"The Pen:" Live NLHE Chat Thread

NGL guys the thought that I may "retire" soon is messing with my mind. I thought I was going to have 3+ years to plan things out. Retiring early is not a done deal yet, but I think it is more likely than not.

have you already acquired river van money?

I know you're an economist and a long term govie, but just to make sure you are aware, there is no authority to pay out that "buyout," which they are trying to get around by considering it admin leave, but it is longer than the statutory limit on admin leave. As for traditional separation pay, that is capped by statute at $25K, afaik. In other words, I wouldn't count on this offer actually paying out, or at least doing so without a long drawn-out court fight.

The early out offer is legit with my agency. I have no faith in the 8-month deal. The separation contract restricts the right to sue which is a big red flag. And there is a SCOTUS case from the 90s which says agreements made by OPM that defy statutes are not enforceable, so it isn't like a lawsuit would win anyway.

FWIW I am not accepting this offer, but I am sure a RIF is coming, and I am betting a no-strings early out will come in the next 6 months. Hence, why I said "soon".

We just made a great hire who is still on probation, and I have a feeling he will be purged in the next couple of weeks.

With enough left over for a 6-month supply of canned Chef Boyardee.

And it is canned Chef Boyardee. I couldn't afford the fancy ass microwaveable cups.

**ZOLTAN**

once you have enough for 3 kilos of hash and lsd let the good times roll then

Don’t lie, it’s the Walmart great value brand.

That said you have two SB squares and if you hit those you might be able to get the microwavable kind.

Good to hear. I was pretty sure you'd know the score, but just given how crazy things are right now, I wanted to double-check.

1.) Walmart was too much. It is Dollar General brand. Chey Boyrdee or something like that.

2.) Winnings will go towards Rickroll's suggestion.

So I'm waiting on three orders of stones from overseas to finish jewelry projects with deadlines. At least two of them are coming from China )the other I can't remember if it's India, China, or Thailand). Of course the Post Office decides to stop taking packages from China, because tariffs. Clownshoes.

Woman in my building called me in December. She was a decent tax technician/CPA but not the greatest at running a practice which she was doing. Asked if I was interested in purchasing her book of business because she had an offer from the IRS starting 1/12 IIRC. Guessing that didn't happen or maybe she snuck in and now has to look over her shoulder.

Story GG might appreciate: a 38yo co-worker of mine took up beer league hockey a couple of years ago. A few weeks back, one of the guys in the league who plays forward says "hey you're tough to score on, want to come play for our college team.". Buddy replies "your current goalie not so great?" Forward replies "we don't have one. I'm playing goal because I suck less at it than anyone else on the team "

So buddy signs up for a class at the college and joins their D3 hockey team. He made his debut Friday Night against Old Miss, gave up 6 goals on 53 shots. Pretty solid for a 38yo club player.

Very good chance her offer got rescinded.

just when i thought i finally had my sea legs and was ready to resume playing higher stakes again like back in the day - i have a nightmare of a session losing 3.5 buyins

worst part was there was never a single competent player at my table

every time i played it cautiously and folded he had a bluff, every time i pushed back they had the nuts

absolute worst part was we have a bunch of limpers, i make it 20 with KQo on the btn and get 3 callers

flop is Qx2d7d

i look down at KdQx

sb bets 45, utg calls, co shoves for 122

sb loves donking a lot and is pretty polarized when he does it either folding or jamming whenever his donk gets raised but haven't seen him get out of line otherwise, utg is an idiot but plays pretty snug in general never raising, cu is wild, vpips 80 and most of the time is raising - he knows what he's doing but plays way too many hands and way too agressively

so with 600 behind i flat co's shove because i'm sure i have him beat and others will likely fold given how much strength has been shown here

but then sb calls (he has me covered) and utg jams for 250

i'm looking down at my hand thinking no way i'm good anymore, and furthermore, having the Kd makes me even less inclined to believe that more than one of them has a flush draw

i tell myself, at worst one of these guys has 22 or 77 for a set or maybe one of them has K7 or K2 (they are idiots and limp called) so despite getting all the odds in the world, i find a fold

turn is a K and river a 3 - no diamonds come

sb turns over KJo to win a sidepot from utg who's Ad8d missed and co scoops the main pot with Q3s where his flush draw whiffed but he turned and rivered 2 pair

later a maniac who starts opening to 65 or 70 most hands shows up with AK the two times I push back at him with 99 and AQ and within the same orbit redistributes my chips to others after doing the same thing with hands like 94o and A7o vs others at the table

i know a lot of it is just variance, but man, it really feels like i'm doing something wrong because these guys are absolute idiots, not once during my 7 hour session did i feel a single good player was at the table with me and yet i dust off 3.5 buyins anyway

