I'm getting pretty psyched...few days until World Cup begins...and then in two weeks time I'll basically be free for 1.5 years!
I'm getting really excited for exchange too. We had a pre-departure session last week and Lund sounds like it has the most amazing student social life. I have a friend who's there now and he said the time went by so fast...
My trip has also been completely finalised...
• 9th July – leave Sydney
• 10th-17th – Paris
• 17th-23rd – Barcelona
• 23rd-29th – Marseille
• 29th -3rd August – Nice
• 3rd-8th – Florence
• 8th-15th – Rome
• 15th– fly to Copenhagen
• 16th – Arrive in Lund
During semester we'll go to Oktoberfest, visit Utrecht and Amsterdam, and go up north to hopefully see the Northern Lights. We'll also probably see Stockholm and some other places if time permits.
Then next year I'm basically going to be playing poker full-time! I'll obviously be focusing on cash but I'm planning to take tournaments up again since I'll be able to play every Monday (Sunday in the US) and all the FTOPS/WCOOP/SCOOP for the first time. As for big live events, I'm looking to play a decent schedule at the WSOP (I was initially going to just play the 5K 6-Max, Main Event and possibly whatever big NLHE event they come up with next year but I think I might play the small events that are running while I'm there as well), WSOPE, EPT London, and APPT Sydney. Aussie Millions 2012 should round out my poker career.
As for general holiday trips, I want to go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Pompeii, Venice, Athens, some Greek Islands, LA, San Diego and San Francisco, and possibly NYC and Shanghai as well.
So, what's between me and all those places? Two weeks of copyright, trade marks, and private international law...
Argh...back to the books...
Showing posts with label Uni Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uni Life. Show all posts
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Final Day at Sydney University!
Tomorrow is my final day of classes at Sydney University...kind of scary, four and a half years have gone so fast.
Afterwards I have 3.5 weeks to study for three exams and to write one 4000 word essay...then I'm off to Europe!
My plans for Europe have changed a bit...I'm now adding in three days each at Nice, Venice and Florence and cutting shorter my time in Rome, Barcelona and Paris. Should still be amazing!
In terms of poker my 10/20 6-max goal has been going nowhere and I've been breaking even there over the last 40K hands or so. Pretty annoying...I'm sitting on 135K out of 207K at the moment so I still need another 36 buy-ins. I was hoping to clear it before I left but that seems an impossibility now. I have however cleared 100K for the year now so that's one goal out of the way I guess. May so far:
Finally, I've finished my 1/2 deep ante series so hopefully those videos will go up sometime in the near future. That series will be my last series until I guess February next year when I get back so make sure to enjoy them and ask a lot of questions whilst I still know what I'm doing – next year I'll probably be useless and completely out of date lol.
Good luck at the tables.
Afterwards I have 3.5 weeks to study for three exams and to write one 4000 word essay...then I'm off to Europe!
My plans for Europe have changed a bit...I'm now adding in three days each at Nice, Venice and Florence and cutting shorter my time in Rome, Barcelona and Paris. Should still be amazing!
In terms of poker my 10/20 6-max goal has been going nowhere and I've been breaking even there over the last 40K hands or so. Pretty annoying...I'm sitting on 135K out of 207K at the moment so I still need another 36 buy-ins. I was hoping to clear it before I left but that seems an impossibility now. I have however cleared 100K for the year now so that's one goal out of the way I guess. May so far:
Finally, I've finished my 1/2 deep ante series so hopefully those videos will go up sometime in the near future. That series will be my last series until I guess February next year when I get back so make sure to enjoy them and ask a lot of questions whilst I still know what I'm doing – next year I'll probably be useless and completely out of date lol.
Good luck at the tables.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Euros, Help Me Travel Europe!
So I booked my flights! July 9 from Sydney to Paris and August 15 from Rome to Copenhagen. The question is, what is the best way to get from Paris to Marseille to Barcelona to Rome? I presume I can catch a train from Paris to Marseille but from Marseille to Barcelona and especially from Barcelona to Rome I'm not entirely sure (train, plane, ferry?). Any advice would be awesome.
On the poker front, I haven't been able to play much these last few weeks. I had an exam last week and have one next week and after that I'll still be busy right through till the end of semester so unfortunately it's looking like I won't be able to finish my yearly goals by July. However, that's not really a concern for me anymore because I've decided that I will take my RSAs to Sweden and at least give myself the option of playing poker while there. Initially I was reluctant to do this because I wanted to make sure I made the most of my exchange experience and didn't just grind in my dorm room the whole time. However I decided that letting my game age by 7 months was not a good idea, especially since I'm now definitely taking a year off next year to travel and play full time. I definitely don't want to start next year rusty or behind the times. Also, even though I won't be playing very much, I'll still probably be foregoing about 100K by not playing for those 7 months, and that's a pretty big thing to give up.
