faaak

So I won a $1500 World Series of Poker seat in my homegame. Or did I?

I was sitting with the host of the game after a nice cashgame (+$300 woot), and I mentioned that I was thinking of selling pieces of myself to reduce variance. Basically, putting $1500 (or $1000 as the case may be, because 35% of any winnings go to the league and 65% to me, but still) onto a single tournament is too much risk for the size of my bankroll. So I'll sell off a certain % for cash, and if I score in the tournament, the people who bought those % get a corresponding % of the prize. I figure I wanted to have somewhere between 35-50% of myself in this tournament.

Well the host flipped out. He said it was the league's ticket not mine and I couldn't sell pieces of it. I said the league owned 35%, but i could sell pieces of my 65% if I wanted. It was a scene. The next day our squabble broke out on the internet, as each of us wanted to check with other poker players about what is customary here, but we ended up just arguing in public. I think both of us were feeling pretty hurt.

That night he invited me out to another poker game that I wasn't planning on going to, but in light of his olive branch (come play poker with me), I took him up and joined. We played amiably for a couple hours (+$40 imo), then once the game broke went outside and had a chat. The online people overwhelmingly agreed with me, and he talked to some players he respects who also agreed with me. He expressed his fear that if I didn't have a lot of money riding on the one tournament I wouldn't play my best and that would screw over the league and their share. I reassure him it wouldn't change my play. He told me in that case he was comfortable with me selling action, and explained again how him and a couple others thought they were staking people for WSOP. I refrained from explaining again that the can't stake someone who doesn't agree to it, and even if they did, I could still sell pieces of MY part of the action. He apologized for questioning my motives and integrity. This was the most important thing in the conversation, but I was too heated at the time to recognize it.

I woke up the next morning (this morning) an emotional mess. We exchanged awkward emails again, but finally came around to what I think is a mutual understanding. I apologized for my misunderstanding and for causing a scene, he apologized for manipulating me and said that I can sell action. All seems OK now.

Its really hard making my way through this poker/gambling world when I hate money so much and yet the entire thing revolves around money. I hope he remains my friend, because I think its important to me that I'm able to maintain at least one true friendship in this fucked up world of degenerates, angleshooters, hustlers, and players.

Picked up a couple books

Harrington on Holdem 1 and 2, Elements of Poker, and The Poker Mindset.

I'm trying to decide if I should read HoH before the WSOP event I won a seat to. On the one hand I'm an "uncarved block" in tournament poker and my luckbox seems strong. But on the other hand, it wouldn't hurt to study up before I take a shot outside my roll.

The Poker Mindset seems like a very standard "poker advice" book. Probably nothing I don't know, but a reminder from time to time might be nice.

But Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo I'm really looking forward to! I think this book could really help me out. I got a thrill from reading the excerpt on the back cover:

"All of my good streaks and all of my bad streaks of every length and depth have one thing in common. They did not exist in your mind. They only existed in my mind. And this is true of for everyone's winning and losing streaks. none of them actually exist. They are all mental fabrication, like past and future. Everything that ever happens happens in the present tense. But how can you have a "streak" in the present tense? You can't. And therefore, if you are in the present tense, which, in fact, at this time, you are, then at this moment there is no streak in your life. There is no inherent existence to streaks. The streak is there when you think about it, and when you stop thinking about it, it goes away. It blossoms and whithers all in your mind. And when your mind invents a streak, you believe it exists, because you believe what your mind tells you. but the truth is there is only the hand you are playing."

Wow! I can't wait to read this. A couple times, hopefully.

Also, my boss is in The Onion this week. Yes, that's actually him in the picture.

Let's try bloging again...

...shall we?

Hopefully its better than the last time, when my blog was deemed "most depressing blog ever".