Disclaimer: I know full well that the play in these events is going to be, um, less than stellar. I expect wacky things to happen. That's why I specifically laid out a strategy to help me avoid as much wackiness as possible and hopefully capitalize on the poor choices of others. The strategy is as follows.
a) Play nothing with a 9 or higher in it to start
b) Play nothing with an 8-6 or 8-7 in an early spot
c) Run from any and all bricks on 4th street unless the opponent(s) bricked worse
d) Play good hands hard. Punish people for trying to come at me with crap
e) Always remember that it's better to get the eff out of a Razz MTT early than stick around and be the bubble boy. My priorities are 1) win, 2) get KOed very early, 3) anything else.
Got all that? Good. Then here we go.
15 minutes into the festivities I'm down to 1410 in chips and am dealt [3 6]5. There are two 4s, two 5s, and a 7, 8, and 9 showing, not a great board, but I'll see another card. A 4 completes in front, I call and it's heads up.
4th st: The 4 gets a J. I get a K. He bets and I call...surely not the wisest call, but I still have three babies, and I've seen some pretty aggressive play from this guy so far. He lands a T on 5th while I get a J. Buh bye.
Five minutes later, I have 1295 chips and see [5 A]6 to start. I complete it, and the bring in (J) calls me. Lovely. On 5th street, he has J 8 6 showing vs. my 6 9 7. I'm still ahead, I'm still betting every street, and he's still calling. Uh oh. I pair my 7 on 6th street while he picks up an Ace. He leads out and may have just made an 8-6. At this point, I know where three of the deuces and all of the threes and fours are - hidden (either in the deck or buried cards). I've got lots of outs here. Well I get a 8 on 7th street for a measely 8-7. He checks, I check behind and he made the 8-6. The hand history shows he had [3 3]J. I'll assume that FT reshuffled it for display, but my God, even with [2 3]J, that's some sketchy play.
Now I'm down to 1000 chips. A few hands later, I get [A 4]5, complete it, get called by the same guy. Then I get a Q on 4th and release. 950 chips.
This one really irked me. I'm now anted down to 900 chips and start with [4 8]5. There's a dead 2, 3, and 6 so this isn't ideal, but I need to get some chips - even via stealing. It folds to me, I complete, and yet again the bring-in (T) calls. Long story short:
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to Seitz333 [Tc 3h 7s] [2c]
Dealt to djm182 [4d 8c 5h 7c Kh] [9c]
Seitz333 bets 100
djm182 folds
684 chips left.
Then for 25 straight hands, I release on 3rd street. Thank you very much for coming. 384 chips left. At long last, with [6 7]A, I complete early, and get called by two other ace door cards behind. They get a T and J respectively on 4th street. Good news, huh? Not when I get a K. The T properly leads out and I release. Down to 289 chips.
And I release the next dozen hands on 3rd street. Only 84 chips left behind now and we're 45 minutes into this. THIS IS NOT HOW I PICTURED IT!!!
Now here is the hand that sets me over the edge. With 84 chips left I'm dealt [6 4]2. I'm second after the bring-in and I complete it for all I've got. It folds around (damn) to the bring-in who calls with
...wait for it...
[6 Q]Q.
What an unabashed prick. Fittingly, he makes quad Queens on 5th street and I triple up to 258 chips.
Two hands later, I see [8 2]4. A 6 in front of me completes, I raise and we get it all-in on 3rd. He has [A 2]6. I peel off trip 8s by 5th street, followed by a T and a J and that's that.
Just a completely fucking brutal session, highlighted by a bad run of cards and some horrific play into me that was inappropriately rewarded.
The good news? I made the whole buy-in back and more in about 45 minutes of Micro PLHE. I never thought cash games would subsidize my SNG/MTT play, but that's the case lately.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Ramblings...and a tangent
If Simmons can do it, why can't I?
* Besides the NBA, there is no more overhyped, overpublicized, and underwhelming event than the College World Series. I can't believe anyone watches this crap. Aluminum bats...bad pitching...scores like football games. I can't imagine what it was like before the television coverage took a dramatic turn for the better.
