Kats have birthdays too?

In the words of the great bard “bee there or bee a rectangular thynge.”

Note to self: Remember to buy vermouth.

Turbo two

Finally completed my second set of twenty single table turbo sng's (11 at $3.40, 9 at $6.50).

ROI: 35%
ITM: 45% (5/11, 4/9)

Cumulative ROI is 54%.

Next set is 6 at $3.40, 14 at $6.50 (pocketing half the winnings as usual).

This time around I wasn't freerolling until the final two. I've got a general impression that the games are definitely tightening up, though perhaps my time zone selection wasn't as good. In my sole 10th place finish this set, the blinds were already at 75/150! I also have a feeling that I was relatively unlucky over this set -- more so than I usually feel when luck has in fact been normal. In particular I seemed to lose a lot of consecutive coinflips. Not going to make much of that though.

Running review: Brighton Beach

Length: 8 km (Parking lot to west end, back to estuary, back to parking lot).

Pros:

• Beautiful flat sandy beach (little camber)
• Generally unoccupied
• Wildlife: at the estuary end, plenty of bird life; occasional seals on the beach proper
• Other life: local harness racing trainers frequently exercise their horses on the beach
  
• The "out and back and out and back" pattern means that you can sensibly quit half way through if the conditions are poor, or you're not feeling well

Cons:

• Twenty minute drive out of town
• Fairly exposed, and lots of loose sand, so avoid in the wind
• Wildlife: occasional sea lions (you don't want to mess with these)
• Other life: popular dog walking spot (usually not a worry -- sometimes the sheep dogs think you're a runaway sheep though)
• The "out and back and out and back" pattern means that you can be a wimp and quit half way through if the conditions are poor, or you're not feeling well.
• No decent alternative routes if the tide is wrong (so -- you didn't check? Silly you.)

The beach continues for some distance east past the estuary, but to get there you'd have to get your feet very wet indeed. Conceivably you could run up the estuary to the bridge (just visible above) and then down the other side, but I've never bothered. One more image:

(Second image from DenisWilford.com -- taken in 1964, but it hasn't changed a bit)

The sweet 16 has nothing on this ...

Police hunt Woolmer's murderer

The risks of coaching a cricket team knocked out in the first round of the World Cup by Ireland (as Garth said “To put this in perspective, this is like a Div II College basketball team beating, say, Kentucky.”)

But this story really has everything, including a link to match fixing allegations.

And at the risk of plumbing even greater depths of tastelessness, what's the over/under before we see this as a storyline on CSI? Not about cricket obviously ... college basketball/football coach found dead in casino hotel ...

Middle aged moan

It's no secret, and in any case would be easy to discover, that I'm in my mid-40's -- middle aged by any sensible definition (though I guess still slightly pre-middle of my adult life -- whatever). And there's one part of it I hate (no, not that one, get your mind out of the gutter). So, herewith a moan.

I was out running yesterday. I came to a small wire barrier (so that teenage drivers don't cleverly drive their cars onto a rugby pitch), which I routinely hurdled, as I've done a hundred times now probably. But, I caught my trail foot on the wire and went down on the grass in an undignified heap. (Cue laugh track)

In my 20's, things would have progressed as follows: I would have said “oh bother”, or words to that effect; looked around in embarrassment to see if there were any witnesses; and then picked myself up and run on. A slight sting from the graze on my elbow would have been the only consequence.

Now, things start out in much the same way. But, when I get up to run on, I discover that I've somehow managed to strain a calf muscle in my left leg, my hamstring in my right leg, and my left shoulder (which is not even the one I landed on) is absurdly sore.

Moan, moan, moan. Just another bad beat.

Pot, shot, potshot

I've been playing more cash NLHE at UltimateBet lately, gradually building my bankroll and moving up through the limits. Since this isn't my real bankroll, I've been ignoring Chris Ferguson's 5% rule (don't buy in for more than 5% of your bankroll) in favour of a 25% rule. My general pattern is to two table, playing about 50 hands per table, before taking a break. So, I'm not grinding out thousands upon thousands of hands per day, but perhaps 1000 a week, more or less.

The following hand pushed my roll over the next tipping point. It felt fairly fishy on my part at the time, but I'm starting to think differently. Anyhow, you be the judge. We're playing $0.10/$0.25 NLHE, I was up a bit to $29.10, and the SB had $16.80.

