad player. This was a $1,000 tourney and we were at the final stages, so chances were that he was a good player.

Villain folds. Sirio11 wins the pot of 11,360.

DC: I showed my hand. I wanted to send him a message, and most importantly, a message to the table. I had some walks after that.

David Cossio lives in El Paso, Texas. He has a master's degree in mathematics. He has been playing poker since 1997, and has eight World Series of Poker cashes, including a third-place finish in 2005 for $79,450. He also has multiple tournament wins online and is a solid threat in any cash game.

Superbowl and the pursuit of perfection, New England and what could have been.

This Sunday was the Superbowl, the biggest event on TV each year. The New England Patriots (18-0, at the moment) and heavy favorites were to play the New York Giants, an otherwise semi mediocre team, who turned things around in the playoffs. New England was about to make sports history, it will be remembered for ever if they won, but fate and the Giants had different plans. NE lost 17-14, NY was the better team this Sunday, NE just could not decipher them and everybody at the end but the NY fans were like "What the hell just happened?". Mr. Perfection Tom Brady looked very human, Eli Manning was playing over his head all postseason and this Sunday was no different. There was an incredible play in the 4th quarter between Eli Manning and David Tyree, a miraculous scape from the New England Defense by Eli and after that a miraculous catch by David Tyree, the type of catch which defies physics and logic, It was THE PLAY of the game, after that play, even I really wanted the Pats to win, I kind of knew it was over. A Plaxico Burress reception for a TD with about 30 seconds left sealed the game and shocked the sports world. I had mixed feelings, I really wanted the perfect season by New England, but NY played with all heart those final minutes of the game and they deserved to win.
For me, it was the end of my sports betting career (at least for now) my SB bankroll is gone, thanks to the unlikely postseason by the giants (I bet against them every game) and the choking of the Indianapolis Colts versus San Diego, game that cost me a lot since I had so many teasers depending on it. I had pretty bad luck betting on Sports last month and it's time to concentrate just in poker. I still think there's money to be made betting on sports, but until I have a good bankroll for it, I'll stay away from sports betting. I kind of feel like the NE Patriots, a little depressed, dreams shattered, but there is always chance for redemption and the new season is coming. Perfection is pretty hard, hell, being pretty good is pretty hard; but we as humans aim for it. Evolution demands it, we can't help it.

Super Mario Galaxy !!!

Historic day today, I just finished Super Mario Galaxy !!!!, 121 Stars for Mario and 121 stars for Luigi, such an awesome game. To be honest I didn't do all the stars, my 4 year old did a lot of them. There were pretty difficult stars (challenges) to do, wonderful game by Nintendo, I spent countless hours playing, but I really enjoyed all of them, and my kids love it !!!!
Ha, I just have to post it, it's not exactly like winning the world series of poker, but if you play the game, you will be pretty proud if you finish it. Interesting how a video game can give us such sense of accomplishment.

New Year !!!! Living NOW

New year usually means new resolutions, and that is almost always good since it's one of the ways of stopping and looking at your life from a different angle. I'm optimistic about this year, I have some resolutions but these can be done or not, the important thing is to maintain the fire, to live and everything (at least most of the important things that really matter) will come.

Probably what I'm about to write it's a cliche, but I'm still want to share it anyway.

Without a doubt we'll all die, nobody will remember us years after we die; the universe has been here without us for billions of years and for sure it can exist without us for a few billion more.

Still, the most important moment is NOW


Why do we keep forgetting this and living plenty of unhappy/lifeless/mediocre moments?