The Poker Diaries

 To start with, this is like my 6th post in September. Well actually it is 6th post in less than 6 days...lol. The reason behind that is my Optimus Prime is down, and I have an office laptop for a week, so utilizing it to the fullest, and quenching all my apetite for blogging! My last post was kinda milestone for me, I had done major changes in my blog layout and widgets, so that post was to maximise space utilization in the new layout. I put in around 2.5 times the pics I normally do, however I am very happy with the end result.

 So life is awesome as it is. \m/ Today is Sunday, today and tomorrow is week off. I slept pretty late last night, around 04:30AM, as yesterday's post was pretty big, informative and required to put in some time, but hell I am passionate about blogging, and many of my master pieces in this blog have come after 2AM....lol

 Getting to poker, I was pretty sure I had blogged about it before. So I did a quick search in the blog using the search widget on the blog. This is what I found, the blog is from 1st Jan, 2011. I read it and went down the memory lane. It was the time in Infosys Pune DC. #ItFeltGood , and that is the reaosn why I write. I was new to poker than, learning and progressing, the title of the blog post is pretty slick: Today? Four of a kind , well that is something you would expect from me, won't you! I am not very humble I know, and that is something you would expect from me too!! :)

 My wonderful sister had gifted me a steel case, James Bond style poker set as my birthday gift when I was in US. I used to play a lot of poker in US, and she sensed it and got me this. I am really thankful to her for all that she has done for me, and the support and advice she has given me, every now and then...Thanks Bhaku...Love You..

 Let's talk more of poker, I bought the poker set here last month. Started playing with my good amigoz Anshul a couple of times. Today was a bad day for me, I was short of sleep, and not thinking straight. I thought I had a full house, but I actually just had a set of 2 pairs. Another reason is I was playing 5 card poker with Mohitbaba yesterday, and I play Hold - em poker with Anshul, so mindset was a bit different there too. I suffered a heavy loss, I managed to survive somehow, and had something after 3 hours of poker. 

 I learnt a lot about human nature today. I learnt that it is something important to loose in life. Winning is important, but something losing teaches you a lot more. You rethink where you are in life, what are your priorities. I had pending work of iron man since 3 weeks, only after loosing today I competed it. I also have to study, I also need to control my spendings. I need to take care of my health, need to work out and have proper sleep. All this and more would not have come, if I had not lost today, so am grateful for what happened :) 

Fingers crossed for India @ CWC 2011!!!

Hello! There has not been much bloging since some time. One of the reason is I am on bench. Well it should result in more blogging conventionally. But, there is convention and there is Kartik Vyas.

It's just that when you are totally free, you just pass time, uncreatively. In previous few months when I was in project and work was hectic, I actually used to blog a lot, especially in raat paali.

Ok, getting to the point of the cricket world cup. It has started and India had a good first game. There are loads of expectations on the team to win the cup, the side is also good and in form. A blend of experience and youth, agression and calmness and a very able captain in M.S. Dhoni. If we can actually do it or not, only time will tell.

Manchester United is doing pretty good in EPL, despite losing their first game few weeks back. They won the Manchester Derby against Man City, a scorcher of a goal from Rooney. He seems to be finding some form. Good for the team as Berbatov is already the top goal scorer in the league.

Poker is also going very well. Two days back reached the 1M dollars milestone. It took around 4 months since I started playing. And today I already crossed 1.5 million. I guess with time and experience you learn the ticks of the trade, not only in Poker, but also in life. Also another thing to learn is that it is never wrong to dream big. Hard work and common sense can sail you through.

Another analogy I was thinking of relating this too was of the big shots like the Ambanis and the Mallayas. How did they become rich. What's the secret? Well if I imply the lessons of poker, only reaching a certain level is difficult. Once you reach the level of 'above average', the growth is exponential. It was intricate in Poker to reach to 1M, but after that with all the experience and a strong balance, the next half million took only 2 days!

Poker has actually helped me be a better person intellectually. I mentioned about it in my previous post and I repeat it again. It improves your decision making abilities a lot and is good exercise for the neurons!

Today? Four of a kind!

 If you play poker you'd be aware of what that means. Today's date is four of a kind. Four of ones or rather four Aces in cards. Pretty strong hand huh, but not the strongest! Will get back to poker again. So how did I bring in 2011? Twilight New Moon, Lots of Poker and the first EPL match of 2011!

  Normally and conventionally vampire movies are supposed to be horror kind, however the twilight series is classically superb and amazingly dazzling. It is just the right mixture of everything and I love it for sure.

 Kristen Stewart casts in all the twilight movies and she is hot! How hot? If you speak the Joey language, she's stop eating your food hot! If you speak Fast and Furious language, she's smokin hot! Born in 1990, she's just all of 20 now and has proven her talent more than once!

 So I saw the Twilight New Moon and one thing I noticed this time is that it also has wonderful background score as well. One score which is my best is the scene where Victoria is chased by the Werewolves. Check this out, took me half hour to find this baby on youtube...and is totally worth!

 Ok so enough of Kristen and Twilight, time for Poker. Yes baby! Started playing poker since couple of weeks on FB, it's really gr8 havin lotta fun. You may have elders tellin ya dat gambling is bad and all, but poker is not gambling, it's about doing analysis, taking claculated chances, it's about learning to cope with the winnings and losses. It's kinda similar to managemant education and it makes you a more mature person and improves you decision making capabilities!

  Having already won over $100k in virtual chips I can surely give a tip or two for aspiring poker players. First poker is a game of patience, you need to be very patient, need to see the trend of other players to know what is their style of play. It helps a lot. Also sometimes in a shootout, you may get lucky if you are patient.

 Then one needs to be very good at analyzing the cards which the dealer opens on the table, with that you can figure out what the best hand someone can have and compare it with yours. Also always remember if you have two aces with you, you have a very good chance of winning, however remember it is not the best hand and can be beaten by a flush to A's.And the best one is the royal flush, see above. Finally I would say don't be too defensive, be patient but do take calculated risks as well, the rest you'll learn when ya play!

 Hmm..two things. The third thing? Hehe...Machester United. They are playin the first EPL match of 2011, away to WBA, score is 1-1 currently. My envisage is they'll win EPL for sure this season. Also with the cricket WC around 50 days away and the kinda form the playas are in riy now, it is India's destiny to win!