Late Night Boredom
People keep asking me what I plan on doing after I graduate. I ask the same thing of my friends. It's natural. People we care for and have spent the better part of four years in close contact with will soon cease to be a part of our daily lives, and we want to know the why where and how.
I've never actually sat down and said to myself, "This would be a feasible and rational way to spend the rest of my life, I think I'll figure out how to go about it." I have interests and hobbies which could conceivably turn into professional sources of income, but I don't bank on any of them. In the short term, I know I have the knowledge and talent to make money playing poker. I know people who do it, and it doesn't seem to be an enviable way to live in the long run. I would like to play professional golf, and before I came to this place, I was sporting a scratch handicap or better, so that might be promising. I'm in love with the classical guitar, and can definately see myself living my life as a teacher/performer. Both of these options would require a large amount of efffort and determination, both are virtues I currently lack. And poker is geared for the unambitious and lazy, so you can see my natural inclination. Anyone who is intelligent enough to spend the time learing poker theory and gaining enough experience to understand and beat the game would be able and much better off in pursuing a more lucrative and rewarding profession. So let's pray it's only short-term if I get involved with this at all.
It's interesting how a good poker player must disconect himself from the value of his money. Short term results are truly meaningless, and even the best poker players can lose terrifying amounts of money in a single night. I had been lucky in my previous visits to Commerce Casino in L.A., but on Friday managed to drop about a third of the money I've made there recently back to the fishies. But it doesn't really bother me. I have all of my poker money set aside, and I don't really think of it as spending money. It is money though, and you have to respect it while you're playing at a table, or you won't hold on to it for long. This disconnect therefore bridges a fine line between being too careful and anxious with your poker chips, and not caring enough so that you start gambling instead of playing.
An example, and this is really a common one. I had busted out of the $9/$18 limit game I started in after four or five hours of subpar play and bad cards, and sat down in the $100 min/max No-Limit game. There were two or three fairly new inexperienced players, several solid and aggressive players, and the rest were your typical low limit poker player (i.e., they know the rules and have a decent familiarity with the game, but are generally far too loose and passive). I was up several buy-ins when I found pocket eights in early position. I called the $3 blind, and five other players called for a flop of 3 8 Q rainbow suited. Hot damn! I checked, knowing several aggressive players in the hand were likely to bet, giving me a good opportunity to build a nice pot before going all-in and shutting out all of the absurd draws that people chase. Sure enough, solid aggressive asian #1 raises it to $40, a loose and aggressive player reraises it $80, and it comes back to me. I'm only behind to pocket queens, and really, that's a 1000:1 chance that two pocket pairs would trip up on the flop. So I reraise all-in, making any overpairs or gutshot straight/flush draws call improperly. Aggressive asian reraises all-in over my all-in, and the other guy calls. It's now something like an $800 pot with my share being around $700. The turn comes a 10, and with all our cards now exposed AggAsian is sporting a disgusting queen-high straight with J 9, and the other player two pair with Q 9. I now have three threes, three tens, and one eight to help me improve. That's 7 out of 46 cards to help me, a little better than 6:1 against happening. And of course it doesn't happen and I'm now out of two games.
I grab Nick K. and we go smoke, and it's somewhere around 3 A.M. He's barely keeping his head above the water in the $1/$2 game, having most of his many high pocket pairs cracked by the crazies. The smoking crowd outside the entrance to Commerce Casino at three in the morning only heightens the bizarre nature of how we've chosen to spend our Friday night. I listen to Nick describe his bad beats and think, "If you only knew." He heads back to his table, and I decided to play some low limit seven-card stud. Whoo! I managed to gamble away $50 over the next several hours to a few old asian ladies and an elderly man who looked like the late George Burns dressed to pimp. An interesting situation occured when the two forty-somethings at the table who had been flirting for the last hour or so decided to head to the ladies car for some wink-wink nudge-nudge after Mr. lost his last few chips. Ms. (or [not his] Mrs.?) left her stack of chips and they giggled their way from the table. Mr. returned a good hour later with a big fat grin spread across his sweaty red face, and somehow managed to claim Ms. stack of chips. Of course Ms. shows up five minutes later, and where the fuck is my money you fucks and fuck this and that and fuck. The floor man escorted her away and I assume this to be the first time in history that a sweaty balding forty-something man got some and walked away with more more than he started.
At 5 A.M. carts of food began wheeling to different players and I found out that Commerce offers a $2 "Full House" breakfast during this hour. A plate of greasy grade D eggs and bacon after a long night of bad beats and Red Bull is not something I'd care to try again. And after all this we only have a three hour drive to look forward to!
Not surprisingly, I had one of the more random experiences of my life around midnight. A small, middle-aged asian guy sitting to my right was watching CNN's coverage of the Pope's decline. I asked him if he was Catholic. Whoops. Yes, he is a "catholic" and how dare the Vatican make the Pope serve for life. Our presidents only serve for four years, but these Popes and their life long terms! Outrageous. He said alot more, but I could really only understand that much. I made a vague defence of the Pope inbetween throwing money to the other players, but I don't think he was buying it :(
On another note, my three year and six-figure project is coming to a close (hopefully) tomorrow, as Darren and I put some final fixes on the Mustang. It has given me so many headaches and problems that I wrote the damn thing off for several months and have only recently found the desire to fix it. I got it up and running after fiddling with some wiring and replacing several parts. It now runs, but the beast will not idle. It takes after its owner: too lazy to even do the minimal. We think we've narrowed it down to a timing problem, and if this isn't it, I'm driving it into the creek.