I'll definitely make sure I balance my time well though. I'm going to Sweden to have a lot of fun and gain invaluable life experiences, not to just while my time away playing poker. I might even do something like set myself a limit of 10K hands per month and force myself to donate $1 for every hand I play beyond that or give out free coaching or something. We'll see.
Finally I did a video with Andrew which I think went pretty well, and I've also finished 2 of the 3 parts of my new series. I'll do the final part when my self-exclude ends in a week so look out for the series fairly soon!
Good luck at the tables.
On the poker front, I haven't been able to play much these last few weeks. I had an exam last week and have one next week and after that I'll still be busy right through till the end of semester so unfortunately it's looking like I won't be able to finish my yearly goals by July. However, that's not really a concern for me anymore because I've decided that I will take my RSAs to Sweden and at least give myself the option of playing poker while there. Initially I was reluctant to do this because I wanted to make sure I made the most of my exchange experience and didn't just grind in my dorm room the whole time. However I decided that letting my game age by 7 months was not a good idea, especially since I'm now definitely taking a year off next year to travel and play full time. I definitely don't want to start next year rusty or behind the times. Also, even though I won't be playing very much, I'll still probably be foregoing about 100K by not playing for those 7 months, and that's a pretty big thing to give up.
I'll definitely make sure I balance my time well though. I'm going to Sweden to have a lot of fun and gain invaluable life experiences, not to just while my time away playing poker. I might even do something like set myself a limit of 10K hands per month and force myself to donate $1 for every hand I play beyond that or give out free coaching or something. We'll see.
Finally I did a video with Andrew which I think went pretty well, and I've also finished 2 of the 3 parts of my new series. I'll do the final part when my self-exclude ends in a week so look out for the series fairly soon!
Good luck at the tables.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Mini-Heater, Back to Uni, Back to Vegas?
So I had a really bad start to the year and was down 50K a week ago. Some of it was tilt, some of it was not game selecting anymore, some of it was just bad play.
Fortunately I was taken away from my computer for a few days as I went down the coast to a friend's beachhouse. It was a good chance to clear my head and just watch movies and play X-Box all day. I also went over some of my poker notes to make sure that my game was still sharp. Since I've been back I've made 29K in 6.5K hands, so it seems that the break did do some good :).
I return to uni tomorrow and with 4 days a week rather than the 2 that I had last semester I imagine that I won't be able to play nearly as much as I'd like to in the next few months. I'm still going to aim for 200K profit by June though, although realistically I'll be very happy with 100K.
I also decided not to do the law course at Cambridge in July after all. There were a few factors in my decision but mostly I didn't want to have an 80% final essay hanging over my head while I travelled around Europe. This does however open the door for me to return to Vegas. The 25K 6-max and the Main Event both interest me but in the end I think the 30% tax will be too much to overcome. It was worth it for the experience last year, but it's going to be pretty hard to justify playing again. That said, I didn't get to experience Vegas itself as much as I would've liked to last year since I was in the tournament for so long, so I might go for a couple of days and just live it up and maybe play some cash on the side. Then again, I could just arrive in Europe a week earlier and live it up there instead :).
In other news I've coaxed a few friends into playing a run'n'go with me in June. Buy-in $100, treadmill set on 10km/hr, last one standing wins :). Wish me luck!
Finally, I got featured over at PokerNews which was pretty cool. Have a read if you have time: http://www.pokernews.com/online-poker/interviews/online-poker-spotlight-joey-jcl-lawrence-6120.htm
Good luck at the tables guys.
Fortunately I was taken away from my computer for a few days as I went down the coast to a friend's beachhouse. It was a good chance to clear my head and just watch movies and play X-Box all day. I also went over some of my poker notes to make sure that my game was still sharp. Since I've been back I've made 29K in 6.5K hands, so it seems that the break did do some good :).
I return to uni tomorrow and with 4 days a week rather than the 2 that I had last semester I imagine that I won't be able to play nearly as much as I'd like to in the next few months. I'm still going to aim for 200K profit by June though, although realistically I'll be very happy with 100K.