In the cutoff, I was dealt Q♥Q♣. Folded to me, I bet pot ($0.85) just because it was easier than typing in a 3xBB bet. In turn, the SB bet pot ($2.80). It had been a fairly passive table, but cards had been running my way, and my image was probably looser than I was actually playing. Based on that, I expected, to be significantly ahead of the SB's range at this point (in fact against AJ+, 77+, which I'd consider moderately tight here, I have 60% pot equity). So, I raised pot again ($8.65). At this point the SB went all in, which was a raise of $8.15 over and above my previous bet.

A tad better than 3:1 odds to call.

The first question is: what range do we assign to the SB?

If just KK and AA, then our odds aren't good enough (we'd need 4:1). Adding the one remaining QQ hand wouldn't change that any, but adding JJ certainly would (we'd be up to 40% pot equity).

What about AK? Let's think about matters from the perspective of the SB holding AK. The initial pot sized reraise makes sense. What about the position after I pot again? It's much the same story. If he feels my range there is QQ+, AK (and he might well suspect that the pairs go lower and the aces down to AQ), then he must at least call (he's getting 2:1 and has 40% pot equity). But, if he calls, he's more or less committed to c-bet any flop, for the rest of his stack, lest he fold AK on a dry flop to a c-bet from me on a hand that he ties or beats (this should really be factored into the computation of the odds above -- since we're now assuming that if he calls, he's playing for his stack regardless -- this changes his odds from 2:1 to 3:2, which is exactly borderline if he is giving me QQ+, AK). Furthermore, he also knows that I'll fold to that c-bet only if I'm beaten. So, it makes more sense to put the money in immediately.

Thus, it feels like AK should or could bet like this. My QQ has 40% equity against KK+ and AK, so a call getting 3:1 is clear. Even if we don't give the SB this much credit, and say reduce the AK options to AK suited (not because suitedness is so important, but because this just conveniently represents betting AK this way only 25% of the time), then a call is still mathematically correct (pot equity around 27%).

And, at these levels, I've seen this betting pattern with hands like T3 offsuit occasionally -- never mind pairs ten or higher and AQ.

So, I now feel that the call I made in a flash (well, a little slower than a flash), was better than it felt when I found out that my opponent had KK. But, to my delight, the board finished up as: T♥9♠J♣K♥6♠.

Some may sneer at pre-flop poker, but I think the discussion above shows that there can be some subtlety even in these reraising wars. So c'mon, take your potshots at this pot shot.

Tin foil hat time

Three times in less than 100 hands, I've seen a flop of 666. That's just weird, and more than a little scary (and as I type this I've just seen 88A8).

Once I was actually playing 76 suited in a five way limped pot. I should probably have bet the flop since I was in second last position and it might have been interpreted as a steal. Instead I checked, hoping for some action cards on the turn or river, which were a 2 and a 5 respectively. Sigh.

The second time I wasn't in the pot.

The third time, I held 99 and managed to get AJ to call half pot sized bets on both the flop and turn (a 2). When the river was a Q I just checked it out.

DON'T PANIC

We all carry with us certain extremely strong memes. To most of them our parents say “Call that a meme? Why in my day we had real memes, not these namby pamby memes you see nowadays.” Come to think of that, our children say much the same thing too. But I digress.

One of my memes has The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy at its centre. And it's a very lucky meme to have, because it contains two words of invaluable advice (as well as a lot of other very funny, albeit a bit silly, words --- “42” Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!)

Of course those words are (in case you haven't guessed)

DON'T PANIC

And it's very important that they should be in upper case like that.

Excellent advice for almost any situation that you might encounter in life, but recently I've become increasingly aware of just how important this advice is for single table turbo sit and gos. Let me repeat:

DON'T PANIC

Your M is 3 and there are still six players left? DON'T PANIC
Oh it's 2 now? DON'T PANIC
You're about to be all in in the big blind? DON'T PANIC

But above all, DON'T PANIC.

I started my second set of 20 turbos tonight with a $3.40 and a $6.50 (unlike other forms of poker, your performance in a turbo SNG will probably be enhanced if you multitable and listen to some music or radio on the side.)

Let's just walk through one of them with a couple of words in mind. Which words? Oh, grow up.

