the return

First of all, I'd like to welcome back everyone that is currently reading this thing. If you had feigning interest because of my almost two month lay off, I don't blame you one bit. Whenever I wrote my last post, I knew that someday I would return. In the last four or five months before I ended writing up posts, I wasn't updating frequently enough for the weekly updates to mean anything. I felt that my writing was improving by leaps and bounds, but I was just sick of writing. I was especially sick of overanalyzing every detail of my life. I wanted to live my life, not report to other about living my life. There are pros and cons to a blog, and I had discovered that the constant reminder of what I had done over the past two and a half years wasn't always a welcoming thought.

Over the last two months, things are going exactly as I thought they would go. I have enjoyed living life and haven't had too many things to worry about. Nothing earth shattering happened over this period of time, and that was part of the reason that I delayed my return for so long. I experienced sort of a golden age of living in the fact that everyday I woke up, I was happy. I realized something after the failure of my last relationship and that is that you must be completely happy with yourself before you can be happy with anyone else. In the past, I would always say "Well, if I had a girlfriend that cared and loved me, I'd be happy" or "If I had his ability, I would be a happy person." Naturally, I came to realize that I am who I am, and I am ecstatic to say that I have my own unique set of talents and thoughts that make up the essence of myself. I think that this directly led me to rediscover poker after an almost two month layoff with that. As many of you know, I was taking huge hits at the beginning of the summer, but I had learned from years past on how to effectively manage a diminishing bankroll and was able to save myself before completely drowning. I took two months off, and then wandered into a play chip game over at Full Tilt Poker. After about three weeks of dominating the 1k/2k NL game over there(+2.5 million) and the 2500/5k limit game(+550k) I made a conscientious decision to return to skyview. My first session I won playing 1/2 no limit, and I rediscovered that the key to winning in poker is trying to grind away at small pots and then using that money to take shots at big pots. Since my return, I have had 4 winning sessions and 2 losing sessions. I have made huge strides in my online game, as evidenced by my performances over the last week in big tournaments. First, in a $2.50 triple shootout, I got down to three left in round two when I ran into some bad luck when the Rock of Gibraltar flopped top and bottom pair as I was trying to steal with middle pair. I ended up finishing 9/216 in that one. The next day, I almost qualified for Round 3 of the Moneymaker Millionaire. In a field of over 5000, I got 185th place when my flopped flush was rivered by a queen high flush. The day after that, I made it through Round 1 of the EPT Dublin qualifier by playing four solid hours of poker(and of course, minimizing the bad beats) to take top 7/755. In the second round(where top 2 got an all expense paid trip to the EPT event and Dublin) I moved allin early with AK on a K 10 2 flop. A guy to my left made the call with Q 10 and hit running J 9. I was just incredibly disappointed at that point, because I had done so well the day before and was unable to at least put myself into a position where I could have qualified for that event.

Regarding the Internet Gambling Bill, I believe it is the stupidest piece of legislation ever passed. In my opinion, the government has no right to tell its citizens where they can and cannot spend their money. If an American invests in overseas companies, they may be loathed by the government, but once again, the government cannot decide for its citizens where they should spend their money. In my opinion, this bill was passed for three reasons: 1) the government is afraid that these offshort sites where many of the online poker websites are based is sucking in too much American capital, 2)the government isn't getting a share of any of this, or 3) Bill Frist is a complete moron. Of course, I would like to believe that it is 3 for several reasons. Frist says that this is applicable to online poker because it is a game of chance. If poker is truly a game of chance(such as craps or roulette) where both players have an equal chance of winning, I would like to challenge Frist to a little heads up poker in whatever game he chooses. I believe that if I thrashed him around long enough it would get through his head that poker is(in the long run) a game of 90% skill and 10% luck. To me, there is as much luck involved in long run poker as there is in any other sport that is played. On the other hand, I hope that the first two were the real reasons that this bill was passed, because they are both legitimate reasons. However, the government could have taken much less destructive measures and simply charged a sort of an import tax on poker. Obviously, when goods come into our country, there are taxes on them. Do the same thing with poker. Take a small percentage from the rake and every cashout that is processed. If they told me that there would be a 2% tax on the rake of every pot, I would laugh and say "okay, let's get on with the game now". But this isn't how the government is run. Instead of doing things that may help to alleviate the trillions of dollars of debt(remember, the online gaming industry was worth an estimated 80 billion dollars in 2005), it takes destructive action to stop the flow of cash into foreign markets and force the close of many middle-man sites such as FirePay and Neteller. Not only that, but the added pressure of losing customers in the United States has forced PartyPoker and Pacific Poker to suspend all operations to customers in our "great" nation. Was it any coincidence that the stocks of brick and mortar casinos such as Harrah's(which the government makes money off of) skyrocketed after the passing of this law? Instead of completely upheaving the system and leaving hundreds in the poker industry jobless and thousands more confused on the future of online poker, the government felt it needed to change things more to their liking. Not to escape on too much of a tangent, but doesn't this look familiar to what happened in Iraq? Things are running smoothly until the US government steps in. You tell me who's the criminal: the man who creates chaos or the one who stops it?

In the past week, I've felt really drained of everything. It started last Thursday where I pulled an all nighter to finish my game theory speech, and I've yet to recover from that almost a week later. In total, I haven't got more than 7 hours sleep because I have been up late doing homework or trying to find inspiration for the next day. I have found that I need to re-discover the reasons that I am in school each day that I go there and listen to lectures that sound the same and assignments that are a waste of time. This semester, my only challenge is Economics, something that I'll probably be switching my major to because I find it incredibly interesting. Ever since I read Atlas Shrugged, I have had a completely different view of the role of money in society. Despite all the subtle nuances that go along with my life, I have little reason to complain. I can honestly say that I am ready to go up to PSU main next year. I am thoroughly excited to escape this place. In the next 10 months, I'm going to be looking for as many ways to leave Pittsburgh as possible(trips to turningstone, niagra falls, the dominican republic, and ocean city are definitely in order). It's not that I hate pittsburgh, it's simply that I want to get out and see the rest of the world. I have read about what life is like in a real casino, but I've never really been in one. I spoke Spanish and learned about Dominican culture in my Spanish IV class, but I have never been completely diffused into Latino culture. These are all things that I want to accomplish. Also, I'd love to qualify for a big poker tournament online. Whether it be an online tournament or one that takes me halfway around the globe, I want to play in a big tournament before I leave for PSU. My situation with money is fine. As most of you know, I haven't worked a "real job" for about three months now. To be discreete about it, I have other sources of income(not involving the sale of drugs, alcohol, whatever else you might think).

In conclusion, I'd like to thank everyone for reading once again. It's good to be writing again, and I thoroughly feel better after putting my words onto the screen. I'll leave you with the words of Robert Pinsky. It's a poem that I discovered in English class this year and one that I definitely enjoy. I hope you will as well

ABC
by: Robert Pinsky

Any body can die, evidently. Few
Go happily, irradiating joy,

Knowledge, love. Many
Need oblivion, painkillers,
Quickest respite.

Sweet time unafflicted,
Various world:

X=your zenith.



mh