Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Packed up and ready to go. We leave so early tomorrow morning. We'll drive to SFO Park, then catch a shuttle to Terminal 2. Flying Delta at 5:15 a.m. Ugh!
Day - 566
Monday, June 20, 2022
In celebration of Juneteenth, Alice and I went to the Warriors parade. Oh, it was spectacular!
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We had lunch at the Ferry Building, then joined the thousands of fans on Market and Main.
Fellow Coug Klay was looking good!
I'm smiling all summer and all next season. Love this team!
Day - 567
Sunday, June 19, 2022
Father's Day - talked to Dad in the a.m. Really nice conversation. Lately, he's been so appreciative of our FaceTime chats. Jill and Tom leave on their cruise today.
Austin's moving to North Beach with Hannah in the next week or so. Exciting times for them! Alice and I explored the neighborhood, hitting up Tony's pizza for a few slices. I love North Beach!
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Day - 568
Saturday, June 18, 2022
A pleasant morning day trip to Petaluma to pick up chicken supplies and have lunch. We found a great little Italian restaurant on Jefferson. Yummy!
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Day - 569
Friday, June 17, 2022
I was in a buying mood today with the stock market tanking. Man, Meta's cheap cheap cheap. $161/share. Ten years from now I'll ask myself why I didn't load up the truck on this stock.
Still glowing from last night's Warrior victory. Just awesome!
Day - 570
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Epic, wonderful championship win from one of the most enjoyable teams ever to root for. Warriors are NBA champions once again, defying all odds and playing as a team to figure out how to make this moment happen.
I watched the game with Dorian at his place in Rio Vista. I couldn't have scripted a better, more satisfying evening with him. We watched the game, then watched a couple hours of post-game analysis, trophy presentations, the whole 9 yards until midnight. I slept with a huge smile on my face, then got up at 4 and headed back home. I'm gonna enjoy this all summer and all next season. So inspiring and beautiful. May even to to the parade on Monday. Not usually my thing but this time yes!
Day - 571
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Wonderful dinner tonight with my neighbor Bonnie and all the folks at 825 Erie St., celebrating Bonnie's birthday at Sister's on Grand. So nice!
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Day - 572
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
A week away from summer, but it already feels like summer. I was asked to pack up my belongings at my desk at work because I'm not going in regularly. So I'll hotel when I'm in the city. The problem is I've accumulated several boxes worth of stuff. Books, vases, trinkets, papers. I'll try to remove as much stuff as possible. I'll probably go in sometime after the Detroit wedding.
Day - 573
Monday, June 13, 2022
Watched the game downstairs in the Airbnb suite. Another big win and now leading 3-2. One win away!
Day - 575
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Still battling a sore knee. Damn!
Lunch at Harbor View with Alice's family. Always a treat!
Day - 576
Friday, June 10, 2022
Watched this game with a 2-hour delay. Went over to Richard and Lisa's, who had the game projected using their overhead outside...had to wait until it was dark to watch. No text messages until after the game. This was a good one. Close throughout and somehow the Warriors managed to pull this must-win game out. Fabulous effort and Curry was amazing!
Day - 577
Thursday, June 9, 2022
The J6 Committee Hearing did not disappoint tonight. I'll watch all of them. I'm ready to see the orange loser and his pathetic enablers get what they deserve...a long prison sentence and endless shame.
Day - 578
Wednesday, June 6, 2022
Damn, the Celtics are so good. And we are not playing our best. Gotta take the next on Friday night; otherwise we're toast.
Watched the game at the Oaks. A couple of memorable hands with cards not really going my way. Hoping that will change next time.
Day - 579
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Wow, played semi-final and final matches tonight at The Club, partnering up with Mike Cota. We beat Tom and Ivan in the semi's in one game to 15 (15-10) and met Tyrone and Fito in the finals in a three-game match to 15 with a tiebreaker to 11. The match went so long we finished a few minutes before the gym closed. We lost the first game 14-15, but came back in the second and won 15-10. We were down 4-8 in the tiebreaker, but somehow managed to score the next seven points and won the match 11-8. What a surprise and thrill, but it came at a cost. My right knee is throbbing right now. Mike Cota played phenomenally well. He has the ability to make incredible shots. I let him do his thing and took shot when I could. Fito's serves were hard to handle, but somehow I returned them and kept the number of mistakes to a minimum. What a match, one of the best I've had in years. This may be my swan song. I've really messed up my knee because of this match. Not good. Knees are important.
Day - 580
Monday, June 6, 2020
A month to prepare for Las Vegas and ten days of non-stop poker. Looking forward to it!
Day - 581
Sunday, June 5, 2022
In a must-win game, the Warriors won. They've outplayed or tied the Celtics in 7 out of 8 quarters. The Warriors got this. Game 3 Wednesday night.
