I'm Back

So I'm probably about 80-90% now. Almost completely done with the medicine, my rash is almost gone and my sore throat has been gone for about two days now.

Basically in the last few days we found out that my girlfriend probably got mono and that's why she was in the hospital originally on Christmas. She had never had it and her sister did, so I guess there was a slight chance she could get it from the kidney transplant, and her kidney adviser/surgeon thinks that is probably the case.

Then I got it from her, and since I've already had it before I had a pretty harsh case of it. That combined with the fact that I was misdiagnosed originally, made things pretty bad.

Funny thing is, I'm not really weak or out of breath like I was when I had mono in high school. I remember walking about 100 feet then having to rest for a minute or two because I was exhausted.

Quitting smoking is going fine overall. I bought some of those nicotine free quest cigarettes, just so I have something to "smoke" from time to time when I get that habitual urge. Those are working out fine when I'm in the car, until I can break that wanting feeling. Other than that I've been a little more irritable than normal I've noticed, but nothing I can't handle. It's been at least 3 weeks since I've had a cigarette (or a beer for that matter, geesh) and I plan to keep it that way. Going back would be too depressing now.

On the real estate front, things are actually progressing fairly well with my friend and I. I think we've secured the funding we would need to purchase a place, and we have one good prospect right now. I checked out a property a few weeks ago before I was in the hospital, but it turned out to not fit our criteria. This new one looks pretty good though, and we're both hoping we can get it well below asking price in this market. I'll keep you posted.

I played 4 games yesterday to get back into the fray. I split them 2-2, and didn't really feel like playing. I just played 2 more tonight, went 2-0 and feel pretty good about my play. I'm going to review the major hands below and talk a little bit about some of my plays.

I played these both at the same time, they finished pretty near the same time, and I had notes previously on this first player. Both games are 110 turbos on Stars. I'll probably move back to the 220s I was getting into within the next week or two.

Second hand.

Seat 1: jawir3ft (1520 in chips)
Seat 2: RyPac13 (1480 in chips)
RyPac13: posts small blind 10
jawir3ft: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [6d 6s]
RyPac13: raises 40 to 60
jawir3ft: raises 120 to 180
RyPac13: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [Kh 4h 3h]
jawir3ft: checks
RyPac13: checks
*** TURN *** [Kh 4h 3h] [4s]
jawir3ft: bets 220
RyPac13: calls 220
*** RIVER *** [Kh 4h 3h 4s] [4c]
jawir3ft: bets 400
RyPac13: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jawir3ft: shows [Jd Ac] (three of a kind, Fours)
RyPac13: shows [6d 6s] (a full house, Fours full of Sixes)
RyPac13 collected 1600 from pot

My notes on him are "very lag, very bluffy." My line should probably explain itself, I would've probably been tempted to raise/shove the turn if I had better reads on him and if he bet more. It's a bold move but under the circumstanced I like my line best. I don't feel he has anything after a flop check and fairly weak turn bet (which is standard among my opponents for my actions). I don't really have any other way to play this hand imo, so I won't go into too much detail, but I'm not raising the river because a bit of his range is better PPs and I suppose there is an outside chance he has a K. After all, this is the second hand and I have notes that could be up to 4 months old.

Here's the next major pot.

Seat 1: jawir3ft (820 in chips)
Seat 2: RyPac13 (2180 in chips)
RyPac13: posts small blind 10
jawir3ft: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [Jd Td]
RyPac13: raises 40 to 60
jawir3ft: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [Ac 3s 5s]
jawir3ft: checks
RyPac13: bets 80
jawir3ft: raises 80 to 160
RyPac13: raises 240 to 400
jawir3ft: folds
RyPac13 collected 440 from pot

I think this is an interesting hand. This is something I used to do more in the lower level games, with the laggier and more manical players in the 11-33 turbos. It's something I steered away from as I moved up to the 55s and 110s and really improved my fundamentals. I think being able to make this kind of move is really indicative of the difference in my game right now compared to 3 months ago.

As to the hand, I feel he has an ace almost never the way he minraised, I don't think he'd minraise an ace here, and despite the horrible stack sizes and my horrible hand, I make the move on him. He's lag and bluffy and I'm confident in making my own moves from time to time if I feel they are warranted.

Seat 1: jawir3ft (715 in chips)
Seat 2: RyPac13 (2285 in chips)
RyPac13: posts small blind 15
jawir3ft: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [6h Qh]
RyPac13: raises 30 to 60
jawir3ft: calls 30
*** FLOP *** [3d Ac 5s]
jawir3ft: checks
RyPac13: bets 60
jawir3ft: folds
RyPac13 collected 120 from pot

Now perhaps because I made that move on him earlier, he folds here pretty quickly. I half pot because it's a dry board and he's either going to play the hand or not, there's not much guessing as to his hand if he raises or calls and 60-90 chips is not really a big difference here. Stacks are also short and I'd do this with Ax as well, especially without past history on that previous hand, expecting a raise. I might bet a little more here on this dry board against certain players with certain game flow, but here I felt 60 appropriate.

