Carl Alphonse

C

Carl Alphonse

Cooling Off
I had another blog going under a different name, but had that name deleted so I will restart that blog. You can expect topics to range from finance, politics, entrepreneurship, football, life, family, college, future trips to Florida, NYC, and Las Vegas, poker, coaching, real estate and any other random story. I'm pretty sarcastic and some of what I talk about should be taken very lightly.

So today was my birthday.

A lot of people get hyped for birthdays and treat them like a holiday. I guess I am the Mr. Scrooge of birthdays. Can't stand 'em.

I started the day off running late to an exam due to being hung over from an extremely long "session" last night. "Session" meaning online poker, you will learn that I play every now and then and am actually a decent player. I openly talk about playing because I know what level of player I am (if you are curious, I am in the top 2% of all players- there are over 3 million players online across the world) and that I am not a degenerate which is usually tagged on those who have no control, are losing players, and ultimately waste their lives away. Anyways, I was running late to an exam because my alarm clock apparently went off on my Droid Incredible but did not wake me up because the phone died as soon as the alarm triggered. I wasn't sweating the exam because I knew all the material and planned on it only taking about 45 minutes of the allotted 1 hour and 45 minutes. Much to my disdain, the exam took much longer than that, only one student out of 60 finished before time was called. I only completed 58 points out of 100, meaning if I got everything right, I'm looking at a C unless she curves. Pretty disappointed.

On to dinner tonight.

Dinner was a little random. I went to a popular Japanese Hibachi restaurant called Kabuto. I used to go there all the time, but have not been in quite awhile. At Kabuto they sit you down with strangers. Odd thing was that there was a girl sitting to my direct left and it was her birthday too, and she turned 22 as well. I couldn't really believe it to be honest. The first impression I got from her and her friend were that they were both lesbians which was kind of unfortunate because she was really nice and had a good personality. I haven't really been in to the dating thing for a little over a year now since I broke up with someone I invested a lot of time with/for. It was a little awkward scheming with my grandma and father there so I avoided it most of the time. What was really awkward was when Qai Bing came out of the kitchen playing the drums and told us to kiss each other for birthday kiss...:wallbang:

Anyways, happy the day is over. Looking forward to Wednesday and possibly another blog post.

Adios.
 
Last edited:
 
Today will be short and sweet. I have done seldom physical activity since roughly November 2008. Back then I was in great shape, cut, and dieting hardcore. My BMI was sub 9% and working out in the gym roughly 12 hours a week. I unfortunately tore a ligament connecting on of my ribs to my sternum and haven't really done anything since. I've lost quite a bit of muscle mass and have put on some LBs, but I am not "out of shape". Today I decided to randomly put on football equipment and practice with some people. Bad idea. While I still had the mental ability to read OLmen, drop in to coverage, collision WR's, etc...my body simply couldn't handle it. I am in serious pain that even 4 IB Prufens and 3 brews couldn't cure. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

School is really chapping my behind. For those in college, never take more than 15 credit hours. I am taking 18 and am struggling terribly.

In other news, I booked my flight and hotel for a trip to Vegas in early December. Should be a good time and I will be posting daily blig updates on the trip.

Until next time...

Alright. Cya.
 
Local and National Politics, College Football, and few other things

Wow. That's how I will start this blog. I went into my Geography of Consumption Economics class today to be presented with too surprising stories. The first being one dealing with our own, shameful, Cincinnati Public School.

You can read the link here: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ts-vote-wont-happen-cincinnati-district-says/

I can say I was shocked and destroyed a student who tried to defend the board's actions. This hippie chick tried to say that what the CPS did was good to the African American community and that getting their students out to vote was not only helpful for themselves, but for every urban neighborhood in Cincinnati. Whoa, whoa, whoa there Janis Joplin! I just raised my hand and told her that I am in the "hoods" of Cincinnati three to four times a week and that their actions are clearly not for the kids but for their own agendas. If I was an underprivileged kid, I would do anything for ice cream. Shoot, castrate me for some ice cream (kidding). This is unbelievable. Do you think these kids are going to tell their homeboys to get off the block and go vote? Heck no! These kids have to survive daily, hourly, by the minute, down to their next second. We have kids running around Price Hill with no shoes on, no decent parents, and the CPS is worried about them voting? O rly?

Let's stop the hem-hawing and get down to what their action was really about. They are getting kick backs from the Democratic party to pimp their students to vote Democrat in November. The sad part is that you could get every eligible voter in Urban Cincinnati to vote Democrat and it would still be a fruitless effort. The Democrats, not only in Cincinnati but also nationally, have basically written their own epitaph for quite awhile. Which leads me on to the next topic of the Democrats not pimping their own blunders in their ads this year.

My professor posted a video from FoxNews where they described how 52 out of 112 GOP ads are attacking the stimulus' lack of job growth and lack of doing what the Democrats promised. Remember the whole, "Unemployment will max out at 9% with the stimulus" jargon the Democrats just spewed down American's throats day after day? Ha! 10+% unemployment since September of '09 if I'm not mistaken. Does it suprise anyone that only ONE out of every Democratic candidate's commercials have mentioned the stimulus bill? I think not.

Anyways, let me get to something which has honestly intrigued me since the preseason of college football: Oregon football. Not only have I been a Duck's fan for the past few years, but their offense just makes me enjoy watching them every week. Forget the troops they have, forget their amazing stadium, and let's focus on their play-calling techniques.

ept_sports_ncaaf_experts-993832145-1270910571.jpg


While I couldn't find an exact picture of one of their play-signalling boards, the once above is very similar. What they usually have is a celebrity's picture in the top left, a state or geographic location in the top right, a random picture in the bottom left, and then a scientific or spanish word in the bottom right. To top it off, the board is usually two-toned. Good luck breaking that one down! I have read multiple articles on their offense, would you believe they strive to get in 50 plays per 30 minutes of practicing on offense? No coaching goes on until the end of practice or during film session and they have graduate assistants dress up as referees to spot the ball. As a student of the game, I love this stuff. Clearly that philosophy takes conditioning and play recognition to the nth level. I reallly hope to see them in the BCS Championship and hopefully they can bring home the hardware.

