I'm a sucker (nonpoker content)

I think I've mentioned this before. I'm a sucker for points. Just assign points to anything and I'll start going after it. For example, these days there are tons of credit card incentives where you can earn points by simply making purchases and you earn x amount of points per dollar. But if you shop at certain stores, you make 3x that amount or maybe 5x that amount. When I hear that, I start by looking at those stores first. Then, you know, you can trade your points in for some cool prize you'll never use. It's perfect, really.

Our home game league, PAPT (Park Ave Poker Tour) also has the point system. Every Tuesday, a similar group of 8-10 players show up for a $25 buy-in SNG style game. Each week, $15 of the total pot is set aside for this main prize that goes to the Player of the Year. The POY is determined by the points that you earn based on coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd (5, 3, 1 pts, respectively). I swear. If it weren't for that stupid points system, I wouldn't go as frequently as I do. I love the company there and it's always a good time but Tuesdays are generally tough because I play basketball in the mornings. So, I'm out of bed at 6am, go to play ball by 7am and then work all day, and at 8pm, this thing starts. And since I always expect to win (I mean don't we all???), basically, I'll be there till about 11pm on an early night or midnight. It just makes for a very exhausting day. So, there are times around 7pm, I'm feeling the effects of the long day and I'm in the mood to just sit around and maybe play online for an hour or two... But what gets me off my ass to go play? Why, the points of course. The prospect of the points always make me coming back for more. Last night, I took it down and with 8 runners, 1st place prize was $125. That was nice but really, that's like nothing compared to the 5 pts I got. No, really. I mean it.

And then now, there are these stupid poker sites and their freakin points. Fulltilt has the stupid Ironman Challenge where you earn more medals by earning certain amount of points each day. So, I have to try to maximize that. Now granted, my video ipod should be on its way now so I can't really complain about the points. And now, Pokerstars just sent me an email saying they are giving me 750 points for this month so I only need to earn another 750 points to be upgraded to silver level. You know I'm gonna go after that... Please... marketing departments... stop with these points... it's literally killing me...

Ok, really. You wanna know how bad it is for me? Last night, before the PAPT, I booted up my laptop and I three tabled for about an hour just for the sole purpose of earning my 200pts on Fulltilt. How? Before I sit at the table, I open up the cashier screen to see how many points I have. I add 200 to that number and write that down. I keep my cashier window open in one corner and I have three cash tables going on at the same time. As soon as I passed that "magic number", I quit. So what I was down $300? I got my 200pts. These fuckin points are definitely -EV for me... and yet I can't stop it.... must... earn... points...

Oh... and one more thing that really has nothing to do with points. But I'm in the mood to babble on so here it comes. I'm a sucker for stick figures too. Stick figures crack me up... actually, any sort of crude drawings crack me up. Wes's blog just reminded me of that. So, I leave with you, a few pictures that my friends drew... they, like me, obviously are hard at work since these came during work hours (we don't have time to do shit like that after work!!):





HA HA HA HA HA... these make me laugh, just by looking at it on my blog... Yeah, so I'm a freakin 12 yr old. Leave me alone. It's my blog.