* Why would the Weather Channel build a big HD studio and only use it for some shows? Are the Mets only planning on playing divisional games in CitiField next year, relegating other games back to Shea? This makes no sense.
* Dr. James Dobson goes off about Obama "distoring the bible." I don't even have a joke here. People like Dobson are the reason I have less and less interest in religion with every passing day.
* Here's Matthew Berry with some great anecdotes about the late and great George Carlin. If you ever want to know what kind of person a celebrity really is, you see what they do off camera. I'll never forget the Senior Players Championship that I volunteered at in Dearborn. Tom Kite led going into Sunday, played poorly and got passed by Raymond Floyd. After the round is over, they do the trophy presentation on #18. When that wraps up I began to head for the car. As I'm walking toward the clubhouse, there's Kite *still* signing autographs between 18 and the locker room. Mere minutes after blowing a major championship, Kite signed every autograph. That's the kind of stuff great people are made of.
* "I'm just so, so thrilled." Those the words of Ana Ivanovic after barely winning her second round Wimbledon matchup. In response to this, the entire male population of the world was heard saying "whew, I'm glad we get to see her play another match this week."
* Here's a gem. Glenn Beck on conservative values.
* When you have 57 suited in the BB, see a free flop of 3 5 5, what could possibly go wrong? Well when you try to trap an aggressive player and said player flopped a boat with 35...'nuff said.
* "Kobe, how my ass taste." Brilliant.
* Woo hoo, Jerry Manuel yelled at an umpire. Who the hell cares? Win some damn ball games and get back into the NL East race first, then I'll start to worry about the little things like team fielding exercises and argued balls and strikes. That's not an indictment of Manuel - it's a prioritization of what needs to happen.
* Besides the NBA, there is no more overhyped, overpublicized, and underwhelming event than the College World Series. I can't believe anyone watches this crap. Aluminum bats...bad pitching...scores like football games. I can't imagine what it was like before the television coverage took a dramatic turn for the better.
* Why would the Weather Channel build a big HD studio and only use it for some shows? Are the Mets only planning on playing divisional games in CitiField next year, relegating other games back to Shea? This makes no sense.
* Dr. James Dobson goes off about Obama "distoring the bible." I don't even have a joke here. People like Dobson are the reason I have less and less interest in religion with every passing day.
* Here's Matthew Berry with some great anecdotes about the late and great George Carlin. If you ever want to know what kind of person a celebrity really is, you see what they do off camera. I'll never forget the Senior Players Championship that I volunteered at in Dearborn. Tom Kite led going into Sunday, played poorly and got passed by Raymond Floyd. After the round is over, they do the trophy presentation on #18. When that wraps up I began to head for the car. As I'm walking toward the clubhouse, there's Kite *still* signing autographs between 18 and the locker room. Mere minutes after blowing a major championship, Kite signed every autograph. That's the kind of stuff great people are made of.
* "I'm just so, so thrilled." Those the words of Ana Ivanovic after barely winning her second round Wimbledon matchup. In response to this, the entire male population of the world was heard saying "whew, I'm glad we get to see her play another match this week."
* Here's a gem. Glenn Beck on conservative values.
So what are my core values, the things that I refuse to compromise on? To figure that out, I decided to try to define what I think a conservative really believes.
A conservative believes that our inalienable rights do not include housing, healthcare or Hummers.
I agree...with the last one. But why on Earth is some level of healthcare for our citizens - even the most basic care level - not an inalienable right? Nobody has ever sufficiently explained this to me, but it's clear that the rich don't want to pay for it.
A conservative believes that our inalienable rights DO include the pursuit of happiness. That means it is guaranteed to no one.
Blah blah blah...
A conservative believes that those who pursue happiness and find it have a right to not be penalized for that success.
Correct. Instead, penalize the less successful - fuck them all. They don't need homes or healthcare either. Fact is, dickwad, that the existence of government is critical because there are certain things only governments can pull off. And with our infrastructure crumbling, the government needs more revenue (i.e. taxes) to pull off said things.
The root cause of all these problems is wasteful government spending. It's not the sources of the tax dollars - it's the USAGE of the tax dollars.
