"stop being a degen donk"

Hey, y'all!

I haven't posted in a few days, but there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about. Basically, last Saturday, I went through 12 hours of hell when I had to come into work at 830 in the morning. We were supposed to be set up for 10 in the morning, but no one came in until like 1045. *Sigh* What a fucking waste of time. When I came home, my plan was to get a really good session in for the first time in like a month because there was nothing going on and I felt pretty good about trying to get about 4-5 hours of play at NL50. Well, I played for an hour, got distracted, and never came back to my computer. I think this problem has been occurring for a while. My attention span is really bad and I can't remember the last time I have been able to consciously sit down for more than two hours at a time and play. I have also been making some rather n00bish errors like looking at the cashier window and allowing idiotic shit like my Ruckus player freezing to distract me. I really want to get back to the focus level I had grinding NL25 over the summer and really starting to feel like I can make a good amount of coin in this game.

In other news, I have to make an announcement about the most amazing gingerbread muffins ever made. It is this place in Wakefield called the Gingerbread Construction Company. Most of my friends who are from Stoneham know what I am talking about, but basically, this shop has amazing gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, and best of all, gingerbread muffins with cream cheese icing on the inside. They probably contain about 1000 calories per square inch, but they are the most delectable thing I have had in quite a long time.

Overall, I have been quite busy with work and S.A.V.E., this sexual abuse education program I am working with. We're trying to raise awareness across campus about the issue, and that would be quite the accomplishment if any impact is made. My goal of getting in about 15 hours a week online is dead, but I have found that I am still going to work to get in time where I can and enjoy a happy and healthy social life. For instance, my friend Henry (the one that beat me for 1.6 bi and thinks I'm portraying him as a complete donk even though I clearly said he played very well), asked why I don't play the .10/.20 NL game that they run every Friday. I just said that I do other shit. There is more important stuff than just beating up on some donks in some micro stakes game, sorry. Actually, that game is very good to do one of two things.
1. Take in some good conversation and laugh at how badly everyone beside Henry and I (with another friend, Connor, in spurts) plays.
2. Try goofy lines, play massively LAG, and in general just spew money that won't affect me one way or the other.
I think every poker player needs at least one low-stakes or play money game to just relieve stress about life and not really care about why Fish A is a donk for cold calling a 3bet with KJo or something.

I hear some funny shit going on, so I'll talk to you all later.

nice fade...

Playing a few donkaments tonight and I just witnessed this ridonkulous fade...well done sir.

PokerStars Game #22022906572: Tournament #120387123, $11+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2008/11/14 0:31:50 ET
Table '120387123 19' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: gingembrekid (1040 in chips)
Seat 2: coachoop14 (2715 in chips)
Seat 3: ghostwizard (6375 in chips)
Seat 5: BlacktOrange (7790 in chips)
Seat 6: rookito (1215 in chips)
Seat 7: lawprof (5115 in chips)
Seat 8: toothpick46 (2210 in chips)
Seat 9: BrY_TrIcE (4305 in chips)
gingembrekid: posts the ante 25
coachoop14: posts the ante 25
ghostwizard: posts the ante 25
BlacktOrange: posts the ante 25
rookito: posts the ante 25
lawprof: posts the ante 25
toothpick46: posts the ante 25
BrY_TrIcE: posts the ante 25
ghostwizard: posts small blind 125
BlacktOrange: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ghostwizard [2s 7h]
rookito: calls 250
lawprof: calls 250
toothpick46: folds
BrY_TrIcE: folds
gingembrekid: calls 250
coachoop14: raises 2440 to 2690 and is all-in
ghostwizard: folds
phillyboy911 is connected
BlacktOrange: folds
rookito: calls 940 and is all-in
lawprof: calls 2440
gingembrekid: calls 765 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [3c 9c Jd]
*** TURN *** [3c 9c Jd] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [3c 9c Jd 2d] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lawprof: shows [Tc Td] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
coachoop14: shows [6s 6d] (two pair, Jacks and Sixes)
lawprof collected 3000 from side pot-2
rookito: shows [8h Qh] (a pair of Jacks)
lawprof collected 525 from side pot-1
gingembrekid: shows [Ad 9d] (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
lawprof collected 4635 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8160 Main pot 4635. Side pot-1 525. Side pot-2 3000. | Rake 0
Board [3c 9c Jd 2d Jc]
Seat 1: gingembrekid showed [Ad 9d] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Nines
Seat 2: coachoop14 (button) showed [6s 6d] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sixes
Seat 3: ghostwizard (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: BlacktOrange (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: rookito showed [8h Qh] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 7: lawprof showed [Tc Td] and won (8160) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Seat 8: toothpick46 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: BrY_TrIcE folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I love how the 11+1 turbos take about 2% of my brain capacity...

