Nice call, damnit

What a night. 0 for 3. KK over QQ, an idiot rivering two pair to beat my overpair, and then there's this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:18:22 ET - 2008/02/27
Seat 1: hero (2,060)
Seat 2: villain (1,900)
Seat 3: (5,040)
Seat 3 posts the small blind of 30
hero posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ah 5c]
villain raises to 210
Seat 3 folds
hero calls 150
*** FLOP *** [8s Tc Jc]
hero bets 400
villain calls 400
*** TURN *** [8s Tc Jc] [8d]
hero bets 1,450, and is all in

Now, look at it from his point of view. What might I have that would allow me to be so aggressive? We're 3 handed, 9Q is not out of the question. 97 is maybe pushing it, but how about AJ, KJ, AT? Maybe an 8?

villain calls 1,290, and is all in
hero shows [Ah 5c]
villain shows [Kc Qc]
Uncalled bet of 160 returned to hero

Unbelievable. Ace high is the winner at the moment. But he has a straight-flush draw and over-cards. So he has 6 outs for the overs, 6 9s and aces that aren't clubs, and 9 clubs. 21 outs. Since we're on the turn, though, that's still less than 2:1 odds, and if the river is a red deuce, he's gone. Using strict pot odds, any call on the flop is correct, since he's the favorite. And on the turn, he has to call 1290 to win over 3800, so that's correct. But this is a tournament. If he fails to suck out, or if I've already got a boat or quads (in which case he has exactly two outs), he's out on the bubble. Since he was the favorite on the flop, he should have pushed immediately. I, of course, would have folded my bluff hand, but if I had the AJ I was representing, I would have called.

Of course, as it turns out...

*** RIVER *** [8s Tc Jc 8d] [9h]

Grumble.

hero shows a pair of Eights
villain shows a straight, King high
villain wins the pot (3,830) with a straight, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,830 | Rake 0
Board: [8s Tc Jc 8d 9h]
Seat 1: hero (big blind) showed [Ah 5c] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 2: villain (button) showed [Kc Qc] and won (3,830) with a straight, King high
Seat 3: (small blind) folded before the Flop

Bad beat du jour

Seriously. Can I please have a 3 day period go by without one of these? I don't think I'm asking for much.

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:51:00 ET - 2008/02/13
Seat 1: hero (3,230)
Seat 2: (1,170)
Seat 3: villain (2,900)
Seat 4: (1,700)
hero posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [9c Kd]
Seat 2 folds
MrStrehl raises to 180
Seat 4 folds
hero calls 120
*** FLOP *** [Qd Th Jc]
hero checks
villain bets 360
hero raises to 1,200
villain raises to 2,720, and is all in
hero calls 1,520
villain shows [Qc Qs]
hero shows [9c Kd]

Get all your money in with the best hand....

*** TURN *** [Qd Th Jc] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Th Jc 3c] [Td]

And then get fucked up the ass.

villain shows a full house, Queens full of Tens
hero shows a straight, King high
villain wins the pot (5,800) with a full house, Queens full of Tens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,800 | Rake 0
Board: [Qd Th Jc 3c Td]
Seat 1: hero (big blind) showed [9c Kd] and lost with a straight, King high
Seat 2: didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: villain showed [Qc Qs] and won (5,800) with a full house, Queens full of Tens
Seat 4: didn't bet (folded)

Is Leopard Apple's Vista?

It's a harsh thing to say, I know, but Leopard has been more troublesome than any other release of MacOS X to date. Let's run down my list of problems:

1. Mom doesn't like the way iCal's detail panel works. I can't say I blame her. What was wrong with the drawers, Steve?

2. On Scarlet's machine, the dock periodically disappears. The workaround is to kill Dock.app, but why is this necessary?

3. Suddenly screen and disk sharing from one of the mac minis to my laptop doesn't work. It says the password is wrong when you try and screen share (bullshit. It's the same password that works for ssh and screen/disk sharing from any other machine), and disk sharing just says that an unknown error occurred. In general, this is the one problem with macs. When shit doesn't work, it can sometimes be completely impossible to figure out why.

4. Back to my mac randomly works or doesn't work, depending on how lucky you are.

5. Time machine over airdisk. We were all but promised this functionality. We're on the eve of 10.5.2 [edit: 10.5.2 is out now] and still nothing.

Maybe my luck is turning around

Although one hand does not a swing make, all in all this was a refreshing tournament. I wasn't party to any hands where someone sucked out. Incredible.

But the capper was the last hand, which offers the lesson that it is not simply necessary to get a monster hand, it is also necessary for your opponent to have a hand almost as good:

Full Tilt Poker Game #_: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (_), Table 1 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:32:34 ET - 2008/02/09
Seat 5: hero (4,840)
Seat 6: villain (4,160)
villain posts the small blind of 60
hero posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to hero [Ac Td]
villain calls 60
hero raises to 360
villain calls 240
*** FLOP *** [Qh 2s As]

That board doesn't bother me. Let's slow-play it.

hero checks
villain checks
*** TURN *** [Qh 2s As] [Ah]
hero checks
villain bets 400

Here I let the timer run a little before calling.

hero calls 400
*** RIVER *** [Qh 2s As Ah] [Ad]
hero bets 300

Gosh, how could that 3rd ace have helped me at all? I must be completely bluffing. Tee hee. If he has a queen, then the only hand that beats him is pocket kings or the case ace. If he has a queen, you can be sure that if he has his way, all the money is going in the middle.

villain has 15 seconds left to act
villain raises to 1,000
hero raises to 4,080, and is all in
villain calls 2,400, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 680 returned to hero
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hero shows [Ac Td] four of a kind, Aces
villain mucks
hero wins the pot (8,320) with four of a kind, Aces
villain stands up
hero stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8,320 | Rake 0
Board: [Qh 2s As Ah Ad]
Seat 5: hero (big blind) showed [Ac Td] and won (8,320) with four of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: villain (small blind) mucked [Qd Ks] - a full house, Aces full of Queens

Too bad for him we weren't at a cash table at Lucky Chances. That hand would have scored him the bad beat jackpot (aces-full or better getting beat).