Anyone in any doubt about why you should avoid limping needs only to watch this year's WPT World Poker Final tournament at Foxwoods to watch amateur player E.G. Harvin get destroyed by Nenad Medic. As Mike Sexton said, E.G. took out everyone at the final table - He took out the 6th through 3rd place finisher, and then took out himself.
When I was at the WPT boot camp, they let us play hands with the same cards and in the same positions that were played at a WPT final table. The hand I played was a perfect lesson. I was the big blind and had T7o. UTG raised, but it was a small, suspicious looking raise. It was folded around, and I made a 3x re-raise, which was called. The flop came ten-high. I checked, UTG bet, I re-raised all-in and was called by pocket eights. My tens eventually improved to a set. When they showed us the videotape, the UTG player had limped, setting off a limp-fest which allowed Daniel Negreanu to catch-up with 5s full to take down the pot. The hand was from the Season 3 Borgata poker open. The UTG player was Josh Arieh, I was in David Williams' seat.
Anyway, back to E.G., at least twice he had ace-high heads-up and limped in, only to allow Nenad to catch up and take the pot. When you have an ace heads-up or if you have a big ace multi-handed, how can you possibly consider allowing a hand like T2s to see a flop for free? Even if there's no other reason, you raise before the flop so that you can gain information about what the BB is holding. Would Nenad have called a standard raise with T2? Wouldn't E.G. have been better off either picking off those blinds or perhaps folding his Axo to a big re-raise instead of letting him flop a boat?
I'll give E.G. credit where it's due: he pwn3d everybody else at the table. He put Mimi Tran into such convulsions that she threw her last dollar in with 2nd pair. But through it all, Nenad was relatively patient.
Yes, this is Monday Morning Quarterbacking. I'm sure that if I am ever lucky enough to make a WPT final table, I'll probably be the butt of a thousand blog posts pointing out my mistakes. And at least E.G. has the consolation of knowing he's won $900,000 more than I (or virtually all other commentators) have at a WPT tournament. But there's another $800,000 he could have had had he not given it away on a silver plater.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Bad cash day
Last Tuesday I played $3/$6 at Garden City for about an hour. I played a grand total of 6 hands and lost a hundred bucks. I got pocket pairs 4 out of those 6 times and every time they got totally crushed.
So what happened?
I folded most hands. Those hands I played, I raised pre-flop (we're not counting crap hands in the big blind check-folded as "playing". Always gague your or your opponent's play by VP$IP - voluntarily put $ in pot. BB check doesn't count). When I did so, I invariably got at least 3 callers - one hand, I got 6! They'd turn up hands like J4s having caught their flush and be all proud of themselves.
So what have I learned?
If the table is treating the game like a slot machine, change tables. One opponent can, perhaps, avoid outdrawing you. But big multi-way pots are too risky, and if that's all the table is offering, it's time to move on.
So what happened?
I folded most hands. Those hands I played, I raised pre-flop (we're not counting crap hands in the big blind check-folded as "playing". Always gague your or your opponent's play by VP$IP - voluntarily put $ in pot. BB check doesn't count). When I did so, I invariably got at least 3 callers - one hand, I got 6! They'd turn up hands like J4s having caught their flush and be all proud of themselves.
So what have I learned?
If the table is treating the game like a slot machine, change tables. One opponent can, perhaps, avoid outdrawing you. But big multi-way pots are too risky, and if that's all the table is offering, it's time to move on.
The dangers of flush draws
So many people justify terrible calls because they have two cards of the same suit - the old "But they were soooooted!"
Here's why two suited cards aren't really all that much better than two unsuited cards of the same rank. Let's take a look at a typical flush draw situation.
You're in a 9 handed SNG with everyone still in. You're the big blind with 83 of spades and there are 4 limpers. The flop comes Ks 9s jh.
You like that flop? Do you really? If you ignore the flush draw, you are playing two undercards. You can't even complete the sucker straight with a queen and a ten because of the king. Even if you river your flush, there are 3 flushes better. If someone got dealt Ax of spades ("sooooted!"), you'd be drawing to an 8 or a 3. And if it was AJs (maybe the under-the-gun limper was afraid of a re-raise), you'd need runner-runner six outs.
You'd check-fold it if it were 8h 3h, right?
If you get dealt suited cards, they play like their unranked counterparts unless they're suited connectors.
A flush is a very good hand. Only a boat, quads or a straight-flush beats it. But if you're "drawing" to a boat, you've got either two pair or a set. If you're "drawing" to quads, you've got a set. If you're drawing to a flush, you very probably have nothing. Oh yes, you can have a hand and flop that will give you a pair, and those hands do happen, but they're much more rare than the situation where you have a flush draw and high card only.
Big reward, big risk. Let the drawer beware.
Here's why two suited cards aren't really all that much better than two unsuited cards of the same rank. Let's take a look at a typical flush draw situation.
You're in a 9 handed SNG with everyone still in. You're the big blind with 83 of spades and there are 4 limpers. The flop comes Ks 9s jh.
You like that flop? Do you really? If you ignore the flush draw, you are playing two undercards. You can't even complete the sucker straight with a queen and a ten because of the king. Even if you river your flush, there are 3 flushes better. If someone got dealt Ax of spades ("sooooted!"), you'd be drawing to an 8 or a 3. And if it was AJs (maybe the under-the-gun limper was afraid of a re-raise), you'd need runner-runner six outs.
You'd check-fold it if it were 8h 3h, right?
If you get dealt suited cards, they play like their unranked counterparts unless they're suited connectors.
A flush is a very good hand. Only a boat, quads or a straight-flush beats it. But if you're "drawing" to a boat, you've got either two pair or a set. If you're "drawing" to quads, you've got a set. If you're drawing to a flush, you very probably have nothing. Oh yes, you can have a hand and flop that will give you a pair, and those hands do happen, but they're much more rare than the situation where you have a flush draw and high card only.
Big reward, big risk. Let the drawer beware.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Escaped by the skin of my teeth
When you wind up with an under-set, you're going to lose a ton of money, that's just all there is to it. At least, that's usually how it goes.
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $5 + $0.50 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:40:13 ET - 2007/05/31
Seat 1: (2,280)
Seat 2: (1,455)
Seat 3: (1,395)
Seat 4: hero (960)
Seat 5: (1,410)
Seat 6: (1,500)
Seat 3 posts the small blind of 15
hero posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [5h 5s]
Seat 5 raises to 105
Seat 6 calls 105
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 calls 90
hero calls 75
*** FLOP *** [9s Kd 5d]
Seat 3 checks
Always nice to flop a set with a pocket pair. It's so hidden, especially because I didn't raise before the flop. Let's not chase anybody away...
hero bets 150
Seat 5 calls 150
Seat 6 calls 150
Seat 3 calls 150
*** TURN *** [9s Kd 5d] [5c]
Haleluja!!!
Seat 3 checks
Let's make a particularly weak looking bet.
hero bets 150
Seat 5 raises to 570
Seat 6 folds
Seat 3 folds
hero raises to 705, and is all in
Seat 5 calls 135
hero shows [5h 5s]
Seat 5 shows [Ks Kh]
Oh my God, that's got to hurt.
I didn't change this guy's name to 'villain' because he really did play it correctly. The poker Gods simply saw fit to kick him in the head.