($3.40) Fold ten hands. Blinds are now 25/50 and two players are already out. You get 99 in the BB. A limp from EP, and the button pushes 125. You raise to 300, taking out the limper, and beat his 43 suited. Can anyone tell me what he did wrong? I knew you could.

Fold another 13 hands, you're in the BB again, we're up to 75/150 and only six players are left. You get A♦Q♦. All fold to the SB who completes. You raise to 500 and he folds. Are you upset not to win more on the hand? Relax -- DON ... oh never mind.

Ok, three hands later, only 5 remaining now. You get A8 offsuit in the cutoff. You raise to 450, and the BB who covers you pushes. DON'T PANIC. Just fold. What? You're worried that you're down to 1200 chips and are the short stack? You don't want to be pushed around by the BB? That's ok, you'll get it back so long as you DON'T PANIC.

Fold your way through the blinds. We're at 100/200 now, still 5 left, you're on the button. You get A♠7♠. UTG calls, and the cut off min raises. You have been paying attention right? He's got nothing. You push your paltry 970 chips in and are far from surprised to find him holding A5 offsuit. Now your hand has to hold up, but there's nothing you can do about that. It does. You move into fourth place.

Comes the next BB, still at 100/200 and you get A♥K♠. The SB completes, you raise to 600 (you had 2440 to start -- push is possible, and perhaps better, that's ok, you're allowed a few mistakes so long as you DON'T PANIC) and he calls. Flop comes QJ8 and he bets 400 into a 1200 pot. Genuinely tough, perhaps you should fold, but, getting 4:1 you call (push is an option, but has a hint of that bad five letter word that begins pan about it). Turn is a 7 and he pushes. Fold. Oops, down to 1440 and back in fifth place again.

You get A9 on the button, push over one limper, and gain 500 chips. 33, UTG, push and pick up another 300. You get K4 offsuit in the BB. You get to play it for nothing. Time to put the rest of the players on your Christmas card list, especially when the flop comes 844. Check, check, check. Hurrah, the turn is an ace, and the SB leads for 600. You call (time to be a bit greedy). The river is a king! He bets 600 again, you push your remaining 1340 into the pot, and he folds. Heavens. Sure you were exceptionally lucky here -- but you were still here to be lucky. Why? Oh figure it out for yourself.

Next you pick up QQ in the SB. The button, steam coming out of his ears from the last hand, raises to 800. You push, he calls with QT. Good heavens. Suddenly, on the bubble you're the dominating chip leader.

I'll just stop there (no, not because I suddenly fell apart and went out on the bubble -- I won, but the remainder is not nearly so instructive or amusing.) I could tell virtually the same story about the $6.50 (2nd), but I suspect that I've tried your patience already.

Will this wondrous advice still work as well at higher levels? Probably not, but I'll be very surprised if it's not of some use.

Except when they don't

Don't what? Don't lose. What don't lose? Geeez, pay attention will ya -- flopped straights. You'll be wanting me to tie your shoelaces next.

For a change of pace I played a couple of MTT's last night. Lately I've been playing almost entirely one table SNG's, but I find these get a bit tight and boring early in the North American week. In the first one I was knocked out just before the first break when my QQ was no match for 44. So it goes.

The second one started poorly, when, after the mandatory couple of orbits of folding, I decided (at 50/100 holding 1200 chips) to push from the button over a single UTG limper. The small stack small blind called with 55, and I was happy to see both an Ace and a Queen on the flop. But, not so happy about the 5 that accompanied them.

After my next run through the blinds, I was down to just 470 chips at 75/150.

Oh how embarassing, just realised that I was reviewing the hand histories from a different tournament. No wonder I couldn't remember that bad start. On to the real story.

After the mandatory couple of orbits of folding -- oh wait, I said that. Anyhow, with A♦K♦. UTG+2 at 10/20 I made a daring raise to 80 over one limper. The BB and the limper called, and we saw a flop of 7♣4♦3♣. Checked to me, I bet 200 into the 250 pot, called by the BB. The thought of flopped straights was in my mind. On the K♥ turn, he checked again. I bet 350 and he pushed. I almost let it go, but decided that this smelled more like a club flush draw with the king, than a flopped straight. Certainly it couldn't be two pair given the initial pre-flop call right? Wrong. K4. Not even suited. But RiverStars was there for me with a 7. Donkeylicious.

Wasn't this supposed to be about flopped straights? Ok, ok ...

