.... However (referring to the last post), the nice break from poker and doing some fun stuff with my son did a whole lot of nothing for my poker game.  Yet another horrendous session today.  I've now lost over 1/3 of my year's winnings in just the last week.

Here's the pattern:  I start playing well, get sucked out on once, twice, three times.  Keep it together, get sucked on again by a total donkey play (today it was a guy at 10-20 shipping it all in over my raise on the turn with AJ on a board of 2-3-3-A; I had 22, river 3).  Start losing my cool, start tilting a little, and then lose more with a combination of bad beats and overaggression.  Complain on my blog.  Try to enjoy the evening.  Feel pretty good the next morning.  Rinse, repeat.

I had a great long weekend with Sachil.  It was pretty packed with activities each day, but the highlight was definitely Saturday.  We went canoeing a little over ten miles down the Ipswich River.  Probably because of the hurricane warnings earlier in the week, there were very few other people on the river.  It was so serene and peaceful.  It was about a five hour canoeing trip, during which we saw a bunch of turtles, a beaver, and (I think) an eel.  It was an awesome bonding time with Sachil.  Part of the time, we just rowed quietly and enjoyed the blackwater river and the overall beauty of the area.  The rest of the time, we were pretending to be pirates or speed boat racers or whatever caught his imagination at the time.  It was a great workout too - since I obviously had to maneuver the entire canoe.

After the trip, we met up with some friends of mine for soccer on the beach and dinner.  It was actually Chris - the former protege in my videos from a year or so ago - and his wife.  He has moved back to Massachussets recently, and it was good to spend some time with him.

Anyway, it was an awesome weekend.  I feel a little rejuvenated and ready to take on the tables again.

I'm struggling a bit to keep it together.  I've been really running terribly recently, losing every which way.  Today, I had an 18bi swing (went from +12bi to -6) in about 45 minutes - during which I am pretty certain that I played close to my best for the entire time.  It's the third pretty big losing day out of four now.

Of course, having been a poker player for so long, I am used to the downswings and the variance.  But I am really having a hard time when you consider that it is compounded by the stress of a massive massive court date coming up in a couple of weeks.  I obviously can't get into the details, but it is the single biggest day of this entire divorce.  It's been almost two years now since we filed for divorce, and Priti has been intentionally delaying the process with a bunch of dirty tactics. 

The silver lining is that there is a reasonable chance (probably less than 50-50 but still significant) that the divorce will be completed next month.  But of course, that means the resolution and ruling of a number of critical issues that will more or less shape the rest of my life.  Needless to say, this is causing me an inordinate amount of stress and frustration. 

Back to my poker.  After a prolonged period at the end of last year and beginning of this year in which I was not playing well, I finally got a grip on my game and was playing well for a while.  More importantly, I had managed a pretty strong grip on my mental game (which has been a struggle for me at times in the past).  But now, I have hit a six-sigma patch of nasty variance for the first time since starting to play better. 

Normally, I'd just be able to shake it off - knowing that these extreme patches of variance are part and parcel of being a poker player.  However, because of the personal stress that I am under, my latent state of consciousness is one in which I am frustrated, tense, and stressed out.  And in THAT state of existence, I am finding it very hard to shrug off a period of running badly - possibly because poker is my only escape right now.  It's the only time right now (because of the focus needed to play 15 tables) in which I don't actively think about the divorce stuff.  So when that goes south too, it's really hard to handle.

Anyway, I'm doing better than I was at the beginning of the year I guess.  Whatever the rulings, I at least really hope that it ends this month.  Otherwise, it may well drag into next year.

Just logged off after my worst session of the year on so many fronts.  It was the worst day of the year in terms of (a) the quality of my play; (b) how badly I ran (there were some absolutely ridiculous beats in huge pots as well as some nasty coolers); (c) in terms of maintaining my composure at the table; and (d) the total amount lost.  It also turned August into a negative month.

I'm not sure if this is an explanation or an excuse, but I have a massive court date coming up on the 15th.  A lot of my recent stress and tension is a function of what the rulings will be on that day.  ... I might decide to take a little break from poker until then:  not sure yet.  On one side of the coin, my play has slipped, I am playing angry, and I am getting more and more frustrated with bad beats.  On the other hand, playing 15-tables is the only time that I can get my mind off of the bastion of stress that is my life right now.  It might actually be worth a little EV just to be able to block everything else out.  I'll decide soon.

I know I have not blogged in a bit.  I have a number of things that I wanted to write about, spanning a wide variety of topics.  But unfortunately, divorce logistics are really bogging me down logistically and emotionally.  Things are really rough right now:  that being said, the silver lining is that there is a decent chance that this will be over very soon.  We have a court date on September 15th, and based on whether or not we resolve a few issues, that could turn out to be the day of the official divorce.  I don't want to get my hopes up, because I have thought throughout the process that it is "almost over" - but I think that might really be the case this time.  Anyway, I'll have more energy and motivation to blog about more interesting stuff soon enough.

