I never knew how much frustration and hard work went into being a league manager of a fantasy basketball league. My fantasy league consists of 12 teams and one very vocal team. His name rhymes with Lyle Pee. He has a legitimate argument and has every right to be angry, but I’m also in a weird situation. Here it goes:
There are two teams in question, Team Bad and Team Habits. They are close friends and don’t really know any of the other people in the league that well. When the trade deadline was two weeks away, a very questionable trade was accepted.
Team Bad traded Jose Calderon and Chris Kaman.
Team Habits traded Jason Kidd and Tim Duncan.
It’s a pretty unfair trade to anyone that follows fantasy basketball, but blah. The league veto was at 4 and I thought it would get vetoed easily. For whatever reason, the trade went through. So Lyle Pee is already upset as he is in 4th place at the moment. He sort of makes a big deal but gets over it.
So now this week, Team Bad and Team Habits are playing each other and on the last couple of days. Team Habits (who is out of playoff contention) benches all of his players to let Team Bad win 8-1. Lyle Pee has had enough and posts a very angry message on the message board pretty much demanding that they get kicked out.
Another team (in 3rd place) is also angry and says that something should be done.
But, what am I supposed to do? I tried to keep the peace between all members of the league for the whole year. But now I just can’t wait for the season to be over. I can care less about the money. I guess my options are:
A) Give everyone refunds of their $20
B) Kick both of the teams in question out of the league (for some unmentioned reasons, this is pretty unlikely”
C) Split the prize money right now some way
D) Allow the upset league members a refund and continue
E) Keep everyone’s money and tell them to gtfo.
Blahh, being league manager is so annoying. Maybe it’s because my team sucks.
I bet on the USA Canada hockey game. I asked my “hockey” roommate if he wanted to bet on it with me. He said he would bet Canada -1 and I said alright. So I booked it online and tried my hardest to watch it. Before the game, they were hyping the game as the biggest game “ever” or something like that. They showed the teams and the rowdy crowd and all the Olympic history and prestige. I was a little excited. But, I just couldn’t get into the game. I recorded the game since I had to do laundry at the starting time. But damn, I can’t get into hockey like basketball or football. I ended up watching the game in fast forward for about a period and a half. Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead but USA scored with 24 seconds left and the game went to overtime. I was pretty bored and just took a shower and came out and saw that Canada won in overtime, for the PUSH. I think hockey needs to make the goals bigger to increase scoring and have a shootout at some point in the game just to increase scoring. This may be a fail, but watching a hockey game that ends in a 14-13 score would be more intense.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
just tell him
At work, one of our most “lively” clients is named Mary was talking about her 9-year old son. Mary is single and one of those loud, crazy, outspoken, opinionated ladies. She is a mother of two and divorced her husband recently. But anyway, she was saying how her son, Adrian wants to start playing baseball and how he “sucks” her words, no mine. She complained how there is no one that can teach him since Adrian’s father is no longer in the picture. I guess Mary’s older son was very good at baseball and she said she wouldn’t show up to the games if Adrian is the worst player on the team. Haha So my boss recommended that she pay a college or high school student to teach Adrian how to play. I quietly said I played baseball in high school and she quickly wrote down her number.
I asked her what experience Adrian has in sports and what league he is in. So she told me that he is athletic and takes fencing pretty seriously. Touché? And she said he likes Yu-gi-oh which was pretty irrelevant. But, anyway, I was pretty nervous about teaching a kid how to play baseball. But it was also pretty exciting. I had some time off the next day. So I went to Sports Authority to buy some wiffle balls so I can toss them to him.
So I show up 20 minutes early to the park where we were to meet. And Mary and Adrian pull up and stretch before we get started. Mary asks if I need her help, and I say sure. So, we start to throw to each other, and it’s clear that he is afraid of the ball. I try and tell him how to catch a ball that is above his waist and a ball that is below his waist. He says Ok, but is just afraid of the ball so it doesn’t make a difference. Mary comes out of her car with running shoes and still wearing a dress skirt. We continue to throw for about 5 minutes, and then Adrian sort of jumps out of the way when I throw it directly to him. Mary is behind me at this point and says:
“Grant, you could tell him, just tell him.”
I say, “What?”
“Don’t worry, just tell him”
Again, I say “what?”
“She says/yells, “Adrian, when you do that, you look like a faggot.”
I couldn’t believe she said that. But, I sort of did this half smile, mumble “no” and turn to Adrian to catch his throw. lol
It was pretty funny, but pretty sad. If she is saying these sort of things in front of me, I have no idea what she says when they are alone. I felt bad for Adrian, he was trying his hardest, but Mary is very demanding and intimidating.
