The Pornogrraphy of Shopping: 3 hands
Jul. 25th, 2008 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksI've been looking for a long-sleeved white linen shirt for my holidays. This has entailed visits to stores the like of which were foreign lands until recent days. Although I have steered clear of "Fat Face" (who dreams up these brands?) I did succumb to a visit to White Stuff, where I bought an item of clothing coloured "Espresso". Apparently nothing can be called brown any more.
I also returned to slightly more familiar territory in Marks & Sparks, Gap and Next.
What three of these stores have in common (Gap is the creditable exception here) is that, if you are a male shopper for clothes, a visit to the clothes store is a bit like buying hard pornography. Your stuff is tucked away in the hardest part of the store to reach.
Retailers would presumably claim that it's because men don't like to shop, and that women are their bread and butter income. But this is reionforcing. At M&S there is women's clothing on the ground floor and on the first floor. The men's section is up three sets of escalators, parked with "Exchanges and refunds" and "toilets".
At Next, you plough through piles of discarded size 16s (women are not tidy shoppers at sale time) to reach the stairs down to the basement - following a sign saying "Men and Children". Charming. And Next pants are pants, btw.
White Stuff, a brand which I thought was devoted to beach-wearish kind of surfing stuff, must presume that 70% of surfers and beachers are female, because that's the proportion of floor space that they get. And this is in the City, where I think there is still a majority of male employees (albeit only just). The men's section is, once again, tucked out back. And, once again, the staff are stronger on the female clothes than on men's.
It may be coincidence that I bought an awful lot more from Gap than I did from the other three storse, but I somehow don't think so.
+++++++++++++
Is the game up for Brown? The humiliation in Glasgow East, where John Reid was remarkable mainly by his absence in the campaign, must surely make for an uncomfortable Party Conference, and the politickers, who like nothing more than a good conspiracy, with press leaks and the like, have a whle summer to spread rumours. The only thing that can be guaranteed is that Gordon Brown won't be brought down in a bribery scandal. Will there bne a stalking horse challenge? One thing is certain -- Labour is so genuinely fucked coming through to the next election that they must be thankful that their seats are more resilient than the Conservatives in the face of a meltdown. Even last night's result would have left more than 100 Labour members sitting in the House. Although only one of those would be from north of the border (and it wouldn't be Brown). I think we should ask West Lothian about this.
The first two hands occurred within three minutes of each other. When you play more than 10K hands a month, it's fun to see what odd coincidences occur. How would you feel if you had just begun to play online, and you were sitting at these tables when this happened? Surely the cry of "it's fixed" would be coming from even your mouth?
The final hand illustrates an important point about raises in No Limit. Remember, it's a pricing game. Is your investment likely to realize a profit in the long run? Everything else (the prettiness of your hand, how you feel, and so on), eventually leads to this analysis. Where there is a choice between actions that have a positive EV, things get more complex, especially if a slightly higher EV is accompanied by significantly higher volatility. However, in the case mentioned at the bottom below, these complexities do not apply.
Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1 25-Jul-2008 11:34:51
Seat 1: Another Donk ($122.38 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero ($88.50 in chips)
Seat 4: SKYWALKER75 ($34.91 in chips)
Seat 5: hupenolaf ($158.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: sangiacomo ($79.38 in chips)
Seat 7: JoNNyGilBert0 ($135.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Cat26 ($70.45 in chips)
Seat 10: Nehalennia79 ($100.00 in chips)
sangiacomo: Post SB $0.50
JoNNyGilBert0: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [6◊; 6♠]
Cat26: Fold
Nehalennia79: Fold
Another Donk: Raise (NF) $3.00
Hero: Call $3.00
SKYWALKER75: Raise (NF) $5.00
hupenolaf: Fold
sangiacomo: Fold
JoNNyGilBert0: Fold
Another Donk: Call $2.00
Hero: Call $2.00
Skywalker only has $35 in chips, but his $2 reraise is woefully inadequate.. Indeed, it's so inadequate that one would be tempted to peg him with Aces. But, it doesn't matter what he haas to me. If I hit a set I'm going for it and if I miss, I'm gone. In addition, the guy seems a bit too loose and heavily stacked for the mini-raise indicates Aces play.
