Playaz's Xanga

Monday, January 01, 2007

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:33:49 GMT

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

2007 will be a great year... Time to get pumped!

Something Meaningful, please...

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:47:23 GMT

I realize my site has been sucking and sucking but I'm just inspired right now to put a little more ummph on this blog. No more sharing of my personal life - the juicy stuff - though... You know how it is. I'm 24. I have a girlfriend. We have our highs and our lows.... details? aren't important. I'll get into that in a little, teeny-weeny bit, but right now I wanted to write about two things: The Lakers and Poker...

Kobe Bryant

Damn... Just watched last night's game where he went 19 of 26 shooting for 52 points (in particular, in the 3rd qtr, he went 9-9 FG, 10-10 FTs, for a total of 30 points). In the history of the NBA, a player has scored 30 or more points in ONE quarter only 5 times. Kobe's name is on 2 out of those 5. We're talking freaking history of the NBA. And, the Lakers blew out the hottest team in the NBA right now, the Utah Jazz. I've been harping about this guy for years now. Before, during, and after the championships, I've come to realize why he's my quote-unquote hero...

1) Kobe represents competitiveness personified. He's so competitive that he was considered aloof among his teammates. Only now as he's maturing is he growing into a leader. In all the big (I mean big) scoring games of his career - namely the Dallas game in Dec 2005 where he scored 62 points thru 3 qtrs, the Toronto game on Jan 22 2006 where he went for 81 pts, and last night's game (52 pts in 36 mins), the challenge was winning the game. Dallas was one of the best teams in the league, Toronto was up by 18 pts in the second half, and Utah is white-hot right now. I believe all these represented challenges that Kobe wanted to overcome, and they brought out the very best in him, as a singular talent. His competitive nature--dare I say--might even rival the likes of MJ. Regardless, Kobe goes big at certain times, and when he does, it's never just to score points... It's because he wants to win the game.

2) Kobe has a will and a confidence unlike any basketball player I've seen since MJ. What does it mean to have a will? It means that you control your environment and that it doesn't control you. You dictate the terms. When he was shooting last night, it almost felt as if you KNEW it was going in... Not that you were confident it was going in, but that you KNEW like you KNEW the sun was rising tomorrow. When you see that scowl on his face and he starts hitting 3 or 4 straight jumpers, you almost wish you could put a Vegas-style bet on Kobe hitting his next shot because chances are you'd win. Kobe KNEW himself which is why he kept shooting. There are only a handful of players in the NBA who can put up a show like Kobe did last night (LeBron, Dwayne, AI). They'd be lucky to do that once or twice in their careers. Kobe does it once or twice a season. His jumpshot is seen as being "above-average", which is why I believe his will and personality take over his shot mechanics. The focus and concentration he's able to exert on each shot - and mind you this was playing against Andrei Kirilenko who's only one of the top overall defenders in the NBA - is just amazing.

3) Watching Kobe makes you appreciate the beauty of singular greatness. I've always been a fan of the individual drama occurring in a sporting event. Some of my absolute favorite players to watch are Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan. When a man becomes more than the sum of his parts, it's an amazing to see unfold... It's the best reality-tv. What we watch when Kobe puts on a show is the result of an extremely tough work-ethic, near-flawlessness to every aspect of his game, and a winning/killer instinct.

Poker

I think my values and personality are pretty clear now, so it's not hard to see why I am a Poker fanatic/addict/enthusiast. I was asking myself again. Do I play for the money? Is that what drives me? And no I can't say that's it, although a few bucks here and there would be plenty sweet.

As I've said to friends before, here is my definition of what makes Poker, specifically, Texas Hold'em, the greatest game ever conceived:

"The beauty of poker is in its strong parallel to real life, in how it is a game about consistently making good decisions in order to bring about the best outcome for yourself, ulitmately to win as many chips as possible."

Winning at poker isn't about winning once or winning twice. It's about winning consistently. Literally anybody can win a game of poker - in that sense it's like a lottery. But it takes a special person to win consistently. Winning consistently doesn't mean winning all the time. It means 2 steps forward and 1 step back, analagous to the stock market.

In poker, you aren't given all the information. Every hand is like a separate game of "Solve this Mystery." How you put the pieces together to solve this mystery (or at least come up with a reasonable guess) is a matter of putting together all the clues you have. The best players in the world are the ones who are able to gather the most information from their surroundings (i.e., opponents' actions/behavior, history of opponents' play) and see the pattern that unfolds to make the best decision for themselves.

....... Ok time for lunch, and other stufff.... will finish later....

