Book Bet

Friday night I had some friends over for a poker night.

I recently read Phil Gordon’s Little Green book and I liked a lot of the things he said in the book. I was eager to try out some of what I had learned.

The night started off well for me. I remembered a few of the techniques laid out int he book and tried to stick to the plan. One of the things I need to work on is remembering how people play certain hands. Typically for me, once a hand is done, it is quickly forgotten. I am going to work on this.

The first few hands went well and I was happy with my play. On one hand I found that I had pocket jacks. I made a decent bet pre-flop and all folded except one friend who I had never played against before and he called. On the turn, nothing spectacular showed up. I was first to act and made another bet. He raised me.

Now I had a decision. Did he have a hand? No flush was possible yet, same with a straight. He either had a pocket pair better than mine, or trips. Hmm. Maybe he had nothing and was bluffing. I really had no idea since we were only a couple hands in and I didn’t really know what kind of player he was. I ended up folding and waiting to get more information on him.

After a few rounds I was sitting pretty good. I kept with the strategy and managed to keep raking in some good pots. Near the end of my run I guessed that I was up at least $15 (the buy in was $20).

From there it was a slow decline as my card luck fizzled. I was dealt so many J2 combos it was incredible. I played a couple of them when it was cheap to see the flop, but otherwise I folded them.

For the last hand I got an A6 suited. I decided to play the last hand, and unfortunately my strategy went out the window. I kept chasing the pot when I should have folded much earlier. I was up against a co-worker and eventually came to my senses, but not before I lost most of my profit. At the end of the night I was up $2.10. Sheesh.

Next time I will stick to my strategy, pay attention more, and try to remember how people play hands. Still, it was a very fun time with a great group of people.

Electric Slower

Last week while riding to work I caught up to someone riding an electric bicycle (that always sounds like such an oxymoron). I have a huge distaste for these contraptions. These things look pretty much exactly like a scooter, except they have pedals. It really is very hard to see the difference.

The people riding them don’t ride them like bikes, they tend to ride them like scooters. Except they ride in the bike lane. And sometimes on sidewalks. Quite often I see the rider weave around, and most of the time the electric bikes are slow. I have passed many of them while riding my bike.

On Monday when I rode to work I came up behind one nicely dressed woman on an electric bike. She was definitely on her way to work, but she was dawdling a little so I managed to catch up to her pretty easily. At a red light I waited behind her and when the light went green we both left.

I wanted to pass her, but she was going just a tich slower than me so I would have ended up beside her for a long time. Then I noticed there were no pedals at all. She was actually riding an electric scooter in the bike lane. Is that legal? I kind of doubt it.

She shoulder checked a couple times and saw me right behind her. After a quick hand signal she turned right, then drove up onto the sidewalk and rode along for a short bit. I know that isn’t legal. I guess she had reached her destination.

This is just another rant about someone doing stuff I don’t like.

Rusty Guiding

The ulti game was pretty decent tonight. I hadn’t played the last couple weeks, so I felt a little rusty in the game. During the warm up my throwing was fine, even with the windy conditions, but my catching was atrocious.

During the game my catching got better (thankfully). I was doing well tonight. I handled a fair amount and made some good passes, even guiding some of the newer players on where to go, then throwing the disk to them.

I caught at least one point, which always feels great. I made some good defensive plays, even getting an excellent D block at one point. I did get burned a couple times on defense, but I couldn’t run 100%. I even managed a halfways decent pull to start a point.

I felt like I was cutting pretty well, but sometimes I had to stand still while the mess in front of me cleared. It seems whenever that happens I get yelled at by a couple of the veterans. I can’t run forward since someone is cutting in front of me, and someone from my team is also cutting behind me. It is a mess.

The zone cuts are definitely starting to sink in with me. Putting on the zone, and me being mid-mid I am not entirely comfortable with but I am getting better. I get the first position correct, but I always screw up when the person forcing the handler changes. All of a sudden I am out of position and have to hussle to get back in position.

My biggest goof of the night was I totally screwed up a force. I knew the force was away, and when my check got the disk I put on the force hard and didn’t waver. Unfortunately I was facing home, and by the time I realized what I had done (after having more than one person yell at me), it was too late and the other team had scored a point because of it. Now, to explain a little bit, with the direction we were playing, the force normally would have been home to make the thrower throw a flick. We reversed it so the catchers would be facing the sun, and also hoping that a backhand throw wouldn’t have enough spin to cut through the wind.

Anyway, fun game, good team. We lost by a little.

Parade Swing

Saturday morning was the Buccaneer Day’s parade here in Esquimalt. We had all sorts of fun. We started off with a pancake breakfast at our house with some friends, then we all walked down to the parade route. The parade took a while to get to us, but we weren’t dissapointed. Pirates and booty abound in this parade. Aaarrrrr!

It’s a tight fit sometimes, but they managed to get through without hurting anyone.

Gotta keep hydrated with lots of grog.

Watch out for these guys though. They are good at stealing and plundering.

Watch where you cross or you may get accosted by this vicious biker gang!

The celebrities were out in full force.
Hudson Mack:

Piano guy:

The Mascot for the Salmon Kings, Marty the Marmot?

There were some fine pirate vessels as well.

What better way to end the parade time, than a swing at the park.


Fish Power

Today I got out to PetSmart and picked out a couple more fish. I got a Sunburst Wag Platy, and a Red Long Fin Tetra. I’m still trying to get the crayfish too. Those are going to be awesome.

Tonight, for the first time since setting it up, I cleaned my new tank.

My new gravel siphon is awesome and did an excellent job. Strong sucking power meant none of the crud got backwashed into the tank. Of course, the bigger tank means more water to remove and to more water to add back. I didn’t let the water sit overnight to off-gas like I usually do. Just to do the 30% flush I needed three buckets of water. I did add some dechlorinator though. I’ll see how this water change goes, and if nothing disastrous happens, I’ll likely do the same procedure next time.