Club WPT

Last night, just before heading to bed, I received a notice that I had a new email waiting to be read on my Yahoo! Mail account. Not too surprising – since I basically use that address whenever an email address is requested by a site that I would rather not give my “real” address to, I get quite a bit of spam there. The message I got last night, however, had “WPT” in the “From” field. This, of course, translates to something from the World Poker Tour and (seeing as I am actually a holder of some WPTE stock – I’m down more than three grand with that investing SNAFU…) I figured I might as well check it out.

What it ended up being was an invitation to join their recently created Club WPT. Oh great, another online poker site … but this one’s a bit different. They’re setting this thing up as a membership based “club” where no actual money is ever wagered. Members pay a membership fee (about $20 a month) and, according to their webpage, are then allowed “unlimited play” in over 5,000 tournaments each month.

But that’s not exactly true… I discovered what the membership fee actually gets you is 500 TPs (Tournament Points) and something like $2,000 in play money. As for the play money, I haven’t really looked into that yet; although I’m thinking that it’s just like play money on all the other poker sites out there which translates to nothing. The Tournament Points appear to be what most members will be interested in as these are used to “buy-in” to tournaments that have actual prizes.

The thing is that you need quite a bit more than 500 TPs to “buy-in” to the tournaments with the good prizes. It costs 2,000 FPs to do a direct “buy-in” for the monthly $10,000 tournament and I counted somewhere around nine other tournaments for the month of January that were priced at $1,000 TPs or higher. The nicest prizes do have “Super Satellites” with lower buy-ins (the $10,000 tournament has a Satellite you can buy-in to for 100 TPs) but don’t kid yourself into believing that the “unlimited play” advertised means you can play all of the tournaments.

Not that I have any issues with this. I firmly believe that you’re going to get better play from players that had to earn their way to their seats. It just seems to me that the only real difference with Club WPT is that the actual money has been replaced by Tournament Points. And, of course, along with the prizes that can be won, Tournament Points are also included. So, although you never risk any more money than your membership fee to play at Club WPT, the Tournament Points are clearly a virtual form of money that members are risking and attempting to win. I suppose it could be considered a much less expensive way for those with a bit of a poker addiction to be able to play and still get to experience the risk/reward aspect of the game. There are, after all, real prizes (including cash) to be won…

Now, if you’re like me, you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, but what happens if you lose all of your TPs? Wouldn’t that make it impossible to win anything?” This is where the entire “club membership” aspect starts to play out. You see, as long as you are a member in this club, you are guaranteed a minimum of 500 TPs every day. Now that doesn’t mean that 500 TPs are given to all members each and every day – that would negate the need to actually play What it does mean is that at 12:01am on any day, if your TP balance is less than 500, the balance is automatically reset to 500 TPs. So you’re always able to start again if you have a bad luck streak without risking any more actual money.

Now granted, the user interface kind of sucks; but I’m betting that, with possible upgrades in time, it will improve. Are you listening Club WPT? You really do need to do some work on your UI design – you might want to talk to the guys over at PKR.com – a UI like theirs would really get the “club” atmosphere you guys are striving for. Apart from that, I think this “poker club” idea could actually catch on. Who knows? Maybe I can get some of the three grand I dumped into your stock back…

bis später,

Coriolis

A Bit of a Commute

Okay, so I did it. Well, as of Monday I will have done it. I took a job that, according to MapQuest.com, is actually located some 1086.46 miles from my registered, legal residence. Talk about a long commute to work…

This should be rather interesting. My plan is to basically rent housing out here in California and keep my house back in Colorado as my primary residence. I wonder if that’s even a legally viable option…? Sure, why not? This is America – the land of the free! I suppose I can do whatever I want, right? After all, I’m going to be the one paying mortgage payments for the house, utility bills (once again, for the house in Colorado) and rent for my housing in California. As long as the bills are being paid, I guess I can live however I want. It won’t be cheap, but I’m up for the challenge…

Although I am now getting a much deeper understanding of the old Benjamin Franklin axiom that, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” I’m actually completely lost on how this latest lifestyle change is going to impact my tax status. Can’t be good though… I guess I get to pay California taxes on my income (being that all of my income is being earned in that state) and property taxes in Colorado. I wonder what an out-of-state residency does to state income taxes … anything…?

