Author: Nick Momrik

I'm searching for my first hole-in-one. I enjoy being active and making things. I work for Automattic.

Say NO to Tourneys

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That’s my new slogan. At least for the next two months. Tournaments are definitely -EV for me at this point. If I’m going to reach my goal, I can’t keep giving my money away in tournaments. I was “suckered” into another one last night. A $30+3 on UB with $5,000 guaranteed. As I logged into my account and looked over the tables I noticed this tournament had 109 people and only 5 minutes left to register. Top 20 places were paying and unless 167 people entered, UB was going to be adding a decent amount of cash to the prize pool to reach that five grand. For some reason I thought UB cut off registration 5 minutes before the start of a tournament so I signed up. Well, 71 other people must have been thinking the same thing. When the tournament started there were 181 people and UB didn’t have to put up any dough. What at first looked like a 1 out of 5 people win money deal turned out to be no deal.

For the first three levels I saw exactly 0 hands out of the blinds. All I could find were unsuited low cards or marginal cards out of position. I think I managed to win one hand when I made what I thought was a great move with my big slick after the flop only to be called by another big slick and split the pot. As always seems the case, I ended up going in on a draw and lost. Out in 81st place. When will I get it through my head not to put all of my chips on the line for a draw? I do it over and over and over again in tournaments and it just doesn’t pay off. I always bluff at the wrong times too. I guess a draw is a semi-bluff, so no difference there. So the tournament set me back $33 or about 8 BB at my regular $2/4 game. Nothing huge, but it slowly eats away at the bankroll.

That’s it though. No more. I’m vowing to not play another online tournament (except WPBT events of course) until after the goal period is over and I can study some tournament strategy. I like tourneys and no-limit, but I suck at it. I know I suck, but I’m still playing and giving my money away.

I also played some of the $2/4 6-max games last night and lost about 30 BB. It’s always the same thing when I lose. I don’t want to show fear, so I call down a raiser or a check-raiser with my 2nd best hand and lose precious bets. Call it the “I don’t want to be bluffed syndrome.” Sometimes I feel like an incompetent plumber. I know the faucet is leaking and I know how to fix it, but I just sit there with my ass crack hanging out. Drip…drip…drip…

Super Bowl Weekend

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My Super Bowl weekend couldn’t have started out any worse. On the ride up to Rogers City I hit a porcupine and it cracked up my front bumper. I’m going to try to get it fixed without replacing it. I talked to one of the body shops back home and they said they would be able to take off the bumper, grind it down, and glue it. Roughly $300-$400 to have that done. He also said probably over $600 to just replace it. Our deductible is $500, so I really like the $300 range a lot more. If it was my car, I just rig it up with some brackets underneath or something, but I have to turn in the lease in less than two months. Great timing!

My Dad got me all excited about the new vehicle again. He told me that the dealer who is looking for my ride found one exactly like I wanted, but it was $1000 more than I wanted to pay. He said there is a lot of time and if he gets one with a little more mileage it shouldn’t be a problem (this one had 24,000). You’re probably wondering what I’m getting right? It’s going to be a 2003 GMC Envoy SLT 4×4 with carbon metallic as the color. Carbon metallic is a really dark gray and looks sweet on these vehicles. It’s really going to be a nice ride. I can’t wait!

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Root of all Evil

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I drove back to Saginaw today and just pulled in about an hour ago. I don’t remember seeing so much fog in an afternoon and I had it the whole trip. At least I didn’t hit any animals like I did on the trip up north. I hit a porcupine (pictures) and will have to get my frong bumper ever “rigged up” or replaced. Just what I needed less than 2 months before the lease is up on the vehicle. So we’re talking at least $300. Nothing I can do about it, so it doesn’t pay to go on tilt.

I didn’t think I’d get in any online poker over the weekend, but I got bored and installed Empire Poker on Mom’s computer so that I could work on the 1050 raked hands I needed to clear for their recent bonus. Playing $1/2 6-max it took me 1,600 hands to clear the $150 bonus. In addition to clearing the bonus, I came out 40 BB ahead for an average of 2.5 BB/100 hands. It was a good weekend for the bankroll. If not for a couple of 2-out suckouts in a row, it would have been much much nicer though. That’s poker.

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Just What I Need

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I made it to Rogers City safe and sound, but my car didn’t. Less than two fucking months until I turn in my lease, so what happens? I run over the biggest fucking porcupine ever and it damn near tears off the front of my car. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow during the day. I’m […]

Mailing List Opt Out

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Tired of receiving credit card offers in the mail? Me too. I found a way to opt out of these offers. Either call 1-888-5OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) or visit optoutprescreen.com. The web site doesn’t look legit, but it is. I called the number and they even gave that URL in the phone message. How do I know […]

Back at Empire

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I logged into Empire Poker today just for kicks and voila! They’re having a redeposit bonus of 25% up to $150. So much for sticking at UB. I just can’t pass up the bonus whoring. Since I’ve been loving the short-handed table and the Party skins don’t have $2/4 6-max, I jumped around some of the $1/2 6-maxers. After stopping by four tables I finished up a total of 28 BB and cleared over 150 of my 1050 raked hands for the bonus.

Tomorrow after work I’ll be heading to my parents for the weekend in order to get my taxes done and visit the dentist, so I won’t get in any online play. We might make a trip to St. Ignace for some casino play, but it’s more likely that we’ll just play some home games. I haven’t done that in quite some time, so it should be fun.

Update: Played another 50 minutes while waiting for laundry and took down another 11 BB. Take advantage of the Empire bonus while you can!

Change Of Scenery

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MtDewVirus realy needs a change of scenery…I just haven’t wanted to spend the time on a new design though. WordPress 1.5 has entered the gamma stage, so it shouldn’t be long before the final release. Maybe that’s when I’ll work on some changes around here since there are some new features that I’ve planned to […]