Chapel
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
My oldest brother and I never really had a lot in common. We were a decade apart (I the younger) and were on two different stratospheres growing up. I didn't spend a lot of time with him growing up, but I always remember trying to learn from him. It wasn't always learning what to do, but rather what not to do. In his 20s, when he was catching hell from doing anything and everything that pissed our Dad off, I was in the background learning. As it turns out, I didn't learn what not to do, I just learned how to not get caught. Funny thing being the youngest of four.
I look back on my childhood and don't have a ton of memories with my brother. To be honest, I don't have a ton of memories of my younger days in general. The memories I do have, whether good or bad, I cherish because they are memories I still hold. What I do know is in the strangest of ways, poker has brought my brother and I much closer than we have ever been in our lives. We talk to each other much more often and regularly spend time with each other discussing or playing poker. It just so happens the love of the game affords us more opportunities to get away from the daily grind and spend time playing a game we love.
I write all this because I've been thinking about my brother, chapel, lately. Some of you may remember him from numerous blogger events he played in or the blog he started, then sort of stopped due to work obligations. The G-Vegas and Charlotte blogging crew will remember him from several blogging events, the most recent being the Mastodon weekend not that long ago at BadBlood's casa.
This past Friday I got a call from my Mom to let me know his house had burned down that morning. Apparently there was faulty wiring in the master bedroom and one of the outlets fried. Thankfully his two girls were at school and he and his wife were at work, so there were no casualties. That's ALL that matters. I tried to call that night, but understandably didn't get through.
After two full days of dealing with the stress, on Saturday night he decided to take a moment to flip the cap off of a Blue Moon and drink a beer. His last Blue Moon had been with me the Mastodon Weekend not that long ago and it reminded him of that night, so he decided to text me and see how I was doing. His house had burnt down the day before and he had lost everything, but he was texting me to see how I was doing. I was humbled.
I'm not writing any of this to ask for anything other than your thoughts and prayers. I know quite often bad things happen to good people and many times those good people have no where to go. Thankfully, in this instance, it looks as though insurance will do what they are paid to do, though there are many things to be worked out.
In the meantime, I just wanted my fellow bloggers who know chapel to be aware of his situation. I know it won't be long before he is itching to get away from the stress of dealing with it all and just get a break. To that end, I hope to make a trip that way soon and get him away from it all. Mayhaps a G-Vegas poker night will be in order if I can do some persuading. I hear there are some good underground games that only get raided every other game. I like them odds.
Stay strong bro. I think about you all the time.
posted by TripJax @ 12:55 AM,
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Ruh-Roh
Friday, March 20, 2009
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posted by TripJax @ 2:09 PM,
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March Gladness
Friday, March 13, 2009
Gotta love having a jabillion inch tv at work to watch acc/ncaa basketball. I actually have no idea how big the screen is, but it comes out of the ceiling and takes up most of the wall, so it's pretty friggin' big. Now if I could just get my boss to spring for some alcamahol.
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posted by TripJax @ 4:33 PM,
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Poker And The Luck Factor, Part One
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Recently I wrote about a short article dubbed The Luck Factor, by Richard Wiseman. In my post I noted I would try and delve deeper into the article at some point. Normally that would mean I completely forget about it and move on to the next shiny object that grabs my attention, but once in a blue moon I find a moment to follow through on something I mentioned in this here blog. With that said, let's gank a few quotes from the article and half-assedly make a poker post out of it.
Since I rarely have much time to make a lengthy post, I've decided to break this up into a series of posts. The first quote discusses four principles and, while I will go ahead and post the whole quote now, I'll be focusing on the first principle in this post. Let's do this:
"...lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good."
Skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities.
Two words often come up during the debate of online poker legality (as well as state-by-state live poker legality). Those words are skill and luck. Or to put it a different way, skill versus luck. So how strange is it that Wiseman's first principle of luck involves some form of skill? Quite frankly, any jackfuck - including my tard ass - can walk into a room and win a monster pot against any one person in any given moment; however, let's look beyond that. What about the person who calls ahead to confirm how the tables are looking? What about the guy who scopes the tables to determine the best spot to pick? What about the guy who skips an open spot at one table in lieu of a better opportunity which he recognizes will arise not too long after? What about the guy who finds the best seat at the table to optimize his chances for a good run at the fish? These are just several examples of people who go beyond the usual to work towards their game. They are creating opportunities to maximize their mobneys.
Then there are the opportunities that players have once they sit down at the felt. Quite franky, my drunktard ass is prime for the pickin' when it comes to a skilled player, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about creating your own luck. I think at the end of the day, the line I've heard many times applies:
"Luck Is What You Make It."
Find opportunities and exploit them. Work towards creating and noticing opportunities that maximize for your potential for making mobneys. In the end...
Let's light this candle.
To be continued...
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posted by TripJax @ 11:19 PM,
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Dad's Little Helper...
Saturday, March 07, 2009
...Who knew malt liquor could be so good.
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posted by TripJax @ 12:30 AM,
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OldBoy > Poker
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
I've missed the first three BBT4 poker tournaments so far and tonight will be no different. Instead I will be going to this special theater showing of OldBoy. I've been excited about checking out this movie on the big screen for quite a while, but never thought I'd have the chance since it is several years old. When my buddy sent me a pic of this poster he saw - he added the large text, which was awesome - my plans were set.
You may recall I reviewed OldBoy on this blog in '08 here...
http//:tripjax.blogspot.com/2
008/09/oldboy.html
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
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posted by TripJax @ 5:28 PM,
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