I would like to share a song with you fans of Wiz Khalifa, such a good song form a partially underground rapper:




Anyways, I was going to blog about a dating situation I'm in, but I'm getting too tired and Jersey Shore is calling my name from the DVR. More on that this weekend maybe, should be a pretty good weekend. St. X game + my brother's game + Sunday Poker=
Borat-VeryNice.jpg


Bien venidos!
 
Last edited:
Tornado, Trips, Etc.

Wow. Today's storm might have been one of the biggest let-downs I have ever experienced. The meteorologists hyped this up to the nth degree and it simply did not pull through. I was hoping for black skies, flooded streets, and loose whores to be flying through the air. What did I get? A semi-decent downpour which came and went quicker than Pboy in a brothel. All of this being said, there was a very talented meteorologist which kept me tuned in throughout the storm even after it passed. Valerie. Friggin'. Abati.

17794618_200X150.jpg


:eek:

This woman would probably be the most attractive woman (besides the cast of The View) in all of television if she would just shut her trap. I'd rather listen to fingernails on a chalkboard. Lot's of talent, however. :clap:

I recently booked my trip to Vegas at the beginning of December. In a span of about a month, I will be going to Siesta Key, FL with some family, Vegas about two weeks later for a marathon my mother is running, and then to NYC for UC's Finance Club. These will be much needed vacations and I have my flight paid for to Vegas, and UC is paying for the whole NYC trip sans a $50 deposit. :clap: to UC for that one.

Election day is up and coming. Don't vote. Yes, your vote is not worth much. Don't even waste your time. Voting is not an expression of our democracy. Stay in home, be with your friends and family. Besides, we all know that the Republicans are going to destroy the democrats.

Adios.
 
Kindle, Bad Breath, etc.

Has their been a better invention than Amazon's kindle for the College Student? You can have the Macbook Air, the fancy gadgets, but I just started using this great technology. How else can you read a book on your:

A. Droid/iPhone
B. Computer
C. Kindle device

Not too sure, and the price of these e-books are crazy cheap. I have been reading Robert Reich's Supercapitalism on said Kindle technology and it has helped me to read quicker than I ever have simply because I have a bad case of (undiagnosed) ADD.The Kindle allows me to read and do many things like eat, use the bathroom, sit in a meeting, and drive on the highway all without lugging around a big book.

While I was reading some Supercapitalism today during a different Geography class, I smelled this absolutely rancid stench permeating through the room. After first making sure I hadn't broke wind or had anything rotting in my bag, I did the standard move of making sure my own breath didn't stink.

All clear there.

Then this girl sitting next to me, decently attractive but a little hippy-ish and a little lesbian-ish, leaned over to ask me something about a project. Wow. Her breath smelled like a huge bucket of -------s. To top it off, I think she had hair growing on her teeth. Maybe she hadn't brushed her teeth the past three weeks or perhaps she *ahem'd* her "partner" too much? Huge disappointment but I only had to sit their for 45 minutes.

Last week of the regular season of high school football. This is the time where I feel sorry for some teams not because of the season being over but because a lot of seniors only have one or two more days of football until it's all over. The funny thing is that when you stress this point to some seniors, they laugh it off up until that last week. All of a sudden, the light flicks on and they know the end is near. :clap: to all seniors who spent four years working hard for their school's football programs.

"Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself."
-Desiderius Erasmus

Until next time...
 
It's very late and I'm tired. But I think a blog is due. I am currently listening to Frank Sinatra's pandora station. I found it this weekend and it is really good if you like that genre of music. I get tired of listening to rap, country, classical rock, alternative music (techno/electronica), etc and it's nice to relax to some Sinatra every now and then.

For starters, I played in a $4.40 tournament tonight on Pokerstars and just got 5th place for roughly $425, decent return. To note, that puts me roughly at ~$6500 in prize money since this time last year, with a $1100 profit, ~15.5% ROI. Not too shabby. Still ranked in the top 2%. My live results aren't as spectacular and hold roughly a 7% ROI. I really wanted 1st place which took roughly $1500. I played great and suffered some pretty bad beats which even people I know watching me commented and said were bad. Such situations where only one card in the deck would have saved the other player...and boom goes the dynamite they hit it. I am starving for a four-digit score and hopefully it comes soon. I plan on taking some time off in the near future and getting ready for the Hollywood Fall Classic, a live event coming up in about 2 weeks. My last live event, I did pretty crappy as it was one of my first big live events only lasting for the first two hours before I got eliminated with pocket kings against pocket Aces which is something I'm willing to risk as it only happens like 1 time out of 22 times you get KK. I'll be blogging about that most likely as it comes near.

We had a great conversation about gambling and the new casino being built downtown in my Economic Geography: Geography of Consumption class. What do you think? Good idea or bad idea? I personally think it's a good idea for the short term, but not the long term. Short term, it will create a lot of jobs and stimulate the much needed growth of the riverfront. I would like to get a job dealing there as I have heard dealers can make approximately $1400/wk working 20-25 hours a week. Not too bad. This guy in my class stated that a Harvard study showed that casinos lowered literacy rates in the city which they were built and all this bad stuff. My response was that the majority in the city can't read already, what's it matter. At a 55% marginal tax rate, the casino will hopefully bring the city out of a big deficit. Long-term, however, I don't think the casino will be that great. Eventually every state is going to legalize gambling and the area from which the casino will attract customers will shrink drastically as Kentucky will eventually get a casino.

The casino will definitely affect many families in the area. Many people will go bankrupt. I've seen it time after time, and it's sad. One of the worst feelings in my life (yes, I have a heart) was when I made a grown man cry at the table after I stroked his mortgage payment away from him and his wife sitting right next to him broke down too. I've seen countless people gamble away their lives. No control. I have heard people have a genetic disposition to compulsive gambling (no control), it's probably true. How does this relate to the casino being built in Cincinnati? At least that money is going to our city instead of out west. :shrug:

Tomorrow is my last game of the year. I'm going to miss it, but the offseason will be a nice relaxtion.

I think this reflects pretty good on the topics in this blog

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
-Bill Gates
 
I am writing this while on a roadtrip so bear with any typos.

Today I had to fire someone. It was something that I have never had to do but didn't really mind it. I've learned that hard work really pays off. The cream rises to the top and the turds sink to the bottom. It's important to always try your best even if you don't succeed. Drugs and many other nonsensical things are no excuse to the your best.

That's all. About a week until the big dance.
 
