Info About Poker Card Reader

So, all in all, it was a pretty awesome year.  I released a book about poker, for which I’ve received a lot of kind words from people who’ve enjoyed it.  I made several video series that received positive reviews.  I got a college degree.  I saw the world.  Not too shabby.

Pokerwise, the year was less than awesome.  After crushing pretty much end to end in 2008, I started off with a +75k month in January.  I had a dream of my million flash before my eyes.  Then, the bad news bears started.  I was playing mostly 25/50 deep for my first session in February, and lost 20k.  So, I stopped for a week or two, then my second session I did the same, and lost another 20k.  So I played twice in February at -40k.  Then, I did more-or-less the same in March, another -40k.  I kept playing less and less hands, generally at the highest stakes running for 6max games (though I did play some epic HU matches as well), and kept losing more and more.  I can remember peak moments throughout the year:  I got AQo in for 13k on a KJTr board against AQo and AQs 3-way, and saw the suited guy run down the flush.  I played RunItTrim HU 25/50 and got AA aipf against KK for 13k and lost, etc.  I never really got into any kind of winning rhythm.  To make matters worse, I had just paid off about 80k in college loans and still had another 50k to go.  College is expensive.  So, around October, I fully stopped playing, took most of my money offline , and decided to focus on living my life a little bit before I grind.  Once I get a place, stop traveling every two months, and settle into a routine, I will be back playing poker in force.  Until then, I’m just going to play it one step at a time.

I’ve received a lot of questions lately about whether or not I’m still a winning player.  I’m 100% confident that I am.  I also don’t believe that losing money at very high stakes to incredible players is something to feel ashamed about.   I have read the “well” posts of many players and listened to conversations in IRC and 2p2 and DC over the past few years, and many great players have gotten crushed for a long time.  Whether it was CTS 100k hand breakeven stretch, Skier or MagicNinja’s (this might be KingDan, but I think it’s magicninja) yearlong downswings, or Viffer’s repeated trips to busto in his youth, as always in life, what happens isn’t important– how we respond to what happens is what defines our character and our chance of success.

So, I’m going to be fine.

I opened a company, balugapoker.com, in the Spring of 2009, planning to offer cheaper coaching services like classes and seminars.  The idea remains a good one.  The infrastructure exists to make it worse.  I’m in talks w/ a web designer.  I have ideas, haha.  balugapoker.com is a caterpillar and it will become a butterfly once the pieces are in place.

Lastly, I will be headed with the DC crew of EPs + me and flawless (a group that I’m ridiculously honored to be a part of) to Australia for the Aussie Millions!  So I will be blogging about how I’m doing in tourneys and cash games there, as well as everything else I expect to beat my opposition in– basketball, roshambo, drinking (prob not haha), etc.  Word!

In 2010 I have a few more trips planned (to China in March, Sweden in June, Peru in September, and possibly Jordan at some point in there too).  Plus I’m planning on getting my first legitimate place (either in San Fran, Portland, Seattle, NYC, or Buenos Aires).  So should be a lot of excitement there.  Poker goals will begin with winning money (ha ha), but more importantly, improving as a player, regaining some confidence, and investigating some elements of theory that have as of yet eluded me.  A large but manageable task.

Hope everyone had a great Xmas, will have a great New Years (I’ll be in San Francisco, let me know if you’re there and want to hang! I’ll be at the Westin St. Francis Alist party).  On New Years Day I’ll be watching my Ducks pummel the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl, then flying to New York, so if you’re there then let’s hang out too!

Happy New Year and a prosperous 2010,

Andrew

calendar update


Announcements, Updates:
I hope everyone has nice plans for new year's eve tomorrow night.