I also decided not to do the law course at Cambridge in July after all. There were a few factors in my decision but mostly I didn't want to have an 80% final essay hanging over my head while I travelled around Europe. This does however open the door for me to return to Vegas. The 25K 6-max and the Main Event both interest me but in the end I think the 30% tax will be too much to overcome. It was worth it for the experience last year, but it's going to be pretty hard to justify playing again. That said, I didn't get to experience Vegas itself as much as I would've liked to last year since I was in the tournament for so long, so I might go for a couple of days and just live it up and maybe play some cash on the side. Then again, I could just arrive in Europe a week earlier and live it up there instead :).
In other news I've coaxed a few friends into playing a run'n'go with me in June. Buy-in $100, treadmill set on 10km/hr, last one standing wins :). Wish me luck!
Finally, I got featured over at PokerNews which was pretty cool. Have a read if you have time: http://www.pokernews.com/online-poker/interviews/online-poker-spotlight-joey-jcl-lawrence-6120.htm
Good luck at the tables guys.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Going on Exchange to Lund!
I finally found out my exchange results and I’m going to Lund, Sweden! What’s especially cool is that it’s right across from Copenhagen and I’ve wanted to go there for a while now so that’ll be awesome too.
I’m here in NYC for another 3 days and am currently deciding whether to go down to Melbourne or not for the end of Aussie Millions. I can’t get back in time for the Main Event but I could grind cash for a few days, play the $2200 6-Max event and generally soak up the cool vibe that comes with an international poker tournament. The only problem is that the highest NLHE game apparently running is only 10/20/40 which is pretty meh and I’m pretty tired too so I’m not sure. We’ll see I guess.
My trip so far has been amazing though. PCA this year had a completely different vibe to last year and was generally a lot more fun this time around. As for NYC, it’s my first time here and it’s been awesome too: sight-seeing by day and bar-hopping by night. We saw Wicked and went to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman too. I’ll do a trip report when I get home.
Anyway 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty cool year. Bahamas and NYC this month, Cambridge University in July, exchange to Sweden in September, and then I imagine a lot of travelling around Europe in August!
I’m here in NYC for another 3 days and am currently deciding whether to go down to Melbourne or not for the end of Aussie Millions. I can’t get back in time for the Main Event but I could grind cash for a few days, play the $2200 6-Max event and generally soak up the cool vibe that comes with an international poker tournament. The only problem is that the highest NLHE game apparently running is only 10/20/40 which is pretty meh and I’m pretty tired too so I’m not sure. We’ll see I guess.
My trip so far has been amazing though. PCA this year had a completely different vibe to last year and was generally a lot more fun this time around. As for NYC, it’s my first time here and it’s been awesome too: sight-seeing by day and bar-hopping by night. We saw Wicked and went to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman too. I’ll do a trip report when I get home.
Anyway 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty cool year. Bahamas and NYC this month, Cambridge University in July, exchange to Sweden in September, and then I imagine a lot of travelling around Europe in August!
Monday, November 23, 2009
PCA, New York, Exchange, Cambridge and more!
Well, exams are over!!! That’s a big relief. I did my usual Red Bull-driven cram and think I did pretty well all things considered. In two days I have a summer internship interview for the NSW Law Reform Commission. If I get that I’ll be working December and February and travelling to the Bahamas and New York in January. If I don’t get it I’ll be playing APPT Sydney in December and hopefully will be going to Japan in February. Either way I’m hitting up PCA and NY!
For PCA I decided to do the full package, extended nights and all, so I’ll be there from the 4th to the 15th and then I’ll be in New York from the 15th to 24th. I can’t wait for both! I’ve never been to New York and since everyone says how incredible it is I’ve been itching to go for ages. And this will be my second (and probably last) time at PCA so I’m definitely looking forward to that and I know it’ll be a blast.
I’ll also find out about my exchange in January. I applied to the law exchange earlier in the year but didn’t get that because my law marks aren’t good enough. I then applied through the general university-wide exchange program which counts all your marks and my commerce marks are pretty killer so I’m pretty confident of being able to get that. My preferences (in order) are Lund and Uppsala in Sweden (maybe I can find and learn from Isildur?) and Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. I’m really hoping to end up at Lund but will be happy with any of the other destinations too.
Finally, I received this e-mail the other day about this opportunity at Cambridge. Basically I can do one of my law units next year over at Cambridge instead of here in Sydney. The way it works is that I do one less subject here next semester and then I travel over there to do an entire subject in one (very intensive) week! I did a day-trip to Cambridge last time I was in London and the university really caught my imagination. It has cobbled streets, luscious lawns and sandstone buildings, and as a university town it has this really unique ambiance about it. I remember thinking how amazing it’d be to be able to study at a place like that and now I have the chance! Now obviously one week isn’t much compared to the real thing, but it’s the best chance I’ve got so I think I’ll have to take it.
