I love this time of year.
I was involved in a debate about sports recently, and through my own thoughts, confronted exactly what it is that I really like watching in a sport. It was an eye-opening realization. It occured to me that the most important thing in a sport, for me, are the moments where each game, each play, each hit or miss is amplified by the situation. I'll explain what I mean in with examples:
- Baseball: 162 game seasons are tearfully boring. I would really rather gouge my eye out than be forced to watch a season of baseball (well, until the middle of September or so, then it gets somewhat interesting with the pennant races). However, during the playoffs, and especially in those game 7 situations, I greatly enjoy the stuff.
- Hockey: I think the season is 84 games now. That's just way too long. Sometimes I watch specific matchups on Saturday night, but the same arguments apply. Even the playoffs, with 4 rounds of best of sevens gets old. I start interested, and sometimes I'll stay interested depending on the teams, but I'll usually be burnt out by the time the Stanley Cup rolls around. Give me the Olympic tournament, the World Juniors, or the Canada/World Cup any day.
- NBA Basketball: The games are at least more interesting to watch than baseball, but the season is still far too long. The skill disparity between NBA teams is the greatest in any of the major sports. The good teams beat the bad teams, and badly, over 90% of the time. Upsets are rare. There is absolutely no need to have such a long season to help decide the winner, nor to include so many teams in the playoffs. I'll watch the NBA finals, and that's about it.
- NFL Football: Now we're getting there. The nature of the beast is that almost every game matters. The division games more than most. 6 division games in a 16 game season means a lot of very important games, and with the average cutoff for the playoffs being about 10-6, every game counts. You can't lost too many games. Then the playoffs are win or out. I love the NFL!
- NCAA Football: Like the NFL, but on crack! For those teams (usually about 6-10 in the preseason) who are hopefuls to make the National Championship Game, every single game is key. ANY loss can end your dreams, and will at the least cripple you. 2 years ago, Michigan was the #1 seed and considered the favourite to make the big game. They lost the first game to Appalachian State (a Div II school, unheard of), and there was no longer any chance for them to make even the BCS, far less the National Championship Game. Anyway, you end up with every play of every game all season long being critical. I love the NCAA.
- NCAA Basketball: March Madness is truly sick. I love it. I'm not a huge fan during the regular season, mainly because there are a lot of yawner games, but March Madness changes all that. There are upsets every day, 16 games a day to start, and you have to win 6 games in a row against the best teams in the country to win it all. Last season's finals was one of the most epic games I have seen of all time. All four #1 seeds had made the Final Four. Memphis had a great team playing Kansas in the finals. Memphis had what seemed to be an unbeatable lead with just over 2 minutes remaining (I think 9 points), but then they choked in epic fashion. They missed something like 7 of 9 free throws, Kansas tied it up at the last moment, they went to overtime, and Memphis never recovered. Truly epic.
So what I love about sports is an atmosphere where every play matters. Where every great play becomes that much greater, where every mistake has the possibility of turning into a full-blown choke. That is why I love sports.
Until Next Time,
Fell
Friday, March 20, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Random thoughts about Politics
I've been engaged in several debated recently on rec.gambling.poker about various political topics, and felt like sharing my views on a few of those topics here:
1. Healthcare reform (in the USA) is going through a lot of debate right now. For some damn reason, the naysayers point to ridiculous claims and point to the Canadian system (which is itself in dire need of repair) and ask "Do you really wany to be more like THAT?" My answer to them has always been the same, and I hope that eventually it will sink in. Nobody in their right mind should want to emulate the Canadian system. What should be done is for the USA to take their current system, which features the most (and arguably best) doctors in the world and model it after the best systems in the world (France, Italy, Japan), while using good old-fashioned American ingenuity to improve upon the weak points and thus create the best system in the world.
The simple facts are plain to see for anyone who cares to look. The USA spends the most money per capita on its current healthcare system, yet ranks at the bottom of the so-called "first-world" nations in many simple indicators of healthiness (life expectancy, infant death rate, maternal death rate during delivery to name a few).
2. Nobody is ever going to solve the abortion question or the gay marriage question (without a complete re-definition of what marriage is) to the satisfaction of everyone. They are simply red herring arguments and are designed to distract the population from the much more important issues that go unnoticed and unreported upon. Arguing about them is, for the most part, a waste of time and energy. The same goes for the creation/evolution political debate.
3. Global Warming is as issue that needs attention. It is not, in my layman's opinion, as bad as the worst of the alarmists say (I personally feel that Mother Earth has the capacity to fix almost anything with time), but neither do I think that the naysayers are correct in saying that we should do nothing. Recent history is full of global solutions to problems that seemed impossible to solve at the time, namely, the fear of all-out nuclear war, the energy crisis of the late 70s, CFCs and the resultant hole in the ozone layer, the garbage problem, and now global warming.