Saw Top Gun Maverick earlier today. I was not a fan of Top Gun back in the 1980s, but Top Gun Maverick was really good. Top Gun was not the Hustler, but TGM is a lot like The Color of Money. It's a big traditional Hollywood sequel that mixes in enough nostalgia and regret to supercharge the action scenes with tension and relief. The film makes you care and root for those on screen in a way that I haven't felt in a while. It's a great reminder of why we go to the movies in the first place. In an era where cartoons and superhero storylines dominate the theater screens, it's something that Tom Cruise of all people and the TGM production team have delivered something kind of special and meaningful, a reminder of how long ago the 1980s were, how ancient they were, and how different today is from our past. This was a nice slice of the way things used to be, and sitting in a comfy theater seat with Alice, munching on popcorn and sipping on a soda, I really dug it. Tom Cruise is our current Paul Neuman, so don't be surprised next year when the nominations come out and all those small indie films that no one's heard of are mentioned comes this biggie piece of professional moviemaking that has reminded us all how things used to be. TGM does this effectively. Nicely done.
Day - 581
Saturday, June 4, 2022
Costco was super busy today. Had Amy, Patrick and Patrick Jr. over for dinner tonight. Very nice visit. Alice cooked up chicken katsu (always delicious), vegetable, rice, shrimp, with scones and ice cream for dessert. Everyone had a good time.
Day - 582
Friday, June 3, 2022
Had a very up and down session at the Oaks tonight, losing big pots, winning big pots, then losing big pots again. My approach to the game is evolving. Rather than considering whether my hand is best or not, I'm spending more time considering my equity in a hand relative to the pot, the players I'm up against, my opponents' range, and what my opps think I might have. I'm more aggressive with draws and recognizing the power of betting and raising with nothing. Poker has its own language and mode of communication. There are many regs at the Oaks who play in a predictable manner. It's counter-intuitive at first, but the counter-intuitiveness doesn't change all that much. As I'm learning the tendencies of each player, I'm figuring out how to interact with each opp when isolating them. I'll need another few months of data collection before I really know what's going on with each player. Since I'm playing and the lower 1-2-3 tables, these players are more predictable and less-skilled than players at the 2-3-5 tables. What I find so fascinating about poker is its amazing strategic complexity. It is mental war with a positive hourly rate. My hourly rate thus far has varied from $7-11/hr. That translates to 2.3-3.9 big blinds per hour. That's a so-so rate, but in positive territory, which is a plus. Focusing on positive expected value (ev) situations and hammering these hands will pay off over time. So will the discovery of more exploits.
Game Theory Optimal strategy in poker is basically a strategy that allows a player to become unexploitable against any other player. No matter what the other player does or how the opp plays, maintaining a balanced GTO strategy neutralizes any exploits. It's a powerful set of tools that has significance in real-world situations. I'm thinking about these real-world situations in relation to GTO strategies and finding these tools applicable in everyday life. Merging my poker ideas together with my observations about race and white privilege has intrigued me lately. This word "privilege" is somewhat limited and doesn't quite capture what comes with being white in America, unlike, say, the word "unexploitable." That's really what being white and especially a white male means. It means I'm essentially unexploitable. It doesn't mean I'm going to win every hand I play, but what it does mean is that over the long haul, with awareness and understanding of the playing field of life, I'm essentially protected by an unexploitable shield of protection that will simply allow me to live the kind of life I choose to live. If someone want to undermine this life of mine, they would have to work very hard to undermine it, with no guarantee for success. It would be interesting to see if the word "unexploitable" can replace the accurate but limited word "privilege." Privilege suggests added bonus or extra something versus simply normal baseline daily existence. When white people hear that they're privileged, they have so many counters to this argument and the argument becomes a mud fest. But because the system is set up for whites and baseline normal revolves around a white-centric playing field, understanding the edge that comes with this and the built-in protections that go hand-in-hand with 400 years of messaging that upholds white hierarchy is not different from incorporating GTO strategies in poker. Poker needs a second renaissance. This game is unreal. And a fun side-gig!
Day - 583
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Watched Game 1 of the finals at the Oaks. Painful 4th quarter. The dubs were ahead most of the game and everything in control going into the final quarter. That's when the Celtics unleashed a 3-point barrage that was freaky to watch. They made practically every 3 they threw up. The Warriors' 9-point lead was gone within minutes, and then they were suddenly down by 10. It was stunning to see. They'll need to win game 2 Sunday. Playing poker while watching the game is fun. Everyone's paying attention to the TV while I'm paying attention to the cards and table play. Up for the evening. I'll have to watch again next week.
Day - 584
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Lisa Young's birthday. I took her and Richard out to Shakewell and caught up on the latest Twitter news. I don't see things going well for the company under Elon Musk. He's just not the right fit for that kind of platform. Twitter loses something significant with such a personality in control.
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Day - 585
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Fairly quiet at work, which is sometimes the case after a three-day weekend. Played at the Oaks tonight and lost $300. Was up $600 at one point but lost an ugly set-over-set hand in which I had a set of tens and lost to a set of Jacks. That happens every 3,500 hands or so. I've been dealt lots of tens lately.
Day - 586
Monday, May 30, 2022
Memorial Day. Studied stocks and poker. All about realizing equity. Running more hands through Equilab and poker solvers. Warriors Game 1 on Thursday. WSOP starting up and watching Daniel Negreanu video.
Dinner with Pete and Carol. Always fun!
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