Kitchen Games Poker

Two nights ago, I got a chance to go to a kitchen game poker night that a coworker was putting on. The whole idea for the night was to play dealer's choice poker from the set of crazy games that people have come up with over the years. We weren't allowed to choose the casino standbys of hold'em, omaha, or 7 card stud. Instead, we played a series of games like Chicago, 727, Midnight Baseball, Mexican Sweat, etc. It's been a long time since I've played games like this. I've been playing Texas Hold'em pretty seriously for a couple of years, so it's kind of interesting to revisit some of these silly games to see if there is anything of interest. We played quite a few games, actually, that I'd like to note down for future reference because they were all quite fun. So here's the rules for some fun kitchen games that have a little depth to them.

• 727: Players get two cards down, and one up. The aim of the game is to be the closest to the total of 7 or 27. Face cards count either ten points or half a point. An ace counts either 1 point or eleven. On each round, players are asked one at a time if they want one more card added face up to their hand, followed by a round of betting. If all players pass on a card, then the game is over, but otherwise another round is dealt. The game can last quite a few rounds! After the last round, players then simultaneously indicate whether they are attempting to win by being closest to 7, by being closest to 27, or to both. Half the pot is awarded to the closest to 7 (who indicated they were trying to win that side), and half is awarded to the the closest to 27 (who indicated they were trying to win that side). To win both, the players who indicated so have to be closest on both sides.
• Auction: Each player is dealt two down cards. Then a card is turned up in the middle of the table for each player in the hand. Players then make a blind bid. The person who bids the most chooses the card they want. The next highest bid chooses the next card and so on. When all the cards are gone, another set of cards is dealt in the middle. This is repeated until all the players have 7 cards each. A round of betting happens after that. The person with the best high hand takes half the pot and the person with the best low hand takes the other half.
• Ten Card Regrets: There are 5 rounds to this game. The object of the game is to partition 10 cards into two 5 card poker hands: one that is a low hand and one that is a high hand. On each round, players get two cards and must decide whether to put them on the left side to be part of the low hand, or on the right side to be part of the high hand. At the end, the person with the best high hand takes half the pot and the person with the best low hand takes half the pot.
• Tic-Tac-Toe Hold'em/Omaha: Players are dealt two or four cards depending if they are playing the hold'em or omaha variant of the game. The key difference is the community cards are dealt in a 3x3 grid of cards. First, the flop is the four cards that form the sides of the grid. The turn is the four corner cards, and the river is the middle card of the grid. Players then make the best poker hand they can from the cards in their hand and any of 8 sets of three cards from the board. These sets are the three horizontal lines, three vertical lines, and the two diagonals. You can play Hold'em, Omaha High, or Omaha High Low.

These were my favourites from the night. Do you have any fun kitchen games I can deal next time?

Heraldk

Updates from Vegas

Polaris Wins! Our computer poker program took on some of the best poker pros and came out on top!

Sorry for the lack of updates here. If you haven't figured out, my travel blog has moved over to minoragenda, so if you want to read about our adventures in detail, please head on over there. I forgot to post a message like this earlier, so sorry about not letting you know.

I have a big todo list of stuff and not much time to do it. I want to get around to posting photos and post poker reports for the couple of live sessions I've managed to squeeze in. But that will have to wait for a little while.

Hope all is well with you!

Heraldk

On Variance

Something every poker player has to learn is to cope with variance. At times, variance can be your best friend, but at other times it can be your villain that not only kicks you in the crotch, but then slams you with a baseball bat to the head while you're down. Case in point, my latest downswing. I had thought I had made a successful leap to $200nl. After all, I was up a couple grand and was feeling pretty good about how I was doing. Some of that was undoubtedly positive variance, but I figured I could sustain some bad luck.

Little did I know that the fates had it in for me and my bankroll plummetted over the course of just a few days. That's what provoked my previous post about taking an extended break.

I played a short session at 100nl today. I had some free time and thought I'd take a shot and see how I did. This session went a whole lot better, and despite running QQ into KK preflop for a stack, I won two stacks (the small blip at the right edge of the graph above). I don't know how much time I'll have to play over the next two weeks what with the wedding and all, but I'm gonna take it pretty easy still. There's lots of other things to do. Still, it's good to be able to get a nice winning session in after getting my ass handed to me the last time I played.

Heraldk

Playoff Predictor, Stanley Cup Finals, 2008

Well my predictor is sure doing better than I did in my playoff pools. Going into the conference finals, it was 11 for 12 for predictions, and it got both of the conference finals right as well!