Seat 1: jawir3ft (655 in chips)
Seat 2: RyPac13 (2345 in chips)
jawir3ft: posts small blind 15
RyPac13: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [4d 5s]
jawir3ft: calls 15
RyPac13: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ad 3s 5c]
RyPac13: checks
jawir3ft: bets 90
RyPac13: raises 210 to 300
jawir3ft: folds
RyPac13 collected 240 from pot

I don't really know how I feel about this hand.

I should probably be check calling here and leading the turn. I just feel my hand is ahead but vulnerable here, but when you break it down I'm either ahead by a fair amount or behind with like 35-40% equity. So the correct play is to probably check call here, even if he's weak so often here because he's not going to play ball here with a weaker hand.

At the time I was almost happy to sacrifice possible value on later streets because I knew the turn and river would get ugly/thin so very often, but that's not the correct way to play. You can't be afraid to get a little dirty in these hands, but I probably was here and made the defensive raise.

Seat 1: jawir3ft (550 in chips)
Seat 2: RyPac13 (2450 in chips)
jawir3ft: posts small blind 15
RyPac13: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [Ah Ad]
jawir3ft: raises 60 to 90
RyPac13: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [As 7h 3h]
RyPac13: checks
jawir3ft: bets 150
RyPac13: raises 720 to 870
jawir3ft: folds
RyPac13 collected 480 from pot

This was a very weird hand. I really hate to see that Ax flop, and it kind of threw me off because I know how I'm playing every single other flop in this deck except for this Ax flop. He has 300 behind, I guess check calling is fine here, I have trips but he either has a draw or doesn't I guess. I'd imagine at this point he'd felt 7x and any PP 88-KK.

Kind of a ridiculous hand I guess, I just hit the flop like no other, so I don't really have feelings on the hand. PF I don't really ever call OOP anywhere near these stack sizes, but AA against an aggro player who raises a fair amount PF and probably folds a reasonable amount of hands, I think a call was in order here. Especially with his cbet % and amount being pretty high.

Here's the last hand, standard obviously. A tiny bit of fold equity + 10bb deep = shove here for me vs his range.

Seat 1: jawir3ft (280 in chips)
Seat 2: RyPac13 (2720 in chips)
jawir3ft: posts small blind 15
RyPac13: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [Qh Tc]
jawir3ft: raises 90 to 120
RyPac13: raises 2600 to 2720 and is all-in
jawir3ft: calls 160 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [6h 2d Jh]
*** TURN *** [6h 2d Jh] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [6h 2d Jh 4h] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RyPac13: shows [Qh Tc] (a flush, Queen high)
jawir3ft: shows [As 7c] (high card Ace)
RyPac13 said, "gg"
RyPac13 collected 560 from pot


Onto the second match.

This player was a slight winner, though his average stake was something like 40 for husng turbos. I didn't have any history with him that I knew of.

5th hand.

Seat 1: RyPac13 (1470 in chips)
Seat 2: tuck64 (1530 in chips)
RyPac13: posts small blind 10
tuck64: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [7h Kc]
RyPac13: raises 40 to 60
tuck64: raises 1470 to 1530 and is all-in
RyPac13: folds

I'm kind of getting an idea of how he's playing and why he's playing so much higher than his average stake.

Seat 1: RyPac13 (1410 in chips)
Seat 2: tuck64 (1590 in chips)
tuck64: posts small blind 10
RyPac13: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyPac13 [7c 5h]
tuck64: calls 10
RyPac13: checks
*** FLOP *** [5d 5s 2c]
RyPac13: checks
tuck64: checks
*** TURN *** [5d 5s 2c] [6s]
RyPac13: bets 30
tuck64: raises 50 to 80
RyPac13: calls 50
*** RIVER *** [5d 5s 2c 6s] [7s]
RyPac13: checks
tuck64: bets 180
RyPac13: raises 470 to 650
tuck64: raises 840 to 1490 and is all-in
RyPac13: calls 660 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tuck64: shows [Qs 4s] (a flush, Queen high)
RyPac13: shows [7c 5h] (a full house, Fives full of Sevens)
RyPac13 collected 2820 from pot

I figure he has to bet everything on this river, including bluffs, so I check without too much thought, and raise a little under 4x, pretty sure I'm pricing in a flush, straight, trips and probably even two pair from this kind of player. If I thought he'd only call with a flush I'd obviously raise a lot higher than this. As it turns out he comes over the top with the third nut flush (minus the straight flushes lol) which is a little overzealous for a 110, even against a mediocre player.

I didn't realize this game was so short, I guess it started a minute or two after the other and he must've taken awhile to act because the other game didn't finish too much longer after this one.

The game ended about 15-20 hands later when he was blinded down to under 100 and called my Ax shove with 67s and I held. I suppose that's why it took so long.

Anyways, I know these were pretty short, but hopefully there was a hand or two that interested everybody out there. If you have any questions about my play in these hands, go ahead and reply to this blog post.

