Working for a small software (computer) company was much better, then my experience with a much larger company. The biggest differences were you could actually make an impact at the company, and you could contribute based on your abilities.
For example I hated programming, sitting in a cube and programming all day was boring, I loved to travel and work with customers. This was not the norm for most programmers. Most hated to talk to customers and loved to hide in their cubes and just code. So when a sales person needed help with a demonstration or they needed someone to talk about technology I would volunteer. As the company grew, this became a full time position and it was given to me. Three and a half years after I joined the company, I was the first Technical Sales Consultant, this was a newly formed position that I held for about three years. I would travel 100%, leave on Sunday nights and return on Friday evenings. Many times I would be in five different cities in one week.
During this time I got to work with the best sales people and the worst sales people, this gave me a great education on what made a great sales person, good sales person and bad sales person. I also got to meet literally hundreds of business owners and executives. I learned from these folks on what made great business leaders and not so great business leaders. I think I learned more in these three years about how to be successful in business then any other time in my working career. This experience would also helped end up helping me with my future poker play as I was in many sales situations and had to learn how to read people. Being able to read people is a very important poker skill.
I have an exciting weekend coming up; I am flying to Jackson Hole, Wyoming this Friday. That is the one BIG negative about living in Botswana; almost any trip is a 12 to 18 hour plane ride. In this case I fly from Botswana to London, then to Minneapolis and from there I fly into Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I am going on this trip with two other guys; I have never traveled with either one, so it should be an interesting experience. One of them had read my blog and invited me along on their trip. We arrive late Friday night; have a short meeting with the guides that will be taking us on this backing packing adventure. We head out Saturday morning for a three day two night trip. We fly back Tuesday morning. I plan to take a lot of pictures so I hope you all have time to look at them. I do not have a lot of details, but it looks like the backpacking is through the Grand Teton National Park. Originally I thought we were going to Montana and hiking through Glacier National Park, but now I am not sure. So I won’t know for sure until I get there.
Had a good week in Poker Play, I came in at about $40.00 an hour not counting bonus play. I played about 8 hours. Only 689 hands played that is 86 hands per hour well below my normal hand per hour of about 100 – 120. Again I was focused on quality play and not volume as I have built up my FPP to easily make my bonus for the quarter. I thought I would share with you a funny hand. If you were to just look at the hand alone without any background you would say I must be an idiot player to even be in the hand, but once I explain the back ground you will see why I did what I did and how the poker gods paid me off for being a good respectable player and how the poker gods showed the bad player how it is not good to tempt fate.
There is not luck in Poker; it is all about skill, if it was not a game of skill, then would the same great players consistently win. There is one exception to the skill rule and that is when the poker gods decided they need to interfere, below is a hand where that happened.
I normally would not play A8 off suit except the player to my left ateron1970 is a wild man. He has raised every hand 5 – 7 blinds and he has gone all in with nothing, so I know if I hit I will get all his money. So in this case the implied odds make it a worth while call. Implied odds meaning the odds counting the money that player ateron1970 has, but has not bet are used to calculate the odds for the bet since there is a good chance he will end up putting all his money in the pot.
PokerStars Game #19869794027: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/08/24 - 17:46:47 (ET)
Table 'Moguntia IV' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: vinivici9586 ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Combsy53 ($17 in chips)
Seat 3: ChXAsh ($105.50 in chips)
Seat 4: DUG ($100 in chips)
Seat 5: ateron1970 ($121.60 in chips)
Seat 6: Itlbfun ($28.50 in chips)
Seat 7: dannyduz2323 ($92.60 in chips)
Seat 8: Perdix80 ($95 in chips)
Seat 9: JoeDirt45 ($16.90 in chips)
Perdix80: posts small blind $0.50
JoeDirt45: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DUG [8c Ad]
vinivici9586: folds
Combsy53: folds
ChXAsh: folds
DUG: calls $1 Normally would not play this but because of the above reason I did.
ateron1970: raises $3 to $4 I expected this. He could have anything.
Itlbfun: folds
dannyduz2323: calls $4 This is not good since he might really have something.
Perdix80: folds
JoeDirt45: folds
DUG: calls $3 So the Implied odds are 3 dollars to win 100 or about 33 to 1.
