stevesbets

For Labor day weekend I have been at my friends shore house in Stone Harbor on the bay. I have learned that most people from most of the world don’t really understand that shore means beach in the Philly-NJ-Del dialect. I have known the family whose house I am staying in for the majority of my life and the house is absolutely amazing, I had a wonderful time. I’m just going to write about some activities that I feel are worthy of note.

Yesterday I had a long awaited game of one on one basketball with a freind who inexplicably challenged me a few months ago. We have played together countless times throughout our lives, and while he excels in many areas, basketball is not one of them and I have always been better at it. A few months ago at Long Beach Island (see Dear Diary blog), he suddenly exclaimed that he could beat me one on one and we played. I won that game but the ball was fairly flat and made for a convenient excuse. Since then he has continued to assert that he could win and we finally got a chance for a rematch yesterday. I am proud to report a 21-8 victory which only proves to myself that while I’m not great at much, I’m very good at knowing when I have an edge.

One of my friends’ girlfriends who I only met for the third time this weekend is a marathon runner. I find the drive and work ethic she must have to be astounding and inspiring and I am raising the bar for my fitness goal…well not for the freeroll (sorry). This girl runs a half marathon in Philadelphia every September and I am hoping to be able to do that (or at least be decent enough to be able to attempt to do it) in September 2009. I will update my progress on the blog for both that and the December freeroll as I work to get into shape.

Tonight everyone wanted to learn poker so I offered to teach the basics so that we could play a makeshift game. The group consisted of me, 4 other guys all with mild homegame poker experience and 3 girls who all had zero poker experience. Teaching someone from total scratch is always interesting as it reminds me of all the little things I take for granted while I play. First I needed to simply go over the hand ranking, then the basic holdem rules (our game was going to be a single table NLHE tournament). 2 pair getting counterfeited becomes an advanced topic when teaching people who just learned what a flush is. I started dealing sample hands face up and then asking the girls what everyone had and what cards would improve their hands. On one amusing hand, the 3 players held 9s 9c, jh 8d and 2h 8c respectively on a flop of 8h 7h 3h. When I asked that card would put the 8c 2h into the lead I was surprised at how difficult it was for them to figure out. I have to preface this by saying that all 3 girls are very very smart and I would bet on them over myself in most forums (but not poker). They just started yelling out random cards “T, Q,7, 4?….” in a seemingly haphazard and thoughtless manner though I think they had some sort of logic for the guesses. It just struck me as odd that reading a board even immediately after learning poker hands can actually be so difficult. A final note on teaching, I found the best and only way to get the girls to figure out their best 5 card hand between their two cards and the five community cards was to put their two cards right with the community cards and sort out the best 5. In the James Bond movie Casino Royale they did that with each and every hand as they announced what the player had and I found it ridiculous. I now understand that they had to do it so that people who didn’t play poker could better understand.

I get back to NYC tomorrow and classes start Tuesday. Hopefully this blog will become more interesting than just telling stories from my lazy vacation.

I would first like to note that the blog in which I offered the freeroll generated a record number of comments, 35 so far, that’s very exciting even if some of them are shrew. Another exciting note is that my Aunt Mary found my blog (hi!!) she was probably the first baby boomer to ever read it and that means my mom won’t be far behind so be careful what you comment! I have narrowed down the freeroll to specific fitness goals. Now I know I will get criticized for these being too easy, but first of all you don’t know my baseline, secondly, remember that I hope to do better, these are simply the minimum objective goals so that I don’t have to pay out the freeroll. I will have to be able to do 10 pullups, 50 pushups and then run approximately 4 miles (I can take my time running but I cannot walk at any point). Whether I walk will be subjectively judged by my friend who will be doing the run with me. So now all you with the freeroll know what you need to root against, and if any of you can’t do these things you should get to work too just for fun.

Last Thursday and Friday I had orientation events. Upon entering Thursday morning there were a whole bunch of tables set up to encourage networking. I randomly joined one and thus the 7 people at that table were the first people I know at Fordham.  The most memorable event of the first day was a “survival” group exercise that went as follows. A scenario about surviving in a dessert was read aloud and then 15 items were presented. Our task was to rank from 1 to 15 the importance of each of these items for our survival. We did it individually at first, then as a group. We then compared our rankings with those of an expert who was deemed to have the “correct” answer and they had a complicated scoring formula. The goal was for the groups score to be better than the best individual score. For 8 or the 17 tables (including mine) not only was this not the case, but the group score was actually worse than the average individual score.  I don’t really wanna get fully into the merits and failures of the bizarre scoring system, but I did learn some interesting things about survival. Firstly, in extreme heat of 130 degrees, if you know you have 70 miles to civilization and you have no water, to try to walk those 70 miles means almost certain death. Secondly, the absolute most critical thing is warding off dehydration, in fact if water is scarce, you should avoid eating even if food is plentiful because it will further dehydrate you. Thirdly, a top coat for every person trying to survive is an invaluable tool because it blocks your skin from the sun and slows the dehydration process, very counterintuitive.

