| Triathlon |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|02:47 pm] |
I completed my first Triathlon yesterday, in some ways it was easier than I expected, some ways harder. It starts very early, I had to be out of bed at 7am. Considering my normal bet time is 5am this wasn't easy. We made it on time though, (despite forgetting all my swimming gear, and my friend Gary forgetting his helmet).
The race started at 9am, with wave one (each wave consisted of about 25 people) starting in the pool. I had thought that they would let the fast people go first, so that they would have a clear run and be able to get a good time. They organised it the opposite way around though, with the slowest going first. So for about 30 minutes we had to sit and watch a group of 25 people swim back and forth. At the speed they were going you would be forgiven for thinking they were just out for a normal swim. Towards the end I realised some were doing the back crawl, stopping and taking a breath at each end before going again. I'm all for getting unfit people fit, but not at 9.00am in the morning when I am a captive audience.
So we finally got in the pool around 10.30. In each lane there was 5 or 6 swimmers and you had to organise who you thought would be the fastest. I had no idea how I was going to measure up, I've done the 750m swim in 19mins, but that was in a 12.5 meter pool. This was a 25 meter pool, and I knew I could get a faster time, but not sure how much. So I started third. At the start of the year I was most worried about the swim than any other section. I hadn't swam past a few laps in years. But over the last few months I have done more swimming training than any other activity. In the end I found it a breeze. The biggest problem I had was constantly having to overtake people. There was one particular fat guy who was so large I could only overtake at each end. The staff were really good though (A common theme) and got him to stop at each end so I could overtake him. I did the swim in 15:43, and I think I could easily reduce this by about 2 or 3 minutes with no extra training by pushing myself a bit harder, and being with a faster group.
Out of the wave of 25 people I left the swimming pool fourth. I then had to run out and change into my shorts. This was a bit of a problem though, my newly bought swimming togs refused to come off. There was a large group of people all around the changing area watching and shouting encouragement. I tried to use a towel to keep my dignity but it kept blowing in the wind. I decided I had two choices, a) throw caution to the wind and rip my pants down with both hands exposing myself to everyone. b) put my shorts on over my togs. Obviously I chose b.
So the cycle began. This was the most fun section of the entire race. We cycled 10k out to a roundabout, and then back again. The route was littered with stewards, spectators and police; all pointing out the route and shouting encouragement. The way back was particularly cool, flying in and out of roundabouts with traffic stopped all around was deadly. I had a small problem with my bike, the night before I broke one of the pedal clips, and that was constant if slight source of annoyance. I doubt it affected my time that much. The only bad thing that happened during the cycle was opening my mouth at one stage, and a fly flying straight in and down my gullet. I had a weird bad fly taste in my throat for a while!
I finished the 20k cycle in 44mins. Again I could improve this with no training if I pushed myself a bit. The hardest part was to follow.
Probably the only part of the race where I questioned my decision to get involved was the start of the running. A found the cycle fine, but the last thing my body expected to do straight afterwards was to start running. I had shooting pains going all up my thighs. It wasn't that bad though and I had the feeling it would pass. I shuffled on for a while and then what I was really worried about occurred, my calves got sorer and sorer. I know from experience that there is no running through that, because it just gets sorer and sorer to the point where it is agony to move. So I had to stop several times and stretch both calves out. I had just gotten to the half way point where I saw Gary for the first time since the swim. I had actually assumed he had dropped out, because he was only a little big behind me at the start of the cycle, and its much better cycler than I am. He had developed a pain in his back and that held him back in that section though. He caught up with me and we walked about 1km.
My calves started feeling better and we decide to run the final 1.5k. As soon as I got going I knew I was going to be able to finish it, I felt fine. Usually when I'm about to play football I give my calves a really good warm up and stretch, which I attempted to do before the Triathlon but it was obviously to far apart from the actual running to do any good.
