Well today is the day!
On this date in 1962, the ConvictKeeper was released from the confinement of the womb and entered onto the world. Through many, many trails and tribulations the ConvictKeeper is still here. It is a testament to modern medicine. When other lids wanted to be baseball players and doctors all I wanted to be was a prison guard, man am I living a dream! Happy Birthday to me, The ConvictKeeper!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
FTP and the Whole Damn Mess...
Well there it is. The minute I am running good, POW! A sick three buy-in loss. This session ended the entire run. I think I can tie it to one hand. I never felt like I was tilting, but obviously I was. Look at this sick hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1127473
I should have quit. I know better than to chase straights and flushes, but I saw so many OESD's that my head was spin. It seemed that everyone was playing 55/15/9 and they were hitting. Another hand was my 66 vs. KK (and short stacked, less than 1/2 a buy-in) on a flop of 345 rainbow. What do you do? Well back to the drawing board.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1127473
I should have quit. I know better than to chase straights and flushes, but I saw so many OESD's that my head was spin. It seemed that everyone was playing 55/15/9 and they were hitting. Another hand was my 66 vs. KK (and short stacked, less than 1/2 a buy-in) on a flop of 345 rainbow. What do you do? Well back to the drawing board.
Running Good...
Well I have really been running well, for me at least. I have a solid month to date, and after several months of red numbers, I am pleased to report they are green. I have realized a profit since May 1st. I have only seen what tough hand, stack buster (http://www.pokerhand.org/?1120661), but I think I played the hand well. I guess that is all you could hope for. I am taking notes and really studying the hands that land me in hot water. I find that I am losing a lot with 2 hands in particular. My stats suggest that I re-visit my play with AQ and 9/10 suited. Those are my "bad" hands. I can easily element the 9/10. but he AQ is a little different. I have changed my style and my approach with the AQ, and it has shown early promise.
After losing for so long, it is hard to believe I can be making the right plays that are required to show a profit. I hope my session with fruitypro, and my new approach has led to this. I hope this "rush" is not a run of good cards. I have been able to get away from most hands when I think I am beat, and I have made calls with overs and OESD that have paid off. It also seems my betting has been such that I get called more often with the goods. All in all, things are good, and when they are good, it really increases the confidence.
I would like to play $50NL, I am rolled for the level, but I want at least 15,000 hands in the green before I consider it. I guess it is my way of cutting my teeth. I have been losing for so long that I want a solid foundation. Right now I have logged 8,900 hands.
Off subject, saw Spiderman 3, sucked!
The prison has been relatively quite. Working with females is such a task, everything is so emotional. It is near the end of my shift on Monday, and Inmate Gunland gets into an argument with her cellie. The women live 8 to a cell, so you could image the drama. Anyway, the argument is over the treatment of another inmate. Women get involved with every aspect of every one's life. They actually form prison families. The butch lesbian is the father, the feminine lesbian is the mother, and everyone else are "kids". Anyway, us guards always have the same warning to each "fish". It is simple, "You came in with one number, do your number, not hers. Back to the issue, when the argument reaches it's climax, Gunland takes a combination lock and puts 4 health whacks on the cell window. Well these windows aren't cheap. After doing $400.00 damage, she is cuffed up and sent to me. I now get to ask the important questions "What the hell were you thinking, and why the hell did you bust up my cell window?" Of course I learn that someone was picking on someone else, and it was that drama that made her break the window. OMG! The sad thing is about this behavior is she will lose 60 days of "good time credit" and she will be charged for the window. The reality is, she get all the good time credit back and we won't collect a cent. PRISON!
After losing for so long, it is hard to believe I can be making the right plays that are required to show a profit. I hope my session with fruitypro, and my new approach has led to this. I hope this "rush" is not a run of good cards. I have been able to get away from most hands when I think I am beat, and I have made calls with overs and OESD that have paid off. It also seems my betting has been such that I get called more often with the goods. All in all, things are good, and when they are good, it really increases the confidence.
I would like to play $50NL, I am rolled for the level, but I want at least 15,000 hands in the green before I consider it. I guess it is my way of cutting my teeth. I have been losing for so long that I want a solid foundation. Right now I have logged 8,900 hands.
Off subject, saw Spiderman 3, sucked!
