Many of you have asked me what I did when I worked a traditional job. I thought I would talk about the evolution of my career over the next few post, this post will focus on the start of my career which was in programming. I received my B.S. in Computer Science with minors in Math and Physics. The only good thing that came out of this degree is I do use much of my math education in my poker play.
When I first graduated from college the job market was tight this was way before the Web, I had focused on learning how to code in HTML which is a programming language used for development for the Web. You could say I was way ahead of the times, but having this skill did not help me get a job, in fact for a long time I was homeless and the only skill I had was not in demand. I have included a picture of me from the good old days.
I finally got a job at a large computer company, shortly after starting (about 6 months) I was laid-off, from there I joined a very small computer company which is where my career grew, more on that later.
On the travel side I spent sometime getting ready for my hiking trip in Montana. It should be a ton of fun, the company running the trip sent a packing list, so it will be real easy as far as what to bring. The only bad part is they say you should bring a pocket knife; I was planning on carry on only so I think the TSA might frown upon me having a knife, so I hope I do not really need one.
I played a little Disc Golf this week. Disc Golf is very much like Ball Golf, except you use a Disc (Frisbee) instead of a ball and you throw the Disc rather then hitting it with a club. The goal is to get it into a net rather then a hole. It is very relaxing and also a great way to get a nice walk through the park.
You can get more information about Disc Golf at this website.
http://www.pdga.com/
Now for my poker play, I was planning to get back to my quality play after last weeks massive volume play. It took me a good hour to break the bad habits I had acquired the week before, all of a sudden I was down about $200.00 that is 200 weeks of living expenses for me, not very good. So I got focused and fully recovered and ended up over $100.00 for the week. Without the bad start I would have been up over $300.00. I played 1,352 hands, far less then the over 5,000 the week before, I also logged only 9.42 hours again far less then the over 37 the week before, much closer to my normal play. My hourly rate was far below my normal of about $25.00 an hour at a little over $11.00 an hour. This was due to the first bad hour.
All in all I was happy with my play once I made a few needed corrections. I also played several free tournaments with my FFP these are tournaments you can win $11.00. I won 6 of them this week, so that adds another $66.00 to my winnings. These winnings are not in the above statistics.
One thing in poker that is important to pick up on is when players have patterns, it is also important to make sure you do not have patterns that others will use to beat you, below is a hand I might have folded had I not known this players patterns.
POKERSTARS GAME #19767964843: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/08/20 - 17:07:14 (ET)
Table 'Hiera IV' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: DUG ($100 in chips)
Seat 5: TTtheC ($229.70 in chips)
Seat 7: Basset69 ($24.60 in chips)
Seat 8: slicnick_11 ($114.40 in chips)
Basset69: posts small blind $0.50
slicnick_11: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DUG [Qh Qs] This is a good starting hand, but you need to not fall in love with it, many people loose a lot of money with QQ because they just won’t fold it.
DUG: raises $2 to $3 Make a mild raise and hope I get one caller. Any more then one caller my odds to win go way down.
TTtheC: folds
Basset69: folds
slicnick_11: calls $2 This guy plays a pattern he will just call if he has a hand he thinks has me beat, he wants to keep me betting, but will raise if he thinks I have him beat, trying to get me to fold.
*** FLOP *** [9h 6c 3s]
slicnick_11: checks This check tells me he thinks he has the best hand.
DUG: bets $4 I want to just double check.
slicnick_11: calls $4 He still feels he is best.
*** TURN *** [9h 6c 3s] [Td]
slicnick_11: checks Not sure what to do here, I do not want to keep giving him money.
Checkmater leaves the table
DUG: bets $6 I make a weak bet, this way I build the pot if I win and do not lose that much if I lose
ferocesso joins the table at seat #4
slicnick_11: raises $10 to $16 Perfect this tells me I have him beat. If I did not know his pattern I would have folded here, as there is a good chance he could have a straight 78 or a set with Pocket 6’s, 3’s, 9’s, T’s or even 2 pair with 9T
DUG: calls $10 So I call.
*** RIVER *** [9h 6c 3s Td] [8c]
slicnick_11: bets $22 Even better news.
DUG: calls $22 Now I only call here, because if I bet and he does have me beat (I was wrong about his pattern) it will just cost me more money, and if he is on a bluff which I think he is, he will not call so I will not get anymore money for the risk I would be taking.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
slicnick_11: shows [Kd Ah] (high card Ace) What was expected.