$16 in the pot.
*** FLOP *** [6♡; J♣; 2♣;]
Another Donk: Check
Hero: Check
You can normally predict what's going to happen here.
SKYWALKER75: Bet $29.91
And it does.
Another Donk: Raise (NF) $117.38
Oh, but that came as a bit of a surprise. Would he have done this with a higher set? Not if he was any good. Still , no matter.
Hero: Allin $83.50
*** TURN *** [2♡;]
*** RIVER *** [7◊;]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $244.29 Rake $3.00
Another Donk: Shows [A♠ J◊;]
SKYWALKER75: Shows [K◊; 6♣;]
Another Donk: wins $33.88
Hero: wins $210.41
And then this happened.
GAME #1087628720: Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1 25-Jul-2008 11:39:00
Seat 1: Hero ($94.50 in chips)
Seat 2: H4rbysAce ($102.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 4: TiltBitchTilt ($56.35 in chips)
Seat 5: chrisvika ($46.00 in chips)
Seat 7: selina2 ($29.27 in chips)
Seat 9: Cat26 ($69.20 in chips)
Seat 10: yurika ($110.23 in chips)
TiltBitchTilt: Post SB $0.50
chrisvika: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [T◊; T♣;]
selina2: Call $1.00
Cat26: Fold
yurika: Raise (NF) $5.00
Hero: Fold
Many would criticise this fold, and it's very marginal. Raiser is tightish and the size of his raise tends to indicate JJ/QQ. Whatever he has, my TT effectively became a medium pair. If I flat call I've got a lot of players behind me who might wake up with a reraising hand. I'm being offered 18-1 and if I was on the button I'd be calling here. If I was confident that the players behind me were loose-passive I'd be similarly inclined. But this table has looked fairly tight. I don't think that the odds are there for me in this spot.
H4rbysAce: Call $5.00
TiltBitchTilt: Fold
chrisvika: Fold
selina2: Call $4.00
*** FLOP *** [6♠ 8♣; J◊;]
selina2: Check
yurika: Bet $13.00
H4rbysAce: Fold
selina2: Allin $24.27
yurika: Call $11.27
*** TURN *** [Q♣;]
*** RIVER *** [Q◊;]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $62.04 Rake $3.00
selina2: Shows [6♣; 6◊;]
yurika: Shows [J♡; A♠]
selina2: wins $62.04
Hold on. Haven't I just played that hand?
And here we have another fine example of an insufficiently large reraise.
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, July 25, 03:11:
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Hero ( $95.50 USD )
Seat 2: sanpok ( $19 USD )
Seat 3: Gunray67 ( $104.06 USD )
Seat 4: sinsyn ( $25.88 USD )
Seat 5: samuraijim ( $109.29 USD )
Seat 6: promyk8212 ( $105.13 USD )
Seat 7: natcat_83 ( $20 USD )
Seat 8: Sashi2P ( $59.63 USD )
Seat 9: LuckCharm13 ( $102.50 USD )
Seat 10: berlinaas ( $121.71 USD )
Hero posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
sanpok posts big blind [$1 USD].
Dealt to Hero [ 9◊; 9♠ ]
Gunray67 folds
sinsyn folds
samuraijim calls [$1 USD]
promyk8212 folds
Sashi2P folds
LuckCharm13 raises (to) [$4 USD]
berlinaas folds
Hero calls [$3.50 USD]
sanpok folds
samuraijim raises (to) [$6 USD]
LuckCharm13 calls [$3 USD]
Hero calls [$3 USD]
I'm well priced-in here, despite being OOP. It's also early morning Party time, so there may well be some serious late-nighters (or moderate late nighteres if they are in Canada)
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7♠, 9♡;, 3♣; ]
Hero checks
samuraijim bets [$8 USD]
LuckCharm13 raises (to) [$21 USD]
Hero raises (to) [$34 USD]
samuraijim calls [$26 USD]
LuckCharm13 calls [$13 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3◊; ]
Hero is all-In [$54.50 USD]
samuraijim calls [$54.50 USD]
LuckCharm13 is all-In [$61.50 USD]
samuraijim calls [$7 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ J♣; ]
Hero shows [ 9◊;, 9♠ ]a full house, Nines full of Threes.
samuraijim shows [ A◊;, A♡; ]two pairs, Aces and Threes.