As a whole orientation was fairly entertaining. Much of it was a study of human interactions, not too much unlike that VH1 reality show “the pickup artist” but not related to dating. Apparently in your first interaction with someone you should always say something very positive (about yourself, the location, anything) because it makes a far better impression than saying something like “this orientation is sooo boring” or something of that sort. On the last day an entrepreneur gave a fairly inspirational speech on how all it really takes to start your own business is the drive to do it regardless of what your told. She called it a “hungry foolishness” which is a rare trait for most people.  Anyway, I’m off for this week and classes start on Monday. As a sidenote, Fordham accepts credit card payment, and they take Amex and Mastercard but not Visa! Who doesn’t take Visa?

I had some friends in town for the past couple days and we did a few activities. We went to Max Brennars house of chocolate in union square which I really like. I love chocolate and it is a really unique place. If you know of more unique stuff like this around NYC let me know. Last night we went to Dave and Busters which I haven’t been to since High School. I remember thinking it was an amazing place to go but just super expensive. This time in my “old age” I found it is still fun but not quite as amazing, and way less expensive than it previously seemed. We spent only 20 dollars each on games for a couple hours. In high school i used to love the games in which you pretty much just sat at swiping your card trying to win as many tickets as possible to redeem for prizes. These “slot machines for the underaged” must have appealed to whatever gambling urges I have in me that never got out before I got into poker. Now those machines no longer appeal to me and we spent our time playing the competitive sports games. I think of myself as generally good at silly games that have no real value, and we started betting 5 dollars on each competition just as incentive to try. Somehow I managed to lose every single competition I played and ended up owing something like 60 dollars at the end of the night. I no longer have faith in my skills at throwing things up oddly shaped courts into assorted holes.

So far I have the following thoughts on New York neighborhoods. Columbus Circle where I live is awesome, it is just crowded enough most of the time and there is lots of fun stuff around. Time Square is kind of surreal so it’s fun to be in once but walking through there is pretty brutal since you bump into ten people every step so I will try to avoid it. Union square is really hopping and unique, I like it there. I haven’t made my way down to the village since moving yet, I look forward to exploring more. Murray Hill also seems like it would be a fun place to live.  I suppose that’s all I have to say for now. I apologize as I reread this because I think it is one of my more boring entries, but people have been asking what I’ve been up to so it is easier to write it here than recount it over and over. (And also I already wrote it so there’s no way I’m deleting it!)

I’m really tired and I have to wake up for orientation, just wanted to put up a quick update to not leave all my commenter’s from my last blog out in the cold. I already started talking to my friend who is arbitrating the freeroll and we are going to come up with some objective fitness goals to go along with the relatively simple objective academic goals that will govern the freeroll. I will do a whole blog about what we come up with and why soon.

I’m all moved in now and even though I have been to New York City countless times, it feels surreal to live here. When I got off the subway in Columbus Circle from Hoboken after having dinner with my family I saw my neighborhood at night for the first time (since I’ve known it’s my neighborhood) and I felt like I was part of a movie. I’ve lived only in Cities since starting college 8 years ago (Philadelphia and LA) but somehow this feels totally different. As a sidenote, Hoboken reminds me almost exactly of Pasadena (where I lived in LA county but not in LA city). Anyway its been a long couple days. I’ll update about orientation over the next couple days.

I am currently laying in the place where I have probably spent more hours of my life than any other specific place on earth, my bed in the house I grew up in. Sometimes when I am home visiting my mom I find the suburbs to be a dark frustrating place since lights turn off early and there are no city noises to accompany my thoughts. Such an atmosphere is not quite for me, but it is certainly good for blogging.

