Since I'm technically still employed until Monday, this isn't really even day 1 yet. OK, and I'm a technology geek.
My time off started with a bang. Last night on my way home my car battery died. Had to call AAA to get me home. Looks like I need a new alternator. Always nice to have big expenses right as you lose your job. Oh well, maybe it's an excuse to play more poker to earn some extra income.
Today was about recovering from the last couple of weeks. I haven't been working very hard but work has been emotionally exhausting. I made a list of projects to work on while it helped me get organized, it also seems a bit overwhelming. And I decided to use the product I've worked on to see if we can attack these projects in an Agile fashion. So I organized my work and uploaded all of it into Serena Agile. In the process I found three really bad bugs. While finding bugs is normally exciting, it was actually a bit disheartening to see problems in production and to spend my last week working on real problems. As such, I really haven't been motivated to do much around the house.
So today is about doing dishes, running several loads of laundry, going through the last week of mail (some email too), putting away the stuff I brought home from the office, cleaning out the fridge, and doing some grocery shopping. But first, I got to sleep in late for the first time in a really long time. I think I got up about 10:30.
Oh and I made it to gym for the second day in a row. Good. And I stepped on a scale for the first time in weeks. Bad, very bad. Tomorrow I buy a new scale.
Friday, April 30
Taking the Summer Off
As many of you who are reading this know, a couple months ago my company decided to close its Bellevue office and laid us all off. I was part of the transition team that was retained until May 3 to help move our work from Bellevue to Kiev. While May 3 is technically my last day at Serena, Thursday was my last day in the office and today starts my "summer".
Rather than jump back into another job, I decided to take a break for the summer to work on some projects. I'm going to try to blog about my day-to-day activities though won't necessarily post daily. One thing I want to do is take an extended trip to Las Vegas though this seems harder and harder to fit in around other plans.
Rather than jump back into another job, I decided to take a break for the summer to work on some projects. I'm going to try to blog about my day-to-day activities though won't necessarily post daily. One thing I want to do is take an extended trip to Las Vegas though this seems harder and harder to fit in around other plans.
Thursday, April 29
Long time no see
I haven't blogged in quite some time because I haven't played any poker since I got back from Vegas. As it gets to be summer in Seattle my weekends and weeknights have been busy. And with my poker buddy overseas, no one has called to say let's play poker.
But I did play Tuesday night finally. Played the 2-40 spread game at Club Hollywood. I used to love this game an find it easy money. But since Snoqualmie opened I've found the lure of no limit 20 minutes away too enticing to trek to Shoreline very often. The game was just as I remembered that I played well which helped. I won three sizeable pots snapping off bluffs on the river, though a couple were just terrible bluffing spots. In 2.5 hours I more than doubled my buy-in.
With my job done (more on that later) I should be able to play more than once a month going forward.
More of poker and my summer plans soon.
But I did play Tuesday night finally. Played the 2-40 spread game at Club Hollywood. I used to love this game an find it easy money. But since Snoqualmie opened I've found the lure of no limit 20 minutes away too enticing to trek to Shoreline very often. The game was just as I remembered that I played well which helped. I won three sizeable pots snapping off bluffs on the river, though a couple were just terrible bluffing spots. In 2.5 hours I more than doubled my buy-in.
With my job done (more on that later) I should be able to play more than once a month going forward.
More of poker and my summer plans soon.
Sunday, March 7
Tulalip tournament
Finally played poker for the first time in a couple of weeks. A friend wanted to play the Tulalip evening tournament, so we met in Northgate and carpooled up. The tournament has 30-minute levels which is much better than the 15-20 minute levels you see in most places. The structure allows for play, though there's a huge jump after the first break when blinds go from 100-200 (300 an orbit) to 200-400 with a 25 ante (850 an orbit). To be frank, this is a flaw in what's otherwise a good tournament.
Given that you go from good stack to short stack after the break, I took some chances in the third and fourth levels and wound up busting out early. While busting out early seems like a bad thing, it's actually better to take chances and bust out early than nurse a tiny stack a long time and still miss the money. 11th and 120th place pay the same -- nothing. Of course if you get to 11th or 12th, you had a chance to cash, but truly these no difference between 30th and 90th except you waste a couple more hours. A had a couple of hands where I made a steal raise, bet the flop and got check-raised all-in. Not having much of a hand, I could fold but that cost be a lot of chips. Went out when I made a small raise with KK looking for action, shoved on an A-A-9 flop (pretty good) and was called by 99.
