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Get A Life
Jul. 1st, 2007 09:42 amI spend too much time at the computer. I'd say that 90% of the things that I enjoy doing, or do for work, or do for other admin tasks, when combined, take place in front of a computer screen. This is irritating. For a start, it just about knocks out any chance of me playing computer games, which I actually quite enjoy!
There's not really a solution, apart from changing jobs and becoming a gardener, converting entirely to bricks and mortar poker, switching from Excel to manual bookkeeping, and getting all my news from the TV, newspapers and the radio.
Well, it's an option.
I keep telling myself; cut down your time at the computer, you are burning yourself out. And not just at poker. Writing eight to 10 stories a day, even shortish ones, and coping with all the other admin matters at work, takes up a fair chunk of life. To devote much of the remainder to sitting in front of the screen doing something else cannot be healthy.
+++++++++
I took the car for a drive this morning; it had been sitting alone for three weeks, unused. Needless to say, it was (and remains) filthy. But the morning drive was entertaining. Last night I had heard many screaming sirens, but I assumed it was either the standard drug-related turf war in Lewisham Town Centre, or a speed-up to central London because of another bombing, or the annual police v fire engine drag-racing wheelie championship (held, of course, on Lee High Road).
There would be no chance of a terrorist bombing of Lewisham Shopping Centre; that would be far too constructive.
But it was none of the above. It was in fact a fire at the set of buildings near the roundabout, which are in any case scheduled for demolition (in preparation for our super-duper new "centre", date of completion at current pace, 2025).
The second interesting occurrence this morning was that there were hundreds and hundreds of cyclists about. Proper cyclists, not your pansy Brompton commuters or lunatic despatch riders. This was 6am, mind. They were heading en masse to Blackheath to start their own London to Canterbury run, ahead of the opening leg of the Tour de France, which begins there next week.
Compared with the London Marathon, which starts there every year and which I have not bothered to walk up to once, despite it being only 10 minutes' walk, the start of the first leg of the TdF is something worth seeing. There's a kind of wimpo start in central London, but the "proper" start is at the Cutty Sark, or Blackheath. Not sure which.
+++++++++++
Here's a hand which demonstrates how awfully some of my opponents play. I'm not that happy with my own play either, but these hands are tough for a limit player. Perhaps I should be more aggressive. I'll explain what I was thinking, without any claim that my thought processes are correct.
$0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em -
Seat 1: Tend your Sheep ($20)
Seat 2: necessary ($67.95)
Seat 3: KNUCKK ($29) (Button)
Seat 4: Hero ($48.25) (SB)
Seat 5: Millz_b3_grindn ($14.60) BB)
Seat 6: hes62704 ($27.55)
Seat 7: sneakysquirrel ($64.05)
Seat 8: Fool ($75.85)
Seat 9: RisingPhenom ($48.90)
Hero posts the small blind of $0.25
Millz_b3_grindn posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #3
Points to note. Millz in the BB is short-stacked. This is Full TIlt. Fool in Seat 8 is tightish passive. Something like 22/4.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [T◊ T♠]
hes62704 folds
sneakysquirrel folds
Fool raises to $1.50
RisingPhenom folds
Tend your Sheep folds
necessary folds
KNUCKK folds
I'm immediately a bit lost. But let's range this guy as AK, AQs, maybe AQ, any pair 9s or higher, plus a 10% random factor.
Hero calls $1.25
General thought process is: I'll walk away from this hand unless I hit a set, with, as back-up (typical 'two-way' limit thinking here) I'll lead out if I have three low cards or something like Qxx rainbow.
Millz_b3_grindn calls $1
*** FLOP *** [9♡ 7♣ 7♡]
Well, I'd have preferred a rainbow, but this seems a reasonable hand to lead out on. I can't see Fool being canny enough to raise as a matter of principle. Raises tend to mean an overpair. Calls (or, more usually, folds) indicate two overcards).
Hero bets $4
Millz_b3_grindn raises to $13.10, and is all in
Oh. That puts a spanner in the works. If the guy had a larger stack, I'd guess this for some kind of draw -- Th 8h, Jh Th, maybe even Ah 8h. But weak trips is possible, I guess. I don't think that flat-calling with weak trips is right here, but perhaps he's dumb enough (or clever enough) to make that move, and I'm calling him anyway. Or, so I thought.
Fool has 15 seconds left to act
Fool raises to $74.35, and is all in
Well, that made my decision easier. But what can he possibly have to want to isolate the all-in player? If he flat-calls here, I'm in a difficult position, but I'm probably calling. If I have anything less than Aces, I'm folding. If I have a pair of nines, I'm calling.
Hero folds
Fool shows [A♡ A♣]
Millz_b3_grindn shows [7♠ 6♣]
Uncalled bet of $61.25 returned to Fool
*** TURN *** [9♡ 7♣ 7♡] [5♡]
*** RIVER *** [9♡ 7♣ 7♡ 5♡] [8◊]
Fool shows two pair, Aces and Sevens
Millz_b3_grindn shows a straight, Nine high
Millz_b3_grindn wins the pot ($33) with a straight, Nine high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $34.70 | Rake $1.70
Board: [9♡ 7♣ 7♡ 5♡ 8◊]
Seat 4: Hero (small blind) folded on the Flop, lost $5.50
Seat 5: Millz_b3_grindn (big blind) showed [7♠ 6♣] and won ($33) with a straight, Nine high
Seat 8: Fool showed [A♡ A♣] and lost $14.60 with two pair, Aces and Sevens
Fool's reraise here absolutely baffles me, to the extent that I can see no thought process at all apart from "I have Aces. It's all going in.
But I'm still going to have to do my own work on how I play TT and JJ. The difficulty is that sometimes they are middle pairs, and sometimes they aren't.
