Wanna watch?

From 2+2:

ESPN final table live. Working for me.

http://a368.l2047451863.c20474.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/368/20474/v0001/reflector:51863

Cunningham out.

Cunningham reraised $6m all-in a raise and a call from Gold. Original raiser folded and Gold called with KJ.

Flop came AK8, turn a 7 and river a 3.

Gold now up to about $60m out of $90m on the table.





Is this the inspiration of Jamie Gold?


Binger out.

Binger calls all-in with AT on board T65. Gold has 43.

Turn is a seven. Gold hits straight.

Now heads up and Gold has about $78m of the $90m in play.


All over:

Flop brings Q 9 4 two hearts. Gold goes all in and Paul Wasicka calls with TT one heart. Turn is the wrong red ace, river is a black four. Gold wins at 3.45am local time.

Alone on a hill

I played some 25p-50p NL for an hour today, while also playing the 25c-50c game. Given the state of the banana currency that is the US dollar (buy roubles now. This is not a joke) that meant the UK currency game was effectively twice as big.

Logically, of course, one should play 50c-$1 instead, since this results in a lower rake. However, the Monster Jackpot thesis comes into play here. Anyone too thick to work that out but who "prefers playing in my own currency" is likely to be fair game.

I once had to explain in words of one syllable to a person at a £3-£6 table that they would be far better off playing $5-$10. Eventually they got it, but it took a long time to sink in.

Anyway, here I am playing what is effectively a $100 buy-in game rather than a $50 buy-in game, and paying a higher rake for the privilege. I'm not sure if the players were better, madder, worse, or just plain different, but they were certainly more on my wavelength than the "let's limp and fold and if I just call your raise, I probably have pocket queens or better" camp. There were fewer inappropriate folds, more appropriate raises, and just enough to keep you on your toes.

However, something else occurred to me, and I am not recommending this in any way shape or form. My account with Virgin is in US dollars. As far as I am aware, you can choose your base currency. When I bought in at the pounds sterling table, it gave me a rate of $1.73:£1.

Are you ahead of me here?

Suppose some unscrupulous soul (who probably already exists) opened up parallel accounts in sterling and in dollars.

And suppose he put $5,000 in the dollar account and £2,500 in the sterling account.

Now, suppose he sat down with his $5,000, at a pounds sterling table, and transformed it into £2,890. He then promptly donks it off to his sterling account, which now has £5,390 in it. He pops up to the bank, turns his £2,890 into $5,375 at £1:$1.86, places that in his dollar Citibank account, and deposits $5,000 of it at the poker site.

Rinse and repeat.

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