*** RIVER *** [9s Kd 5d 5c] [9h]
hero shows four of a kind, Fives
Seat 5 shows a full house, Kings full of Nines
hero wins the pot (2,430) with four of a kind, Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,430 | Rake 0
Board: [9s Kd 5d 5c 9h]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: hero (big blind) showed [5h 5s] and won (2,430) with four of a kind, Fives
Seat 5: showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a full house, Kings full of Nines
Seat 6: folded on the Turn
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $5 + $0.50 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:40:13 ET - 2007/05/31
Seat 1: (2,280)
Seat 2: (1,455)
Seat 3: (1,395)
Seat 4: hero (960)
Seat 5: (1,410)
Seat 6: (1,500)
Seat 3 posts the small blind of 15
hero posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [5h 5s]
Seat 5 raises to 105
Seat 6 calls 105
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 calls 90
hero calls 75
*** FLOP *** [9s Kd 5d]
Seat 3 checks
Always nice to flop a set with a pocket pair. It's so hidden, especially because I didn't raise before the flop. Let's not chase anybody away...
hero bets 150
Seat 5 calls 150
Seat 6 calls 150
Seat 3 calls 150
*** TURN *** [9s Kd 5d] [5c]
Haleluja!!!
Seat 3 checks
Let's make a particularly weak looking bet.
hero bets 150
Seat 5 raises to 570
Seat 6 folds
Seat 3 folds
hero raises to 705, and is all in
Seat 5 calls 135
hero shows [5h 5s]
Seat 5 shows [Ks Kh]
Oh my God, that's got to hurt.
I didn't change this guy's name to 'villain' because he really did play it correctly. The poker Gods simply saw fit to kick him in the head.
*** RIVER *** [9s Kd 5d 5c] [9h]
hero shows four of a kind, Fives
Seat 5 shows a full house, Kings full of Nines
hero wins the pot (2,430) with four of a kind, Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,430 | Rake 0
Board: [9s Kd 5d 5c 9h]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: hero (big blind) showed [5h 5s] and won (2,430) with four of a kind, Fives
Seat 5: showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a full house, Kings full of Nines
Seat 6: folded on the Turn
Monday, May 28, 2007
Typical donkey behavior
I can't tell you how often I see this sort of behavior over and over and over again. Of course, the consolation is that bad players fail over the long term, but the short term variance sure sucks hard.
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: 300 FTP Sat to $400K Satellite (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:55:35 ET - 2007/05/29
Seat 1: (1,650)
Seat 2: villain: (1,305)
Seat 3: (1,380)
Seat 4: (1,440)
Seat 5: (1,845)
Seat 6: (1,500)
Seat 7: (1,500)
Seat 8: (1,380)
Seat 9: hero (1,500)
Seat 5 posts the small blind of 15
Seat 6 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ah Kh]
Seat 7 folds
Seat 8 folds
hero raises to 90
Seat 1 folds
villain calls 90
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
*** FLOP *** [Jc Ad 7c]
hero bets 225
villain calls 225
*** TURN *** [Jc Ad 7c] [9s]
I still SO like my hand. Let's represent a lower pocket pair to pretend that his calling with an ace was scary. In retrospect, this was a very risky play with 2 clubs on board. But even if I pushed on the flop, I suspect (also in retrospect) that donkey boy would have called. If he'd have checked for the free card and caught, I would, of course, have slowed down.
hero checks
villain bets 450
Gotcha!
hero raises to 1,185, and is all in
villain calls 540, and is all in
hero shows [Ah Kh]
villain shows [8c 3c]
83s? We're, like, 2 hands in and he calls a pre-flop raise with 83s? And then he calls a pot-sized bet (so he's getting 2:1 on a 3:1 draw)? And then calls an all-in with one card to go? He's 4:1 against to get his flush, and even if he gets it, he could hit an over-flush. And if he misses, he is playing 8 high.
Uncalled bet of 195 returned to hero
*** RIVER *** [Jc Ad 7c 9s] [Tc]
Fucking donkey.
hero shows a pair of Aces
villain shows a flush, Jack high
villain wins the pot (2,655) with a flush, Jack high
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,655 | Rake 0
Board: [Jc Ad 7c 9s Tc]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: villain showed [8c 3c] and won (2,655) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 3: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: hero showed [Ah Kh] and lost with a pair of Aces
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: 300 FTP Sat to $400K Satellite (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:55:35 ET - 2007/05/29
Seat 1: (1,650)
Seat 2: villain: (1,305)
Seat 3: (1,380)
Seat 4: (1,440)
Seat 5: (1,845)
Seat 6: (1,500)
Seat 7: (1,500)
Seat 8: (1,380)
Seat 9: hero (1,500)
Seat 5 posts the small blind of 15
Seat 6 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ah Kh]
Seat 7 folds
Seat 8 folds
hero raises to 90
Seat 1 folds
villain calls 90
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
*** FLOP *** [Jc Ad 7c]
hero bets 225
villain calls 225
*** TURN *** [Jc Ad 7c] [9s]
I still SO like my hand. Let's represent a lower pocket pair to pretend that his calling with an ace was scary. In retrospect, this was a very risky play with 2 clubs on board. But even if I pushed on the flop, I suspect (also in retrospect) that donkey boy would have called. If he'd have checked for the free card and caught, I would, of course, have slowed down.
hero checks
villain bets 450
Gotcha!
hero raises to 1,185, and is all in
villain calls 540, and is all in
hero shows [Ah Kh]
villain shows [8c 3c]
83s? We're, like, 2 hands in and he calls a pre-flop raise with 83s? And then he calls a pot-sized bet (so he's getting 2:1 on a 3:1 draw)? And then calls an all-in with one card to go? He's 4:1 against to get his flush, and even if he gets it, he could hit an over-flush. And if he misses, he is playing 8 high.
Uncalled bet of 195 returned to hero
*** RIVER *** [Jc Ad 7c 9s] [Tc]
Fucking donkey.
hero shows a pair of Aces
villain shows a flush, Jack high
villain wins the pot (2,655) with a flush, Jack high
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,655 | Rake 0
Board: [Jc Ad 7c 9s Tc]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: villain showed [8c 3c] and won (2,655) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 3: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: hero showed [Ah Kh] and lost with a pair of Aces
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Bad beat of the century
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (_), Table 44 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:21:51 ET - 2007/05/27
Seat 1: (2,475)
Seat 2: (4,505)
Seat 3: (4,640)
Seat 4: (6,040)
Seat 5: (7,120)
Seat 6: (8,905)
Seat 7: villain (6,990)
Seat 8: (1,850)
Seat 9: hero (7,085)
hero posts the small blind of 80
Seat 1 posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts Td]
Seat 2 calls 160
Seat 3 calls 160
Seat 4 calls 160
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain calls 160
Seat 8 folds
hero raises to 1,000
4 limpers. Got to make a substantial rase to isolate.
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 calls 840
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
villain calls 840
*** FLOP *** [9d Jc 3c]
Well, if someone just called a re-raise with a jack, then I'm Daniel Negreanu.
hero bets 6,085, and is all in
Seat 2 folds
villain calls 5,990, and is all in
hero shows [Ts Td]
villain shows [2c Ac]
Uncalled bet of 95 returned to hero
*** TURN *** [9d Jc 3c] [Ad]
Fuck!