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 19:11:45 GMT

Me and Terry at Yardhouse - his last day

Me, Toan, and Dan at Yardhouse

Me and Brian for his birthday

My hon outside Mai Tai LBC

Us at Knott's Scary

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 02:01:20 GMT

At Fisherman's Wharf in SF

Carmel-by-the-Sea... sunday afternoon

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:22:13 GMT

Thursday, October 05, 2006

This is not a fairy tale
There are some things you see, some things you hear that simply are unspeakable. In a hospital in the eastern Congo city of Goma, we met a little girl. She never said a word to us, she could barely look us in the eyes. When she did, her eyes told the story.

"She never says anything to men," one of the hospital counselors explained, and then she told us why.

The little girl was raped. Gang-raped. It was allegedly done by soldiers engaged in a complicated regional war that has claimed millions of lives. The war officially ended in 2003, but outbreaks of violence and rape continue. The girl is now five years old. She was raped when she was three.

I wish I could tell you this was an extraordinary event. I wish I could tell you she was the only child attacked. The hospital was full of rape victims, and the doctor had seen other small children victimized.

Because the rapes are so violent, women often develop fistulas -- ruptures in their vaginas or rectums that make it impossible to control bodily functions. A charity called Heal Africa was running this hospital, and the doctor said he was able to fix about 70-80 percent of the fistula cases, but of course some wounds never heal.

Heal Africa has opened up a residence for women with fistulas that can't be surgically fixed, at least not here in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The women can't go home. Often they've been rejected by their husbands because they were raped. The stigma here is strong.

I met a woman named Angela. I can't stop thinking about her. She was raped by three men in front of her children. Afterwards they shot her, and she says they burned her baby girl. The girl is four now and has a massive scar all over her chest.

Angela's fistula was fixed, but her arm remains injured from the gunshot. Pscyhologically she's still devastated. To make matters worse, her husband kicked her out of the house.

"He heard I was raped," she said whispering. "And he just said, 'Go on your own, I don't need you anymore. If we lived together, you now might have HIV so you might infect me.'"

I didn't ask Angela her HIV status. I didn't think it was any of my business. Perhaps I should have asked, but she didn't volunteer it, and I felt like I'd already asked her too much.

The funding for the Heal Africa house comes from an NGO, but their funding ends in April. It's not clear what will happen then.

"The only thing I need is some land so I can build a house," Angela said to me before I left. "I might die and I want my kids to have that castle. I'm hoping for a miracle."

There aren't many miracles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is not a fairy tale, some stories don't have happy endings. Here the men who rape with impunity are rarely brought to justice. Women like Angela are expected to simply bear the pain.

If you would like to help Heal Africa in the work they are doing, you can log onto their Web site

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:16:50 GMT

My girl

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 07:48:37 GMT

It's unbelievable how so many things are going on these days... Mo and Curtis are done working @ Raytheon... Navead's in Paris.. Joo is coming next month. I think in exactly a year from now, my life will have changed pretty drastically as well... Things are moving so fast... I'm still only 24. Only been in Cali for about 3 yrs but it feels alot longer...

Poker hands I've played that are worth remembering (or forgetting)

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:35:00 GMT

NOTE: All hands are Texas Hold'em

[At the Commerce in L.A.]
** You know when pre-flop, no hand is exempt from being folded UNLESS it is the one and only NUTS... Might as well start with my experience... We're about 7 players at this $2-$3 No Limit Table...I am dealt pocket Kings. Someone ahead of me raises to $20... Being next to act (in middle position) I re-raise to $60. Everyone else folds and action goes back to the original raiser. He re-raises me all-in! He had about $300+... Me? I had $190 left with my original $60 raise = 250 total so the re-raise was $190 for me to win $310 already in the pot. I eyeballed my opponent and I took a really long time... My gut was telling me he had pocket Aces... By the way he played this hand - re-raising a re-raiser is representing a super strong hand.. The only possible hands he may have had asides from A-A (in my mind) were suited A-K or Q-Q... No way could it be anything else... As a player he was pretty solid, I'd seen him play small pockets pretty hard. I had no tell for this hand.. but I knew that he does raise hard to win it immediately... The all-in was SO deceptive.. My heart said he had the aces - but the re-raise was so tremendous I was wondering if he was protecting something like Q-Q instead... Well... I've never laid down Kings and I guess i wasn't gonna start then... So I made the call. He flipped up the Aces and my heart sank. Of course he had it! I flopped a gut-shot straight-draw but nothing else came out... I lost $250 and my shirt in that one hand... I had been doing well nursing my lead too but that one mis-step cost me everything... So I learned a valuable lesson - no hand is impervious to a monster lay-down....