So we ran the bases, threw, and hit wiffle balls for two hours. It seemed that Adrian enjoyed it. But I’m scared for him because he’s in “majors” where kids are going to be pitching to him.
This whole experience made me realize how fortunate I was to have a dad that wanted to teach me how to play baseball. My dad didn’t know the most about baseball or anything, but he would always want to play catch or go to the batting cages with me. If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve never played for as long as I did. I miss baseball so much.
I asked her what experience Adrian has in sports and what league he is in. So she told me that he is athletic and takes fencing pretty seriously. Touché? And she said he likes Yu-gi-oh which was pretty irrelevant. But, anyway, I was pretty nervous about teaching a kid how to play baseball. But it was also pretty exciting. I had some time off the next day. So I went to Sports Authority to buy some wiffle balls so I can toss them to him.
So I show up 20 minutes early to the park where we were to meet. And Mary and Adrian pull up and stretch before we get started. Mary asks if I need her help, and I say sure. So, we start to throw to each other, and it’s clear that he is afraid of the ball. I try and tell him how to catch a ball that is above his waist and a ball that is below his waist. He says Ok, but is just afraid of the ball so it doesn’t make a difference. Mary comes out of her car with running shoes and still wearing a dress skirt. We continue to throw for about 5 minutes, and then Adrian sort of jumps out of the way when I throw it directly to him. Mary is behind me at this point and says:
“Grant, you could tell him, just tell him.”
I say, “What?”
“Don’t worry, just tell him”
Again, I say “what?”
“She says/yells, “Adrian, when you do that, you look like a faggot.”
I couldn’t believe she said that. But, I sort of did this half smile, mumble “no” and turn to Adrian to catch his throw. lol
It was pretty funny, but pretty sad. If she is saying these sort of things in front of me, I have no idea what she says when they are alone. I felt bad for Adrian, he was trying his hardest, but Mary is very demanding and intimidating.
So we ran the bases, threw, and hit wiffle balls for two hours. It seemed that Adrian enjoyed it. But I’m scared for him because he’s in “majors” where kids are going to be pitching to him.
This whole experience made me realize how fortunate I was to have a dad that wanted to teach me how to play baseball. My dad didn’t know the most about baseball or anything, but he would always want to play catch or go to the batting cages with me. If it wasn’t for him, I would’ve never played for as long as I did. I miss baseball so much.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
How to lose $1000 over the internet.
This all happened about a year and a half ago. I’m a so-so regular poster on the two plus two forums which is one of the biggest online poker forums. There is a “person to person” transfer thread that I like to follow. In online poker, there are about 4 big online poker rooms. The two biggest are Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars. The two smaller ones are CakePoker and UltimateBet. And sometimes, people have money on one site, but want to transfer the money to another site. I found this thread and saw that it was a somewhat easy way to make some money. It is common for someone to say something like “Have 100 on Stars, want 95 on FTP”. So the $5 vig would go to me for the “service.” I got addicted to this. I would make $10 here, $5 there, and sometimes people were in desperate need and would pay vigs as high as $20 (One guy sent me 100 on one site, and I only had to send 80 to him) This probably sounds shady (and it probably is), but the fact that other people had to send first, made it seem pretty safe. However, there is always a risk involved. For example, if someone steals a credit card, they can put $ on to a site, but the money will show up as fraudulent in about a day or two. But before the money gets flagged, they can trade with someone to receive clean money on another site. So blah blah blah, one day I get a private message from this name “TEAM ANGLE” saying that he wants a trade of $1000 from Stars to FTP. I spent about 30 minutes talking to this guy on AIM trying to make sure he is legit. He showed me screenshots of him playing and his results. I googled “team angle” and saw that he is a winning player blah blah blah. He wanted Bank of America money for his Stars money (which is pretty common). If I remember correctly, it was something like $1100 of his Stars money for $1000 of my Bank of America money. How can I turn down a free $100. So we end up trading and I’m feeling pretty good about myself.
However, in the morning, I get the most depressing email of my life. It goes something like “We regret to inform you that you have received $1,100 in fraudulent funds. Your account is now under investigation. Please reply with your relationship with the following player “TEAM ANGIE”. I couldn’t believe it. In many cases like this, the $1100 would get confiscated from my account and I am the one who is out of the $$$. I got scammed like a bitchhh. The whole time I thought I was dealing with a player “Team Angle” but instead this scammer had the name “team angie”. He switched the L with and I. And so gg me.