Pittsburgh_Penguins 0.579 0.204
Philadelphia_Flyers 0.421 0.119

Detroit_Red_Wings 0.681 0.498
Dallas_Stars 0.319 0.178

So what's left? The Stanley cup finals start tomorrow night and it should be a great series. So I gave my predictor one final spin to see what it says. It should come as no surprise that Detroit is heavily favoured by the program:

Pittsburgh_Penguins 0.295
Detroit_Red_Wings 0.705

While I'd be happy to say my program went 14/15, I'm still kinda rooting for the penguins. They are an exciting team to watch with a hell of a lot of talent at a very young age. Whoever wins though, the series should be one for the ages.

Heraldk

Playoff Predictor, Round 3 2008

Well the second round of the playoffs is over, and it's time to give my simulator another spin. First, let's look at the results from Round 2:

Montreal_Canadiens 0.616 0.348 0.147
Detroit_Red_Wings0.772 0.530 0.380
Philadelphia_Flyers 0.384 0.174 0.056
Colorado_Avalanche 0.228 0.091 0.039

Pittsburgh_Penguins 0.568 0.289 0.114
San_Jose_Sharks 0.483 0.180 0.094
New_York_Rangers 0.432 0.189 0.064
Dallas_Stars 0.517 0.199 0.107

The simulator goes 3 for 4 this round with the only one not going its way being the Montreal-Philly series. Overall, the simulator's predictions have been 11 for 12. Not too shabby huh?

Here are the predictions of my simulator for the conference finals:

Pittsburgh_Penguins 0.579 0.204
Philadelphia_Flyers 0.421 0.119

Detroit_Red_Wings 0.681 0.498
Dallas_Stars 0.319 0.178

So according to the program, Detroit has just shy of a 50% chance to win the whole thing, and their likely opponents is the Pittsburgh Penguins. Dallas and Pittsburgh are very close for 2nd place and Philly is not liked as much by the program.

See Round 2 and Round 1 for more information.

Heraldk

Playoff Predictions, Round 2, 2008

I posted before the first round playoffs started to present some output from my NHL playoff simulator. How'd it do at predicting the results? Well let's have a look. I removed the later round predictions from the last post just to clean this up and make it easier to read. Correct predictions are in bold.

Montreal_Canadiens 0.720
Detroit_Red_Wings 0.811
Boston_Bruins 0.280
Nashville_Predators 0.189
Pittsburgh_Penguins 0.590
San_Jose_Sharks 0.634
Ottawa_Senators 0.410
Calgary_Flames 0.366

Washington_Capitals 0.481
Minnesota_Wild 0.468
Philadelphia_Flyers 0.519
Colorado_Avalanche 0.532
New_Jersey_Devils 0.477
Anaheim_Ducks 0.414
New_York_Rangers 0.523
Dallas_Stars 0.586

Not bad huh? In every case, the favourite team of each match was the one that won. Three of the series went right down to the wire though, and I honestly thought Washington was going to beat Philly in game 7. They were a feel good story this year, along with the Oilers late season push to the playoffs that fell *just* short. San Jose and Montreal almost choked in the first round on series leads, but managed to pull through in the end.

So what does the simulator say for the next round? Once again the first column is the probability of winning that round. The second column is the probability of winning the conference final, and the third column is the probability of taking home the cup. This run is one million playoff simulations seeded with the results of the first playoff round.

Montreal_Canadiens 0.616 0.348 0.147
Pittsburgh_Penguins 0.568 0.289 0.114
New_York_Rangers 0.432 0.189 0.064
Philadelphia_Flyers 0.384 0.174 0.056

Detroit_Red_Wings 0.772 0.530 0.380
San_Jose_Sharks 0.483 0.180 0.094
Dallas_Stars 0.517 0.199 0.107
Colorado_Avalanche 0.228 0.091 0.039

Detroit, Dallas, Montreal, and Pittsburgh are the favourites according to the simulator. The only selection that is a bit surprising for this round is Dallas - but I'm not too surprised by that considering some of the numbers they put up this year. If they can shut down Thornton, they've got a pretty good shot at the conference finals.

Overall Detroit still has the highest probability of winning the cup, up to 38% now. Montreal and Pittsburgh are neck and neck for second place in probability of winning the cup. Dallas and San Jose are next and the last three have a 6% or less chance.

Now that the first round is out, the last remaining Canadian team is my second favourite team in the league: the Montreal Canadiens. So since the Oil are down and out, I'm cheering for them. Push that 14.7% edge boys!

Heraldk

Dublin Poker Report

I recently got back from Dublin for a job interview. For a full trip report visit minoragenda.com ... but this post will summarize my experience at a Dublin casino for some poker. On Saturday night, Aaron and Darse were thinking about going to play some poker so Diane graciously let me join them instead of returning to the hotel right away to sleep. So we ventured to the Dublin Sporting Emporium to play some 1/2 Pot Limit Hold'em.