Oh well, April’s coming soon enough and I’m sure that I’ll get a crash-course on this subject. Heck, I’m still curious as to what needs to be done with the income earned in Germany last year. So far I have received nothing from Dagmar (my German accountant) nor the German government although something tells me that it’s just a matter of time. The Germans aren’t well-known for letting things fall through the cracks. I’m sure that, sometime this year, I’ll be receiving a letter that I won’t be able to understand containing lots of Achtung!’s. I suppose I should send Dagmar an email…

Bottom line with all this is that I suppose I should just deal with the issues and be thankful that I have a job. It’s apparently becoming more and more of a rarity these days. Not only that, but the job that I have landed ain’t too shabby. I was very hesitant to make the transition from contractor to full-time employee; but I couldn’t turn down a 6-figure salary, 5-figure sign-on bonus, thousands of stock options, health insurance and a 401K plan. Opportunities like this don’t come around very often. So life might be a bit more complicated for a while, but I think I’ll make do … after all, they made an offer I couldn’t refuse…

Who knows? Maybe the end result of all this will be the early (well, earlier than many…) retirement that I’ve always dreamt about…

bis später,

Coriolis

Woo! Sports!

Okay, I lied. My last posting was a bit hastily made and may have lead you, the reader, to the wrong conclusion. Truth of the matter is that I am not done – I just need to use a bit more common sense. Let’s see if I have any…

I’ve actually got a question for you today – why is the perceived manliness of a guy directly proportional to his arbitrary and completely unfounded admiration of sports? Or, to put it another way, what exactly about a guy’s ability to live completely vicariously through the success of a different group of guys – arbitrarily chosen based on various subjective criteria such as location, past results, perceived popularity to the general public, team name and I don’t know, pretty uniforms? – creates the perception that this guy is much more of a man than one who chooses not to give a shit? Doesn’t this seem a bit counter-intuitive?

Sure, in today’s society where people rely on marketing and media to tell them what they desire, it’s easy to understand how the actual players of these sports (or at least their perceived images) get misguidedly transformed to god-like creatures. Heck, often times the laws that us mangy, second-rate citizens are forced to live by don’t even apply to these lions of humanity (drug use, sexual assault, DUI, domestic violence, manslaughter … it’s okay – he’s a star…). Not that all of these guys are criminals, but those that are seem to somehow be able to retain their senselessly conceived superior standing in society. I can actually understand how, once a guy has achieved membership to this exclusive club, he is considered a manly man. What I don’t get is how idolizing these guys somehow increases the perceived masculinity of some other guy…

I’m always amazed at how a man’s knowledge of sports trivia makes that individual seem almost superior to others in pretty much any social environment. Once a guy has demonstrated that he is “in the know” about the sport of the day he becomes more respected by men and, for some reason that completely baffles me, more desirable to women. I mean, why is that? All it says to me is that this guy spends way too much time and energy watching sports. Shouldn’t that be a red flag to these women? Oh wait, silly me, watching sports is manly – ESPN, Fox Sports, Fuel TV and Spike make that perfectly clear…

Now don’t get me wrong here … I’ve fallen into the grasp of sports related fanaticism at least a few times myself: I’ve got a couple rather nice Avalanche jerseys hanging in my closet back home and wear a baseball cap of said team from time to time; I remember watching the Detroit Pistons win the NBA Finals back in 1990 on a scoreboard converted television set at The Palace of Auburn Hills; and I almost got hit by the upright post when the uprights were torn down after the Michigan Panthers defeated the Oakland Invaders (USFL – remember that…?) back in the 1983 playoffs. For me though, it’s never difficult to “get over it”. I guess that designates me as one of those “fair-weather fans” but I really don’t care… Whether or not the sports team representing the area that I live in wins or loses to the sports team from some other area means nothing to me. Does that make me less of a man?