It behooves us in general to reduce air pollution, because we have verifiable scientific basis to know that air pollution is bad for human life (Have you ever seen Los Angeles from the air? Several Asian cities are even worse). So why not encourage people to reduce their own 'carbon footprint'? Why not create tighter (if not ruthless) standards regarding factories? Most importantly, why not use the current world's goodwill towards the new US administration to try to create a framework whereby everyone could play by the same rules? Kyoto was a nice idea, but was fatally flawed from the get-go. Let's do it right. We only have one Earth.
Until Next Time,
Fell
1. Healthcare reform (in the USA) is going through a lot of debate right now. For some damn reason, the naysayers point to ridiculous claims and point to the Canadian system (which is itself in dire need of repair) and ask "Do you really wany to be more like THAT?" My answer to them has always been the same, and I hope that eventually it will sink in. Nobody in their right mind should want to emulate the Canadian system. What should be done is for the USA to take their current system, which features the most (and arguably best) doctors in the world and model it after the best systems in the world (France, Italy, Japan), while using good old-fashioned American ingenuity to improve upon the weak points and thus create the best system in the world.
The simple facts are plain to see for anyone who cares to look. The USA spends the most money per capita on its current healthcare system, yet ranks at the bottom of the so-called "first-world" nations in many simple indicators of healthiness (life expectancy, infant death rate, maternal death rate during delivery to name a few).
2. Nobody is ever going to solve the abortion question or the gay marriage question (without a complete re-definition of what marriage is) to the satisfaction of everyone. They are simply red herring arguments and are designed to distract the population from the much more important issues that go unnoticed and unreported upon. Arguing about them is, for the most part, a waste of time and energy. The same goes for the creation/evolution political debate.
3. Global Warming is as issue that needs attention. It is not, in my layman's opinion, as bad as the worst of the alarmists say (I personally feel that Mother Earth has the capacity to fix almost anything with time), but neither do I think that the naysayers are correct in saying that we should do nothing. Recent history is full of global solutions to problems that seemed impossible to solve at the time, namely, the fear of all-out nuclear war, the energy crisis of the late 70s, CFCs and the resultant hole in the ozone layer, the garbage problem, and now global warming.
It behooves us in general to reduce air pollution, because we have verifiable scientific basis to know that air pollution is bad for human life (Have you ever seen Los Angeles from the air? Several Asian cities are even worse). So why not encourage people to reduce their own 'carbon footprint'? Why not create tighter (if not ruthless) standards regarding factories? Most importantly, why not use the current world's goodwill towards the new US administration to try to create a framework whereby everyone could play by the same rules? Kyoto was a nice idea, but was fatally flawed from the get-go. Let's do it right. We only have one Earth.
Until Next Time,
Fell
A Prop Bet
Those of you who follow the poker world might know the story of boku87. He bet $30,000 to win $90,000 that he could turn $100 into $10,000 in 15 days by playing nothing higher than $16 sit and go tournaments on Pokerstars. He was playing between 40 and 50 tables AT A TIME for somewhere around 16 hours a day, but he made it on the 14th day, $10,011.
A friend of mine thinks that he can do something similar (though he cannot even come close to doing 40 tables at once), so I have offered him similar terms, as detailed below:
1. Starting date is 20 March 2009, 00:00 Eastern Daylight Time. Ending point is 19 June 2009, 23:59, Eastern Daylight Time (any eligible tournaments that start during this time period count toward the bet).
2. Your starting bankroll is $200.00*. Ending conditions are as follows:
a) Your winnings reach -$200.00 at any point, or to such a point where you are unable to buy-in to an eligible tournament, in which case you lose the bet.
b) Your winnings meet or exceed $9,900.00 (net profit) before 19 June 2009, 23:59 EDT, in which case you win the bet. If this happens, you must send an email to the group claiming victory, and we will look over the records to verify the result.
c) 19 June 2009, 23:59 EDT comes and goes with you not having reached $10,000.00, in which case you lose the bet.
3. Odds being offered are 3:1. You are risking $333.00 to win $1,000.00.
4. Eligible tournaments are any tournament on Pokerstars during the bet period played under the name "xyious" which are 45 man Sit & Go tournaments. There is no minimum buy-in, maximum buy-in is $27 (rake included).
5. You may not buy-in to any tournament that is greater than your total bankroll at the time (i.e. if you have only $8 left in your bankroll, you cannot buy-in to an $11 tournament even if you have the funds in your account).