*** FLOP *** [Ac 4c 2d] Good flop for me, I hit the Ace but my kicker 8 is not that good.
DUG: checks Since I know Ateron1970 will make a big bet no matter what he has I need to just check, because I am concerned as to what dannyduz2323 has.
ateron1970: bets $10
dannyduz2323: calls $10
DUG: raises $16 to $26 Now if I just call, I get no information, so I raise I think I have the best hand, so lets see what happens.
ateron1970: raises $91.60 to $117.60 and is all-in This does not tell me much since he could have anything even 4 2 and hit 2 pair. Or AA and hit a set. He could have me beat, but this guy is so wild it is 50/50 he is bluffing so I have to call if dannyduz2323 folds.
dannyduz2323: folds
DUG: calls $70 and is all-in So I call.
Uncalled bet ($21.60) returned to ateron1970
*** TURN *** [Ac 4c 2d] [8h] Here is where the Poker Gods took care of me. There are three 8’s left out of about 47 unknown cards. So that is about a 6% chance an 8 would show up on the turn and a 12% chance it would show up by the river. As you can see below I needed an 8 to win.
*** RIVER *** [Ac 4c 2d 8h] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DUG: shows [8c Ad] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
ateron1970: mucks hand
DUG collected $212.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $215.50 Rake $3
Board [Ac 4c 2d 8h 6c]
Seat 1: vinivici9586 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Combsy53 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ChXAsh folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: DUG showed [8c Ad] and won ($212.50) with two pair, Aces and Eights
Seat 5: ateron1970 mucked [Qs As] He had meet beat by a long shot, when we went all in. Before the flop he was a favorite 72% to 23% with a 5% chance of a tie. After the flop he was a favorite 78% to 17% with a 5% chance of a tie. But after the turn I was the favorite 93% to 7%. This is a great example of the Poker Gods paying the better player.
Seat 6: Itlbfun folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: dannyduz2323 (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: Perdix80 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: JoeDirt45 (big blind) folded before Flop
This gives me another 100 weeks of living in Botswana.
P.S. The picture is of me being added to Mt. Rushmore. I was visiting over Christmas last year and the Park Service asked if they could add me to the Mountain. I of course agreed.
For example I hated programming, sitting in a cube and programming all day was boring, I loved to travel and work with customers. This was not the norm for most programmers. Most hated to talk to customers and loved to hide in their cubes and just code. So when a sales person needed help with a demonstration or they needed someone to talk about technology I would volunteer. As the company grew, this became a full time position and it was given to me. Three and a half years after I joined the company, I was the first Technical Sales Consultant, this was a newly formed position that I held for about three years. I would travel 100%, leave on Sunday nights and return on Friday evenings. Many times I would be in five different cities in one week.
During this time I got to work with the best sales people and the worst sales people, this gave me a great education on what made a great sales person, good sales person and bad sales person. I also got to meet literally hundreds of business owners and executives. I learned from these folks on what made great business leaders and not so great business leaders. I think I learned more in these three years about how to be successful in business then any other time in my working career. This experience would also helped end up helping me with my future poker play as I was in many sales situations and had to learn how to read people. Being able to read people is a very important poker skill.
I have an exciting weekend coming up; I am flying to Jackson Hole, Wyoming this Friday. That is the one BIG negative about living in Botswana; almost any trip is a 12 to 18 hour plane ride. In this case I fly from Botswana to London, then to Minneapolis and from there I fly into Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I am going on this trip with two other guys; I have never traveled with either one, so it should be an interesting experience. One of them had read my blog and invited me along on their trip. We arrive late Friday night; have a short meeting with the guides that will be taking us on this backing packing adventure. We head out Saturday morning for a three day two night trip. We fly back Tuesday morning. I plan to take a lot of pictures so I hope you all have time to look at them. I do not have a lot of details, but it looks like the backpacking is through the Grand Teton National Park. Originally I thought we were going to Montana and hiking through Glacier National Park, but now I am not sure. So I won’t know for sure until I get there.
