Would you gamble 1 million?

Let’s imagine you won a million dollars in the lottery. Now assume that Donald Trump comes to you and challenges you to flip a coin, heads you win, tails he wins. If you win, he will give you 10 million dollar; however, if you loose you give him your one million dollar. Would you accept this challenge?

From a probabilities point of view you should accept the challenge since you get a 10:1 for the money with a 50% success, that is, you get 10 times the money you bet for a challenge that you would win half the time.

However, from a psychological point of view, should you accept it? It depends on the person. How many million dollars you have? How long does it take you to make one million? Are you willing to lose your one million? Everyone has a different perspective of life therefore we would see some people accepting the challenge (Type A), and some won’t (Type B).

In poker, we run into both types of people, from my personal experience, I never seen successful type B poker players. There is a saying, it takes money to make money and I completely believe it is true in poker. Saving your chips and never risking it is just going to shrink your stack by the hour. However, type A players are the players that you see having a huge stack in front of them or stands up and leaves the game very early. One good example of a type A poker player is Phil Ivey; in tournaments you either see him with a huge stack early in the tournament or you see him out the game in a couple of hours or even minutes!

Even though, type A is the way to go in poker. Sometimes, players (especially me) become type B for a moment. A good example was summer 2005 where an old experiences player went all-in(~$1,000), I knew he had pocket jacks or lower (I had a tell on him therefore I knew he didn’t have anything bigger), I had AKs, so if my assumption was correct it was a coin flip. The pot had $500 before he went all-in; therefore I was getting 1.5:1 for a 50% success. Probabilities-wise, I should have played, but emotional-wise I was too attached to my winnings.

p.s. He showed pocket tens.

A word about online poker

(This article was adopted from http://www.GambleWIKI.com.)

Since early February I had no time to go to Casino Niagara, therefore I've been playing online at PokerRoom.com and PartyPoker.com. So far this year I am in the negative -thanks to online poker. Actually if it wasn't for my casino winnings earlier this year; I would have been in the big negative.

So the question is; Is online poker for me?
I think I could be a good online player since I always make a profit in the first hour I play, then it goes downhill. What is it? maybe I have no patience, maybe I get tired after that or I just get bored.

Consider these points before playing online poker:

1. '''It can be very very addictive.''' Online gambling is more dangerous than live gambling because you tend to play more often (the computer is right in your house) and you can play whenever you want. Also, people tend to forget that the numbers in the screen is ACTUAL money so they tend to play loose.

2. '''Cheating is wide spread in online gambling.''' It is easier for more than one individual to play on the sae table and help each other through the phone or instant messeger. My recommendation to avoid such a situation is to play big tables, that is, 10 people in the table. Also,those tables are EASY to identify when you recognize check re-raise a lot among certain players.

3. '''Online poker can mke you or break you very easy.''' If you don't have patience, discipline and a solid strategy then it would be hard in online poker to make a steady cash flow, same goes for live games to a certain extent.

4. '''Get a CHEAP and FAST method to get money IN & OUT of the net.''' If you are not wise with your transactions you can lose a big portion of your winnings to admistritative and processing fees. Study each deposit site carefully, I personally use NETELLER.

GambleWiki - the ultimate gambling portal

Two days ago, Moneer and I decided that there was not a good gambling poker on the net. Our decision? create one. GambleWIKI.com is the ultime gambling portal on the net.

If you are curious about the history of gambling....GambleWIKI.com
If your friends use poker lingo and you feel like a bum...GambleWIKI.com
If you want to make some coin...GambleWIKI.com
If you want to donate some of that coin...GambleWIKI.com
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I would like to take the opportunity to metion that GambleWIKI.com does not encourage gambling in any way.GambleWIKI.com will help you be more educated in your gambling and know more about the history of gambling.

I hope that some of my beloved readers will become contributors at the gambling portal; GambleWIKI.com

Business talk

So I am into entrepeneur mode right now. And luckily they got this guy who started 4 businesses that is an alumni from my Uni to give a speach at some class of mine. There is one thing that he said that really got my attention,'If you have an idea just execute it. And just care about doing the first little transaction, do not care about later. If you do that first transaction then that would mean that you just opened your first business. Afterwards, everything gets easier.' So right now, I am trying to do that first transaction. Things are going slow since I need to go to a lot of places and try to make deals with people about something that I have no idea about. I have a friend that knows a lot about that, he is going to help me; actually his father is in that line of business. We'll see how things turn out.

