\jeff{krimmel}

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my twenty-fifth birthday. I kicked off the festivities yesterday with our softball team getting crushed by my co-workers. The league is set up such that any Caltech affiliated personnel can participate. The mechanical engineers (of which I am one) have their own team, but my girlfriend’s lab in the chemistry department has their own team as well. I decided early on to play with her team after some semi-active recruitment.

Yesterday was the first time our team faced off against the team I was “supposed” to play for. And trust me, I’ve caught a fair bit of good-natured grief about this over the last few weeks. We played a seven inning game, and after the first inning, it was a laugher. We got crushed. My only shining moment was saving myself from a line drive that someone hit right back to me. I was pitching, and the guy just cranked one that was on a line right for my face. Fortunately, I got my glove up in time and caught the ball. A stirring catch, I must say. But, you can trust me when I say the word “catlike” was not used to describe my reflexes on this particular play.

Late last night, I gave myself a birthday present: I set up an account on Pacific Poker. They have a July deal going where you can an extra 50% bonus (up to $100) on your initial deposit. Not a bad deal. They’re basically giving away free money. I’ll take it.

I ran into a snag almost immediately, though. I got a message saying my credit card was denied. I called Pacific Poker’s customer service line, and they explained that some credit card companies won’t allow a direct charge to their particular billing institution. I suppose it’s somewhat common for a credit card thief to go straight to the online poker tables. The lady on the phone started to take my information so I could arrange for a deposit from my checking account. A portion of the conversation went something like the following:

Lady: “Date of birth.”
Me: “Seven, twenty, nineteen eighty one.”
Lady: *short pause* “So today is your birthday?”
Me: *laughs* “It sure is. I’m twenty-five years old today.”
Lady: “If I could only be twenty-five again. I won’t tell you how old I am.”

A surprisingly engaging conversation from a total stranger. I just figured these people would be on a bee line to get through as many of these conversations as quickly as possible, and the small talk would get cut in the process. It was a pleasant surprise.

After my deposit was arranged, I played Limit Texas Hold’em at the $0.05/$0.10 tables for about an hour. In this case, the small blind is $0.02, and the big blind is $0.05. Betting before the flop and after the flop is in increments of $0.05, with a maximum of four bets being possible on any given round. After the turn and river, betting is in increments of $0.10.

After an hour of playing, I’m up $0.78. I believe that makes me a “worldbeater”, if you will. The beauty of $0.05/$0.10 is that with even the most violent swings imaginable, I will almost certainly be playing at plus or minus two dollars from my original buy in. At that point, $5 or $10 is definitely a big enough bankroll to absorb any deviation that is likely to occur.

I’m planning on trying to iron out my poor plays at the low limit tables, and then I’ll move up to slightly higher limits. I could see $0.25/$0.50 being my bread and butter, but if I get good enough I’ll move up from there. I basically want to identify the areas where I am consistently making poor decisions and give myself an opportunity to make the correct decision in similar situations. I practiced a few things last night that I had been reading about over the last couple of days, and they seemed to work well for me.

So here I am, having experienced a quarter century of life. I’m eleven hours into this birthday, and I figure softball and poker is a pretty good start. Oh, and CNN ran the following headline on their main site this morning. I definitely appreciated it.

Ex-porn star in hardcore bid for governor

Happy birthday to me.