Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #2

I have defined poker as my secondary job in the previous posts. I believe second job is something that you should always try to have not only because it gains you more money but I think it is doing something meaningful and enjoyful on your spare time. I have confirmed myself today that I have found my new second job and hereby degrading poker as a hobby until I feel like playing again.

I now strongly believe that taking an occasional break and pursue other things to get a broader sighted design on your color helps you shine your own luxury color!

Life Goes On: LuxuryMagic #1

A box filled with scrap of papers and rocks and two envelops on the very bottom of the box given to my good friend:

Career Potential Challenge: Immediate Impact for Goods vs. Long Term Impact for Goods

(Immediate Impact for Goods):

* Apply to Google



I have decided to further pursue my computer science career as I feel more successful and more enjoyable than winning a lot of money on poker while sitting on my computer fulltime. I have decided to pursue further opportunies in order to strengthen my primary career

(Long Term Impact for Goods):

* Further Develop Personal Engineering Protfolio Website
* Start a Small IT Business with My Smart and Passionate Roomates



I went to the Google Technical Talk in the University of Colorado at Boulder with my friend Seung Bin, who is currently junior majoring in computer science. I was there not only for my personal intellectual reasons or whatever but it was also to help him see the exposures I wish I had while I was junior in the college.

I was on my way to walk into the room and saw a recruiting coordinator greeting everyone. I said “Hi xx (Privacy reason)” and she goes “Hello Jay”. I saw her 1-2 times during the past career events and asked for resume help once. I have never seen her again face to face. It was really surprising to perceive the passion of the people on their job. Everyone had own character and acted friendly while being very passionate and professional on what they do. I mean let’s face it - she probably sees probably over 100 people and she is telling me she remembers (at least tries) to remember everyone and treat each one of them in professional manner. I asked her why my PHD student friend, who got recently employed at Gooogle did not attend to this tech talk because I was honestly expecting to see him again =)

Out of all the Google tech talk I have ever went, I have to say this one was the most informative and well organized one I have ever attended. It is not just because I have received a special greeting from the recruiting coordinator. Everything was well organized and went very smooth. I am taking my time to say thank you to Google and ACM for organizing this and make it actually happen!

Career Prioritizing: $2/4 -> $1/2

I have been through a lot of things during the past a few weeks of my life not only one poker and I have to say it has been tough and traumatic but I am writing this blog to appreciate, record, and remind what I have learned and gained from my past experience.

Now I think about it playing $2/4 is the border line where one needs to decide to play poker pro for living or not. I have decided not to take that path and defined playing poker as my secondary job. However, I love to play too much winning consistently beating the $2/4 game almost 4BB/100 during last 3 months. Let's just say that I figured out the better way to live my life aside from money gained from the job or poker by going thorough my tough time.

I had a same type of decision back in the day when I first transfered to CU from CSU while playing Warcraft III professional sponsored by AMD. I was playing with Dayfly, Fov, Showtime, Lucifer, and other korean programers back in the day. I decided to completely quit playing Warcraft III after messing up the finals. I hadn't spent over 5 hours during that semester and my grade was all good (A-B+) then I messed up the final exam and put my GPA on jeoperdy.

I thought about the outcome of this and I convinced myself that I have to choose one or the other and I quitted Warcraft III (As LuxuryMaster quotes: "All or Nothing"). I have never looked back on myself back ever since same way I have never deposited money again on Pokerstars after losing 2-3 times of $50-100 deposits back since 3 years ago and probaly will not happen anytime on future.

Withdrawing over 75% my online bankroll from my online account was overall smart decision as it makes myself almost debtfree on my credit cards which I was forced to accumulate as I barely managed to pay my last tuition bill from CU. This however, is not saying "I am quitting Poker". I feel like I can never be able to quit as I see this game never get boring to me and socializing aspect is just amazing especially on Las Vegas live tables =)

Good Bye to Full Tilt Poker

I have decided to withdraw entire BR from FT as I don't need that much money sitting on there doing nothing. I still have enough BR left on PS to play $1/2 so it is fine. In the meantime, I will start enjoying more of real life. Plans are:

- Buy Mac Book Pro -> Get compensated with PS concierge service
- Enjoy the freedom of home working engineer -> Work at CU or Starbucks or wherever I want





I have also decided to choose just keep playing on Pokerstars as their support is so great. They have something called concierge service for Supernova player where they offer players to buy anything (no investments tho) and compensate with accumulated FPPs.



I got a MAC BOOK PRO 17'', the best one in the market in order to fully utilize my freedom. It is so nifty and awesome. I hated MAC because it was so hard to use. Now I become industry IT professional and can finally understand why its awesome. Knowledge finally started to empower on myself.