*** RIVER *** [9d Jc 3c Ad] [5c]
hero shows a pair of Tens
villain shows a flush, Ace high
villain wins the pot (15,460) with a flush, Ace high
Nice call, Eeyore.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15,460 | Rake 0
Board: [9d Jc 3c Ad 5c]
Seat 1: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: folded on the Flop
Seat 3: folded before the Flop
Seat 4: folded before the Flop
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: villain showed [2c Ac] and won (15,460) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: hero (small blind) showed [Ts Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 1: (2,475)
Seat 2: (4,505)
Seat 3: (4,640)
Seat 4: (6,040)
Seat 5: (7,120)
Seat 6: (8,905)
Seat 7: villain (6,990)
Seat 8: (1,850)
Seat 9: hero (7,085)
hero posts the small blind of 80
Seat 1 posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts Td]
Seat 2 calls 160
Seat 3 calls 160
Seat 4 calls 160
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain calls 160
Seat 8 folds
hero raises to 1,000
4 limpers. Got to make a substantial rase to isolate.
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 calls 840
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
villain calls 840
*** FLOP *** [9d Jc 3c]
Well, if someone just called a re-raise with a jack, then I'm Daniel Negreanu.
hero bets 6,085, and is all in
Seat 2 folds
villain calls 5,990, and is all in
hero shows [Ts Td]
villain shows [2c Ac]
Uncalled bet of 95 returned to hero
*** TURN *** [9d Jc 3c] [Ad]
Fuck!
*** RIVER *** [9d Jc 3c Ad] [5c]
hero shows a pair of Tens
villain shows a flush, Ace high
villain wins the pot (15,460) with a flush, Ace high
Nice call, Eeyore.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15,460 | Rake 0
Board: [9d Jc 3c Ad 5c]
Seat 1: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: folded on the Flop
Seat 3: folded before the Flop
Seat 4: folded before the Flop
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: villain showed [2c Ac] and won (15,460) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: hero (small blind) showed [Ts Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
How not to bluff
I wasn't involved in this hand, but it provided another example of how NOT to play.
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: Double Stack $30 + $3 (_), Table 4 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:46:12 ET - 2007/05/27
Seat 1: (3,240)
Seat 2: (5,885)
Seat 3: (3,055)
Seat 4: (2,675)
Seat 5: (2,945)
Seat 6: (6,345)
Seat 8: (2,855)
Seat 9: hero (2,745)
Seat 4 posts the small blind of 20
Seat 5 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [5d Js]
Seat 6 folds
Seat 8 raises to 140
hero folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 calls 140
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 calls 100
*** FLOP *** [2d Ts 4c]
Seat 5 bets 2,080
This was all but about 800 of his stack, and it was 5 times the size of the pot. That just screams out "weak." There's a huge difference between an over-bet that's all in, and one that's not quite all-in.
I suspect seat 2 would have still called the all-in with top pair. Wouldn't it have been better to bet about the size of the pot, then fold to a raise or check-fold the turn if he calls and you don't improve?
Seat 8 folds
Seat 2 calls 2,080
*** TURN *** [2d Ts 4c] [8c]
Seat 5 bets 640
Again, what was he saving the last 85 for?
Seat 2 raises to 1,280
Seat 5 calls 85, and is all in
Seat 2 shows [8h Td]
Seat 5 shows [5h Ah]
Uncalled bet of 555 returned to Seat 2
*** RIVER *** [2d Ts 4c 8c] [4d]
Seat 2 shows two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 5 shows a pair of Fours
Seat 2 wins the pot (6,050) with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 5 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,050 | Rake 0
Board: [2d Ts 4c 8c 4d]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: showed [8h Td] and won (6,050) with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: (big blind) showed [5h Ah] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: folded on the Flop
Seat 9: hero didn't bet (folded)
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: Double Stack $30 + $3 (_), Table 4 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:46:12 ET - 2007/05/27
Seat 1: (3,240)
Seat 2: (5,885)
Seat 3: (3,055)
Seat 4: (2,675)
Seat 5: (2,945)
Seat 6: (6,345)
Seat 8: (2,855)
Seat 9: hero (2,745)
Seat 4 posts the small blind of 20
Seat 5 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [5d Js]
Seat 6 folds
Seat 8 raises to 140
hero folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 calls 140
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 calls 100
*** FLOP *** [2d Ts 4c]
Seat 5 bets 2,080
This was all but about 800 of his stack, and it was 5 times the size of the pot. That just screams out "weak." There's a huge difference between an over-bet that's all in, and one that's not quite all-in.
I suspect seat 2 would have still called the all-in with top pair. Wouldn't it have been better to bet about the size of the pot, then fold to a raise or check-fold the turn if he calls and you don't improve?
Seat 8 folds
Seat 2 calls 2,080
*** TURN *** [2d Ts 4c] [8c]
Seat 5 bets 640
Again, what was he saving the last 85 for?
Seat 2 raises to 1,280
Seat 5 calls 85, and is all in
Seat 2 shows [8h Td]
Seat 5 shows [5h Ah]
Uncalled bet of 555 returned to Seat 2
*** RIVER *** [2d Ts 4c 8c] [4d]
Seat 2 shows two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 5 shows a pair of Fours
Seat 2 wins the pot (6,050) with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 5 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,050 | Rake 0
Board: [2d Ts 4c 8c 4d]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: showed [8h Td] and won (6,050) with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: (big blind) showed [5h Ah] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: folded on the Flop
Seat 9: hero didn't bet (folded)
MTT money twice in one day!
That's never happened.
This morning I came in 30something out of about 300, which more or less got me a refund.
This evening I played in the Midnight Madness at FTP and came in 19th out of 1152. For that, $10 turned into $50. Unfortunately, the last two tables were where the money started to really ratchet up. Oh well, maybe next time.
This morning I came in 30something out of about 300, which more or less got me a refund.
This evening I played in the Midnight Madness at FTP and came in 19th out of 1152. For that, $10 turned into $50. Unfortunately, the last two tables were where the money started to really ratchet up. Oh well, maybe next time.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
House stuff
So last week we got contractors to come and blow cellulose insullation into the walls and attic of the house. The attic was easy, but to do the walls they had to drill holes in the outside wall, blow the insullation in, then patch the holes up with either stuco patch (for stuco walls) or bungs and putty (for wood), and that we were on the hook for painting them afterwards. Our house looked like there had been a drive-by shooting. Well, I promised Scarlet that I would paint this weekend, and I kept my promise. We had used Kelley Moore flat latex to paint the house before, and since we were painting a whole new color we were able to just go with the sample we liked best and use the name for ordering (our house is "Del Covino").
So I ambled over to the KM store in Mountain View, picked up a quart of the stuff and a narrow roller on a long handle and came home and got to work. It took about an hour, but the amazing thing is that the old and new paint blended perfectly. You can't see that anything happened unless you really know exactly where to look. This is particularly impressive given that the wood part of our house faces west into full sun, and we last painted when we bought the house almost 5 years ago.
So big ups to Kelley Moore.
So I ambled over to the KM store in Mountain View, picked up a quart of the stuff and a narrow roller on a long handle and came home and got to work. It took about an hour, but the amazing thing is that the old and new paint blended perfectly. You can't see that anything happened unless you really know exactly where to look. This is particularly impressive given that the wood part of our house faces west into full sun, and we last painted when we bought the house almost 5 years ago.
So big ups to Kelley Moore.