So we raced back for the final distance, as we approached the finish line some of the stewards goaded us into racing. We both began to sprint, but after a few paces I started going much faster. Before I crossed the finish line I waited for Gary and we crossed over together. I'm a faster sprinter than he is, but by rights he should of been far ahead of me, he waited with me whilst I had the problem so it wouldn't of been right of me to beat him at the end.
In conclusion, I'm happy I completed it. I'm very annoyed I had to walk and stop to stretch during the running, it changed my time from average, to averagely bad. I had no problem with fitness or being out of breadth. Its the exact problem I dealt with last year with football. The same thing used to happen to me, but I managed to fix it so it isn't a problem. Its occuring again now because running for several kiliometers on a hard road non-stop is much harder on my muscles than playing football on astoturf. I'll go to the physio again and probably have to get shock absorbers for my runners. As soon as I think I've fixed it I'm going to organise to do another similar distance Triathlon.
Here are our times:   The ones in between are the transitions. Daragh: Swim 15:43, 2:24. Cycle 44:15, 00:38, Run 38:13 Total 1:41:22
Gary : Swim 17:42, 3:38. Cycle 45:59, 00:38, Run 33:02 Total 1:41:22
Thanks a lot to everyone for the support and encouragement, esp those who sent texts. Sorry I couldn't reply but I had no credit.  
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| Triathlon |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|05:03 am] |
I just checked Hold-Em manager and I've played 22875 hands already this month. That's great considering how busy I've been with other stuff. I scored 3 hat-tricks in 3 games from Friday to Tuesday (although as all my friends from football will want to point out, only one was a league match, and the opposition wasn't great), I started a weekly radio show. (That's for music not poker!) The aim is to play a lot of modern hip hop, electro & ambient. and (Friday's at 2pm @ http://www.ustream.tv/Kitchen-Sync), and I've been doing some desperate last minute training for the first Triathlon I'm doing, which is this Saturday.
The distances are 750m swimming, 20k cycling and 5k running. I had hoped to get a lot more training in, but I only got a place about 3 weeks ago. At the start of the year when I first planned this I thought the swimming would be by far my worst section, but I've done quite a lot of swimming and am now very comfortable doing that distance. Its the other sections I'm worried about now! I know I can do the cycle (although it will be grueling), but I'm worried about the run at the end. I've been having problems with my calf muscles, I need to stretch them for about 10 minutes before football and even then I can feel them more than I should. I'm worried they will seize up, which happens from time to time. I don't usually worry about things, but I'm pretty nervous about this. I really do not want to have to retire from the race, especially at the last stage in the discipline I should be best at. I had a dream a few days ago where all my teeth fell out, apparently that's a fairly common anxiety dream. The next day I woke up and booked a dentist session for Tuesday, at least I have that to look forward to!
Wish me luck. |
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| Quick Update |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|11:41 am] |
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Fantastic month, I played over 50k hands for the first time ever. Using weekly goals rather than monthly has really helped, its so much more tangible and results in me planning ahead to make sure I get the hands in. For example I knew I was going away at the weekend a few weeks ago so played loads before Thursday. (Which seems obvious, but its the type of thing Ive never really done before.) This is week 5 of my 10 week plan, im about 1k hands behind schedule due to excessive partying, so I'm going to put in a HUGE week this week. Its going well so far, up about 3k and played 9000 hands. |
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| Week two |
[Mar. 13th, 2009|01:22 am] |
These last two weeks I've been more eager to play poker than since I first got into it. The simple process of setting defined, achievable goals has motivated me to the extent where I'm jumping out of bed anxious to get started playing. I've already played nearly 30k hands this month. About 3/4's 50/1 daytime play and some 1/2 and 2/4 at night. Someone asked me why I bothered with 50/1 recently, there are a few reasons. The main one is that I can 12 table 50/1 and my win rate is a good bit higher than $100 an hour. There just isn't that many good 12 games during the day (that I can find anyway), which is when I put in most of my hours.
