10:16pm: I’ve got a decision to make. Regardless of which avenue I take, we’re signing an apartment lease by next Monday. Our original plan was to accept our previous complex’s offer to stay at a bigger apartment in a different building (the J building caught fire, and we would be moving to the W building). However, the rent would increase $130 per month from what we were paying before the fire, which is slightly more than we’d like to be paying to live there. That being said, even despite this it was still a steal considering the market value of all the other properties in the area. We took a look at the apartment today, and were SLIGHTLY disappointed with it because we didn’t see where we were getting our $130 worth even though they claimed the new apartment had more “living space” than the one that burned down a month ago.

Fortunately, we acquired a back up plan on Saturday night during my live 2-5 session at Harrah’s New Orleans. One of my good poker buddies said that he had a spare house that he was about to put up for rent, and was just waiting for the right people to make him an offer. Not even thinking we’d like it, we passed by today and were very pleasantly surprised with the property. We now have a very tough decision to make. Making it even tougher was the fact that for just slightly more per month than my original plan to move into my 2 bedroom apartment, we would be able to move into his 3 bedroom house with utilities INCLUDED.

Some people would say this is a complete and utter steal. However, I’m not one to rush into big decisions without having weighed all the facts beforehand. Being as such, I have decided to make a side by side comparison list of the benefits and costs of each avenue, and will then make a decision from there.

What’s a good poker player without his logic anyways?

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

2:35pm: Probably the best kept secret about this website is the search feature located on the right menu bar. In the last two months, I’ve posted a lot of useful articles but if no one can find them, what good is that? No worries, the search feature is here to save the day. Try it out!

I posted this because I’ve been getting a lot of emails about how to find particular articles from the archive, and the solution is much simpler than you think. Our search feature for the forums actually works really well also.

So think of everything you’re interested in knowing about heads up strategy, write it down, and then have a field day with the search function

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

1:37am: I am pleased to announce that I am running good at the right time, as I am now 18-4 since the fire, including my 6-2 stretch over the last 24 hours. I’m playing completely lights out right now, as my focus is especially sharp at this time. When you’ve lost everything you own, the little things don’t bother you as much, so consequently I’ve been much more relaxed during each game. That’s not to say I’m not always relaxed, but at this point I feel that each match I win is a bonus and I’m just thankful to be alive.

So many times in life we take little things for granted. I truly believe it is in human nature to do so, and everyone is guilty of it to some degree. Being as such, it is our duty to recognize when it’s getting out of hand and formulate some conditions to get back into the right mindset.

A lot of relationships end because people take the other one for granted. Sometimes people get “too comfortable” with each other, and they fail to realize the things that are truly important in life. Perhaps that’s why the divorce rate in America is so high now a days. Has it always been like this? No. But back then it was a simpler time, and there were less distractions. Now the media, news, books, movies, and other outside influences are tempting and testing human fabric. Will it ever change? I think it has to, or things will eventually fall apart.

What does any of that have to do with poker? Absolutely nothing. That’s why this one will be filed under “random rants”.

5:10pm: First it was free internet hot spots are Starbucks, then Barnes and Nobles, and eventually every major fast food joint caught on. Almost everywhere you can go with your laptop, there’s somewhere you can go to put in a poker session. What are the costs and benefits of this approach?

1. What are EVDO Cards?

Finally, you can have wireless broadband internet access to your Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux laptop without the need for a hotspot! Insert an EVDO Card into your laptop and, seconds later, you are connected to the internet at DSL-like speeds (500K-1,000K) - - - you are your own hotspot!

EVDO or Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized (often abbreviated as EVDO, EV-DO, EvDO, 1xEV-DO or 1xEvDO) provides fast wireless broadband (3G) internet service directly to your laptop. You take the internet with you and surf the web in your car, on the train, in the airport, at a convention, on the road in your RV…

The broadband-speed 1xEVDO is currently available in most metropolitan U.S. cities (Verizon and Sprint are both continually upgrading their service areas to Revision A - the newest development in EVDO that provides dramatically increased upload speeds averaging 300-400kbps). If you are unsure whether you have EVDO coverage in your area, please visit EVDOMaps.com and see the results EVDO users across the country are experiencing in their area.

Update: Verizon’s EVDO network is now 100% Rev-A

EVDO is based on the 1xRTT standard, which is available in almost all cell phone coverage areas and provides Internet speeds of about 2-3 times that of dial-up (about 60K-100K). If you go out of the 1xEVDO broadband coverage zone, you will automatically be switched onto the 1xRTT standard, which means that you can still access the Internet almost anywhere your travels take you! learn more about 1xRTT vs. EVDO here!.

Currently, EVDO is available on the Verizon and Sprint networks. Verizon was the first provider to offer EVDO, but Sprint has been rolling out EVDO coverage very rapidly and their coverage is catching up to Verizon’s.

2. OK, I understand What EVDO is. Now, who offers EVDO?

Verizon Wireless and Sprint are currently the leading providers for EVDO coverage. There are multiple EVDO Cards (in PCMCIA, Expresscard and USB formats) that are available:

On Verizon:

• Novatel USB720 (USB)
• Novatel V740 (Expresscard)
• Sierra Aircard 595
• Sierra Aircard 595U (USB)
• Novatel USB727 (USB)
• Audiovox PC5750

On Sprint:

• Novatel U727 (USB)
• Franklin CDU-680 (USB)
• Novatel EX-720 (ExpressCard)
• Sierra Aircard 597E (ExpressCard)
• Merlin S720
• Pantech PX-500
• Sierra Aircard 595
• Sierra Aircard 595U (USB)
  

I would also like to mention that there are a number of these cards available for FREE, as long as you sign a two year contract. If you choose not to be under contract, it will cost you anywhere from $150 to $400 for the card, so that’s something you’ll have to balance when deciding if this is right for you.

