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Ahh, Mondays
Aug. 13th, 2007 11:48 amI've had better weekends. It all started going wrong on Friday, when my washing machine kindly stopped in mid-cycle and illustrated the helpful sign "ERR 10", which a hunt for, and perusal of, the manual, confirmed was either a blocked drain hose or a broken pump.
So, manual draining off of washing machine, soaking wet clothes (both those being worn and in machine), lots of hassle. And I still can't find a guy to come and mend it.
Then on Saturday morning the piece of cotton that was holding the chain glued to the tooth in my gum to the arch of my brace (you may recall that tale of horror, the Thursday before) in readiness for the proper clipping and tightening on Tuesday (tomorrow), decided to come loose, so this chain was hanging from my inner gum (bonded to the tooth inside).
This was not a recipe for a joyful weekend -- as I appeared even madder than the maddest punk with an inch of chain hanging from my gum onto my tongue, but at least I had the appointment on Tuesday.
Then, last night, out came the chain, with, it seems to me, a bit of tooth attached.
I nearly cried. My worst ever visit to the dentist, and my feelings that "ah well, at least that's the worst of it over", all came to naught. Indeed, all came to a position where I am worse off than I was before, without a milk tooth in place, without a chain, and with less of a tooth inside the gum to get purchase on than there was before (plus extra cosmetic work if and wwhen we ever get it out). Plus the nightmare of another operation to fit a new chain.
I have no fear of dentists, but I'm not really sure I'm willing to put myself through that again.
At least the poker went well, although the weirdness of the game never ceases to amaze. The problem with playing NL is that you can go many sessions winning or losing not very much. So you start thinking of moving up in stakes. And then, BANG. While three-tabling, I get more action in 20 minutes than I'd seen in the previous week. Stack off a pre-flop raiser when I hit a set of sevens. Then I double through on another table to $250 when I hit a set of fives. Another big win comes home against a half-buy in guy when my speculative raise in the CO with JTs flops JJ5.
And at the other table, although not much was happening, there was a very bad player (92%/0%) whose sole technique was to go massively all-in (say, more than three times a $40 pot) on the turn. It was just a matter of waiting to catch him. Unfortunately, I missed every flop and so this table was the one where I just trundled along.
And, finally, I carved a hand that I keep feeling I should have got away from, even though it was a "big laydown". Well, I should have tried to have kept my opponent from doubling through.
I raise in MP2 with TT (stack $245, 4x BB to $4) and the button (24%/2% and, coincidentally, the player from whom I had taken $120 with my full house of 5s) called (he has $120). All others fold.
Flop come AAK rainbow. I bet $5 and he calls.
Turn brings a 10, giving me a house of 10s over Aces.
I think the betting then went something like $18 from me (a mistake), raised to $36 from him, and all-in from me (since he had about $70 left and I'd decided that I wasn't laying this hand down, so I might as get the money in first). He calls and turns over AK.
I still left the session more than $100 up, but no-one likes losing more than a buy-in on a single hand, and I tried to work out how I could have got away from it.
First, he's called my raise on the button. On those stats, it could be AQ or Axs or a bit of set-farming.
But then he calls my continuation. That rules out the smaller pair. In fact, this is serious alarm bell country.
Then he raises my bet on the turn by the absolute minimum.
The loudest of loud alarm bells should ring here. But I still think I should call (although I really ought to have gone for a check-call turn and probably check-fold river if he goes all-in).
Overall, I think I should lose here at a showdown, but for less than his entire stack of $120. If he pushes all-in on the river, I make a big laydown. If he bets a total of $80 of his $120 on flop, turn and river combined ($5 / $20 / $55?), then I have to take the hit.
A lesson learnt there. But, more importantly, I think that I should have left the table at $238. There were some lumpy stacks around, and I've previously written that I don't think I'm experienced enough yet to play some super-deep online NL (i.e., more than effective 200 x BB against two or more opponents).
Never mind. it was FH over FH and I learnt something from it.
So, manual draining off of washing machine, soaking wet clothes (both those being worn and in machine), lots of hassle. And I still can't find a guy to come and mend it.
Then on Saturday morning the piece of cotton that was holding the chain glued to the tooth in my gum to the arch of my brace (you may recall that tale of horror, the Thursday before) in readiness for the proper clipping and tightening on Tuesday (tomorrow), decided to come loose, so this chain was hanging from my inner gum (bonded to the tooth inside).
This was not a recipe for a joyful weekend -- as I appeared even madder than the maddest punk with an inch of chain hanging from my gum onto my tongue, but at least I had the appointment on Tuesday.
Then, last night, out came the chain, with, it seems to me, a bit of tooth attached.
I nearly cried. My worst ever visit to the dentist, and my feelings that "ah well, at least that's the worst of it over", all came to naught. Indeed, all came to a position where I am worse off than I was before, without a milk tooth in place, without a chain, and with less of a tooth inside the gum to get purchase on than there was before (plus extra cosmetic work if and wwhen we ever get it out). Plus the nightmare of another operation to fit a new chain.
I have no fear of dentists, but I'm not really sure I'm willing to put myself through that again.
At least the poker went well, although the weirdness of the game never ceases to amaze. The problem with playing NL is that you can go many sessions winning or losing not very much. So you start thinking of moving up in stakes. And then, BANG. While three-tabling, I get more action in 20 minutes than I'd seen in the previous week. Stack off a pre-flop raiser when I hit a set of sevens. Then I double through on another table to $250 when I hit a set of fives. Another big win comes home against a half-buy in guy when my speculative raise in the CO with JTs flops JJ5.
And at the other table, although not much was happening, there was a very bad player (92%/0%) whose sole technique was to go massively all-in (say, more than three times a $40 pot) on the turn. It was just a matter of waiting to catch him. Unfortunately, I missed every flop and so this table was the one where I just trundled along.
And, finally, I carved a hand that I keep feeling I should have got away from, even though it was a "big laydown". Well, I should have tried to have kept my opponent from doubling through.
I raise in MP2 with TT (stack $245, 4x BB to $4) and the button (24%/2% and, coincidentally, the player from whom I had taken $120 with my full house of 5s) called (he has $120). All others fold.
Flop come AAK rainbow. I bet $5 and he calls.
Turn brings a 10, giving me a house of 10s over Aces.
I think the betting then went something like $18 from me (a mistake), raised to $36 from him, and all-in from me (since he had about $70 left and I'd decided that I wasn't laying this hand down, so I might as get the money in first). He calls and turns over AK.
I still left the session more than $100 up, but no-one likes losing more than a buy-in on a single hand, and I tried to work out how I could have got away from it.
First, he's called my raise on the button. On those stats, it could be AQ or Axs or a bit of set-farming.
But then he calls my continuation. That rules out the smaller pair. In fact, this is serious alarm bell country.
Then he raises my bet on the turn by the absolute minimum.
The loudest of loud alarm bells should ring here. But I still think I should call (although I really ought to have gone for a check-call turn and probably check-fold river if he goes all-in).
Overall, I think I should lose here at a showdown, but for less than his entire stack of $120. If he pushes all-in on the river, I make a big laydown. If he bets a total of $80 of his $120 on flop, turn and river combined ($5 / $20 / $55?), then I have to take the hit.
A lesson learnt there. But, more importantly, I think that I should have left the table at $238. There were some lumpy stacks around, and I've previously written that I don't think I'm experienced enough yet to play some super-deep online NL (i.e., more than effective 200 x BB against two or more opponents).
Never mind. it was FH over FH and I learnt something from it.