The only problem is…it coincides with the WSOP Main Event. Oh well, I wasn’t sure I was going back anyway since I was probably going to travel around Europe if I got into exchange. I also figure that I can go back to the WSOP later in life, but I’ll never be able to do this again.
Whatever happens, a pretty exciting year coming up for me I think. Can’t wait!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
CardRunners Videos, Clerkship Interviews, 35K Week
My first CardRunners video was received really well so that was a big relief. I’ve now got the go ahead to make a series at either 1/2 or 2/4 and I’m thinking that I might do both – i.e. a series on how to transition from 1/2 to 2/4 since that was a big jump for me and I had a lot of trouble with it when I was moving up. But then again I might just make a 2/4 series since technically I am supposed to be a MSNL instructor and 1/2 is only SSNL.
I’ve had a reading week this week at uni but it’s been the least relaxing reading week ever. I’ve had to go to four summer clerkship interviews and two related information sessions and I’ve had to do a bunch of background research before each interview as well. It’s been exhausting and after my last interview yesterday I’m just really glad that it’s all over now, at least for a week or two (second-round interview offers come out after then).
Finally, poker has been going a lot better this week. I’m up $35,000 so far this month and am nearly back to where I was before I had my two-day train-wreck last week. As you can imagine though I’ve been running white hot and thus will probably hit another 50K downswing next week when my luck settles down.
I’ve had a reading week this week at uni but it’s been the least relaxing reading week ever. I’ve had to go to four summer clerkship interviews and two related information sessions and I’ve had to do a bunch of background research before each interview as well. It’s been exhausting and after my last interview yesterday I’m just really glad that it’s all over now, at least for a week or two (second-round interview offers come out after then).
Finally, poker has been going a lot better this week. I’m up $35,000 so far this month and am nearly back to where I was before I had my two-day train-wreck last week. As you can imagine though I’ve been running white hot and thus will probably hit another 50K downswing next week when my luck settles down.
I’m going to take a short nap now and write up day 4 of my Vegas trip afterwards I think. Peace.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
50K Downer…Sent Packing Back to 5/10…
So my first shot at playing 10/20+ exclusively was a dismal failure. I’ve lost about 50K in the last two weeks and it certainly hasn’t been very pleasant all-round. I cashed out a huge chunk (42K) when I was on my heater so now I’ve only got 54K online and am pretty much busto. I don’t like re-depositing so I think it’s time to return to 5/10 and grind it all back up again…
The weird thing about this downswing is that it never really hit me just how much I was losing until I crossed the 50K mark today. With uni being back in session I’ve been playing shorter and more sporadic sessions and this means that no single session has really caused me to tilt or go ‘jeez, what a shocking session that was’. Rather I’ve been losing small amounts frequently and consistently and so eventually it’s all snowballed and turned into this one massive downswing. Oh well.
In other news I managed to finish my summer clerkship applications last week and was about to plan a trip to London for the WSOPE when it dawned on me that I couldn’t actually go – despite it being perfectly timed to fit in with my mid-semester break, second round clerkship interviews were scheduled for that very week :(. I better damn well get through to that stage now or it’s going to be a very annoyed Joey…
Anyway, my plan from here on I guess is just to grind 5/10 until I get my roll back up to 100K and then take shots at 10/20 again. I haven’t watched many videos recently so I guess I should also start doing that again.
Next entry I’ll definitely (and finally!) start my epic day-by-day Vegas/WSOP Main Event trip report. I haven’t had time to do it because of clerkship applications and uni restarting but now that everything’s settled down and poker is going terribly I might as well sit down and write it up. Until then, peace.
The weird thing about this downswing is that it never really hit me just how much I was losing until I crossed the 50K mark today. With uni being back in session I’ve been playing shorter and more sporadic sessions and this means that no single session has really caused me to tilt or go ‘jeez, what a shocking session that was’. Rather I’ve been losing small amounts frequently and consistently and so eventually it’s all snowballed and turned into this one massive downswing. Oh well.
In other news I managed to finish my summer clerkship applications last week and was about to plan a trip to London for the WSOPE when it dawned on me that I couldn’t actually go – despite it being perfectly timed to fit in with my mid-semester break, second round clerkship interviews were scheduled for that very week :(. I better damn well get through to that stage now or it’s going to be a very annoyed Joey…
Anyway, my plan from here on I guess is just to grind 5/10 until I get my roll back up to 100K and then take shots at 10/20 again. I haven’t watched many videos recently so I guess I should also start doing that again.
