Academy Awards 2009

This Sunday I watched the Academy Awards religiously. I really don't remember not watching it all my adult life, I love it.
Still, this time I was a little pissed because of the no nomination for Best Picture for The Dark Knight, the no nomination for The Wrestler song by Bruce Springsteen and for the little love showed for Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I consider pretty damn good films, and before some nits tell me, "little love"? TCCOBB was nominated for 13 Oscars, what are you talking about; well, I'm talking about it was pretty strange to me to read everywhere, they didn't stand a chance versus Slumdog Millionare, which while I think it's a pretty good movie, I liked TDN, Milk and TCCOBB more, and never understood the endless love for SM.

The show for me was fine, different format, not awful, not fantastic like I have read somewhere, just fine. The best moments for me were:

- Sean Penn win and speech
- Dustin Lance Black speech
- Kate Winslet speech (despite I love Meryl Streep, and it's really sad she has only 2 Oscars so far)
- Philippe Petit at stage when Man on Wire won best documentary, the guy is so awesome.

And about betting, I did pretty well, as always, I have won money on the Oscars all the times I have bet on them, I bet some on Penelope Cruz and Viola Davis, because the line for Viola was pretty good and Penelope just to assure a profit. I bet a little on Meryl Streep and lost. And I bet a lot on Sean Penn, I couldn't believe my eyes with the line for Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke, I just wish I would have bet more. I took Sean at +200, 2 to 1, are you kidding me?, it was a gift. Mickey was outstanding in The Wrestler and he's a really cool dude, but Sean Penn's Harvey Milk was just mesmerizing, amazing, not enough adjectives to describe his acting, if you have seen Dead Man Walking, Mystic River and then Milk, you know what I'm talking about. At the very least the real line should have been around even between Sean and Mickey, even I think Penn was the favorite.

All in all, a pretty good night, I have always enjoyed the show no matter what, and i think I'll always do.

A river value-bet, a check-raise bluff and a good call

I think this limit holdem hand from the 50-100 game is pretty interesting, especially the play in the river.

PokerStars Game #24784067754: Hold'em Limit ($50/$100) - 2009/02/10 7:14:58 ET
Table 'Maia IV' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: sirio11 ($2892 in chips)
Seat 2: petknet ($3916.50 in chips)
Seat 3: eso_memory ($4750 in chips)
Seat 4: cherry1020 ($1382.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Zzeigler ($6336.50 in chips)
Seat 6: THE D0NAT0R ($13071 in chips)
eso_memory: posts small blind $25
cherry1020: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [4h 4s]
Zzeigler: folds
THE D0NAT0R: folds
sirio11: raises $50 to $100
petknet: folds
eso_memory: folds
cherry1020: calls $50
*** FLOP *** [3c 8s 7s]
cherry1020: checks
sirio11: checks
*** TURN *** [3c 8s 7s] [Tc]
cherry1020: bets $100
sirio11: calls $100
*** RIVER *** [3c 8s 7s Tc] [8d]
cherry1020: checks
sirio11: bets $100
cherry1020: raises $100 to $200
sirio11: calls $100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cherry1020: shows [4d Ks] (a pair of Eights)
sirio11: shows [4h 4s] (two pair, Eights and Fours)
sirio11 collected $822 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $825 | Rake $3
Board [3c 8s 7s Tc 8d]
Seat 1: sirio11 showed [4h 4s] and won ($822) with two pair, Eights and Fours
Seat 4: cherry1020 (big blind) showed [4d Ks] and lost with a pair of Eights