I must say that right now I am probably at the lowest point since I have ever began playing seriously back in mid-2009. I've suffered the sickest beats known to man, some even worse percentage-wise than what happened tonight. I apologize for the terms which you may not understand. If you need help understanding something, just google the term.

Usually after I get a decent score online I will try to play the next day's live tournament. I am not nearly good live as I am online simply because of total number of hands online (approximated 500-600 per hour) as opposed to live, which is roughly 30 if you are lucky. Obviously the variance of each hand in live poker is exponentially higher than online.

So I entered into the nightly tournament tonight for $80. Played extremely well. 46 total players, top 5 get paid, 1st takes 1200. Across the tournament, I got dealt pocket Aces 4 times, Kings twice, Queens once, and ultimately the fateful hand of JJ.

We get down to the final table of 10 and I am in about 4th place. There was a woman at the table who was constantly stacking off just to double or triple up a few hands later. Somehow, I don't know how, she looks at me and asks why I have been gunning for her the whole tournament. I take out my headphones and asked WTF? She continues to say all this mess and I just shrugged my shoulders because I honestly had not said one word to her, nor had I gotten tangled up in a pot with her anytime besides a couple time before the flop.

We get down to 7, I'm hurting bad. I have about 27000 in chips with the blinds being 3000/1500. I look down at pocket twos and I shove all in. She calls with AK and I eliminate her from the tournament. Talk about karma, she looked like a ghost. So I have about ~60000 6 handed the guy with a huge stack of just under 100000 is directly to my right. He's a very aggressive player which is understandable because of his stack. I lost a pretty big pot to him and about 30 minutes later I have 35000. Blinds are now 2000/4000. I am in the small blind and he just open shoves all in. I knew he was doing this to put pressure on the big blind as the guy was a short stack. I was currently in 2nd place. I look down at pocket jacks. I think about it for about 4 or 5 minutes and I make the call. He has pocket nines.

Flop: Q86
Turn:3
River: 9

Boom, eliminated wit the two outer. The 30 people or so standing around the table go nuts and I walk away in 6th place with no cash. Fortunately I cross-booked another player for 20% (meaning if you cash you give the agreeing player 20% of your net earnings after buyin and tip for dealers is taken out) that ended up finishing in 4th and I got half my buy-in back.

I could go into all the jargon which a lot of you wont understand (about 3betting, light calling, etc) but I am going to make that call everytime for a low dollar buyin. If this were the WSOP main event and we were on the bubble and I was in the top 33% (as I was in this case), I am never going to shove unless I have Aces (maybe kings). Bobcatbomber kind of put it into perspective, but I ultimately wanted to win tonight to follow up last night. Merely min-cashing didn't mean much to me. If I fold there, I am going to regret it just because it was an $80 tournament and I know I had the best hand. For a $10000 buyin entry, however, I would have played the hand differently. Obviously cashing for $20000+ dollars after playing for 3 or 4 days is much different than winning $120 playing for a few hours. I wanted the first prize of 1200 and if I win there or fold, I'm fairly certain I dominate the other 4 guys at the table and maybe finish in 1st or 2nd. The skillset of the other players (besides the guy who eliminated me) was not even close. It takes a lot of time to learn how to think on different levels:

http://www.thepokerbank.com/strategy/psychology/multiple-level-thinking/

I am currently at level 4. There are multiples levels that go up to level 7 I believe. The other 4 at the table were pretty much stuck at 1.5 to 2. They weren't bad players, but they were not great by any means.

Anywho. The big one is coming up on Friday. I don't plan on playing at all until then. I am selling off my action if anyone is interested, send a PM.

The blog about the win last night was going to be put on here, but basically I made the final table with 3 big blinds left (the equivalent of trying to run a marathon with one leg). I chipped up, got down to 3 players. Eliminated some idiot. Offered a chop to a player who was stuck about $5000 online. First took 960, second was 700 something, and even chop was like 830 or somethine. I told him that even though we had similar stack sizes, I didn't want anything less than 900 just because he was really bad and had no chance. He tells me "---- you, lets play". I oblige and ultimately destroy him within 15 hands until I won it.
 
Last edited:
I haven't blogged in awhile, so I shall right now before I start studying for the following:

-Derivatives exam on Friday
-Corporate Finance exam on Friday
-Starting a group project we are finishing on Saturday for Corporate Finance
-A 4 page book review (in college- is this real?) on the book Inventing Money: Long Term Capital Management (this book is basically hundreds of pages about a group of yuppis who made billions of dollars trading derivatives and then lost all of it in the span of roughly two months I believe) due Tuesday
-A 10 page paper correlating Robert Reich's Supercapitalism and the "shadow economies" discussed in the recently documentary/book Freakonomics due next week as well
-And boom, an exam for Investments class

I must add that I haven't gone to Investments or Corporate Finance class for the past 2.5 weeks. No attendance= why go? My own stupidity.

In regards to some of you inquiring about my playing the past few days, not so good. In fact, I am completely finished playing until probably February. I took a significant hit to my bankroll for the Hollywood fall classic and have realized that I am simply just not playing very well. No sense in spewing away my entire bankroll. Last time I took a decent downswing in my play, I took two months off and crushed it when I returned. I am tired of getting my tournament chip or cash-game chips in with the best just to be sucked out on the turn or the river. Terrible, terrible luck IMO. When you lose gigantic pots as the favorite over and over again in a short sampling of playing, it hurts alot. Obviously I will be diverting away from this topic and on to other things over the next few months.

I am going on a huge trip to NYC in about a month. UC is sponsoring a group of 20 of the Finance Club members to go and visit with a host of big financial companies over the "Holiday Break" (pc is a must now-a-days). Unfortunately my trips to Florida and Vegas were canceled. Florida was canceled due to a family member getting a new job, you can't start a new job and then say, "Welp see ya", literally 3 days on the job. Vegas was canceled due to the above reasoning- I simply don't feel comfortable playing out there- even though my mother is running in the LV marathon. I wish her teammates and her the best!

Nice to see BCF have a blog and I hope that you recover fully from that which ails you :thumb:.

I am looking forward to Black Friday. This will be my first time ever jumping on the craze. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of idiots out in full force that morning and I might snag some first person video of said idiots sprinting to their desired laptop/ipad/other electronic good.

I was going to include a story about a chick in a group project today who got wasted on red wine before we started, but I need to go study.

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl"

Have a nice day :thumb:!
 