The prison has been relatively quite. Working with females is such a task, everything is so emotional. It is near the end of my shift on Monday, and Inmate Gunland gets into an argument with her cellie. The women live 8 to a cell, so you could image the drama. Anyway, the argument is over the treatment of another inmate. Women get involved with every aspect of every one's life. They actually form prison families. The butch lesbian is the father, the feminine lesbian is the mother, and everyone else are "kids". Anyway, us guards always have the same warning to each "fish". It is simple, "You came in with one number, do your number, not hers. Back to the issue, when the argument reaches it's climax, Gunland takes a combination lock and puts 4 health whacks on the cell window. Well these windows aren't cheap. After doing $400.00 damage, she is cuffed up and sent to me. I now get to ask the important questions "What the hell were you thinking, and why the hell did you bust up my cell window?" Of course I learn that someone was picking on someone else, and it was that drama that made her break the window. OMG! The sad thing is about this behavior is she will lose 60 days of "good time credit" and she will be charged for the window. The reality is, she get all the good time credit back and we won't collect a cent. PRISON!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Common Sense and a Slice of Pie...
Well after some time off from the grind of prison life, I am back and can't help but post a typical session with the nutty inmates. Inmate Wilson decides that she's, "Mad as Hell, and I not gonna take it anymore." So she takes a razor to her right forearm. Now mind you she has a history of self-inflicted behavior. Anyway, off she goes to the infirmary for a check up and placement of suicide watch. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). This event takes place at 10:00am, and now it's almost 1:00pm. All this time, this inmate is sitting in a holding cell, awaiting treatment and evaluation.
Ms. Wilson mentions that she is hungry, and that she has not eaten since 6:30 in the morning. She makes a simple request for a box lunch. Now in all my experience working with felons, I have learned that you don't mess with food or mail, that is a fact, and that is all that needs to be said. Her requests fall upon deaf ears. She makes another request, politely and with respect, again she is ignored. As you could very well imagine we have many badge heavy guards.
Well as this is going on, the inmate continues to watch the guards and medical staff enjoy pizza that had been purchased and delivered. Well you see the train a coming, rolling 'round the bend. The inmate is watching this with a hungry belly and a slightly off center mindset. All of the anger of her respectful request to eat comes to a head, and POW! off she goes. She races into the room with all the pizza, and does her best re-enactment of the famous Animal House food fight. Pizza is being tossed about. On the floors and walls, the windows and doors, the pizza is being tossed by the now crazed inmate. When all of the pizza had been destroyed, she sits back down and waits for her shot of mind-numbing narcotics.
All of this could have been avoided if someone would have given the convict a sandwich. But as you can tell, that would have been an act of kindness in some eyes. That is not how I see it. Every inmate is entitled to a box lunch, that is not a privilege, but a right. The guards who see feeding the inmate as being weak, ended up $71.00 in the hole, and had to give the convict a lunch anyway.
As they say on ESPN, "Winner, Winner, chicken dinner." PRISON!
Ms. Wilson mentions that she is hungry, and that she has not eaten since 6:30 in the morning. She makes a simple request for a box lunch. Now in all my experience working with felons, I have learned that you don't mess with food or mail, that is a fact, and that is all that needs to be said. Her requests fall upon deaf ears. She makes another request, politely and with respect, again she is ignored. As you could very well imagine we have many badge heavy guards.
Well as this is going on, the inmate continues to watch the guards and medical staff enjoy pizza that had been purchased and delivered. Well you see the train a coming, rolling 'round the bend. The inmate is watching this with a hungry belly and a slightly off center mindset. All of the anger of her respectful request to eat comes to a head, and POW! off she goes. She races into the room with all the pizza, and does her best re-enactment of the famous Animal House food fight. Pizza is being tossed about. On the floors and walls, the windows and doors, the pizza is being tossed by the now crazed inmate. When all of the pizza had been destroyed, she sits back down and waits for her shot of mind-numbing narcotics.
All of this could have been avoided if someone would have given the convict a sandwich. But as you can tell, that would have been an act of kindness in some eyes. That is not how I see it. Every inmate is entitled to a box lunch, that is not a privilege, but a right. The guards who see feeding the inmate as being weak, ended up $71.00 in the hole, and had to give the convict a lunch anyway.
As they say on ESPN, "Winner, Winner, chicken dinner." PRISON!
Friday, May 18, 2007
Reflecting back to the days of wine and song...
I posted a topic at Card Runners about how old I feel playing at the micros and posting thought on the low limit forums. It seems that everyone playing online poker is 18-25 and very aggressive and sharp. The highest levels are filled with twenty something phenoms shoving incredible sums of cash into huge pots. I can't help but wonder if I would have been one back in the day.