How things hang in the balance

So, today I had an interview with Northwest Mutual. Things started off wonderfully. Despite arriving in Wakefield about 25 minutes early, I managed to get myself into the wrong set of offices and searched around for about 30 minutes before realizing that I needed to travel one street further. It didn't matter though. Apparently, these people will take anyone and everyone with half a brain, as shown by what I felt was a very weak interview. Basically, my job would have been peddling insurance to people, most likely close friends and family who don't need it. I thought I would be a financial advisor of some sort, but I guess I'd be better off looking at an accounting firm for that. What a crock, I was getting so amped up for what I thought would be a kickass internship and instead fate decides to take a shit on my soul. But the reaction I got from my friends really saved me from going over the deep end. This is how it went down:

About 20 minutes after I got back to school, my roommate walked in and asked how everything went. Then when he realized what was going on (as tipped off by the fact that I was asked for referrals for potential interns), he told me to get the hell out of dodge. This was followed by three more of my friends saying thanking me for thinking of them as referrals and letting me know that at least I got a crack at an interview with no risks. Later I called my mom and while she laid down some tough love on me, the phone call we had was quite therapeudic.

But what happens if I ran into a different set of friends at the time who would not have been as supportive? What happens if this scenario happens?

I arrive back at school and run into a couple of friends. After telling them of my failures, they might start prodding at me and saying stuff like, "Nice one, dumbass" or like "Hey, Adam, sell me a plan for my future!!!" Then to top it off, at the exact wrong moment, another friend walks in, hears about the story and just says "Fail." At this point, I would either go into a tirade breaking walls, throwing furniture out the window, and overall being destructive...or alternatively I would have found the largest knife in the kitchen and begin attempting to slit myself open in as many places as I could before my friends wrestle the knife away from me and send me to a mental institution.

Thankfully, I don't have friends who would incite these reactions from me. This is why the friends you choose are quite important, or something happy and corny like that.

And a shout-out to my friend Robbie. Look out for this guy on TV in a couple of years. He's got a sweet staking gig for tourneys and has been killing it ever since.

election reaction and a little more about me

So, last night was the election and whatever. Obama won, which I expected, and quite frankly there wasn't a whole lot of drama once he took Pennsylvania and Ohio. It was just taking one more state and then California...and ship the Presidency in his direction. Obama is not a man who makes me feel like everything is going to be all right in four years, but no candidate in this election process did. Give credit to Obama for running what may be the most brilliant, innovative campaign in decades. One guy who lives in my dorm kind of short-sided him a little by saying that he got a shitton of votes because he was black (not in a condescending way, but just as an observation). This was definitely key, and perhaps 30 years from now, we will look back and say that no candidate had a shot in hell to take this from him. He also spoke to the youth of our country, invoking first-time voters and even teens who just missed out on this historic election to come in waves of support for the cause. Well done, sir. I wish you the best of luck as you inherit what has to be the worst situation our country has been in since the Great Depression. Two wars, an economy mired in a recession, and the upper third of the country who is pissed off because they are gonna get taxed up the asshole.

Quote of the last 30 seconds: "When you dookie and are forced to take a shower afterwards, that's a man's dookie!"
-"Wilson"

So, enough about our country...let's talk about me!!!

One thing I have always thought about myself is that I have taken a slightly different approach to life. I don't have the heart or the mindset to go out and run a business or leave school entirely and try to make a living in a non-traditional way like becoming a professional poker player or even just a straight-out hustler. At the same time, a lot about my life does bore me at times. Part of it is because I don't feel I quite fit in around here at school. Granted, I have great friends here and there's always fun times and stuff, but I wonder what would have happened if I had taken the route of like 1/3 of my high school and just went to like Umass Amherst or Umass Dartmouth. Would I have become just another "average" college student? Moreover, would I have liked it better than where I am now? If I were expelled from Babson tomorrow and were forced to go to a public college like ZooMass, I wouldn't be all that comfortable and would probably be more inclined to just leave and put in 40 hours a week of volume on Pokerstars and see where that takes me. If I had went to Bentley...actually, I have no idea, so if any of my readers goes to Bentley, then tell me why I made the wrong choice, it would be interesting comment box fodder for sure.