Im going away for the weekend, I'm already looking forward to getting back to work next week. Strange feeling!
Edit: I came across a post by Jay on boards that sums up what I'm talking about
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=53418493&postcount=75 |
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| 10 Week plan |
[Mar. 7th, 2009|10:51 pm] |
Last month shocked me a bit, I think I had been coasting a bit over the last few months, making money but not putting in enough effort to really grow my bankroll. The shock of a losing month made me realise how lucky I am, I am in a great situation at the moment; and I don't want to look back and think I could of achieved more if I had put in a bit more work.
So I've come up with a set of ambitious 10 week plans, with targets for each week. The basic idea is to play at least 12k hands per week, to try and reach certain $ targets and to regulate my spending. I constantly spend way more money that I should, so part of the plan is to try and cut this down a little. Hopefully by keeping track of it it will be easy to see where I'm wasting it.
Week one is nearly up and its going well, Ive already played 11k hands despite spending all last night and this morning drinking. I probably won't get many hands in tomorrow, I have a football match and am planning on playing the computer games competition for charity. |
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| Next months goals |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|01:28 am] |
Poker: Play 40k hands. Play three to four evening sessions a week. (Currently I play very little in the evening, the games are much better at night which will allow me to play higher)
Football: Book and organise the training games for the pre-season.
Play: Finish the second draft, ASAP
Triathlon: Get back in training. (Injury and sickness knocked me off my schedule)
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| Month End |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|01:12 am] |
Its true what they say, its a lot easier to blog when you are winning. This month was a disaster from start to finish. Unless something remarkable happens in the next few minutes (Edit: it didn't!) I'm going to post my first losing month since 2005. There was a number of reasons why.
1) I wasn't playing great. I never tilted (which was great) but I definitely could of played better at times.
2) I was playing in some terrible games. I should know at this stage that if I'm the loosest person at the table, I should leave. (I'm pretty tight (usually around 21/17)
3) I ran very badly.
It wasn't a total disaster. I just totted up the figures and I lost about €500 after rakeback. Its a shame to lose my monthly record though, I was proud of it. If February was a normal month I probably would of been able to turn it around, I've already won it back.
So understandably I didn't reach my target of 40k hands. I played a little over 30k, which considering how I ran is pretty good. This month I will definitely (!) play over 40k. (Good start already, I've reached 3k already)
***
As for football, that has been going great. Our team is undefeated in seven matches. Depending on our last two results we could finish between 6th and 4th; which is great considering the awful start we had. I felt like Juande Ramos at the start of the season, with one point from our first 4 games. I think with the changes in personell we have had, our improvement in skill & physicality, and our honed tactics we can realistically aim for a top 3 finish next season.
***
I got the play typed up, I need to get the second draft done this month. |
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| Months Goals |
[Feb. 2nd, 2009|04:53 am] |
I thought it might be helpful to start making Monthly goals and tracking my progress. So this month I want to:
Poker: Play at least 40k hands. Investigate other sites for day time 1/2 - 2/4 games
Football: 5 Games left in the league, I want to win at least 4 of them. Also get the money sorted for next season
Play: Type up my 1st draft, and get feedback.
College: Apply for a maths course with the OU that looks interesting. (Just have to find my credit card first) |
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| Month End |
[Jan. 30th, 2009|06:19 pm] |
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Its effectively the end of the month for me. I'm going out tomorrow to celebrate my birthday so wont be playing any more poker this month. Quite dissappointing month, I had a good start but ended up taking about 14 days off due to illness and holidays. Still managed to get 27k hands in so it wasn't a disaster. Hopefully next month will be better! |
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| The Flu |
[Jan. 14th, 2009|09:59 am] |
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I'm just coming to the end of the worst period of illness I have ever gone through. I have a new found respect for people who suffer through long term illnesses; I definitely would not be able to. There was times yesterday where I would of seriously considered ending my life had there been an easy pain free method available. I don't know if what I had was technically the flu, it seemed like every cold I had ever gotten condensed into one horrible package. I feel better today, still not perfect, but hopefully I'm over the worst of it. |
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| 2008 Mix |
[Jan. 4th, 2009|05:48 am] |
I recorded two mixes to celebrate the end of 2008. I tried to include some tracks from a variety of albums and singles I enjoyed throughout the year. Most of the music was made in 08, but there are a few older tracks that i first came across this year.