Next entry I’ll definitely (and finally!) start my epic day-by-day Vegas/WSOP Main Event trip report. I haven’t had time to do it because of clerkship applications and uni restarting but now that everything’s settled down and poker is going terribly I might as well sit down and write it up. Until then, peace.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Leaving for Vegas, 5/10 HU, Bra Story!
So I’m leaving for Vegas tomorrow! Our flight leaves 2PM Thursday Australian time and arrives in Las Vegas 12PM Thursday US time. Who said time travel wasn’t possible?
Our plans at this time are pretty sketchy but we know that we want to take a helicopter to see the Grand Canyon and see at least one Cirque du Soleil show, probably ‘O’. By complete chance (we discovered this last week) two friends from uni are there at the moment for a holiday so we’ll probably meet up with them on Friday night and go clubbing before they leave Saturday morning. I have no idea what clubs are good on Fridays but I assume they’re all decent on weekends. I also want to get bottle service because it sounds awesome but I have no idea how the whole deal works.
The other thing that I have absolutely no clue about is how to tip. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a big tipping fish and tip way more than necessary, mostly because I don’t want to be rude and inadvertently tip too little.
I’m planning to play Day 1D of the Main Event since that falls on a Monday which will allow me to enjoy the weekend. I heard Wet Republic at MGM is good so we’ll probably check that out on Sunday. The girls we’re going with have unfortunately vetoed Rehab at Hard Rock (apparently it’s too skanky) so it looks like we won’t be going there. Oh well.
Hmm what else. We’re going to dine at some balla restaurant at least once and probably pig out on buffets for the rest of the time. My birthday is on the 12th which I believe is a Sunday so we’ll probably do bottle service again on the Saturday.
Whatever else we do, I’m sure it’ll be awesome and I’ll definitely post some pics and a trip report when I get back. I don’t think I’ll be bothered to do real time updates while I’m there though; I might post a sentence or two about my position in the Main Event but that’s probably it since I can think of better things to do while in Vegas than blogging.
In other news, poker has been going along at breakeven pace as usual: grind 10K at 5/10, lose it at higher stake shots, repeat. I didn’t complete my 5/10 goal unfortunately but to be fair I haven’t had all that much time to play. The questions in the exchange application were far more intensive, searching and generally time-consuming than I had initially expected (for the record I put NYU, Cornell, Copenhagen, Utrecht and Texas as my five preferences in that order; realistically hoping for Copenhagen but will ‘settle’ for Utrecht) and I’ve been out quite a few times this week since it’s the first week of holidays and everyone’s psyched to do stuff.
In the time that I have been able to play I’ve actually been playing quite a bit of 5/10 HU. I still have no clue how to play HU (I’ve watched like less than 10 videos ever) but I’ve decided that I want to get really good at poker and I think that 4-tabling a good reg HU and seeing what they do well is a really good way to learn and get better. It’s pretty hard to find an opponent to 4-table though since no one plays you unless they think they’re about to crush you into a little pulp so anytime I do get action I’m probably massively –EV but I still think it’s worth it (for a little while at least!). So far I’ve been able to play jungleman, Ket, jsnipes, gp333, tcorbin and heybude. I learnt some incredible things from two of them (won’t say which!) that I’m definitely going to look to incorporate into my game and I’m just a lot more confident in my game generally having played them. I feel like the 6-maxers won’t know what hit them when I go back! Especially once I begin coaching with FoxwoodsFiend later this month (yes, name drop, but I’m so psyched! His videos were literally the reason I joined DeucesCracked initially.).
To finish, I thought I’d tell what I think is a fairly amusing story. It was the end of semester law party last Friday and I had pre-drinks at mine which means I was pretty gone by the time we got there. There was this moment where I’m arguing with a girl (call her X) about her bra size and she’s vehemently nodding her head and saying that she’s a D not a C (or a C not a D?) and I’m just like no way. I remember wondering at the time “how the hell did this conversation come up?” but of course didn’t think too much of it and went along with the conversation. Anyway last night I was talking to another girl from the conversation and asked her how it all came up. She’s like: “Well, when X came up to say hi to us, you said to her ‘hey, we’re talking about bra sizes, what’s yours?’”.
FML.
Our plans at this time are pretty sketchy but we know that we want to take a helicopter to see the Grand Canyon and see at least one Cirque du Soleil show, probably ‘O’. By complete chance (we discovered this last week) two friends from uni are there at the moment for a holiday so we’ll probably meet up with them on Friday night and go clubbing before they leave Saturday morning. I have no idea what clubs are good on Fridays but I assume they’re all decent on weekends. I also want to get bottle service because it sounds awesome but I have no idea how the whole deal works.