I was born in 1962, and of course life was simpler. I know, yadda, yadda yadda. But really we didn't have Internet or 100 channels. When I was in my teens, we played high school sports, drank and chased girls. I can't help but wonder if I would have spent my days in front of a computer screen playing 8 tables of No-Limit Poker at Full Tilt Poker, Where the Pros Play! I don't think I would have. All of our activities were outdoors. I can't help but believe the online poker boom is a product to ESPN and video games. Kids today aren't outdoor oriented, they are tech savvy and spend a majority of the day in a digital world. I would venture to say that an online poll would revel such facts. It's like smoking pot, it's harmless at first, but it will lead you to something stronger. For these kids, it was a simple game like Halo, but know look where they are. They play the highest stakes of online poker, and have a bankroll I'll not see in a lifetime. So in retrospect, I missed the boat. I should have been chasing bad guys on the TV with my controller instead of chasing curve balls low and away. I have promised a blog of poker and prison, but this is just a simple observation not even worth the megabytes required to post it.
I was born in 1962, and of course life was simpler. I know, yadda, yadda yadda. But really we didn't have Internet or 100 channels. When I was in my teens, we played high school sports, drank and chased girls. I can't help but wonder if I would have spent my days in front of a computer screen playing 8 tables of No-Limit Poker at Full Tilt Poker, Where the Pros Play! I don't think I would have. All of our activities were outdoors. I can't help but believe the online poker boom is a product to ESPN and video games. Kids today aren't outdoor oriented, they are tech savvy and spend a majority of the day in a digital world. I would venture to say that an online poll would revel such facts. It's like smoking pot, it's harmless at first, but it will lead you to something stronger. For these kids, it was a simple game like Halo, but know look where they are. They play the highest stakes of online poker, and have a bankroll I'll not see in a lifetime. So in retrospect, I missed the boat. I should have been chasing bad guys on the TV with my controller instead of chasing curve balls low and away. I have promised a blog of poker and prison, but this is just a simple observation not even worth the megabytes required to post it.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
First Winning Week...
This game we play called poker is as fickle as a beautiful women. Just when things go well, they can go badly. Well it is nice to report that I have logged my first complete winning week. What I mean by winning week is, every session is in the green. Mind you it is not a big gainer, but a gainer no doubt. This is a mile stone for my improvement. I have been a losing player, and by following this blog, you will understand my desire to get better. I have really been patient, picking spots, solidifying an image and being selectively aggressive. I have not won every hand, but I have overcome my mistakes by hitting my strong hand well. My biggest loss was a half stack on the river, and I doubled twice in the week. A lot of credit goes to Dan (fruitypro) Weston, the coach who will hopefully pull me up to $200NL, sooner rather than later.
I will turn 45 on the 27th, and that prompted me to post on Card Runners a general question about age. I was a little encouraged to see three around my age, but really, this online thing is a young man's game. Then I spent about and hour in an Indian Casino (Jackson Rancheria) in Jackson, CA. What did I see, KIDS, KIDS and more KIDS. These kids are playing 1/2 NL, and very aggressive. As the game changes from No-Limit to Limit, so did the ages. I saw more older men on the $3/$6 Limit tables, then on the No-Limit tables. How does a middle aged man overcome such youthful recklessness. See us fathers, have some much to concern ourselves with. Hell, my daughter will be able to play in the same casino next year. I wonder if that is what holds me up. I guess my long term goal is to play well after I retire from the "system". I don't want to just play, I want to be successful.
But this week was good. I actually won. I made good calls and bad calls, I made huge raises and big lay downs. Oh, I know I folded the best hand sometimes, and I called the river with a dog, but when it was all said and done, I won. I used some pot control took reduce my swings because at $25NL, I could easily lose with QQQ to a rivered straight when the villain called my PF raise with 59 suited. This level is funky because most bets are the size of a 32oz. fountain drink, and the all-in shove is equal to the average cheap buffet dinner. But hey, green is good. Green is good! POKER!
I will turn 45 on the 27th, and that prompted me to post on Card Runners a general question about age. I was a little encouraged to see three around my age, but really, this online thing is a young man's game. Then I spent about and hour in an Indian Casino (Jackson Rancheria) in Jackson, CA. What did I see, KIDS, KIDS and more KIDS. These kids are playing 1/2 NL, and very aggressive. As the game changes from No-Limit to Limit, so did the ages. I saw more older men on the $3/$6 Limit tables, then on the No-Limit tables. How does a middle aged man overcome such youthful recklessness. See us fathers, have some much to concern ourselves with. Hell, my daughter will be able to play in the same casino next year. I wonder if that is what holds me up. I guess my long term goal is to play well after I retire from the "system". I don't want to just play, I want to be successful.