Proyecto Uno

I have been considering this for a while, do my MBA and get a strategic management consulting job for 150k a year or open my own business. Long time ago I realized that I am a lousy worker; I don't let anyone boss my around even the biggest boss, I believe that's why I have so much respect in the company.

When people ask me 'where you see yourself in 5 years?' I give some diplomatic ansdwer that they all like, but later when I am thining about the question, I see myself owing my own company where the longer I work the more money I make, contrary to being employeed. I see myself having 100 employees working fr me, having a great company that provides a great service to the customers, my employees and the comunity.

I have tons of ideas but most of them need capital. Finally, last week I decided that I needed an action plan, so I picked one idea from my ideas vault (yes i have my brainstormed ideas with detailed business plans saved somewhere just in case) i do that because when the opportunity comes along there is no time for preparation; and that opportunity came earlier this week.

I was playing poker at PokerRoom, I was up by $300 in a 2-5NL game when I got a call from my friend. She called me because i asked her for help finding a place to lease in Bay St., the conversation went something like this,

(M=me, F= friend)
F= May I speak to EvolvedHomoSapien.
M=Speaking
F=Hi I am from Colliers, I am calling regarding your request for 4,000 sqt. office space for lease in Bay St.
M= Oh, it is you, how are you?
F=Nothing much. So why do you want that space?
M=I am planning to open a restaurant there.
F=Oh dear, i wouldn't do that, restaurants have the biggest turn over. But listen come tonight to this concert I am going with my boyfriend, you can talk to him about that, he knows a lot about that.
M=Alright, see you there.

That night i went to that concert, it was pretty awesome, good music, nice people and a vibe that filled the air with pure energy. One of the guys singing was her ex-boss, he was a pretty good singer. Well we stayed there listening to music, drinking domestic beer and singing along with the musicians, it was a good time.

In the break, her boyfriend and I started talking about business stuff and he told me about his 2 companies, how he started and all the details. After I pitched my ideas he offered to help me with my credit history through his contacts since he believed I had some good ideas for a business.

Later we went for dinner to the MarketPlace, such a nice place. I got a personalized made deluxe pizza, so delicious. We spend 2 more hours talking, it was such a nice night full of controversial topics, food and alcohol.

I went back home knowing that if I start one of this ideas I wouldn't need the MBA anymore. I emailed my brother and told him about the details and he started to work from his end of the rope. Our project was on its way...Proyecto Uno had been borned.

TTC = Take That Cock!

Woke up early, was sleepy, was hungry and was thirsty. After 30 minutes I was out the door and heading to work. I was pulling the station's door but it wouldn't, i tried pushing and again didn't open. I was still sleepy so I didn't know what was going on; for a second I thought it was Sunday and not monday, I was confused. Then i noticed all the people outside, I realized the operator or collect guy might have forgotten to open the door, so I called the TTC and a surprising message went like this "Welcome to the TTC customer service. All TTC services are closed due to a Union strike". I was pissed big time...it wasn't just for the fact that now it would be a dilemna to get to work but in addition that I hated the TTC union- here is the story:

Fresh from university I joined the TTC as a senior technical assistant in the maintenance departmet. At first I was so happy; good company, excellent pay, health benefits, pension and the whole nine yards. It didn't take me more than a couple of months to realize what a mess it was in there. There were a lot of contributing factors but the big factor was the union. The union at the TTC is really strong. Just as an ilustration, they don't care about anything-it is virtually impossible to fire a union guy. Therefore they would spent a great portion of their time taking a nap at trains scheduled for maintenance and cleaning. In a nutshell, they are the laziest workers I have ever seen in my experience.