The first stage in the process was to get a membership to the club which involved filling out a form and paying a 20 euro membership fee. To sweeten the deal a little (and encourage you to get some money into play), they gave each of us a 10 euro action chip to use at the tables. Once the process was over, we were admitted into the place. It had quite a classy feel, which was pretty cool. My experience at most casinos has been a feeling of cheap thrills, so it was pretty welcome to be in a place that didn't make me feel that way. Maybe it was the whole membership process that helped it out, or maybe that casinos in Europe are just classier places?

Anyways, Darse and I had our play chips to attempt to convert into real money. So we went to the roulette table and each put a bet on a colour. I won my bet and let the action chip ride another two spins before losing it. So between us, Darse and I broke even at converting the action chips to real money. Woohoo!

The three of us went up a floor to the poker room where there was one 1/2 pot limit hold'em game going. Only two seats were open, so we played odds and evens to see who would get the first two seats. Darse was the odd man out, so Aaron and I bought in and sat down at two adjacent seats at the table. I started with 100 euros, but would later top up my chips for another 50 euros before I started to win.

Early on I didn't get any hands which left me some time to watch how other players were doing. I've never really played pot limit before, although it's not all that different from how I want to play no limit anyways. I picked out that most of the players really didn't know how to play very well, although their play varied a little bit.

Apart from limping every so often or calling small raises with good pot odds from the button or the blinds, I didn't play very many hands for the first several orbits. After a little while, Darse joined in with us and sat next to Aaron so there were three of us sitting in a row with Aaron on my left, and Darse on his left. Not long after that, I got my first hand: pocket twos! I made a raise and got three callers and flopped a set! Unfortunately, no one called my flop bet but it was good to win a pot.

The very next hand I picked up pocket eights and made an UTG raise once again getting many callers. The flop came A22. I made a continuation bet and got just one caller: a woman that seemed to be pretty solid. I checked the turn and folded to her pot sized bet. Well, I'm one for two now.

I continued to play pretty tight, although that was more of a function of the cards I was getting. A few hands later though I picked up aces and once again put in a raise. I got called by just a couple players. This time though I got some action from the guy to Darse's left. He called my flop bet, but folded to my turn bet.

An orbit or two passes and I pick up aces again. Again I raise preflop, and the same guy who gave me action last time calls along with a few other players. The flop was all undercards to my aces and not particularly connected. I bet the flop, but this time I get raised by the same guy. At this point that wasn't much more to me so I put the rest of my chips in - a raise of only 40 euro more into a pot totalling over 200 euros. He tanks for awhile before deciding to fold. Chalk it up to aces. I like aces.

We played on for a little while longer, and it seemed to me this guy was starting to take a dislike to me. There was a couple times where he squeezed me out of the pot - I would've liked to play against him, but I didn't really feel like trying to do battle with my KJ-suited to his squeeze raise. A little more I think and I would've been able to play.

My next big hand was AK - and again my preflop raise was called by the same guy. I flopped top pair of kings on a KQx board. This time the guy raises me allin - so I call and after showing down my AK, he mucks his cards. I probably took close to 200 euro just from that guy alone!

I had one last big hand where I had QQ and got some action. I don't remember the details, but I distinctly remember tossing three 25 euro black chips into the pot and getting folds. That was a pretty good sized pot to take down.

All told, I ended up over 240 euros to the good, which is officially my first winning session in any casino session I've ever played in (poker or otherwise) that wasn't a tournament. Admittedly, I've only ever played cash poker games in the casino twice before. Once at foxwoods when I went to Boston and New York a couple years ago, and once when my friend Mike stopped by and we played at the casino closest to my house. So really, I haven't had many data points - but if felt good to be up and up a good amount! It's pretty intimidating to play live even though I know a lot about poker these days after playing so much online. So it's good to get a victory under my belt.

All told, I think the trip to Dublin turned out to make me money instead of cost anything. The company paid for the flights and the hotel and most of the meals, and we'll soon be settling up the cab fares. So aside from some small expenses, I didn't really spend any money, but made a decent profit at the casino. Sweet deal!

I hope to hear back from pocket kings about the interview within the next week. I'll let people know what the result is as soon as I know!

Heraldk

Stepping Up

It has been awhile since I last seriously tried to move up in limits at Poker. I've only really done it a handful of time. From my starting ground of 0.5/1 full ring limit I moved up twice to 1/2 and 2/4 limit. Then I started playing 6max no limit at 50nl, and moved up once from there to 100nl which is where I've been at for awhile. This past week had been very good to me. I got a Party Poker reload bonus emailed to me, so I decided it was time to go back there and try and clear it. Well, I did rather well playing 100nl. I was up over 7 stacks in 4 or 5 days playing a couple hours per day. I felt confident and on top of the world. So it occurred to me -- what about moving up again? I had been playing 6max 100nl for quite a long time and had made a few grand at those stakes.