Perhaps if I went on a trial run of always thinking of them as 88, rather than a weaker version of QQ, I might do better. My numbers with 88 are very good.
There's not really a solution, apart from changing jobs and becoming a gardener, converting entirely to bricks and mortar poker, switching from Excel to manual bookkeeping, and getting all my news from the TV, newspapers and the radio.
Well, it's an option.
I keep telling myself; cut down your time at the computer, you are burning yourself out. And not just at poker. Writing eight to 10 stories a day, even shortish ones, and coping with all the other admin matters at work, takes up a fair chunk of life. To devote much of the remainder to sitting in front of the screen doing something else cannot be healthy.
+++++++++
I took the car for a drive this morning; it had been sitting alone for three weeks, unused. Needless to say, it was (and remains) filthy. But the morning drive was entertaining. Last night I had heard many screaming sirens, but I assumed it was either the standard drug-related turf war in Lewisham Town Centre, or a speed-up to central London because of another bombing, or the annual police v fire engine drag-racing wheelie championship (held, of course, on Lee High Road).
There would be no chance of a terrorist bombing of Lewisham Shopping Centre; that would be far too constructive.
But it was none of the above. It was in fact a fire at the set of buildings near the roundabout, which are in any case scheduled for demolition (in preparation for our super-duper new "centre", date of completion at current pace, 2025).
The second interesting occurrence this morning was that there were hundreds and hundreds of cyclists about. Proper cyclists, not your pansy Brompton commuters or lunatic despatch riders. This was 6am, mind. They were heading en masse to Blackheath to start their own London to Canterbury run, ahead of the opening leg of the Tour de France, which begins there next week.
Compared with the London Marathon, which starts there every year and which I have not bothered to walk up to once, despite it being only 10 minutes' walk, the start of the first leg of the TdF is something worth seeing. There's a kind of wimpo start in central London, but the "proper" start is at the Cutty Sark, or Blackheath. Not sure which.
+++++++++++
Here's a hand which demonstrates how awfully some of my opponents play. I'm not that happy with my own play either, but these hands are tough for a limit player. Perhaps I should be more aggressive. I'll explain what I was thinking, without any claim that my thought processes are correct.
$0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em -
Seat 1: Tend your Sheep ($20)
Seat 2: necessary ($67.95)
Seat 3: KNUCKK ($29) (Button)
Seat 4: Hero ($48.25) (SB)
Seat 5: Millz_b3_grindn ($14.60) BB)
Seat 6: hes62704 ($27.55)
Seat 7: sneakysquirrel ($64.05)
Seat 8: Fool ($75.85)
Seat 9: RisingPhenom ($48.90)
Hero posts the small blind of $0.25
Millz_b3_grindn posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #3
Points to note. Millz in the BB is short-stacked. This is Full TIlt. Fool in Seat 8 is tightish passive. Something like 22/4.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [T◊ T♠]
hes62704 folds
sneakysquirrel folds
Fool raises to $1.50
RisingPhenom folds
Tend your Sheep folds
necessary folds
KNUCKK folds
I'm immediately a bit lost. But let's range this guy as AK, AQs, maybe AQ, any pair 9s or higher, plus a 10% random factor.
Hero calls $1.25
General thought process is: I'll walk away from this hand unless I hit a set, with, as back-up (typical 'two-way' limit thinking here) I'll lead out if I have three low cards or something like Qxx rainbow.
Millz_b3_grindn calls $1
*** FLOP *** [9♡ 7♣ 7♡]
Well, I'd have preferred a rainbow, but this seems a reasonable hand to lead out on. I can't see Fool being canny enough to raise as a matter of principle. Raises tend to mean an overpair. Calls (or, more usually, folds) indicate two overcards).
Hero bets $4
Millz_b3_grindn raises to $13.10, and is all in
Oh. That puts a spanner in the works. If the guy had a larger stack, I'd guess this for some kind of draw -- Th 8h, Jh Th, maybe even Ah 8h. But weak trips is possible, I guess. I don't think that flat-calling with weak trips is right here, but perhaps he's dumb enough (or clever enough) to make that move, and I'm calling him anyway. Or, so I thought.
Fool has 15 seconds left to act
Fool raises to $74.35, and is all in
Well, that made my decision easier. But what can he possibly have to want to isolate the all-in player? If he flat-calls here, I'm in a difficult position, but I'm probably calling. If I have anything less than Aces, I'm folding. If I have a pair of nines, I'm calling.
Hero folds
Fool shows [A♡ A♣]
Millz_b3_grindn shows [7♠ 6♣]
Uncalled bet of $61.25 returned to Fool
*** TURN *** [9♡ 7♣ 7♡] [5♡]
*** RIVER *** [9♡ 7♣ 7♡ 5♡] [8◊]
Fool shows two pair, Aces and Sevens
Millz_b3_grindn shows a straight, Nine high
Millz_b3_grindn wins the pot ($33) with a straight, Nine high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $34.70 | Rake $1.70
Board: [9♡ 7♣ 7♡ 5♡ 8◊]
Seat 4: Hero (small blind) folded on the Flop, lost $5.50
Seat 5: Millz_b3_grindn (big blind) showed [7♠ 6♣] and won ($33) with a straight, Nine high
Seat 8: Fool showed [A♡ A♣] and lost $14.60 with two pair, Aces and Sevens
Fool's reraise here absolutely baffles me, to the extent that I can see no thought process at all apart from "I have Aces. It's all going in.
But I'm still going to have to do my own work on how I play TT and JJ. The difficulty is that sometimes they are middle pairs, and sometimes they aren't.
Perhaps if I went on a trial run of always thinking of them as 88, rather than a weaker version of QQ, I might do better. My numbers with 88 are very good.