A simple analogy for your simple mind, Glenn. Say you have a kid in college. The kid loves him the booze. Spends a TON of money on it. What do you do to correct the problem?
a) If you're a conservative, you give him less and tell him to get by with it.
b) If you have a brain, you educate him/impose restrictions on him/discipline him so that the money he has is not spent as wastefully.
Attack the problem, don't put a band aid on it.
The root cause of all these problems is wasteful government spending. It's not the sources of the tax dollars - it's the USAGE of the tax dollars.
A simple analogy for your simple mind, Glenn. Say you have a kid in college. The kid loves him the booze. Spends a TON of money on it. What do you do to correct the problem?
a) If you're a conservative, you give him less and tell him to get by with it.
b) If you have a brain, you educate him/impose restrictions on him/discipline him so that the money he has is not spent as wastefully.
Attack the problem, don't put a band aid on it.
A conservative believes that there are no protections against the hardship and heartache of failure. We believe that the right to fail is just as important as the chance to succeed and that those who do fail learn essential lessons that will help them the next time around.
A conservative believes in personal responsibility and accepts the consequences for his or her words and actions.
These two are both very true.
A conservative believes that real compassion can't be found in any government program.
A conservative doesn't believe in real compassion. That's my observation.
A conservative believes that each of us has a duty to take care of our neighbors. It was private individuals, companies and congregations that sent water, blankets and supplies to New Orleans far before the government ever set foot there.
True, but only the government was *capable* of properly dealing with the Katrina disaster. Now they royally fucked it up and that is well known. But no disorganized group of volunteers, private individuals, congregations, etc. could adequately pull off the recovery effort that was needed to rescue New Orleans. Government could pull this off. It didn't, but it's the only kind of entity capable. To fix this, we don't abandon government, we fix it, monitor it, and kick the asses of those within it who continue to screw up.
A conservative believes that family is the cornerstone of our society and that people have a right to manage their family any way they see fit, so long as it's not criminal. We are far more attuned to our family's needs than some faceless, soulless government program.
What faceless, soulless government program would this be? Seriously, I haven't a clue. When did government try to interject itself into how people manage their own families?
A conservative believes that people have a right to worship the God of their understanding. We also believe that people do not have the right to jam their version of God (or no God) down anybody else's throat.
Fine. Everyone has the right to worship or not worship. I wholeheartedly support the second point. And I'll add a third - I reserve the right to question the entire concept of religion (not the concept of God - but the bureaucracy and bullshit that accompanies religion) without being branded as an evil person.
A conservative believes that people go to the movies to be entertained and to church to be preached to, not the other way around.
Conservatives also believe that people go to restaurants to eat and to laundromats to wash their clothes, not the other way around. Seriously, WTF is the point of this?
A conservative believes that debt creates unhealthy relationships. Everyone, from the government on down, should live within their means and strive for financial independence.
Smartest thing he's written - perhaps ever.
A conservative believes that a child's education is the responsibility of the parents, not the government.
True, though EVERY child is entitled to the right to go to school.
A conservative believes that every human being has a right to life, from conception to death.
There are just SO many grey areas in here. I'll just say this - I believe that everyone who isn't 100% ready to parent a child ought to exercise birth control. It ain't that expensive.
A conservative believes in the smallest government you can get without anarchy. We know our history: The larger a government gets, the harder it will fall.
Moderately true. But as I mentioned above - if you starve a government, you get nonsense like the Katrina response. You get deteriorating infrastructure. You lose the ability to have a military presence that we need. You lose the kinds of things that only government can provide. There's a balance in here, and the way to best achieve the balance is to continue to fund the government AND hold the government accountable for what it does. The latter surely hasn't happened in our last 7.5 years - perhaps it hasn't happened in decades. Government has come to mean entitlement for those in it - not responsibility to those who fund it. Therein lies the problem.
Keep searching, ol boy. I've found mine.Those are the things a conservative believes in, and they're the things that I believe in. Now, if only I could find a candidate to match.
