Heath Scare and a Computer Upgrade

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 23, 2010 in computer | 3 comments

Yes, those two things in the headline for this blog entry are mutually exclusive.

Heath

I had developed an issue that I didn't think was a big deal and ended up getting so bad I went to Urgent Care on Friday morning.  I spent 2.5 hours there getting tested and the news sucked.  I don't want to get into it but I am fine, what I had was totally treatable, and thanks to the meds is now gone (Monday).  I found out it's both dietary and hereditary so with the proper diet and exercise I'll be just fine.  The bad news, outside of the discomfort I was in, was that I had to stay home per the doctor's orders.  What that meant was that a trip to Pala Casino and Deepstacks Live was cancelled, along with my chance to interview and hang out with Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and BoostedJ, two guys I've wanted to meet.  But, I am glad I got myself sorted out obviously, and there will be other times to meet those two down the road.

Computer Upgrade

My computer had been wigging out on me for the last two weeks include a scare last week when StarCraft 2 inexplicably crashed, my computer shut down and then would die in the middle of booting to Windows.  It took over an hour to get it working again.  I kept an eye on the system after that and this entire week it was lagging and then during poker sessions (the last straw I tell you!!) the entire computer would freeze for 60 seconds ... and I'd time out on every hand and table.  UGH.

So - I upgraded on Sunday since I was feeling so much better.  Here's what I got:

This is the Intel i7 930 Quad-Core processor that runs at 2.8GHz and can overclock itself to beyond.  It's an amazing processor!

This is the Asus P6T X58 Motherboard, which can do some overclocking but I do not plan to go down that road for a while. This thing screams as it is, but this Mobo will let me have 24GB of RAM if I wanted! Great looking board and worked right away, so kudos to ASUS for another fine product.

Here we have the Corsair Patriot 6GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM kit.  Because I installed Windows 7 64-bit edition, I have more than 3GB of maximum RAM now which is awesome since I run 23 programs at once typically and do stuff like Camtasia or gaming which can be RAM intensive.

This puppy is the 128MB Corsair Nova Solid State Hard Drive.  I got this to be my primary hard drive to put my Operating System and basic software on (meaning Adobe Suite, MS Office, and of course HEM and PostgreSQL).  This is one of the fastest SSDs on the market for read/write, which is why I went with this one which was $50 more than the Kingston version of the same size but was significantly slower.

The result was that my computer boots up in like ... oh ... 5 seconds.  No joke.  Things like FireFox or Chrome load up instantaneously once I click the button to start them.  The speed of this machine is unlike anything I have ever seen before.  I find myself one very satisfied computer user now!!!

The Laptop Arriveth! ASUS G73JH-A2!

Posted by icemonkey9 on Mar 18, 2010 in computer | 1 comment

You might remember me posting back in January about this new kickass laptop I pre-ordered over at XoticPc.com and how it would rock my world.  Well, consider it rocked my friends.

I bought the new Asus G73JH-A2 system and it's absolutely outstanding.  I can't believe how amazing this laptop is ... here's a picture of it but it really doesn't do it justice:

The screen is a 17" full 1080p, meaning it runs at 1900x1080 resolution and it is absolutely gorgeous and actually is as good or maybe a little bit better than the new MacBook Pros I have seen.  The keyboard is a full sized keyboard with the number pad and the touchpad is pretty standard but nicely done.  It comes with a BluRay Reader / DVD Burner which is amazing too.

Did I talk about the horsepower?  It has the new Intel i7 720 chip which is amazing and has a really cool widget for Windows 7 that shows you how fast it's running at any given moment.  If you are idle or just surfing the net, it'll run around 1.6GHz, but if you are doing some high intensive single thread application I have seen it reach 2.8GHz.  Did I mention the 8GB of RAM?  Or the dual 500GB 7200rpm drives? What about the EAX 4.0 Sound card that makes my Sennheiser headphones rock?

Yes my friends, this is a very rare but shameless brag post.

I was able to install all my video games on there in addition to the poker software I like to use.  Importing hands was a breeze and I regularly saw 70-80 hands per second speed times building the new database which was good to see.  Playing games like "Kane's Wrath" with every single feature turned on was an amazingly fun experience.  This thing has an ATI HD Radeon 5870 video card (1GB) inside so it's built for high performance gaming.  I can hardly wait for StarCraft II!!!

Anyways this means I will be very happy when I am not home or just decide to not be at my main computer in the office.  I'll also be able to do all my work on the road too, since before I wasn't able to do any video work for the sites I write for since Camtasia doesn't work on a MacBook and the alternatives kinda suck for Mac.

For poker this thing is going to rock.  Considering the 17" widescreen LCD and the amazing resolution, I can tiled 12 tables without any trouble at all.  Should make grinding a lot of fun, assuming I don't gouge out my eyes at how bad I have run in March.  BUT the good news is that life stuff is going really well, and I'd always rather run bad at the tables and good in real life than the opposite!