It's been awhile since my last blog. Please forgive me for this woo is me, self-pity post.

I have been feeling absolutely miserable for almost the past week. I must add that I rarely ever get sick, but I when I do, I go down hard. The first ailment was a pretty bad toe infection which I got about three weeks ago from stbbing my toe on a baseboard. I barely even hit the damn thing, but it was enough to get something in there and fester. That has just now healed. Rewind to about a week ago and I got a sore throat from ---- and probably had some type of flu. I nipped that in the bud right away, however. I took over 1500 MG of Vitamin C every day, drank lots of fluids, and just stayed in bed.

Since, however, my sinuses have been off the chain. Sinusitis is something which I might get once or twice every two years right around the beginning of Winter. My house is very dry as the humidor in the HVAC system is old and does not work very well. My sinuses dry out at night time, crack, and then the infection starts.

Stepping away from the sicknesses, I go to NYC in just 6 days. It is fast approaching. I am really looking forward to sacrificing the worse weather in NYC just to be in NYC. I submitted my resume which will be shipped out to hundreds of companies (and will get special treatment at the companies we will be visiting) and hopefully I will land a job. For what it's worth, my cousin did the same thing I am doing now, graduated last year, and is starting a great job with a huge real estate firm in Chicago in less than one month (she is not a real estate major and has 0 experience with any real estate).

Anyways, enjoy the rest of the week. I might have one more blog before the trip.
 
Ignorance is Bliss

This will be my last blog before my trip on Sunday. Today I would like to cover something which has really irked me today: ignorant people. This might sound kind of conceded so I will add in a disclaimer before I begin. Every now and then I am ignorant, I do not claim to be perfect. That being said, let me explain why I feel ignorant people are just a waste of the human genome. Clearly the better part of these people ran down their mother's leg.

Today I started off my day getting ready for an exam. I am not a coffee snub, but I do enjoy something other than just cream and sugar. I am not an Apple iPad toting, hippy queer who hangs out at Starbucks, but I do enjoy a mocha every now and then. Since I was running a little behind today, I decided to go to McDonalds and get a mocha. I had had one in the past and it was okay. I go to McDonalds and it was just the guy in front of me, myself, and then a car behind me. It took me 10 minutes to get a damn drink that a machine makes. The idiot working the counter wold have better served society working as the sticker-guy at Walmart. He gave the food from the car behind me to the car in front of me, that took 3 minutes to correct. So I got the mocha. I drive away. Sip. C0cksucker! He gave me straight black coffee with whipped cream on top! Had I not been running late, I would have gone back and complained not because of the time, but because the guy messed up a drink that a machine makes. All he has to do is put the cup under the spigot and put whipped cream on top. You know this guy probably does that simple task literally 100s of times each morning. :shrug:

Then I go to take my exam. Corporate Finance. I am ignorant for not going to the classes, but my ignorant professor really stuck it to us. I have no clue why this lady insists on giving exams that are so long. Half the class did not finish in the time alloted. Her previous curves were 25 and 15 points, respectfully. Not because the material is difficult, but because her exams take so damn long. We even get a note sheet! Needless to say, the cumulative final was no different. Straight rape. She was obviously PMS'ing when she made the exam. If each question takes approximately 8-12 minutes, why would you give 18 questions in a 2 hour time span, with some questions covering the same material?

On to the next. Someone I used to date is is having a kid in the next week or so. Thankfully, not mine. I include her in here because of the baby-daddy. She has a degree from a community college which she is not using, he smokes weed. She has two jobs (I think), he just got laid off from a warehouse job. Talk about a rough situation. Baby coming, Christmas, and you lose your ----ing job. I can almost bet that it was due to drugs. Come on man. Ignorant!

As you can see, we have a legitimately ignorant person (McD's), and academic ignorant person with a PHD, and just a straight trash ignoramous. The funny thing is that all three are completely oblivious to their own ignorance. I question how many times the McD's worker has screwed up the coffees and still has his job, how many times students have commented on how long her exams are and she still does it (I'm giving her all zero's on the anonymous reviews and writing in the comments that she should study the art of Metal Danning herself instead of teaching), and how many times dude has lost his job- but the girl got knocked up by him.

We cannot continue to let these ignorant people get away with this mess.

WAKE UP! LCD always says that ignorance breeds more ignorance. I couldn't agree more.

Have a good Friday and Saturday! I'm off to get some clothes drycleaned, and get some black market air conditioners/heating units.

EDIT: SHE GAVE US A 30 POINT CURVE ON THE FINAL. 90%...BINK!
 
Last edited:
NYC Trip: 1

We arrived tonight at around 9 PM. The drive went really well despite running into some very bad weather just west of Wheeling. Yikes. 45 MPH for a solid hour and a half was pretty pathetic. It took us roughly 10-11 hours to get here (we stopped twice).

This evening I got to spend some time with my cousin and we went out to dinner with a third person who graduated from my high school a year before I did. I never met the guy before but he has the same aspirations in Finance as I and gave me some good pointers when it came to meeting with the firms this week.

Unfortunately our meeting with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was canceled. Sucks. I was actually looking forward to visiting the world largest (and some say most profitable bank) in the world.

I'm pretty tired from the drive (did about 75% of the driving on 3 hours of sleep) and plan on getting up around noon and walking around for awhile until I either meet up with the group for lunch or my cousin. We have an afternoon meeting with some fashion company tomorrow. Don't ask me why. I'm concerned with swaps, futures, private equity, risk management, merger and acquisitions and financial products. I am not concerned with boutiques. You can have it. I'm sure this whole meeting with the CEO will be focused around how to expand a business in a struggling economic climate. Again not too excited about this meeting, but hey it's free and possibly could make a decent connection. The company is http://robertgraham.com.

I am going out to get wasted tomorrow night. Never have been a huge drinker so it should be an epic night. Tuesday's morning meeting with Altrio might be short one UC student.

I'm hearing we are having a decent amount of snow back home. Pretty happy I got away from that mess. Looks like lots of delays right now according to Cincinnati.com. I'm fairly certain if the the snow continues not only will you parents be late for work, but many of you will not be going in to the job at all.

