Wednesday, September 15, 2010

What a day!?

Today has been an emotional day. First of I woke up and checked out my aquarium.
I got the most amazing discuss fish yesterday, a blue one, one that is a bit more traditional looking as well as a yellow one with red patterns. They are very very young and 2-3 inches big. I got them from a very competent fish place (captain nemos superstore). The people who work there really know what they are doing and they have wonderful and healthy fish. They had gotten a delivery from a german breeder yesterday. They told me this breeder was the only one they use for discuss because they like the german quality :-) When I saw the fish I was quite amazed how well they were looking, given that they had been in Germany the day before! The colors were brilliant and they seemed all in good spirits, swimming around looking for food in their tanks and checking me out checking them out. So I got three, put them in my tank and they loved it. I fed them. They were exploring and seemed to adapt amazingly. I had gone to the store the day before, brought a water sample and adjusted my water perfectly. So everything went well and I was happy.
Anyway back to today: This morning I wake up and the discuss are all lethagic and a bit defensive, all of a sudden they seem scared of me and dont want to eat and seem unhappy. I also notice some white spots on them. I am not sure what is going on, so I test the water: All seems fine. So I go to work hoping all will be better when I come home. So of course I am worried like a mom about the fish all :-) I call the store on my way home and they help me well. All day I am worried to death, imagening all the worst scenarios possible. I come home and all is well. The discuss have beautiful colors are still unhappy. I tested the water and saw that it was not perfect but nothing a water change could not take care of. So I am relieved and change the water very carefully making sure everything is perfect and went to play some poker. When I come back from the casino all is well. They eat and seem happy! Thank good.



Here are some vids from the discus
One more

(I will try to make some nicer HD ones over the weekend maybe)

In the meantime a crazy night happened at the pokertable. I get to the casino and am being seated at a table which takes a little while and a while I am waiting a white man man in his 50ies greets me right away and telling the whole table what a great player I am. Awesome, everybody now knows I am a regular here and i have no idea how he knows me! Where are his manners! It happens alot to me that people recognize me but I don't always remember them. The man has about 4k in front of him is real happy and can't stop signaling me and talking to me. I have no idea who this guy is until he comes over and talks to me about the game, how great it is and how he won all the money. He also tells me that he was fine with me not borrowing him money the other day! WOW now I remeber: about two months ago he came and asked me if I could loan him $200 since we played the night before and he was busto! He looked different but at least I remeberd him now and actually could recollect a few hands he played with me.


I finally get seated, the table was crazy, everybody had lots and lots of money and there were many action players around. A few minutes into my session I go all against my friend who seems to be very happy with his stack and not concerned to lose it either. He calls me whith a worse but good hand. Another players calls with an even worse hand but I get lucky and my hand holds up. Im not even playing for 10 minutes and have trippeled up already. In the meantime my friend is still happy, after all he has still over 3k in front of him when another crazy hand developes. I am holding an Ace with a 4 and flop a full house! And almost everybody is in the pot including my friend. I play very slow and my friend bets and calls me after I raise. After the dealer turns over the last hand of the board he goes all giving me an easy call with an almost unbeatable hand. 15 minutes after I sat down about 3k alone of my friends money went into my stack!




Poker is crazy like that, I played this hand very well in a way that really exploits "my friend" as I am raking in my chips I feel really sorry for the man who just gave away his a $4'000 stack and had absolutely no idea what he was in for. I felt really bad for him. This money musta mean a lot to him given that he tried to borrow money from me a short while ago.


At the same time I am quite happy. I have not had a lucky day like this in a while. Granted I have been winning constantly at 2/5 which is my main game. I also had taken some shots at some highter games but got burned. I have gotten unlucky but also made some mistakes and did not play well enought to be sitting at these tables, so I decided to step down again and work on my game some more. Overall the last few weeks have been kinda break even since I had lost the money that I had won at my mane game in the higher limit games. So having a good day like this comes in handy and helps with my mental game.


I have set myself the goal to make 30% of my income this year from poker and I have basically reached that target today. I am now going to try to make that 50% mark. So even though today was just a small step in the right direction it is a big mark and thus quite an emotional day for me.


Work has also going well, I am staffed on an interesting project which is going well and I am learning lots of new things. So all that is left right now is being greatful for a good day.


Tomorrow and everyday thereafter I will try to repeat :-)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The bay

Today I had the chance to support some of my software AG folks at a supply chain conference in San Jose.

It is always nice to be in the bay area and always feels a bit like home. Silicon valley has a certain vibe to it too from a business perspective. people here are very open minded, love technology and strive to innovation. The wonderful weather also contributes to a certain happy feeling when I am here.