So, I’m panicking and do not know what to do. So, here’s the situation so far. I sent $1000 in Bank of America money (clean), and have $1100 in Poker Stars money (dirty). So what else would someone do in my situation? The correct answer would be to sit tight and wait til Poker Stars finishes their investigation. But what did I do?
I tried as quickly as I could to “trade” all my dirty Stars money to some random person on twoplustwo. Haha
It worked, well kind of. I had a good reputation at this point on 2plus2, and easily sent all BUT $400 of my Stars money in exchange for clean Full Tilt money. So, at this point I’m still freaking out and finally have to go outside for a run. I get back and stare and refresh yahoo to see the inevitable email from Stars. They finally send me an email asking why I would send money to people knowing that my funds were “fraudulent”. I forgot what I said, but I knew I was in trouble. They asked for all different kinds of identification and my explanation of the situation. But blah blah blah, in the end, Stars takes $1100 from my Stars account (which leaves me break-even). I actually had a negative balance, of -600. I deposited my account with 700 and stars instantly took $600. I was relieved to say the least. And that was the last time I made a bigger trade than I’m comfortable with.
However, in the morning, I get the most depressing email of my life. It goes something like “We regret to inform you that you have received $1,100 in fraudulent funds. Your account is now under investigation. Please reply with your relationship with the following player “TEAM ANGIE”. I couldn’t believe it. In many cases like this, the $1100 would get confiscated from my account and I am the one who is out of the $$$. I got scammed like a bitchhh. The whole time I thought I was dealing with a player “Team Angle” but instead this scammer had the name “team angie”. He switched the L with and I. And so gg me.
So, I’m panicking and do not know what to do. So, here’s the situation so far. I sent $1000 in Bank of America money (clean), and have $1100 in Poker Stars money (dirty). So what else would someone do in my situation? The correct answer would be to sit tight and wait til Poker Stars finishes their investigation. But what did I do?
I tried as quickly as I could to “trade” all my dirty Stars money to some random person on twoplustwo. Haha
It worked, well kind of. I had a good reputation at this point on 2plus2, and easily sent all BUT $400 of my Stars money in exchange for clean Full Tilt money. So, at this point I’m still freaking out and finally have to go outside for a run. I get back and stare and refresh yahoo to see the inevitable email from Stars. They finally send me an email asking why I would send money to people knowing that my funds were “fraudulent”. I forgot what I said, but I knew I was in trouble. They asked for all different kinds of identification and my explanation of the situation. But blah blah blah, in the end, Stars takes $1100 from my Stars account (which leaves me break-even). I actually had a negative balance, of -600. I deposited my account with 700 and stars instantly took $600. I was relieved to say the least. And that was the last time I made a bigger trade than I’m comfortable with.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
I think I just found $300. I’m 95% sure.
I’ve been playing primarily on Bodog Poker for the past month or two. Therefore, I don’t need money on Full Tilt or Poker Stars. Therefore, I’ve requested a $200 check in early January. I didn’t receive the check in 2 weeks so I emailed FTP and told them to put a stop-payment on the check and just return the $200 to my account. And a couple days after my email, the $200 was returned to my account. I went on a forum and I was reassured that the checks were coming quicker now. So I requested another one for $422. I received this check about a week ago and deposited it through my BOA checking account. However, I just received several emails today stating that the $422 check is not going to be honored. So, I’m pretty upset at the hassle and probable fee that I will face. But then I see two other emails stating that $422 has been credited to my FTP with a $50 bonus for the inconvenience. Then I receive another email with the same message but only about the $200 check, with an additional $50 bonus. But I had already been credited with the $200 check that I requested. So, I’m pretty sure (unless I’m missing something) that I received an extra $200, plus $100 in extra inconvenience money.
Stories I hope I never forget
-Another funny story that I want to remember was with my mom and my dad. My mom was having a rough day as she came home for lunch before I left. While I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom, this is what I hear.
Mom “Everyone is annoying me at work”
Dad “like who?”
Mom “you”
Dad “who else?”
I forgot what my mom said after this.
I thought it was hilarious because the exchange was so quick. Maybe it’s not so funny.
