More Pipelayin notes (do they never end?)

Another poker note.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 8:50pm | Edit Note | Delete
First off, finding a new payment provider has proven trickier than I thought. Figured I had it all covered when I signed up with an e-wallet and picked up a credit card. Went to deposit to the e-wallet with the credit card today and it's not permitted to use it for gambling from Canada. Damn it. Now I'm roped into some rather complicated international banking loops with no apparent alternatives. Oh well. Gotta do what I gotta do I suppose. So instead of pounding away at the Ongame network $25 pot limit games I'm still playing my free Party Poker money. Which brings me to the second issue of the day.
Sklansky is an idiot when it comes to no limit (nl). My last poker related note was about how I'd played a hand I would normally never play based on the advice in NLHETP. That particular hand paid off. It's the only hand that has paid off since experimenting with Sklansky.
My own personal style is to play like a rock, in online poker lingo I'm a 14/8(playing about 14% of hands, raising about 8%). This style has been consistently profitable for me and has allowed me to make a reliable living off of cards. However I'm not against new ideas, and I'm constantly trying to grow my game. So when the poker community starts raving about a new style or book, I make the effort to learn it. Most of the time it's improved my game. But everytime that Sklansky has been the author behind the book, I've lost money. Playing by his most conservative strategy I'm running a 29% of hands played. Needless to say I've lost a bunch of the free money that I had. So screw Sklansky. I'll read the book to get an idea of how others might be thinking, and I'll definitely use some of his ideas on bet sizing and pot manipulation, but other than that Sklansky can fuck right off. Hellmuth, Brunson, and Harrington for me all the way!
In closing I'll be hitting the banks tomorrow to muddle my way through the world of international banking to get my bankroll back online with my preferred room on the Ongame network. I'm going to target for 30 hours of play per week, which should net me a half decent income once bonuses are added in. That's all folks.
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Wha's Like Us?
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 7:11am | Edit Note | Delete
Okay, this will be my last Scottish patriot entry for a while. I'll be back to boring old shizzle in no time.

Wha's Like Us?
Damn Few And They're A' Deid!

The average Englishman in the home he call his castle slips into his national costume, a shabby raincoat, patented by Chemist Charles Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland.

En-route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.

He drives an English car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop, Veterinary Surgeon of Dreghorn, Scotland.

At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers, Bookseller and Printer of Dundee, Scotland.

During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Blacksmith of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

He watches the news on television, an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the U.S. Navy founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.

Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots.

He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible, only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot, King James VI, who authorized its translation.

He could take to drink but the Scots make the best in the world.

He could take a rifle and end it all, but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.

If he escaped death, he could find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland, and given chloroform, an anesthetic discovered by Sir James Young Simpson, Obstetrician and Gynecologist of Bathgate, Scotland.

Out of the anesthetic he would find no comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.

Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask:

"Wha's Like Us?"

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...she wondered why my playin' cards, just would not let me be.
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Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 9:49pm | Edit Note | Delete
So I picked up a touch of carpal tunnel at this new job. It's not enough to get me any treats like worker's comp or anything, but it's just enough to make doing anything with my mouse uncomfortable. This includes online poker which is going to be my main source of income for the next few months. So today I bought myself a wireless gamepad with a profile editor that will allow me to configure it for keyboard and mouse emulation. I've already loaded 'er up and I have it configured so that I now do all my mouse movements with my left hand. I'm currently testing it out on Party Poker (just hit a set with my cowboys and slowplayed a muppet right to the river. As I type I just flopped a straight on a rainbow flop, so things are going well.
Now listen, the rest of this is pure poker nerd content; I'm going to be talking about Sklansky and deep stack game theory and shizzle like that.
I've been reading NLHETP (That's the standard poker nerd abbreviation for David Sklansky and Ed Miller's collaboration "No Limit Hold 'Em Theor and Practice"). They talk a little about adjusting your game when the game is deep stacked or pots are multiway. The implied odds of hitting your hand often make it correct to call with weaker than usual holdings. I was just practicing a bit with this theory when I caught the above mentioned straight. I had qto (queen ten offsuit) in late position. Normally this is a hand I don't consider playing. But my Party Poker money was given to me by the site, and I'm using it to experiment a bit. Anyway it was a multiway pot, a deep stack (100xbb) raised it to 4xbb and picked up a few callers before it got to me. I was getting immediate odds of about 3.5 to 1 on my call, but I figured that with that much action I could probably stack an opponent if I hit, and so I estimated my implied odds at about 20 to 1 which is damn fine. So I called and lo and behold I flopped the nut straight. Only 1 player gave me any action and he was short stacked so I only wound up making about 8-1 off the initial call, but I still feel pretty good about it. A final note. My bb/100 rate is sitting at a comfortable 6.5 since my return to the game, and even though it's only over about 1000 hands so far it looks like I've still got it :)
A 5 card straight.
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Updated about 11 months ago