6. Bonuses, rakeback, player transfers, Battle of Planets winnings, deposits, and cashouts, do not count toward your overall profit. A snapshot of your current record, according to Officialpokerrankings.com will be posted to this list on 19 Mar 2009. OPR results will be used to determine if you ever reach one of the automatic end-states.
7. In the case of any dispute, this list will act as a democratic meditator of the dispute. They will listen to each of our arguments, and have 24 hours to vote. At the end of the 24 hours, whichever of us has more votes will win the argument, and both sides agree to this dispute resolution mechanism. In the event of a tie in the dispute resolution process, there will be one more argument period and one more voting period of 24 hours. If after the second vote, there is still a deadlock, then there will be no action on our bet.
*includes a $100.00 starting bankroll and an one-time optional $100.00 rebuy bankroll. All currencies in this bet are $USD.
So basically, I'm putting up a thousand againsth is $333 that he cannot do it. Two others have each put up $300 to his $100, so this stands to be pretty interesting.
Until Next Time,
Fell
A friend of mine thinks that he can do something similar (though he cannot even come close to doing 40 tables at once), so I have offered him similar terms, as detailed below:
1. Starting date is 20 March 2009, 00:00 Eastern Daylight Time. Ending point is 19 June 2009, 23:59, Eastern Daylight Time (any eligible tournaments that start during this time period count toward the bet).
2. Your starting bankroll is $200.00*. Ending conditions are as follows:
a) Your winnings reach -$200.00 at any point, or to such a point where you are unable to buy-in to an eligible tournament, in which case you lose the bet.
b) Your winnings meet or exceed $9,900.00 (net profit) before 19 June 2009, 23:59 EDT, in which case you win the bet. If this happens, you must send an email to the group claiming victory, and we will look over the records to verify the result.
c) 19 June 2009, 23:59 EDT comes and goes with you not having reached $10,000.00, in which case you lose the bet.
3. Odds being offered are 3:1. You are risking $333.00 to win $1,000.00.
4. Eligible tournaments are any tournament on Pokerstars during the bet period played under the name "xyious" which are 45 man Sit & Go tournaments. There is no minimum buy-in, maximum buy-in is $27 (rake included).
5. You may not buy-in to any tournament that is greater than your total bankroll at the time (i.e. if you have only $8 left in your bankroll, you cannot buy-in to an $11 tournament even if you have the funds in your account).
6. Bonuses, rakeback, player transfers, Battle of Planets winnings, deposits, and cashouts, do not count toward your overall profit. A snapshot of your current record, according to Officialpokerrankings.com will be posted to this list on 19 Mar 2009. OPR results will be used to determine if you ever reach one of the automatic end-states.
7. In the case of any dispute, this list will act as a democratic meditator of the dispute. They will listen to each of our arguments, and have 24 hours to vote. At the end of the 24 hours, whichever of us has more votes will win the argument, and both sides agree to this dispute resolution mechanism. In the event of a tie in the dispute resolution process, there will be one more argument period and one more voting period of 24 hours. If after the second vote, there is still a deadlock, then there will be no action on our bet.
*includes a $100.00 starting bankroll and an one-time optional $100.00 rebuy bankroll. All currencies in this bet are $USD.
So basically, I'm putting up a thousand againsth is $333 that he cannot do it. Two others have each put up $300 to his $100, so this stands to be pretty interesting.
Until Next Time,
Fell
The past two years
Seems like a good time to start blogging again. My last post on www.fellknight.blogspot.com was about ATLARGE weekend, 2007. Well, ATLARGE 2009 happened this past weekend, but I wasn't able to attend (more on that later).
A note for those who read the old blog:
- This blog is going to be a little less about the poker, and more about life, politics, and other things that catch my fancy.
Ok, so where do we begin?
After ATLARGE 2007, the store that Tanya and I had opened, RagZ for TeenZ, in Kingman, Arizona, continued to have a lot of trouble financially, and we made the decision to pull the plug on it. I played poker "semi-professionally" (read: I couldn't do anything else in the USA), and contributed what I could to the household with the aim of getting me back to Canada. I attended dealer school in Las Vegas at this time, and learned to deal blackjack and poker to a casino standard. I got the opportunity to test my newfound skills in April 2007 onboard the WPS Cruise III, and had a great time overall.
That takes us to around June 2007, and the World Series of Poker. I was fortunate enough to have been offered a stake to attempt to win some money in the satellites there, but they were run just so badly that I was averaging about 2-3 per day. I started off poorly, then had 2 outright wins in a row which ballooned the bankroll, and then it seemed that nothing could go right. I ended up losing the last of the stake near the end of June, and had to leave Vegas dejected. Tanya got an advance from one of her clients and gave it to me to drive back to Canada to get some work. I had been in contact with beermankirk from RGP, and he offered to let me rent a room from him in Abbotsford, near Vancouver, BC.