This first is a bit more dance orientated and upbeat, it runs at a smooth 130bpm
http://rapidshare.com/files/179577415/2008_mix_pt_1Daragh_Thomas.mp3
The second one is a bit more varied. (Still mostly electronic though!)
http://rapidshare.com/files/179555425/2008_mix_Pt_2_Daragh_Thomas.mp3
Enjoy!
2008 mix part 1
Scanners "Low Life" (L.A. Riots' Remix) (Mixed by Steve Aoki)
Digitilism - Echoes
Simian Mobile Disco - Wooden
mstrkrft - the looks
Utah saints - Something good
Rex the dog - Bubblicous
Uffie - dissmissed
Boys Noize - E down
Mylo - Drop the pressure
Para One - def tea machine
Soulwax - e-talking
Soulwax - NY LIPPS
Steve Mac - You
Zombie Nation - kernkraft 400 (Dave Clark Remix)
Crystal Castles - Alice Practice
The Teenagers - Sunset Beach
Para one - Turtle Trouble
David Holmes - I heard wonders
Busy P - Rainbow Man
crystal Castles - tell me what to swallow
2008 mix part 2
Santogold - Shove it (Feat. Spank Rock)
Vicarious Bliss - Limousine
CSS - lets make love
Simian mobile disco - sleep deprivation
Simian mobile disco - its the beat?
Digitilism - Digitilism in cairo
Justice - Phantom part 2 (soulwax remix)
Justice - Stress
Yuscek - I like to play
Justice - "Waters Of Nazereth" (Erol Alkan's Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr Re-Edit) (Mixed by Steve Aoki)
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "We Are Rockstars" (Mixed by Steve Aoki)
Buy now - Body crash
Mia - paperplanes
The teenagers - homecoming |
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| Short Month Report |
[Jan. 1st, 2009|04:19 pm] |
Strange month, I ended up taking several days off due to illness and Christmas, but still managed to play 40,000 hands, which is 2nd most I've ever played in a single month. After talking about lifestyles and work ethics on boards I was inspired to try and increase the volume of hands I get in (Cheers to Jackyback esp for the kick up the backside).
Instead of aiming for 1.5k hands per day, Ive been aiming for 2k and sometimes getting in 3k.
The only time I played more was when I nearly killed myself trying to beat an Everest promotion at the start of the year. So this months goal is clear, to smash my previous month record of 42,000.
It was quite a profitable month, the first two weeks weren't great. I was playing a lot, and pretty well, but running awfully. I had a very good last week though. 1/4 of my months profit came from following one fish from 1-2 to 2-4 to 50-1. It was depressing when he went to 50-1, but at that stage I probably would of followed him through the gates of hell. Typical hand. I make it 7 with aces. He min-reraises with A3o, then calls the rest of his 2 buyin stack off.
Happy new year! |
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| Football fans |
[Dec. 6th, 2008|09:42 pm] |
Disappointing week poker-wise. I don't play football on Thursdays or Fridays so they are the days I like to get a lot of hands in, but I didn't manage to play a single hand either day. Part of the reason was because I got up too late in the day, it was dark by the time I got up. I wouldn't say I suffer anything coming close to depression, but I've realised I'm definitely less happy if I'm not up by the afternoon. I need more sleep in the winter, so I'm going to try and make sure I get to bed earlier. I probably need around 9 hours sleep after football and 8 hours otherwise, so that's a bed time of 3 or 4 am.
