No Work = Not Stress
Dec. 26th, 2007 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksY'know, I could get used to this having a lie-in lark. It's only when you wake up, say, an hour or so later than normal, feel guilty for a minute or two at wasting part of the day, and then go "fuck it, I'm on holiday", and allow yourself to go back to sleep for two hours more, that you realize how sleep-deprived you are for most of the year. The act of actually getting out of bed, feeling awake (rather than requiring a shower, a train journey and a half-mile walk before any sense of wakefulness creeps in) and "ready to go" must have been how I felt all those years ago before work and life got in the way.
A merry Christmas to you all. I don't do "Bah, Humbug", but I don't do the "go mad about it" either. Christmas Day is fairly depressing for me, but that's because of me aqnd my circumstance, not because of Christmas. I don't resent other people having a good time. At least these days there's online poker to fill some of the hours, and reading, and the piano, and I even caught up with some Doctor Who programmes (a couple near the end of series two, which shows how far I've fallen behind. I haven't seen the 2006 Christmas Special yet).
The poker itself was predictably depressing -- for most of the day. I only had two more days to achieve silver on Full Tilt, at which point I had decided to withdraw the $700 or so still in the account and do what I vowed this time last year -- just let the $50 a month accumulate. I moved back because of a bonus offer and the thought that NL "might be different". It wasn't. Lesson learnt. At least these past few days I have been able to attribute some of the horrors to at least shadows of bad luck. Another set under set yesterday, in only 110 hands. That makes three in 500 hands.
Things stayed bad at Party, where this happened:
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Table Table 127224 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Lingy ( $291.17 USD )
Seat 2: twinniie ( $95 USD )
Seat 3: fozzy114 ( $78.36 USD )
Seat 4: operass ( $40 USD )
Seat 5: iiforanii ( $121.16 USD )
Seat 6: BellyBoyBoy ( $97 USD )
Seat 7: Fish ( $106.11 USD )
Seat 8: Hero ( $100.53 USD )
Seat 9: xmaritimer ( $59.45 USD )
Seat 10: SCFreiburg74 ( $102.45 USD )
SCFreiburg74 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
Lingy posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 4♠ 4♡ ]
twinniie folds.
fozzy114 folds.
operass folds.
iiforanii calls [$1 USD]
BellyBoyBoy folds.
Fish raises [$3 USD]
Hero calls [$3 USD]
SCFreiburg74 folds.
Lingy folds.
iiforanii folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9♠, 9♡, 4◊ ]
Fish bets [$5 USD]
Hero is all-In.
I’d been watching this guy play. There was no way he was going to fold to this bet if he had an overpair. There’s an argument for slow-playing it if he has two overcards, but then it becomes harder to get him all-in if he has, say, QQ and an Ace or King comes. On the turn.
Fish calls [$92.53 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9◊ ]
Oh bollocks
** Dealing River ** [ J♠ ]
Fish shows [ K♣, K♠ ]a full house, Nines full of Kings.
Hero doesn't show [ 4♠, 4♡ ]a full house, Nines full of Fours.
Fish wins $200.56 USD from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Kings.
Note that, for all the eruudite discussions on controlling the size of the pot so that your all-in gives opponent some kinds of odds, some opponents at this level are not thinking in terms of “I’m priced in”. He wouldn’t have folded that KK if we had both had $1000 behind and I had gone all-in. Some of the poker books should address this point, but I can’t think of one that does. On the other hand, I see a lot of (bad) weak-tight players try this against me when they hit their hand on the flop. I make some kind of wimpish $6 continuation bet after they have checked the flop, and they check-raise me all-in for $80 or so, at which point I fold. If they were semi-bluffing, most of them couldn’t resist showing it, so I have to assume that they have hit their set and that they think this is the most profitable policy. So, I’m winning at this at both ends. At higher levels, opponents will not be so accommodating
More Sklansky dollars. Great.
+++++++++++++++
By midnight I was in for about a thousand hands and I’d crawled back from $200 down (bringing the four-day downswing to $800) to about $120 down (four-day downswing of jusat over seven buy-ins). I decided to fire up one more hour on NoIQ, but the games did not look very tempting. If you want the looser games over this period, late evening is far worse than early morning. Indeed, NoIQ and Party’s $100 buy-ins were infested with minimum buy-in Germans. I for one will be glad to see LordJogo88 get cancer and die (he’s one of the vaguely competent short-stackers – most of them are fairly awful).
However, the $200 buy-in tables looked better. One in particular seemed very promising, although the good result actually came from one of the tighter players (perhaps he thought that I was a lunatic along with all the others).