It seems to me that fanatical devotion to sports should actually be considered a negative trait for most. I mean shouldn’t the time and energy wasted on keeping current with all the stats, standings, rosters and names in sports be used for something a bit more productive? Maybe something trivial like your career or family…? Isn’t it possible that those that are not “in the know” when it comes to sports might be that way because they’ve chosen to spend their resources on their own lives rather than wasting them on what can only be seen as a desperate attempt to be somebody else? I personally think that getting upset when the team you chose to put your inflated ego on loses is a rather blatant sign of mental instability … but that’s just me, I guess…

I did, however, notice that the Onion (America’s Finest News Source) seems to be with me on this subject. If you head over to their online store (T-shirts at the Onion Store) you can buy a T-shirt that says “The Sports Team From My Area Is Superior To The Sports Team From Your Area”. Now that’s funny! I’ll bet, however, that the humor of this shirt would be completely lost to many of the Neanderthal-like guys that depend on this statement being true to justify their importance in this world…

And I ask once again, what makes these guys more desirable…?

bis später,

Coriolis

Goodbye

Well, folks, this is it – the end of my blog. I guess it doesn’t really matter that much – nobody was really reading it anymore; but this is the end. I apparently pissed some people off with some postings I made and, when looking at it through their perspectives, completely understand why. I do find it rather interesting finding out that my observations (and that’s all this blog has ever been – my observations…) somehow mean something after I’ve posted them as they obviously mean nothing in real-time…

Oh well, fuck it – I’m done…

Coriolis

7 come 11

I’m back in California. Yippee… Can’t complain too much – it’s much nicer weather... Amazingly enough, the Pussy Wagon actually started. She was poised and ready when I hopped off the LAX Park Place shuttle and had no issues during the ride back to Camarillo. The power was out on the CSUCI campus when I arrived although everything was cool once I returned from getting a bite to eat at Chuy’s. Chris was hanging out there and I decided to meet up with him and get myself some food and a beer…

I realize that it’s been a while since I last posted anything on this blog (perhaps that accounts for a large part of its dwindling readership…) although the reason for this isn’t that I’ve decided to abandon my remaining audience. On the contrary – I LOVE anyone that’s actually continued to read my silly rants and raves since returning from Europe (you see, that’s apparently when a large number of people decided that my postings were no longer interesting…). My feeling is that you and I are kindred souls and I would never abandon a kindred soul … I’ve just been a bit busy as of late. That and the fact that I’m perpetually lazy make updates to the blog more of a rarity…

What, exactly, has been eating up my time lately? Well, life I guess… Just the general day-to-day “things” that need to be done – nothing extremely important I suppose – just those standard tasks that one needs to do to survive… I did, however, make it back to Colorado for the holidays and that was cool. Wasn’t able to get back to Michigan this year (first time in my life, I think…) but did make it back to Longmont. It was nice to see that my house was still standing (not a shot against you, Todd, just a statement) and I was able to get back to some of my old routines. You know – playing a few DPT tournaments (I actually won at Buenos Tiempos!); switching my sleep schedule 180º and becoming pretty much nocturnal (I think Todd’s nocturnal by nature); meaning to do things (visit friends, go skiing, get the oil changed in Betsy, negotiate peace in the Middle East, etc…) but never getting around to actually doing them – stuff like that…

There was one night (well, morning to be more precise) that ended up being a bit interesting. Todd and I returned home after heading down to Long Shots for their regular Saturday evening poker tournament (DPT – I played poorly and Todd dealt). I was planning on hitting the sack at a reasonable hour – that was the plan – however, once the Jäger came out, my plans were inevitably altered. I think it was sometime around 7:00am when I finally stumbled to bed. Todd was crashed out in the hallway… I ended up with close to an hour of video from that night (most from my camera and some from Todd’s) and am actually planning to create the next Coriolis Video Blog (episode #75, if I am not mistaken) from it although I don’t know when I’ll get around to editing. And believe me, editing is required – I don’t think anybody should be subjected to some of the madness that was captured on the raw footage…