And so on to the main reason for this entry. One of the many things that really grinds my gears is football fans referring to their foreign team's exploits clear with the possessive pronoun "we". Lets get this clear, you played no part in your teams success. You had as much to do with your teams winning or losing as the nearest bit of cutlery does with Texaco's share price. I think its understandable, if a little unfortunate, that grown men in the teams country of origin choose to use a football team as one their prime sense of identities. But then if they spend several hours every second week at their teams ground, shouting their team on, its makes sense that they clearly identify with their teams success (or otherwise). But for Irish people to do it, claiming shared ownership and responsibility of an English clubs success whose ground they have probably never visited is ridiculous. Its so utterly childish; wanting to feel like you take part in some greater existance, without contributing anything whatsover of merit. To quote Bunk, "that's some shameful shit. "
Now don't get me wrong. It wouldn't be a lie to say I'm a fan of Arsenal. But I'm a fan in the way I'm a fan or Radiohead or Phil Ivey . You would be rightly surprised to hear me say "I'm very proud of the last album I released", or "We won 3million last weekend!" Whatever primordial instinct this type of behaviour is inspired by should be ruthlessly stamped out.
I'm doing a new series of beginners videos for pokerswat.com called Plugging the Leaks. The basic concept is that the majority of beginners to the game will have a common group of leaks in their game. This series is all about highlighting those leaks and then explaining the best ways to overcome those leaks and move through the stakes. It should be very useful for those stuck in the lowerstakes. The first one should be up in a few days. |
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| November's End |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|04:36 am] |
Somewhat disappointing month, I only managed to get 20k hands in. I was very busy though, a friend of mine asked me to compose the music for a play she was putting on. That took a good bit of effort, I had to compose three suitable songs and liase with the choreographer and violinist which took up a good amount of time. I then got roped into actually operating the sound for each night, which required loads of time (and stress!). It was a great experience and I glad I did it, but it really ate into my poker time. I didn't play a single hand between Monday and today. The last time I took a break of that long I was in Cuba!
So December is going to be all about Poker. I'm planning to put in two sessions each day whenever I can, so I hope to easily break the 40k mark. This month will be a bit patchy towards the end, whatwith Christmas and NYE, so its important that I get a good start. I'm going to try and be up before 12pm each day, to give me a bit more time before I have to leave for football. (Which by the way, is going fantastic; we have gone from 11th to 7th in a few games. If we win tomorrow we move into 6th)
Thanks to Nicky O'D for nominating me for blog of the year. To be honest I'm pretty sure I don't deserve it, the blog has laid dormant for too long, and most of my best writing (hopefully!) gets swallowed up by Cardplayer and Paddy Power. The last issue I submitted to Cardplayer was very good, and I think this one will be too. (Quite a while before it actually gets around to being published). I think a weakness in some of my articles is that they get too theoritical. I know exactly what I'm talking about, but actually getting that across to people in a way that can change their play is different. The format is now that I take a hand and analyse it in detail, from both players persepective. The only downside is that it takes two issues to get a hand done! |
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| WSOP and Me |
[Nov. 19th, 2008|03:24 am] |
I've just watched the final table from World Series of Poker. Eastgate played well, but run fantastically. Easy to win when you have sets, flushes and straights every second hand. I found it hard to tell how good of a player he was, most of the hands that were shown were him having the nuts, (or close to it). He played them all well, but it didn't give a complete picture of the type of player he is. That said, the two previous winners, Gold and the God fearing Moron (Name temporarily escapes me, Ace2007 remember you cant try and get me banned from here, this is my blog) both appeared to have huge flaws even in the short sample of hands shown, so perhaps that's a good sign for Eastgate. But it seems strange that my only knowledge of the player that won is that he likes to slowplay aces a lot.