Another lesson on pot odds
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (_), Table 7 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:44:11 ET - 2007/05/26
Seat 1: (2,385)
Seat 2: (825)
Seat 3: (2,290)
Seat 4: (645)
Seat 5: (4,825)
Seat 6: hero (5,540)
Seat 7: (1,740)
Seat 8: (1,805)
Seat 9: (1,840)
Seat 7 posts the small blind of 40
Seat 8 posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [2h 2c]
Seat 9 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 raises to 240
Seat 4 calls 240
Seat 5 calls 240
What are my pot odds to call here? 4:1. There are a couple of people to act behind still, but unless more than one of them have a bigger pair, I'm not that far out to call.
But if you're going to call here, it's because of the implied pot if you get a 2. Any deuce-less flop gets a check-fold.
hero calls 240
Seat 7 folds
Seat 8 has 15 seconds left to act
Seat 8 folds
*** FLOP *** [2s 4h 7s]
et voila.
Seat 3 bets 80
Seat 4 raises to 405, and is all in
Seat 5 calls 405
Bet, all-in and call. There are two spades out there, so I can't afford to give a free card. Maybe I'll get called by at least one of rest. Charge!
hero raises to 5,300, and is all in
Seat 3 folds
Seat 5 folds
Darn. Well, at least there's the all-in player.
hero shows [2h 2c]
Seat 4 shows [Ah Qd]
Uncalled bet of 4,895 returned to hero
*** TURN *** [2s 4h 7s] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [2s 4h 7s 4s] [7c]
nsayer shows a full house, Twos full of Sevens
Seat 4 shows two pair, Sevens and Fours
hero wins the pot (2,375) with a full house, Twos full of Sevens
Seat 4 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,375 | Rake 0
Look back at the call of 240 before the flop: my realized pot odds on that call were almost 10:1. That is, when the 2 came on the flop, I very likely was going to win it, and the final pot was not quite ten times the size of the pre-flop call. If a two hadn't come, I was very likely going to lose the 240. My odds of flopping at least one two were 9:1. QED.
Board: [2s 4h 7s 4s 7c]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: folded on the Flop
Seat 4: showed [Ah Qd] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Fours
Seat 5: folded on the Flop
Seat 6: hero (button) showed [2h 2c] and won (2,375) with a full house, Twos full of Sevens
Seat 7: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 1: (2,385)
Seat 2: (825)
Seat 3: (2,290)
Seat 4: (645)
Seat 5: (4,825)
Seat 6: hero (5,540)
Seat 7: (1,740)
Seat 8: (1,805)
Seat 9: (1,840)
Seat 7 posts the small blind of 40
Seat 8 posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [2h 2c]
Seat 9 folds
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 raises to 240
Seat 4 calls 240
Seat 5 calls 240
What are my pot odds to call here? 4:1. There are a couple of people to act behind still, but unless more than one of them have a bigger pair, I'm not that far out to call.
But if you're going to call here, it's because of the implied pot if you get a 2. Any deuce-less flop gets a check-fold.
hero calls 240
Seat 7 folds
Seat 8 has 15 seconds left to act
Seat 8 folds
*** FLOP *** [2s 4h 7s]
et voila.
Seat 3 bets 80
Seat 4 raises to 405, and is all in
Seat 5 calls 405
Bet, all-in and call. There are two spades out there, so I can't afford to give a free card. Maybe I'll get called by at least one of rest. Charge!
hero raises to 5,300, and is all in
Seat 3 folds
Seat 5 folds
Darn. Well, at least there's the all-in player.
hero shows [2h 2c]
Seat 4 shows [Ah Qd]
Uncalled bet of 4,895 returned to hero
*** TURN *** [2s 4h 7s] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [2s 4h 7s 4s] [7c]
nsayer shows a full house, Twos full of Sevens
Seat 4 shows two pair, Sevens and Fours
hero wins the pot (2,375) with a full house, Twos full of Sevens
Seat 4 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,375 | Rake 0
Look back at the call of 240 before the flop: my realized pot odds on that call were almost 10:1. That is, when the 2 came on the flop, I very likely was going to win it, and the final pot was not quite ten times the size of the pre-flop call. If a two hadn't come, I was very likely going to lose the 240. My odds of flopping at least one two were 9:1. QED.
Board: [2s 4h 7s 4s 7c]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: folded on the Flop
Seat 4: showed [Ah Qd] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Fours
Seat 5: folded on the Flop
Seat 6: hero (button) showed [2h 2c] and won (2,375) with a full house, Twos full of Sevens
Seat 7: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: didn't bet (folded)
When the right card comes along
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (_), Table 34 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:22:35 ET - 2007/05/26
Seat 1: (755)
Seat 2: (1,880)
Seat 3: (2,710)
Seat 4: hero (2,860)
Seat 5: villain (3,905)
Seat 6: (1,080)
Seat 8: (3,135)
Seat 9: goat (3,010)
hero posts the small blind of 25
villain posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [4h 4c]
Seat 6 folds
Seat 8 folds
goat raises to 150
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
hero calls 125
villain calls 100
With small pocket pairs, take a look at the flop as cheaply as you can. But raise if it's unraised to chase away the blinds.
*** FLOP *** [6h 3d 2s]
hero checks
Inside straight draw. Interesting.
villain bets 50
That bet looks suspicious. It's less than a quarter of the pot at this point. Why not just check?
goat raises to 250
Interesting. My straight pot odds don't quite demand the call, but it's close enough to gamble a little. Besides, I'd feel good with either a 5 or a 4, so that's really 7 outs, if you squint.
hero calls 250
villain raises to 450
Uh oh. Minimum raise. He's probably strong. Trouble is, if I called the last bet, he's certainly giving me odds to call this one. And with that board, he couldn't afford to give what has become perhaps not a free card, but a very cheap one.
goat has 15 seconds left to act
goat folds
hero calls 200
*** TURN *** [6h 3d 2s] [5h]
Cowabunga! Truth is, without a 4 or 5, I'd have check-folded here.
hero checks
villain bets 650
hero raises to 2,260, and is all in
villain calls 1,610
hero shows [4h 4c]
villain shows [3h 3c]
*** RIVER *** [6h 3d 2s 5h] [Th]
hero shows a straight, Six high
villain shows three of a kind, Threes
hero wins the pot (6,120) with a straight, Six high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,120 | Rake 0
Board: [6h 3d 2s 5h Th]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: hero (small blind) showed [4h 4c] and won (6,120) with a straight, Six high
Seat 5: villain (big blind) showed [3h 3c] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: folded on the Flop
Seat 1: (755)
Seat 2: (1,880)
Seat 3: (2,710)
Seat 4: hero (2,860)
Seat 5: villain (3,905)
Seat 6: (1,080)
Seat 8: (3,135)
Seat 9: goat (3,010)
hero posts the small blind of 25
villain posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [4h 4c]
Seat 6 folds
Seat 8 folds
goat raises to 150
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
hero calls 125
villain calls 100
With small pocket pairs, take a look at the flop as cheaply as you can. But raise if it's unraised to chase away the blinds.