* When you have 57 suited in the BB, see a free flop of 3 5 5, what could possibly go wrong? Well when you try to trap an aggressive player and said player flopped a boat with 35...'nuff said.
* "Kobe, how my ass taste." Brilliant.
* Woo hoo, Jerry Manuel yelled at an umpire. Who the hell cares? Win some damn ball games and get back into the NL East race first, then I'll start to worry about the little things like team fielding exercises and argued balls and strikes. That's not an indictment of Manuel - it's a prioritization of what needs to happen.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Just Observed
An actual overheard quote from the driving range, mere minutes ago.
"Yo, are those m*****f****** signs in yards?"
Epic.
Oh and thanks to the kind folks who decided to put the ropes on the *downslope* of the grass tee. Nice job, fellas.
"Yo, are those m*****f****** signs in yards?"
Epic.
Oh and thanks to the kind folks who decided to put the ropes on the *downslope* of the grass tee. Nice job, fellas.
Oh the calls that we make
In total, it was a good night of online play for me. Something triggered me to sign up for a $5 45-player SNG. While it was coming together, I sat at a micro PLHE table. I quickly doubled up my stack with good-but-not-great hands against a table full of fair-but-not-good players that didn't know how to fold. I would've done better here except for an AA<QQ hand later on. I shut this down at the first break in the SNG up a buy-in - so I'm freerolling in the SNG.
The SNG played amazingly passive. I kept stealing early on with all sorts of stuff. I lost one big pot with something like AQ losing to A9, but quickly recouped that stack and more. I held the chip lead for a while and made it to the final table in good position - either 1st or 2nd in chips.
At this point, there were a couple of short stacks but mostly 6-7 equally sized stacks and we were rapidly approaching the 10BB level. I folded lots, watched a fair amount of people get their chips in questionably, and finally made the bubble (after I called a short stack shove where my AQ actually beat A9).
Here's where it sucked. With three players left, I had about 38k of the remaining chips. One player had about 8k, and the third player had the balance. I'm dealt A6 in position, and see a 534 flop. The aforementioned third player shoves his ~20k stack in. I have two overcards, a OESD, but nothing else. Yet for some reason I felt compelled to call here. He turns over 52 which hurts - he has a hand, he too has an OESD, and his 2 takes away one of my outs. Plus any 6 or A now kills me.
Needless to say, this was a terrible spot:
Why on earth did I call with that OESD? Really the only time I got chips in bad all night but I had to do it at the end.
Patience. Slow down. When will I learn?
The SNG played amazingly passive. I kept stealing early on with all sorts of stuff. I lost one big pot with something like AQ losing to A9, but quickly recouped that stack and more. I held the chip lead for a while and made it to the final table in good position - either 1st or 2nd in chips.
At this point, there were a couple of short stacks but mostly 6-7 equally sized stacks and we were rapidly approaching the 10BB level. I folded lots, watched a fair amount of people get their chips in questionably, and finally made the bubble (after I called a short stack shove where my AQ actually beat A9).
Here's where it sucked. With three players left, I had about 38k of the remaining chips. One player had about 8k, and the third player had the balance. I'm dealt A6 in position, and see a 534 flop. The aforementioned third player shoves his ~20k stack in. I have two overcards, a OESD, but nothing else. Yet for some reason I felt compelled to call here. He turns over 52 which hurts - he has a hand, he too has an OESD, and his 2 takes away one of my outs. Plus any 6 or A now kills me.
Needless to say, this was a terrible spot:
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=4824402He rivered the straight, not that he needed to, but that made me a distant second. In the very next hand, I'm the BB and see 44. The button folds, the short stacked SB shoves and I call. He tables Jc6c - as if he had an ounce of fold equity. The bastard rivers a J and now I'm down to one BB. I move in with K5 the very next hand and so ends my night.
pokenum -h 5h 2s - ac 6d -- 5c 3d 4s
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 4s 5c 3d
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
2s 5h 712 71.92 257 25.96 21 2.12 0.730
Ac 6d 257 25.96 712 71.92 21 2.12 0.270
Why on earth did I call with that OESD? Really the only time I got chips in bad all night but I had to do it at the end.