The next few months were fraught with financial difficulties. I was doing odd jobs, had to borrow money to live on and pay bills while trying to find a decent job. I delivered pizzas for awhile, went down to Costa Rica to deal with the WPS again (a story which in itself was a mess, as I returned home with nearly no profit), and eventually, in November, was offered a position at the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam, but not as a dealer, as a slot attendant. Not being one to turn down a good break, I dedicated myself to the job as hard as I could, and made many good friends and enjoyed my time there greatly. The commute from Abbotsford to Coquitlam, however, was too much (gas was over $5.00USD/GAL at that time), and so I moved out of Kirk's place and into a basement suite in Coquitlam, less than a 10 minute hop from work.
Finally, with a decent paying job and few bills, I was self-sufficient again, but was not making any headway on repaying old debts or even building up some sort of savings as I would need to in order to replace or repair big ticket items (such as a car troubles). So, after some deliberations, I finally decided to re-enlist with the military. I completed my tests in March 2008, and was posted to Kingston, Ontario, in June. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I was worried at first because I felt that it would lock me into a life path for the next few years when I had hoped to return to the USA and Tanya, but I realized that even if that is to happen, it will have to wait a few years anyway, while Tanya's daughter finishes her schooling and we both try to recover financially from our failed attempt, so perhaps it will still happen in the future, but not likely for the next several years.
Finally, in Kingston, I could now start to make headway on my debts. I took the cheapest accomodations available for my rank ($200 a month for a one bedroom, shared bathroom in the shacks), and have been paying off over $1000 a month to old debts.
Shortly after arriving in Kingston, I was staked by a poster on 2+2 poker forums to play in the $216 buy-in Seven Card Stud event at the Full Tilt Online Poker Series. I played an extremely good game, had my share of luck (but also created my own), and ended up finishing in 2nd place out of about 600 players, for a winnings of $17,500. Of that, a good portion went to my kind backer, but I was able to play in the World Championship of Online Poker on Pokerstars, and came tantalizingly close, twice, out of fields of over 1,000 players, to winning life-changing money. As it is, I won a little bit of money over the course of the series, and began to feel that maybe I was back.
At work, I had been busy with training, trying to reacquire many skills that I have not used in over 5 years (2 years out of the military and 3 years before that posted to an air force base in a desk job). I finally had a position where I was directly supervising a younger private, and began to feel like this was really what I was meant to do. I went to Norfolk, Virginia, to participate in a joint exercise in November, 2008, was there to witness the historic election of President Obama, and then was moved over to the regular troops in January 2009 to practice my skills as a communicator and senior corporal more effectively. It has been great. We have an excellent team, and one that shows a ton of promise in the future.
I was slated to go to Cyprus for 3 months starting in early Feb 2009, but got pulled off the tasking. Instead, they sent me up to the Arctic as the Signals Detachment Commander for an Advanced Winter Warfare course. It has been a learning experience, and I am glad for the opportunity to have come up here.
Oh, for those of you who are not faint of heart, here is where I am writing from now:
http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm
I am in Resolute, look at the North Pole, and go left until you hit the first town above the line. Currently, the temperature is: -63.4F (-53C) with the windchill. IT'S DAMN COLD.
I return back to civilization this weekend, and am back to work after a week off. Plans for the future include a trip to the World Series of Poker in June with several friends, and a trip back to Vegas in August for BARGE 2009.
I know I have left out a lot of the past two years (some on purpose, some not), but I hope that the reader has a better understanding of me now.
Until next time,
Fell
A note for those who read the old blog:
- This blog is going to be a little less about the poker, and more about life, politics, and other things that catch my fancy.
Ok, so where do we begin?
After ATLARGE 2007, the store that Tanya and I had opened, RagZ for TeenZ, in Kingman, Arizona, continued to have a lot of trouble financially, and we made the decision to pull the plug on it. I played poker "semi-professionally" (read: I couldn't do anything else in the USA), and contributed what I could to the household with the aim of getting me back to Canada. I attended dealer school in Las Vegas at this time, and learned to deal blackjack and poker to a casino standard. I got the opportunity to test my newfound skills in April 2007 onboard the WPS Cruise III, and had a great time overall.
