Happy Harvard Extension School Day!

My school celebrates its centennial today. Happy Birthday!

That's an old photograph of Harvard Station, some time after its completion in 1912. It was completely rebuilt in the 1980s when the MBTA extended the Red Line to Alewife Brook. The trolleys are trackless (i.e. trolley buses) and dip through underground now but it's odd in a way that point in space is a part of my daily commute.

Here's what the same intersection looked like last summer, via Panorama. (Note the same brick exterior on the building to the far left in both pictures; the current entrance to Harvard station is in the background below a sign marked with a long red line. And no, it hasn't been still under construction all that time, that was just some road work,)

Bulldozer meme crossed over?

What would Hevad Khan do?

MOSCOW, Ohio -- An Ohio man says he bulldozed his $350,000 home to keep a bank from foreclosing on it.

more via the AP

full story and video via WLWT 

Terry Hoskins was ordered by the court to come up with $365,000 in 30 days to settle a civil suit. And he did that, as a responsible citizen. He worked out a deal with the bank where he could put up his business as collateral. However, at the last hour (of the court imposed deadline) the bank presented him with a new loan contract, including the house, which he did not have time to get reviewed by a lawyer.

So at some point, he offered to pay off the loan in order to keep his house, which is what he thought the contract said he could do, but the bank decided they could make more money by seizing the collateral and apparently language permitting this was buried in the contract; that was arguably the bank's plan all along.

He warned the bank that he wasn't going to let them screw him over like that, and would just bulldoze the house. They called his bluff. He wasn't bluffing.

OK, I know, I know: that has nothing to do with Hevad Khan's use of the word bulldozer. Why so serious?

OK, so I decided to play one more tournament

Here's my tourney graph for the month. Those 40 man Sit-and-goes killed me, and you can see why I decided to go back to the cash games around #82.

But, I still had stored away a Sunday Million ticket from when PokerStars had their VIP store sale back in January, which was a no-brainer -- I had a ton of player points just sitting around from grinding 50NL last fall. (I never cash them in, since it's nice to know if I go life busto I can use them to grind up a bankroll from scratch.)

So, today's special $4 million guarantee was tough to resist. I almost didn't play -- I was dog tired going on 5 hours sleep and I woke up at 7AM, but for some reason but I got up, popped a 5-hour energy drink, and traded in my ticket.

Oh, now I remember the reason: with a prize pool at 5.5 million and climbing (via late registration) who can resist that.

I definitely played horribad towards the end, and thought I was flipping in a few spots where I was completely dominated. Of course, after 5 hours the energy drink was starting to wear off a little, just as advertised. (Final hand with only ~3 blinds left my Kh7c << Jc3s after I called all-in in a blind versus blind battle when the board ran 8hAh5dJh and couldn't catch the redraw to any heart or king. Why the villain shoved when I was pot committed is anyone's guess!)

Still, 2,015th place out of 36,169 players was OK for a nice score, since I was almost freerolling. Good use of 10,000 Frequent Player Points in any case. So while I guess over all this 40 Billionth hand promo was a wash, it's still about time for the:

BANKWIRE > ATM > ETC.

(Of course, the payout for first place will be $1.14 million, but I've always abided by the wisdom of the Boston Driver's Handbook, which should be on any poker player's bookshelf, imo. To paraphrase: when you're in a traffic jam, don't go on tilt thinking about all those lucky people ahead of you, but instead laugh merrily at all those poor suckers stuck behind you!)

P.S. A shout out back to 2+2er "Don Melchor", who placed 650th, just as I came back to the rail. Sick way to go out, I hate those spots. But I has three pair! gg sir!! Some day we'll all get our LOLbanHammerments sorted out!

Dinosaur Jr -- Feel the Pain

The redline is not supposed to do that!

My God, I do believe 25NL players have finally learned to fold. As this is surely a sign of the End Times,  I expect to be live-blogging the Apocalypse before the month is out. So stay tuned!

Aside from the crazy 6 hour 7-8 tabling session I played on Thursday night, just trying to bink the jackpot promotion -- I'm pretty sure I lost a 400 big blind stack more than once lol -- this is my graph so far since I switched back to the cash games.

I'm not sure what I've changed since September, other than some good advice I picked up from Improva.