Patience. Slow down. When will I learn?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
CHIMPS H/U
And to think I was *thisclose* to blowing this one off.
Of course, a first round bye helps things.
In the second round, after being down to 1220 in chips, I flopped bottom two on a 7s Qs 8d board. I check-called the flop, led out on the turn when an A landed, got called and shoved the rest of my stack in on the river. He had a naked A, and now I had the lead. Six hands later, my 88 held up against his A8 and on we go to the semis.
I took a small chip lead in the first hand and never trailed here. Made a questionable call in the last hand. I button raised 3x with 77. He shoved his 4300 chip stack in, and I made the call with my 7600+ stack. He flipped over A9o and I dodged all the bullets.
After a long wait and what looked like one heck of a back and forth battle in the other semi, we started the finals vs. ReedMoney. He came out firing with both barrels and I was quickly in the hole. Whiffed a flop with A9o but tried to represent something and quickly I was down 15.4 to 8.6k chips. Yeeowch. Four hands later, I have AKs. Reed made a 3x button raise which he did often. I min-raised that and he made a big reraise over that. Well I'm not folding this so I ship the rest of my stack in and he has 10s. I flop an A and now I take the 16.5 to 7.5k lead.
Trying my best to nurse this lead, I piss my stack down to 14.4k when I get frisky from the BB w/ J8s, and c-betting on an A-high flop. Whoops. But PS came to my rescue two hands later and this is how it ended:
About damn time I got me one of them CHIMPS virtual bracelets.
Of course, a first round bye helps things.
In the second round, after being down to 1220 in chips, I flopped bottom two on a 7s Qs 8d board. I check-called the flop, led out on the turn when an A landed, got called and shoved the rest of my stack in on the river. He had a naked A, and now I had the lead. Six hands later, my 88 held up against his A8 and on we go to the semis.
I took a small chip lead in the first hand and never trailed here. Made a questionable call in the last hand. I button raised 3x with 77. He shoved his 4300 chip stack in, and I made the call with my 7600+ stack. He flipped over A9o and I dodged all the bullets.
After a long wait and what looked like one heck of a back and forth battle in the other semi, we started the finals vs. ReedMoney. He came out firing with both barrels and I was quickly in the hole. Whiffed a flop with A9o but tried to represent something and quickly I was down 15.4 to 8.6k chips. Yeeowch. Four hands later, I have AKs. Reed made a 3x button raise which he did often. I min-raised that and he made a big reraise over that. Well I'm not folding this so I ship the rest of my stack in and he has 10s. I flop an A and now I take the 16.5 to 7.5k lead.
Trying my best to nurse this lead, I piss my stack down to 14.4k when I get frisky from the BB w/ J8s, and c-betting on an A-high flop. Whoops. But PS came to my rescue two hands later and this is how it ended:
PokerStars Game #18210159583: Tournament #92414506, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round IV, Level II (120/240) - 2008/06/17 - 22:57:13 (ET)
Table '92414506 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: ReedMoney (9720 in chips)
Seat 2: djm182 (14280 in chips)
ReedMoney: posts small blind 120
djm182: posts big blind 240
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [As Ac]
ReedMoney: calls 120
djm182: raises 480 to 720
ReedMoney: calls 480
*** FLOP *** [Kd 6d 7d]
djm182: bets 720
ReedMoney: raises 1200 to 1920
djm182: raises 11640 to 13560 and is all-in (God bless him if he has the flush already.)
ReedMoney: calls 7080 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (4560) returned to djm182
*** TURN *** [Kd 6d 7d] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 6d 7d Ah] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djm182: shows [As Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Sixes)
ReedMoney: shows [4s Qd] (a pair of Sixes)
ReedMoney said, "gg"
djm182 collected 19440 from pot
About damn time I got me one of them CHIMPS virtual bracelets.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Recap
Thoughts since I've last blogged...
* We shot 62 in a scramble at Hiland last Thursday. Went -10 over the last 13 holes. I hit the driver pretty well, but never struck a solid iron or a good chip shot all day. Heck of a finish though and I can't wait to return the 15 yellow pro staffs I won in a raffle. Sigh.