*** FLOP *** [6h 3d 2s]
hero checks
Inside straight draw. Interesting.
villain bets 50
That bet looks suspicious. It's less than a quarter of the pot at this point. Why not just check?
goat raises to 250
Interesting. My straight pot odds don't quite demand the call, but it's close enough to gamble a little. Besides, I'd feel good with either a 5 or a 4, so that's really 7 outs, if you squint.
hero calls 250
villain raises to 450
Uh oh. Minimum raise. He's probably strong. Trouble is, if I called the last bet, he's certainly giving me odds to call this one. And with that board, he couldn't afford to give what has become perhaps not a free card, but a very cheap one.
goat has 15 seconds left to act
goat folds
hero calls 200
*** TURN *** [6h 3d 2s] [5h]
Cowabunga! Truth is, without a 4 or 5, I'd have check-folded here.
hero checks
villain bets 650
hero raises to 2,260, and is all in
villain calls 1,610
hero shows [4h 4c]
villain shows [3h 3c]
*** RIVER *** [6h 3d 2s 5h] [Th]
hero shows a straight, Six high
villain shows three of a kind, Threes
hero wins the pot (6,120) with a straight, Six high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,120 | Rake 0
Board: [6h 3d 2s 5h Th]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: hero (small blind) showed [4h 4c] and won (6,120) with a straight, Six high
Seat 5: villain (big blind) showed [3h 3c] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 6: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: folded on the Flop
Friday, May 25, 2007
Things that make you go "huh?"
I wasn't involved in this hand, but it was pretty amusing to watch
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $20 + $2 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:30:19 ET - 2007/05/26
Seat 1: (165)
Seat 2: hero (4,975)
Seat 3: (1,080)
Seat 5: (1,795)
Seat 6: (985)
Seat 5 posts the small blind of 30
Seat 6 posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [2h Jh]
seat 1 folds
hero folds
Seat 3 raises to 180
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 calls 120
*** FLOP *** [7c Jc Tc]
Seat 6 checks
Seat 3 bets 240
Seat 6 calls 240
Hmm. At this point you'd expect that at least one of these two has a flush draw. But I've already said too much.
*** TURN *** [7c Jc Tc] [5s]
Seat 6 checks
Seat 3 bets 180
Seat 6 calls 180
Seat 3, if you're representing the flush, the next bet should go up, not down. Especially down to just a bit more than a tenth of the pot. Hardly a surprise seat 6 called.
*** RIVER *** [7c Jc Tc 5s] [4c]
Seat 6 checks
Seat 3 bets 420
Seat 6 calls 385, and is all in
Ah. Sure enough. Seat 6 has filled in his flush.
Uncalled bet of 35 returned to Seat 3
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Seat 3 shows [9h Kh] (King Jack high)
Seat 6 shows [4d 7s] (two pair, Sevens and Fours)
What is the sound of a jaw dropping in amazement?
So I give seat 3 credit for a truly vivid imagination. It was a position raise, so K9 suited isn't unreasonable, but if you're going to represent the flush post-flop, you should probably move in so you can push away anybody on a draw. It would have been very difficult for anyone to call without at least either two clubs or the nut flush draw. And, of course, the risk of representing a hand is that your opponent will have exactly that hand and not be fooled.
And speaking of imagination... let's give a round of applaus to seat 6's river call... OMGWTFBBQ?! How could he possibly think 3rd and bottom pair were good with 4 clubs on the board? As you were reading along, did you put seat 3 on a stone cold bluff? What if he had Ac Jd? That would have fit the betting pattern pretty well.
And what was he doing calling the pre-flop raise with 47o anyway?
Seat 6 wins the pot (2,000) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,000 | Rake 0
Board: [7c Jc Tc 5s 4c]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: hero didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (button) showed [9h Kh] and lost with King Jack high
Seat 5: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: (big blind) showed [4d 7s] and won (2,000) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $20 + $2 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:30:19 ET - 2007/05/26
Seat 1: (165)
Seat 2: hero (4,975)
Seat 3: (1,080)
Seat 5: (1,795)
Seat 6: (985)
Seat 5 posts the small blind of 30
Seat 6 posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [2h Jh]
seat 1 folds
hero folds
Seat 3 raises to 180
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 calls 120
*** FLOP *** [7c Jc Tc]
Seat 6 checks
Seat 3 bets 240
Seat 6 calls 240
Hmm. At this point you'd expect that at least one of these two has a flush draw. But I've already said too much.
*** TURN *** [7c Jc Tc] [5s]
Seat 6 checks
Seat 3 bets 180
Seat 6 calls 180
Seat 3, if you're representing the flush, the next bet should go up, not down. Especially down to just a bit more than a tenth of the pot. Hardly a surprise seat 6 called.
*** RIVER *** [7c Jc Tc 5s] [4c]
Seat 6 checks
Seat 3 bets 420
Seat 6 calls 385, and is all in
Ah. Sure enough. Seat 6 has filled in his flush.
Uncalled bet of 35 returned to Seat 3
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Seat 3 shows [9h Kh] (King Jack high)
Seat 6 shows [4d 7s] (two pair, Sevens and Fours)
What is the sound of a jaw dropping in amazement?
So I give seat 3 credit for a truly vivid imagination. It was a position raise, so K9 suited isn't unreasonable, but if you're going to represent the flush post-flop, you should probably move in so you can push away anybody on a draw. It would have been very difficult for anyone to call without at least either two clubs or the nut flush draw. And, of course, the risk of representing a hand is that your opponent will have exactly that hand and not be fooled.
And speaking of imagination... let's give a round of applaus to seat 6's river call... OMGWTFBBQ?! How could he possibly think 3rd and bottom pair were good with 4 clubs on the board? As you were reading along, did you put seat 3 on a stone cold bluff? What if he had Ac Jd? That would have fit the betting pattern pretty well.
And what was he doing calling the pre-flop raise with 47o anyway?
Seat 6 wins the pot (2,000) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,000 | Rake 0
Board: [7c Jc Tc 5s 4c]
Seat 1: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: hero didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (button) showed [9h Kh] and lost with King Jack high
Seat 5: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: (big blind) showed [4d 7s] and won (2,000) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
iPhone is close...
The iPhone is just that much closer. The user-agent string is showing up already in people's web logs. Other sites have reported the rumored release date of June 20th.
I still have questions about the iPhone. Enough of them that I probably won't be the first one in line. But not since the old days of the Motorola Star Tac have I owned a phone with a user interface that just worked (and the Star Tac gets a pass only because of it's limited functionality).
I still have questions about the iPhone. Enough of them that I probably won't be the first one in line. But not since the old days of the Motorola Star Tac have I owned a phone with a user interface that just worked (and the Star Tac gets a pass only because of it's limited functionality).
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Cold deck du jour
This is, like, the 3rd hand in.
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:23:54 ET - 2007/05/24
Seat 1: villain (1,485)
Seat 2: (1,455)
Seat 3: (1,515)
Seat 4: (1,410)
Seat 5: (1,635)
Seat 6: hero (1,500)
Seat 3 posts the small blind of 15
Seat 4 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [8c 9c]
Seat 5 folds
hero raises to 90
villain calls 90
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 calls 60
*** FLOP *** [7d 8h 4c]
Top pair. Ok
Seat 4 checks
hero bets 285
villain has 15 seconds left to act
villain raises to 570
Seat 4 folds
hero calls 285
This was a bit of a mistake. He did a minimum raise. I should know better.
*** TURN *** [7d 8h 4c] [9s]
Top two pair. Nice.
hero bets 840, and is all in
villain calls 825, and is all in
hero shows [8c 9c]
villain shows [7s 7h]
Oh for crying out loud.
