The strange things people say

1) John Terry, on being awarded the European Player Of The Year Award: "I couldn't have done it without my team mates". Well, yes, I imagine that if he'd turned up for the matches on his own, it would have been a bit difficult. Then again, if Chelsea had still won the League, he would have been even more of a push-in. Strange choice, though. One would have imagined them going for a Lampard rather than a Terry.

2) McAfee and my IT Department, on being informed that the auto-update of the Scanning Engine and the auto-update of viruses fails on my new machine.

"It's normal for it to fail. Try it again and it should work".

I'm sorry. What? It's normal for it to fail ?? Apparently this minor irritant is so minor in McAfee's book that they didn't even consider it worth fixing. Is there any other industry full of people so clueless when it comes to learning how to serve customers? (Well, I'm sure there are many such industries. Perhaps we should have a top 10 of idiotic statements like this. NTL would be up there.)

Oh, and I did try to install it again. It still failed. I tried later, in case McAfee's servers were busy. No luck. So, still no computer link-up to the office from home, because it can't install the newer scanning engine, which means it can't update the virus-protection software, which means the Secure Client network spots that my virus protection is not up to date, so it won't connect me to the office. This strikes me as a slight case of sledgehammers and nuts. One would have thought that there would be an "overrule" button. But, no. So paranoid are companies about the vague chance that someone will try to destroy the entire newtork at a moment's notice, that if you haven't got the latest up-to-the-minute spot-on anti-virus software, well, your machine won't turn on, and that is that.

A bad weekend on the poker front, dropping $200 without including the live trip. More irritatingly, 3.5 hours of double-tabling yesterday afternoon (one $3-$6, one $2-$4) only knocked $33 off the bonus dollars, whereas I had been anticipating something like $60. So, a losing session on tight tables without much rake. Not clever. Maybe I should focus on pot-limit omaha, a game where I know that I can win :-)

The Party Poker April Bonus only stays live until Wednesday, and I had been hoping to clear the Ultimate bonus by then, but it seems like an impossibility now. And with the weekend reducing the week's profit from $220 to $20, it's been a struggle all month. I'd like to be able to write the Ultimate bonus "to book" before April 30, at least.

Omaha's a Beach

And here's a hand that tells you absolutely nothing new, but at least it makes me feel better to get it off the chest. This hand came at the end of four hours when I had suffered 160 hands of Hold 'em to lose $125, where I got one pair (eights, raises, reraised by button, I folded flop of AKQ). Two hours of relatively quiet Omaha followed as I worked my way up to a few dollars profit. Then this beauty arrived, my second-last planned hand of the night.

Palm Desert (Pot Limit Omaha)
Started at 25/Apr/05 22:06:16

sammythe3rd is at seat 0 with $52.45.
BIG_JERRR is at seat 1 with $44.35.
worf21 is at seat 2 with $39.20 (sitting out).
Frost Gamble is at seat 3 with $47.10.
Harlan is at seat 4 with $23.40.
sportney is at seat 5 with $35.95.
Peter824 is at seat 6 with $34.25.
Birks is at seat 7 with $78.30.
superle1 is at seat 8 with $49.50.
acdc_ate is at seat 9 with $49.45.
The button is at seat 1.

Frost Gamble posts the big blind of $.50.

Birks: 8s 9d 7c 8d

Pre-flop:

Harlan folds. sportney calls. Peter824 folds. Birks calls. superle1 folds. acdc_ate folds. sammythe3rd calls. BIG_JERRR calls. Frost Gamble checks.

This hand is almost worth a raise, but with only one caller before me, I decide against it.

Flop 5h 8h 2c

So, there's a set, currently the nuts. In line with the BDD thinking (and my experience at this table has shown that you might as well bet, because check-raise opportunities have been few and far between). I decide that I am going to push this hand.

Frost Gamble checks. sportney bets $2.50. Birks raises to $5. sammythe3rd folds. BIG_JERRR folds. Frost Gamble folds. sportney re-raises to $17.50. Birks re-raises to $55. sportney goes all-in for $35.45. Birks is returned $19.55 (uncalled).

I thought hard about whether to raise the pot or whether to tempt the man. I decide to tempt him. This seems to work well. I manage to get all of his money in when I know that I am in front. Can he have anything where he is more than 50%? Well, 6H 7H is the obvious guess. Running that hypothesis through Pokercalc (let's give him an overpair like TT as well) I am still 55/45 favourite. He would need something like S5 C5 H6 H7 to be favourite.

Turn 5h 8h 2c Ad
River 5h 8h 2c Ad 5d

Showdown:
Birks shows 8s 9d 7c 8d.
Birks has 8s 8d 5h 8h 5d: full house, eights full of fives.
sportney shows 5s 5c Ah Qc.
sportney has 5s 5c 5h Ad 5d: four fives.

$3 is raked from a pot of $73.40.
sportney wins $70.40 with four fives.


Oh well, another 93% shot bites the dust. :-) Now, this is one good reason for me not to not play PLO for higher stakes. I can cope with a $75 kind of swing with some kind of equanimity. But even if it were just twice as much (i.e., the $100 max sit-down), my mental strength would be seriously sapped. One thing that no winning poker player can afford is to let the red mist descend. As it was, I just quit the table (as I had planned to do) and wrote this as catharsis. Tomorrow is another day.