A few nights ago I gave it a shot. The first night I had 2 tables open and made about half a stack at 200nl. Not too shabby, but it was a short session. The next night was terrible. I dropped 4 stacks, and it just didn't feel like anything clicked. It seemed like every time I raised preflop I'd get called by people who would call my continuation bets -- but I wouldn't flop anything. I know I made a few errors, and I think I got a bit flustered. But even if I played perfectly, I doubt I'd be better than down 2 stacks.

The next night went quite a bit better. I was down a stack fairly early, but I got pretty comfortable and in the end managed to win a stack and a half or so. That brought me to last night where I thought I played alright, but for the longest time couldn't dig myself out of the one-stack whole I had got myself in. I had a great table with two incredible fish who were just asking to give their money away. It took me several hours to finally get one of them for about a stack and a half to finally draw even for the night.

It's interesting -- I don't think the game is that much tougher than the one I'm used to playing. I think it's just that the size of the swings is a little daunting. Like I said, it's been awhile since I tried moving up. So far, the experiment seems to be going alright even though I'm down a little bit so far. I've got a bit of a bankroll to sustain some loss, so it's not like I'm risking all that much. If I succeed in moving up, then I think my win rate in dollars goes up a fair amount which was the whole reason to move up.

Wish me luck! Heraldk

Oiler Pregame

My friend and roommate was kind enough to give me a spare ticket he had for a recent hockey game between the Oilers and the Minnesota Wild. It was a fun night, and our Oilers managed to win the game! I wish the Oilers had managed to put together a better season this year. It's looking like they won't make the playoffs this year :(

3-0 Baby!

I've been playing floor hockey with the CS team again this year. This year we've got a pretty competitive looking team. Several new additions to the team mean we've got some serious firepower on the floor almost every shift, and the players that don't have that firepower are good solid players. So with last night's 10-1 win capping off the 3 game round robin, we're on top of the division for the first time since I joined the team several years ago. Woohoo! It's a lot of fun to play and have a shot to win. I haven't often been on a team that has had a competitive shot to win.

In related news, it looks like I might be able to join a floor hockey team in the Edmonton ball hockey league. I've been looking for a league to play in for a long time, so I'm pretty excited about getting a chance to play finally. The short intramural season was just not enough time to play floor hockey each semester.

Heraldk

A Note on Gambling

I find it quite interesting noting the reactions of various people to gambling. As you probably know by now, I play a "little bit" of online poker, and have once in awhile been known to throw away some money playing blackjack or craps at a casino. I guess part of it is that my Dad's side of the family (which happens to be Chinese) is a group that loves to gamble. The other part of it is my love for any sort of game that involves some thought. There definitely is a bit of a thrill when you win at a gambling game. The more money at stake, the bigger the thrill when you win. I experienced this particular phenomena when I managed to get in on Mansion's $1000 free bet on the Pittsburgh Steelers at the start of last year's NFL football season. My friend Mike and I sat in front of the TV glued to it until the last play of the game and we were cheering like crazy throughout the game. When there's a fair amount of money on the line, it's exciting and fun.

So it's pretty easy to see how the gambling thing can be a problem. Fortunately for me, I know enough about the math behind the games that I know who has the edge most of the time. I would never slap down a $1K bet without first making sure that I was a) sure that my edge was there, and b) sure that I was okay with losing that money if worst came to worse.

So I don't really truly gamble in the same way that so many people get themselves in trouble do. I mostly play poker where I have definitely shown that I have an edge for the limits that I play. The couple of times I've done other gambling, I've either known I had an edge (like that $1K free bet at mansion where the edge was huge since it was free), or I've been willing to throw away $60 playing blackjack or craps for a couple hours.

Playing poker so much though has changed my outlook on a lot of things. One thing that is definitely different is my outlook on money is a little different. Once you've played poker for awhile, the face value of the currency you're playing with changes. It kind of loses its meaning in the sense that $100 is just a stack of chips you could lose or win at any given moment. It's kind of weird, but being able to sit down for a few hours and win a couple hundred dollars playing $100NL with .5/1 blinds makes it possible for me to add to my yearly revenue by a significant amount. It's only really bounded by the amount of time I have to play (which these days isn't that much, but I still get in a few sessions most weeks).

I kind of think that that effect of poker on my life has been a bit negative. It's hard to regain a respect for how much money is worth and how hard it is for most people to earn it after you've played online poker seriously for as long as I have (and I haven't really been playing that long really). The other negative aspect that is less severe for me is a bit of a crisis of conscience when you realize that the money you're winning is being taken from the wallets of people who may not have the self control to realize that they've lost next month's rent cheque. I deal with that thought with the following argument: "Will those players stop playing if I don't play? No. Well then I'm not changing anything by playing and being the one to take that money from them". Think that's faulty reasoning? Let me know. I'm curious about this issue. Without a doubt, it is a parasitic action, but I'm not sure what I can do about the other person's problem - particularly if they are an unknown person I'm facing through online poker (which is how I play the bulk of the time).