That takes us to around June 2007, and the World Series of Poker. I was fortunate enough to have been offered a stake to attempt to win some money in the satellites there, but they were run just so badly that I was averaging about 2-3 per day. I started off poorly, then had 2 outright wins in a row which ballooned the bankroll, and then it seemed that nothing could go right. I ended up losing the last of the stake near the end of June, and had to leave Vegas dejected. Tanya got an advance from one of her clients and gave it to me to drive back to Canada to get some work. I had been in contact with beermankirk from RGP, and he offered to let me rent a room from him in Abbotsford, near Vancouver, BC.
The next few months were fraught with financial difficulties. I was doing odd jobs, had to borrow money to live on and pay bills while trying to find a decent job. I delivered pizzas for awhile, went down to Costa Rica to deal with the WPS again (a story which in itself was a mess, as I returned home with nearly no profit), and eventually, in November, was offered a position at the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam, but not as a dealer, as a slot attendant. Not being one to turn down a good break, I dedicated myself to the job as hard as I could, and made many good friends and enjoyed my time there greatly. The commute from Abbotsford to Coquitlam, however, was too much (gas was over $5.00USD/GAL at that time), and so I moved out of Kirk's place and into a basement suite in Coquitlam, less than a 10 minute hop from work.
Finally, with a decent paying job and few bills, I was self-sufficient again, but was not making any headway on repaying old debts or even building up some sort of savings as I would need to in order to replace or repair big ticket items (such as a car troubles). So, after some deliberations, I finally decided to re-enlist with the military. I completed my tests in March 2008, and was posted to Kingston, Ontario, in June. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I was worried at first because I felt that it would lock me into a life path for the next few years when I had hoped to return to the USA and Tanya, but I realized that even if that is to happen, it will have to wait a few years anyway, while Tanya's daughter finishes her schooling and we both try to recover financially from our failed attempt, so perhaps it will still happen in the future, but not likely for the next several years.
Finally, in Kingston, I could now start to make headway on my debts. I took the cheapest accomodations available for my rank ($200 a month for a one bedroom, shared bathroom in the shacks), and have been paying off over $1000 a month to old debts.
Shortly after arriving in Kingston, I was staked by a poster on 2+2 poker forums to play in the $216 buy-in Seven Card Stud event at the Full Tilt Online Poker Series. I played an extremely good game, had my share of luck (but also created my own), and ended up finishing in 2nd place out of about 600 players, for a winnings of $17,500. Of that, a good portion went to my kind backer, but I was able to play in the World Championship of Online Poker on Pokerstars, and came tantalizingly close, twice, out of fields of over 1,000 players, to winning life-changing money. As it is, I won a little bit of money over the course of the series, and began to feel that maybe I was back.
At work, I had been busy with training, trying to reacquire many skills that I have not used in over 5 years (2 years out of the military and 3 years before that posted to an air force base in a desk job). I finally had a position where I was directly supervising a younger private, and began to feel like this was really what I was meant to do. I went to Norfolk, Virginia, to participate in a joint exercise in November, 2008, was there to witness the historic election of President Obama, and then was moved over to the regular troops in January 2009 to practice my skills as a communicator and senior corporal more effectively. It has been great. We have an excellent team, and one that shows a ton of promise in the future.
I was slated to go to Cyprus for 3 months starting in early Feb 2009, but got pulled off the tasking. Instead, they sent me up to the Arctic as the Signals Detachment Commander for an Advanced Winter Warfare course. It has been a learning experience, and I am glad for the opportunity to have come up here.
Oh, for those of you who are not faint of heart, here is where I am writing from now:
http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm
I am in Resolute, look at the North Pole, and go left until you hit the first town above the line. Currently, the temperature is: -63.4F (-53C) with the windchill. IT'S DAMN COLD.
I return back to civilization this weekend, and am back to work after a week off. Plans for the future include a trip to the World Series of Poker in June with several friends, and a trip back to Vegas in August for BARGE 2009.
I know I have left out a lot of the past two years (some on purpose, some not), but I hope that the reader has a better understanding of me now.
Until next time,
Fell
FellKnight is Back
Hello readers!
For those of you who used to follow my old blog at www.fellknight.blogspot.com, welcome! I eventually tired of keeping up with the blogging and it was a pretty tough period in my life too. I am feeling so much better now, so I'm going to start with a series of blogs detailing some of what has happened, where I am now, and where I am planning to go.
Thank you for your interest, let's get this blog on the road!
Fell
For those of you who used to follow my old blog at www.fellknight.blogspot.com, welcome! I eventually tired of keeping up with the blogging and it was a pretty tough period in my life too. I am feeling so much better now, so I'm going to start with a series of blogs detailing some of what has happened, where I am now, and where I am planning to go.
Thank you for your interest, let's get this blog on the road!
Fell
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