The other thing that I have absolutely no clue about is how to tip. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a big tipping fish and tip way more than necessary, mostly because I don’t want to be rude and inadvertently tip too little.
I’m planning to play Day 1D of the Main Event since that falls on a Monday which will allow me to enjoy the weekend. I heard Wet Republic at MGM is good so we’ll probably check that out on Sunday. The girls we’re going with have unfortunately vetoed Rehab at Hard Rock (apparently it’s too skanky) so it looks like we won’t be going there. Oh well.
Hmm what else. We’re going to dine at some balla restaurant at least once and probably pig out on buffets for the rest of the time. My birthday is on the 12th which I believe is a Sunday so we’ll probably do bottle service again on the Saturday.
Whatever else we do, I’m sure it’ll be awesome and I’ll definitely post some pics and a trip report when I get back. I don’t think I’ll be bothered to do real time updates while I’m there though; I might post a sentence or two about my position in the Main Event but that’s probably it since I can think of better things to do while in Vegas than blogging.
In other news, poker has been going along at breakeven pace as usual: grind 10K at 5/10, lose it at higher stake shots, repeat. I didn’t complete my 5/10 goal unfortunately but to be fair I haven’t had all that much time to play. The questions in the exchange application were far more intensive, searching and generally time-consuming than I had initially expected (for the record I put NYU, Cornell, Copenhagen, Utrecht and Texas as my five preferences in that order; realistically hoping for Copenhagen but will ‘settle’ for Utrecht) and I’ve been out quite a few times this week since it’s the first week of holidays and everyone’s psyched to do stuff.
In the time that I have been able to play I’ve actually been playing quite a bit of 5/10 HU. I still have no clue how to play HU (I’ve watched like less than 10 videos ever) but I’ve decided that I want to get really good at poker and I think that 4-tabling a good reg HU and seeing what they do well is a really good way to learn and get better. It’s pretty hard to find an opponent to 4-table though since no one plays you unless they think they’re about to crush you into a little pulp so anytime I do get action I’m probably massively –EV but I still think it’s worth it (for a little while at least!). So far I’ve been able to play jungleman, Ket, jsnipes, gp333, tcorbin and heybude. I learnt some incredible things from two of them (won’t say which!) that I’m definitely going to look to incorporate into my game and I’m just a lot more confident in my game generally having played them. I feel like the 6-maxers won’t know what hit them when I go back! Especially once I begin coaching with FoxwoodsFiend later this month (yes, name drop, but I’m so psyched! His videos were literally the reason I joined DeucesCracked initially.).
To finish, I thought I’d tell what I think is a fairly amusing story. It was the end of semester law party last Friday and I had pre-drinks at mine which means I was pretty gone by the time we got there. There was this moment where I’m arguing with a girl (call her X) about her bra size and she’s vehemently nodding her head and saying that she’s a D not a C (or a C not a D?) and I’m just like no way. I remember wondering at the time “how the hell did this conversation come up?” but of course didn’t think too much of it and went along with the conversation. Anyway last night I was talking to another girl from the conversation and asked her how it all came up. She’s like: “Well, when X came up to say hi to us, you said to her ‘hey, we’re talking about bra sizes, what’s yours?’”.
FML.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Exams Over, 5/10 Update, Exchange, Vegas!!!
So exams are finally over and I can get back to grinding now. I leave for Vegas next Thursday so I have about a week to complete my 5/10 goals. I want to make 10K at HU and 25K at 6-Max and then return from Vegas a fully-fledged 10/20+ player. I’ll try to play 5/10 exclusively this week so I can give myself the best shot at finishing it, but if juicy games run at higher stakes I’m not going to turn them down. I’ve been feeling a lot more confident at 10/20 now and even at 25/50 the dollar amounts aren’t phasing me much anymore. Speaking of 25/50, I took another shot yesterday when a certain well-known fish was playing. I proceeded to lose $9000 versus him when he made a set against my KK in a 3-bet pot and when I ran 99 into his QQ preflop. I then managed to win $10000 back just by grinding several medium sized pots without showdown and was feeling really good but then lost a postflop flip in a 3-bet pot (QQ v JKh on 467hh) to end up down. Luckily I won at 5/10 and 10/20 so I ended the session down only $500 or something.