Surely, the union was a big factor for me to quit that slow-pace job but there were many more important factors I may discuss in a later post. Going back to the topic of why i dislike that union is that they dare to strike AGAIN after just one year. However, i shouldn't blame them, it is the fault of management, a wiseman once told me 'management gets the union they deserve'. One big fault I noticed in TTC management is that they allow being tosed around by the union, that fact by itself is the mere reason why the union has been able to get away with what it had so far.

Well anyways, once I realized there was no TTC to work I started evaluating options, first I thought of taking a cab but after 5 minutes of waiting I noticed all the cabs were already taken and it was uncertain how long it would take me before getting one. So I tried the Mississauga transit. At first, I spent 10 minutes planning my route to work; I had to take the 11A to Derry Rd. and Rexwood then I would take another bus, the 12E to work. Well that trip took me more than an hour; not because of the route, it was due to the service, there was a 30 minute gap between busses!

As for coming back from work, it was the peak of this experience. First, I thought that TTC was back since I saw some TTC buses on the street. After 45 minutes of waiting I called TTC info and the message said the service will resume the next day at 6am. I was surprised and curious what all those TTC buses where doing then.

Well then I walk for 20 minutes to a Missisauga transit bus, waited there for 25 minutes, got in the bus, got off at Derry Rd. and Rexwood, waited 30 minutes, missed my bus (was seating in the wrong stop!) so I decided to go to Wendy's get some fuel. Got a Single Classic with large fries and a large sprite. Finally I got home at 8pm. What a day.

Begginer's luck or psychic skills.

Today I met the worst luckiest player ever.
At the poker table I was completely dominating the table...I had tells, I played any two cards making profit, I bluffed on and off position.

Then, a skinny little blondie came sat beside me-she had no clue how to bet and to play. I knew she wasn't acting, she was a complete disaster. After a couple of hands I noticed that she called every hand and hoped to get lucky, I was so happy-it was gonna be like stealing candy from a baby.

I had the dealer button and I had pocket 5s. Everyone called and when it came to her she raised it to $12 (the big blind was $2) I was right after her, I called since I just wanted to sneak with it and make a lot of money if I get a set. Everyone else folded, it was the two of us.

The flop was 9 5 6 rainbow. At first I thought it was a bad flop since She could have a straight, BUT then I realized she raised to $12 before the flop- she HAD to have pocket kings, pocket aces, big slick or any other big cards; so I wasn't really concerned. She bet $15, I raised to $45, she called. A BIG tell when she called was her hand shaking-an alarm started beeping in my head.

The turn was a 10. After seeing her shaky hand while betting I realised that she had the straight, damn me, how could I get in that trap, and HOW could she have a straight if she raised before the flop? She bet $15, I called because I could still make the nuts, I had 8 outs so i had a 18% of making the nuts and I had good pot odds. The river was king, I didn't make it, she showed an 8 7 OFF-SUITED. I was so surprised and dissapointed. I motivated myself by realizing that she just got lucky and I played my hand the proper day.

After that hand I left with a $10 profit for the day :(

1st BBQ this year a pure success

While waiting for Lucian and Jack, I took an awesome picture of the business buil;ding in front of my building. This picture looks more like a computer generated picture than a real one.

Once in the car, we talked about the plant and our maintenance plan, i was glad that finally we got a chance to talk about our department without any interuptions.

In Zak's place we were the first people, after 30 minutes, Barb and Isabell showed up, then Octavian, Judith and Carol showed up and lately Gabriela.

Enjoy the pics!

I am not looking down on anybody, but...