How bad are the Bengals? Why am I including them in my blog? I almost wished that I could have watched this afternoon just so I could see that blank stare that Marvin Lewis has on his face whenever he is just getting rocked. I knew as soon as I checked my Scorecenter app on my phone when the score was tied up at half that the game was going to get pretty ugly in the 2nd half. Was I wrong? No. Palmer throws two INTs returned for a TD, I would have :laughed: both times trying to watch the OLmen make openfield tackles- one of my favorite blunders of the game just short of watching OLmen try to make tackles on punt and kickoff teams (some teams still staff special teams with these goons). I am praying for those who still think this organization will do well next year, five years, and ten years down the road. They will always be the anchor. I am a bandwagon fan, so obviously that means my opinion doesn't matter.

Anywho, enjoy the snow and happy Monday.
 
NYC Trip: 2

I apologize for not blogging yesterday. This is going to be a short blog because I am headed out the door. I will post a long blog reviewing the whole trip once I get back home. Today we met with Atrio Global Investors. Great company. They deal in portfolio management (lots of equity) both at home and internationally (NYSE: ATR). They employ approximately 200 employees and oversee over 50 B in their funds. Again I will talk about them some other time.

We took at tour of Wall St today. Cold as f--- outside, but it was nice to walk around the NYSE, the FED, and many other historical places (Goldman's old building, Trinity church, etc)...

Finally we had dinner with an asset manager with Fortress Investment Group. I must say that this guy might be one of the most interesting people I have ever met. I think he was in his late 20s and he offered a different approach than the majority of the senior speakers. He talked to us like real people. He jokes, cussed, and seemed to actually care about the group. He told us about his travels around the world and about his philosophies on life. Truly a great person and someone I enjoyed conversing with. He is definitely someone I am going to continue to network with over the next few years.

All in all the day was great, but I unfortunately took the scenic route back to my cousin's place for the second day in a row. Instead of taking the sub and walking <.75 of a mile to her apartment, I took the sub and walked 4 miles. Not good when you are tired, in business shoes, and in a big city with lots of dope fiends.

I'm hearing there's going to be a pretty bad storm on the way in to town on Thursday. F that, forreal.
 
Review of NYC Trip

I have been back in Cincinnati since Thrsday, very late, and I have determined alread how much I really hate this city. From the lack of diversity, to the conservatism, ----ty sports teams, crappy weather, bad dining, and lack of bars that stay open until 4 AM, this town blows. /rant about Cincy

I will post a couple reviews in regards to the trip pretty much on a day by day basis, but first I will offer a review of the city.

People New Yorkers are pretty much all -------s. First of all, they can't drive. New Yorkers have no clue what a lane, turn signal, or even traffic lights are. On the subway, I realized that New Yorkers have a bubble which they hate to have popped. No talking and just look at the floor. If you look at a New Yorker on the subway, it's like you committed a sin. All of this aside, most were very helping when it came to...

Public Transportation

The Subway system in NYC is one of the neatest things I've ever used. I probably rode the subs 3-4 times per day. While they can be difficult to understand if you have no sense of direction or of how to travel, they are great. I only had one time where we stopped for a while due to maintenance. Beat's the ---- out of the traffic in Cincinnati, however.

On Monday we met with the CEO of Robert Graham, a clothing boutique which specializes in high-end clothing. By high-end, I mean dress shirts which cost over $200, and sits which start at $1500. I enjoyed the meeting simply because I was able to answer a few of his questions about business which he claimed 8 of the previous classes he met with couldn't answer.

Later that day we met with a company called Corsair Capital. What a great company, located right next to the Trump Tower. We met two gentlemen with a reported net worth of over 100 M, and 150 M, respectively. One of them graduated from St. X, so it was nice to make that connection. Both graduated from UC.

(con't tomorrow)...
 
NYC Review (cont'd)...and I got/stole/found a dog.

On Tuesday we met with a company called Atrio Global Investments. I think their ticker symbol is ATR. Wow. Huge investment management company. Their portfolio encompasses over $51 Billion. They employ only 250 people, and have 15 portfolio managers. Only one manager has left the company in 15 years. Pretty good retention in my opinion.

Later that evening we met up with one of Fortress Investments analysts. This guy graduated from UC in 2006. By far the best part of the trip. He was very interesting and has offered to help me get in to contact with a few people in Cincinnati about getting a job. He was a member of the GE Financial Leadership Program (http://www.ge.com/careers/students/fmp/index.html) for which I am applying here shortly. Apparently his mentor is one of the heads of the program, so hopefully I can get a hard copy of my resume on her desk. No internet bull----, no HR people, I want to meet with her without all the mess. (As an aside, I just learned that a person I know is good friends with the husband of GE's lead HR manager for personell- score another connection). The program is something I am definitely interested in and the pay is pretty good coming right out of undergrad. If I land the job, I will be studying for the CFA Level II Exam hopefully (I take the first level in June). He spoke with us about what it means to get a job in NYC and how to go about doing it. It's not all about the GPA, it's not all about the smarts, its about a company liking you for a story you can tell. I got to talk to him with a smaller portion of the group at the end of dinner and his lack of interest in MORE money was very apparent. He's 28 and is financially set for awhile, he travels all over the world, must be nice.

His advice on joining random social networks was useful. Any person who reads this and is looking for a job, try to connect with as many people as possible. Join heritage networks (even is you are only 20% Irish- you can still join those social gatherings), ask anybody you know to refer you to anyone with a financial position.

I guess I took the most away from this informal meeting because the guy was much more realistic with us, and much more willing to help us, than the senior people we met at a majority of the companies. Half of them basically told us that they wouldnt even consider hiring us straight out of UC, we wold need 3-4 years of professional experience and a CFA and/or MBA. :shrug:

It's a tough market out there. Hopefully some chips all fall in to the right places and I can get a job straight out of college. I would ideally like to spend 4 years in Cincinnati out of college and then go to Boston, NYC, Chicago, or the outskirt of San Fransisco.

Anyways, I will continue with Wednesday on another blog.

In other news, I got a dog. I was walking around my apartment complex in Price Hill and this poor dog came running up to me. I was scared of it to begin with, but it wouldn't hurt a thing. This dog was clearly owned by someone else, most likely white trash or a ghetto thug (just basing this off percentages and the fact that the dog was slightly emaciated, no collar, bite marks on it, and my mother claimed it smelled like crack- she is an officer so she knows all about that). I went with the name Cash as I thought it was unique and everyone loves cash. I hate most dog names and if someone coins a dog with a human name, they should be shot. Here is a picture:

006f4e27.jpg


Lately I have been listening to a lot of hip hop and rap. I stopped listening to a WEBN and 96.5 about a month ago, there just hasn't been a good material released lately. Bruce Springsteen's pandora channel get's old after awhile. :shrug:

I can honestly say that Nikki Minaj has been wearing off on me. I can't stand female rappers. Never have, most likely never will...except with Nikki.



