Poker Happenings

So I put in my most volume last week, playing 50 tourneys from M-F. That should be a standard schedule for me, but it was my first time doing it. The results were not great, but I didn't lose a ton either.

Last night, I finally made some $$ by getting 2nd in a $35k guarantee on FullTilt for over $5k.

It's nice to be making money again but I also realized that I will not make enough these next two months to be able to play in the WSOP (World Series of Poker) off of my own bankroll, so I am going to try and get backed. I know there are a lot of players out there who are backed, but I've always thought that I'd rather make 100% of my own winnings and not have to feel bad or pressured if I lose because it is on someone else's dime. But I also feel like this year's WSOP is a great opportunity for me to play some live events, and maybe get a little more exposure. So I am going to put my name out there and see if I get any bites.

We'll see...

Finally into a Routine??

So I finished our fed taxes (yikes!!), there are no trips or vacations or family visits on the horizon, and I think I finally will get to start playing lots of poker.

It always takes me a bit to get back in the swing of things after a long layoff, so yesterday I only played like 5 tourneys and then watched the basketball game.

Today I've already played 5 and plan on playing again tonight, so hopefully things will start heating up at the table for me.

I'm back

Vacation was great. Getting back home is always a double edged sword. It's nice to be back in my own bed, in my own house. It stinks getting everything back in order.

I did manage to get a weird case of vertigo right when I got back from Belize, but I googled it, and have self-diagnosed myself with BPPV - you can read about it here. I've also started home treatment so hopefully I won't be spinning when I don't want to anymore. (Of course my doctor wife loved hearing about my self-help rather than making an appointment with a doctor).

The rest of this week should be spent doing taxes, cleaning the house, and playing poker. On Thursday my sister, 3 of her kids, my dad, stepmom and their two kids all come to stay for the weekend at our lovely 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house. Should be fun.

Oh - I also got a brand new tv today. 37 inches. I even managed to set it up and program one remote to control everything. Fairly successful for my first day back home.

Vacation

My wife started her vacation tonight, which means I start mine tonight as well.

We're going to Belize for 10 days and then to Santa Barbara for a couple of days.

Maybe I'll even post pictures when I get back.

Adventures in the Snow

My wife and I went for a hike yesterday about an hour drive away from our house and were unpreparedly surprised to find out that half of it was through snow. Wet feet and pants legs were worth it. Photos were taken on the wife's camera, but hopefully I'll figure out how to post them.

EDIT - I figured out how to post them, but whenever I post pictures they go to the top instead of the bottom. I'll figure that out later - this is good enough for now.

A Taste of Spring

Although I love Wisconsin, by the time February came around, I was ready to migrate. And when March came, spring fever was in full force. So for that, I am happy to be in Sacramento, where spring has already begun. For my badger friends, who are still head high in snow, here are some photos of things to come...


Trees will bud, and dogs will lounge outdoors in the sun.

Flowers will bloom, maybe strawberries will come?

Playing Poker Again and Still Ruminating over the Damn Bar

Well I started playing again last night. I put in a solid 7-8 hours and felt like I played fine. Hopefully I can get some decent results these next two weeks.

The night before last was the first good night of sleep I had gotten in a week. Prior to the bar I was stressing, while taking the bar I was stressing, and then even the 3 days following the bar I was still stressing because I would realize issues that I missed - and all of that led to bad sleep. The good thing about realizing I missed issues is that it demonstrates how much more I actually knew this time around because I didn't even know enough law last time to realize what issues I had missed. The bad thing is I know I missed issues. My pat answer to everyone who has asked "how did it go" is that I will be very disappointed if I failed, but I won't be surprised if that's the case.

I really don't want to study again for this stupid exam (especially since motivating myself to study is so hard when I know that I would rather play poker than practice law), but I also really want the security of having the privilege to practice law in my back pocket in case this poker thing doesn't work out. I also realize that there isn't anything I can do at this point but sit and wait for the results. But that doesn't stop me from ruminating.

Studying for the Bar made me fat

I think it was all the soda I was drinking. But I am the portliest I have ever been.

I went for a run today and started my stomach crunches. My goal is to lose 10-15 lbs in two weeks for our vacation to Belize. Winning a couple grand in that timeframe would be nice too.

Done with the Bar

Yippee!!

Yesterday was the multiple guess day which is impossible to tell how you've done. Today was 3 more essays - a community property question which I feel good about, and then a wills and trusts and a corporations question which I have no idea how I did (I am not an expert in either subject). I feel that I knew a lot more substantive law this time in comparison to July, so I am hoping that I passed, I will feel very disappointed if I didn't, but at the same time I wouldn't be totally astonished if I failed either.