So I did this ready-in-11-minutes mac and cheese. First, it is not done in 11 minutes, it takes as much just to boil the god damn water with the milk. Second, if they say it renders for 3 then know that that is for one in anywhere but Sumalia. I ate a bag that said it was for 4, well, I think I went too far with that, but anyways, thumb rule, 3 portions if you want a luch, 2 if you just wanna eat, 1 if you want a crack or just wanna eat it with something else. Anyways, mac and cheese is not what I wanted to talk about, see, as I was leaving the kitchen I told the guy in charge of the residencial and owner, that the internet was down, and he said,'Well, they say at the company that it is a problem -and I quote- of the country and not of their connections.' God, at first I thought, there is no way that he called the company or that he didn't understand what they said. Second thing I thought,'and what the hell do you know about country problems.' I mean, it sounds as if I am this arrogant sona bitch, but see, I am not. See, first thing you don't know is how ignorant he and his wife are. God, I feel bad for saying this, but it is so hard not to think that of them. It is not that they are of a lower social class, I mean he used to be from a really low class, but right now he has like 4 cars, and even if he were from a lower class, that would still not be the case. Sometimes I envy him and his simple style of life, I mean, he hasn't to worry about bigger issues, nor to try to keep updated with world events and politics. But then again, I couldn't be, nor would I accept to myself being that ignorant. I mean, for him me being palestinian is the most exciting thing . First he thinks I am blessed for coming from the holyland. I mean come on, we are not blessed, we are cursed. We die everyday in there like ants. Then he tries to talk in politics with me, too bad for him. He is like, why all the violence in there, and I am like 'well, it is complicated." Well, the saying why all the violence" might seem a rational thing to say, I mean, everyone is saying, why all the violence, try to come up with peace. And that is something understandable, but he actually doesnt know the difference between Israel , Palestine and Turkey. He thinks people in there are violent just as people in Chile are thieves.
Well, I know it sounds as if I am exagerating, BUT see, he said that after we were having this other conversation. First, some background you need to have about him. He considers himself religious, I mean he says he is catholic, but he is not. He is some kinda protestant type of catholic. Well, not a roman catholic. I will not enter into religion now, all you gotta know is that he is considered religious; he knows stuff from the bible by heart. So, he tells me that Jews have to have Jerusalem and all that crap about how Jews should be there in all the Glory that the bible talked about. And I am like, well, but it doesn't mean that all christians in there be thrown to hell and be killed like rats alongside with muslims. And he is like,(with the gesture as if I said something completely knew), 'aren't Jews Christians'. Now, you can imagine my face. I am like, from where the hell did you hear that. He says ,'but Christ was a Jew.' And he consideres himself "religious".Anyways, now you can see why I was frustrated that he was actually talking about the Middle East and even tried to talk about Politics. I will not talk about his wife, but she consideres, and I do as well, her husband as really intelectual.
Well, I guess we can't blame them for their ignorance, since I bet they didn't go to good schools. I am not sure they did enter high school. She had her kid at 16. As I say, sometimes I envy them for their simple lives, and the fact that they don't try to know things. Now that I think about it, bad schooling isn't an excuse. God damn it, I know people that didn't finish 6 grade (and I am not exagerating nor will I mention names), that can talk about any topic because they seek the information. Really, let's take me for an example, I do consider myself of those who wanna know it all. I mean, I know 5 languages, and I can't rest because I am not fluent at 2 of them and because I haven't started chinese mandarin yet.
Well, I think I am gonna leave it like that, and go back and finish my reading for tomorrow. About 50 pages of political accountability and 100 of Video-politics(how the media influences politics.)

Summer is in downtow Toronto

Woke up at 6:30 a.m. on my day off - I couldn't sleep. I sank my head in cold water, jumped on my seat and turned on my computer. Went on PartyPoker.com, after 20 minutes I was up to $50 from just $10, then I was going up and down like a yo-yo, I left with just a $7 loss. After breakfast I entered again, same thing happened but this time I lost $25. This happened to me because I stayed on too long and didn't know when to stop - I'm changing that TODAY.

Later that day, I saw the shining sun rays through my window; it opened my eyes 'What the heck am I doing inside in such a beatiful day?'. I jumped in my sweat pants and went downtown to my gym- it was the best 1-hour workout I had in weeks, well actually, I haven't been in the gym for a month.

After that I went downtown and walked around. I went to Eaton Centre, then to a spanish folklore event beside Eaton Centre and finally I walked to the lake shore. I think I needed that break, now I am ready to hit the poker tables again.

Good things come in two

I tried a different strategy in online poker, so far my 2-day experiment has worked wonders. I came up with TWO conclusions:

1. PartyPoker.com is the best online poker place I have tried so far.

2. Being over-aggressive with seasonal players works online.

First of all, I ain’t getting paid to promote PartyPoker.com (I wish I did). I like it because it has lots of tables you can choose from, for low, medium and high stake players. Also, you will find all ranges of skills, but it is populated with good conservative players, which is good for my strategy which I will mention below.

