Exercise, Notebook, Poker

I did pretty well sticking to my exercise plan this week. I lifted three days to make up for the one day I skipped last week, and I'm actually starting to see some results. My shoulders actually look as if they have muscle on them now, which is nice. I think I might go buy a scale today while I'm running errands because I'd like to weigh myself every morning. I realize that if everything goes well, I won't actually lose a lot of weight because I will be replacing fat with muscle, but I should still drop probably 20-30 pounds over the next several months. It's also starting to get a little easier to exercise. My recovery time is getting better, and I feel stronger while lifting. That's good because I'm increasing weight every month, and if it didn't feel easier, I'd be boned.

I've decided that I want to try some open mic nights at a stand-up comedy club here in Omaha. I don't know where or when, but I know that I want to do it before the year is up. In preparation, I've started keeping a notebook with material in it. I don't think that I'm going to memorize it verbatim, but it will help me to have the ideas down on the page that I can refer back to as sort of an outline of what I want to talk about when I'm on stage. I don't know what prompted me to do this other than a goofy memory that I had the other day. My freshman year of college, I was in the Liberal Arts Seminar class of The Art and Culture of Stand-Up Comedy (an LAS is sort of like an intro to college class). As part of our class, we either had to host an open mic night or participate in one, and I chose to participate. I actually ended up doing two. The first one was awful. I bombed really bad, and that is an awful feeling having thirty people stare at you in silence. I decided to do another one, but I decided this while drunk. I killed. It was great. One of the people who was putting it on pulled me aside and told me that while they voted and decided that I won, their faculty sponsor wouldn't let me take the prize because I was "visibly intoxicated." Bummer. Hopefully my experiment isn't as emotionally scarring as the first time I tried it.

Poker was fucking AWESOME yesterday. I can't remember dropping to any three or four outers, and I even put a horrible beat on someone myself. In a $20 HU (they are the only matches I can get anymore), I had leaned on a guy and had him down to 3k in chips. I was dealt 85ss on the button and raised it up. We took a flop of 542 rainbow, he checked, I bet pot and he moved in over top. I thought he might have a bigger 5, but because of the chip counts I called and he showed A3 for the flopped stones. The turn peeled another 5, giving me ten outs for the win, and the river was a disgusting 5 for quads. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. I get a really sick enjoyment from sucking out on people because of all the times it happens to me, and running quads is about as sick as it gets. When the money went in, I was just a shade over 4% to win the hand. Neat. I played four $20 HU matches yesterday, along with some $.25/$.50 NLHE ring. I went 3-1 in the HU, primarily because I'm somewhat rusty. I played three matches against the guy that I had quads on and went 2-1. My one loss came because I made what I thought was a pretty good move and got insta-called. The guy was pretty weak-tight, and we took a flop of Q72 with two clubs. He had raised preflop and bet on the flop. He didn't use continuation bets, which told me that he either flopped a Q or had a bigger pair, so I called intending to bluff later. The turn was a blank and he bet again. I called. The river peeled a great card, the 7 of clubs. If he only has a Q, this makes a ton of different hands beat him. He checked and I bet pot, which at this point was over half of my stack at around 3k. Insta-call with KQ off. I was pretty shocked. While it was the right call, he didn't give himself any time to think about it. I had only showed down one bluff and one semi-bluff at this point, so he really didn't have much info to go on, but oh well. I got down to 1.5k in chips, battled back to 8k, got back to 1.5k, battled to 7k, then busted. I cranked off two straight wins and he wouldn't play me anymore. I then played Juggernaut again and finished him off fairly quickly. I started out down at about 7k/13k, but then doubled when I got him to call A4o into my KQ on a QQ4 flop. He doubled through me the next hand, but just a few hands later I got him to call QJ into my K9 on a KKT flop. Leading out with big hands is such a good play because very few people do it, and even fewer can put you on it. In the ring game, I rode a rollercoaster. I bought in for $50 and doubled on my third hand when I kept pushing with A7 on an A742 board and got called. The river was a J and I didn't get to see what the other guy had. I built up to around $120 when I got coolered with AK vs QQ on an AQ7 flop. I couldn't fold because of the odds, but I could've gotten away from it at some point. I raised pot preflop and got reraised by a guy that I haven't played with a lot. I put him on exactly QQ preflop, but called since he was flipping vs. my AKhh. I was first to act when the flop came, and I thought hard about checking because if he does have QQ, I'm boned, or if he was getting tough with AQ, I'm boned. I made the bad move and led out, hoping that he had KK, but when he moved over top for another $6 I knew that I was losing but had to call $6 into the $100 pot. What I should've done was check. If he has AQ or QQ he's going to check here, and then I know to dump it unless I catch miracles. If he has KK, AK, or even something like AJ, he's going to bet to see where he's at, and then I can pick him off. Oh well. That put me back to even where I hovered for awhile before a monsterpotten came up. I had 67cc and limped in EP. There were a few other limpers, and a guy moved in for his last $2. When it was back to me, there were three callers and three still to act behind, so I called. A guy behind me moved in for another $4, and three people called, so I called getting sick odds. The flop was A56 with only three of us having money left. It checked to the button who moved in for his last $5 and we all called. The turn was a 4, giving me open-ended. It checked around. The river was the delicious 8, giving me what I figured to be the nuts. I bet out $10 but the others folded and I dragged the $50+ pot. I again dragged another $50 when I flopped a 4 with my 44 and felted AQ. I busted two other short stacks for around $10 a piece which effectively ended the game, leaving me with around $107 in profit. Tasty. My bankroll is back to $836.77. Now to get back over that $1k hump. Maybe I can do it today after I run all of my errands. Wish me luck.