Promoted to: Home Working Software Engineer

I have been working at Translations.com's Boulder office for over 3 months now. I was actually only software engineer in the office as this office recently opened in the Boulder location and we have engineers working oversea and I recently felt no reason to come to office as we always communicate over the internet and I have been fully tranined by my manager over 3 months.

I asked my boss for the permission to work at home where I can feel more comfortable and be more productive. There were some reviews going back and forth with our senior developers on oversea. Based on my productivity and reliablity that I have shown since the first of my job, they granted my request and I am now working at home. Sweet ship it please!



After I hear back from him, I bought myself a top notch recliner that I can just sit back and relax while I am working. Price was little bit aggressive but I managed to bluff raise myself to buy it anyways. I also have realized that due to this, I now have more freedom in my life and no longer need to stress myself on poker income. I will now play poker as entertainment / supplement income value and I think this is very +EV choice for my overall life satisfaction.

I have been actively going to church over the weekend and there was a really famous pester coming from Chicago giving a speech about the topic called "hope". It was really overall satisfactive and he mentioned various quotations from the people during the speech who became really successful and how one should measure the degree of the success. Obviously the factor was not based on how much money they have made. There were one quotation that got stuck on my head, it was from John Pottter. I tried my best to translate into English =)

"The moment I felt most successful in my life is not when I actually climbed to the top of the Everlast, it was the moment I was walking down from the top of the mountain and envisioned what I further possibly can do with my success that I have archieved"

I decided to review my daily life and figure out if I am living my life successfully and it turns out there were so many leaks. I found myself way too busy during my daily life. For example, I work full time 5 days a week, playing heavy amount of poker over the weekend despite my recent success on the job and poker. Actually my friend Dwain actually first brought this up and I appreciate him tellng me this and provide me a reason to think back on myself. I just feel like I made right, strong and big decision on my poker career overall and confirmed myself that I am walking into the right direction with Jesus. As long as I feel myself walking into right direction, I believe I will be able to enrich further and become more successful.

Win Some Lose Some and Click Timebank Button

This August has been very interesting month for my poker career not just because I lost a lot of money but due to my new perception. I have had such a terrible run on my $2/4 (400NL) games during the late weeks of August. I am fully aware that I am not playing most opmital style and making some -EV plays. However, I know I am a winning player and had been winning over 10k/month over past 3 months and disciplined enough to grind from my $100 initial deposit for almost 3 years now to result my bankroll to up to where I am. Let's look at the graph of this month. Consider I average out to play about 2000 hands per day and pay very close attention to the spikes and downs. If you are a professional poker, you would say I am doing fine and its nature but to me, I mean its just insane to me =)

August 2008 BB/100: 1.18, NET: +$5,603.75


As shown above and suprisingly, I still did not end up losing at the end of the month and actually generated almost $6,000 profit on August. One thing to note from the graph is that I have had a big winning day/and small consecutive losing days. I particuallly do not think I tilted or played extremely bad on any of the sessions I played but it was great experience for me to realize the extreme swings on the game. It was frustrating due to just run of cards and I was just getting stressed way too much on my game because I put my chips on even when I am ahead and still end up losing. Now, let's look at some of the hands that I ran into.

PokerStars Game #20180670898: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/05 22:58:09 ET
Table 'Perseus II' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: gomaspt ($2138.65 in chips)
Seat 2: KingKoopa2 ($571 in chips)
Seat 3: Hyi_Vam ($443 in chips)
Seat 4: uYNamron ($400 in chips)
Seat 5: Jschlach ($489.55 in chips)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster ($848 in chips)
LuxuryMaster: posts small blind $2
gomaspt: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ac As]
KingKoopa2: folds
Hyi_Vam: folds
uYNamron: folds
Jschlach: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $12 to $16
gomaspt: calls $12
*** FLOP *** [8h Ah 8d]
LuxuryMaster: checks
gomaspt: checks
*** TURN *** [8h Ah 8d] [Jd]
LuxuryMaster: bets $28
gomaspt: calls $28
*** RIVER *** [8h Ah 8d Jd] [7d]
LuxuryMaster: bets $72
gomaspt: raises $128 to $200
LuxuryMaster: raises $604 to $804 and is all-in
gomaspt: calls $604
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuxuryMaster: shows [Ac As] (a full house, Aces full of Eights)
gomaspt: shows [Td 9d] (a straight flush, Seven to Jack)
gomaspt collected $1693 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1696 | Rake $3
Board [8h Ah 8d Jd 7d]
Seat 1: gomaspt (big blind) showed [Td 9d] and won ($1693) with a straight flush, Seven to Jack
Seat 2: KingKoopa2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Hyi_Vam folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: uYNamron folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Jschlach (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster (small blind) showed [Ac As] and lost with a full house, Aces full of Eights