Oh well. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I was right, dead right

Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he’s just as dead as if he'd been dead wrong.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $27.10
Hero (SB): $39.65
BB: $25.00
UTG: $29.30
UTG+1: $25.20
MP: $8.10
CO: $26.30

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with 8 9

2 folds, MP raises to $0.75, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.65, BB raises to $4, MP calls $3.25, Hero calls $3.25

Flop: ($12.00) 9 5 J (3 players)

Hero checks, BB bets $6, MP calls $4.10 all in, Hero calls $6

Turn: ($28.10) 6 (3 players - 1 is all in)

Hero checks, BB bets $15 all in, Hero calls $15

River: ($58.10) K (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $58.10

Hero shows 8 9 (a pair of Nines)

BB shows A K (a pair of Kings)

MP shows Q K (a pair of Kings - lower kicker)

BB wins $32.15
BB wins $23.15
(Rake: $2.80)

For some reason I decided to start talking to the villain, who insisted he was 60% ahead on the turn. Math is hard.

Obama in Vegas

Via Salon

Before I go any further, let me set the record straight: I love Vegas! Always have. Love Vegas. Enjoy myself every time I've had an opportunity to visit. In fact, just last night I drew a flush on the river and cut the budget deficit in half.

Waka waka waka!

(Although, if that was a tongue in cheek comment on the Congressional plans to tax the daylights out of poker deposits, after having met with FTP owners Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer that same last night, then I'm a little afraid!)

I'm going back to cash games

Yeah, I think so. Isildur hath inspired me.

Styling profiling....

Pop in a cassette and push play!

I'm not too happy about my redline though. Heh....

LL Cool J -- I'm Going Back to Cali

She said she liked the ocean

ZeeJustin wins it all back

Well I'll be damned.

Via twitter:

The Return of Isildur

Isildur1 is baaack! And cleaning out pockets....

^^ I would love to know ZeeJustin's thought process before getting involved in that match. Isil is probably the best NLHE HU player in the world. So, why not six table him at 400NL? That's a plan. Not a good plan, obviously.

Update:  Justin tweets:

This hand about sums up my day

Ugh, I dunno. I was breaking even for a while at these special 40 man games, but the cloud of doom continues. It seems like in the middle game all it takes is to lose one hand, and then you are in the yellow or red zone PDQ. I really need to go back to my bread and butter (27 or 18 man games) before I go busto.

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t125/t250 Blinds + t25 - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: t5210 M = 9.92
MP: t3925 M = 7.48
CO: t5810 M = 11.07
BTN: t1525 M = 2.90
SB: t9077 M = 17.29
Hero (BB): t3696 M = 7.04

Pre Flop: (t525) Hero is BB with 9 Q
3 folds, BTN raises to t1500 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls t1250

Flop: (t3275) 7 2 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t3275) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t3275) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t3275
BTN shows 6 3 (two pair, Sevens and Threes)
Hero shows 9 Q (a pair of Sevens)
BTN wins t3275

Total in the zone pick off, but just can't hold. I know I only had 63% equity, so it's not a horrendous beat, but still, dealer one time!!

The $10 forty mans are nice and fishy

But someone please teach me to fade outs!

Poker Stars, $10 + $1 NL Hold'em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 10 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

: 1,500
Hero (): 1,140
: 1,480
: 1,960
: 1,500
: 1,500
: 1,500
: 1,500
: 1,500
: 1,420

Pre-Flop: (30) dealt to Hero ()

2 folds, raises to 40,  calls 40, 3 folds, Hero raises to 120, 2 folds,  calls 80,  calls 80

Flop: (390) (3 Players)

 checks, bets 160, Hero raises to 400,  calls 400,  calls 240

Turn: (1,590) [ ] (3 Players)

 checks,  checks, Hero bets 620 and is All-In,  folds,  calls 620

River: (2,830) [ ] (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 2,830 Pot

Hero showed and LOST (-1,140 NET)

Villain showed and WON 2,830 (+1,690 NET)

Next!



Poker Stars, $10 + $1 NL Hold'em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 10 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

: 1,091
: 1,490
: 2,033
: 1,470
: 1,470
Hero (): 1,442
: 1,199
: 1,649
: 1,676
: 1,480

Pre-Flop: (30) dealt to Hero ()
folds, raises to 41, 2 folds, Hero raises to 140, calls 140, 4 folds, calls 99

Flop: (450) (3 Players)
bets 202, Hero raises to 1,302 and is All-In, calls 1,059 and is All-In, folds

Turn: (2,770) [ ] (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: (2,770) [ ] (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: 2,770 Pot
Hero showed and LOST (-1,199 NET)
Villain showed and WON 2,770 (+1,571 NET)

Grandaddy -- The Crystal Lake