* Had the home game on Saturday night. This one should be called the barn game - it was actually played in a barn. The Cliffs' Notes version is that I wasn't dealt much - 44 was my biggest pocket pair in 3+ hours, and I had AKs once, AQs once and AQo once. Did the best I could - until I got down to heads up and even-stacked with an aggressive player. When dealing, I dealt K6 to myself and threw in a K6 raise. He went all-in. Earlier on he had run me off of hands that I had come in on with marginal holdings. Thought that just maybe he was trying to do it again so I called. He had ATs and flopped a T to close me out. Bad move on my part - not just that particular hand but not figuring out a strategy for the situation. The right way to play would be to see every reasonable flop and trap him. I firmly believe I could outplay him heads up but I took myself out of that chance right out of the gate.
* Tiger. Wow. People still don't realize how great he truly is. He did this with just a week or two of practice after a long layoff and a surgery, and he did it with quite a bit of pain. Hats off to Rocco, who I was pulling for for sentimental reasons - not the least of which is that he's 45 and likely will never have this shot again. All that said, I'd sure like to see Tiger with his A-game again. I don't think we've seen the A in some time now, but his B or C game is still better than everyone else's A.
The playoff was amazing, only to end in very anticlimactic and depressing fashion.
* We shot 62 in a scramble at Hiland last Thursday. Went -10 over the last 13 holes. I hit the driver pretty well, but never struck a solid iron or a good chip shot all day. Heck of a finish though and I can't wait to return the 15 yellow pro staffs I won in a raffle. Sigh.
* Had the home game on Saturday night. This one should be called the barn game - it was actually played in a barn. The Cliffs' Notes version is that I wasn't dealt much - 44 was my biggest pocket pair in 3+ hours, and I had AKs once, AQs once and AQo once. Did the best I could - until I got down to heads up and even-stacked with an aggressive player. When dealing, I dealt K6 to myself and threw in a K6 raise. He went all-in. Earlier on he had run me off of hands that I had come in on with marginal holdings. Thought that just maybe he was trying to do it again so I called. He had ATs and flopped a T to close me out. Bad move on my part - not just that particular hand but not figuring out a strategy for the situation. The right way to play would be to see every reasonable flop and trap him. I firmly believe I could outplay him heads up but I took myself out of that chance right out of the gate.
* Tiger. Wow. People still don't realize how great he truly is. He did this with just a week or two of practice after a long layoff and a surgery, and he did it with quite a bit of pain. Hats off to Rocco, who I was pulling for for sentimental reasons - not the least of which is that he's 45 and likely will never have this shot again. All that said, I'd sure like to see Tiger with his A-game again. I don't think we've seen the A in some time now, but his B or C game is still better than everyone else's A.
The playoff was amazing, only to end in very anticlimactic and depressing fashion.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Hybrid Myth
Here's a great article debunking the myth of Hybrid vehicles. In short, your payback period to recover the higher purchase cost of a hybrid is at least six years - meaning that if you buy a hybrid, be prepared to look at it in the garage for a LONG time.
Mediocrity
Ladies and Gentlemen, the New York Mets, as described by ESPN.com's Rob Neyer:
As described by yours truly, this is a team that's good at jumping out to early leads, then watching its offense go dormant while a decent to even slightly above average bullpen tries to hold on for dear life. Sometimes they do, other times they don't.
I have no hopes of this team winning the East or anything else this year. The Phillies are too good and you can't call yourself a credible threat when Tatis, Chavez, and Easley are getting as many ABs as they are getting. It's a punchless offense when Reyes, Wright or Beltran don't have big games.
Speaking of consistency, over their last 162 games the Mets are 82-80. Yes, it's cherry-picking. While 162 is not an arbitrary numbers, it's little more indicative than 142 (72-70) or 182 (90-92). But you know, 182 games is a fair number of games. The Mets are two games under .500 in their last 182 games. That means something, doesn't it?
Bad luck? Maybe. But over those same 182 games the Mets have scored 868 runs and they've allowed 869 runs. Exactly the profile of a .500 team. Over 182 games. That means something doesn't it.