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Meta

GoogleBadgerCalendar (thanks to jason0x21)

If you use iCal on OS X, use the following URL to subscribe to BadgerCalendar:
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/mu2eh7ismei0k2dnibpgt0ae0s%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

HOWTO: Subscribe to a Google Calendar using iCal
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/04/13/howto-subscribe-to-a-google-calendar-using-ical/

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Recurring

Second Friday: NCSU Surplus sale, 8am-noon
http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/materialsmgmt/MaterialsSupport/surplus_sale.pdf

second Saturday: Techshop Member Meet-Up and Pot-Luck
http://www.techshopdurham.com

First Friday of the month: Raleigh art walk
http://www.raleighdowntowner.com/firstfriday/

Second Friday of the month: Chapel Hill art walk
Third Friday of the month: Durham artsy something or other

Periodic Tables
general science talks at Broad Street Cafe, Durham, Second Tuesday every month
http://www.facebook.com/periodictables
http://www.ncmls.org/periodictables

"Science in the Triangle" blog also does a "this upcoming week" weekly post. Recent example:
http://scienceinthetriangle.org/blog/rtp-weekahead-98
(They also have a jobs page http://scienceinthetriangle.org/jobs )


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Other Calendars

NC Startup Blog Calendar
http://www.northcarolinastartups.com/events/

SocialCarolina (general RTP tech aggegator) calendar
http://socialcarolina.org/

NC Goth
http://www.ncgoth.com/shows.html

Convention Finder
http://containment.greententacles.com/

Independent Weekly for RTP area events
http://www.indyweek.com/

Event calendar at Carrboro Creative Coworking
http://carrborocoworking.com/calendar

SocialCarolina calendar
http://socialcarolina.org/

Triangle Rock
http://www.trianglerock.com/

Duke ISIS events
http://isis.duke.edu/events/upcoming.html

Duke Campus Concert Series
http://www.duke.edu/web/CCS

Carrboro Coworking
http://www.carrborocoworking.com/calendar

The Stagger - Live Entertainment in Chapel Hill and Carrboro
http://www.thestagger.com/

Google & ical calendar of pagan holidays
http://anselm23.livejournal.com/417451.html

Duke AMES films
http://www.duke.edu/web/ames/whatsnew.html

information security conference google calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/pe2ikdbe6b841od6e26ato0asc%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
some overlap with my schedule posts, but minimal - this has tons more than I do along these lines


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New items added since the last post are duplicated at the beginning, sometimes with comments, then the main list.

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new in schedule:

6 Feb: AnalyticsCamp, Chapel Hill
http://net-savvy.com/executive/events/first-analyticscamp-in-chapel-hill.html

25-28 Feb: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Arts Center, Carrboro
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

5-7 Mar: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Arts Center, Carrboro
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

12-14 Mar: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Paperhand ourspace, Saxapahaw
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

19-21 Mar: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Paperhand ourspace, Saxapahaw
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

2 April: A Place To Bury Strangers and The Big Pink, Cats Cradle, Carrboro
A Place To Bury Strangers will melt your face off. This *is* a good thing.

17-19 May: 2010 Search Exchange Conference and Expo (3 day internet marketing conference), Charlotte NC
http://searchexchange.org/

4-5 Sep: ProgDay 2010, Chapel Hill
http://www.progday.net
The first band playing was announced this week.

6-7 November: 30th annual Mid-Ohio-Con, Columbus, Ohio.
http://midohiocon.blogspot.com/



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FULL LIST

2010:

6 Jan: Technoiz night, Pour House, Raleigh, with Ex Monkeys (Raleigh) and Orgavin (Chapel Hill)
http://events.jdnews.com/raleigh-nc/events/show/89240819-technoiz-wednesdays-exmonkeys
http://www.the-pour-house.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000499307593&ref=nf

7-10 January: Raleigh Undercover, Tir Na Nog
http://www.newraleigh.com/articles/archive/raleigh-undercover-save-the-dates/

9 Jan: Occult Conference, Glastonbury England
http://scarletimprint.livejournal.com/19835.html

10 Jan: (tv) Big Love season 4, HBO

13 Jan: Fargo (Coen Brothers), Colony Theatre, Raleigh, 8pm, $5, Cool Classics series
http://www.therialto.com/main.php?title=our_theaters_colony

14 Jan: Storytelling at the Monti in RTP, with novelist John Kessel, author Scott Huler and ant researcher Rob Dunn.
http://twitter.com/The_Monti/status/6419739144
http://themonti.org/
Note: Shows at the Monti always, repeat always, sell out well before, so if you
are thinking of going buy tickets in advance.