Let them 3 barrel, a hand from 10-20 NLH

Playing against no fear 3 barreling players, no problem, let them do it

PokerStars Game #24680985801: Hold'em No Limit ($10/$20) - 2009/02/07 5:36:29 ET
Table 'Turandot IV' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: wayne120 ($1552.40 in chips)
Seat 2: Zelijostocko ($2291.75 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($2000 in chips)
Seat 4: ALLIN9865 ($2000 in chips)
Seat 5: jsizzle20 ($2337 in chips)
wayne120: posts small blind $10
Zelijostocko: posts big blind $20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Kc Qs]
sirio11: raises $40 to $60
ALLIN9865: folds
jsizzle20: calls $60
wayne120: folds
Zelijostocko: folds
*** FLOP *** [3c 8d Kh]
sirio11: checks
jsizzle20: bets $100
sirio11: calls $100
*** TURN *** [3c 8d Kh] [As]
sirio11: checks
jsizzle20: bets $215
sirio11: calls $215
*** RIVER *** [3c 8d Kh As] [7s]
sirio11: checks
jsizzle20: bets $525
sirio11: calls $525
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jsizzle20: shows [Js Ts] (high card Ace)
sirio11: shows [Kc Qs] (a pair of Kings)
sirio11 collected $1828 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1830 | Rake $2
Board [3c 8d Kh As 7s]
Seat 1: wayne120 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Zelijostocko (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 showed [Kc Qs] and won ($1828) with a pair of Kings
Seat 4: ALLIN9865 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: jsizzle20 (button) showed [Js Ts] and lost with high card Ace

I insta called the river by the way.

Time, the inexorably flowing of time

Today is my birthday, another one, and this one will also pass as all the others, as any other day does, the important thing it's I'm still here, I'm living life and I still have dreams. It does not matter how much time you have left, it's what you do with the one you have that counts. Sometimes I think I'm old, sometimes I think I'm young, but I don't know, there is something about life that make you be really appreciative, even if you're not a very religious person. I started this year more conscious of my health, I want to live a good life, spend quality time on Earth, with my loved ones, with so many people I'm yet to meet, I'm ready, life goes on and so do I. Still too many great things to do, life is good, time is a good friend ........

Some 50-100 Limit

I played yesterday 2 tourneys, a $100+9 and the warm up $200+15, I made the money in the warm up and actually I was playing pretty good, but happened to have KK at the same time some other guy had AA, I was left with very little an finished the tourney 237 out of 4180, bummer, good showing anyway, good for $836, bleh.
I couldn't sleep, so I decided to play some 30-60 and 50-100 limit holdem, I played close to 1000 hands, I was pretty stuck in the 30-60, and at some point I was losing near $3k, but I came back, lose a little on the 30-60 but won on the 50-100, for a net gain of around $500.
I felt comfortable playing 50-100, hopefully I'll play more in the future.

One hand from the 50-100, we were playing 4 handed at that moment:


PokerStars Game #24056739924: Hold'em Limit ($50/$100) - 2009/01/19 9:00:12 ET
Table 'Tros' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: DrArpadElo ($5397 in chips)
Seat 3: pokkermon ($5272 in chips)
Seat 4: sirio11 ($2174 in chips)
Seat 6: stormi22 ($2000 in chips)
sirio11: posts small blind $25
stormi22: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [7c Qc]
DrArpadElo: folds
pokkermon: folds
sirio11: raises $50 to $100
pokkermon said, "gg"
DrArpadElo is sitting out
stormi22: calls $50
*** FLOP *** [6c 7s 3d]
sirio11: bets $50
stormi22: raises $50 to $100
sirio11: calls $50
*** TURN *** [6c 7s 3d] [3s]
DrArpadElo leaves the table
sirio11: checks
stormi22: bets $100
sirio11: raises $100 to $200
stormi22: calls $100
*** RIVER *** [6c 7s 3d 3s] [Jd]
sirio11: bets $100
stormi22: calls $100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [7c Qc] (two pair, Sevens and Threes)
stormi22: mucks hand
sirio11 collected $998 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1000 | Rake $2
Board [6c 7s 3d 3s Jd]
Seat 2: DrArpadElo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: pokkermon (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sirio11 (small blind) showed [7c Qc] and won ($998) with two pair, Sevens and Threes
Seat 6: stormi22 (big blind) mucked [2d 7d]

Please vote for online poker !!!!!

The new Obama site is open to vote on ideas and for sure they'll take a look at the ones with the most votes

Move up the Online poker one with your vote !!!!!

Vote here, it takes seconds

Does poker make you a worse person?