And yet the organization just rolls merrily along with the same manager and the same general manager. If I were a Mets fan I would be leading a revolt in the streets. (Actually, I would be hoping that someone else would lead a revolt that I could follow, at a safe distance.)
As described by yours truly, this is a team that's good at jumping out to early leads, then watching its offense go dormant while a decent to even slightly above average bullpen tries to hold on for dear life. Sometimes they do, other times they don't.
I have no hopes of this team winning the East or anything else this year. The Phillies are too good and you can't call yourself a credible threat when Tatis, Chavez, and Easley are getting as many ABs as they are getting. It's a punchless offense when Reyes, Wright or Beltran don't have big games.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Katrina on the blocks
Here we go again. Don't you DARE ever say anything bad about Detroit - even if it might be true.
While I didn't watch enough of the Cup to say whose fans are better than whose, I do know that there were good seats available for at least some early round playoff games at the Joe. Heck, when I lived there, you couldn't get seats for any game. And Pittsburgh fans have always been good vocal fans - despite having to root for a moribund Pirates franchise and the perpetually threatening-to-leave Penguins.
A local sports reporter who stands behind her opinion - good for her.
While I didn't watch enough of the Cup to say whose fans are better than whose, I do know that there were good seats available for at least some early round playoff games at the Joe. Heck, when I lived there, you couldn't get seats for any game. And Pittsburgh fans have always been good vocal fans - despite having to root for a moribund Pirates franchise and the perpetually threatening-to-leave Penguins.
A local sports reporter who stands behind her opinion - good for her.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
PLHE Struggles
I multi-tabled (i.e. 2-tabled, which is a lot for my ADD mind to handle) micro PLHE 6-max tables last night. The results were, um, positive, I guess. In hindsight, I felt like I was limping a lot more than would be optimal. On the other hand, I was largely dealt crap and when you're battling with a lot of limpers and calling stations, it's best to wait for something to hammer them with.
I kept hitting bottom or middle pair on weak flops and having to lay down hands to strong turn/river bets. I called a few of these and did pick up a bluff or two, but probably bled more chips than I gained from that strategy. Once with a decent pocket pair (99) on a board with all undercards, I kept getting called on each street by a guy with a ridiculous VPIP. The river peels off an ace and he leads out into me. I type "Ace-rag wins again" and fold. Of course, I'm then called a whiner, an idiot, and clever and all that. That's fine. Say what you want, just stay at my table please. I'm also thoroughly convinced that I was right.
I never hit a straight or a flush all night. Flopped one set that turned into quads but only got marginal action. Had KK later on and saw a K44 flop, and I led out from EP with a probing bet that I thought someone might play back on. Nope.
There was a lot of "hit and run" at these tables. Guys would show up, try to chip up quickly, and if they won a big pot they'd bail. Some idiot shows up, flops sets twice in four total hands played, then takes the money to a table with 5x the stakes. Jerk.
Long story short, after being stuck for around a buy-in, I finally clawed back to a marginal profit.
Me thinks this is almost as bad as it can get at these tables.
I kept hitting bottom or middle pair on weak flops and having to lay down hands to strong turn/river bets. I called a few of these and did pick up a bluff or two, but probably bled more chips than I gained from that strategy. Once with a decent pocket pair (99) on a board with all undercards, I kept getting called on each street by a guy with a ridiculous VPIP. The river peels off an ace and he leads out into me. I type "Ace-rag wins again" and fold. Of course, I'm then called a whiner, an idiot, and clever and all that. That's fine. Say what you want, just stay at my table please. I'm also thoroughly convinced that I was right.
I never hit a straight or a flush all night. Flopped one set that turned into quads but only got marginal action. Had KK later on and saw a K44 flop, and I led out from EP with a probing bet that I thought someone might play back on. Nope.
There was a lot of "hit and run" at these tables. Guys would show up, try to chip up quickly, and if they won a big pot they'd bail. Some idiot shows up, flops sets twice in four total hands played, then takes the money to a table with 5x the stakes. Jerk.