A Couple of Big Purchases – Asus G73JH and Sennheiser HD555

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 20, 2010 in computer | 2 comments

I am notorious for never spending money on myself and buying family and friends things that they need that they can't afford.  It's not like I am doing really well right now, I'm definitely not.  It's just my nature to be giving.  However, there is one thing I will splurge on for myself and thats my computer and its accessories.  It's a nice thing because it does come with a heafty price tag but I only do it every 2-3 years at most.

The first big purchase was a new laptop.  I had my MacBook Pro for 3.5 years and although it is still running great, for what I do in my day-to-day activities I am just not a Mac guy.  Now, for general computing and all that, yes, Mac is awesome.  Video Editing? Mac all the way.  Gaming/Poker/Other stuff that I do, Windows is definitely the way to go.

So I found a site called Xoticpc.com which sells specialized high-end laptops and systems for a good price with excellent customer service.  I found the following laptop and was able to score it at a price I just couldn't believe:

ASUS G73JH

The Specs on this thing are through the roof:

• 17.3" monitor at 1920x1080 resolution
• i7 Intel Processor (goes up to 2.8GHz for single thread applications)
• 8GB of RAM
• Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives
• ATI HD5870 Video Card (amazing!!!)
• Surround Sound
• BluRay Player + DVD/CD-RW Drive
• Windows 7

The price was $1,619 (I got a price match deal) which is just ridiculous because I priced out something similar at Alienware which came just under $3k for the same specs.  Asus is a good brand name and it comes with a 2 year warranty.  So, I bit the bullet, pulled out some poker money and had some saved and made the pre-order purchase.  It is expected to ship in mid to late February!!

Here's the pic:

Asus G73JH

The other big purchase was some new headphones.  I've been putting these off for about a year.  For the last year or so I have had these SkullCandy Hesh headphones which aren't bad.  They just aren't great and the comfort is "meh" at best.  I've been meaning to buy some excellent headphones and with the help of "Infamous" (a guy I know via forums) he turned me on to the true leader in headphones - Sennheiser.  All the reviews I read basically say Bose is just an overpriced mid-range pair of headphones that has great marketing behind it.  Sennheisers are the true leaders of the industry.

After what was probably 4 months of shopping around and reading reviews, I finally settled on the Sennheiser HD555 headphones.  They are the middle of the line for them, but a huge upgrade in terms of quality for what I currently have.   They came down in price to a reasonable amount ($110 on eBay) so I made the purchase on these tonight.  Fortunately it's shipping from Texas and should be here by Friday or Saturday at the latest.  Here's the pic:

Sennheiser HD555 Headphones

GG ShortStakes Now DIE … Plus – Overclocking my PC

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 18, 2009 in computer | 0 comments

Bye Shorty, It's Not Your Birthday!

If you didn't catch the news on the TwoPlusTwo forums, the official guy from Full Tilt Poker (FTPDoug) posted today that a major update didn't get released.  Kinda sucks but we finally know what the major update will have in store for us rounders.  The good news was in this statement:

"To answer the most commonly asked question: we *are* going to raise the minimum buy-in on standard (no icon) tables. That’s not all we’re going to do, but that’s the biggest change. And that's all I can say about that until the update."

I couldn't be happier.  Although the 6max games aren't as bad off as the Full Ringers have it, this is great news for those of us that like to play regular stack poker.  My main problem with the shorties isn't that they play push/shove using their mathematical edge (range + FE) at the table, it's the ratholing.  What that means is that they win a pot (or a stack) and insta-leave and play at another table doing the same exact thing.  It's absolutely excrutiating and it's been getting worse and worse at Full Tilt in 2009.  This update will put an end to that, meaning the uber-fish will not be getting pinged off by these guys and good solid "real" poker can be played.  As you can tell, I'm rather excited about the news.

Overclocking My New PC Rig

An online friend of mine, known around forums as "Stu_Ungar" is a bigger computer geek than I am which is really kind of creepy and sad.  Moving on from that fact, he's been bugging me to try my hand at overclocking my CPU since I have this sexy new motherboard.  I have an Intel Quad Core Q6600 chip, meaning it runs at 2.4GHz.  Well, after some serious issues/headaches/hassle and some help from Stu and the guys at Overclock.net, I actually was able to pull off the overclocking.  Since I have really good air flow, case fans and a solid CPU Heatsink + Fan, I actually pushed my 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz!!  Tremendous results as far as I am concerned and tonight I'll be putting it through the stress test.  Others have reported results far better than mine but I'm really just not willing to "push it to the max" and am really happy about this whole experiment so far.

Pokering?

Poker is going well, thanks to a recent nice run the last few days that saw my -4 Buyin EV for the month even out almost exactly.  I not only recovered from the worst-day-ever but am in the green for the month.  I hope to keep that up certainly, it would feel great putting in one last super-solid month of poker skill/fundamentally for 2009 and if the results follow, then GREAT.