Just a few hands later I've (2730) been moved to another table and with the blinds at 15/30 find 9♣6♣ in the small blind. Six of us in a limped pot see a flop of T♠8♦7♣. In case you're still not paying attention, that's a flopped non-nut straight for me, with a backdoor flush draw to boot. So the pot is 180, and I'm thinking about what to bet. My normal bet with say 4 players in the pot would be about 120, but I might just increase it a little. However, muscle memory has done its thing and I've already typed 120 when I have this thought. Just a tiny involuntary spasm of the fingers follows, and I look down to see that I've bet 1200 into a 180 pot. Overbet for value indeed. I'm resigned to winning a small pot when mirabile dictu one of the limpers calls. Now I'm seriously worried about a better straight instead, but of course a set is also a real possibility. So, I push the K♦ turn (since I'm not going to fold), and mister K♠9♠ calls! No chop for him on the river, and suddenly I'm sitting very pretty indeed.

I bounced around between 5K and 7K for the rest of the first, and all of the second hour. Then at the beginning of the third hour I hit a little rush of cards and moved up over 20K. Again, I bounced around a bit, and approaching the end of the third hour (or perhaps just at the beginning of the fourth), sat midfield of about 35 remaining on 25K. With the blinds at 1K/2K it was time for a big move, or time for bed. Pocket 4's on the button with a min-raiser UTG+1 looked ok to me (and I had a reasonable read that this wasn't an AA or KK min-raise). He, with a stack that just barely covered mine, chose to call with A♠T&spades, but the wrath of Hoy failed to make an appearance, and a KQJ flop killed most of the suspense in the hand.

For the record, against my range here which I put at AQ+, 22+ he's a 6:4 dog. I think that those were almost exactly the pot odds. If he was also in “go big, or go to bed” mode (with more justification than me -- assuming hartford is the obvious one, it was 5:30 a.m. there), then the call is reasonable. He went on to finish 9th.

What he said.

Villain is at seat 1 with $28.53.
mchllbrt is at seat 3 with $36.47.

mchllbrt posts the small blind of $.10.

mchllbrt: 8s 7c

Pre-flop:

Villain limps, I complete, BB checks. Pot $0.75

Flop (board: Td 6d 9h): R'oh r'oh, flopped straight and a two flush on the board.

mchllbrt bets $.50, BB folds, Villain calls

Pot $1.75

Turn (board: Td 6d 9h 2h): No flush yet, no draws completed.

mchllbrt bets $1.75. PSB with one card to come, make the flush draw pay.
Villain calls. Of course.

River (board: Td 6d 9h 2h 5d): Sigh.

mchllbrt checks, Villain bets $1.50, mchllbrt calls. (Boo-hoo, but have to call these occasionally to avoid being floated.)

Villain shows KdJd. Ok, so he had 13 outs rather than 9.

BloggerPods report

The rescheduled ,bloggerPod tournament went off without a hitch today, which saved me from having to buy another house or something similar. Before I embark on my report though ...

It appears that there were a number of non-bloggers who entered. Of course the password mechanism that regulates entries into these tournaments is hardly secure, but whatever, their presence reduced the normally high standards of decorum and wit that one has come to expect from blogger gatherings. Now normally I am violently opposed to using regulation as a tool to attempt to encourage appropriate behaviour, but it seems to me that the poker sites have just missed an obvious software solution here.

Basically, the organiser of a private tournament should have admin privileges (to use a bit of geek speak). Two obvious routes suggest themselves. One is that the organiser supply a list of eligible players to the site (and that this list can be modified). Then if an outsider attempts to register he/she simply gets a message saying “contact admin”. The alternative, slightly less convenient solution is to allow arbitrary registration, but each registrant has to be approved by admin. Neither of these imposes any inconvenience on legitimate players, and as nearly as I can judge would be trivial to implement.

Ok, so on to the report.

Folded for a while. Limped suited connectors. Folded to a bet on flop. Folded some more (the final table of EPT Dortmund was on webcast, so this wasn't quite as deadly dull as it might have been).