15-17 January: ScienceOnline'10 conference, RTP
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=118219988767

15 Jan: Retrofantasma, Carolina Theatre, Durham, 7pm & 9:30pm
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/
GHOST STORY (US, R, 110 min, 1981)
IT CAMEWITHOUT WARNING (US, R, 89 min, 1980)
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/

17 January: Golden Globe Awards
http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2010/globes
How did Sam Rockwell get overlooked for his impressive performance in _MOON_?

20 Jan: Switchblade Sisters, Colony Theatre, Raleigh, 8pm, $5, Cinema Overdrive series
http://www.therialto.com/main.php?title=our_theaters_colony

20 Jan: All's Well That Ends Well, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee NC
http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=191
American Shakespeare Company on tour

22 January - Steven Wright, Carolina Theatre, Durham, members presale now, public sale opens Friday. Yes, Steven Wright of "Stayed up all night playing poker with a deck of Tarot cards. I got a full house and three people died."

25 January: tv, Damages season 3 premiere

28 Jan: Refresh The Triangle 024, Viget Labs, Durham
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/refreshthetrian/24702.html
http://refreshthetriangle.org/posts/refresh_024/#When:15:52:00Z

29 January: Breakfast with Jason Caplain of Southern Capitol Ventures, Carrboro Creative Coworking, Carrboro
http://www.carrborocoworking.com/
http://flur.be/2X
http://twitter.com/carrborocowork/status/6465819913

29 January: Nevermore Festival fundraiser double feature: The Dark Crystal (7pm), and Army of Darkness (9:30pm), Carolina Theatre Durham
http://www.carolinatheatre.org/

29 January: Carolina Performing Arts, “the break/s: a mixtape for stage” – Mark Bamuthi Joseph (multimedia personal hip-hop narrative)
http://www.indyweekblogs.com/scan/2009/03/carolina-performing-arts-announced-2009-10-season/
http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/


Feb:
Collaborations: Humanities, Arts & Technology (CHAT) festival,
http://cit.duke.edu/blog/2008/08/20/humanities-arts-technology-festival-seeks-planners-projects/
http://www.iah.unc.edu/
http://www.hastac.org/node/1667

Feb: Pantheacon, San Jose CA
http://www.pantheacon.com/

4-21 February: Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer", Burning Coal Theatre, Raleigh (Thursday-Sundays of the time block)
http://www.burningcoal.org/
http://www.burningcoal.org/season.html

4 February: Duke New Music Ensemble
http://music.duke.edu/performance/dnme.php
"Lunch with the New 2" another lunchtime concert with a mix of works by Duke composers and other composers

4-7 Feb: IxDA Interaction 10 Conference, SCAD
http://interaction.ixda.org/

5-7 February: ShmooCon 2010, Wardman Park Marriott, Washington DC, USA
http://www.shmoocon.org/

6 Feb: AnalyticsCamp, Chapel Hill
http://net-savvy.com/executive/events/first-analyticscamp-in-chapel-hill.html

12 Feb: Retrofantasma, Carolina Theatre, Durham, 7pm & 9:30pm
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/
THE HOWLING (US, R, 91 min, 1981)
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (US, R, 97 min, 1986)

15 Feb: Tortoise, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill
http://www.catscradle.com/

18 Feb: Dean & Britta, 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's "Screen Tests"
http://dukeperformances.duke.edu/series/at-the-crossroads/dean-britta

19-21 Feb: Nevermore Film Festival, Carolina Theatre, Durham
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/nevermore/

19 February: Carolina Performing Arts, STREB: Brave (extreme sports, dance, MIT Media Lab collaboration)
http://www.indyweekblogs.com/scan/2009/03/carolina-performing-arts-announced-2009-10-season/
http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/