The Huge Windows 7 Upgrade

Posted by icemonkey9 on Oct 13, 2009 in computer | 0 comments

I'm a huge computer nerd that loves to have the latest and greatest when it comes to computers.  My main computer is actually a Windows PC which is where I do most of my work and play.  I do play PC video games, specifically excited for Command & Conquer 4, StarCraft II and Diablo III all of which are coming in 2010 (hopefully).

I never upgraded to Windows Vista because of a bad experience I had with it from Day 1 (like everyone else) and have been running XP which has served me well.  I have been closely following the development of Windows 7 and been asking friends how it's been running that have been using the Release Candidate which is available for free from Microsoft.  All signs from my friends and industry reviews say Windows 7 is the real deal and is ready to rock n' roll out of the box.  I pre-ordered my copy back in July when they were offering the 50% discount which I am happy about.  The only problem was the hardware!

I have a Intel Core 2 Quad processor that I wanted to keep as I read reports it is still one of the top processors around.  The problem is that my hard drive is nearly full (500GB) and my video card is old.  Originally I was just going to buy a new 1TB hard drive and that was going to be the extent of my hardware upgrade.  Then I learned that all the new video cards use a PCI Express 2.0 slot, which I didn't have.  CRAP.  So if I wanted a new hard drive and a new video card, that meant I needed a new motherboard.  If I got a new motherboard, I might as well get the new memory (4GB) to go with it at the maximum speed.  Oh ... if I wanted the new hard drive (on top of the two I already have) plus the new huge mega-powered video card it turns out my 500W power supply wasn't going to cut it either.  Arg.

So this quickly turned into a "Cow jumped over the moon" story which boiled down to me weighing my options with the hardware upgrade.  I decided that if I really wanted to start fresh with Windows 7, I had to upgrade now to make the process as painless as possible.  So in the end I went with the:

- Hard Drive: 1TB 7200 RPM Hitachi SATA
- Motherboard: XFX nForce 750i
- Power Supply: 700W CoolerMaster
- Memory: Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB sticks)
- Video Card: XFX Radeon HD5870 (awesome card, but yes I am aware of the nForce/Radeon situation but I will not be using 2 video cards in tandem ever again)

So that set me back a pretty penny but everything is slated to ship right away and will be here with a few days to spare before the 22nd when Windows 7 arrives in the mail.  In terms what this means for poker, all of the software I use has stated (with more people chiming in on TwoPlusTwo who are using Windows 7 RC) that it's 100% compatible.  It does mean the rebulding of my hand history database, but that seems like a minor nuisance compared to completely rebuilding my hardware system and installing a new OS.  Everything is already backed up data-wise, so I am not concerned there.

Anyways, that's my big news - new computer here I come!

The River Will Giveth and the River Will Taketh

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 26, 2009 in 50nl, 6max, computer | 0 comments

This weekend really represents the first time I've ever played 100nl 6max on both Saturday and Sunday for 4+ hours each day.  I got in a good amount of hands today, and the good positive news in all this is that I'm not discouraged or tilted.  I did make one tough call at the river that was in retrospect a bad call, but other than that it was just "one of those days" where the villain shot ahead at the river constantly.  This hand was the "worst beat of the day" which is just ugly:

Just gross, but I got my money in good.  Normally I would have just raised again preflop but against the squeezer I'm trying to get action and a raise here totally announces I have KK or AA in this spot against these players.  What I hoped for was someone with a lesser hand like TPTK while I had overpairs would stack (which happened) and take it down ... but I lose the 88-22% situation which will happen.

The rest of the day saw some bad river situations where villains hit their gin card, or more tragically, I'd hit a big river only to find out I was way behind.

• I rivered a straight ... whoops he flopped and slow played a boat.
• AK suited gets it in as nut flush draw + overs, hits A on river, he had flopped a set.
• AK hits TPTK on river (all rag board) he hit set on turn (which he flatted).
• AA < KT , kinda gross.
• AK loses coinflip AIPF vs QQ (fair enough).
• AKs < AJo AIPF vs loose mid-stacked fish.
• K3 in steal spot on BTN hits 2 pair, villain calls to river with top pair, river pairs board, his two pair wins.

So, those were situations where things just didn't go my way, and most of the time I got out of the situation losing a $35-$50 pot which is better than losing $100 pots I suppose.  Looking back at the hands, AA just got no action today (nothing new there) except for the one bad beat, and I hit sets at 7% which usually doesn't help (although they haven't held all month!).

Anyways, probably calling it a day and hope to come back tomorrow ready to rock n roll at the tables and "get in on that Sunday juice" as someone put it.  Like I mentioned before, I feel fine, where before if I looked at the results say at the beginning of the month I'd be bitching/tilting/quitting big time.  I just had an unfortunate day, it'll happen, and I'll be ready to go tomorrow.  See you then.