I (1365) Picked up KK in MP at 20/40. Raised to 100 (I'd decided 2.5BB was going to be my standard raise in this tournament). katitude (880) called, as did the BB (3825). Kat and I had been chatting about when she was going to come to Dunedin for a visit -- she said, when she raised a stake for the trip in online poker. On a J44 flop with two spades (I have spade king), I bet 240 into a 320 pot. katitude went all in with top pair top kicker, and failed to improve. She said, “looks like it will be a while”. Now what I want to know is where she was planning to get a trans-Pacific flight for $8.50. Heck, I even want to know if it was the cash equivalent for an iPod!

Fold some more. Then I (2305) pick up A♥3♥ in MP. Somewhat randomly, I raise again to 100, getting called by jessehjesseh (2340) and the BB (3845). The flop was a not unpleasant 2♥4♥7♥. Even I slowplay this one, and we checked it out. On the 2♣ turn, I took a blatant stab at the orphan pot, betting 200. jesseh pushed over the top, and, though I suspected a misplayed hammer (simply calling my original raise rather than reraising), I felt I had to call. Nope, it seems that I'd successfully represented a weak hand as I was facing A♠K♥.

At 25/50 I opened with a raise holding TT on the button. Called by the BB who also called by 200 continuation bet on the K77 flop. We then checked the Q turn, and he led with a near pot sized bet on the river 5. I folded. What a wimp.

Then I had a rather embarrassing moment. I (4250) limped T9 offsuit over Schaubs (2200). The two of us and the BB see a flop of T52 rainbow. I make a pot sized bet, which eliminates the BB, but Schaubs calls. The turn is a 7, and my bet of 350 into the 520 pot is check-min-raised. For some reason I call. I'm tormented by a 9 on the river, and call the 2/3 pot sized all-in. Set of 7's.

AA, no action. Chips are dripping away.

At 50/100, I'm down to 1380 and get 88 in MP. I raise to 250, and my immediate neighbour tharley61 raises to 900. All fold back to me. If I'm going to call, I might as well push, so I do. He has AK offsuit and I win the race.

Fold some more, and then more than double up when I get a free play in the big blind with Q9 offsuit, which makes top two pair on the flop. I check raise over two minimum bets, get one call, and then push on the J turn. Called by K9??? No disaster ensues.

My AK offsuit is run down by a micro-stack's J3.

At this point I have a slightly better than average stack of around 5K. I pick up KK, UTG+2 at 100/200. My raise to 500 is met by a 2150 push from wwonka69. I call of course, and he shows AT offsuit. The 982 rainbow flop doesn't look terribly threatening until followed up by a 6 and then a 7.

AA, no action again.

Now my turn for a bit of luck. With 2500 remaining at 125/250/25, I pushed from the SB (no limpers) on AJ offsuit, only to find the BB with AQ suited. Fortunately, a jack on the flop sent the chips to me.

My QQ got a call from HighOnPoker, but no further action after a J85 flop, which I bet out of position. Perhaps should have been a bit more greedy there.

With the blinds increasing there was the usual amount of bouncing around, but I was hanging in reasonably well in 7th to 9th place. Until ...

At 150/300/25 on the button, I (7250) have AK offsuit. fulltiltpkr07 in the cutoff, has me covered, and pushes preflop. I call of course, and am delighted to find myself up against KQ suited. Except the flop delivered two cards in his suit and a queen. No subsequent help for me, and I go home in 13th place.

Had fun though.

Sick

Just finished my first set of 20 single table turbo sit and goes. These were all $3.40's on Stars. In the money, 60%. Return on investment, 81%. That's sick and unsustainable, but I can't deny it's nice. Breakdown by position: 1st (4), 2nd (5), 3rd (3), 4th (1), 5th-7th (6), 8th-10th (1).

Being a wuss, I'm banking half my profit, and putting the rest back into the next set, which will therefore consist of 11 $3.40's, and 9 $6.50's. I used my mad Excel skillz to randomise the order that I'll play them in (I couldn't find a deck of cards to pull out 11 reds and 9 blacks, which would have been easier.)

Did I learn much from the first set? Not a lot, other than that the play at these is very very very bad indeed. But, it's not always the same kind of bad, so exploiting it isn't entirely trivial. Table characteristics do seem to depend on time of day/week, though I wasn't recording that data so it's purely anecdotal (and in any case the sample is far too small to be drawing conclusions from).

There was one very interesting hand in the last one of these that I played:

Blinds at 25/50, three players have been eliminated (it was a very active table).