So there's some negative effects of playing poker, but there's a lot of reasons that I continue to play. The financial results certainly don't hurt, but it's not just that. I enjoy the competition. Playing these games lets me battle wits with other players and it can keep me sharp. When I'm playing my best, I'm seeing a lot of things happen in front of me and I can tell you a lot of what's going on.

Playing good poker also teaches patience and handling of tough times. The variance in poker is sky-high, and that means that to play well you have to be able to take the tough luck hands without letting them get to you or you'll start playing poorly (on tilt as it were). You need to be able to objectively back away from a particular situation and assess whether you indeed made the appropriate decisions regardless of the outcomes. This is a skill that helps a lot with life.

Poker contains a lot of mathematics, some of it simple, some of it quite a bit more complex. There is a lot you can do with math (despite people who will tell you that poker is primarily a psychological game), and learning to apply math to specific situations in poker is an essential skill to getting good at the game. Likewise, mathematics helps you with situations in life too. To tell you a quick story, my mom was telling me about some advice she heard some people were giving in a "learn what to do before retiring" seminar. The advice was that you should replace all your appliances a year before retiring, with the idea being that these appliances would then not likely need replacing throughout retirement saving a lot of stress. This advice struck me as pretty wrong considering that there was no part of this advice that took into consideration how old the existing appliances were. You might be replacing an appliance that is still working great and has an expected lifetime of 5 or 10 more years - effectively throwing away part of your existing investment in the appliances you currently own. And who's to say the appliances you buy aren't going to fail during your retirement? The proper solution here is to replace appliances that need replacing, and wait until your other appliances require replacing. Meanwhile, the money you didn't spend on new appliances gains interest. I fail to see why this is a worse solution.

My life has been affected drastically because of my time spent playing poker. For the most part, I think it has been for the better. I feel like I am able to keep myself sharper and more able to analyze situations objectively, and the monetary considerations certainly don't hurt.

Heraldk

Busy December

It seems like this time of year is packed fuller than any other time. I think the only night this week that I am not busy doing something is Thursday. Yikes. This weekend was pretty fun. On Saturday, Diane and I made some apple crisp and headed over to her work's potluck Christmas party. The food that people brought was amazing ... I ate entirely too much, but it was super tasty. It's a little weird going to the party though since I didn't really know anyone. I guess I'm still not too comfortable in a setting where I don't really know anyone. The people were nice, but I'm not a strong conversationalist, so there's usually too much awkward silence for my comfort level. Ah well, the food was good!

On Sunday I spent the afternoon at home playing some poker for the first time in a little while. I ended up with a pretty profitable being up more than 4 stacks playing 100NL. I enjoy winning! The session started out real slow. I stacked off with KK against a set, but made that back fairly quickly when my AK beat AQ when we both flopped two pair. After that I went on a pretty big rush, flopping several sets as well as winning a KK versus AK allin preflop situation. There were a few significant setbacks but I kept the hot streak going throughout most of the session to make a tidy profit. Cake poker is turning into a pretty nice place to play. I think I've pretty much decided to clear the deposit bonus there before moving on. I'm about 1/3 the way through that now, and am already up quite a bit. I've heard other people describe cake poker being pretty soft, and I think I'm agreeing with them.

This week I have a dinner party to go to, as well as my condo's annual general meeting, and an evening to play poker with the members of the UofA CPRG. Should be a fun week!

Heraldk

Game On

The past three games have been very encouraging for the Oilers. We're battling through some pretty intense injury trouble, but with last night's win in LA, we're now just one game shy of .500, and a pair of points out of a playoff spot. The two wins against Anaheim are HUGE for a couple of reasons. The first is obviously that wins are important against any team. But beating down Anaheim means that we are more likely to finish above them in the standings - meaning the draft pick we have from them is worth more than the one we gave up for Dustin Penner. The Kevin Lowe vs Brian Burke war seems to be evening out a little more. If the oilers can turn this season around, I think the Dustin Penner offer sheet was a pretty good move for Kevin Lowe - particularly since Penner has been playing better and better over the last few games.

The Edmonton Oilers, in the past couple of years, have been a frustratingly fun team to watch. Even in 05/06 when we made the run to the cup, the Oilers just squeaked into the playoffs. They did so by beating the good teams, and losing to the bad teams ... which made no sense. Last year's season was a terrible disappointment, but the team had so much trouble scoring. Add in the injury troubles that plagued the oilers in the late season, and it really was a recipe for disaster.