I also got some photos and video from the New Year’s Eve festivities at Buenos Tiempos although, if memory serves me correctly, nothing extremely interesting was captured. A bunch of video of people playing poker and your standard still shots of various people – all of which, I believe, have been posted to Todd’s MySpace page (the photos that is…). I most likely posted a couple along with this blog as well (meaning that I am planning to, but one never knows…) just to make all those out there that missed the party jealous. Of course poker was played (I came in second on the main tournament – won a $15 gift certificate), a Mexican buffet was served and the New Year was ushered in by a bunch of long-time friends … and me. It actually ended up being a rather good, if somewhat sedated party and, in my opinion, that’s exactly what you want for New Year’s Eve. It is, after all, amateur night for many a drunk driver and the cops are well aware of this. I wasn’t about to attempt to cover the 20 miles between the bar and my house impaired in any way whatsoever – I’ve been far too lucky thus far with my dice-rolls and figure that the probabilities are bound to play out – you can’t roll 7’s every time…

In fact I got a bit of a wake-up call a couple days before heading home for the holidays. It was the Friday before the holiday break and wine was served here at work. Everyone gathered in the kitchen for some festivities and I’ll admit that I had a few glasses of the ole fermented grape juice. I then headed over to TGI Friday’s and had a large Guinness and an appetizer before stopping by Bandit’s Grill and Bar for a rather large Coors Light (or maybe it was a Bud Light, either way…) on my way home. Now don’t get me wrong here, I wasn’t smashed or anything. I think it was around 7 or 8 o’clock when I finally left work and it was well past midnight when the cops pulled me over…

The front left headlight was out on the Pussy Wagon (this I was unaware of) and I was traveling at a speed somewhere around 10-15 MPH over the posted speed limit (nothing out of the ordinary here in California…). That’s when the headlights of the car that was speeding up behind me started flashing. It was then that I decided to see what the Pussy Wagon had in her and slammed the pedal to the metal to begin the chase. I figured that my 1990 Corolla was more than enough car to give these cops a run for their money.

Okay, so I’m embellishing a bit. What I actually did was immediately pull over to the side of the road, lowered the volume of my radio, rolled down my window and patiently waited for the nice officer to approach. This he did and, after requesting that I show him my driver’s license and registration, inquired as to whether I had had anything to drink that evening. I replied that I had drunk a couple of beers and was then politely asked to shut the car down and step out. I believe it was as I was following his instructions that I was informed that my left headlight was out. News to me…

They (there were actually two officers, one was standing by the passenger side of my car and I didn’t notice him until I got out) then began the standard routine of asking what I was doing in California (I have a Colorado license) and where I was heading that evening. I explained that I was out here on a contract job and was currently on my way home to the CSUCI campus about a mile or so away from where we were. Perhaps these officers were in the Christmas spirit as, after having me follow a light with my eyes a couple of times, they let me go. I didn’t receive any citation for the burnt out headlight nor the excessive speed. They just told me to go straight home and, as I was already heading there to begin with, I had no problem following their advice.

Okay, so I didn’t roll a 7 that time … however I was lucky enough to hit an 11. Something tells me that I would have been in a world of shit if those officers decided to give me a breathalyzer. I believe that I was perfectly fine to be driving (and I think the officers saw that) however, with the ever-lowering legal blood alcohol content figure these days, I probably would have blown higher. I think nowadays that the mere thought of alcohol is enough to get one arrested if this thought occurs whilst driving a vehicle. Whatever happened to individual aptitude? Isn’t it possible that some people can handle their alcohol better than others? But that would lead back to the actual problem – personal stupidity. I guess it’s just so much easier to turn everyone into criminals…

bis später,

Coriolis