22-24 Feb: CED's 19th annual Biotech Conference, Raleigh Convention Center
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091103006320&newsLang=en

25-28 Feb: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Arts Center, Carrboro
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

26-27 February: Hairspray (musical), UNC School of the Arts, Winston-Salem NC

3 March: Ignite Raleigh 2
http://twitter.com/IgniteRaleigh/status/6719961243
http://ignite.oreilly.com/giw/

5-7 Mar: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Arts Center, Carrboro
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

12-14 Mar: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Paperhand ourspace, Saxapahaw
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

19-21 Mar: "Love and robots!" A puppet rock opera in zeros and ones, Paperhand ourspace, Saxapahaw
http://www.artscenterlive.org
http://www.paperhand.org

19 March: Retrofantasma, Carolina Theatre, Durham, 7pm & 9:30pm
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/
LIFEFORCE (UK, R, 101 min, 1985)
KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (US, R, 88 min, 1988)

19-21 March: Con the Con Leverage convention, Portland OR
http://www.conthecon.org/index.php

25-28 March: World Horror Convention, Brighton England
http://whc2010.org/


April 2010:

1 April: Duke New Music Ensemble
http://music.duke.edu/performance/dnme.php
"Remixology" featuring Duke composers remixing/recomposing other Duke composers.

1-4 April: Viva Las Vegas 12, rockabilly/50s music, Las Vegas NV
http://www.vivalasvegas.net/

2 April: A Place To Bury Strangers and The Big Pink, Cats Cradle, Carrboro
A Place To Bury Strangers will melt your face off. This *is* a good thing.

7 April: Carolina Performing Arts, Pat Metheny (solo guitar improvisations and unveiling of “Orchestrionics”)
http://www.indyweekblogs.com/scan/2009/03/carolina-performing-arts-announced-2009-10-season/
http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/

8-10 April: Renaissance Society of America (RSA) annual conference "relating the period’s knowledge practices to modern information theory"
http://www.rsa.org/meetings/annualmeeting.php

8-11 April 2010: (movie) (festival) 13th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
http://www.fullframefest.org/

10 April 2010: Kronos Quartet, Duke
http://dukeperformances.duke.edu/node/54

14-18 April, 21-25 April: Macbeth, NCSU
Titmus Theatre, Thompson Hall
http://www.ncsu.edu/theatre/currentseason.html

14-18 April, 21-25 April: Macbeth, NCSU
Titmus Theatre, Thompson Hall
http://www.ncsu.edu/theatre/currentseason.html

15-17 April: HASTAC 2010: Grand Challenges and Global Innovations "a free, entirely virtual event held in a multiplicity of digital spaces instigated from sites across the globe" (hosted by Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science at the University of Illinois)
http://www.hastac.org/

15-25 April: 2010 RiverRun International Film Festival
"The 2010 RiverRun International Film Festival will utilize many of the same Winston-Salem venues it has for the past few years, including the Stevens Center (405 W. Fourth St.), the Ace Cinematheque Complex on the campus of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (1533 S. Main St.), the Reynolda House Museum of American Art (2250 Reynolda Rd.) and The Garage (110 W. 7th St.). Additionally in 2010, RiverRun will use the soon-to-be-completed a/perture cinema (311 W. 4th Street) in downtown Winston-Salem."