The cash game was good, though I hate the 1-3 blinds and $200 max structure. I guess it's the same as 2-5, $300 max but both feel very, very small. On an aside, that's one of the pluses of playing in Vegas -- they have larger max buy-ins which allows you to win more money and play more hands. Imagine choosing between two stocks that are similar companies each selling for $10/share (yes the price is silly but bear with me). If you were told one stock could never go above $20 while the other could go into the $50s, the latter is the better choice all other things being equal.
I turned a small profit in the cash game and was close to even for the night. I think I made one bad fold, but since I folded I'll never know. I'd go back sometime, but it's still quite a trip. With a couple stops at the park and ride and dropping off Meier and home, it took me well over an hour to get home.
Given that you go from good stack to short stack after the break, I took some chances in the third and fourth levels and wound up busting out early. While busting out early seems like a bad thing, it's actually better to take chances and bust out early than nurse a tiny stack a long time and still miss the money. 11th and 120th place pay the same -- nothing. Of course if you get to 11th or 12th, you had a chance to cash, but truly these no difference between 30th and 90th except you waste a couple more hours. A had a couple of hands where I made a steal raise, bet the flop and got check-raised all-in. Not having much of a hand, I could fold but that cost be a lot of chips. Went out when I made a small raise with KK looking for action, shoved on an A-A-9 flop (pretty good) and was called by 99.
The cash game was good, though I hate the 1-3 blinds and $200 max structure. I guess it's the same as 2-5, $300 max but both feel very, very small. On an aside, that's one of the pluses of playing in Vegas -- they have larger max buy-ins which allows you to win more money and play more hands. Imagine choosing between two stocks that are similar companies each selling for $10/share (yes the price is silly but bear with me). If you were told one stock could never go above $20 while the other could go into the $50s, the latter is the better choice all other things being equal.
I turned a small profit in the cash game and was close to even for the night. I think I made one bad fold, but since I folded I'll never know. I'd go back sometime, but it's still quite a trip. With a couple stops at the park and ride and dropping off Meier and home, it took me well over an hour to get home.
Sunday, February 28
Bahamas
Monica and I just got back from a week in Orlando and Atlantis in the Bahamas. Thus no poker in a while.
Orlando was same old same old. Saw the family, went to Disneyworld, bought a bunch of stuff for Monica's nephew and nieces. But we had never been to the Bahamas.
Atlantis was beautiful and while the weather wasn't perfect - it rained Wednesday and was very windy Thursday - it was nice to get away from Seattle winter. That said I think we were both dissappointed. The prices were pretty outrageous; we were essentially paying "ballpark" prices all week. $4 for a bottle of water, $28 for the breakfast buffet. To me, everything was inflated about 100%. I wondered if I missed an exchange rate but I didn't. That said the food was excellent almost eveywhere we ate.
But I don't think we were disappointed as much by the prices as that service was disappointing almost eveywhere we went except for fine dining for dinner. The spa, the activities, the casual dining by the pool, housekeeping and maintenance all left something if not a lot to be desired. Our room was $$$$ and came with a cracked toliet seat.
One thing we did consistently notice was that the high prices did lead to a higher class of people. While Disney is expensive, you get visitors from almost every walk of life and lack of courtesy and common sense is the default. Can't remember the last time I didn't see a parked stroller with a camera in it begging to be stolen.
At Atlantis people had brains, were thoughful, nobody rushed to be first and it wasn't until breakfast the last day that we saw kids that weren't well behaved.
Orlando was same old same old. Saw the family, went to Disneyworld, bought a bunch of stuff for Monica's nephew and nieces. But we had never been to the Bahamas.
Atlantis was beautiful and while the weather wasn't perfect - it rained Wednesday and was very windy Thursday - it was nice to get away from Seattle winter. That said I think we were both dissappointed. The prices were pretty outrageous; we were essentially paying "ballpark" prices all week. $4 for a bottle of water, $28 for the breakfast buffet. To me, everything was inflated about 100%. I wondered if I missed an exchange rate but I didn't. That said the food was excellent almost eveywhere we ate.
But I don't think we were disappointed as much by the prices as that service was disappointing almost eveywhere we went except for fine dining for dinner. The spa, the activities, the casual dining by the pool, housekeeping and maintenance all left something if not a lot to be desired. Our room was $$$$ and came with a cracked toliet seat.
One thing we did consistently notice was that the high prices did lead to a higher class of people. While Disney is expensive, you get visitors from almost every walk of life and lack of courtesy and common sense is the default. Can't remember the last time I didn't see a parked stroller with a camera in it begging to be stolen.
At Atlantis people had brains, were thoughful, nobody rushed to be first and it wasn't until breakfast the last day that we saw kids that weren't well behaved.
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