Philips played worse than any player I had ever seen at a Final table, which was a shame because I was rooting for him. (Mainly because he seemed like a good guy). Norman Chad said he had been getting a lot of coaching before the final, I'd love to know if the massive hand he played with AK was part of the strategy! I'm actually planning on writing about it for a future issue of cardplayer, because I don't ever remember seeing a hand played so badly on such a big stage, I think it would be quite instructive.
Unfortunately this year is coming to a close, (I know its early, but Christmas lights always make me wish for next year) I've spent some time working on my estimates for next years profits, based on this years play. I ran some numbers based on different criteria. One obvious conclusion that I came to, was that if I increased my time I spent playing poker from 2 to 3 hours I would earn a substantially significant amount more. Obviously this is obvious, but seeing the numbers in the cold light of google spreadsheets is different from intuitively knowing it.
I get a lot of funny looks when I tell people I only play for two hours a day, but its not as lazy as it sounds. When I say I play poker for two hours a day, that's exactly what I mean. I do literally nothing else for those 2 hours, and since I'm playing 12 tables 100% of my concentration is on poker. This doesn't include all of the time I spend reading and writing about poker, coaching students and trolling boards; most of which I would count as an investment in keeping my game up to date. If you want to compare it to an office job, think about all the time you waste going to meetings, going to lunch, sending emails, going to the bathroom, not working that hard. I doubt there is a huge gap between the amount of actual work done.
One thing I have learnt the hard way over the last few years is that I should only play poker when I'm rested and want to play. For me, I can happily play for 2 hours each day. (7 days a week!). More and I get bored. That said, looking at the numbers makes me greedy! |
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| Sleeptracker |
[Nov. 17th, 2008|05:30 am] |
One of the many issues that I have encountered since leaving the world of employment has been my sleep pattern. I have always been a night owl, and have never had a good sleeping pattern. However when I worked, it always stayed within certain acceptable boundaries. No matter what happened at the weekend, I would be out of bed and in work for 10am on Monday. Monday morning was an anchor that meant whatever I got up to at the weekend, I would end up getting a good night sleep on Monday night.
That changed when I left my job though. With no anchor, and usually no reason to get out of bed my sleeping pattern oscillated wildly. I remember occasionally waking up at 6 am, and there was one memorable fortnight where I couldn't stay awake for more than 5 hours at at time. I would sleep for 2 hours, wake up and then start to feel drowsy four hours later. It felt right at the time, but was hell if I needed to organise anything. I never knew if I was going to be asleep or awake!
It wasn't all bad though, the upside of leaving work was that I always got enough sleep. Too much in fact, but it has to be healthier than surviving on an average of 4/5 hours a night. In my final year of work I was playing a lot of football, playing some poker, enjoying a social life, watching the Sopranoes and working 30-60 hour weeks. Something had to give, and more often than not it was sleep. One of the things I enjoyed most in my first year (and continue to do so) was never having to feel tired.
The revolving sleep pattern wasn't optimal though, and last year I started to make an effort to lead a more routine lifestyle. It took me a few months, but I've managed to get a pretty awesome routine going, and kept to it. I try and be in bed by 5am each night (6am at the latest, ill be straight to bed after this post!). And then up at 1pm, or 2 at the latest. Since doing that, I've found that I don't need more than eight hours sleep. I rarely sleep in past that. This routine allows me to play poker during the day, when I'm most fresh. I can easily get in two hours before 6pm, which is when I go to football. Since then I've noticed a dramatic improvement in my play and my results. I rarely tilt, and when I do its constrained to a single hand. I doubt the lack of tilt is totally dependent and directly influenced by my sleeping pattern, but is more a function of a number of factors, most of which have been improved because of my sleeping arrangements.