DUG: shows [Q h Qs] (a pair of Queens)
DUG collected $88.50 from pot 44 more weeks of living.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $90.50 Rake $2
Board [9h 6c 3s Td 8c]
Seat 3: DUG showed [Qh Qs] and won ($88.50) with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: TTtheC (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Basset69 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: slicnick_11 (big blind) showed [Kd Ah] and lost with high card Ace
When I first graduated from college the job market was tight this was way before the Web, I had focused on learning how to code in HTML which is a programming language used for development for the Web. You could say I was way ahead of the times, but having this skill did not help me get a job, in fact for a long time I was homeless and the only skill I had was not in demand. I have included a picture of me from the good old days.
I finally got a job at a large computer company, shortly after starting (about 6 months) I was laid-off, from there I joined a very small computer company which is where my career grew, more on that later.
On the travel side I spent sometime getting ready for my hiking trip in Montana. It should be a ton of fun, the company running the trip sent a packing list, so it will be real easy as far as what to bring. The only bad part is they say you should bring a pocket knife; I was planning on carry on only so I think the TSA might frown upon me having a knife, so I hope I do not really need one.
I played a little Disc Golf this week. Disc Golf is very much like Ball Golf, except you use a Disc (Frisbee) instead of a ball and you throw the Disc rather then hitting it with a club. The goal is to get it into a net rather then a hole. It is very relaxing and also a great way to get a nice walk through the park.
You can get more information about Disc Golf at this website.
http://www.pdga.com/
Now for my poker play, I was planning to get back to my quality play after last weeks massive volume play. It took me a good hour to break the bad habits I had acquired the week before, all of a sudden I was down about $200.00 that is 200 weeks of living expenses for me, not very good. So I got focused and fully recovered and ended up over $100.00 for the week. Without the bad start I would have been up over $300.00. I played 1,352 hands, far less then the over 5,000 the week before, I also logged only 9.42 hours again far less then the over 37 the week before, much closer to my normal play. My hourly rate was far below my normal of about $25.00 an hour at a little over $11.00 an hour. This was due to the first bad hour.
All in all I was happy with my play once I made a few needed corrections. I also played several free tournaments with my FFP these are tournaments you can win $11.00. I won 6 of them this week, so that adds another $66.00 to my winnings. These winnings are not in the above statistics.
One thing in poker that is important to pick up on is when players have patterns, it is also important to make sure you do not have patterns that others will use to beat you, below is a hand I might have folded had I not known this players patterns.
POKERSTARS GAME #19767964843: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) - 2008/08/20 - 17:07:14 (ET)
Table 'Hiera IV' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: DUG ($100 in chips)
Seat 5: TTtheC ($229.70 in chips)
Seat 7: Basset69 ($24.60 in chips)
Seat 8: slicnick_11 ($114.40 in chips)
Basset69: posts small blind $0.50
slicnick_11: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DUG [Qh Qs] This is a good starting hand, but you need to not fall in love with it, many people loose a lot of money with QQ because they just won’t fold it.
DUG: raises $2 to $3 Make a mild raise and hope I get one caller. Any more then one caller my odds to win go way down.
TTtheC: folds
Basset69: folds
slicnick_11: calls $2 This guy plays a pattern he will just call if he has a hand he thinks has me beat, he wants to keep me betting, but will raise if he thinks I have him beat, trying to get me to fold.
*** FLOP *** [9h 6c 3s]
slicnick_11: checks This check tells me he thinks he has the best hand.
DUG: bets $4 I want to just double check.
slicnick_11: calls $4 He still feels he is best.
*** TURN *** [9h 6c 3s] [Td]
slicnick_11: checks Not sure what to do here, I do not want to keep giving him money.
Checkmater leaves the table
DUG: bets $6 I make a weak bet, this way I build the pot if I win and do not lose that much if I lose
ferocesso joins the table at seat #4
slicnick_11: raises $10 to $16 Perfect this tells me I have him beat. If I did not know his pattern I would have folded here, as there is a good chance he could have a straight 78 or a set with Pocket 6’s, 3’s, 9’s, T’s or even 2 pair with 9T
DUG: calls $10 So I call.
*** RIVER *** [9h 6c 3s Td] [8c]
slicnick_11: bets $22 Even better news.
DUG: calls $22 Now I only call here, because if I bet and he does have me beat (I was wrong about his pattern) it will just cost me more money, and if he is on a bluff which I think he is, he will not call so I will not get anymore money for the risk I would be taking.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
slicnick_11: shows [Kd Ah] (high card Ace) What was expected.
DUG: shows [Q h Qs] (a pair of Queens)
DUG collected $88.50 from pot 44 more weeks of living.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $90.50 Rake $2
Board [9h 6c 3s Td 8c]
Seat 3: DUG showed [Qh Qs] and won ($88.50) with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: TTtheC (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Basset69 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: slicnick_11 (big blind) showed [Kd Ah] and lost with high card Ace
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