I don't even mind so much that he flopped the set. What I mind is that the poker gods saw fit to give me two pair to go along with it. It seems to happen a lot to me.
Uncalled bet of 15 returned to hero
*** RIVER *** [7d 8h 4c 9s] [2c]
hero shows two pair, Nines and Eights
villain shows three of a kind, Sevens
villain wins the pot (3,075) with three of a kind, Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,075 | Rake 0
Board: [7d 8h 4c 9s 2c]
Seat 1: villain showed [7s 7h] and won (3,075) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 2: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: hero showed [8c 9c] and lost with two pair, Nines and Eights
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:23:54 ET - 2007/05/24
Seat 1: villain (1,485)
Seat 2: (1,455)
Seat 3: (1,515)
Seat 4: (1,410)
Seat 5: (1,635)
Seat 6: hero (1,500)
Seat 3 posts the small blind of 15
Seat 4 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [8c 9c]
Seat 5 folds
hero raises to 90
villain calls 90
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 calls 60
*** FLOP *** [7d 8h 4c]
Top pair. Ok
Seat 4 checks
hero bets 285
villain has 15 seconds left to act
villain raises to 570
Seat 4 folds
hero calls 285
This was a bit of a mistake. He did a minimum raise. I should know better.
*** TURN *** [7d 8h 4c] [9s]
Top two pair. Nice.
hero bets 840, and is all in
villain calls 825, and is all in
hero shows [8c 9c]
villain shows [7s 7h]
Oh for crying out loud.
I don't even mind so much that he flopped the set. What I mind is that the poker gods saw fit to give me two pair to go along with it. It seems to happen a lot to me.
Uncalled bet of 15 returned to hero
*** RIVER *** [7d 8h 4c 9s] [2c]
hero shows two pair, Nines and Eights
villain shows three of a kind, Sevens
villain wins the pot (3,075) with three of a kind, Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,075 | Rake 0
Board: [7d 8h 4c 9s 2c]
Seat 1: villain showed [7s 7h] and won (3,075) with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 2: (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: hero showed [8c 9c] and lost with two pair, Nines and Eights
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Bad beat du jour
Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $10 + $1 Tournament (_), Table _ - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:29:21 ET - 2007/05/24
Seat 1: villain (3,690)
Seat 2: hero (6,450)
Seat 3: (6,545)
Seat 4: (7,200)
Seat 5: (540)
Seat 6: (4,555)
villain posts the small blind of 50
hero posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts Ah]
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 has 15 seconds left to act
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain raises to 300
hero raises to 1,000
villain calls 700
*** FLOP *** [3d Jd Th]
villain bets 2,690, and is all in
Would he have called a re-raise with an unpaired jack? Maybe AJ. Would he have merely called with a bigger pocket pair? I don't think so. Would he push if he flopped a set? No. So the only hand he is likely to have that's the winner is AJ. Fine. If he has that, then so be it.
hero calls 2,690
villain shows [Kd Qh]
I thought so.
hero shows [Ts Ah]
*** TURN *** [3d Jd Th] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [3d Jd Th 5h] [9c]
villain shows a straight, King high
Damn river.
hero shows a pair of Tens
villain wins the pot (7,380) with a straight, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7,380 | Rake 0
Board: [3d Jd Th 5h 9c]
Seat 1: villain (small blind) showed [Kd Qh] and won (7,380) with a straight, King high
Seat 2: hero (big blind) showed [Ts Ah] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 3: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: (button) didn't bet (folded)
They say living well is the best revenge. I came in 23rd, and the villain came in 28th. And in the end, those 7000 chips, while they would have been nice to have at the time, probably didn't really amount to much.
Seat 1: villain (3,690)
Seat 2: hero (6,450)
Seat 3: (6,545)
Seat 4: (7,200)
Seat 5: (540)
Seat 6: (4,555)
villain posts the small blind of 50
hero posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ts Ah]
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 has 15 seconds left to act
Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 folds
Seat 6 folds
villain raises to 300
hero raises to 1,000
villain calls 700
*** FLOP *** [3d Jd Th]
villain bets 2,690, and is all in
Would he have called a re-raise with an unpaired jack? Maybe AJ. Would he have merely called with a bigger pocket pair? I don't think so. Would he push if he flopped a set? No. So the only hand he is likely to have that's the winner is AJ. Fine. If he has that, then so be it.
hero calls 2,690
villain shows [Kd Qh]
I thought so.
hero shows [Ts Ah]
*** TURN *** [3d Jd Th] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [3d Jd Th 5h] [9c]
villain shows a straight, King high
Damn river.
hero shows a pair of Tens
villain wins the pot (7,380) with a straight, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7,380 | Rake 0
Board: [3d Jd Th 5h 9c]
Seat 1: villain (small blind) showed [Kd Qh] and won (7,380) with a straight, King high
Seat 2: hero (big blind) showed [Ts Ah] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 3: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: (button) didn't bet (folded)
They say living well is the best revenge. I came in 23rd, and the villain came in 28th. And in the end, those 7000 chips, while they would have been nice to have at the time, probably didn't really amount to much.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
When Mac Mini upgrades go bad
Well, I'm 2 for 3 in upgrading Mac Minis.
This time, I managed to break not one, but two of the heatsink retaining clips. I did manage to get the other two on opposite corners of the heatsink so it's on the CPU, but it can't be good...
Not only that, but I also managed somehow to make the internal speaker not work. Since I've got it connected up via TOSLINK to a stereo it doesn't really matter, but it's still sort of a downer.
So if anyone knows why the internal speaker isn't working or where one can get some more of those plastic-and-spring heat sink retaining clips (that are probably special to the Mini), let me know.
This time, I managed to break not one, but two of the heatsink retaining clips. I did manage to get the other two on opposite corners of the heatsink so it's on the CPU, but it can't be good...
Not only that, but I also managed somehow to make the internal speaker not work. Since I've got it connected up via TOSLINK to a stereo it doesn't really matter, but it's still sort of a downer.
So if anyone knows why the internal speaker isn't working or where one can get some more of those plastic-and-spring heat sink retaining clips (that are probably special to the Mini), let me know.
Poker tutoring
Last night I followed up my WPT boot camp experience with some private tutoring from Crispin Leyser. He was helpful in pointing out some areas I need to work on. So I'm happy to plug his site in return - it's the least I can do.
I won't go into to many specifics about his advice, mostly because it was advice for me - less useful for anyone else. But one thing I'll mention is that I need to work on being less emotional as I play. I need to channel my inner Vulcan, so to speak. This is not something new to me - Scarlet worries when I swear loudly at the TV that I'm going to have a stroke or something.
Last night after we were done, I played a little more, but that was a mistake - I was tired. But before work this morning I played in a heads-up game and won it. Here's hoping.
I won't go into to many specifics about his advice, mostly because it was advice for me - less useful for anyone else. But one thing I'll mention is that I need to work on being less emotional as I play. I need to channel my inner Vulcan, so to speak. This is not something new to me - Scarlet worries when I swear loudly at the TV that I'm going to have a stroke or something.