Before I leave for Vegas I need to complete my exchange application form which shouldn’t take too long but will be a bit tedious nonetheless. I haven’t quite decided on my five preferences but at this stage it’s looking like it’ll be:
1) Cornell, USA
2) Queens, Canada
3) Copenhagen, Denmark
4) Utrecht, Netherlands
5) Emory, USA
The first four are pretty solidly locked in but I’m not sure about the fifth. Nothing else available looks particularly enticing so I guess I’ll just throw in another US one. I decided not to waste a preference on Harvard or NYU because there’s simply no chance I’ll get in. The other options of note are University of Texas at Austin, University of Victoria (British Columbia) and Vrije University (Amsterdam).
I’m pretty psyched for Vegas. I’ve decided to play the main event but I’m not sure if I’ll play any cash games because I don’t feel like lugging an extra $10K over there just on the off chance I decide to play cash (I figure you need about that much for 10/20 and I wouldn’t really want to play lower live). I just wish PokerStars had a bank there like they did at PCA. It’d make life so much easier!
Anyway, so it looks like this week is going to be filled with a lot of grinding, some errands, some clothes shopping, some drinking and some partying. And then after that it’ll be the first and last things, only in Vegas instead of Sydney! Cool huh!
Before I leave for Vegas I need to complete my exchange application form which shouldn’t take too long but will be a bit tedious nonetheless. I haven’t quite decided on my five preferences but at this stage it’s looking like it’ll be:
1) Cornell, USA
2) Queens, Canada
3) Copenhagen, Denmark
4) Utrecht, Netherlands
5) Emory, USA
The first four are pretty solidly locked in but I’m not sure about the fifth. Nothing else available looks particularly enticing so I guess I’ll just throw in another US one. I decided not to waste a preference on Harvard or NYU because there’s simply no chance I’ll get in. The other options of note are University of Texas at Austin, University of Victoria (British Columbia) and Vrije University (Amsterdam).
I’m pretty psyched for Vegas. I’ve decided to play the main event but I’m not sure if I’ll play any cash games because I don’t feel like lugging an extra $10K over there just on the off chance I decide to play cash (I figure you need about that much for 10/20 and I wouldn’t really want to play lower live). I just wish PokerStars had a bank there like they did at PCA. It’d make life so much easier!
Anyway, so it looks like this week is going to be filled with a lot of grinding, some errands, some clothes shopping, some drinking and some partying. And then after that it’ll be the first and last things, only in Vegas instead of Sydney! Cool huh!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Graduation!
Weeeee I have a degree! I looked kind of ridiculous in the hat but whatever I guess. The graduation ceremony was actually pretty cool; it had enough pomp and tradition to make the occasion feel special yet at the same time only lasted an hour which was definitely a plus.
My name was relatively early in the list so after I got my degree I sat and amused myself by seeing how many people stuffed up the graduation procedure. When your name was called out by the Dean you had to salute him (boys by raising their trencher, girls by touching their trencher, bowing slightly or curtseying). I’m pretty sure the strike rate for this was near 100%. You then had to walk up to the Deputy Chancellor who shook your hand and presented you with your degree. He would then salute you and you’d salute back before turning around and leaving. A lot of people momentarily turned away without saluting but most eventually remembered since it’s pretty hard to miss the Deputy Chancellor saluting you. Anyway, then came the big test. While walking down the steps back to your seat, you had to simultaneously fumble for the tassel at the top of your trencher and move it from the right side to the left side to signal that you’ve now graduated. Not only was this a test of your memory but it required significant coordination skills as well, kind of like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. And sure enough, BOOM! Strike rate down to 60%! Hehe.
My name was relatively early in the list so after I got my degree I sat and amused myself by seeing how many people stuffed up the graduation procedure. When your name was called out by the Dean you had to salute him (boys by raising their trencher, girls by touching their trencher, bowing slightly or curtseying). I’m pretty sure the strike rate for this was near 100%. You then had to walk up to the Deputy Chancellor who shook your hand and presented you with your degree. He would then salute you and you’d salute back before turning around and leaving. A lot of people momentarily turned away without saluting but most eventually remembered since it’s pretty hard to miss the Deputy Chancellor saluting you. Anyway, then came the big test. While walking down the steps back to your seat, you had to simultaneously fumble for the tassel at the top of your trencher and move it from the right side to the left side to signal that you’ve now graduated. Not only was this a test of your memory but it required significant coordination skills as well, kind of like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. And sure enough, BOOM! Strike rate down to 60%! Hehe.
Anyway, here’s a photo of me with my mum in the quad.