Leisurephobia
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Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 10:10am | Edit Note | Delete
I've written a little in the past about my bosses at my current job and their obsession with working almost non-stop. The founder of the company can't even stop for a coffee break without rambling on and on about the work to come or the work we've just done. At the limits of their stamina, when exhaustion has them practically on their knees you can see a mad intoxicated look in their eyes. I was mentioning it to my in-laws, and my father in-law is much the same. He works from 6-4 or something like that, then comes home and works on cars for people until 10 or 11 at night usually. They mentioned that he was classified as a leisurephobic. Apparently it's an irrational fear of free time. Can't find much information on this condition though, think it might be a new term for workaholic.
So if people who can't stand the thought of free time are leisurephobic, then what am I? I can't stand the thought of having my free time booked with things like work or social commitments. It's not that I'm lazy either, I'm really a high energy person, and I'm quite productive in my spare time. Am I a workphobe? My irrational fear is that I'm going to die and wish that I had enjoyed more of my life being free. I believe that when I die I'm going to regret every moment that I spent working and not just chillin'. Because of this I tend to pre-regret working while I'm working. Make any sense??
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On the long ride home...
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Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 9:31am | Edit Note | Delete
So I had a short week but a rough week and last night I finished a 13 and a half hour day at 8:30 and started the 6.5 hour drive home. The biggest challenge is staying awake on a drive like that and I have a few tricks that I use and a few chemicals that I use. Chemically I load up on Red Bulls, coffees and sodey pops. My bag of tricks boils down to a few general things. I do a lot of car karaoke as many of you know which is why my mp3 player is loaded with all the cheese it's loaded with. That alone is often enough to keep me lucid, but if I'm particularly tired I have to resort to other things. Sometimes I'll think about sex and that can be helpful. Even more helpful when I'm tired I've found is to think about fighting. Maybe it's the Red Bull and maybe I just have a psychotic streak, but imagining running into arch enemies and having to defend myself with uber-violence really gets my blood pumping.
Over the course of last night's drive I lived a few dozen lifetimes in my head. I wrote an album's worth of country music songs in my head (after being stuck listening to a country radio station) and I was a big ol' country sensation on tour for a while. I also won a major poker tournament and was spending a lot of the winnings on homes and trips. I became a sales rep again, opened my own restaurant, wrote a new novel, moved to Scotland, bought an acreage, was a guest star on Letterman, had a quick tryst with the blond at the Lloyd truck stop, bought property in Borden, took a job in Fort MacMurray, spun out of control into oncoming traffic and had to perform all kinds of first aid on the survivors, etc etc etc. I can see that this drive is going to get more and more challenging as the year continues. Hopefully there are only about 5 or 6 more trips remaining.
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I'm going to wake up my wife...
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Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 1:53am | Edit Note | Delete
Just got this in my e-mail and I can't stop laughing. It's my new favorite joke I think!

Duck walks into a pub

Duck walks into a pub and orders a pint of bitter and a ham sandwich.

The barman looks at him and says, "But you're a duck".

"I see your eyes are working", replies the duck.

"And you talk!" exclaims the barman.

"I see your ears are working", says the duck,

"Now can I have my beer and my sandwich please?"

"Certainly", says the barman, "sorry about that, it's just we don't get
many ducks in this pub. What are you doing round this way?"

"I'm working on the building site across the road", explains the duck.

Then the duck drinks his beer, eats his sandwich and leaves.

This continues for 2 weeks. Then one day the circus comes to town. The
Ringmaster of the circus comes into the pub and the barman says to him,

"You're with the circus aren't you? I know this duck that would be
just brilliant in your circus, he talks, drinks beer and everything!".

"Sounds marvelous", says the ringmaster, "get him to give me a call".

So the next day when the duck comes into the pub the barman says, "Hey Mr.
Duck, I reckon I can line you up with a top job, paying really good money!"

"Yeah?" says the duck, "Sounds great, where is it?"

"At the circus", says the barman.

"The circus?" the duck enquires.

"That's right", replies the barman.

"The circus?" the duck asks again.