I have been playing the memory game, in which you find matched set of pictures, with Sachil for about a year now.  For the last six months or so, we've been playing the extended version - in which there are 72 matched pairs.  It's the one activity in which I always try my hardest against him.  In the beginning, he used to cry at the end of every game when he saw that I had more pairs than him (he obviously has my competitiveness).  Eventually, it was no longer so catastrophic to lose, but he was always determined to beat me and always disappointed when he didn't.

Yesterday, for the first time, he beat me:  38 matches to 34!  Keeping in mind that I have an extremely good memory - one of my best traits/skills in fact - it was a very proud moment for me as a father!

Unscramble the following  - "IRIPT" ... to define the following:

A type of snake, extremely slimy in texture and highly poisonous.  Often pillages the nests of other nobler species, robbing them not only of enough food to satisfy itself, but much more out of what scientists believe to be unusually heightened levels of greed and malice.  Because of its serendipity and pilfering skills, the "IRIPT" usually lives a life of luxury despite not hunting for itself.  Because of above average physical characteristics and an intrinsic ability to hide aforementioned characteristics of greed and malice, the "IRIPT" is able to mate successfully outside of its species, often mating with exceptional hunter-gatherers.  However, the "IRIPT" is believed to be unilaterally unhappy regardless of circumstance.  Scientists hope that for the benefit of other species as well as to the environment as a whole, the "IRIPT" is on its way towards extinction.

So recently, my mother mailed me the first piggy bank I had when I was a little kid.  So now Sachil has his first ever piggy bank.  We have a system:  he gets a penny for every big accomplishment or job around the house.  A really important, difficult, or "first-time" job earns a nickel.  A Herculean accomplishment gets him a dime. 

"Suddenly," he is cleaning his toys without a fuss, dressing himself in the morning, and even helping put away the dishes after dinner.  Talk about cheap labor!  Why did I not think of this before?

In poker news, I have been playing very well lately.  I'm really locked in and feeling like I am playing some of the best poker of my life.  Hopefully I can keep it going.

And finally, less than two weeks to the start of the EPL season.  Email me if you want to play in our $300 fantasy league.  (fantasy.premierleague.com).

So I was hacked with a pretty nasty virus yesterday.  Everyone on my email lists were sent some dumb viagra emails.  I thought that only my email account had been cracked, but after Wes went through my computer in detail, I had a number of infected files.  So I had to go through the trouble of changing all of my passwords for anything and everything from a remote computer.  Such a pain.

I was just thinking:  what if the same people that take the time and effort to hack into other people's computers and send spam from their email addresses, Facebook accounts, and whatever else - what if those same people used an equivalent amount of brainpower to do something useful?  I think they could accomplish a lot.

Also, a reminder to email me at nimankenkre at yahoo.com if you want to play in a $300 fantasy English Premier League pool.

So after having had friends bug me about this for a long time, I finally joined Facebook a few weeks ago.  It's pretty cool to get back in touch with friends from a long time ago (some as many as 25+ years ago) and get a little glimpse into their lives after all these years.  Needless to say, people that did not know about me being a poker player are pretty surprised - most thinking that it's really cool.  However, I did get a few comments that were either really annoying or really funny (depending on my mood).  Here are a few select comments, along with what I wanted to say back (but didn't).

"Wow Niman, that is so cool that you are a professional poker player.  I just googled you and I can't believe how much money you've made.  I wish I knew that poker pays so well:  I would have gone into it myself."

Um, yeah:  it's "poker" that pays so well.  As long as you are thinking along those lines, why not just join the NY Yankees?  I heard that "baseball" pays really well too.

(after reading a little Facebook post about my having a terrible two days immediately following a great day):

"That is why they call it gambling."

Who is they?  And actually, no one in the industry calls it gambling:  it's one of my pet peeves actually to be thought of as a gambler.

(and another comment in the same thread):

"You should follow my philosophy when I gamble and win.  I immediately stop and leave then.  Otherwise the law of averages catches up to you."

Damn that law of averages.  I guess I should have just stopped playing after my first ever winning session of online poker?  I suppose I am in for one hell of a downswing.  

First and foremost, a heartfelt congratulations to Jason for his incredible performance in making the November nine.  I think that we all know what an incredible accomplishment that is, but the majority of people out there may not know what a fantastic representative for BFP and for poker in general that Jason is.  I am speaking not only for his obviously extreme high quality of play, but more importantly, the way he always conducts himself.  We've seen little glimpses (such as his noble gesture in the heads up match against Erik Seidel) and I know of a few more (unrelated to poker) because of some personal interractions with him.  I can tell you that few people are more fully deserving of such a wonderful return - in terms of professional merit and in terms of personal conduct - as Jason.  Congratulations buddy:  you've earned this on so many levels!

As for me, I have a little proud papa story that I just can't resist putting out there.  Skip the rest of this entry if that kind of stuff makes you vomit.  Yesterday, I took Sachil to the beach in Gloucester.  It was 95 degrees and a beautiful cloudless day.  It was a great time:  he is completely fearless of the ocean to the point that I have to keep an eye on him all the time (total 180 from how he used to be where he was scared to even be in knee-deep water).  

