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peterbirksThe next Lamb Meet will take place at 6pm at The Lamb, Lamb's Conduit Street, on Monday March 12th at 6pm. Okay, I know that it's been 20 years or so since the last one. But, hell, we slow up as we get older.
Actually, I'll be there meeting a couple of old University friends.
And if you turn up, don't stand around in the "short" side of the bar. Go down the left hand side.
+++++
While the masses were enthusing about Rounders being on Film 4 tonight, the cognoscenti were appreciating the film on before it — The Money Pit. Although the likes of Mikey might watch it for the chance of seeing Shelley Long in knickers, most homeowners just watch it and nod their heads knowingly. The Fiendishes tried to get round it by buying a (virtually) new house, but this is fool's gold. New houses can cost as much as old ones. Although, having lived in an old house for seven years, I freely accept that, as a rule, they don't. I never used to understand why Las Vegas just bombed buildings to the ground and then built something else, instead of refurbishing what was there. Now I understand. It's actually cheaper (if not so green in terms of carbon footprint) to do it that way.
The Money Pit summarises just about everything that can go wrong in a large house, although it fails to state how the Fieldings get to stay in the house after having spent $800,000 doing it up (when they were broke at the start of the film). But, hell, it's an enjoyable ride (and there's an appearance by Joe Mantegna, which I didn't notice when I first saw the film, partly because he wasn't famous then...)
All of which at least made the evening not feel a total waste, as I spent my time watching this film leeching away money first on Party and then on Noble. I swear I saw a player make a $5-$10 style check-raise on the turn from the blinds in a $1-$2 game. The world's becoming a much tougher place.
I know what I need to do on Party. But it's all a matter of putting in the research. I think that to win during the week at the moment you need to push very thin edges indeed, and that means having a solid mathematical knowledge of the regulars' raising ranges in various situations. On the plus side, I've got several thousand hands' worth of data on quite a few of the players I know will be there every day. If, as I suspect, many of them are bots, it's just a matter of decoding the scripts they are using. A kind of reverse engineering, if you will. The downside is that this takes time, a lot of time. Do I have that level of commitment any more? I really don't know. I think I probably have, because I'm a bastard when it comes to not giving up, even if the solution is not cost-effective. We'll see how things look at the end of the year, but, 10 weeks in, I'm not excessively optimistic.
The farce of it was, as my money was slowly leaking away on one screen, it was coming back (with interest) on the other, as sterling continued its slow upward march against the dollar. And for that one, all I had to do was keep my eye on the screen.
Everyone in Sales and Marketing is off to Portugal tomorrow and Friday, which will make for a quiet and pleasant office. It also means that I can work from home two days next week (since I am going in this Friday). And the following week, it's only a four-day week before flying to LV on the Friday. Assuming, that is, that they let me in.
Actually, I'll be there meeting a couple of old University friends.
And if you turn up, don't stand around in the "short" side of the bar. Go down the left hand side.
+++++
While the masses were enthusing about Rounders being on Film 4 tonight, the cognoscenti were appreciating the film on before it — The Money Pit. Although the likes of Mikey might watch it for the chance of seeing Shelley Long in knickers, most homeowners just watch it and nod their heads knowingly. The Fiendishes tried to get round it by buying a (virtually) new house, but this is fool's gold. New houses can cost as much as old ones. Although, having lived in an old house for seven years, I freely accept that, as a rule, they don't. I never used to understand why Las Vegas just bombed buildings to the ground and then built something else, instead of refurbishing what was there. Now I understand. It's actually cheaper (if not so green in terms of carbon footprint) to do it that way.
The Money Pit summarises just about everything that can go wrong in a large house, although it fails to state how the Fieldings get to stay in the house after having spent $800,000 doing it up (when they were broke at the start of the film). But, hell, it's an enjoyable ride (and there's an appearance by Joe Mantegna, which I didn't notice when I first saw the film, partly because he wasn't famous then...)
All of which at least made the evening not feel a total waste, as I spent my time watching this film leeching away money first on Party and then on Noble. I swear I saw a player make a $5-$10 style check-raise on the turn from the blinds in a $1-$2 game. The world's becoming a much tougher place.
I know what I need to do on Party. But it's all a matter of putting in the research. I think that to win during the week at the moment you need to push very thin edges indeed, and that means having a solid mathematical knowledge of the regulars' raising ranges in various situations. On the plus side, I've got several thousand hands' worth of data on quite a few of the players I know will be there every day. If, as I suspect, many of them are bots, it's just a matter of decoding the scripts they are using. A kind of reverse engineering, if you will. The downside is that this takes time, a lot of time. Do I have that level of commitment any more? I really don't know. I think I probably have, because I'm a bastard when it comes to not giving up, even if the solution is not cost-effective. We'll see how things look at the end of the year, but, 10 weeks in, I'm not excessively optimistic.
The farce of it was, as my money was slowly leaking away on one screen, it was coming back (with interest) on the other, as sterling continued its slow upward march against the dollar. And for that one, all I had to do was keep my eye on the screen.
Everyone in Sales and Marketing is off to Portugal tomorrow and Friday, which will make for a quiet and pleasant office. It also means that I can work from home two days next week (since I am going in this Friday). And the following week, it's only a four-day week before flying to LV on the Friday. Assuming, that is, that they let me in.
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Movies and Music
Date: 2007-03-08 09:22 am (UTC)Absolutely hated The Money Pit because it was stupid humour with Tom Hanks following a path soon to be grooved deep by Jim Carrey. It had more in common with Home Alone than anything Hanks went on to do. At some point he seemed to leave Forest Gump behind and graduated to acting and in some things (Catch Me If You Can springs to mind) he's a delight. But back then I just wanted to slap him.
Re: Movies and Music
Date: 2007-03-08 01:45 pm (UTC)Definitely some top class tracks in there, though; Intervention, Windowsill and My Life Is A Cage stand out.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 02:16 pm (UTC)And in any case the true cognoscenti already have the Rounders 'Special Edition' DVD with no less than three commentary tracks by respectively: Four poker champs (Hellmuth + Chan + Ferguson + Moneymaker), the writers, the director + Ed Norton {Matt Damon was too busy getting his hair frosted or something). And plenty of extras of the stars playing in the WSOP. Shweet.
matt
no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 02:34 pm (UTC)I hadn't meant to put down the film and I don't think that it was anything to do with the fact that I was playing poker before it was made. The people brought into poker as a result of Rounders are, of course, "old-timers" themselves, compared to those who came in as a result of the 2003 WSOP and Chris Moneymaker, which for me seems just like yesterday.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2007-03-08 03:11 pm (UTC)