Over the last few months I've learnt and noticed a lot about myself, and how to best set up my life in order to play poker. One thing I noticed, is that some days I would wake up after a seemingly normal and perfect night of sleep, but feel drowsy, and not really feel awake for most of the day. I researched the issue a bit, and read all about sleep cycles and different modes of sleep. Basically you can either be in light sleep, or in deep sleep. Your body wakes up much better from light sleep, its a more gradual process and allows you to quickly integrate into the day. Waking up from deep sleep can cause you problems. I stumbled upon a watch called Sleeptracker Pro, that promised to monitor your sleep, and wake you up when you are in a light sleeping mode. (When you are in deep sleep your body doesn't move much, when you are in light sleep you move much more, the watch tracks your movements).
Since investing in the watch Ive found it a big help in getting up in the morning. Most mornings as soon as it beeps I get up, failing that I ignore it and get up the second time. Believe me this is a big improvement on the days off pressing snooze 5 or ten times! I find that when it goes off, im much more likely to feel refreshed and happy to get up. I had an epiphany one morning a few days after getting it, the watch beeped one morning and I suddenly realised I had just moved my right arm dramatically. "Damn!" I fumed, the watch has been tricked by a single accidental movement. But then I came to the realisation that If I was having this conversation with myself, I was probably ready to get up!
The watch isn't perfect, part of its function is to store your sleep data so you can review it, but the usb thing is a bit fiddly, and it only stores one nights data, so if you want to use this function you need to upload the times each night. It would be much better if it stored multiple data. (Although there is the possibility you can, the manual came in german).
I always find it strange how they dont teach this type of subject in school (I'm sure its part of some courses, but it really should be universal). There is so much practical knowledge that would help people in life that is totally ignored by our school system (how to use a computer for one thing, learning how to calulate your equity in any given situation is another!). Yet I spent years learning a language I abhorred, and have never used since. (Irish in case you cant guess). Anyway, its 6am, I have to be in bed. |
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| Pro Ev, Fifa and Poker |
[Nov. 16th, 2008|03:47 pm] |
MormanK asked for an update on the Pro Ev situation. To be fair, I haven't played it that much. I bought it and gave it a few tries, but It wasn't close to being as exciting as Fifa. I keep meaning to give it another chance, but I haven't gotten around to it yet, mostly because I've been playing Far Cry 2 for the last two weeks, and its a fantastic experience. Its set in Africa and is one of the most immersive games I've ever played. Every part of the gameplay reminds you that you are in deepest darkest Africa. From your continual quest to find malaria tablets, to the rusty and dirty guns that jam with frightening regularity. Far Cry 1 was an ambitous project that wasn't quite realised. 2 scales back its ambition, and is a much better experience for that. The only flaw is that the game play is all a bit similar. Still, you can use a flamethrower to set fire to grass, people huts and wildlife; and thats not worth missing!
Last months Poker was dissapointing. I was a bit all over the place, playing loads some weeks, and not at all other weeks. I also played a significent number of hands at different stakes. This month I want to be much more consistent, putting in 1.5k hands each day. So far its gone well, Im already up more this month that last. On a similar subject, Pokerswat is finally online. For the launch I have made several ultra low stakes videos. I would reccomend them for beginners to cash games, but more advanced players would probably enjoy Pok3rplayers videos more. I hope to do some interesting midstakes hu videos in the coming months.
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| 2k Hand Day |
[Oct. 28th, 2008|05:14 pm] |
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I stuck to my plan and played 2k hands today, unfortunately I made just under a buy in. Just checked my graph and I've been breaking even for 22k hands. I suppose I should be glad im not losing! (Also I should be glad that I made a huge amount the first 10k hands this month). As far as i remember, my last losing month was in 2005, I wouldn't like to repeat that experience. |
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| Month End |
[Oct. 28th, 2008|02:05 am] |
And so this month is coming to an end. Quite a good month, but a little disappointing. I ran pretty bad for a good bit of it, and ended up taking most of last week off. So despite a great start, I've only played about 30k hands. (31k to be exact). It seems silly to be disappointed about that, given that its the 2nd most hands ive played this year, but I haven't been keeping as strictly to my routine as I would like, (and my routine isn't exactly back breaking). Not only that, but when I have been playing poker the last week or two, I've been rushing it and not really concentrating. I need to keep more focused, especially when I get to the river where I have been making far too many bad calls. Most of the time when a passive player pots the river, its because they can beat one pair!