-A very funny story that I hope I do not forget is “Bad Habits.” So, all the housemates decided to go eat out on Friday night before Russ left for Vegas. We ate at Chili’s and of course I loose CC roulette. But anyway, there was 4 of us in the car on the way home. And we see a raccoon in the street and I saw something like, “Raccoons scare the crap out of me” And then Bassy chimes in and says, “Dude, Raccoons have such bad habits.” I was very confused as to what he was talking about. Someone in the car says “what”? and Bassy responds with “Yeah dude, the mother eats out of a garbage in front of her cubs, just teaching them bad habits” Jt and I just look at each other and wonder if he is ACTUALLY referring to raccoons and how they have bad habits." And I just start laughing like crazy. Now, his nick name is “Bad Habits”
-Russ and I decided to play catch at the park about 2 blocks away. Everything was going fine, and we decide to throw pop-ups to each other. I threw a nice, high ball directly to Russ (Russ does this funny thing where he “calls” off the other outfielders with his hand). But anyway, Russ is a funny guy where if he sees something, he believes that he can do the same. So Russ, decides to throw me a high pop-up.
He winds up, and throws the ball as high as he can. Immediately as it left his hand, I start to run to my right toward the parking lot. The ball kept going, and going. In this parking lot, there were 3 cars. I continue to run about 100 feet until I’m in the middle of the parking lot. And I’m thinking HOLY FCUK, it’s going to hit the cars. So I keep running, until I reach the cars, I put my hand on the trunk because I can’t run anymore, and pray that the owner of the car is rather calm. I put my head down to expect the worst, and I hear the ball land directly in between the two cars. I immediately looked at Russ, threw my glove in the air, and laid down on the grass.
Russ is the luckiest man alive.
I told him that if he tried 100 more times to try and throw a pop-up, and make it land in between those two cars, there’s No way that he could do it.
Mom “Everyone is annoying me at work”
Dad “like who?”
Mom “you”
Dad “who else?”
I forgot what my mom said after this.
I thought it was hilarious because the exchange was so quick. Maybe it’s not so funny.
-A very funny story that I hope I do not forget is “Bad Habits.” So, all the housemates decided to go eat out on Friday night before Russ left for Vegas. We ate at Chili’s and of course I loose CC roulette. But anyway, there was 4 of us in the car on the way home. And we see a raccoon in the street and I saw something like, “Raccoons scare the crap out of me” And then Bassy chimes in and says, “Dude, Raccoons have such bad habits.” I was very confused as to what he was talking about. Someone in the car says “what”? and Bassy responds with “Yeah dude, the mother eats out of a garbage in front of her cubs, just teaching them bad habits” Jt and I just look at each other and wonder if he is ACTUALLY referring to raccoons and how they have bad habits." And I just start laughing like crazy. Now, his nick name is “Bad Habits”
-Russ and I decided to play catch at the park about 2 blocks away. Everything was going fine, and we decide to throw pop-ups to each other. I threw a nice, high ball directly to Russ (Russ does this funny thing where he “calls” off the other outfielders with his hand). But anyway, Russ is a funny guy where if he sees something, he believes that he can do the same. So Russ, decides to throw me a high pop-up.
He winds up, and throws the ball as high as he can. Immediately as it left his hand, I start to run to my right toward the parking lot. The ball kept going, and going. In this parking lot, there were 3 cars. I continue to run about 100 feet until I’m in the middle of the parking lot. And I’m thinking HOLY FCUK, it’s going to hit the cars. So I keep running, until I reach the cars, I put my hand on the trunk because I can’t run anymore, and pray that the owner of the car is rather calm. I put my head down to expect the worst, and I hear the ball land directly in between the two cars. I immediately looked at Russ, threw my glove in the air, and laid down on the grass.
Russ is the luckiest man alive.
I told him that if he tried 100 more times to try and throw a pop-up, and make it land in between those two cars, there’s No way that he could do it.
allenmpc
Very few people know what 'allenmpc' is. But to those that do know what the significance, knows how amazing 'it' is. Well, allenmpc is the youtube account for one of the most high-profile "box breaking" groups on youtube. It consists of the same 4 group of Philipino men who open the most expensive basketball cards on the market. Their favorite product to open is Exquisite basketball. Each box/pack costs roughly $600-700 if you can believe that. They open 30+ boxes per "break" which is just absolutely ridiculous. It's so addicting to watch them. But, they have a serious problem, an addiction. And it's bad.