Last night after we were done, I played a little more, but that was a mistake - I was tired. But before work this morning I played in a heads-up game and won it. Here's hoping.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Mac migration assistant
If you've been following along, you'll remember that my old Powermac G5's power supply died on me. So I took it into the Apple store to get fixed and decided that it was a sign that it was time to move on. I bought a mini, which I will upgrade to a Core 2 duo as soon as it arrives. It's not the first intel mac in the house - there's also a mini plugged into the TV in the living room.
One thing I did before I took the Powermac to the Apple store was take the hard drive out. The geniuses are probably not going to go snooping through it, but it's easy to imagine the drive getting formatted by accident. Besides, if the power supply died, there's every chance it took more components with it. Better to find out now the state of the drive.
So I pulled it out and attached it to a power supply and SATA->USB adapter I keep around for dealing with bare drives. The drive was fine, thank goodness.
But the mini was on its way. How do I coonveniently get all that stuff onto it? The minis have 2.5" drives, so I can't just shoehorn the drive in there. Besides, the new mini has an Intel CPU, which requires different partitioning. I decided I would put the old drive in an external housing and try to use the Migration Assistant to copy the data in. Then I could blank the drive and use it as external storage.
But how do you use just a bare drive with the Migration assistant? Simple! The migration assistant works by getting you to connect the two macs together, then boot the old one in Firewire target mode. So long as your external housing has a Firewire port, it will look just like a mac booted into target mode.
So I was easily able to migrate all my stuff. The migration assistant takes waaaay too long to run, but the results are worth it. It's as if your new machine was your old one again. The only other thing to do was to migrate my virtual PC machine to Parallels using the Parallels Transporter, which was simple enough.
One thing I did before I took the Powermac to the Apple store was take the hard drive out. The geniuses are probably not going to go snooping through it, but it's easy to imagine the drive getting formatted by accident. Besides, if the power supply died, there's every chance it took more components with it. Better to find out now the state of the drive.
So I pulled it out and attached it to a power supply and SATA->USB adapter I keep around for dealing with bare drives. The drive was fine, thank goodness.
But the mini was on its way. How do I coonveniently get all that stuff onto it? The minis have 2.5" drives, so I can't just shoehorn the drive in there. Besides, the new mini has an Intel CPU, which requires different partitioning. I decided I would put the old drive in an external housing and try to use the Migration Assistant to copy the data in. Then I could blank the drive and use it as external storage.
But how do you use just a bare drive with the Migration assistant? Simple! The migration assistant works by getting you to connect the two macs together, then boot the old one in Firewire target mode. So long as your external housing has a Firewire port, it will look just like a mac booted into target mode.
So I was easily able to migrate all my stuff. The migration assistant takes waaaay too long to run, but the results are worth it. It's as if your new machine was your old one again. The only other thing to do was to migrate my virtual PC machine to Parallels using the Parallels Transporter, which was simple enough.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Powermac for sale
I got the powermac back from the apple store earlier this week. Turns out the cost to fix it is just about exactly what Apple Care would have cost (which would have made the repair free), so from that perspective it was a wash. I put the original 80 GB drive back in the machine, wiped it and reinstalled Tiger and Virtual PC (which I'm selling along with the powermac. It wouldn't be worth running on my Powerbook, and it's next anyway). It's on eBay if anybody is interested.
It's amazing what happens to computers. 3 years ago, that machine was top of the line, built like a tank - the very epitome of computing horsepower. Now, the mini that replaced it is scarsley larger than 5 mousepads stacked atop each other and is actually faster. Go figure.
You can see Gizmo in the eBay picture behind the machine. And no, he's not included.
Addendum: It sold for $810. Woo hoo!
It's amazing what happens to computers. 3 years ago, that machine was top of the line, built like a tank - the very epitome of computing horsepower. Now, the mini that replaced it is scarsley larger than 5 mousepads stacked atop each other and is actually faster. Go figure.
You can see Gizmo in the eBay picture behind the machine. And no, he's not included.
Addendum: It sold for $810. Woo hoo!
Friday, May 18, 2007
Funniest poker videos ever
I don't know who this guy is, but his videos are clearly satire. And as such, they are hilarious. Go check them out.
Upgrading Mac Minis
My Powermac G5's power supply died last week. That event sort of provided the catalyst to upgrade my desktop machine to an Intel mac. I took the machine in to the Apple store to get fixed. It cost $300, but that's what buying Apple Care for that machine would have cost to start with. I'm going to put that machine up on eBay.
The question was, with what should I replace it?
A Mac Pro? I don't really use my desktop machine enough to spend that sort of money. My wife has a Mac Pro. But it's her primary machine and she uses it for just about everything. So she should have the best. I'm usually someplace other than the back office, so I'm not in there much.
An iMac? Well, I have a 23" ADC Cinema Display that doesn't have anything wrong with it. I'd have to eBay that as well and then buy a 24" iMac. That plan does have the added bonus of giving me a 3.5" hard disk that would be replaceable. But again, I don't use that machine very much.
A MacBook or MacBook pro? No, I already have a Powerbook - this is going to be a desktop machine.
Well, all that's left is the mini. But that's ok - I've bought two others in the past and they make fine machines.
I bought the cheap mini. This was a tactical error on my part - the cheap minis come with Combo drives instead of Superdrives. Oops. I'll fix this by swapping the optical drive with my office mini. I don't need to burn DVDs there.
I bought the cheap mini because the first thing I do with a new mini is swap out the CPU for a Merom - a Core 2 Duo. This gives about a 33% boost in cpu speed (a combination of having a faster clock speed and just being more efficient than the 1.6 GHz Core Duo they ship) without affecting the power or thermal footprint of the chip. The core 2 chips also support virtualization (good for Parallels) and 64 bit extensions. It's a no-brainer.
The Internet is full of blog postings about how to take your mini apart and upgrade it, so I won't duplicate them here.
The question was, with what should I replace it?
A Mac Pro? I don't really use my desktop machine enough to spend that sort of money. My wife has a Mac Pro. But it's her primary machine and she uses it for just about everything. So she should have the best. I'm usually someplace other than the back office, so I'm not in there much.
An iMac? Well, I have a 23" ADC Cinema Display that doesn't have anything wrong with it. I'd have to eBay that as well and then buy a 24" iMac. That plan does have the added bonus of giving me a 3.5" hard disk that would be replaceable. But again, I don't use that machine very much.
A MacBook or MacBook pro? No, I already have a Powerbook - this is going to be a desktop machine.
Well, all that's left is the mini. But that's ok - I've bought two others in the past and they make fine machines.
I bought the cheap mini. This was a tactical error on my part - the cheap minis come with Combo drives instead of Superdrives. Oops. I'll fix this by swapping the optical drive with my office mini. I don't need to burn DVDs there.
I bought the cheap mini because the first thing I do with a new mini is swap out the CPU for a Merom - a Core 2 Duo. This gives about a 33% boost in cpu speed (a combination of having a faster clock speed and just being more efficient than the 1.6 GHz Core Duo they ship) without affecting the power or thermal footprint of the chip. The core 2 chips also support virtualization (good for Parallels) and 64 bit extensions. It's a no-brainer.
The Internet is full of blog postings about how to take your mini apart and upgrade it, so I won't duplicate them here.
Picture of me at the Commerce Casino
My lovely wife Scarlet gave me the most awesome Christmas / Birthday present this year - a buy-in to the WPT boot camp at the Commerce Casino in January.