And it's now five in the morning again, but I have no "Full House" breakfast. I fold(?)
I've never actually sat down and said to myself, "This would be a feasible and rational way to spend the rest of my life, I think I'll figure out how to go about it." I have interests and hobbies which could conceivably turn into professional sources of income, but I don't bank on any of them. In the short term, I know I have the knowledge and talent to make money playing poker. I know people who do it, and it doesn't seem to be an enviable way to live in the long run. I would like to play professional golf, and before I came to this place, I was sporting a scratch handicap or better, so that might be promising. I'm in love with the classical guitar, and can definately see myself living my life as a teacher/performer. Both of these options would require a large amount of efffort and determination, both are virtues I currently lack. And poker is geared for the unambitious and lazy, so you can see my natural inclination. Anyone who is intelligent enough to spend the time learing poker theory and gaining enough experience to understand and beat the game would be able and much better off in pursuing a more lucrative and rewarding profession. So let's pray it's only short-term if I get involved with this at all.
It's interesting how a good poker player must disconect himself from the value of his money. Short term results are truly meaningless, and even the best poker players can lose terrifying amounts of money in a single night. I had been lucky in my previous visits to Commerce Casino in L.A., but on Friday managed to drop about a third of the money I've made there recently back to the fishies. But it doesn't really bother me. I have all of my poker money set aside, and I don't really think of it as spending money. It is money though, and you have to respect it while you're playing at a table, or you won't hold on to it for long. This disconnect therefore bridges a fine line between being too careful and anxious with your poker chips, and not caring enough so that you start gambling instead of playing.
An example, and this is really a common one. I had busted out of the $9/$18 limit game I started in after four or five hours of subpar play and bad cards, and sat down in the $100 min/max No-Limit game. There were two or three fairly new inexperienced players, several solid and aggressive players, and the rest were your typical low limit poker player (i.e., they know the rules and have a decent familiarity with the game, but are generally far too loose and passive). I was up several buy-ins when I found pocket eights in early position. I called the $3 blind, and five other players called for a flop of 3 8 Q rainbow suited. Hot damn! I checked, knowing several aggressive players in the hand were likely to bet, giving me a good opportunity to build a nice pot before going all-in and shutting out all of the absurd draws that people chase. Sure enough, solid aggressive asian #1 raises it to $40, a loose and aggressive player reraises it $80, and it comes back to me. I'm only behind to pocket queens, and really, that's a 1000:1 chance that two pocket pairs would trip up on the flop. So I reraise all-in, making any overpairs or gutshot straight/flush draws call improperly. Aggressive asian reraises all-in over my all-in, and the other guy calls. It's now something like an $800 pot with my share being around $700. The turn comes a 10, and with all our cards now exposed AggAsian is sporting a disgusting queen-high straight with J 9, and the other player two pair with Q 9. I now have three threes, three tens, and one eight to help me improve. That's 7 out of 46 cards to help me, a little better than 6:1 against happening. And of course it doesn't happen and I'm now out of two games.
I grab Nick K. and we go smoke, and it's somewhere around 3 A.M. He's barely keeping his head above the water in the $1/$2 game, having most of his many high pocket pairs cracked by the crazies. The smoking crowd outside the entrance to Commerce Casino at three in the morning only heightens the bizarre nature of how we've chosen to spend our Friday night. I listen to Nick describe his bad beats and think, "If you only knew." He heads back to his table, and I decided to play some low limit seven-card stud. Whoo! I managed to gamble away $50 over the next several hours to a few old asian ladies and an elderly man who looked like the late George Burns dressed to pimp. An interesting situation occured when the two forty-somethings at the table who had been flirting for the last hour or so decided to head to the ladies car for some wink-wink nudge-nudge after Mr. lost his last few chips. Ms. (or [not his] Mrs.?) left her stack of chips and they giggled their way from the table. Mr. returned a good hour later with a big fat grin spread across his sweaty red face, and somehow managed to claim Ms. stack of chips. Of course Ms. shows up five minutes later, and where the fuck is my money you fucks and fuck this and that and fuck. The floor man escorted her away and I assume this to be the first time in history that a sweaty balding forty-something man got some and walked away with more more than he started.
At 5 A.M. carts of food began wheeling to different players and I found out that Commerce offers a $2 "Full House" breakfast during this hour. A plate of greasy grade D eggs and bacon after a long night of bad beats and Red Bull is not something I'd care to try again. And after all this we only have a three hour drive to look forward to!
Not surprisingly, I had one of the more random experiences of my life around midnight. A small, middle-aged asian guy sitting to my right was watching CNN's coverage of the Pope's decline. I asked him if he was Catholic. Whoops. Yes, he is a "catholic" and how dare the Vatican make the Pope serve for life. Our presidents only serve for four years, but these Popes and their life long terms! Outrageous. He said alot more, but I could really only understand that much. I made a vague defence of the Pope inbetween throwing money to the other players, but I don't think he was buying it :(
On another note, my three year and six-figure project is coming to a close (hopefully) tomorrow, as Darren and I put some final fixes on the Mustang. It has given me so many headaches and problems that I wrote the damn thing off for several months and have only recently found the desire to fix it. I got it up and running after fiddling with some wiring and replacing several parts. It now runs, but the beast will not idle. It takes after its owner: too lazy to even do the minimal. We think we've narrowed it down to a timing problem, and if this isn't it, I'm driving it into the creek.
And it's now five in the morning again, but I have no "Full House" breakfast. I fold(?)
posted by mittens at 4/04/2005 05:19:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home