I have been a pretty avid gymnastics viewer during these Beijing Olympics and I have become a fan of Shawn Johnson. She always seems so cheerful, especially in contrast to her top counterparts from the USA and China including teammate Nastia Luiken who always seems to have a scowl on her face even as she collects medals like a child collects acorns from the Oak in the front yard. I was therefore very happy to see Shawn win the gold medal on the balance beam tonight (I know it wasn’t live tonight, but whatever, that’s when I saw it). To think of the amount of hard work, discipline and drive that Shawn Johnson at 16 is capable of is pretty much unfathomable to this poker player (who on a good day may be described as a bit lazy). The announcer told some corny anecdote as she accepted her gold, saying that “she bounced into [her coach’s] gym and within a few days he asked her, How good do you want to be?”.

This got me thinking about choices I make and the extent I can blame my natural (lack of) skills for not being a world class athlete (or world class anything). Almost anyone is capable of finding a path, almost anyone is capable of greatness. Going down this path the right way, putting up with all the nonsense, difficulties and self-inflicted obstacles is the part where I believe I falter (and most others do as well). I suddenly realized that I have no legitimate excuse for not reaching my goals. I have been given pretty much everything from birth. A good place to grow up, a good family (especially if my sister accepts the butler job), a path, and enough intelligence and athletic ability to get by. Really with any activity the question is only how good I want to be.

I told myself long ago that I wanted to get into the best physical shape I possibly could (within the confines of a normal life). This requires eating far better than my current 20 grilled cheese/day and going to the gym far more than once per week on a good week. So I move to New York tomorrow and I am giving all the Full Tilt railbirds that read my blog a freeroll. Be one of the first 10 people (that I don’t know) to comment on this blog saying anything with any substance, then at the end say add me to the freeroll list. By the end of my first trimester of business school, I must have a minimum of a B+ in every class AND be on track to reach my athletic goals (I will have my friend who lives in NYC with the best work ethic I know be the official arbiter). If I fail at either of these, I will transfer all 10 of the freerollers 150$ on full tilt. I want to note that I’m not putting up this bounty to motivate myself since I’m not sure that $1,500 dollars would be enough to motivate me to do what I have to do, but rather to prove to those who know me that I’m serious.

As a sidenote, if you live in NYC drop me a line, I’m excited to get there!

I first would like to sincerely apologize for not blogging in forever, lots of changes are happening right now and I’m going to write a megablog here to inform my loyal readers on the minutia of my life. First I want to talk a bit about my business school applications and results (and tilt a bit). Ever since I was little, I was always considered “smart” by those who society deemed qualified to evaluate such things. I was near the top of most of my classes, went to a good college (which was the sole one I applied to) and graduated with honors. I write this not to brag as I am far prouder of some other accomplishments that most people would consider very pedestrian (maybe I’ll write a  future blog about those) but merely to explain that I am simply not used to academic rejection. With that in mind, excuse my frustration as I tell my B school application story.

I knew in the fall that I wanted to be in Philly or NYC for B school so I only applied to 4 schools, NYU Stern, Columbia, Wharton and Fordham GBA. From my preliminary research, there were 3 primary objective factors to getting into B school which were undergrad university/GPA, GMAT score and work experience. As far as test scores and GPA goes, I was right in the ballpark for a top school (which NYU, Wharton and Columbia all are), and as for work experience, well I had my work cut out for me with how to spin poker. I took great care on my applications to try to explain the difficulty of surviving 3 years in the poker world, making my moniker “stevesbets” into a marketable brand name, and writing a blog that gets thousands of hits.

I was granted interviews everywhere which was a great first step since many applicants are denied interviews, but at NYU, Wharton and Columbia that is as far as I got.  Each rejection frustrated me more and more, particularly Wharton since I went to Penn undergrad and have strong emotional and tangible connections with the University. It also didn’t help that the very day I received word of my rejection I got a solicitation for  money. As a result of this rejection I will NEVER give my undergrad alma mater a dime. My friend Luke (http://lukekim.blogspot.com) says that this stance is silly since the fund raising department has nothing to do with Wharton admissions. He has always been far more robotic and perhaps logical than me, and I cannot give them the same pardon that he would.

Anyway, Wharton offered what I think is an incredibly unique service: they were willing to have an admissions committee representative chat with me for 20 minutes about why i got rejected, of course I took them up on this. The woman came on the phone and I really wish I had recorded the conversation, I will paraphrase what she said to the best of my ability.