First, I classify players as strong-conservative, weak-conservative, strong-loose & weak-loose. As you will read in my short analysis you will make most of your money from the loose players.

In order to be able to classify players all you need to do is WATCH. Here are some tips.

Strong-conservative players

These players are easy to spot. They will rarely over bet the pot unless they have the nuts. If you raise and they re-raise you, be assured they have you beat. My strategy is to pound on them, always raise, raise and raise and let them fold, fold and fold. It wouldn’t be wise for you to re-raise against one of them unless you have a strong hand, let someone else in the table fight him and notice what he has ((if he shows) and you will see I was dead right.

The always-raise strategy works with a strong-conservative player because they will fold if they don’t have a strong hand, they might call with a pair. Therefore, you should call most hands (especially in a short handed game), you can afford it with all the blinds that you will steal.

Weak-conservative players

I use the Strong-Conservative player’s strategy with one little modification; I would be more aggressive after the flop. These players tend to over play their hands. Since, they don’t properly bet, you will have good pot odds. Re-raising is not a concern with these players.

Strong-loose players

These are the players that walk away with your money if you are not careful. You see them in almost every hand, they raise, raise and raise. A lot of players lose their money to one of them because they get frustrated with them bluffing at every hand so they might chose any marginal hand to bluff them back. However, they forget that these type of players are watching every bet they make and their patterns. When they feel you are bluffing they won’t let you get away, and they will maximize whatever they can take from you.

My strategy against them is to just play premium hands, never get frustrated, slow play most hands unless there is a draw on the table.

Weak-loose players

You will make tons of money from them if you learn how to play with their heads. These players are there just to have fun and socialize. You will see them in most hands. They will over bet the pot, play out of position and almost never fold a marginal hand –they fish a lot.

My strategy with them is not to use sophisticated poker theory with them. Just play your hand. Try not to bet too much unless you have a good hand. Check-raise plays wonderful with them if you want an all-in from them.

Here you go, a brief classification of poker players and how to be profitable in online poker.

In a nutshell:

1. Play in 6-people games
2. Call most hands before the flop
3. If you are in position, bet after the flop, if you get re-raised then you should analyze who re-raised you.

This is a simple strategy, good for starters.

Ask if you have any questions.

Enjoy,

Marketing Pillows as Toys

Well, I am having this marketing proyect, and we were asked to develope and market a toy for kids in kindergardens. Well, and I came up with a pillow. How did that happen, well, at first I was gonna do some dominos kinda toys that teach how to write numbers, that would be good for kids on their last stages of kindergarden. So, at one side of the domino piece there is gonna be a number from 1 to 9, and on the other side, there would be an amount of objects (of course that the amount would be different from the number in the same domino piece). So kids are supposed to allocate a piece, let's say with the number 2 , besides another piece of domino with 2 objects on it. So, after we were discussing the idea, we were talking how to make that safe, since we are asked to do toys that are not fine toys; that is, not puzzles and stuff like that, but things which the kid would have to move his bodie while playing. So we were thinking of huge dominos. So, to make the story short, I thought, why not making them as pillows, that way it would be safe, and they can use it as pillows when they take their naps. And I saw potential, I mean, they will save money by buying our products, not to mention that they are really stylish, and we would enter another market, the market of design and decore. Check them out,
Other teams did some good toys, but there is no way that those are gonna be sold for the prices they speculate, I mean, 80 dollars on a shitty thing. I mean, we might not have the greatest toy, but we have the one that would get sold in real markets. I guess I gotta focus on that point this wednesday, which is my team's due date . We did 4 pillows, and are thinking that it would be sold on sets of 9. Nice design, he? check out how we attached the numbers. And you wouldn't believe how relaxing they are, I mean, it is unbelievable. I am taking the one with the number 1 for myself.

What I learnt about women from poker (Part 1)

I've been playing poker seriously for more than 6 years. I read somewhere that it takes 1 year for someone to get proficient at something, 3 years to get good at it, 5 years to get professional and 10 years to become a guru.