UTG+1, I (2950) have A♣T♦. I'd often fold this hand, but down to seven handed, raised it to 150. My immediate neighbour (2950) called, which meant absolutely nothing. The SB (1400) also called.

Flop A♠K♣5♠. SB bets 200 into a 500 pot, which smells like a flush draw (or maybe a king). I call, awaiting developments, and my neighbour calls as well.

Turn is the T♣. SB bets 200 again making the pot 1300. I raise to 800. My neighbour calls. The SB folds.

River is a very nasty K♦ counterfeiting my second pair. I check, and my neighbour goes all in. We started with identical chip counts, so I'm faced with calling 1800 into a 4700 pot.

I've marked him as a lunatic and he's made big bets on a number of previous hands with very little. Against that, I'm calling to a chop against any worse ace, a loss against AJ or AQ, and a loss against any K or QJ. Basically, I'm only beating air (or a busted spade draw).

I folded. Thoughts?

Postscript: After the hand, there was some cursing from the SB (to his credit he kept quiet until then), which leads me to think he had a K. And I went on to win.

That was fun

Well, actually I'm just a bit sore ... well, perhaps more than a bit. But the weather was absolutely perfect here this morning and I really did want to get through the 15km barrier. As you can see I overdid it slightly. It may help with the resolution to open the image in a separate window. If I'd known it was going to be 17.94km I would have run the last 100m back to the car instead of starting my stretching and warming down at the corner! Then again, I'm going to claim 18km on the grounds that lots of the straight segments shown in the path aren't actually completely straight, I'm sure there were at least 60m in wiggles.

The funny little step pattern in the northwest corner of the run was a result of preparations for the Royal NZ Pipebands Association National Street March. And no, I wasn't trying to avoid it -- I was trying to see as many bands as possible in their warmup. Though it has to be said that the combination of the pipebands and my iPod was sometimes a bit peculiar.

In poker news, I've been trying one of those "20 SNG ladder" things, starting with the $3.40 turbos on Stars. I've played 15, and was freerolling after 12. Since then I've had another first, a seventh, and a bubble fourth (annoyingly having an all in with KQ called by a big stack on J3 offsuit -- had I doubled up I'd have been second in chips, but we know what happened).

Reasons to like NZ

Aside from the obvious ones ...

Part of the process of buying a new house is getting a title and permit search done through the local city council. I was a bit worried when there was a big sign in the office reading “Expedited searches not available at present due to demand”. So, I had to settle for the “standard” search which might take up to two business days (still plenty of time, as I had a week to confirm the contract). Less than six business hours later, the council ring to tell me that the material is available (oh yeah, the cost for this service --- a whopping NZ$40).

Likewise, arranging my mortgage, a grand total of two phone calls consuming about 30 minutes of my time, in spite of the fact that there were some complications requiring changes to bank account details etc. (oh yeah, “By the way, we'll waive the processing fees, and pay your solicitor's costs for the settlement”). The other thing about this aspect of the deal is that after 20 minutes of research I knew that, however much shopping around I did it would make at most a difference of one tenth of one percent on the interest rate. So, I was happy to deal directly with a bank with whom our customer relationship has been excellent, without any worry that I might be costing myself significantly.

And I know that when the time comes to change the insurance cover that will be a 10 minute job too.

It's just nice to live somewhere where you can confidently assume when dealing with “service” industries that: a) no one is trying to rip you off; b) no one will assume that you are trying to rip them off; and c) there's a pretty good chance that the person you're dealing with will actually “think” and come up with a suggestion to your mutual benefit.

There endeth the sermon ...

Twilight turbo's

I've rediscovered the joys of single table turbo sit and go's. And their frustrations too of course, but that practically goes without saying. So, submitted for your consideration:

(50/100) A9 offsuit on the button, 1300 chips, 7 players remaining. One limp in front, I raise to 500, BB who covers me pushes. I forget to be wary of the wrath of Hoy and call. Twilight zone indeed (he had TT -- I didn't suck out).

(10/20) A8 suited in MP, 1500 chips, 10 players remaining. I open limp (doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo), the button calls, the SB folds, the BB check. Flop is Q95 with two of my suit. BB min bets. I make a huge mistake and just call. Button calls. Turn is an Ace. BB min bets again. I make a slightly smaller mistake and bet 90, leaving the button to call 90 into a 240 pot. He does, as does the BB. River is an 8 giving me two pair. I bet 200 into the 400 pot, button pushes. With a flick of my long ears, I call. Of course he has JT - what else could it be?