PS Does anyone out there have any views or opinions on Emory University? The five US exchange options I have for next year are Harvard, NYU, Texas at Austin, Cornell and Emory. I have no chance of getting into the first three (since we only have one spot for each and the mark cutoff is ridiculously high) so I’m going to put Cornell down as my first preference and then Emory (since I really want to go to the US). Emory was added to the list of exchange partners just this year though so we haven’t really been given any ‘informal’ information on it. By ‘informal’ I mean non-brochure, non-website, non-‘official’ information which is really what I’m after. So yeah any info or advice would be appreciated!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
34 Hours...
I have 34 hours until my law assignment is due. Of those, I plan to spend 1 hour playing soccer, 1 attending an Honours information session, 1 sleeping, and 2 travelling back and forth between home and uni. That leaves me about 29 hours with which to finish my assessment. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to write a word and am still in the process of gathering materials. Fun times...
On the bright side, I have three 21sts this weekend (none of which clash!), my self-exclusion on Party ends tonight, and my parents are leaving for New York tomorrow for two and a half weeks meaning I get the house all to myself.
You’ve got to take the good with the bad, right?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Word Counts, Deadlines, Footnotes and Me
So it’s 4.30am and I’m putting the finishing touches on my law assignment. I’ve finished cutting it down to the word limit (1550) and am now ready to begin footnoting and referencing. This process is usually quite a tedious one but I’ve been smart enough on this occasion to make brief references to myself along the way. This should mean that I spend less time wondering where the hell I got a passage from and more time actually referencing!
Half an hour later, my strategy seems to be paying dividends as I’ve finished referencing 4 of the 7 pages. Bleary-eyed, I sit back to admire my work. Three more pages, I say to myself, and I’ll be able to get a few hours of precious shuteye.
Then I notice something weird in the bottom-left hand corner of my screen.
Words: 1842
Eh?
I figure that I must’ve accidentally written too much in my sleep-deprived state. I had, after all, been continuously adding and deleting sentences whenever I saw something that needed changing. Upon glossing back over my piece though, I quickly realise one thing: I had barely added a word! Sure, an adjective here, a random sentence there, but nowhere near enough to increase my word count by 20%!
For some reason, my mind flashed to the week before. I was sitting in class and my lecturer was warning us to avoid substantive points in footnotes or else they’d be included in the word count. I quickly glance at my footnotes.
Gulp.
Sure enough, not one, not two, but three of my footnotes contained substantive points. But, how on Earth did my lecturer know!?
Then it comes to me. This was the first time I had used Microsoft Word 2007 (I got a new computer last Christmas). Somehow, I reason, the new version must be programmed to recognise substantive footnotes and add them to the word count! (Hey, it was logical at the time...)
Ah well, I thought, I’ll just have to delete them. They were such nice points too...
So I delete the substantive trio and look back to my word count.
Words: 1713
...
Ok, like WTF?
I then finally realised what had happened (yes, for real this time...). Not long after, I realised the even worse ramifications...
As quickly as possible, I clicked on ‘Review’, clicked on ‘Word Count’, unchecked the ‘Include Footnotes’ option, and looked...
Words:
.
.
.
1153
.
.
.
@ # $ % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Half an hour later, my strategy seems to be paying dividends as I’ve finished referencing 4 of the 7 pages. Bleary-eyed, I sit back to admire my work. Three more pages, I say to myself, and I’ll be able to get a few hours of precious shuteye.
Then I notice something weird in the bottom-left hand corner of my screen.
Words: 1842
Eh?
I figure that I must’ve accidentally written too much in my sleep-deprived state. I had, after all, been continuously adding and deleting sentences whenever I saw something that needed changing. Upon glossing back over my piece though, I quickly realise one thing: I had barely added a word! Sure, an adjective here, a random sentence there, but nowhere near enough to increase my word count by 20%!
For some reason, my mind flashed to the week before. I was sitting in class and my lecturer was warning us to avoid substantive points in footnotes or else they’d be included in the word count. I quickly glance at my footnotes.
Gulp.
Sure enough, not one, not two, but three of my footnotes contained substantive points. But, how on Earth did my lecturer know!?
Then it comes to me. This was the first time I had used Microsoft Word 2007 (I got a new computer last Christmas). Somehow, I reason, the new version must be programmed to recognise substantive footnotes and add them to the word count! (Hey, it was logical at the time...)
Ah well, I thought, I’ll just have to delete them. They were such nice points too...
So I delete the substantive trio and look back to my word count.
Words: 1713
...
Ok, like WTF?
I then finally realised what had happened (yes, for real this time...). Not long after, I realised the even worse ramifications...
As quickly as possible, I clicked on ‘Review’, clicked on ‘Word Count’, unchecked the ‘Include Footnotes’ option, and looked...
Words:
.
.
.
1153
.
.
.
@ # $ % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