Anyway, sometime in the afternoon, we started playing soccer on the beach.  Now a quick little preface to this story:  I have been playing soccer with Sachil more or less since he could walk.  We play every day, in the park, while barbequeing, even indoors.  I knew he was pretty good, but I had no frame of reference to realize HOW good he was until yesterday.  

While we were playing, a couple of eight-year old twins asked if they could play with us for a while.  We did play with them for a few minutes - and to my surprise - Sachil was MUCH better than them (and he just turned four in March).  Anyway, a bit later, a guy asked me if we wanted to play a little pickup game.  He said he was really impressed with Sachil.  I was hesistant at first, because the pickup game involved two adults (not including myself) but also four kids that were between the ages of 11-12.  He assured me that they would take it easy on Sachil, so I agreed.  Well, as it turns out, the guy was a former professional player in Costa Rica, and is now a coach of a travelling all-star U-12 team in the Boston area.  Three of the four kids were on that select team.  ... Well, we played for about an hour.  As promised, they did take it easy on Sachil (obviously, he would not be able to compete with these guys) so that he had a good time.  But nonetheless, I was even blown away myself by how good Sachil was.  Not only his passing and dribbling, but even the way he reads the game at this age.

During the game, at different points, three of the four kids approached me to tell me how amazed they were at how good Sachil was.  At the end of the game, the Costa Rican guy told me that he has been coaching all-star youth teams (of all different ages) for almost ten years and that he has NEVER seen a child that was as good for his age as Sachil (not even close according to him).  And finally, when we dispersed and went back up to where we had set up our stuff, two random people (who did not know each other - or any of the people that were playing the game) stopped me just to tell me that they were watching our pickup game and were "bowled over" at how good Sachil is!

So needless to say, I was beaming with pride.  I had never seen Sachil play with or against other kids, so I had not realized how much he had soaked up - or just how athletic he is - until yesterday.  Anyway, my apologies for the indulgence - I don't want to be one of those parents who brags insufferably about their children - but I could not resist sharing that.

Finally, in poker news, I had a frustrating last three days of play (W-F).  Well, the frustration was Thursday and Friday:  on Wednesday, I had the best single day of poker I have had in a little over two years.  Somehow, I managed to completely erase the profits from that day on Thursday and Friday.  Very frustrating!  

This is too hilarious not to share.  Read the whole exchange:  the ones near the end are the best.

http://jezebel.com/5582562/clueless-secretary-makes-for-hilarious-office-email-thread

Also, anyone that wants to play fantasy EPL this year, send me an email!

I was wondering what to do with myself now that the World Cup is over.  But lo and behold, the bane of my existence:  the fantasy EPL game is back!  Who wants to play this year?

Entry fee is $300, with $100 returned to all but the bottom 25% (so people will have a little incentive even if they fall out of the running for the top places).  The details of the game can be found at fantasy.premierleague.com.

If you are interested in playing, send me the $300 on Stars and shoot me an email at nimankenkre@yahoo.com.

I just read the following article from the Sports Guy on espn.com.  It summarizes my thoughts on the LeBron situation perfectly:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100709

And a word on the World Cup final.  The Dutch are going to provide a much sterner test for Spain in the final than the Germans did.  Spain's biggest problem is a lack of steel in the midfield, and teams with a physical presence in that part of the pitch will give them problems.  You can't do much better in that regard than deJong and van Bommel.  I know that Spain are huge favorites.  But I think that the final will be a very tough match.  Unlike the semifinal, in which it was easy to predict that Spain would win comfortably, I think the final sets itself up to be a very tight encounter, and I can see it going either way.

I have always liked LeBron James a lot, and furthermore, I have no connection or affinity to the city of Cleveland.  So I say this without any sort of bias.  I am really surprised at how classless LeBron revealed himself to be.  In this day and age, we've come to expect narcissistic behaviour from most of our star athletes, but nonetheless I did not expect this from LeBron.

I had an argument with a friend, whose main stance is that "free agency happens" and that he does not owe the city of Cleveland anything.  I agree with the first part but not the second.  He did owe them a certain modicum of respect and decency.  No one can bemoan LeBron's decision to leave:  that is of course, well within his rights.  But for him to drag the process out the way he did, revealing his decision on a totally contrived one hour ESPN special (in which the "drama" built up while he did not tell for the first half hour) without having the basic decency to even let the management in Cleveland know before the show is absolutely classless.

The city supported him, loved him, and loyally defended him for all these years.  That doesn't mean that he had to stay in Cleveland of course - he had to make the best decision for himself.  But for him to humiliate them, having them hanging on his decision as he reveals it to a national audience is self-aggrandizing and deplorable.

I know that this is sort of an insult cloaked in an excuse, but the only slightly redeeming angle in this is that he might be too stupid to realize how insulting and classless his approach has been.  That is of course not as bad as if he had done it on purpose.