But this week was good. I actually won. I made good calls and bad calls, I made huge raises and big lay downs. Oh, I know I folded the best hand sometimes, and I called the river with a dog, but when it was all said and done, I won. I used some pot control took reduce my swings because at $25NL, I could easily lose with QQQ to a rivered straight when the villain called my PF raise with 59 suited. This level is funky because most bets are the size of a 32oz. fountain drink, and the all-in shove is equal to the average cheap buffet dinner. But hey, green is good. Green is good! POKER!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Doing My Part...
I submitted lengthy post on Cardrunner seeking individuals to join the Department of Correctional and Rehabilitation. I have between 6-8 years of service before I call it quits. So I feel the need to do my part in finding individuals who want to step up an join the team. In all honesty, if I was 21, and I did not have a clear direction, I mean crystal clear, then I would join right up. I don't know many 21 and 22 year old's who make 125,000 and own there own home. It is that easy, and with 401k and deferred comp, then you retire a millionaire with full medical/dental. If you go the long haul (33 years) then you get the whole paycheck for life, and that will be over 100K. So, as I say, come on in, the water is fine.
I spend my mothers day with 4000 felons, of which 3/4 are mothers. It is an odd situation, I respect the work mothers do, but man, when mom is a crack addict or she whacked the old man in a drunken rage, how do you say, "Happy Mothers Day"? But as life is in the largest women's prison in the world, we had a near death on the main yard. Here it is Mother's Day, and ol' girl has to shove enough heroin into her system to kill her. But as it is expected, the guards and medics get to work and bring the dead back to life. So our little miss needle monster gets to see another Mother's Day!
Poker has been getting better. I have had a string of positive sessions. I have been in the green for the week for the first time. I am really focusing on my hands, and I am trying to put the evil villains on hand. I need work to continue. I am still having problem with middle pairs and the c-betting. I am really trying not to hit the home run shove without the nuts. I haven't shoved but twice in the week and both times stacked the villain. I am finding something new in the game. It appears that when you look down at QQ, and you re-raise, and the villain 4 bets and you call, then the flop is QK7. Apparently your not suppose to call a flop bet that puts you all in. Man because when I did, and flipped up AA, he was pissed off to no end.
I read an article in a poker mag that explains how to tilt a player. I generally don't go there, ya see I am 45 years old, we don't play like that. But this guy, he was a real ass. My advice is that homie don't every f-up and hit the joint, he would have a chance. Anyway, so this seemed like the right guy to take a shot at. I let about 20 minutes pass since my set doubled me up and then relived the hand via the chat room. You know, "Hey did you guys see how I got my QQ in with the best of it to a pair of AA's. Man that hand is so over played, it is easy to bust someone like that". WOW!! I can't even publish the remarks. LOL!!!! POKER!
I spend my mothers day with 4000 felons, of which 3/4 are mothers. It is an odd situation, I respect the work mothers do, but man, when mom is a crack addict or she whacked the old man in a drunken rage, how do you say, "Happy Mothers Day"? But as life is in the largest women's prison in the world, we had a near death on the main yard. Here it is Mother's Day, and ol' girl has to shove enough heroin into her system to kill her. But as it is expected, the guards and medics get to work and bring the dead back to life. So our little miss needle monster gets to see another Mother's Day!
Poker has been getting better. I have had a string of positive sessions. I have been in the green for the week for the first time. I am really focusing on my hands, and I am trying to put the evil villains on hand. I need work to continue. I am still having problem with middle pairs and the c-betting. I am really trying not to hit the home run shove without the nuts. I haven't shoved but twice in the week and both times stacked the villain. I am finding something new in the game. It appears that when you look down at QQ, and you re-raise, and the villain 4 bets and you call, then the flop is QK7. Apparently your not suppose to call a flop bet that puts you all in. Man because when I did, and flipped up AA, he was pissed off to no end.
I read an article in a poker mag that explains how to tilt a player. I generally don't go there, ya see I am 45 years old, we don't play like that. But this guy, he was a real ass. My advice is that homie don't every f-up and hit the joint, he would have a chance. Anyway, so this seemed like the right guy to take a shot at. I let about 20 minutes pass since my set doubled me up and then relived the hand via the chat room. You know, "Hey did you guys see how I got my QQ in with the best of it to a pair of AA's. Man that hand is so over played, it is easy to bust someone like that". WOW!! I can't even publish the remarks. LOL!!!! POKER!
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