PokerStars Game #20184312309: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/05 22:59:04 ET
Table 'Caubeta' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: brizzybreech ($398 in chips)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster ($358 in chips)
Seat 3: iheartcoco ($386.70 in chips)
Seat 4: oceanbillly ($394 in chips)
Seat 5: Laxalicious ($648.40 in chips)
Seat 6: Greakfreak ($484.35 in chips)
LuxuryMaster: posts small blind $2
iheartcoco: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [8s 8c]
oceanbillly: folds
Laxalicious: folds
Greakfreak: calls $4
brizzybreech: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $16 to $20
iheartcoco: folds
Greakfreak: calls $16
*** FLOP *** [Js Ah 3c]
LuxuryMaster: bets $32
Greakfreak: calls $32
*** TURN *** [Js Ah 3c] [8h]
LuxuryMaster: bets $76
Greakfreak: raises $356.35 to $432.35 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $230 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($126.35) returned to Greakfreak
*** RIVER *** [Js Ah 3c 8h] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuxuryMaster: shows [8s 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
Greakfreak: shows [2h Jh] (a flush, Ace high)
Greakfreak collected $717 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $720 | Rake $3
Board [Js Ah 3c 8h Th]
Seat 1: brizzybreech (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: LuxuryMaster (small blind) showed [8s 8c] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 3: iheartcoco (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: oceanbillly folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Laxalicious folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Greakfreak showed [2h Jh] and won ($717) with a flush, Ace high


PokerStars Game #20185370330: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/05 22:58:44 ET
Table 'Hubei' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Bouge_Todd ($430.10 in chips)
Seat 2: great1974 ($246 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($350.55 in chips)
Seat 4: miraculix06 ($473.60 in chips)
Seat 5: DaHellRaiser ($569.50 in chips)
Seat 6: sancaetano ($252.80 in chips)
miraculix06: posts small blind $2
DaHellRaiser: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ad Ks]
sancaetano: folds
Bouge_Todd: folds
great1974: raises $16 to $20
LuxuryMaster: raises $44 to $64
miraculix06: folds
DaHellRaiser: folds
great1974: calls $44
*** FLOP *** [9s 3c 2s]
great1974: bets $182 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $182
*** TURN *** [9s 3c 2s] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [9s 3c 2s 5s] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
great1974: shows [5c Ac] (two pair, Fives and Threes)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
great1974 collected $495 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $498 | Rake $3
Board [9s 3c 2s 5s 3d]
Seat 1: Bouge_Todd folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: great1974 showed [5s Ac] and won ($495) with two pair, Fives and Threes
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster (button) mucked [Ad Ks]
Seat 4: miraculix06 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: DaHellRaiser (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: sancaetano folded before Flop (didn't bet)

PokerStars Game #20185337793: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/12 4:02:11 ET
Table 'Fornax' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: dave798111 ($1139 in chips)
Seat 3: Itz_ ($644.35 in chips)
Seat 4: LuxuryMaster ($370 in chips)
Seat 5: topgun1026 ($406 in chips)
Seat 6: babyhoss555 ($371.60 in chips)
Itz_: posts small blind $2
LuxuryMaster: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Qd Qh]
topgun1026: calls $4
yymee has returned
babyhoss555: raises $12 to $16
dave798111: calls $16
Itz_: calls $14
LuxuryMaster: raises $52 to $68
topgun1026: folds
babyhoss555: folds
dave798111: folds
Itz_: calls $52
*** FLOP *** [Ks 5h 7c]
Itz_: checks
LuxuryMaster: checks
*** TURN *** [Ks 5h 7c] [Th]
Itz_: bets $101
LuxuryMaster: calls $101
*** RIVER *** [Ks 5h 7c Th] [8s]
Itz_: bets $272
LuxuryMaster: calls $201 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($71) returned to Itz_
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Itz_: shows [8d 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
Itz_ collected $774 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $776 | Rake $2
Board [Ks 5h 7c Th 8s]
Seat 2: dave798111 (button) folded before Flop
Seat 3: Itz_ (small blind) showed [8d 8c] and won ($774) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: LuxuryMaster (big blind) mucked [Qd Qh]
Seat 5: topgun1026 folded before Flop
Seat 6: babyhoss555 folded before Flop

PokerStars Game #20187440625: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/12 4:07:21 ET
Table 'Caubeta' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DarDaugiau ($384 in chips)
Seat 2: daaaaaaan ($90.85 in chips)
Seat 3: G-De-Gus ($330 in chips)
Seat 4: donkydynamit ($540.65 in chips)
Seat 5: Ck1ko ($461.10 in chips)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster ($775.30 in chips)
DarDaugiau: posts small blind $2
daaaaaaan: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Tc Td]
G-De-Gus: folds
donkydynamit: folds
Ck1ko: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $8 to $12
DarDaugiau: raises $32 to $44
daaaaaaan: folds
LuxuryMaster: calls $32
*** FLOP *** [9d 8h 7d]
DarDaugiau: checks
LuxuryMaster: bets $68
DarDaugiau: raises $272 to $340 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $272
*** TURN *** [9d 8h 7d] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [9d 8h 7d 5d] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DarDaugiau: shows [Th Ah] (a pair of Aces)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
DarDaugiau collected $769 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $772 | Rake $3
Board [9d 8h 7d 5d As]
Seat 1: DarDaugiau (small blind) showed [Th Ah] and won ($769) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: daaaaaaan (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: G-De-Gus folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: donkydynamit folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Ck1ko folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: LuxuryMaster (button) mucked [Tc Td]