And here are a few select songs I discovered on the trip, I'm sure some are old, but I like:





^Usually hate 50 and Soulja Boy

On to the next blog...
 
Last edited:
NYC Trip Review, Final Day

Wednesday was a pretty eventful day. We started of the morning meeting with JP Morgan Securities. The only problem was JP Morgan has so many buildings that we were about 15 minutes late. Pretty embarrassing in my opinion. Anyways we met with a guy named Tony who specializes on the analysis of the sell-side of REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust). He basically analyzes a big pool of real estate companies and then offers advice to his investors. What a set up they had. The entire building looked like ancient Rome architecture.

After we left there we grabbed lunch and had the worst visit of the trip. We some how met up with the Chinese Department of Commerce. It wasn't even someone high up, it was an assistant. I literally listened to the first couple sentences and then started playing Angry Birds on my phone right in front of the guy. Chinese culture is truly unique. I found it interesting the way they exchanged business cards with each other. It is almost like they are exchanging a sacred baby.

Later we met up with one of the partners of Deloitte & Touche. I really didn't like that meeting. The guy was kind of pushy and was the only person who tried to end the meeting early. Granted we were there during their Board of Directors end of the year meeting, it was still not to my liking. That company seems very dry. Lots of smart people, but no one had decent communication skills.

Later that evening we finally got to go out. We started at a vegan Jazz club in Brooklyn. Yea, read that again. Vegan Jazz club. How lame was it? Let's just say that to entertain myself, I decided to try something I have never drank before in hopes that I would get pretty drunk. Jim Rome always promotes the Bombay Sapphire club on his radio station. I saw they had it so I took a Bombay Sapphire dirty. Pretty gross in my opinion. Apparently the bar tender did not know how to make any drinks as it was his second night on the job. That being said, he made it a double so I got pretty tipsy.

Off to Manhattan.

We stopped at a diner at around 1 AM which reminded me of a Price Hill Chilli, just with much higher quality food and much higher prices. After the diner, we went to a bar called 3 Sheet Saloon in the west village. $1 drafts and $8 pitchers, can't beat that in NY. Oh, and beer pong. So 3 of us pounded 3 pitchers in no time. During that time we noticed what happened in that Knicks/Celtics game. We all then felt ----ty because we were going to go to that game. Fail. I met a waitress there who was smoking hot and from Ohio. Exchanged numbers, etc. I hoped to connect her with my cousin as she was in fashion school and my cuz has a few connects in the fashion industry. It's unfortunate I had to leave the next day...meh.

Then we went right next door to the coolest bar I've ever been to. This place is two bars in one. On the top, I think it was called the Big Fat Black -----cat. On the bottom, The Underground. It was divided in to 3 section. One was like a typical Cincinnati bar...pool tables, darts, tables and benches to hang out around. Through the next door was a karaoke bar with this classical furniture which looked like it cost a lot of money. Down the steps took you to The Underground. http://www.theundergroundnyc.com/

The had a great band down there. They played everything from Bob Marley to Alan Jackson to Bruce Springsteen to Kanye West. It was a great place despite the $9 well vodka prices. :shrug:

In conclusion, I must say that the trip was awesome. I am headed to Siesta Key in 3 days. It will be a nice time to get some needed relaxation before I start 19 credit hours and studying for the CFA Level 1 exam.

If anyone has not read recently's blog about last night, you need to. It was the first time I met dude, and we got thrown out of a casino because he was puking in the stall with torn pants and then sleeping. I lol'd when he and another in our group came to get BCB and I. Wow. Not to mention we had to pull over on I-74 so he could puke for 5 minutes. :laugh:

:thumb:'s up to LCD for showing recently what it means to drink. When I text LCD his response was, "LMAO he wanted to bark with the big dogs...I told him to slow down. But no".
 
Vacation to Siesta Key, FL

I would first like to say that I did not want to come on this trip, but I committed to it over 3 months ago. Talk about crummy. I love my Dad and brother to death, but the trip has just be a drag. The weather has been great, using Cincinnati's standards, but we have had terrible clouds, fog, rain, etc.

On top of that, there is literally no skirt around here. You would think the public beach would be full of any tail, nah. Instead I got to see three hot chicks dressed in traditional amish garb: green dresses (wading in the water 50 degree mind you) and those little white things those people where on their cookie-cutter hair styles. There were also some whales which had beached upon the shore shoveling their gullet with Pringles, Doritos, and whatever fat they could suck out their wheely coolers and ten gallon "Big Gulps". What a joke. In addition to the Amish and the whales was a motley crew full of emo's and old, rich people which looked like tan, Corinthian leather.

That gets me to my next point, the people here are loaded. Thankfully my family got a condo early and the value has increased 4-5 fold. I would really like to own a place here within the next few years and I am going to try to work my hardest to make that happen. I will post pictures up in the next few days.

While the weather has been pretty ----ty, I have been eating well. The first night I made chicken, asparagus, sun-dried tomato and angel hair pasta which was great and last night I made chicken Parmesan. I have also had lots of Yuengling and lots of seafood like clams, oysters, and some fish.

Pretty mad I've missed these few days of school, but I honestly cant wait to get back and hit the books and start studying for the CFA.

I am finished
 
Miserable Day

Please forgive me for this self-pity/loathing blog. Today has literally been the most consistently miserable day I've had in over two years. I do not like to complain about life's problems, and mine are minor compared to some people's, but today is blog-worthy. If you agree or disagree, get at me. I think most would agree that today was ----ty.

Let's begin with the early morning AM. I usually sleep in until 8-11 every morning. Sometimes, noon. Lately, however, I have been sick. Sinusitis (upper respiratory infection). I woke up choking on whatever was logged in my throat. It was similar to elmer's glue, except it was lime-green and had blood in it. No big deal. I am not going to the doctor. I refuse. (This is where LCD prescribes me medicine he imports from where ever (;)).