[At the Luxor in Vegas]
** No-limit $50 buy-ins with $1-2 blinds... I have about $180. I am dealt K-9 offsuit in middle position. I decide to gamble a bit and raise it up to $12. One player in late position calls, everyone else folds. Heads-up. Flop comes out A-Q-7 rainbow. First to act, I bet $15 (a feeler bet)... I get a semi-quick call. (Yikes!)... Turn comes out a 9. With third to bottom pair I bet out $45.. he takes quite some time and then calls.. Maybe he has the Q, i thought. The river comes out, another Ace! I knew the pot was mine... I knew he didnt' have the Ace otherwise he wouldnt taken so long with my bet at the turn... I go all-in on him, which is about 100 and some change to him... I'm hoping he convinces himself that I raised before the flop with an Ace and that isn't worth calling my all-in. Praying for a fold, my prayers are answered and he folds.... He shows me the Q hoping I'd reward him by showing him he made a good laydown. Of course I don't let him see anything and I take down the pot with the worse hand. The lesson I learned here is that weakness is difficult to hide. Sniff out your opponents. Know your opponent... And what he's willing to call with or raise with.

[At a hotel resort in the Dominican Republic]
** Minimum $50 buy-in at a no-limit game... (The only poker table in the tiny casino) Blinds are $1.50 -$3. (This is all in pesos by the way but I'll do the US dollar conversion for simplicity) We are 7 or 8-handed... I have $150 in chips (recently doubling up from a monster hand)... I'm in dealer position. I get dealt a 5-6 of hearts. Before it gets to my turn, I figure that if no one raises ahead of me, then I'll raise it up (being that I'm in position). A player in middle to late position raises the pot to $15. The guy to my right makes the call. I quickly fold (with the idea that my hand is worth a raise but not calling a raise). SO I'm out of this hand, but thought I'd describe it anyway... Both blinds and limpers fold... So they go heads-up to the flop. Flop comes out 2-3-4 all hearts. I would've flopped a straight flush!! Would've isn't good enough...... To make watching this hand agonizingly worse, both players who went heads up have really strong hands by the way they bet-raise-re-raise-re-raise all-in and call their hands. The initial bettor/raiser had pocket Q's and the other guy had pocket A's with the nut flush draw (since he had the Ace of hearts). And to add more insult to injury, both players had more chips than me which means I could have likely tripled up my $150 on this hand... I woulda taken down a $450 pot... What hurts most is that I felt good about this 5-6 hand of mine and that I had good position. Lesson learned: Don't let someone raise you out of a flop if you made up your mind you wanted to see it.... Ok, maybe this isn't a really good lesson, but look what happened!! Can't play by "the rules" all the time...

Tournament No Limit Texas Hold’Em PERSONAL Rules of Thumb

Thu, 18 May 2006 23:22:32 GMT

• For every decision of every hand you play, always consider PPP – Player, Position, and Pot. 1) Some players play tight, others play aggressively, others change up frequently, others change infrequently. The personality of your current opponent, his chip stack, his playing history (has been bluffing, has been tilting, etc.) should be taken into account. You might be more likely to get a call from a player who is tilting or strong in chips and maybe not get a call from a player who is low in chips or is being ultra-conservative. Depending on whether you are trying to get action or get him to fold, consider how your opponent would feel about whatever action you take. 2) The dealer position is the best position in Hold’Em because you get to see everyone act before it is your turn to act. Just because of position, you might want to stay in the hand at least one round of betting longer than being “out of position”. The caveat to being last to act is that you potentially lose the opportunity to be first to fire at a pot. It’s easier to raise a marginal hand than to call (or re-raise) one that was raised before you. But in general, not having to unnecessarily put money into the pot is the benefit of being last to act. By calling, with no one left to act after you, you can cap the cost to seeing the next card. 3) You should always think about how much a decision is costing you based on the relative strength of your hand. So basically, if the pot is 2000 and your only opponent bets out with 500, that means it costs you 500 to win a pot of 2500. In this case, you should figure the strength of your hand (by # of outs which would better your hand) to be no worse than 5:1 against you in order to call your opponent’s bet. If he bet 2000, then it costs 2000 to win a pot worth 4000, and you should be no worse than 2:1 to call.

• If your opponent is playing “funny”, like unusual betting, take the conservative route and just call instead of raising him. I think most poker hands after the flop are this: 1) top pair, good kicker; 2) flush draw; 3) mid-pair, good kicker; 4) mid-pair or over-pair pockets. People don’t tend to flop the nuts (such as a boat or flush)… Unusual play means unpredictable play. There’s no need to be greedy when you can’t put your opponent on a particular hand. However, I do think it’s good to raise a pot just to test the waters, but not to necessarily play aggressive the entire hand.