I'll be doing more of these at least semi regularly, now that I appear to be getting healthy again and will be playing again.

I have a 1500 bonus I'm clearing on PS right now, I'm about 25% done with clearing that. I'll probably be buying these every other month if the VPP situation works out like it should, if not more often (if I move up/play more).

I have some goals I want to achieve, mainly playing 500 games a month, mixing in some PS regular speeds (200s) and WINNING ON FULL TILT. Over 600+ games I'm breakeven on FTP (not including rakeback and bonus). This is pretty sad, especially considering I've played mostly 55s there. I feel I've ran pretty crappy there, but it's hard to blame anything on variance and learning curve (I'm sure it took me 100-200 games to get a decent feel for the structure and speed) when you haven't had prolonged success in a game. I'm usually an optimistic person, but I also try to base assertions on facts, and it's tough for me to claim to be a solid winner on FTP at this moment. I'd like to change that, and plan to do so.

I'll also get into hu cash and probably some shorthanded cash games later on this year (short handed cash at bodog likely bc it's so super soft).

Some Hard Earned Answers etc.

So I went a doctor on Saturday.

I told them I'd been taking amoxicillin without perscription, they told me how that isn't a good idea, etc. etc. and prescribed me two other medicines.

A few hours after taking them I notice I have some red dots forming on my stomach and chest.

I stop taking medicine and call the doctor Sunday morning, they say to go to emergency room.

I get to emergency room Sunday at noon and eventually am admitted into the hospital, getting a bed around 5pm. I just got out today, I actually look a lot worse than I did when I came in (I'm covered ankles to shoulders in red dots AND splotches) but I feel a lot better.

It turns out I had mono, or a certain version (I'll update later with details). This skin reaction that they thought was an allergic reaction to medicine turned out to just have to do with the mono.

Also, the original doctors apparently gave me the wrong medicine, so going there was a pure waste (I should've just went with the Maker's).

Either way, I'm feeling OK right now, my throat is in fragile but decent shape, and that is the main problem I've had for the last week and a half.

Oh and I haven't had a cigarette in like 2 weeks, so I guess I'm quitting. Haven't really had many urges or anything, considering I couldn't even swallow half the time I was in the hospital, this is no surprise.

I'll update with more details later, for now I'm going to relax and enjoy a normal bed/couch/tv/life.

Plague

Such bs.

I'm still sick. Something similar to what my girlfriend had in the hospital.

I haven't played in like 7-10 days, I don't even know. I've had one cigarette in the last 6-7 days, and I can hardly swallow food without my throat practically closing in pain. Life sucks.

Hopefully I'll be as good as new within 2 days and a late month heater will follow.

I'm considering buying a bottle of Maker's and just having a night with it. I know it works with nasty colds, but for something like this it might do more harm than good. I'm running out of options though.

Ugh

Been sick last few days, thought I was over it until today. Haven't done much of anything last few days and likely won't for the next few.

So pics/hands/etc. delayed.

New Year Updates

My girlfriend and mother got out of the hospital on new year's eve, actually at about the same time.

Both are doing pretty well, and keeping me very busy. Thanks to everybody who messaged me here and on AIM, I appreciate it.

Other than that, my girlfriend and I are working on cleaning up the place all day today. It's 61 degrees, so I just cleaned out my disgustingly dirty truck. I was sealcoating until the end of the season, and figured I'd get to it about a week or two after I finished up, but cold weather and then like a month of ice/snow really took care of that.

I'm also moving my desk/PC setup into the second bedroom of our place. Right now it's in the master bedroom, which is pretty long (like 20ish feet) but since the second bedroom and bed is hardly every used these days, I finally won the battle of making it an office of sorts.

We're hoping to move either in a few weeks or few months, our lease is kind of weird. It expired last month, but the owner never called us back after reneging on the promise that the drug addict next door would be gone. Supposedly he'll be gone the 23rd of this month, but I'm not signing/doing anything in regards to this place or a new place until he's gone (or I find something I truly can't pass up).

I'd like to purchase a house, the market is so great for buying right now. The only problem is I'm probably a little short if I push it for a down payment, but that would be with good credit. Mine isn't really good right now, or established enough to be worth much. Doing some research, it would take me 8-10 months I believe to get it to where it needs to be.

So my other option if I can get a house, would be an investor/partner/personal loan. I'd much rather go the route of the first two, it would put me in a much more comfortable spot with less of my money tied up in the present and near future. This is all still a fairly long shot, I haven't had the time in the last two years to really keep up with a lot of my friends/contacts in the city that had money for this type of thing, so it really only leaves a few people that I know well enough that might be interested in doing something like this.

The most likely route is my girlfriend and I moving closer to my mom's house (for a lot of reasons besides her MS diagnosis) and signing a 6 month lease. By then I should have the money to put down on a house and hopefully good enough credit to get a decent loan.

Until I figure out what's going on, I'll keep reading up as much as possible about real estate and talking to as many people as I know who are involved in the business.

I'll upload pics of my new setup tonight or tomorrow with my new digital camera my mom got me for Christmas.