I then woke up and went to eviction court. This was the single best part of the day despite me choosing the worst of the two entrance lines. For some ungodly reason, my side's security guards thought everything was hilarious, which obviously led to them being 2-3 times slower than the other line. To lighten the mood, I got to stand next to this fellow:

510db891.jpg


Why not take about 25 safety pins and spell out "EZ" in your pleather jacket? I'm sure this guy was a defendant in whatever court room he was going to. This along with the occasional, "Diz some boosheeet, I swurrtagod I'm turred a comin down here.", made this part pretty funny. I was "getting weak."

I won my case, solid.

Ok, I had two decent moments today. The cashier at the little "cafe" (I use that term lightly- more like a half-assed deli with coffee) was blind. I ---- you not. This guy could tell what kind of bill you gave him by the feel of the bill. He was like a machine, and his register spoke to him how much change to give. Here's a guy who is 100% blind (I stood infront of him like and idiot for awhile not knowing the circumstances), and working for a living. Surrounding him are a bunch of menaces to society who suck on Uncle Sams chesticles for a "living".

I also saw the hotter blonde from the new hit series, Police Women of Cincinnati. She is, yea....so I guess three good things. That's all.

So I leave the courthouse and come home to my phone being blown up by an ex-tenant who vacated her apartment. I stored all of her things, which consisted of two trash bags full of dingy, -----roach filled clothes, and dirty dishes. She claims that she had couches and other furniture in her apartment. I'm not buying it. I didn't take anything out of her place, but my employees did after I issued her a 3-day notice to vacate the property. No response and no one had seen her there in over 30 days. Anyways, she calls me and says she is going to get my building shutdown by the health dept, fire marshall, AND police! :laugh: I'm fairly certain I did not do anything illegal and I'm sure the lovely police at District 3 told that scraggly wench to gtfo of their department.

Next, I went to the place where I coach(ed) to work on a few things and draw up some stuff for the next season. I spent a solid 3 hours there working on things, viewing film, and setting up a meeting with another staff. Nonetheless on the way home I got some bad news. Head coach= no mas. Rest of staff= no mas. I'm furious, and still am. I almost threw my droid out the window on I-75. So now I am looking for another coaching spot. Fortunately, I have a few options already on the table.

What's next? I go to Kabuto and find three long, black hairs from my server in my food. I was so mad before I went that I couldn't eat very much anyways. This was just icing on the cake.

To top it all off, I went to everyone's favorite store, Walmat. :laugh: Despite having fun counting all of the less-than-classy people (notably one guy with a Carhart jacket on and cut-off pajama pants, and "Timbalanz"). I stopped there to get a humidifier to help with my sinusitis; the infection happens because my sinuses get dried out from the dry heat in the house. In the end-cap were approximately 15 humidifiers. I just so happened to picked the one which was destroyed. Numerous cracks/leaks. Obviously didn't find this out until I got home. FML.

So, on to the next day. I get to start bright and early at wally-world. Sorry, I know this was TLTR, but maybe you understand how bad today was.
 
Being it's been over a month since my last blog, probably should do a little one.

Pretty fed up with school. Do most college Seniors get this way? I have a bad case of Senior-itis, not going to classes, makeup exams, etc. I dropped from 19 to 12 credits this quarter and will probably have to attend Summer classes. I think I bit off more than I could chew. I have to meet with my advisor to figure this mess out.

How about this weather? Sheesh, it was like 30 degrees in the early AM and now it's almost 65. Talk about a change :shrug:.

One thing I haven't really been blogging about lately is my favorite game, poker.

I have given up on online poker for the time being. I ran very well for 2010, showing a 20% return across over 1000 games, but the tail-end did not bode very well. Didn't lose my ---, but I was just not playing very well despite changing my game up literally 3 or 4 times.

On to 2011. Live game has been pretty good the past few times I've played. BobcatBomber stacked me pretty hard the last time we played, but I will get that bastard back eventually. ;) 6c3c FTW!

Anywho, to post something which some of you will enjoy, I was involved in one of the most interesting hands of my playing career last night. I posted this on 2+2:

Scenario at a local casino last night. Two tables just joined together at 1-2 NL. Multiple people are 500+ deep. I have ~$325. My table image is pretty tight aggressive. I didn't have many reads on the 4 or so who joined our table, but I was told from a regular the one guy was pretty terrible.

I'm in MP, two limpers (second limper was a woman who was talking during hands, telling people what she had), I limp with 2c3c. Guy in the cutoff was the "terrible player" with around $500 in chips limps. SB (played with him for 5 hours, had pretty good reads) raises to $10. BB folds. Two limpers calls. I call. Idiot calls.



Flop:

4c6h5c

I pot it with $50. Idiot calls. Woman calls. Turn comes 8s. I check, idiot bets 125, woman announces "call" and then "all-in" by accident (She had like 25 more). She doesn't realize I'm still in the hand and shows the player to my right Ac8c (very indiscreetly, I obviously saw it). I didn't put the idiot on a FD at all. I'm thinking if I call here I can win a big side pot if a club comes because he isn't folding a 7 here.

I tank and call.

7 on the river checked down and we chop 3 ways.

Idiot had 77.
----------------------

Pretty disappointed in the outcome of this one. I thought I played it pretty good. I mean flopping 2 to 6 straight and open-ended straight flush redraw. I was over 50% against both of those two on the flop.

:shrug:

Such is life. Might grind a couple more times this week. How about the new Poker After Dark episodes? If you watch, Phil Laak is an idiot. I wonder if all those Pineapple+vodka+soda were worth the $100-$150k he has lost. I really think he is a good player but some of the plays he is making against Viff and Eli are making me facepalm. Newer WPTs and new high stakes poker episodes. Amazing. I must say I am pretty mad there will be ZERO Full Tilt players on HSP this year. Four of the best cash game players in the world aren't going to be on (Eli, Durrr, Ivey, and Antonius) due to both Pokerstars and Full Tilt trying to show who has the bigger dick. :( Who to we get to see this season:

Mike Baxter
Eric Boneta
Doyle Brunson (partial fan)
Johnny Chan
Robert Croak
Jon Duhamel (guy who won the Main Event in 2010--I'm looking forward to watching him play)
Antonio Esfandiari (Fan)
Phil Galfond (partial fan)
Bill Klein
Phil Laak
Jason Mercier (Huge fan)
Julian Movsesian
Daniel Negreanu (Fan)
David Peat (Hate)
Bill Perkins
Andrew Robl (Not a fan)
Phil Ruffin
Vanessa Selbst (Not a fan of this man)
Bob Voulgaris

I've heard there are some pretty big pots on this season, looking forward to it, but I would really like to see some FTP players on here.