I made a post (Changing Paths: Experiences about leaving poker) on an internet forum about this, and wow, I received pretty good responses. Some of the are really interesting and I think I'm gonna post them here because they are good, deep and offer a pretty interesting perspective for us poker players; and I'll offer some of my thoughts in the topic.

This response from "Ice" caught my eye and opens a pretty good discussion: Do we get worse as persons playing poker?

Here is the post, I quote:

"Ive been playing for about 2.5 years and im thinking about quitting or at east taking a long break. its probably for different reasons then other posters here, TBH i just feel like poker has turned me into a worse person then i used to be. i remember when i started playing poker i was a pretty honest and genuinely nice guy(for a poker player lol) and i don't remember intentionally trying to make some other person feel bad for no reason. but recently i've just noticed that ive turned into kind of a dick at the poker table. i despise almost everybody i play against. i show people bluffs only to **** with them and make my opponents feel bad. ive noticed myself become more greedy and selfish over the last 6 months or so. u can just see what poker does too people when u play live, all the douchebags that u see at the casinos at 3AM. i mean it just cant be good for somebody to be around these types of people.

It also just makes no ****ing sense to spend your 20´s in front of a computer grinding 12 dollars an hour when i could get a job and make more then that for half the time and probably feel better about myself while doing it.

i think poker has just turned me into a really miserable person and i would be doing myself and everyone around me a favour if i quit or take a long break or something."

I certainly can feel related to a lot of things Ice mention here, I started my career as a poker player in a B&M casino, and I remember the long hours, the terrible smoke (thanks God now is banned almost anywhere from good), and the scumbags/degenerates anywhere. Despite finding online good friends and pretty nice people, most probably in general the online poker scene is no much different, super greedy people, cheaters, lairs, sociopaths, people with no morals aside from using everybody to make some bucks, I sometimes lol at the "moral codes" some poker players think they have, probably they saw the Godfather or something and pretend they have some untouchable honor and "deep" respect for the game and their peers; most of the time this is just BS, of course it's not general, hell I'm a poker player and a pretty decent human being :), and of course there are plenty more, but I agree with Ice that for those who have the scumbag gene, poker accelerates their path to scumbagland, and some who otherwise would be pretty social and nice people, poker deteriorates them. There should be a minuscule minority who poker helped them to be better human beings. And I'm not naive, I know there are plenty of professions who make people worse (in general), just pointing out mine (sadly) is one of them.
Even for us who try to avoid all these shit and are constantly fighting against it, it takes its toll, definitely. I think if you want to go pro or if you are already one, you need to take a hard look at this and answer yourself if you like such environment, if you are not bother by it or if you can be one of the uncorruptibles.

New Year, Same Job? and you're never too old to live.

2009 is here, and one of the biggest decisions I need to make, it's if I want to continue without a "real job". I'm going to enter my 13th year playing poker, with some breaks from playing here and there, specially when I finished my masters degree at the beginning of the 2000's. There have been really good times, "the golden age of online poker", but as today, at least for us here living in the States the games are tougher every day. I left teaching at UTEP like 3 years ago, but I wonder if it's time to come back to teach at the college level, to look for a new path of make a living, be a movie critic or something, even to go back to school and pursue a PhD. Even if I do something different, I would still be playing some poker part time, hell, I have been playing poker part time (no time? hah) for a long time now; one of the funny things it's that I used to play plenty more when I had my full time lecturer job at UTEP, for some reason, having more free time, made me play less. Then I was very good in my job as a professor and I was very good playing poker, but I have to admit I was usually pretty tired since I used to do also some other projects like the Math Olympiad (still do), the Abel project (dead now), the UACJ (still going). The free time on my last 3 years have allowed me to spend a lot of time with my family, travel a lot, and that's priceless. My kids now are almost 6 and 4 and we have also another decision to make with them, homeschooling them or not?, and obviously since we need time to do that the 2 decisions are connected, Diana has also her own plans about what would she like to do and whatever we decide, our life is most probably going to change. Should we move from El Paso? If so, where? Should we come back to school? Diana for her masters, and me for a PhD or maybe even a masters in a very different area, Am I too old for that? Nah, the last question is easy, you're never too old to live. YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO LIVE, don't ever forget that.

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?