The test is just so hard. And long. And tiring. And it's hard to tell what the graders are looking for. But at this point, it's over, and it's not worth worrying about.

Tomorrow, I get to clean our house, and back to playing some poker. I'm hoping to get out and enjoy our weather too (it got up to like 70 today which would never have happened in Madison).

One day down two to go

So the bar exam started today. The 3 essay questions involved, torts, crim law, and professional responsibilities. I don't feel like I bombed any of them, but it's also really hard to know what the graders are looking for. The second half of the day was a performance test which was basically writing a brief. My only apprehension there was simply time management - I would have liked to write much more.

Tomorrow is the multiple guess session. If I do decent tomorrow I feel I should be in decent shape to pass. I will probably review some civil procedure and corporations for the essays on Thursday - if I feel the same about the essays as I did today, I will be surprised if I fail (but I don't want to jinx myself either).

6 days until the Bar...

And I've hit somewhat of a wall. I am feeling so-so about the 6 core areas but I still have a lot to review/learn in the other areas which could come up on the essays. But I'm also just bored of it right now. I tried getting through some wills and trusts this morning but just couldn't. My hope at this point is that my multiple guess score will be above average so that my essays can be just a little under average and I'll scrape by. I am so looking forward to this being over...

Sitemeter is funny

So I am taking a quick study break and figured I'd see if anyone actually reads this thing. It turns out the answer is basically no, but the rare few who do meander here always interest me. Yesterday someone from Portugal googled my poker screen name and came upon this blog. Which makes me think who in the hell do I know from Portugal - and why would anyone be googling me recently since I haven't been playing poker at all? I have no idea. But it is a nice diversion from studying.

On that note - studying is going ok. I think I will do much better on the multiple guess section this time. I am still not sure how well I will do on the essays, but I don't see how I could do worse. The 4 month wait will be the hardest part.

Eeeek - 2 weeks until the Bar Exam

Ay ay ay. 2 weeks to go. I am still not sure I will get everything pounded into my head. But I think I know more now than I did last time. It's funny - I wish I had more time to study, but I also am so sick of this already that I am glad I only have 2 more weeks to go.

Wheeeeeee

I took the day off from studying to play some poker and I'm glad I did.

I won a $150 tourney of FullTilt for almost $15k. That will be the last time I play until I finish taking the bar. But I now feel good knowing that I have a nice cushion to fall back on when I come back and play.

Feels good.

3 weeks to go

Ok down to three weeks to go and we have now gotten through the nitty gritty 6 core subjects (Real Property, Torts, Crim, Constitutional, Evidence, and Contracts) which make up the areas tested on the multiple guess portion and are also free game for the essays. We are now going through the add-on subjects which are also free game for the essays (Civ Pro, Prof. Responsibilities, Agency, Corporations, Wills, Trusts, Community Property, Remedies, and maybe other stuff I am forgetting). I freaked out last week when I got a worse score on the practice multiple guess test they gave us then I did when I actually failed the bar, but it turns out the test they gave is freakishly hard. My score was actually in the top 25% so I feel ok again.

There is still lots of stuff I haven't memorized, I still am awestruck at how anyone could write an answer as good as the sample answers for the essays in just one hour (that's all we get, is one hour per essay), and I am still nervous that I won't get it all done. But I also just hit a point each night where enough is enough and so I just stop. I am feeling good about spotting issues, now it is just a matter of regurgitating the rules rather than just knowing the correct conclusions.

Wish me luck.

p.s. I played a couple of tourneys on Sunday and made a final table in one. Unfortunately it was just for 6th place but it still feels good to know I can play good.

4 weeks to go

Still just grinding the studying out. The bar exam is a 3 day exam. The 1st and 3rd day are the same format - 3 essays in the morning and then a "performance test" in the afternoon (basically this consists of being given a file to read and then pretend you're an underling lawyer and write a memo, so this part doesn't freak me out as much). The 2nd day is pure multiple guess (yeah, yeah I know it is really supposed to be multiple choice). So yesterday the bar review course gave us a practice multiple guess test.... and I'm not sure if they are trying to freak us out or not but I did worse on this exam than I did when I took the real bar in July after hardly studying at all. From what I can tell from other students in the class, everyone did pretty bad, but it's still pretty dumb to give a practice test that is way harder than anything we'll ever take.