I consider myself a very talented poker player. Why? Once you start using poker analogies in life, you know you are a serious player. My friend, John, has been having problems getting girls after his break up with Ashley 6 months ago. So I thought to myself how I can help my bud. I came up with a great solution-teach him poker.

John isn't a gambler, I knew that. I had a hard time convincing him that poker will help him to get laid. After 5 hours of intense poker insights he was getting poker.

He asked me how it will help him since he wasn’t gonna try making 1 million playing poker. I said 'now you are ready for the real lesson'. He leaned forward and was anxious for what I was going to teach him.

I broke it down to 4 stages:

1. The preparation

2. The approach (the pre-flop)

3. The build up (the flop)

4. The close (the turn and river)

Preparation: State of Mind

It is all about state of mind. If you feel great, you are great; if you feel like a loser then you are one. You really have to convince yourself that you are up to the challenge. When you talk to yourself don’t say ‘I WILL try to succeed’ say ‘I WONDER how much fun it will be to succeed doing this’. Also, I wouldn’t suggest using statements like ‘I am the BEST poker player in the world’ or something of that sort, why?

Because your brain will be in conflict with itself all the time and it wouldn’t be able to process it- the brain is way more powerful than you think. For example if you say ‘I am thin.’ But you are overweight, then your brain will be in conflict because it knows you are overweight so the statement will not be that effective, you should try something like ‘What can I do today to lose this extra weight?’ or ‘I wonder how long it will take me to take off this extra weight?’. Questions are way more powerful than statements. The brain will try to answer any question you ask yourself, if it doesn’t have the answer then it will find a way to answer it.

What state of mind do you need in poker?

The state of mind that you need is that of an aggressive mind reader that owns wherever he walks in. You need to act as you know it all, act like you can read that individual, make deep eye contact, and act like you know what will happen. After a while of acting it will BECOME you!

In your mind there is no room for failure, if you say to yourself ‘I will try this’ then you are preparing yourself for failure, whenever you TRY something it means there are 2 outcomes: success and failure. You should say ‘I will sit down, have fun and squeeze every penny from these weirdo smurfs.’

This state of mind will eventually translate in your body language which your opponents subconsciously absorb and will fear.

How does this apply to women?

Again…state of mind. Before you go out on a Saturday night with your boys visualize yourself around all these women that are just dying for a chance to talk to you. Imaginehow great it will feel having that power over them. You have to really believe in yourself and that YOU are giving THEM opportunities to get to know YOU, not the other way around.

As you will say to yourself before playing poker that you are going to steal everyone’s money, you would say that you are going to get ALL the women that you want that night. When you see HER don’t think too much, just say to yourself ‘I will invite her to join my great world.’ DON’T say ‘I will TRY to talk to her.’ She will feel your confidence level in your body language and voice, they can smell it.

So that’s the PREPARATION stage I taught John. That’s the first stage of four that I taught him. All this I learnt from poker.

How people hang out in Chile

Well, I thought that it would be iteresting if I give a little idea of how people hang out in Chile, or as we call it "Carrete". Anyways, it is different from the states (as my gringo friends tell me). In here, first we organize a Pre, that is an abreviation for Pre-Carrete. In there we drink, because it is cheaper. For example, last Friday, we were celebrating the birthday of a friend, whose birthday was on Monday (it seems as if everyone's birthday is this month), anyways, we did the Pre at the roof of this apartment's building, which was pretty cool, there was a pool and everything, and if it weren't night, it would have an ocean view. Anyways, in that day, I didn't want to drink Piscola because I am sick of it. Piscola is made of Pisco, chilean's national drink and coca-cola. I prefere a piscosauer, which is pisco and limon juice and other stuff, frankly it is not easy to make that one, you can buy it done, but it is not as good as home made. Anyways, some people drink it with sprite and calle it blanco which means white, but till now I haven't seen anyone doing that. Anyways, I decided I will take advantage of the fact that I am in Chile, a country known for its fine wine, and if you are in chile, then good, cheap wine. How cheap?, well a 13% alcohol(which is really good), merlot, descent wine would cost like 2.5 dolars. For 5 you would get a damn good wine, and for 10 you would get a reserve wine. Anyways, I bought a wine, we put some music (they made me bring my notebook but they put good speakers). Anyways, at 01:10 we call the party off so that we get to the Scratch Disco on time. Our Uni has a deal there, and we can get in free before 01:30 so we wrap everything, and I helped the guy celebrating his birthday who was completely drunk, to get the stuff back to the apartment and I wanted to put my notebook there. So, we waited for a bus and we check the time and notice we won't make it on time for the disco. So we go to the most popular bar in here, which was in the same block and is two blocks from where I live. We go there, check the mood, don't like it, so we go to a booz store, speak with a drunk bump, get some booz, (pisco, rum or as we call it ron), and two coca-colas to mix the drinks. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to drink pisco. Anyways, we went back to the apartment, put some music, play some electric guitar, drink pisco. Now that is called a post-carrete or simply post, we also use the term "After" for a post carrete. A post-carrete is just going back to someone's place and finish the night there. I couldn't drink much, not even half a glass 'cause I was so cold and having the chills. Anyways, at 4:00 we were thinking of leaving, I got home which is 3 blocks away at 5:00 in the morning.Check the bump in th epix.