Texas Hold'em NL $1.00/$2.00
Seat 1: Manderlore ($232.55 in chips)
Seat 2: sammmy101 ($161.81 in chips) DEALER
Seat 4: pesco1 ($194.20 in chips)
Seat 5: SBKP ($384.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero ($280.19 in chips)
Seat 7: VILLAIN ($200.00 in chips)
Seat 9: danialsthlm ($72.02 in chips)
Seat 10: onlyTonyB ($199.00 in chips)
pesco1: Post SB $1.00
SBKP: Post BB $2.00
*** HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Hero [7◊ 7♣]
Dealt to VILLAIN [K◊ Q◊]
Hero: Raise $6.00
VILLAIN (17%/1%): Call $6.00
danialsthlm: Fold
onlyTonyB: Fold
Manderlore: Fold
sammmy101: (25%/4%) Call $6.00
pesco1: (v loose, 50%/5%, something like that, on a small sample) Call $5.00
SBKP: Fold (Staggering. This guy was 70%/10%. I’d have made him 1-to-10 to call here.)
*** FLOP *** [K♠ 7♠ 8◊]
woo hoo. The normal situation now is that I bet out and everyone fucks off, the bastards.
pesco1: Check
Hero: Bet $20.00
VILLAIN: Call $20.00
sammmy101: Call $20.00
But tonight the gods appear to be on my side
pesco1: Fold
*** TURN *** [K♡]
This is a dream card for me. No need for subtlety at all. If opponent has cold called your raise with AK or KQs, he will not be laying a hand down for roughly pot-sized bets on turn and river.
Hero: Bet $96.00
VILLAIN: Allin $174.00
Indeed, he might even raise me himself to ‘protect’ his hand from the player to his left. My only worry here is 88. Opponent would not have cold-called my raise with K8 and he wouldn’t play the hand this way with T9 of spades. My money is on AKo.
sammmy101: Fold
Hero: Call $78.00
*** RIVER *** [10d]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $431.00 Rake $3.00
Hero: wins $431.00
Turns out he had KQs. Not good play from this guy, whom I had pegged as weak-tight (17%/1%).
That meant that I was $200 up for the session and $90 up for the day, a nice swing-round from $200 down at noon.
I was now faced with a difficult decision. There was one loose game (the other $200 buy-ins were looking quite tough) and it was approaching 1am. I knew that I was positive EV in this game, but I was tired. In metagame terms, how would I feel after three losing days if I carried on, and then suffered a bad beat against one of the nutters? (There was no doubt in my mind that the positive EV necessarily came with higher volatility.) Christ, I would feel worse for a matter far greater than the absolute cash value of the loss, whereas at the moment I was feeling better than the absolute cash value of a win. There’s no doubt that a “get-out” makes you feel good, and throwing away the benefits of that “get-out” makes you feel bad.
I went to bed.
A merry Christmas to you all. I don't do "Bah, Humbug", but I don't do the "go mad about it" either. Christmas Day is fairly depressing for me, but that's because of me aqnd my circumstance, not because of Christmas. I don't resent other people having a good time. At least these days there's online poker to fill some of the hours, and reading, and the piano, and I even caught up with some Doctor Who programmes (a couple near the end of series two, which shows how far I've fallen behind. I haven't seen the 2006 Christmas Special yet).
The poker itself was predictably depressing -- for most of the day. I only had two more days to achieve silver on Full Tilt, at which point I had decided to withdraw the $700 or so still in the account and do what I vowed this time last year -- just let the $50 a month accumulate. I moved back because of a bonus offer and the thought that NL "might be different". It wasn't. Lesson learnt. At least these past few days I have been able to attribute some of the horrors to at least shadows of bad luck. Another set under set yesterday, in only 110 hands. That makes three in 500 hands.
Things stayed bad at Party, where this happened:
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Table Table 127224 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Lingy ( $291.17 USD )
Seat 2: twinniie ( $95 USD )
Seat 3: fozzy114 ( $78.36 USD )
Seat 4: operass ( $40 USD )
Seat 5: iiforanii ( $121.16 USD )
Seat 6: BellyBoyBoy ( $97 USD )
Seat 7: Fish ( $106.11 USD )
Seat 8: Hero ( $100.53 USD )
Seat 9: xmaritimer ( $59.45 USD )
Seat 10: SCFreiburg74 ( $102.45 USD )
SCFreiburg74 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
Lingy posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 4♠ 4♡ ]
twinniie folds.
fozzy114 folds.
operass folds.
iiforanii calls [$1 USD]
BellyBoyBoy folds.
Fish raises [$3 USD]
Hero calls [$3 USD]
SCFreiburg74 folds.
Lingy folds.
iiforanii folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9♠, 9♡, 4◊ ]
Fish bets [$5 USD]
Hero is all-In.
I’d been watching this guy play. There was no way he was going to fold to this bet if he had an overpair. There’s an argument for slow-playing it if he has two overcards, but then it becomes harder to get him all-in if he has, say, QQ and an Ace or King comes. On the turn.
