I just suffered my worst beat ever. Thank fuck it was in a sit and go, I suppose. I came tenth.
I had QQ, raised preflop and got one caller, who had Tc 4c
Flop QT4. No clubs.
All the money goes in.
Turn Ten.
River Ten.
I was 499-1 favourite when the money went in, and 43-1 after the turn.
I played really well on Thursday night, getting my money in with the best of it time after time, for almost five hours. I only won $33. Very frustrating really.
Two pots stick in my mind, where all the money went in on the turn with me having 74% and 83% equity. I was 7/1 and 4/1 to get nothing out of each pot,and that is what happened in both.
Still, these situations are why poker has almost entirely superceded sports betting in my gambling life. If you know of any sports bets paying 2/1 on 1/7 or 1/4 shots, please let me know immediately!
Actually if you are still into sports betting and have some money you don't mind tying up for a couple of months, then you could do worse than invest in Australia to win the Ashes this summer. I was getting caught up in the pro-England hype, but two people whose cricket judgement is spot on assure me that it is a one-horse race.
Anyway, tonight is still not going all that well - I am up but not very much. It seems like I can never win a 6/4 shot against me, but mine get cracked the other way repeatedly. Actually, I made a big raise earlier and got called by two and thought I had really stuffed up. I got nothing from the pot, but the numbers showed I had almost 48% equity compared to their 30% and 22%. I was in fact 88% to get half the pot.
Do you ever feel 'I am just not a lucky player'?
I know that's nonsense... but is it?? I'm sure my hourly rate of equity is way higher than my hourly rate of actual money. Sigh. I feel I must be close to having a real monster session.
Time for a proper update.
I spent last week in Canada, staying in several expensive hotels, visiting Niagara Falls and Toronto and generally living well - none of which cost me a penny. I won’t excite you with the details of that particular arrangement.
It was my first time in North America, and very enjoyable. My impressions included a feeling of much more space everywhere; wider streets where the stores or houses don’t loom over the road, and therefore more sky. I was disappointed that only a few of the cars were the big, square automobiles that us ‘limeys’ (I got called that by an obnoxious gay guy) associate with America. I was amazed by the cheerful smiles and greetings of checkout girls and fast food servers. Actually I was perturbed by that, it can’t be natural. I think I prefer British surliness from my customer service encounters. Similarly, getting into elevators and having other people start - ugh- making polite conversation with me I felt like saying ‘Haven’t you got any manners!? Leave me alone!’
I was also struck by the unashamed attitude to commerce. Over here, big luminous signs by the road or banners declaring your steaks to be ‘the best in town’ would be considered a bit tacky, a bit brash. Over there, it’s the norm.
Oh, and Niagara Falls were great. They were something I had always wanted to see, and having a 21st floor hotel room overlooking them was very pleasant.
I picked up three poker books whilst I was over there; ‘Championship Omaha’ by McEvoy, ‘The Real Deal’ by Phil Gordon, and ‘The Making of a Poker Player’ by Matt Matros. I’ve started the Matros one, which is okay so far. I don’t have particularly high hopes of the other two, but I couldn’t resist getting one of the very few Omaha books around.
My own poker has been disappointing since I got back. Basically, I went on full tilt on Sunday night, my first session back. I was ahead, took a few beats, and then proceeded to throw chips into the pot in terrible, terrible situations out of frustration and anger. I can blame booze, tiredness, probably some jetlag, but it was a very poor performance.
Since then, I feel I have played very well for three days without really getting rewarded. Tuesday I took a ton of bad cards but kept my head to record only a tiny loss, then came back later and won nicely; the small loss was more important than the decent win. Yesterday sucked. I lost two or three pots that went from my scoop to my opponent’s scoop thanks to four-out rivers. I also bubbled in a sit and go which I played really, really well.
Oh well, the lesson of the last few days is mental control. If I can keep losing the minimum when things are going bad, then the good sessions will be truly valuable rather than being wasted in clawing back needless losses.
I would like things to go well, and to prove to myself that I can avoid tilting, because work is getting to me very badly. I despise my job. I loathe it. I would live on bread and water to get out of there. I would dearly love to get sacked tomorrow.
I am not tiring of these google referals:
how long to get phone connected
romantic nights
worst episode ever
‘caught without a train ticket’
Labour -15  | |
| Conservative -14 | |
 Liberal Democrat 47 | |
| UKIP 24 | |
| Green 65 |
The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against. The Greens are also anti-Europe.
Take the test at Who Should You Vote For
My proper catch-up post is on its way. For this moment, just a couple strategy notes from PLO8 and PLO.
1. I think many players worry too much about getting quartered when contemplating a bet on the river. I believe it is worth indeed getting quartered from time to time (or just splitting the pot but paying more rake than you might), to avoid one of two bad things happening if you check it through.
First, you MIGHT be on the right side of the 3/4 with, say, your nut low and lousy one or two pair, it does happen. Secondly, of course, your opponent might fold. Missing out on these two good things is worth risking the odd losing bet when you are indeed quartered.
2. I had a guy the other night, this is in straight PLO, say 'I never understand why people raise before the flop. It is so easy to lose a pot.' What a pillock. I suppose that is why I am so tardy in moving back up to bigger games.
Anyway, in the very hand when he said that, I had raised pre-flop and then took the pot down when I raised on the flop with virtually nothing. I still don't think he got it.
Proper recap of my holiday and return to poker later.
I'm back.
I have a couple of posts planned, but seem to be having trouble finding time to write them. I just thought I should announce my return from North America, in order to avoid 'languishing' status, or being left only those readers who arrive having googled one of the following:
stunning women
one degree of kevin bacon
most valuable commodities
wittgenstein solitude
rude pictures
house-sitting etiquette expectations
worst housemates ever
chewing toothpicks
mammaries mammoth
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A fascinating list, I am so glad I added sitemeter to the blog.
I have been catching up on lots of great blogging since I got home. I have to say that doubleas.blogspot.com absolutely rules - and not just because I seem to get a lot of visitors from his site.
More later.