Poker, Poker and more Poker...and a new TV

I went to Canadian Tire with the purpose of buying a bycicle and I came out with a 24" TV. Don't ask me how....I am a complex guy. It isn't a high-end TV, I don't need one since I am always busy, playing poker and generally on the go somewhere.

After I broke my back bringing it to my crib; I installed it and put it on a small stool i have while I get a nice table. I watched some TV while browsing the net on my cool Axim x51v (here is a pic for you geeks).

After that I went online to play poker. I entered a NL tournament with unlimited rebuys in the first hour. It was a mess, it was all over the place, people were going all in all the time with marginal hands, bluffing was impossible in there. Since there were so many rebuys, the prize pool was fat, it was 10 grands!!! and for an entrance of 10 bucks...who is complaining. I was able to make it through the fist break and lost after 30 minutes of that, finished 241st out of 850 people. It was all good since I lost to a rivered trips-I wasn't blaming myself.

After that I went to a ring game. I know I said I wasn't gonna play in themanymore- just tournaments, but I considered this different; it wasn't a 10 people 1-2 NL ring game; it was a 2-2NL 5 people game...a whole different dynamic. I went in with 40 bucks came out with 105. A 65 US profit on 30 minutes, not bad...hahha
My strategy was to call everything if the pot wasn't raised, I would raise with a blackjack or 20 hand, and I would raise suited connectors, I was being really agressive and it worked a charm. Also, I was lucky because the other 4 players where really conservative...haha

While I was in the table, I befriended a nice dude from London (whom I took all his money), he taught me a method of getting 30% of the rake i put in pokerroom back. That is nice, it is like 100 US a month for me...free. If you interested let me know an I might consider letting you in the secret :)

Problem Solving training

I woke up a little earlier today - I knew it was a Saturday; I woke up on purpose that early. Why? I had a problem solving trainning at the plant. I did not need any trainning but the Director of Manufacturing was going to come and I wanted to pitch my ideas to him.

I was a little late since the bus didn't run that often on weekends - damn service. Once there I just apologised for the delay and sat down. Isabell, our registered nurse, brought me some orange juice and a plate with muffin and fruits. Such a nice lady, she always treats me so nice.

I found the trainning an absolute waste of time-I knew more sophisticated stuff than that, however, I was really glad I went for the following revelation. In addition to get my 2 cents to Marty, the director of manufacturing, I realized I was going to become great, indeed really great baby and no one will stop me.

What helped me to this realization was that I KNEW everything he was talking abou; I didn't just know the material, I was a guru at it inside out. Don, the problem solving coach, is in his 60s and learnt all his knowledge as an engineer through the years. Well I got a grip on it in my short experience. This knowledge, combined with a nice fat GMAT and my persuasion skills will let me enter Stanford MBA's program. Yes I KNOW i will enter, just watch me running for the touchdown from your bench.

Online Poker, is it for me or is it for you?

Since early February I had no time to go to Casino Niagara, therefore I've been playing online at PokerRoom.com and PartyPoker.com. So far this year I am in the negative -thanks to online poker. Actually if it wasn't for my casino winnings earlier this year (check the pictures); I would have been in the big negative.