@ RR

Yup, variance is a thing (as is rake @ LLSNL). This is why I lol @ anyone who doesn't have a decent sample size under their belt; not only for going thru the experience of it, but even more importantly having the fortitude to correctly deal with all the bad times (of which there are many). I often purposely sit at tables where I'm the best player (which isn't saying much at all), because as soon as I slip down the depth chart by a position or two it becomes difficult for me to win. And yet even being the best at any given table (again, this is really not a barg in my typical lineup) I still barely squeak by long term.

And yeah, constantly dusting off our chips to the guy who then quickly distributes them to everyone else at the table is a great test of fortitude. The long term winner is the guy who can keep his **** together best thru the whims of the poker gods.

GcluelessserenitynownoobG

Wow, sorry rickroll -- that's a tough session with some serious run-bad. I feel for you :(

yeah it's not even the money, it's that wtf these guys are so bad - making terrible blunders every hand and yet i not even fail to capitalize but dump plenty of chips to them

worst thing was my biggest adjustment from asia to usa llsnl was that large re-raises on polarized boards means they got all of it and yet twice i called off in these situations

the first time was "this guy is super snug hasn't played a hand for an hour and opened utg so his checjam of 250 into my bet of 35 is an overpair which I beat here so I call" but nope it's T8s for a flopped straight

second time was vs that same co who vpipped 80 and when i cbet JJ on 356r and get 1 caller from a snug asian lady he jams $200 over the top and I'm not worried about him at all because he can have some random combo here but i'm worried about the asian lady here who is super tight and could easily have a set but while in the tank she prepares to muck her hand so I go "oh i'm fine" so I call and of course he has 24o which would have never happened in asia - nobody is ever jamming with a made hand that's in zero danger until the river but in USA#1 people are like "oh i have a good hand let's get it in" which is an adjustment i've been making but yesterday forgot this and reasoned "they can't be that stupid why would he jam here and get me to fold my bluffs since I obviously can't be too strong here and if i am strong enough to call this jam then i'm probably going to keep betting on later streets anyway"

also, i mispoke on the earlier hh, the K and Q were flipped it was Kx2d7d on the flop with a Qx on the turn

Hi Rickroll,
Maybe you are just blowing off steam and making noise. However, playing with morans clicking buttons and being clueless is standart. So is them getting lucky and relieving you of 3.5 buy ins.

Entitlement tilt is a real thing. If u gunna b a perfessional gambooler you need to get it together and get your inner robot going cuz perfessional pokerz is a long road filled with frustration and if you are getting worked up over this lol stuff u gun b real unhappy when the sheeyit ackshually hits the fan and the wheels come spinning off when the planets align and everything goes wrong.

I am not judging you or your skillz as a gambooler, I have just seen this exact movie an uncountable number of times and frequently the main character can not see it unfolding

oh yeah the -3.5 is standard etc

and you're dead on, it's not the loss, i've dusted off more than this regularly - it's that i view myself as way better than all those people and thus I expect more of myself in results

entitlement tilt is definitely the correct word for it

i'm just more frustrated that i haven't stuck to the lessons i've learned - having learned "americans who blast off after you've shown aggression usually got it even when it makes no sense for them to have blasted off if they have it" and i ignored that for 2 big pots where i lost and one where i was absolutely priced in i decided "no someone clearly has a set here" and nope it's just a bunch of button clickers looking at how big the pot is and thinking how great it'd be if they won it

Entitlement tilt… never heard that (exact) phrase, but it makes perfect sense. Taking that with me going forward. I like. High five.

Lol, awesome! INB4 most goalies don't graduate high skool, ldo.

One of my fave (and super rare) occurrences in the NHL is the emergency goalie stories, when some random man-on-the-street has to suit up due to injuries to both dressed goalies on the team.

This guy actually got a win:

And this guy didn't quite get into the game, but the story is still awesome (well worth getting past the hokey intro in order to get to the gum chewing / hilarious commentary from Brian Burke):

GcluelessemergengygoalienoobG

You're probably unknowingly playing with Richard Parker and he's owning your soul. 😀

GcluelessSeattlenoobG

God that dude was a ****ing legend

He's walked amongst us as Tanq ~recently, but hasn't been around in a while.

Gclueless****inglegendnoobG