I still think the experts are crazy to think they can just write off the oilers as contenders. Anything can happen in the new NHL, and the oilers have a lot of the right ingredients to turn things around. Granted, they have a lot of young and unexperienced players on their team, but there is a lot of skill there, and if the elements click into place, I wouldn't be surprised to see this team playoff bound.

Heraldk

Maddening Oilers

Man, I just can't shake the feeling that the Oilers have some chance to go on a stretch of wins. They've got so much talent - they just can't seem to put it together. Of course, the crazy number of injuries isn't helping. If the Oilers started getting healthy all of a sudden, I think we'd be looking at a particularly good team. The game last night against Vancouver was a lot of fun to watch. It was also a nail-biter, and every time Vancouver got some pressure on us I got nervous. But Mathieu Garon managed to put on A SHOW and stopped everything that Vancouver sent his way - including three shootout attempts! The Oil looked dangerous for parts of the game, but they seem to have this bad habit of giving the puck away in the neutral zone (or worse, in their own end). I don't know how to get them to do this, but they need to be able to maintain control of the puck for longer parts of the game or we're going to continue having trouble maintaining any pressure.

Tonight's game was worse for that score. We just couldn't keep constant pressure on the puck and it seemed like every second shift we'd give the puck away several times. Ewww. Hockey like that is maddening to watch for the fan. Glad to see Jarret Stoll get a couple goals though. They were a bit ugly, but I'm glad to see him snap his goal drought. Let's hope he continues to recover last year's form!

Maybe their play tonight was due to the back-to-back schedule. I sure hope they can start building some consistency into their game ... if they do, and start to get healthy ... I seriously think we've got a playoff bound team. Until then though, we're in some trouble.

Heraldk

End to Carbon Poker

Wow, it was awhile ago already when I last talked about what's going on. So I finished off the carbon poker promo in about a week, having played about 4 sessions. I ended the sessions up $500 plus the $120 bonus from PSO. Pretty sweet deal, I must say!

I've got my eyes set on a new camera lens, but I think I'm going to force myself to win the money for it through poker, so hopefully I'll get some time to play a little more in the coming weeks. It's been pretty hectic lately, so no guarantees. It looks like I need to win another $500 to buy the lens I want, so I'm looking at 1 or 2 more promos I'm guessing.

What else ... gaming! There are so many good games to play, I don't have enough time to do that either. I bought guitar hero 3 yesterday, and it's a lot of fun. I also have Metroid for the Wii on loan from a friend that I haven't touched ... and then there's the addictiveness that is puzzle quest. *sigh* - maybe I need to drop video games - they take too much damn time out my life.

Diane and I are doing great. We've started getting plans for our wedding down, and hopefully we can get a lot of the stuff we need to done well before the day of so that the day is smooth and fun. Fingers crossed! Diane's sister is off to Vancouver, so before she left we had a pre-wedding wedding party party (isn't that the best sentence ever?), where the people we chose for the wedding party got to meet each other -- those who hadn't yet. It was pretty fun, and included some good food from Vi's for Pies. (If you haven't been there I highly recommend it!).

So yeah, life is good, and busy, and I wish I had more time to work on side projects!

Heraldk

Back to Poker

I had an urge last night to play some poker for the first time in quite awhile. The last time I had played any poker at all was in August when I needed to clear some money at Party so I could cash out. So I logged into my trusty PSO account to check on the latest promotions and found 4 promos that I haven't done yet. I chose Carbon poker because I could get the highest amount ($120 worth) of PSO points. I went through the typical steps to start the promo and sat down for a couple hour session. There wasn't a lot of action at the $50 NL tables, so I stepped up to $100NL, a limit I haven't played since January or February. I just opened two tables, partially because it was a higher limit than I had played recently and partially to get used to the new interface. The first thing I noticed is that the software seemed very responsive and slick -- it's certainly better software than many sites have. The second thing I notice? There's an All-In button in a primary spot on the screen. This is a one-click-put-all-your-chips-in-the-pot button. Man do I ever hope I don't make a bad misclick with that button!

I got off to a fast start early on. Within a couple rotations at a six-max table, I get dealt pocket aces. I make a standard raise and get called. The board comes up 655 with 2 diamonds. I make a healthy bet, and the guy across from me pushes allin. I call and he shows JJ and I take down almost a full stack!

Another hand a little later, I flop 3 clubs holding the king of clubs. I make a bet and get raised a small amount so I call and turn a fourth club giving me the 2nd nut flush. My opponent promptly shoves and I call - he shows Q6 of clubs, and I win 3/4 of a stack there.

Later on, I'm up over two stacks and get to see a free flop with 64 and flop trips. Unfortunately, I run into a guy who had A6, so I lost a bunch in that hand. I probably lost more than I should have, although it was tough to fold to the guy's river bet.

I made back a bunch of money with KJs when I flopped a flush draw and turned the nut flush to beat my opponent's trip aces. That got me back into the 2.5 stack profit range.