• It’s important to consider timing – how long it takes to act when it’s either your turn or your opponent’s turn. A quick call DOES tend to signify a strong hand. Hesitation tends to signal, not necessarily a weak hand, but that the hand is tough to call (i.e., calling when you have top pair and there’s already three cards of the same suit that are on the board). Your opponents (as well as yourself) will tend to take the similar amount of time when faced with a similar decision, so if you figured out that your opponent likes to call when he has a flush draw, then the chances are that if a similar situation presents itself, he once again has a flush draw. The amount of time you spend on your hand is another piece of information your opponents have in figuring you out, especially if you show your hand at the end, they will see how you play or compose yourself in those situations. So the key is to be as unreadable as you can be, which means taking time to muck cards, or making quick calls with marginal hands, or taking a long time to act when you have the nuts. You don’t want to seem like an acting job, but genuine so it’s hard to tell when you’re acting and when you’re not.

• Absolutely, never tilt! It’s easier said than done, I know. Let’s say you got called for three-quarters of your chip stack and you were happy because when the cards turned up you were a 4 to 1 favorite. Even if your opponent beats you at the river, don’t hang your head. You’re certainly down, but certainly not out. You’ve clearly been playing a good game – you just got unlucky which is the nature of the game. Especially if the blinds aren’t so huge and u can last several hands, just wait it out, play tight, but don’t go all-in on a Q-5 offsuit just yet. There’s no need to let emotion ruin your game. Emotion is the enemy in poker. Sound decisions are always based on reason and intuition..

• Raising a pot is NEVER a bad move... except of course if you run into a monster hand. When the flop comes out, immediately evaluate all the possible made hands that are out there, such as top pair, mid pair, bottom pair, over pair, two-pair, flush, flush draw, straight, straight draw, trips, full house, ace-high. Out of these possible hands, evaluate which hands you think your opponent might have based on what he did pre-flop (did he call, raise, re-raise, etc.). If you check your hand and your opponent bets, you have to put your opponent on a weaker hand in this situation than in a situation if you had bet and your opponent called. As mentioned above, it’s easier to raise with a marginal hand than call or re-raise with one. When you raise, you have two ways to win: your opponent(s) folding to you or getting lucky that you have the best hand. Either way, a raise is a good move because it puts pressure on the strength of your opponent’s hand, and challenges them to make the right decision. There is no need to raise “all-in” but I believe betting out (putting pressure) is an effective way of winning chips a lot of the time.

• Changing gears, even on the same hand, should always be an option. Let’s say you have pocket queen’s before the flop. You raise a significant amount and one opponent calls you. The flop comes out J-A-7. After this flop, you bet big. Your opponent smooth calls. At this point you’re wondering what the heck does he have. Is he calling with a pair of jacks, aces, did he get lucky with trip sevens or is he just playing pocket 9’s. There is no need to be aggressive after the turn just because you’ve played your queens pretty aggressively before the turn. If you were to bet and he were to raise the pot, you’d be in quite a quandary. So a check is not a bad move. If he checks, then you save one round of bets. If he bets, then you can just call to see the last card. Basically, when aggressive play isn’t working, you’re under no obligation to keep up with a façade of being strong. Having queens with an ace out there (especially when your opponent called before the flop) is tricky… You even might end up folding the better hand, but it’s tough. You have to use the evidence you have gotten (what did my opponent do pre-flop, post-flop) to determine whether or not you should change gears. Don’t fall in love with your hand.

• Represent strength behind aggression, not aggression without strength. As much as I like to raise a pot, I wouldn’t want to raise too often and show how often I play marginal hands. It’s always better to represent a good hand because it scares your opponents. It makes them subconsciously believe that you are “catching cards” and then it becomes scary to play with you. So I advise that if you’ve represented a variety of strong hands, then you can also open up your game a bit more with weaker hands and maybe steal a few pots or use your image as leverage to bluff someone out of a pot they should have won. You generally don’t want to get caught with your hand in the cookie jar because it makes opponents more prone to calling your bets, and, at that point, you will have to rely on actually catching strong cards because your aggression will only be one of appearance. Your table image is a huge factor to being able to win at poker. Your image alone can disrupt someone off his game and cause him to make the wrong decision (which is what you’re hoping for).

More to come…

Monday, March 13, 2006

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 06:40:16 GMT

hahah.. don't you just hate when you have a good picture of u but it's with an ex-girlfriend...? that just kills it.....