PokerStars Game #20186865314: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/12 4:12:38 ET
Table 'Havnia' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: donkydynamit ($267.15 in chips)
Seat 2: dmbush ($400 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($386.75 in chips)
Seat 4: LovEva ($595.80 in chips)
Seat 5: Sunking25 ($285.30 in chips)
Seat 6: Noahnick72 ($188.10 in chips)
Sunking25: posts small blind $2
Noahnick72: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Kc Ks]
donkydynamit: folds
dmbush: raises $8 to $12
LuxuryMaster: raises $32 to $44
LovEva: folds
Sunking25: folds
Noahnick72: folds
dmbush: calls $32
*** FLOP *** [9h Jd 4c]
dmbush: checks
LuxuryMaster: bets $64
dmbush: calls $64
*** TURN *** [9h Jd 4c] [6h]
dmbush: checks
LuxuryMaster: bets $136
dmbush: raises $156 to $292 and is all-in
LuxuryMaster: calls $142.75 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($13.25) returned to dmbush
*** RIVER *** [9h Jd 4c 6h] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dmbush: shows [4h 4d] (three of a kind, Fours)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
dmbush collected $776.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $779.50 | Rake $3
Board [9h Jd 4c 6h 5s]
Seat 1: donkydynamit folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dmbush showed [4h 4d] and won ($776.50) with three of a kind, Fours
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster mucked [Kc Ks]
Seat 4: LovEva (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Sunking25 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Noahnick72 (big blind) folded before Flop

PokerStars Game #20185487411: Hold'em No Limit ($2/$4) - 2008/08/26 4:17:41 ET
Table 'Malautra' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: gaIad ($544 in chips)
Seat 2: lavidaloca11 ($684.40 in chips)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster ($783.40 in chips)
Seat 4: Bouge_Todd ($400 in chips)
Seat 5: Duckslayer2k ($400 in chips)
Seat 6: Mentosan ($619.40 in chips)
Mentosan: posts small blind $2
gaIad: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to LuxuryMaster [Ks Kc]
lavidaloca11: folds
LuxuryMaster: raises $8 to $12
Bouge_Todd: calls $12
Duckslayer2k: folds
Mentosan: folds
gaIad: folds
*** FLOP *** [5c 2d 4h]
LuxuryMaster: bets $20
Bouge_Todd: calls $20
*** TURN *** [5c 2d 4h] [4s]
LuxuryMaster: checks
Bouge_Todd: bets $48
LuxuryMaster: calls $48
*** RIVER *** [5c 2d 4h 4s] [3d]
LuxuryMaster: checks
Bouge_Todd: bets $120
LuxuryMaster: calls $120
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bouge_Todd: shows [9h Ah] (a straight, Ace to Five)
LuxuryMaster: mucks hand
Bouge_Todd collected $403 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $406 | Rake $3
Board [5c 2d 4h 4s 3d]
Seat 1: gaIad (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: lavidaloca11 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: LuxuryMaster mucked [Ks Kc]
Seat 4: Bouge_Todd showed [9h Ah] and won ($403) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 5: Duckslayer2k (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Mentosan (small blind) folded before Flop

Imagine this type of situation happens almost simultaneously on 2-3 on my games during the last week of august and I was just getting frustrated on this and the swings are just overwhelming for me to handle. It's like losing my biweekly pay check within 10 minutes of the game and I am just getting way too stressed over this type of situation. I am fully aware it doesn't always happen but I just feel like I need some time off for now. Especially the first hand, it is actually bad beat jack pot if this hand was played on Full Tilt to rakehouse's bad beat insurance!

I have decided to cash out a lot of money from Pokerstars and decide to move down to $1/2 where I can feel confortable and beat the easy games after -$2k swing today. I always thought that bankroll management is the most important thing. However, I perceived that your emotion and managing your comfort zone is as important as bankroll management. I mean, I had this type of situations occuring during last 3 months of play but I always won it back at the end and thats why graph is just spiking if you see on my last post but just losing losing losing doesn't really cut it. I have patience and disciplines on my game but it became just for beyond the control. I actually take this circumstance positively due to this perception of swing on $2/4 and this is probably a very thin and tough border line that I have to across and cope if I were to manage myself to become part time poker professional which is what I am pursuing as my secondary job.