On the positive side, I think that had I made those two obvious folds it's quite likely I would have been in the money in five out of five of these suckers.

Haven't mentioned radio for a while. Fighting Talk continues to be a favourite, as does Definitely Not the Opera which is absolutely superb.

Keeping the lights on

Between purchasing this fine property and being convinced by various friends to play far more bridge than is really good for me (3.5 hours on Thursday and Monday nights, and about 12 hours over the weekend), not much poker has been happening.

Still, in these days of doom and gloom, it's important that we not let the lights go out. So, in order to generate some material, but judging my attention span well, I sat down in a little 1-table turbo SNG last night ($3.40). The material hands (all hands prior to heads up where I won or lost chips over and above losing the blinds):

Second hand, I get QQ in LP. Blinds at 10/20, there's a raise to 100 in front of me. I reraise to 300, and we play heads up when he calls. Flop is 993 and he folds to my 2/3 pot sized bet.

At 15/30 with one player out, I get to play T5 offsuit from the big blind with two limpers and the SB. Everyone checks as far as the river, by which point the board reads 62544 with a possible club flush. I bet 30 on the river, and get called by AK. Yawn. Lemme see, he limped AK then didn't bet on a 625 flop. Time for a note.

At 25/50 with two out, I raise to 150 from LP with JT offsuit (basically a steal). The BB calls, and then makes a pot sized bet on the A86 flop. I fold.

Same blinds, I try again from the button with Q9 suited. This time, the SB min raises. I have to call (100 into a 450 pot), and take it down on a Q77 flop. Up to 1950.

Three down, blinds at 50/100, I have J6 suited in the BB. Button limps, SB min raises, I think for a moment, but call, and button calls. Flop is 962 with two of my suit to go with the middle pair. SB min bets, I consider raising, but just call. Button calls. Turn is a J, giving me top and middle pair. SB min bets again, making the pot 1000. I raise to 700. Button folds, SB calls leaving 665 behind, which worries me a little (set of 9's)? The 9 on the river counterfeits my second pair, but alleviates my worries about a set of 9's. But, when the SB checks I decide just to check it down in case I'm up against some lunatic with AJ or similar. He turns over TT, and I take a nice pot, up to 3200.

Still seven left, at 75/150, I get 22 UTG+2. Following Fuel's advice, I raise it up. The short stack BB pushes for an extra 150, and I call. He turns KQ suited, so life is not too bad. However, the JJTT5 board counterfeits my pair and makes his flush for good measure. Down to 2500.

Five remaining at 100/200, a 4xBB raise UTG with AT (increased the raise slightly so that the bet was larger than the BB's stack) is uncontested. Then, four handed the same happens with a raise from the button with A3 suited, from the button again with 55, and from the SB with A9. Up to 3000.

The bubble bursts, and I pick up KQ offsuit in the BB. Button is a big stack (over 8000) and the SB covers me by about 600. SB min raises, I push. He calls with 87 suited. Eh? I make trip kings and then a flush of my own to beat his unimproved hand.

From there, it's not worth reporting further action in detail (don't say it). I busted the small stack after he called my raise from the button with 66. Fair enough, I had A3. Unluckily for him, I made a straight and he didn't.

Heads up didn't last too long -- the key hand being a raise by me from the SB with KT suited, followed by a push from him. I'd been raising fairly routinely and suspected that the push was simply a resteal attempt, so called for all my chips. He showed K9 and my cards held up.

Couldn't get on for the blogger freeroll so ...

I bought a house instead. And to think I was worried that I wouldn't have some big and interesting news for my 100th post.

A bridge too far

My partner and I had a 68% game in a 30 table field at the bridge club last night. That's, oh I don't know, doubling up twice in an orbit on awesome reads? Except for one early hand when I bid like a pussy, and one late hand when I basically forgot the contract I was playing in (how embarrassing -- that's like not noticing that you have a flush) I was “in the zone” as was my partner throughout. That the opponents fell over themselves taking questionable actions, to put it as kindly as possible, didn't hurt.

There was one interesting hand which reminded me in retrospect of the idea of “levels” in poker (you know, level one players just play the cards they have, level two players try to play the cards they have and the cards that others are representing, etc.)

