Jenny Was A Friend of Mine

[peterbirks]

As the house fiasco continues, my opinion is gradually coming round to that of Mr Woodhouse's; that I'm screwed. All I can do at the moment is wait for nothing to happen, which is an odd kind of situation in which to find yourself. When nothing happens by the end of February, I can do things again. Such as, start from scratch. Slightly irritating, but it's what I expect in the grand scheme of house-buying things.

Perhaps it's more than slightly irritating, because my normal reaction to these kind of setbacks is to spend money. And this morning I kind of decided to buy a car. Which is quite a bit of money to spend just to make me feel a bit better.

Well, no, I really do need a new car, and two trips to Stansted and back confirmed this fact. (49 minutes one way, an hour and a half on the way back. Is the Blackwall Tunnel northern approach narrower?) The car goes fine, but, well, it's old, and basic.

I'll probably plump for a three-year-old Nissan Almera, more out of laziness than anything else. I like its anonymity, it costs less than six grand, it's meant to be reliable, and it's a hatchback so it will be useful for shifting stuff if and when I ever get to be owner of the whole house.

The cold continues to wreak havoc on the Birks immune system. I had intended to watch the back-to-back episodes of Jane Eyre last night, but I went to bed instead. At least it means that I'm waking up in the morning feeling, well, awake. Unfortunately, it doesn't alter the fact that I feel like shit. The one compensation is that, when I was drinking, I felt like this every morning, until I'd had a drink, that is.


I hate to say this, but I'm enjoying my cards at the moment. One-tabling at $1-$2 6-max while watching TV, or reading the paper, is a pleasant way to pass the time. Three-tabling $2-$4 at Party against the same old hacks (I can beat them, but it's no fun) is just like another job.

I may shift over to some 6-max 50c-$1 on Party, and build myself back up the stakes trail there. There seems to be more life left in 6-max than there is full-ring, that's for sure.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

been playing $1-$2 and $2-$4 6 max NL Hold em games exclusively for a long time now, largely on Stars (although the games there have been bad recently).

I know the site redesign is horrible, but you should give the games a go on Betfair, probably the best 6 max games around at the moment.

Cheers

Dom

[(Anonymous)]

Fancy a pint?


I do

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

No Pokertracker on Betfair, Dom, which makes it 'end of story' for me.


When Betfiar left Crypto I pulled out all my cash there apart from a hundred quid or so that I use for 'ordinary' Betfair.

I was never happy with the way the poker and gambling accounts were combined into one. Logging in, checking balances and other such things were always a pain in the arse, and the current site system is just so awful I couldn't bear the thought of playing there again.

PJ

[(Anonymous)]

No pokertracker => good games.

Aksu

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Hi Aksu

I am of course aware of this equation, and I have given it some thought and empirical testing (on Virgin). The question is, is what I gain from the lack of Pokertracker (that the games are weaker) outweighed by my loss of Pokertracker.

For me, the answer is definitely, no.

And I think that I know why. Because I win most of my money from people who are using Pokertracker.

If I am single-tabling and focusing hard on the game (including taking manual notes) then I can just about make up for the lack of the info I glean from PT. But if that means I miss out on the benefits of playing (being able to multi-task), then it just isn't worth it for me.

Some players (presumably including you) gain more from having the generally weaker opponents than they lose from PT. I would guess that this means you do not use PT as much as I do. For me it's an indispensable tool, and I can accept the stronger games that ensue.

Incidentally, Virgin does not offer Pokertracker, but the limit games there are no better than many a site that does offer PT.

PJ

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Pete,

With 15 months worth of online play logged it's been a wrench to go without Pokertracker on Betfair. But the games at my other hangouts were just getting so tough to beat (in fact I had just posted three consecutive losing months on Stars) that I've had to make the switch to where the games are better and at the moment that means Betfair.

Understand what you mean about Pokertracker taking the work out of poker (I miss GameTime+ and its stat overlay on the table) but it seems to me that online poker is getting tougher to beat and that tools like pokertracker don't give me the edge over your average table on Stars that sitting down with a genuinely soft line up on Betfair does. I'm even willing to put up with Betfair's clunky software if it means I can nick a few quid.

Dom

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for choosing the game that's the most profitable for them, and I sympathize if the games have got so bad that you need a non-PT site. I know how gut-wrenching it is to have to do without it!

If the advantage you gain from the weak players on Betfair is greater than the advantage you lose from not having PT, then go for it! But the general assumption seemed to be that PT was an "aid" for the lazy, whereas I found that I could win more at toughter PT-compatible games than I could at weaker non-PT games. Mainly because I couldn't really play more than one table at a non-PT site without doing my bollocks.

And the games weren't always that weaker either.

PJ