Does anyone like Kanye West? I am not a big fan, but I am really digging his "All of the Lights" song with Rihanna.

Two songs for the day:





I hope everyone enjoys the rest of this weather and that it continues for the reason of the season. I'm off to Lowes!
 
Ahhh It's been a long while since my last blog.

I am loving the Spring Break. March Madness has been a blast, it's been about 5 years since I have been able to sit down and watch as many games as possible. While my bracket is demolished, I still have 2/4 final four teams and the left side of my bracket is still pretty intact.

On to other news. I've been grinding pretty regularly for the past two months and have seen some great results. I stopped playing online and have been focusing on low-limit cash game, mostly 1-2 NL. I have tracked every session for the past 1.5 months and have built my starting roll of $200 10x over. In addition I won a nightly $80 tournament the other night for $1000. Unfortunately I ran pretty bad the next day and gave most of it back playing 1-3. Last night I finished in 8th out of 168 in a $100 for $385. Pretty disappointed about this result but I was severely short-stacked from 60 people left down to my final hand, like 3 to 6 big blinds the entire way.

I got lucky last night, however and got to play with Greg "Fossilman" Raymer. If you don't know who he is, he won the WSOP main event in 2004:

52watch_raymer.jpg


Wow, what a guy. It was interesting hearing him talk about the sponsorships and whatnot that goes on with the online sites. He recently ended his sponsorship with Pokerstars and he said it ended because they are sponsoring young, non-American players in Asia and Europe and I have heard Stars is lowering the pay of a lot of their "old" players.

He is the most intimidating player I have ever seen. Fortunately I only got tangled up in two hands with him in which the first time I slowplayed the nuts against him (and got paid on the river) and the 2nd hand I raised his big blind, he calls and checked dark. I did a standard continuation bet and he instantly shoves me all-in. I laugh and fold. I had to laugh at the middle-aged d0uchenozzles at my table who were googly-eyed to have Raymer there. Yea it was nice to have a pro there, and he was good, but we had a game to play. I swear I was ready to hear one of them tell Greg they would blow him in the stall during the first break. Every time I asked Greg a serious poker question (a la how much of a pro's money is at stake in the big cash games we see online and what he thought about no FTP players playing on HSP), one of the two love-birds would chime in, "How is he supposed to know?", "Why does he care?". At that point I just gave up...no sooner both donkeys were gone.

The WPT started today and I will be playing the first deepstack tomorrow, day 1b. Should be a good time. I have ran so bad in the first two I played in these that I feel I am do. First one I ran KK into AA after about 3 or 4 hours. Second time I ran AA into 66 for a 40k pot at 100-200 blinds all-in preflop. And boom there's a 6 on the flop. These tourneys have pretty sick structures and are very solid.

Yesterday I purchased a set of beats by dre. Awesome purchase. Thankfully the cost wasn't too bad because I had $200 in leftover giftcards from x-mas. I have been hesitant to get them, but they are definitely worth the cost. The only thing I have to gripe about them is that a lot of sounds escapes and others can hear it if you have them up pretty loud. But eff 'em, who cares?

Also, I recently downloaded Wiz Khalifa's new album, Rolling Papers. It is amazing.

I leave you with a few of my favorite songs:







I dislike only 1 or 2 songs on the entire album.

Everyone have a good weekend, I'll try reporting what happens in the next couple days.
 
Updates from UD's rise conference.

We are in session #2 dealing with corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing.

Woman just threw an SRI advisor for BP under the bus. She stated that all the love for BP in the media for its investments in alt. Energy is short-lived in the investment community because of BPs lack of performance. Obv he dodged the question.

13% of US $25 T in asset mgmt is for sri :laugh:
 
This was supposed to be a long blog, but I merely stalling time to go in late for my professional development class.

Last 10 tourney buyins and results:

80-1000
80-0
100-385
100-0
100-0
100-672
340-0
100-0
100-0
100-570

Ship it!

For those of you who are night owls, this week on Poker after Dark they are playing 600-300 pot limit omaha. It's a very good game and the action is pretty sick. I haven't got to watch the second night yet, but in the first night, there were quite a few pots over 100k.
 
Today I have a 5th grade geography quiz. Imagine that, a joke quiz in a 100 level class for UC. It's on all the countries of the world, but mostly just those that have had a big impact on recent news and economic activity. I think it is going to consist of 10-15 countries. USA, China, Japan, Libya, United Kingdom, France, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Mexico, and probably something like the UAB. If you don't know where these countries are, kill yourself.

Tonight I am grinding out an 80 tourney with Bobcatbomber. I expect some decent scores from both of us, if not one.

If you saw in my previous post where I play in the 340 tourney, I did one of the most ignorant n00b things you can do while playing cards.

I built my stack up from 10k to 32k when the chip average was like 18,500. Bear with me, because I tend to forget the particulars, but I will tell you about the hand which took me from 32k to 11k in about 2 minutes.

I had just arrived at my 5th table for the day. So ----ty moving that many times because it's hard to get reads on players and exploit the bad ones. I get to the table and see I have the largest stack. A guy had like 30k two spots to my left and a very dangerous player (a girl I have history with; she ended up winning the damn thing) was two to my right with like 18k and then the guy to my right has roughly 21-ish.

I fold for like 5 hands and then I am under the gun (first to act after the blinds) with A-5, two diamonds. I think the blind levels were like 600-300 with a 50 ante. Anyways I open to 1600 under the gun with my hand (this is not a standard move, but I wanted to have a tight image so I can fold if someone raises me or I make it look like I want action with just over a 2.5x the big blind raise). Everyone folds except the big blind who calls.

Flop (pot is 4050):

Q23 rainbow.

Big blind checks and I continuation bet 2700. Big blind calls.

I turn a 4. He thinks about betting and then checks, I do the same.

River is a random card like a 9 or a King. He then bets like 6000 on the river. I raise to 14,500. He calls.

I say, "I have a straight." and turn over my hand.

I have A-6 instead of A-5. :wallbang:. Oops misread my hand the whole way. Now, I double check my hand when I look and I check again before I make a big move or fold post-flop. :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top