Unfortunately I could only be here for one day. I'm stopping over in Vegas so I am seeing lots of happy places on my trip. Even though landing in Vegas and not being able to step out of the airport is a bit torture as well. Actually I could step out, with my hourly being probably around $40 out there it might actually make sense to get a quick taxi ride to the Bellagio and come back 1,5 hours later to the airport. Haha. The taxi would cost me probably 30 bucks so I should be able to make some money on my 3 hour layover, but I think I'm just gonna let it go this time :-)

I am looking forward to my next trip coming up. Going to see dad and the family in good old Germany. Jodi is coming too and we will go into the alps for a nice hiking vacation. I'm looking forward to this and my dad is prolly gonna kick my butt on the hiking trails :-)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Unnamed Rd,San Francisco,United States

Monday, July 26, 2010


So I have a new roommate I wanted to introduce:
A little family of birds has found it's home on my balcony.






I wanted to let the bird know I don't mind they're company, however the bird seem to mind me, for every time I step on MY balcony it gets quite annoyed with me :-)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:New roommate

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Delaware Park


So I'm standing in the poker room at delaware park, waiting for a seat. Currently there are about 250 people waiting for seats. That is a lot! There are 127 people on the list for a 1/2 game, the smallest game that they offer and 41 players are on the 2/5 list. I'm in position 30 and have been waiting for more than one hour.

This poker room has just opened after the laws have changed early this year, and the casino seems to have vastly underestimated the popularity of poker in this area. It is about 25 minutes away from my house.

I have been playing here a few times now and every day this room is packed even during the week. Currently the room has 20 tables but the floor people here have told me they are planning to extend this room to 50 tables. That is good news. Seems like i won't have to go Atlantic city any more in the near future.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Delaware 7,Pike Creek-Central Kirkwood,United States

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Home sweet Home

I'm sitting in a plane on my way home. I have not been home for quite a while and frankly I have missed my couch.

Lots has happened since I left for Vegas on June 11. The biggest news is my best friend is getting married! I'm so happy for him, he has a wonderful woman and I truly believe he is doing the best and most important thing in probably his entire life, so I am very very happy for him. He has also asked me to be his best man which of course is a wonderful treat. So I am happy to fly to good old Germany for a big party.

Vegas was very good, probably my most successful trip so far. I went there with a somewhat smaller roll than I had hoped for and therefore decided not to by into any World Series of Poker tournaments but to earn myself the buy ins. My eyes was on the $1000 tournament, which would run over the weekend starting Saturday and Sunday. So after arriving Friday late night I went to Aria the newest poker room in town and got very lucky a few times. I played for about 2 hours and after counting my stack I noticed I was up 1015, so I decided to cash out and went to the Rio to buy into the 1k. My luck continued the next day when I played the tournament and I managed to survive the field. 15% of the players that started that day survived, and I managed to stay alive on the second day to make it into the money.

Making it into the money in a WSOP event is kinda a big deal and very cool, however I was quite sad when I busted in 237th position. The first price of this tournament was 1/2 million and I was probably never that close in my life to this kind of money. And frankly busting out of a tournament is never that much fun. Nevertheless the cash put me up over 2k for the trip and I managed to win a few more buy ins during the rest of the stay.

Aside from a financial perspective, which is always important the trip to Vegas was also a lot of fun. I got to see Ramy and spend some time with Tim. Ramy has good friends in Vegas which we also got to meet and hang out with and of course Jodi came over towards the end of the trip. We went to see KA and one night I finally got to see XS. I have to say XS is the first club that impressed in the US. It had good music and a wonderful outside area. Ramies buddies know people in front of it so we got to skip the lines and save the entry fees.

Last weekend Jodi and I went to a wedding of a good friend of her. It was a very nice wedding and the first Jewish wedding I had ever seen.

Well plane is landing and I have to go. Can't wait for my home sweet home.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Up in the air :-)

Friday, June 11, 2010

Off to Vegas

So I am finally sitting in the plane to Vegas. My recent live action has not been very spectacular and I am bringing a much smaller roll than I was hoping for.

My bankroll lately has been divided into some money in the bank and the cash in my kitchen drawer that I have accumulated playing live since my last Vegas visit. I am trying to transition to a poker only cash bankroll so that poker does not affect any other deceptions in my live.

Originally my goal was to bring 8k to Vegas and play 5/10 and drop down when my roll hits 5k. However now that I am only bringing 5k, I will only play 2/5 this year.

I am going for the world series of poker, which is a series of tournaments and of course I want to play one of those. The cheapest tourney is 1k and there is another one this week for 1.5k. Before I will play these I am going to try to win the buy in in the cash games. I have two days to win 1k to play the event this Sunday, otherwise I will give my self another shot to win the buy in for the 1.5 k event a little later in the week.

Aside from the goal of winning the buy in for the tournament there is a new toy that needs purchased or an old that that needs replaced: my TV. The old DLP small screen tv needs to be replaced by a nice 3d plasma. My eyes are on the pn63c8000 from samsung which will require me to bring home about 3k from Vegas. It a beautiful 63 inch plasma and from the research I have done I am convinced it is the best TV on the US market right now.

I've looked at a couple of LEDs but the colors are simply better on the plasma, except white of course. But the black is much stronger and the color debt on the plasma is much better. In addition a decent LED is around 5k and only 55 inches, whereas the best plasma is 3.5 k and 63 inches. So the choice is actually simple as my top two criteria will be picture quality and size.

