Jeff Dierking’s Thoughts

So, I have discussed playing in the WSOP.  I tried to win an entry last year, but was unsuccessful.  I was debating trying to go this year, whether I won a seat or bought in.  I have decided that I am not going to actively pursue going this year. 

My contract is up in March.  If I accept a job offer from Lockheed, I will not have accrued  sufficient leave to go without losing pay.

Another reason is I have decided to use it as a reward to myself for continuing to lose weight.  I had an initial, stage 1, goal of going 350 to 275 by March.  I am not sure I will make that, maybe by the end of March, as I am down to 290.  I have set the mark to 250.  It is not my ultimate goal, but I know the last pounds are the most difficult to lose.

I am focusing on the live tournaments here.  I am trying to improve my average finish as a goal for this year.

Last year I cashed 8 times, 4 of which were first place.  That was a small profit for the year as I played 40 tournaments.  My overall finish percentage was about 55%.

I’ve cashed twice so far this year.  I’m a bit over 50% so far.

I’m shooting for 66% at least for the year.  The better I do, the more likely I will be to take this step.

I also am going to star tracking how much I hit the final table.

I don’t mind the cold too much, but the ice is hard for me to cope with walking.

So, I took the plunge when I got the Black Friday ad from NewEgg.

There were several things that I wanted to upgrade, but couldn’t afford.  Now between my recent turn at the Blackjack table and Poker table, as well as the fact that my monthly expense are cut by more than 70%, I decided to go for it.

First, there is the issue of storage.  Currently, I have about 500 GB in two SATA drives.  When my order gets here, it has 4 iTB WD Caviar Black Edition SATA II drives.  Going to configure them in a 4 disk RAID 5 array.  That will give me a lot more space.  Also getting a new WD Passport.  500GB.

My MB also can take 8GB of PC8500 RAM.  I have 4GB, I am adding 4 more.

Then there are my displays.  I have been nothing but satisfied with my Dell 2001FP LCDs.  But, the first one has some “burn-in” that I can’t get to reset.  So, I am upgrading there too.  I have 2 Acer 24″ 1080P LCDs coming. (link)

I also am finally getting a new laptop.  Toshiba Satellite AMD Turion 64 X2 with 3GB of RAM and 250GB HDD. (link)

This, if you didn’t guess by the title is a post of a personal nature.  If you are not interested, feel free to move along.

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Copied from another blog, but I haven’t seen it mentioned and if you play online or value your freedom to this is important:

The Bush Administration is hastily finalizing a number of “midnight rules” before they leave office, and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) is on the list. Just like UIGEA was snuck into legislation in the dark of night in 2006, anti-poker extremists are again trying an 11th hour sneak job. We need you to help us expose and stop this reckless rulemaking.

Please call the U.S. Federal Reserve and tell them not to approve the UIGEA regulations — Consumer Complaints, 888-851-1920 or Public Affairs, 202-452-2955.

Tell them:

The federal agencies responsible for our nation’s economy should not be focused on Internet poker regulations.
Finalization of the UIGEA rules will add additional burdens on our already crippled financial systems.
Internet poker is a game of skill and form of recreation for millions of Americans; it should be exempted from the UIGEA.
Please do not finalize the UIGEA regulations until their impact on our banking systems and average Americans has been fully studied.
Your call will make a huge difference and will add the public’s voice to these last minute policy decisions our government is poised to make. We can’t stand idly by while they make decisions that will impact our right to play America’s card game. PLEASE CALL TODAY!

The Google Cache of Change.gov has a disturbing statement under America Serves.

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

The cached page is here.

Well, the cache got updated.  I mised my opportunity to get a PDF snapshot.

The scary part is the “require” that I have highlighted.  Not optional, required.

Some might agree that this could be a good thing, but I am not sure I am one of them.

The page had been changed to read encourage, rather than require.  Now it reads:

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

I have highlighted the changed section.

I am uncertain how I feel about the “Corps” that are proposed to be formed.

I heard an ad on the radio when I woke up announcing a new set of tournaments an Joker’s Casino (Atomic Bowl).  $30 NL Hold’em w/$200 added.

After the long week, I needed to blow off some steam.

I got there a little early as I wanted to look around.  I had yet to go there.  As it turns out, there is not much to see.  I think there are a total of 9 gaming tables and 3 poker tables.

I made the mistake of killing time playing Spanish 21.  I lost quite a bit there.

Went to register for the tournament, and learned a bit more on the format,

$30 buyin gets 3000 in chips.  Optional $5 addon gets 500 more in chips.  I opted for the addon, as did the rest of the 21 player field.  Two tables with one alternate.

I was impressed generally with the players.  Not a lot of constant overbets and all ins.  Most of what went to a showdown found very few bluffs or river chasers, or gold panners as I like to call them (they go down to the river looking to strike it rich).

I won the tournament.  $340 - $35 tip and - $35 buyin netted me $270 on the tournament.  Which my losses at Spanish 21 and Let It Ride left me with a $20 profit on the night.

They are trying this tournament out for the month of October.  Mon, Tues and Thur.  If it catches on, they may keep it going.  I am going to try my hand a couple times I think on this.  It beats the free tournaments at the Crazy Moose as there are to many people that do not truely know how to play that are reckless as it is free.  They always seem to catch lightning after a stupid all-in bet or call.

Then I came home and played in a play money 18 player SnG and won that as well.  Maybe one of these days the beaurocrats will get their heads out of thier asses and … That’s another discussion for another time.

“Wow, that’s a shock. It’s like being told Santa Claus isn’t real—unbelievable,” the American Idol judge told Extra, before turning serious.

- Simon Cowell regarding Clay Aiken’s coming out out of the closet announcement.

As you may or may not be aware, most cellular phone providers use a nasty little fine-print item in their contract to “retain” customers.

The common reason for the ETF is for getting a discount price on a new phone.

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I ran across a blog that linked to an archived Blog posting the results of a survey of the Alaska Governor’s race for 2006.

Here is the link to the Google cache.

And in case it goes away, not sure why it would, here is a PDF I created.

Pay special attention to number 11.

Somebody needs to read some history I think.