I was playing a hand in hearts, holding eight hearts missing the jack and ten between my hand and dummy. On the first round of the suit, my right hand opponent played the jack. Now, on the surface, this is a situation where bridge players apply what they call the principle of restricted choice, but which rather less pretentious people refer to as the Monty Hall problem.

The relevant holdings (apparently) that RHO might have are singleton jack or doubleton jack ten. In the latter case, she might equally well have played the ten (when you have picked the right door, Monty might freely choose between the two wrong ones), so the weight we assign that holding is halved (we assume that her choice was restricted - you should always switch).

So, playing someone whom I knew to be a level one player, I assumed a singleton, which turned out to be correct, and made an extra trick. Not perhaps as satisfying as winning a buy in, but we bridge players have to take our pleasures where we find them.

Where does the level one, level two stuff come in? Well, a level four (or thereabouts) player in this situation would have realised (from the bidding) that we had exactly eight hearts. Such a player, holding three hearts to the jack ten, would have known that it could never cost to play the jack or ten on the first round (seeing A92 in dummy, and with the dummy leading the 2). This opportunity for deception could be used to make it incorrect for me to assume that the play of the jack or ten represents a singleton.

It's actually a really interesting situation, because the reason to play jack or ten from jack ten third is not to pick up a free trick when you have that holding, but to protect your partner's four card holding when you have a singleton. Just like the reason to “vary your play” occasionally is not so much for the possible return on this particular hand, though if it happens, that's nice, but to protect your action on your otherwise predictable holdings when you do have strong hands. And that's why, before you decide to vary your play, you have to think about the level of your opponents.

Oh my head hurts.

That SNG

Just reviewed the hands from the SNG I mentioned in my previous post and really some further comment is required.

Summary:

I won chips in five hands (details below); I lost the blinds in 23 hands; I lost more than the blinds in two hands.

My two losses:

Blinds 10/20, I (1500) have TT under the gun, and limp. UTG+1 raises to 80, one player in LP calls, as do I. On a 773 flop I bet 150 into the 270 pot, UTG+1 min raises. I fold. Weak? I guess so.

Blinds 75/150, three handed I (1440) am in the BB with J♦7♦. The SB (7000) raises to 300. I call. Flop is JT9 with one diamond. The SB bets 300 into the 600 pot. I push, he calls with 86 offsuit, and hits his open ender with a 7 on the turn. No resuck for me and IGH.

My five wins:

(15/30) Get a free play from the BB with T5 offsuit in a four way limped pot. Flop is Q55. I check, first limper bets pot, two folds. I min-raise. He folds. Maybe should have tried to milk this one a bit more with a flat call.

(25/50) I'm (1300) in the BB with AJ offsuit. One limper, and the SB completes. I raise to 250. The limper (4000) calls, the SB folds. Flop is 994, with a backdoor to my J. I push, he folds.

(50/100) Won a battle of the blinds with J8 in the BB on an 852 flop (he folded to a min bet).

(50/100) Three handed(!) pushed for 1020 UTG on A5 suited. All fold.

(75/150) I (900) have QJ in the BB (three handed). UTG (5000) bets 450, I push, he calls with KJ. I suck out.

What a difference a day makes

They're installing some new fibre optic cabling in our building (of course, we've finally been given new space to move to later this year, and now they're getting around to upgrading our network, but I digress), and one of the junction boxes is in my office, as a result of which there was much moving of desks, drilling of holes etc.

I took this as a sign that I could leave work early. It was a beautiful, crisp, early autumn day, so I went for a run through St. Kilda and St. Clair. Tide was high, and I couldn't run on the beach.

After I showered, I put together a French style stew for dinner (I'd call it boeuf en daube, but that would be pretentious), and left it cooking as I sat down to two tables of 25NL. Got up again a total of 100 hands later, $30 to the good.

Had stopped in at the university library earlier in the day, so I did some reading on Zen, Edmund Wilson's autobiography, and a bit of Evelyn Waugh, while in the background Delia Smith chattered away about traditional British puddings.

Folded my way into third place in a SNG. Knocked out in a bad beat, but was severely short stacked in any case. Even with a double up I would have been the short stack.

Put on the potatoes to cook, and donked it up a bit at low stakes triple draw, where I ran into somebody slumming.

Enjoyed my dinner. Read some more.

Oh yeah, there was still a bit of bad television.