Late in my session, I flopped top pair of tens with TJo. I bet the flop and get called and then turn two pair. I bet again but get raised so I just call and the river is another J to give me a full house. I promptly push and get called by a guy who flopped trips on the flop. Whoops! Got lucky there.

All in all, I finished my session up $300, and a little less than 1/4 done my PSO promotion. Not too shabby for not playing in a couple months! Hopefully the rest of the session goes as well!

Heraldk

Predictions

I'm not going to give my predictions for the upcoming NHL season, although I suppose it has already started officially since there's been a couple of games have been played over in London. I am, however, going to rant a little about the predictions of other "experts". It seems that hockey experts agree that the Oilers have no shot at making the playoffs this year. I have one thing to say: why do these so called "experts" always sell the Oil short? It doesn't seem all that long ago when the Oilers were pushing for the 8th and final playoff spot a couple years ago. They were a team that was fighting it's own potential. I knew the team had a lot of talent, but it seemed that every couple of games, they'd lose a you-should-win-this-game type scenario and they'd slip back a notch. They did it, but barely. In the first round that year, they were up against the high powered Detroit Red Wings. Everyone wrote Edmonton off and had them down in out quickly. Surprise, surprise when the Oil suddenly became the team they were capable of becoming and took down not only Detroit, but San Jose, Anaheim, and almost Carolina en route to the stanley cup final.

Last year was a painful year for the average Oiler fan. The team struggled in mediocrity for most of the season and then got hit by a terrible injury streak that took most of the regulars out of the lineup. As a result, the team skidded to a halt and failed to win most of their remaining games.

The offseason was a high-drama period where the Oilers made a large number of moves and almost completely re-tooled. Powered by the new blue-liners of Pitkanen and Souray, they have far more power on defence than they had last year. Penner adds some size and some scoring punch and Sanderson is a wily veteran who should contribute as well. The real exciting thing for this upcoming season though is the chance for some of the youth to shine. The Oilers have several young players, in addition to Ales Hemsky, who all have a shot of hitting it big this year. These guys include Gagner, Nilsson, Brodziak, Pouliot, and Cogliano. To me, this is super exciting ... and I have a hard time believing that the Oilers are going to have trouble making the playoffs.

But lets take a look at what the experts think. One of the oft-quoted stats from last year is +/-. I'm not sure how they can compare player's +/- stats correctly when these numbers are so very biased on the team they were playing for. For example, Souray and Pitkanen both played on teams that didn't make the playoffs last year. This typically means that those teams got scored on more often than they scored (duh). So take two important defencemen who play big minutes for their teams and put them on clubs that are losing. What happens to their plus minus? It plummets. Whoop-dee-doo. I'm not saying the statistic is meaningless. I'm just saying that you need to make sure you keep in mind what you're trying to compare.

A lot of analysis seems to compare how a team has changed from the previous year. Unfortunately, this also is a problem. How do the experts know that the "winners" of the free agency craziness (the rangers and the flyers) are going to gel and mesh the star players they signed? Who's to say that teams with a bunch of young talent are going to not mesh and start winning games? The past doesn't necessarily tell the future, folks - especially when so much has changed from last season.

One of the things I think many people forget is that the new collective bargaining agreement is giving teams some level ground to play on. It's not completely level, that's for sure, but teams are much more evenly matched than they used to be. Remember the Oiler's heyday way back when they were winning cups every year? That team was so stacked that you had to expect great things from them. Fast forward to today - there are far fewer teams that looked that stacked in comparison. Maybe the penguins look a bit awesome at the moment ... but the division from them to the next closest team is far smaller than for the Oilers back in the day. The salary cap helps balance out the skill players among the teams, and as a result, nearly any team has a chance to do well enough to hit the playoffs. So I don't think last year means nearly as much as the experts seem to think. I also don't think they have ever given the Oilers enough credit.

So I think the Oilers have a good chance of doing well this season, and we'll just have to see how it turns out.

Go Oilers! Heraldk

Baseball

I don't really watch baseball much anymore, but last night I took a look at a television when Diane and I were out with Curtis and Pam. I blinked, and I blinked again, and then I just had to bring up the score into the conversation. The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 30-3. Yes, that is correct and not a typo. The Texas Rangers scored 30 runs in just four of the nine innings, breaking all kinds of records along the way. Apparently it was a scoring fest. There was another big score of 15-3 that night as well, which now seems like a tiny win. Crazy.

Also, I tried a pint of the new Rickard's White beer. It was VERY good! It might be my new favourite beer now.