Had a good week in Poker Play, I came in at about $40.00 an hour not counting bonus play. I played about 8 hours. Only 689 hands played that is 86 hands per hour well below my normal hand per hour of about 100 – 120. Again I was focused on quality play and not volume as I have built up my FPP to easily make my bonus for the quarter. I thought I would share with you a funny hand. If you were to just look at the hand alone without any background you would say I must be an idiot player to even be in the hand, but once I explain the back ground you will see why I did what I did and how the poker gods paid me off for being a good respectable player and how the poker gods showed the bad player how it is not good to tempt fate.
There is not luck in Poker; it is all about skill, if it was not a game of skill, then would the same great players consistently win. There is one exception to the skill rule and that is when the poker gods decided they need to interfere, below is a hand where that happened.
I normally would not play A8 off suit except the player to my left ateron1970 is a wild man. He has raised every hand 5 – 7 blinds and he has gone all in with nothing, so I know if I hit I will get all his money. So in this case the implied odds make it a worth while call. Implied odds meaning the odds counting the money that player ateron1970 has, but has not bet are used to calculate the odds for the bet since there is a good chance he will end up putting all his money in the pot.
PokerStars Game #19869794027: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/08/24 - 17:46:47 (ET)
Table 'Moguntia IV' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: vinivici9586 ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Combsy53 ($17 in chips)
Seat 3: ChXAsh ($105.50 in chips)
Seat 4: DUG ($100 in chips)
Seat 5: ateron1970 ($121.60 in chips)
Seat 6: Itlbfun ($28.50 in chips)
Seat 7: dannyduz2323 ($92.60 in chips)
Seat 8: Perdix80 ($95 in chips)
Seat 9: JoeDirt45 ($16.90 in chips)
Perdix80: posts small blind $0.50
JoeDirt45: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DUG [8c Ad]
vinivici9586: folds
Combsy53: folds
ChXAsh: folds
DUG: calls $1 Normally would not play this but because of the above reason I did.
ateron1970: raises $3 to $4 I expected this. He could have anything.
Itlbfun: folds
dannyduz2323: calls $4 This is not good since he might really have something.
Perdix80: folds
JoeDirt45: folds
DUG: calls $3 So the Implied odds are 3 dollars to win 100 or about 33 to 1.
*** FLOP *** [Ac 4c 2d] Good flop for me, I hit the Ace but my kicker 8 is not that good.
DUG: checks Since I know Ateron1970 will make a big bet no matter what he has I need to just check, because I am concerned as to what dannyduz2323 has.
ateron1970: bets $10
dannyduz2323: calls $10
DUG: raises $16 to $26 Now if I just call, I get no information, so I raise I think I have the best hand, so lets see what happens.
ateron1970: raises $91.60 to $117.60 and is all-in This does not tell me much since he could have anything even 4 2 and hit 2 pair. Or AA and hit a set. He could have me beat, but this guy is so wild it is 50/50 he is bluffing so I have to call if dannyduz2323 folds.
dannyduz2323: folds
DUG: calls $70 and is all-in So I call.
Uncalled bet ($21.60) returned to ateron1970
*** TURN *** [Ac 4c 2d] [8h] Here is where the Poker Gods took care of me. There are three 8’s left out of about 47 unknown cards. So that is about a 6% chance an 8 would show up on the turn and a 12% chance it would show up by the river. As you can see below I needed an 8 to win.
*** RIVER *** [Ac 4c 2d 8h] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DUG: shows [8c Ad] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
ateron1970: mucks hand
DUG collected $212.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $215.50 Rake $3
Board [Ac 4c 2d 8h 6c]
Seat 1: vinivici9586 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Combsy53 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ChXAsh folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: DUG showed [8c Ad] and won ($212.50) with two pair, Aces and Eights
Seat 5: ateron1970 mucked [Qs As] He had meet beat by a long shot, when we went all in. Before the flop he was a favorite 72% to 23% with a 5% chance of a tie. After the flop he was a favorite 78% to 17% with a 5% chance of a tie. But after the turn I was the favorite 93% to 7%. This is a great example of the Poker Gods paying the better player.
Seat 6: Itlbfun folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: dannyduz2323 (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: Perdix80 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: JoeDirt45 (big blind) folded before Flop
This gives me another 100 weeks of living in Botswana.
P.S. The picture is of me being added to Mt. Rushmore. I was visiting over Christmas last year and the Park Service asked if they could add me to the Mountain. I of course agreed.
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