Another thing I have actually started to put some consideration into is getting a house with three other guys from school. Man, that would be sweet. I wish the rent per person wasn't so damn high around here, but I think that it could be feasible. I would have to look at how my financial aid would be affected and also try to calculate out how much money I would actually save, but to have a home of my own to live in rather than a room could be a really cool proposition. Not that I don't like it where I am right now, but a place where I can kind of float back and forth between school, home, work, and wherever would be awesome. It would be a lot easier if I had a better stream of income to operate off of though. Hmm...

I told myself I wouldn't do this, but, whatever, I'll talk a little bit about a heads-up match I had last night. We played PLO and NLH at .50/1 and although I got hitfor about 1.6 bi, I felt like I played fine and just lost both of the big pots in PLO and finished slightly ahead otherwise. We both played well and he got better cards in the big spots. One of the big PLO pots was just this standard top set vs. wrap where we got it in on the flop.

Me: 2-4-5-7
Villain: T-T-8-8
Board: 8-6-3-(A)-(6)

Nothing I can do there, I don't think.


The other one was a spot I thought I played kind of nice, but he made a tough call with a dry A-A-x-x hand and held. Preflop I opened pot with T-T-Kc-9c, then he repotted with A-A-Q-J or something. I decided to flat because I didn't give him much credit for hands besides AAxx or KKxx.
Flop: K74r.

He led for like 3/4 pot or something and I felt like I had a great spot to pick to semibluff here because KKxx almost has to fall out of his range with this flop, so I re-potted and put him to a decision. He eventually shoved, I called, and a 3c teaser was followed by a blank and he scooped up the winner. *sigh.

The reason we came up with this match was because he told me he was good at PLO and I instantly denied that statement. I think it was wrong for me to snap off like that, but in my mind, I have a hard time believing that you can be a winning player without playing some volume and seeing where you stand long-run. I myself have only logged about 30k hands in my time grinding c-games, so I don't even know for sure where I am. I was hoping it would turn out in my favor, but whatever, round 2 is bound to be in the works sooner or later.

I think that's all for now, I kinda wanna get some hands in while I have this pocket of free time...well, maybe a little mario kart on the wii first...Cheers!

Who is this kid called Vigz?

Hey, everyone. My name is Adam Vigneau, which was incorrectly pronounced vig-noo instead of Vee-know, and thus generated my nickname in high school, Vigz. Anyways, to introduce myself, I am 20 years old, a college student, single and available (no this isn't turning into a dating profile I swear), Korean, and a guy who used to blog about random crap and thought about giving it another shot.

So, why have I decided to write again? I don't know, I think it stems from this need to express myself in a way that the world can see, look at, comment on, and evaluate. My inspiration came from a simple blog on cardplayer.com from a high-stakes poker player, Daniel Negreanu. For a while, his blog was the only one I read and I felt it provided a lot of insight into his mindset about stuff ranging from poker to his other ventures and hobbies. I decided to try and give this a shot, but eventually realized that no one wants to hear about how I ran in $5.50 27-man tournaments on pokerstars. So, I wrote about whatever came to mind, a few friends said some stuff about it and I eventually deleted all of the posts from my profile.

I do love the game of poker. I used to just put down 50 bucks, play for a while, lose, then bemoan this notion that if I ever got some money online, I could run it up and make a living doing something so non-traditional, baller even, that it should be something I pursued. Until this summer, this was my thinking. Then, I finally broke through on the first part of that statement...well, kind of. I ran 50 bucks all the way up to about 1900+ through going deep in a few tournaments, learning to play cash games much better than I ever imagined I would and finding help from a guy who graduated high school a year before me and currently goes to Umass Lowell. I'll leave names out for now, besides my own until I know the other people are comfortable letting me put names out there. Anywho, I cashed out a bunch and have been very up and down in how much I play and how dedicated I am to playing the game because I have this thing called school which really bites into my time, paired with the mix of a 20+hr/wk job, volunteer work that I am getting into and...life. So, the next phase of becoming pro seems out of reach, and that is fine. But my friend said that I could definitely become a 2/4 NL player by the time I graduate and stand to make some substantial supplemental income along with whatever job I can find out of college...or make some money while going to grad school, who knows?

So, while I am nothing special in the game, I am getting a much better understanding of how deeply I need to be focused in on a lot of aspects to be a winning player. I love the challenge of it all and I do love a good gamble as well. I think I'll leave my first post in like two years like that for now, but please don't think I am just a one-dimensional person. I'm just kinda tired right now and I know that I could go on for another 2 hours, but I kinda like this post as my new start.

Comments are always welcome.