Heraldk

Fringing

I've have had the pleasure again this year of checking out Edmonton's famous Fringe Festival. The festival is only half over, so if you haven't checked it out yet, then ... go check it out! Diane and I have seen three shows so far. The first two were really good, but the third wasn't quit as amazing. Here are my reviews: The Fugue Code This was an excellent play. It involved a solo performer taking the roles of four very different personalities as they frantically tried to crack the Fugue code. The plot roughly parallels the plots in Dan Brown's books "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons". Overall, the play was extremely well done. The actor was admirably capable of being able to portray each of the 4 different main characters uniquely enough that we were able to identify which character was speaking at any given point. Perhaps it was because he would assume a different physical stance for each of his characters. At any rate, the play is fast-paced and humorous, and you should check it out!

Bald Ego This is a British standup comedy routine performed in the intimate Yardbird setting. This was an ideal venue for the act, and the comedy was top-notch. Diane and I were still giggling when we left the venue. It is pretty clear though that if you go check him out later in the week, you'll get a different show that we saw. He has some prepared material, but a lot of our laughs involved some interaction with the audience. If you get this, then you'll get a different show than we saw. I highly recommend seeing this guy.

Copyright Infringement Well our string of good luck with fringe shows had to end sooner or later. When I look at show descriptions, my eyes usually light up at the word "Improv". Perhaps it is because my past improv experiences have been most excellent thanks to the excellent local improv people, Improvaganza. This show, however, which was half improv and half prepared skits, was more silly than funny. Lots of physical comedy, but not much in the way of earned laughs. Oh well, you can't win them all.

We'll be hitting the fringe for at least 2 more shows. Maybe more, but we'll see how it goes!

Heraldk

Recovery

It seems that after any big event, my work habits need a couple weeks to return to form. This has been the case after coming back from Vancouver -- for some reason I just have trouble ramping up to get things done again. Thankfully, today has seen some sign that these problems are starting to pass. I've started cleaning up the DIVAT code base, and have plans to make it a) more efficient, b) more correct, and c) implement a service for people to run the DIVAT analysis on their own matches. Another thing I've been trying to do is get some of the raw video files from the matches, and make a few highlight reels of quotes and good hands. The quote highlight reels I should be able to do now ... it's just going to take some time. I didn't realize just how long it takes to watch video to find good clips. I'm not really sure how people do this in real video editing, but my methods are extremely slow and time consuming. Ugh. So expect a highlight reel, but don't expect it soon.

What else? Things are going well in general. I've been playing super mario strikers on the Wii lately. It's a pretty fun game, but it's also frustrating. I can't seem to pass the "Crystal Cup" difficulty level. The game (which is soccer, mario style btw) format involves playing a 6 team double round robin tournament to seed a single elimination tournament amongst the top four places. When you win the two matches in the single elimination tournament, you get to play against a new team which you unlock if you win. The problem I'm having is that before each kickoff (at the start of the game and after a team scores), the level knocks out some number of players from each team for the entire time between kick offs. This seems to be entirely random ... but it seems to screw my team over every time. You see, each player on a team has his own unique traits. Some are slower, but have a better shot, some have a poor shot, but are fast and can pass really well. If you get stuck with just your slow scoring players, then the opposing team has the freedom to run circles around you ... and you give up a goal or two that way which so far has cost me the game more often than not. I've only managed to eke out one victory in this format in 7 games. So frustrating.

My roommate, Mike, has an interesting carrot-on-a-stick approach to writing his thesis. He's already bought an xbox 360, which sits under his desk until he finishes his first draft of his thesis. Incredibly, he's less than two weeks in and he's already got one chapter left to write. I can't really imagine how hard it is not to crack that box open and play some of the coolest next-gen games. Speaking of consoles, I'm pretty impressed with the xbox actually. I haven't played much of it, but it looks like it has certainly helped kill of the PS3. Of course, the jury is still out, but between the Wii and the 360, I really don't see the PS3 finding room to compete.

Diane and I have finally begun planning out our wedding. There's a pretty long list of things we've got to arrange. I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions on who we should go with for a photographer? It's really hard for me to tell how one person's photography style will suit Diane and I. I suppose the correct way to go about this is to meet with several photographers and see what they have to say for themselves and talk them through a typical wedding shoot. So that's the next thing we need to do. It's a little surreal, thinking about getting married. It doesn't seem like all that long ago when I was a socially awkward little kid running around. Now I'm a socially awkward person that's somehow getting married in a few months. Huh. Who would've thunk it?

It's been awhile since I last updated. Part of the reason for that is my shiny new Macbook pro which has had me spending time tweaking it and playing with my photo collection in Aperture. It's amazing how much time you can fill up just installing different programs and fiddling with settings. That might also be part of the reason I haven't been all that productive over the last couple of weeks. Fortunately, my productivity should increase now that I have my laptop all setup!

Anyways, I'm off to a games party tonight. Hope everyone is having a good summer and is planning on checking out the fringe this year. Should be fun!

Heraldk