“Steven, So I’m looking at your application and you are obviously very bright. All your scores are great and you would be a great addition to our community. With that said, we were kind of grasping at straws with you, trying to find a reason to accept you and in the end we just couldn’t. You have done nothing professionally for 2+ years since college aside from play cards, you have shown zero teamwork, leadership, accountability to anyone except yourself or ties to the community.”

Now since this was a very kind service, I knew I couldn’t waste her time and mine defending myself, but I couldn’t help but ask if all those things were her way of paraphrasing that she wanted me to have a more standard job. Her response:

“Well a job may help, but frankly we are very open minded and we take people that do all sorts of interesting and obscure things. It’s just that you’ve shown no leadership, teamwork or accountability”

At this point I couldn’t resist but say one thing about my application since it directly contradicted what she was saying, I pointed out a very strong recommendation from someone who staked me who I won alot for (meaning someone who TRUSTED me with a large sum of money, had FAITH in my poker ability, who I was ACCOUNTABLE too and who had success with me). Her response:

“Well yes that’s true, but you still int eh past 2 years you have shown no teamwork, leadership and little accountability so that left us in a bind and we had to pass”

The conversation pretty much ended there and I thanked her for her time. The thing that really bugged me about her commentary was her way of paraphrasing that they wanted me to have a “legitimate” business job and my lack of one was the reason for my rejection. I believe she chose not to say it that way because she didn’t want Wharton to come off as close minded. How could she say I haven’t shown leadership when I’ve supported myself all on my own for over 5 years now? How could she say I’ve shown no accountability when other people trust me with sums of money far greater than most people right out of college deal with? As for ties to the community, do most people who enter business school volunteer at a boys and girls club? I thought they were too busy working 100 hours a week to create community ties. End of rant.

Anyway, I got into Fordham and I am thrilled to be going to New York. My classes are in a great location right by Columbus Circle and I look forward to making those other schools regret their decision. I was told by my Columbia interviewer that B schools want people that will be successful alumni who make tons of money so they can brag about them. That is the only way to make those schools regret their decision. I have to say it will be very strange to no longer be just a poker player, I have been doing it for a full three years and going back to school will be interesting, I am very excited for the opportunity.

To switch gears, it has been just a day and a month since the coke pepsi challenge (see an earlier blog for details). Since that day I have been running really hot at poker for pretty much the first time since last thanksgiving. I have been playing on average about 10 hours a day in that stretch of time, a number that will have to go drastically down once I move to NYC and start school.  If you live in the city, feel free to drop me a line (by leaving a comment, i don’t always get the emails from the form on this blog since the spammers found it)

Now onto a couple random tilts before I wrap this blog up. I went to see the Dark Knight in IMAX a few days after it came out. It was my favorite movie ever and I”ll probably write a future blog about it, but for now I just need to tilt about parents who don’t control their kids. I think society needs MUCH harsher laws against people that disturb the peace.Repeatedly talking loudly in a movie theater full of people that paid money to be absorbed by the film is totally unacceptable. Little kids obviously cannot be held accountable, but their parents sure as hell should be. At batman, there was a family of 4 behind me with two little kids. They constantly screamed, talked loudly and kicked my seat throughout the movie. Their parents did little to nothing to make them behave better. If your kids cannot behave in a socially acceptable manner at a movie, don’t bring them! I honestly cannot FATHOM letting potential future kids of mine annoy a theater full of strangers without doing something. I think the parents should be fined the price of the tickets of everyone in the theater, that would stop such outrageous failure to act

One more tilt, then I’ll let u leave and go read another blog or do whatever else it is my readers do with their days. I cannot stand when waiters or waitresses do not write down my order then get it wrong. Do they think they are impressing me with their memories? I know their job is tough and they have to deal with many people so write it down. Far worse than that though is when they do not write it down, get it wrong, then protest when I say that it isn’t what I ordered, this sends me on the verge of insanity but I usually just politely say well I may have been mistaken but could you please replace it with what I want anyway. I am a very generous tipper especially when service is good. I think the range of tipping should be far wider. Most people tip 15-20% regardless of service. I am sometimes guilty of this myself, but I would far rather tip between 0 and 40% to truly reward servers who are exemplary  and punish those who ignore, misquote or otherwise marginal me.

Today I had a particularly unlucky day. I was taking the train, and at the station you have to take either an escalator or stairs to and from the platform. On the way outbound i had to go down and the escalator was going up, inbound I had to go up and the escalator was going down making me a very unlucky 0 for 2 on easy rides and 2 for 2 on having to take the stairs.