So the question is; Is online poker for me?
I think I could be a good online player since I always make a profit in the first hour I play, then it goes downhill. What is it? maybe I have no patience, maybe I get tired after that or I just get bored.

One thing I know for a fact - I am a very good live poker player. My bud, Gord, suggested that it might be because of the phycological game I play in the table, which is hard to do in a chat box and they can just ignore you.

I am going to stop playing online and just try to go to Niagara once a month or just go to underground tournaments in Toronto; there are plenty, been there, done that.

From now on, if i feel like playing poker online I will stick to tournaments. Even though I can't make a lot of money from them, I am very good at them, just today I got first place in a one-table Limit tournament; I won $25. The irony is that I didn't realize it was limit till I was in, I don't like Limit. My best record has been finishing 30th in a 980 people tournament.

I believe what helps me online is that I can switch gears very quickly, I have courage and I can see player's patterns very quickly before they realize I got them.

So finally just enjoy the pictures, I hope I take some more later this month. :)

Decisions, desicions, decisions...

Life is fullof choices - do you want fries with that? or do you want to upsize your drink for 15 cents? Life is harder because of them but it adds some spice to life.

So what's my choice...it is between B-schools. I have been considering making a career boost by switching into finance. Why finance? well ihave come to realize i have a natyural talent on how to invest money; right now my portfolio 38%. I spend more time reading about investing and actually investing than i spent reading engineering stuff.

So I am basing my decision on these critireas:

	Schulich	Rotman	Stanford	Weight
1. school reputation:	20	30	50	4
2. school location	10	10	80	1
3. financial return	30	30	40	7
4. risk	70	30	0	6
5. length of program	60	10	30	2
6. tuition fee	70	30	0	3
7. admission requirements	60	0	40	5
Weighted total	1,350	630	820

	Schulich	Rotman	Stanford
Tuition	$29.00	$54.00	$151.25
Opportunity Cost	$0.00	$0.00	$235.95
1st yr salary	$73.00	$75.00	$114.95
2nd yr salary	$84.53	$86.84	$133.10
3rd yr salary	$134.47	$138.16	$211.75
4th yr salary	$192.11	$197.37	$302.50
5th yr salary	$295.84	$303.95	$465.85
Total Profit	$750.95	$747.32	$840.95

The scientifist method above is indicating that Schulich is the choice to go for, but as you know we are humans, I couldn't go for Schulich without trying my chance with Stanford, so my plan, DO my GMAT and see my score

Can you spare some CHANGE?

Nope. I cannot spare some CHANGE. I don't have change to spare, I need someone to spare ME some change. Right now I have everything I want from a 5S plan, an activity board, a changerover system, a PM schedulinbg system and I can go on and on...however, I haven't been able to crack the Maintenance Supervisor into some sense...why?-He doesn't believe in change, "if it is working don't touch it", that's what he would say and what be believes.

It is funny, if no one wants change why do they fire the old staff and hire new staff? My problem is not a big problem since I have a very nice plan to implement my change. I won't tell you yet about my plan because then...then what would be the fun in it?

Found some Pix

Hey , here are some pix of a design we had to put together. It was supposed to be put into some wood thing by one side, and on the other, we were to put weight to see how much it holds. We could use 80 letter pages, and 120 ml of some glue. it had to resist at least 5 kilos(11 lbs) and be at least 30 cm long no including the 15 cm that is to be stuck in the wood thing. So what happened with our design was that it wouldn't fit into the wood thing, 'cause it was half cm wider. So, after some long show trying to put it in, half of it got broken, and still, we had to test it, and all we wanted for it was to hold the 5 damn kilos. Anyways, I don't know how, it hold 22 kilos. God, if it just wouldn't have got broken, I bet it would have hold 30+ kilos. We got the 2nd best grade, 'cause some guys had one that was a little bit longer. check it out. In one picture (the one just showing the design) you can clearly see how it was disfigured while I was trying to fit it to the hole in the wood. That thing hold 22 kilos in one end (torque). that is almost 50 lbs for you yankees.