Fish calls [$92.53 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9◊ ]
Oh bollocks
** Dealing River ** [ J♠ ]
Fish shows [ K♣, K♠ ]a full house, Nines full of Kings.
Hero doesn't show [ 4♠, 4♡ ]a full house, Nines full of Fours.
Fish wins $200.56 USD from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Kings.
Note that, for all the eruudite discussions on controlling the size of the pot so that your all-in gives opponent some kinds of odds, some opponents at this level are not thinking in terms of “I’m priced in”. He wouldn’t have folded that KK if we had both had $1000 behind and I had gone all-in. Some of the poker books should address this point, but I can’t think of one that does. On the other hand, I see a lot of (bad) weak-tight players try this against me when they hit their hand on the flop. I make some kind of wimpish $6 continuation bet after they have checked the flop, and they check-raise me all-in for $80 or so, at which point I fold. If they were semi-bluffing, most of them couldn’t resist showing it, so I have to assume that they have hit their set and that they think this is the most profitable policy. So, I’m winning at this at both ends. At higher levels, opponents will not be so accommodating
More Sklansky dollars. Great.
+++++++++++++++
By midnight I was in for about a thousand hands and I’d crawled back from $200 down (bringing the four-day downswing to $800) to about $120 down (four-day downswing of jusat over seven buy-ins). I decided to fire up one more hour on NoIQ, but the games did not look very tempting. If you want the looser games over this period, late evening is far worse than early morning. Indeed, NoIQ and Party’s $100 buy-ins were infested with minimum buy-in Germans. I for one will be glad to see LordJogo88 get cancer and die (he’s one of the vaguely competent short-stackers – most of them are fairly awful).
However, the $200 buy-in tables looked better. One in particular seemed very promising, although the good result actually came from one of the tighter players (perhaps he thought that I was a lunatic along with all the others).
Texas Hold'em NL $1.00/$2.00
Seat 1: Manderlore ($232.55 in chips)
Seat 2: sammmy101 ($161.81 in chips) DEALER
Seat 4: pesco1 ($194.20 in chips)
Seat 5: SBKP ($384.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero ($280.19 in chips)
Seat 7: VILLAIN ($200.00 in chips)
Seat 9: danialsthlm ($72.02 in chips)
Seat 10: onlyTonyB ($199.00 in chips)
pesco1: Post SB $1.00
SBKP: Post BB $2.00
*** HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Hero [7◊ 7♣]
Dealt to VILLAIN [K◊ Q◊]
Hero: Raise $6.00
VILLAIN (17%/1%): Call $6.00
danialsthlm: Fold
onlyTonyB: Fold
Manderlore: Fold
sammmy101: (25%/4%) Call $6.00
pesco1: (v loose, 50%/5%, something like that, on a small sample) Call $5.00
SBKP: Fold (Staggering. This guy was 70%/10%. I’d have made him 1-to-10 to call here.)
*** FLOP *** [K♠ 7♠ 8◊]
woo hoo. The normal situation now is that I bet out and everyone fucks off, the bastards.
pesco1: Check
Hero: Bet $20.00
VILLAIN: Call $20.00
sammmy101: Call $20.00
But tonight the gods appear to be on my side
pesco1: Fold
*** TURN *** [K♡]
This is a dream card for me. No need for subtlety at all. If opponent has cold called your raise with AK or KQs, he will not be laying a hand down for roughly pot-sized bets on turn and river.
Hero: Bet $96.00
VILLAIN: Allin $174.00
Indeed, he might even raise me himself to ‘protect’ his hand from the player to his left. My only worry here is 88. Opponent would not have cold-called my raise with K8 and he wouldn’t play the hand this way with T9 of spades. My money is on AKo.
sammmy101: Fold
Hero: Call $78.00
*** RIVER *** [10d]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $431.00 Rake $3.00
Hero: wins $431.00
Turns out he had KQs. Not good play from this guy, whom I had pegged as weak-tight (17%/1%).
That meant that I was $200 up for the session and $90 up for the day, a nice swing-round from $200 down at noon.
I was now faced with a difficult decision. There was one loose game (the other $200 buy-ins were looking quite tough) and it was approaching 1am. I knew that I was positive EV in this game, but I was tired. In metagame terms, how would I feel after three losing days if I carried on, and then suffered a bad beat against one of the nutters? (There was no doubt in my mind that the positive EV necessarily came with higher volatility.) Christ, I would feel worse for a matter far greater than the absolute cash value of the loss, whereas at the moment I was feeling better than the absolute cash value of a win. There’s no doubt that a “get-out” makes you feel good, and throwing away the benefits of that “get-out” makes you feel bad.
I went to bed.