"Yes" says the barman

"That place with the big tent?" the duck enquires.

"Yeah" the barman replies.

"With all the animals?" the duck questioned.

"Of Course" the barman replies.

"With the big canvas roof with the hole in the middle", asks the duck.

"That's right!" says the barman.

The duck looks confused.

"What the Hell would they want with a plasterer?"
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Urgent Kilt Update
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 11:26pm | Edit Note | Delete
I took a few pics tonight and I know a lot of you have been waiting feverishly for a visual, so I'm putting them up right now!
There will be a pic or 2 of me in the outfit, a pic of my kilt pin (a wicked deadly sword with all kinds of wicked deadly celtic knotwork on it), a pic of my sporran highlighting the Scottish Thistle tassles on it, and a pic of my belt buckle(covered in wicked deadly celtic knotwork).
Scotland Forever!
Wha's like us? Damn few an' they're a' deid! (go away kitty)
Just a tiny pin...but a single Scotsman could wipe out an entire battalion of any given nationality with only this and a bowl of porridge. The Black Watch tartan is a military tartan and is made of colors that serve the same purposes as modern camouflage.
Thistles all over my sporran! Legend has it that King Haakon of Norway, intent on conquering the Scots landed at the Coast of Largs at night to surprise the sleeping Scots. In order to move more stealthily under cover of darkness, the Norse Vikings removed their footwear. As they drew near to the Scots it wasn't the only thing hiding in the darkness. One of the Norsemen stepped on a spiny thistle and cried out, alerting the Clansmen to the attack. Needless to say the Scots won the day!

40 years ago(ish)
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 5:27pm | Edit Note | Delete
My parents emigrated from Scotland to Canada to give their children a better shot. They had been living in Glasgow. At the time Glasgow was the 4th largest city in Europe, after London, Paris and Berlin, but it was a city in decline. Much of the housing in Glasgow had been hastily erected by factory owners during the Industrial Revolution and most of it never modernised. As the old industries began to collapse Glasgow gained a reputation for having some of the worst slums in the world. Families were still living in one room tenements, sharing communal outhouses in the middle of the city. Crime was rampant. Things were so bad in fact that the government of Glasgow made a drastic decision to tear down most of the inner city and relocate the inhabitants to areas outside the city. It's not difficult to see why my parents decided to leave.
Now however Glasgow has revitalized. In the 1990s it was declared a cultural capital of Europe, most of the slums have been recovered and now boast some of the most desirable housing in Scotland. The economic base of the city has shifted from industry to that of a center of business services, technology and finance. This has resulted in 32% growth for the Glaswegian Economy since 2000. (And you thought Calgary and Saskatoon were booming!). Today wages appear to be higher than in Canada, and the cost of living seems to be lower. I'm toying with the idea of a family move :)
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Updated about 11 months ago

I suppose you all want to know about my new kilt...sigh
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Monday, September 17, 2007 at 10:28pm | Edit Note | Delete
Well I guess I'll have to tell you all about it then. My Dad just came back from Scotland the other day, and I'd asked him to look around for a kilt for me. For those of you that didn't know, I'm 100% Scottish, born in the town of Ayr in the county of Ayrshire. I take this kilt thing pretty seriously. For a Scotsman the kilt is much more than just formal attire. In the late 1700s King George 2nd outlawed all forms of Highland dress, but most notably the kilt, in an attempt to quash the rebellious nature of the warrior clans and their chieftains. In true Scottish fashion this led to all of Scotland (no longer just the highlands) adopting the kilt as an expression of nationalism and rebellion.
The tartan of my kilt is the Black Watch tartan. It's the tartan of the 42nd Highlanders, the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Until 1940 this kilt was worn into battle by the Black Watch. The German soldiers that they faced on the battlefield were known to often retreat at the mere sound of the pipes skirling and signalling an advance of the Black Watch. The motto of the Black Watch is a motto that has been picked up by all of Scotland, "Nemo me impune lacessit" which translates to "No man attacks me with impunity." Variations of this can be found throughout Scottish culture, "Wha daur meddle wi me?" (Who dares to meddle with me?) and "Don't tread on me." being some of the more famous. Generally such slogans are accompanied by images of the Scottish thistle, famous for both it's beauty and it's razor sharp thorns. Essentially the message being that we are a peaceful people unless attacked.
Anyway, as soon as I have the energy to get into the outfit again and take some pics I'll post them. Suffice it to say that today I am one proud Scotsman!
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Updated about 11 months ago