Be grateful for the good times, because the bad times will come

I can do no wrong on Party at the moment. So the bad run on Paradise lasts 10 months, but a good run on Party lasts nearly just as long. Weird. You only have to look at my numbers for Aces standing up over 10,000 or so hands on each site (Paradise, 63.5%, Party, 92.1%) to see that the swings of limit can last a long time indeed.

Here's a typical Party beauty from yesterday. I had just sat down in the 10 seat and posted.


$2/$4 Hold'em - Monday, February 21, 14:16:26 EDT 2005
Table Jacl n Jill (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: Hgh_Society ( $111 )
Seat 2: Ant_Black ( $161 )
Seat 3: Jordan232345 ( $194 )
Seat 5: UAchopdog ( $83.5 )
Seat 6: LarryHook ( $104.5 )
Seat 7: jediael2 ( $102.5 )
Seat 8: RiverLady222 ( $32 )
Seat 9: GruvMachine ( $118 )
Seat 10: PJBGH ( $250 )

Jordan232345 posts small blind [$1].
UAchopdog posts big blind [$2].
PJBGH posts big blind [$2].

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PJBGH [ 3c 6d ]
GruvMachine: way
LarryHook calls [$2].
jediael2 folds.
RiverLady222 calls [$2].
GruvMachine folds.
PJBGH checks.
Hgh_Society folds.
Ant_Black folds.
Jordan232345 raises [$3].
UAchopdog folds.
LarryHook calls [$2].
RiverLady222 calls [$2].
PJBGH calls [$2].

With three players in, I am just about worth a call here. I would probably pitch a hand like Kx or Qx, which may well be dominated.

** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, Ad, 8s ]
Jordan232345 checks.
LarryHook checks.
RiverLady222 checks.
PJBGH bets [$2].
Jordan232345 calls [$2].
LarryHook calls [$2].
RiverLady222 folds.

If Jordan is an ABC player he may have a big pair here, or he might have put in his raise on a ropey pair, Ace-x suited. My bet has two aims, to get a free card on the turn and to represent an Ace. Depending on the turn card, I'll decide which way to play it.


** Dealing Turn ** [ 6h ]
Jordan232345 checks.
LarryHook checks.
PJBGH bets [$4].
Jordan232345 calls [$4].
LarryHook calls [$4].


With trip sixes, I know that I am well in front. I put Jordan on KK or QQ. I can't see him checking and calling with AK on the flop, and the same goes for AA. And with a ropey pair, he can't really stay in on the turn. LarryHook may have some dubious chasing hand like 97.

** Dealing River ** [ 6s ] -- yay, quad sixes for the Birkster.

Jordan232345 checks.
LarryHook checks.
PJBGH bets [$4].
Jordan232345 raises [$8].
LarryHook folds.
PJBGH raises [$8].
Jordan232345 calls [$4].

PJBGH shows [ 3c, 6d ] four of a kind, sixes.
Jordan232345 doesn't show [ As, Ac ] a full house, Aces full of sixes.
PJBGH wins $57 from the main pot with four of a kind, sixes.

So, I completely misread the hand, mainly because Jordan has played it so awfully. I can understand the check and call on the flop, and against certain players you could argue for a check and call on the turn, but when the one nightmare card in the deck comes on the river, what is the point of raising?


Still, it's not often I hit the only two cards in the deck on the turn and river to win.

An athlete designed by a committee

It was snowing hard this morning as I walked in the dark along the north side of Trafalgar Square. The Olympic madmen have erected a tent, a large plasma screen and a 25-foot high plaster-mould athlete who is carrying a gigantic fluttering union flag. I reckon that if we enter this athlete in any of the comps he/she will win. The 100m would be about four strides and the hurdles could be crushed like matchsticks.

Why do I write he/she? Well, this model, like the elephant, is clearly an athlete designed by a committee absolutely desperate not to upset anyone. The skin tone is coffee-coloured, that kind of tone that you see often in "African"-Americans (who have about as much African heritage as I do) but a tone that might, just might, be Asian, or Latin-American, or the result of a heavy fortnight for a white person on a Florida beach.

The hair is swept back and straight. Natural or artificially straightened? Hard to tell. So, no clues there. And are those breasts? I think so, but they are very small. Maybe they are overdeveloped pecs.

So, here we have an athlete who is neither white nor black, male nor female, muscular nor whippet-like. The only thing that is definite about it is that it is 25 feet tall, which I think I should use as an excuse to claim that it is biased against short people. Are the Olympic campaigners really that scared that denoting an athlete as being of any one particular race will signify racial prejudice? Jeez, what a load of wankers.