In general this whole process is like one of those graphs we had to do in calculus. Totally up and down (vacilating might be the "correct" term). Some days I feel like I will pass no problem since all I need to do is get one level higher on each essay than I did when I took it in July and I should be able to do that since I'm studying this time. Other days I feel like no matter what I do, I am not going to memorize all of these stupid rules and I'm just destined to keep getting about the same score (this is basically an IQ test after all, and IQs shouldn't change).

Meh - enough whining. Whatever happens, happens. Just 4 more weeks to grind.

I have good moral character

Or at least that's what the state bar of California thinks. To get bar privileges you need to basically tell the state where you've been and what you've been doing since birth, and then give references who will basically say that "yes, it's true, chardrian has never been convicted of a felony." I remember the Wisconsin one being worse than California's but California took longer to determine that I am in fact morally qualified to practice law here.

Now, whether or not I am legally qualified (by passing this stupid test) is a whole other question. At this point I am feeling very overwhelmed, which is a rare feeling for me (I am generally verrrrrrrrrrrry laid back). Mostly because there is just too much stuff and I haven't memorized it yet, but also because I keep turning in these damn practice essays to my Bar/Bri course and keep failing them. Not only did I never fail an exam in law school, but I was usually towards the top of my class and now I keep failing which is not very good positive reinforcement.

Mostly, it's because I need to dumb it down a bit. You are supposed to use a system called IRAC where you first spot the issue, then you state the rule of law that applies to that issue, then you apply the facts to the rule and issue, and finally you give a conclusion. I was taught to give a conclusion at the beginning and at the end because judges want to know up front what you are arguing so I need to stop doing that I guess. And I also will often join the rule with the facts because it makes it a lot quicker and I think easier to read. But my reader doesn't seem to like that either, so I guess I will try and break it down more.

The whole thing is still pretty dumb though I think. A huge part of the exam is simply memorizing rules and their exceptions (e.g. contracts for goods over $500 must be in writing to be enforceable pursuant to the Statutue of Frauds - and then there are a whole bunch of exceptions to the rule). But in real practice, you don't really need to have any of these rules memorized because you can always just look them up. So my law school training focused more on spotting issues and then learning how to apply facts to rules rather than memorizing rules (except for Evidence I can't think of a class where we were not allowed to use an outline). This exam, on the other hand, focuses more on memorizing the stupid rules and there are just kazillions of them to memorize.

Anyhoo, I am still hating studying. But if I pass the exam at least I am now qualified to practice here.

Still studying

Well 2 weeks down and I'm still overwhelmed but grinding through it. As homework, the program gives us lots of multiple choice practice as well as practice essays. The problem is I spend so much time doing the questions that I don't have time to memorize the black letter law. So I keep having to cheat on the essays and look up the black letter law and then apply the facts. I am hoping that by doing enough of these the law will start to just sink in. The dumbest part of this bar exam is that it is basically a memorization test and in real life, lawyers don't really need to have anything memorized because you can always look stuff up (the only exception is perhaps knowing evidence if you have to go to trial, since you can't make an objection the day after). I am fine with spotting issues and applying facts to law - but I am bad at memorizing the exact law because I've never had to (even in law school we got to use outlines). 6 more weeks and it will be done.

On another note one of my poker forum buddies directed me to this. I thought it was pretty insightful. At this point in my life I still believe that poker is my calling and I'm looking forward to getting back into it once I'm done with this studying. That doesn't mean that I am positive this will be my calling forever and ever, but for now it is something I am passionate about and I feel fortunate to have a shot to work at something that is my passion. Hopefully it will all work out...

Contracts and Torts

So the first week is over, and I'm still alive, but barely. The course consists of sitting in a law school room (like a big ampitheater) and watching professors ramble on about a whole subject in the matter of 8-12 hours (they usually try to throw some humor in there too). Whereas when I was actually in law school we got like 50-60 hours per subject. Anyhoo, it looks like they try and break most subjects into 2-3 lectures but yesterday we had to endure 8 straight hours of torts and get it all over in one day.

At this point Statute of Frauds, duress, warranties, consideration (that's all Contracts lingo), are still just as jumbled as battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and strict liability (torts) but hopefully it will all come together by the end of next month (if not, I might have to commit some sort of tort against myself). No matter what I'll keep forging ahead.

Let the classes begin

So today was my first day of my bar review classes. And the next two months are going to suck. Looks like 8-12 hours of studying/classes every day. Barf. Reminds me a little bit of my first semester of law school, where I just studied like a maniac because I had not been in school for a while and wanted to make sure I started off well. I know I'll get it done, but I'm not looking forward to it.