So theres a few days in the month left, I want to get my attitude turned around, and try and play over 2k hands each day.
I bought $500 worth of books from amazon recently (which is a disapointing 30 books), I've found myself reading less that I used to and wanted to kick start the habit again. I bought two excellent poker books, one is Gus Hansons "Every hand revealed". I haven't enjoyed a poker book as much as Hansons for several years. He takes a totally different and refreshing approach to poker, and I really like the format he uses. The other isn't really a poker book per se, but it has more to say about the Poker world and the people that inhabit it than any other book I've read. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Its a great insight into how the whole world is constantly strugging to see patterns where there are none. |
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| Irish Poker Open |
[Oct. 20th, 2008|05:18 am] |
I just got home from Drumcondra. What a difference a year makes! Last year the IPO was an enjoyable diversion. This year's event was one of the best run and enjoyable festivals I have been to. It was fantastically run, and the name International Poker Open couldn't be more apt. At least half the people there were from continental Europe, which really added to the atmosphere. I'm really glad I got to play, after stupidly putting off registering until it was to late, I managed to snag a last minute seat from DITPoker (cheers again), on the condition that I wore a Sunderland jersey with a bounty on my head.
I lasted a couple of hours in the main event. I got very few good hands, but managed to chip up with some pre and post aggression. I got a french guy to lay down AJ on a 77TJx board on the river. That put me over the 16k mark, but also led to my downfall. Another Boylesports bounty player, (who I recognised, but couldn't put a name on) raised utg. I called with A6 of spades. The button, who had been playing very tight called as well. The board came up AQ7, with the queen and seven of spades. Utg checked and I bet 1.2k. The button, playing 10k raised the minimum. Utg folded and the action was on me. I would often just call here, normally my implied odds are fantastic and Im unlikely to get a better ace to fold, but against this guy I felt he would be very reluctant to risk his tournament. I thought there was a good chance he had something like AJ or AK, and would probably fold. It isn't a disaster if he calls either. He thought for about 3 or 4 minutes, before making the call with 77, for bottom set. At first I was annoyed at him taking his time with what seemed like an insta-call, but I think he was seriously considering folding. There's two contradictory things to be said about my play, first of all the very fact he even considered folding means I was right in my assumption that he would probably lay down a single pair, and about his reluctance to end the tournament now, but I also misjudged the strength of his hand.
One mistake I definitely did make was later, whilst playing cash games, to incorrectly guage what range people had for three betting. I was reraised about 6 times in total over the two days, both in the tournament and whilst playing cash games. 4 of those hands went to showdown, all four times they had aces. I got all in for €175 against a guy from newcastle with AKs, he had AA. Thinking about it now, with the benefit of knowing how tight peoples 3 bet ranges are, Im pretty sure it was a terrible call. Its funny how different the live and online poker games are, online 99% of the time I'm happy to stack off with AK for more than 100bbs.
I just watched episode 25 of the WSOP. What an embarrassing mess of a person Phil Hellmuth is. Rarely is a persons worst attributes paraded on TV to such fanfare. (it almost makes me feel sorry for him). Those embarrassing self pitying remarks that everyone feels mentally from time to time are readily available on youtube for all to witness. Contrast his behavior, with the player who gets all in with a set on the flop vs an attractive female poker presenters AA. Ace on the turn for an awful beat, at probably the worst possible time. He barely moves a muscle in his face, and manages to maintain his dignity whilst saying "that's poker". I'm quite sure PH would literally explode if that happened to him.
I'm going to make an effort to incorporate a bit of live play into my monthly schedule, id like to be a bit more practised at it. |
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