Sports card collectors are worse than people who spend their entire paycheck on lotto tickets. Thinking economically, their "expected value" or EV is negative. For every box they open or lottery ticket someone buys, they are SUPPOSED to loose money. If a situation is Plus (positive) EV, then if you played for eternity, you will win. For example, in a casino, everything (except for poker and sports gambling) is negative EV. For every bet that is placed, the casino is supposed to win money. And if they don't, it's only temporary. It's equivalent to burning money. Maybe that's why people love to watch them (allenmpc). In reality, they are addicted. It's the same as a gambling addiction. Gamblers know what a "high" is. No drugs are involved. But when you gamble, you feel this "high" that some get addicted to. It's a sensation of winning and losing money that takes control of your body. You don't think clearly, but all you want to do is gamble higher and higher.
For example, a 21-year old man will gamble for the first time and bet $1 on blackjack and feel the "high" of gambling. He will enjoy it and blah blah blah. The next time, he knows that that feels like but it will not affect him as much. He will need to bet $2 on blackjack each hand for him to "feel" anything. It's a sickness. And Allenmpc has changed over time. I watched their earlier videos from over a year ago. They were excited to pull a MJ or Lebron auto card. That was their "high". They would yell and high five. But now, they pull a Lebron auto and don't feel anything. They need to play "bigger" in order to feel that same "high" they once felt. But the problem is, there is nothing "bigger". It's a cycle that cannot be broken unless they quit altogether. They keep draining money like its nothing. I'm not sure of where they get the money. But, perhaps they are very wealthy and can afford to have this hobby. I hope so. As a fan of allenmpc, i hope they do not quit "busting" boxes of Exquisite. But someday, they might get the picture.
For some reason or another, I don't quite fit this example. I've been playing online poker for about 4 years now and haven't really moved up in stakes. I am very content where i am playing. I am currently playing the $20-30 Heads up Sit-n-goes on BodogPoker. However, about a year or two ago, I was playing the $50 hu sngs on ftp and was doing pretty decent. But, I for whatever reason, I do not like the swings. I'm just not a happy person when I go on a downswing. Which is pretty interesting. I'm not sure if it's just poker players, or humans in general.
But when I win $150 in one session, I am pretty happy but whatever. However, if I lose $60, i'm pretty visibly upset and want desperately to keep playing. It's weird, but as a poker player, i don't get as happy as I do sad when i lose. If that makes sense.
This is very random, i know.
Sports card collectors are worse than people who spend their entire paycheck on lotto tickets. Thinking economically, their "expected value" or EV is negative. For every box they open or lottery ticket someone buys, they are SUPPOSED to loose money. If a situation is Plus (positive) EV, then if you played for eternity, you will win. For example, in a casino, everything (except for poker and sports gambling) is negative EV. For every bet that is placed, the casino is supposed to win money. And if they don't, it's only temporary. It's equivalent to burning money. Maybe that's why people love to watch them (allenmpc). In reality, they are addicted. It's the same as a gambling addiction. Gamblers know what a "high" is. No drugs are involved. But when you gamble, you feel this "high" that some get addicted to. It's a sensation of winning and losing money that takes control of your body. You don't think clearly, but all you want to do is gamble higher and higher.
For example, a 21-year old man will gamble for the first time and bet $1 on blackjack and feel the "high" of gambling. He will enjoy it and blah blah blah. The next time, he knows that that feels like but it will not affect him as much. He will need to bet $2 on blackjack each hand for him to "feel" anything. It's a sickness. And Allenmpc has changed over time. I watched their earlier videos from over a year ago. They were excited to pull a MJ or Lebron auto card. That was their "high". They would yell and high five. But now, they pull a Lebron auto and don't feel anything. They need to play "bigger" in order to feel that same "high" they once felt. But the problem is, there is nothing "bigger". It's a cycle that cannot be broken unless they quit altogether. They keep draining money like its nothing. I'm not sure of where they get the money. But, perhaps they are very wealthy and can afford to have this hobby. I hope so. As a fan of allenmpc, i hope they do not quit "busting" boxes of Exquisite. But someday, they might get the picture.
For some reason or another, I don't quite fit this example. I've been playing online poker for about 4 years now and haven't really moved up in stakes. I am very content where i am playing. I am currently playing the $20-30 Heads up Sit-n-goes on BodogPoker. However, about a year or two ago, I was playing the $50 hu sngs on ftp and was doing pretty decent. But, I for whatever reason, I do not like the swings. I'm just not a happy person when I go on a downswing. Which is pretty interesting. I'm not sure if it's just poker players, or humans in general.
But when I win $150 in one session, I am pretty happy but whatever. However, if I lose $60, i'm pretty visibly upset and want desperately to keep playing. It's weird, but as a poker player, i don't get as happy as I do sad when i lose. If that makes sense.
This is very random, i know.
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