So there we have it, the goal is to make 3k this trip so I can buy myself the new TV. If I would do well in the tourney that would of course easily pay for the TV but doing well in the tournament is unfortunately a long shot.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Plane in the air

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Shopping for dresses


Jodi is looking for a dress, so we went to King of Prussia mall today to buy her a dress. Of course before we had even stepped into one of her stores I had already spent $200 on a pair of Diesel jeans, haha.

Also went to apple again and told them about my "it's the car charger" discovery. So we switched the charger. Jodi did not find a dress that convinced here in King of Prussia so we went to Limerick and of course I tried the charger on the way there and it seems to work fine. Aside from the fact that the iPad did not crash it also charged much quicker than before which seemed to be a problem with the other charger, so I am guessing I just had a bad charger.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Unnamed Rd,Pottstown,United States

Monday, May 31, 2010

Solved the iPad puzzle

So I figured out why my iPad was crashing in the car. It is the car charger I am using that makes the iPad crash. I am guessing it is a heat related issue. I tested it a few times and when the iPad is being charged it will always crash and never has crashed without it. Maybe it's a premature charger since in the app store iPads are running and being charged at the same time.

Poker was brutal this weekend, I had a 5k swing which is the highest I have ever had in one weekend. After winning a survivor tournament for $1500 I had the worst beat I ever took after getting it in with the nuts and 88% to win for a $2500 pot. And after that it just went straight downhill for another 2k, over about 2 days. After I was down that much I decided to just quit and went to my room and played online where I finished a PLO tournament in 3 place, I think there were about 300 entries.

Jodi came a bit later and eased my mind. We had a great time as usual in AC. The weather was so beautiful this weekend and we got to enjoy some of it and the shore.




Monday we went to see a friend of Jodi who has 3 kids. Jodi got a new cam that I played with which was fun. I got to see a new side of Jodi today, she had that look that only moms have when they are unhappy with the kids, it was quite funny as I have never seen Jodi with her hands in her hips and talking down to someone. I was quite amused about her mom look.



The star of the show seemed to be the iPad, and the toy proofed again it's wonderful usability. I was very impressed how quickly a three year old was able to use it, just by playing with it. He was able to view pictures and open apps and navigate around. I bought a little memory game for kids that he had fun with after the racing game got uninteresting.




It was great to see some of Jodi's friends.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Wow

So I went to apple again today, since the iPad has been acting up, even after the trouble shoot from yesterday. They replaced the iPad right away. I was actually a bit surprised. I was ready to go home and just return the iPad the next day. But now I'm a happy customer again. They confirmed that I had been there yesterday so there must obviously be something wrong with my toy, even though they could not find anything!! So they asked me very apologetic if it was ok If i simply get a new one. Wow! apple has wowed me again. In addition to that awesome service, everyone at that store is just in love with apple, all the boys and girls that work there AND all the customers, it's really amazing. You can't help yourself but be happy in that store. That must work from a sales perspective as well.

Anyway so far on the way home the iPad seems to work smoothly so I'm very excited.

After syncing my photos tonight a put one of my holiday pics with dad as background:



It's one of my favorites when dad and my brother visited me and we went to death valley. Oh that makes me think of my upcoming vacation very close to there. Who could have thought it is Vegas time to soon again :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chevers Dr,Glen Mills,United States

Ei ei iPad


Well the iPad is till acting up. I still love it but it keeps crashing on me, particularly in the car.

I went to apple store yesterday and they told me it could be software related and reset the device. However it happened again after that on my way home and again this morning on my way to work, so I'm gonna pay apple a visit again.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Westlakes Dr,Tredyffrin,United States

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The first one

So I have decided to start a little blog of my own since everybody is doing it these days. And of course to play with that new toy of mine, the iPad, since it has this wonderful blogapp that I'm typing this on.

There are a few things going on right now in my life. Most prominent is the iPad at the moment. It is a really cool toy and I think most folks don't even understand it's power yet including myself, but I am about to find out. One thing however that is bothering me a bit is the fact that it has been crashing and misbehaving quite a few time, as in not working correctly. So far this always happened in the car while I was driving and using the GPS navigation or watching podcast or deuces cracked videos.

I will try to see an apple store and see if I can get the iPad replaces. If not I'm gonna have to return it. That would blow!

In related news I've been thinking about an iPad app and researching how I could get one developed. For what I am thinking about I don't think I can afford to spend more than 3-4k which is gonna make it hard to outsource this. But I have found a website that let's you find freelancers with rating and I am gonna give that one a try.

Other than that Vegas is coming up soon. I'm gonna have to log a few more hours at borgata in oder to have enough extra cash to maybe try some 5/10 games out there. That would be fun. Last weekend I played, however that was not effective in that regard I dropped 1.3k and will try to make it up this weekend. I will however only have Friday and Saturday morning to do so. we'll see how that goes. The plan would be to take somewhere around 7k and play 5/10 as long as I stay above 5k else play 2/5. I will however not take out any cash from the bank but only use the cash I have at my house at the moment which is close to 5k right now.

Well that's it for blog nr. 1.....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Chevers Dr,Glen Mills,United States