3. Are they reliable for Poker?

Yes, but not AS reliable as land based cable connections. I’ve played probably 10 sessions since the fire, and I have yet to experience any kind of lag on my end by using my EVDO card. I got mine for free at Verizon (with 2 year contact). Here is a picture of my unit:

Just to give you an idea of what to expect:

• Average Download Speed: 125kb/s
• Average Upload Speed: 25kb/s
• Average Connection Time Before Service Drops: 4 hours (note: even if the service drops, you can be back online within 45 seconds). Just make sure you are in a relatively populated metropolitan area, and you may have no problems at all.
• Multi Table Capabilities: YES
• Noticeable lag between poker servers and verizon servers: MINISCULE, if any
• Can download things while playing poker: DONT RECOMMEND

All in all, I’d say that anyone who has not invested in an EVDO card should at least give it some thought. How many times has your home internet connection went down, and you knew you were being blinded out but there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. Having a back up internet connection method would be a great safety net for to take comfort in during all your sessions. The service is usually $60/month. But to that, I say that if it even helps you win one more match that you would have normally disconnected on, then it pays for itself.

12:16pm: I really hate it when people use their blogs to vent. It’s one thing if nobody reads the blog but yourself, but when other people read it, they don’t want to log in to hear somebody bitch and complain about their misfortunes in poker. That being said, I’m going to vent for the first time, lol.

The last week or so has been very hard for me, because I’ve been at a complete stand still, profit-wise. I’m putting myself into a position to win every single match, however I’d venture to say that 80% of the time I’ve gotten it in with the best hand in the last 3-4 days, I’ve lost. I’ve only played 6 games today (3-3), and I’ve already taken 5-6 bad beats. If my hands hold up, I’m 6-0, but since they didn’t I’m basically breaking even and losing out to the rake.

If you’d like to see what I’ve been put through today, click here.

I’d like to take a break, but I don’t think that will do any good. I’m not playing bad as I’ve been ahead almost every time the money went in today. It’s just discouraging because when you play two at a time, and you win the first game 3 out of 3 times, you have 3 chances to go up a game and all 3 times something just plain out STUPID happened. See the link if you want to know what I’m talking about.

To be honest with you, right now with EPASSPORTE going under, and me not being able to put together any kind of productive session the last 4 days, I’m really not liking poker too much right now. I win nearly 61% of my heads up matches, yet I’ve just been alternating wins and losses for what seems like forever. I’m not sure when my graph is going to start to take the upward turn, but it’s long overdue.

*EDIT*, 1:34pm: Finally I was able to get in +, as for the fourth straight time, I won the first of two matches. However, this time I actually won the second match as seemingly miraculously I got two pocket pairs to hold up vs. over cards in a row. I’m now 5-3 on the day.

10:52pm: Well, in just my first game of my session today, the donators have already come out. However, I’m truly baffled as to what the justification for these kinds of plays are. A couple of days ago, we discussed how the guy on PokerStars betting $670 into a pot in which he had $150 invested in, and then folded to my shove (with the nuts) was a completely ridiculous play. Well, the mystifying play continues, except this time on Cake.

Cake masks the name of your opponent in hand histories, so I will just paint the picture for the hand myself. A few hands before the hand I will tell you about, the guy had just doubled me up when he shoved with Q8 on a Q 7 4 rainbow board, and I called with AQ. My hand held up, allowing me to take a 780 to 2220 lead. 3 Hands later, the blinds increased from 10/20 to 15/30. On the very next hand, the guy shoves pre flop for his last 750 and I look and see that I have two Jacks. This is a snap call normally, but with only 30 chips invested in the pot, I have to at least consider why he might do that.

In situations like this, what I’ll normally do is sharkscope my opponent one more time. I look at a few things:

1. Are they a winning player? If so, how good?
2. What does their last 8 games look like? Have they lost a few in a row?
3. What stakes do they normally play? Are they normally a $20 heads up player trying to make up for losses, or do they normally play at the $50 level?

I look and discover that he had just lost two games at the $25.00 level (yes, they have $25 heads up matches on Cake). Therefore, I came to conclusion he was on tilt, trying to recoup his losses and decided this was a no brainer to call. By the way, the only way I would have folded this hand is if the player had comparable stats to me, which is only probably 1 out of 10 matches - so even though I only have 30 chips invested, I call here >=90% of the time.

So I call, and he turns over K7off. WHY?! What is he trying to accomplish? If I fold, so what? Congrats, you’ve just won 30 chips. If I call, you’re pretty much screwed. Once again, this goes back to risk:reward ratio. Anyways, my hand holds up, and I win the match. But after the match I just sat there staring at the screen, and asked myself what possesses people to do things like this? How can you possibly justify this move? What hand am I going to call him with that he’s going to feel comfortable flipping over K7off. I can think maybe two: QJ and J10. However, what he didn’t know is that I’m not going to call him with hands like that generally until the 75/150 blinds, if that.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, this stuff literally just amazes me. More later