Long story short, after being stuck for around a buy-in, I finally clawed back to a marginal profit.
Me thinks this is almost as bad as it can get at these tables.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Posnanski: Why I Cannot Stand Aquaman
This one kills me.
via Joe Posnanski by Joe Posnanski on 6/2/08
And then, there was Segment 3. This could feature any number of guest star Superheroes … it could be the Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Flash (my favorite … I loved the concept that a guy could be a Superhero just by being really fast — Miguel Dilone, if he had applied himself, could have been a super hero), the Atom, etc. I can remember sitting there in front of the television during those aluminum siding commercials (Garfield 1, 23-23, Garfield 1, 23-23), and I would be nervous because I could not wait to see which superhero it would be. Would it be Hawkman? The Flash? Maybe Flash Kid …
Uh, no. The commercial would end and nine out of 10 times, the "special guest hero" would be: Aquaman.
Man, I hated Aquaman. Still do. That guy was no superhero. Please. Oh, he could swim fast. Great. So could Mark Spitz. He could also talk to fish. Great. So can my father in law. I mean, seriously, you could not have a weaker collection of powers than that.
Plus there was this simple issue: THE GUY WAS UNDERWATER. I mean, seriously, is underwater crime that big a problem in society today? Is there a lot of deep sea bank robbery going on? Saltwater extortion? Marine money laundering? It used to drive me absolutely crazy watching the Superfriends because they always felt like they had to give Aquaman equal time, even though he wasn't contributing a thing. Superman, you go fly up to the moon and see if you can destroy the anti gravity machine. Wonder Woman you hop into your invisible plane, slip past the hypnotized and undead Mongolian Army and capture the Evil Hypnotist. Aquaman, um, you go gather a school of hammer fish and, uh, go hammer something.
And that's another thing … as I understand it, Aquaman could only TALK to fish. He had no POWER over the fish. So apparently we are supposed to believe that whenever Aquaman needs help, these fish will drop whatever they're doing and rush over just because they like him. Sure. My kids like me. I can't get them to put on their shoes when we're leaving the house for something THEY WANT TO DO, but this guy can send out a few soundwaves and get swordfish, sharks, blowfish and octopi to swim over from the other side of the ocean and risk their fishy lives. Oh yeah.
So, no, I don't like Aquaman. That's why he's not in the poll.
Monday, June 02, 2008
SNG Struggles
I played two of 'em last night. The first was Turbo PLO8, and I'll be damned if I didn't pick up a viable starting hand. I charged after one hand with AK3x ss and took it down on a ragged flop. In the second, I started w/ A45J all clubs, raised from the cutoff and got called from the button. I picked up a gutshot (36x was the flop) w/ a backdoor and a shot at the nut low if I could get a deuce to fall. I shoved my short stack in, bricked out and that was that. Why do I keep subjecting my tight style of play to a format where you MUST land a quality hand in a short period of time?
So on to a regular old NLHE SNG. At one stretch, I was dealt AQo, QQ and AKs in back-to-back-to-back hands. I won the first two, lost the second when AKs < A5s. Later on after I had tripled up to get back to a playable level of chips, I got it all in against a short stack w/ AJo vs AJs. He rivers the flush. Finally I get in push-or-fold mode again, lose with KJs to 77 when he flops a 7, then with 2/3 of my stack in as the BB, I call a SB raise with J5o. He has 66...flops a set and rivers quads.
I'm curious to see what it's like to have a horseshoe jammed up my ass. Lately it's only been someone else's foot.
So on to a regular old NLHE SNG. At one stretch, I was dealt AQo, QQ and AKs in back-to-back-to-back hands. I won the first two, lost the second when AKs < A5s. Later on after I had tripled up to get back to a playable level of chips, I got it all in against a short stack w/ AJo vs AJs. He rivers the flush. Finally I get in push-or-fold mode again, lose with KJs to 77 when he flops a 7, then with 2/3 of my stack in as the BB, I call a SB raise with J5o. He has 66...flops a set and rivers quads.
I'm curious to see what it's like to have a horseshoe jammed up my ass. Lately it's only been someone else's foot.
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