20-22 Apr: CED's 27th Venture conference, Pinehurst NC
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091103006320&newsLang=en

23 April: Retrofantasma, Carolina Theatre, Durham, 7pm & 9:30pm
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/
VIDEODROME (Canada, R, 87 min, 1983)
TERRORVISION (US, R, 83 min, 1986)

26-30 April: 19th International World Wide Web Conference - Raleigh, NC
http://www2010.org

30 April - 1 May: ROFLcon II, MIT in Cambridge, MA
http://twitter.com/textfiles/status/6903261048

7 May: International Tuba Day, 2010 (first Friday in May)
http://www.tubaday.com/homepage.php

7-8 May: "The Archive and Everyday Life" conference, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~english/Taylor_2010/index.html
CFP deadline October 15 2009

17-19 May: 2010 Search Exchange Conference and Expo (3 day internet marketing conference), Charlotte NC
http://searchexchange.org/

19-23 May 2010 Conference of the North American Jules Verne Society, Bethesda MD
CFP now
http://dynamicsubspace.net/2009/09/09/cfp-north-american-jules-verne-society-meeting-may-2010/

21 May: Retrofantasma, Carolina Theatre, Durham, 7pm & 9:30pm
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (US, NR, 101 min, 1986)
SQUIRM (US, R, 92 min, 1976)

28-29 May: Magus:  Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Work of Alan Moore
University of Northampton, United Kingdom
http://www2.northampton.ac.uk/arts/home/AlanMoore

3-6 June: Electronic Literature Organization's Fourth annual Conference and Program of Digitally Mediated Literary Art, Brown University, Providence RI
http://nickm.com/post/2009/11/elo_ai%C2%A0archive%C2%A0%C2%A0innovate/
6-19 June: Taos Toolbox, "two-week masterclass in SF and Fantasy writing with Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress", Taos NM
http://www.taostoolbox.com/
http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2009/12/special-circle-in-hell-is-reserved-for.html

11-13 June: Science Fiction Foundation (SFF) 4th Annual SF Criticism Masterclass, London
http://rozk.livejournal.com/289831.html

15-17 June: E3 Expo, Los Angeles, LA Convention Center
http://www.macworld.com/article/140999/2009/06/e3expo.html

18 June: Retrofantasma, Carolina Theatre, Durham, 7pm & 9:30pm
http://festivals.carolinatheatre.org/retrofantasma/
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE in 3-D (US, NR, 81 min, 1953)
INVADERS FROM MARS (US, PG, 99 min, 1986)

22-24 June: Resonances, a Deleuze and Guattari Conference
http://www.resonative.net/

27 June - August 7
Clarion Writers' Workshop at UC San Diego
http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2009/08/31/teaching-at-clarion-in-san-diego-in-2010/
http://clarion.ucsd.edu/index.html

9-11 July, 2010
H. G. Wells: From Kent to Cosmopolis conference
http://dynamicsubspace.net/2009/04/06/cfp-hgwells-from-kent-to-cosmopolis/
CFP through 1 March 2010

16-18 July: The Next HOPE (updated from date of "summer 2010")
http://www.thenexthope.org/

5-8 August: NASFIC, Raleigh
http://www.reconstructionsf.org/registration.html
http://www.raleighnasfic2010.org/


12-15 August, 2010
Triangle Form and Function Festival (early planning stages)
http://formandfunctionfest.wordpress.com/

13-16 August: Convergence 16, Park City Utah
http://www.altgothic.com/c16slc/

4-5 Sep: ProgDay 2010, Chapel Hill
http://www.progday.net
The first band playing was announced this week.

13-14 Sep: TechCrunch50 dates are September 13th & 14th.
http://twitter.com/Jason/status/6871638187
Note: Applications in by the end of June 2010 (for planning).

21 Oct 2010: Infosecon 2010, McKimmon Center
http://raleigh.issa.org/conference.html

22-24 Oct: Browncoat Ball (Serenity fans), Charlotte NC

6-7 November: 30th annual Mid-Ohio-Con, Columbus, Ohio.
http://midohiocon.blogspot.com/

19-21 Nov: SFContario, Toronto Canada
http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2009/12/back-to-toronto.html
http://sfcontario.ca/

2011

28 April-1 May: World Horror Convention, Austin TX
http://whc2011.org/

17-21 Aug: Worldcon, Reno Nevada
http://www.rcfi.org/

2012
8 Nov: Titanic Cruise Reenactment, One Century Anniversary
http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2009/10/cruise-the-north-atlantic-in-gothic-splendor.html

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