The idea was that I was an ok player, but was not having fantastic success. The nagging wonder I have is whether I'm deluding myself and I'm just one of the fish, or if I just need to tune a little bit and then I'll be a successful player (I don't want to be a professional player, just a better than break-even amateur). So the boot camp was going to be my decision maker.
I came away with a few hints and tips, but mostly I came away with reassurance that I was not a worse player than I thought I was.
Anyway, during the multi-table tournament on Saturday (I came in 12th out of about 60), they took a picture of me:
I'm not so sure I'm going to keep wearing the hoodie. My wife said that it looked like I was wearing a klansman's dunce cap.
The idea was that I was an ok player, but was not having fantastic success. The nagging wonder I have is whether I'm deluding myself and I'm just one of the fish, or if I just need to tune a little bit and then I'll be a successful player (I don't want to be a professional player, just a better than break-even amateur). So the boot camp was going to be my decision maker.
I came away with a few hints and tips, but mostly I came away with reassurance that I was not a worse player than I thought I was.
Anyway, during the multi-table tournament on Saturday (I came in 12th out of about 60), they took a picture of me:
I'm not so sure I'm going to keep wearing the hoodie. My wife said that it looked like I was wearing a klansman's dunce cap.
Stuck DVD in iBook slot-loading drive
My sister-in-law has an iBook that she bought on our recommendation. A few days ago she reported that there was a DVD (rented from the local Lackluster Video) that wouldn't eject. I searched high and low and the collective advice of the Internet was that it wasn't really user servicable for Sister-in-Laws, so I told her to take it to the Apple store. The genius there gave it a quick try and then said it would cost over $400 to send it in for service.
Screw that.
She was going to fly out here for a visit soon anyway, so when she got here, I'd just take the case apart and get it done.
But I thought about it some more. One of the pages my searching got me to was a page at Apple that mentioned that the drives had to be operated in the normal horizontal position and that other orientations were not supported. That got me thinking.
So I asked her over the phone to hold her iBook upside-down, but without covering up the slot, then press the eject button. The disc summarily popped right out.
So next time a disc get stuck in your slot-loader Mac laptop, try holding the machine at various angles to see if you can get a little help from gravity.
Note that this applies to disks that are "hardware" stuck - that you can hear the mechanism trying to spit out. If it's "software" stuck, then just reboot the machine and hold the mouse button down and it should spit it out.
Screw that.
She was going to fly out here for a visit soon anyway, so when she got here, I'd just take the case apart and get it done.
But I thought about it some more. One of the pages my searching got me to was a page at Apple that mentioned that the drives had to be operated in the normal horizontal position and that other orientations were not supported. That got me thinking.
So I asked her over the phone to hold her iBook upside-down, but without covering up the slot, then press the eject button. The disc summarily popped right out.
So next time a disc get stuck in your slot-loader Mac laptop, try holding the machine at various angles to see if you can get a little help from gravity.
Note that this applies to disks that are "hardware" stuck - that you can hear the mechanism trying to spit out. If it's "software" stuck, then just reboot the machine and hold the mouse button down and it should spit it out.
Welcome
Yet another blog.
Why?
Once upon a time, I ran a blog site called "OSXHax." That blog got its 15 minutes when it became the epicenter of the activity behind trying to get 3rd party 802.11g cards to work with Apple's Airport Extreme driver. Apple tried locking us out, which only led to the development of a perl script to hack the driver every time they released a new one. Finally, Apple gave up and the driver to this day actually works with 3rd party cards, much to the delight of owners of older powerbooks.
OSXHax was going to evolve a bit beyond that, with content about how to decrypt FairPlay encoded iTunes songs, but it sort of petered out. Part of the problem was that I was still using old Movable Type software which was fairly vulnerable to comment spam. I was going to upgrade to Wordpress, but it doesn't support PostgreSQL, and I just never got around to installing anything else.
But with Blogger, I can host the blog at the URL of my choice, but leave the composing to them. That works for me.
As for OSXHax, my universe has grown a bit, and I occasionally want to blog about other topics. 99% of what I post will probably be entirely useless to you, but at least some small percentage of it will be useful to someone, so it's worth the bother. Use the labels to filter on the bits that matter to you.
What topics?
You'll find more mac stuff on occasion, some web stuff, and some poker stuff. And probably even more.
Who am I?
I'm Nick Sayer. I've had home Internet connectivity since 1992. kfu.com is my domain. It used to stand for "Kentucky Fried Unix," which used to be an ISP I ran back in the day to fund said connectivity. It doesn't really stand for anything anymore, but as a 3 letter .com domain, it's very nice to have. Just to get it out of the way, It is not for sale at any price and will not be in my lifetime.
I used to be a FreeBSD committer. When MacOS X came out, I sort of switched over to being a mac person. It's Unix, but with the ability to run a platform that people actually write code for in great abundance. That works for me. I still have a FreeBSD machine acting as a server. It's serving this page as we speak, in fact.
I am married to my wife Scarlet, and we have two cats. One of them is named Gizmo and his antics have had their own 15 minutes on YouTube.
A couple years ago, I was introduced by my friend Dave to poker. I've taken to it and play pretty regularly on FullTiltPoker (because they have a mac client) and in person at Bay 101 and Garden City.
Well, that's enough to start with.
Why?
Once upon a time, I ran a blog site called "OSXHax." That blog got its 15 minutes when it became the epicenter of the activity behind trying to get 3rd party 802.11g cards to work with Apple's Airport Extreme driver. Apple tried locking us out, which only led to the development of a perl script to hack the driver every time they released a new one. Finally, Apple gave up and the driver to this day actually works with 3rd party cards, much to the delight of owners of older powerbooks.
OSXHax was going to evolve a bit beyond that, with content about how to decrypt FairPlay encoded iTunes songs, but it sort of petered out. Part of the problem was that I was still using old Movable Type software which was fairly vulnerable to comment spam. I was going to upgrade to Wordpress, but it doesn't support PostgreSQL, and I just never got around to installing anything else.
But with Blogger, I can host the blog at the URL of my choice, but leave the composing to them. That works for me.
As for OSXHax, my universe has grown a bit, and I occasionally want to blog about other topics. 99% of what I post will probably be entirely useless to you, but at least some small percentage of it will be useful to someone, so it's worth the bother. Use the labels to filter on the bits that matter to you.
What topics?
You'll find more mac stuff on occasion, some web stuff, and some poker stuff. And probably even more.
Who am I?
I'm Nick Sayer. I've had home Internet connectivity since 1992. kfu.com is my domain. It used to stand for "Kentucky Fried Unix," which used to be an ISP I ran back in the day to fund said connectivity. It doesn't really stand for anything anymore, but as a 3 letter .com domain, it's very nice to have. Just to get it out of the way, It is not for sale at any price and will not be in my lifetime.
I used to be a FreeBSD committer. When MacOS X came out, I sort of switched over to being a mac person. It's Unix, but with the ability to run a platform that people actually write code for in great abundance. That works for me. I still have a FreeBSD machine acting as a server. It's serving this page as we speak, in fact.
I am married to my wife Scarlet, and we have two cats. One of them is named Gizmo and his antics have had their own 15 minutes on YouTube.
A couple years ago, I was introduced by my friend Dave to poker. I've taken to it and play pretty regularly on FullTiltPoker (because they have a mac client) and in person at Bay 101 and Garden City.
Well, that's enough to start with.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)