LuckCharm13 doesn't show [ Q♠, Q♡; ]two pairs, Queens and Threes.
The time at which hand ended:Jul 25 2008 03:13 ET
samuraijim wins $14 USD from the side pot 1 with two pairs, Aces and Threes.
Hero wins $284 USD from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Threes.
If SamuraiJim puts in a raise that denies me 11-to-1 odds (my own personal cut-off – Harrington's 20-1 is ridiculously high, I feel) then I either call and lose money to him in the long run, or fold and give him a heads-up situation. But, those Aces, people hate to take down small pots with them. They'd much rather lose big ones and then moan.
I also returned to slightly more familiar territory in Marks & Sparks, Gap and Next.
What three of these stores have in common (Gap is the creditable exception here) is that, if you are a male shopper for clothes, a visit to the clothes store is a bit like buying hard pornography. Your stuff is tucked away in the hardest part of the store to reach.
Retailers would presumably claim that it's because men don't like to shop, and that women are their bread and butter income. But this is reionforcing. At M&S there is women's clothing on the ground floor and on the first floor. The men's section is up three sets of escalators, parked with "Exchanges and refunds" and "toilets".
At Next, you plough through piles of discarded size 16s (women are not tidy shoppers at sale time) to reach the stairs down to the basement - following a sign saying "Men and Children". Charming. And Next pants are pants, btw.
White Stuff, a brand which I thought was devoted to beach-wearish kind of surfing stuff, must presume that 70% of surfers and beachers are female, because that's the proportion of floor space that they get. And this is in the City, where I think there is still a majority of male employees (albeit only just). The men's section is, once again, tucked out back. And, once again, the staff are stronger on the female clothes than on men's.
It may be coincidence that I bought an awful lot more from Gap than I did from the other three storse, but I somehow don't think so.
+++++++++++++
Is the game up for Brown? The humiliation in Glasgow East, where John Reid was remarkable mainly by his absence in the campaign, must surely make for an uncomfortable Party Conference, and the politickers, who like nothing more than a good conspiracy, with press leaks and the like, have a whle summer to spread rumours. The only thing that can be guaranteed is that Gordon Brown won't be brought down in a bribery scandal. Will there bne a stalking horse challenge? One thing is certain -- Labour is so genuinely fucked coming through to the next election that they must be thankful that their seats are more resilient than the Conservatives in the face of a meltdown. Even last night's result would have left more than 100 Labour members sitting in the House. Although only one of those would be from north of the border (and it wouldn't be Brown). I think we should ask West Lothian about this.
The first two hands occurred within three minutes of each other. When you play more than 10K hands a month, it's fun to see what odd coincidences occur. How would you feel if you had just begun to play online, and you were sitting at these tables when this happened? Surely the cry of "it's fixed" would be coming from even your mouth?
The final hand illustrates an important point about raises in No Limit. Remember, it's a pricing game. Is your investment likely to realize a profit in the long run? Everything else (the prettiness of your hand, how you feel, and so on), eventually leads to this analysis. Where there is a choice between actions that have a positive EV, things get more complex, especially if a slightly higher EV is accompanied by significantly higher volatility. However, in the case mentioned at the bottom below, these complexities do not apply.
Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1 25-Jul-2008 11:34:51
Seat 1: Another Donk ($122.38 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero ($88.50 in chips)
Seat 4: SKYWALKER75 ($34.91 in chips)
Seat 5: hupenolaf ($158.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 6: sangiacomo ($79.38 in chips)
Seat 7: JoNNyGilBert0 ($135.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Cat26 ($70.45 in chips)
Seat 10: Nehalennia79 ($100.00 in chips)
sangiacomo: Post SB $0.50
JoNNyGilBert0: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [6◊; 6♠]
Cat26: Fold
Nehalennia79: Fold
Another Donk: Raise (NF) $3.00
Hero: Call $3.00
SKYWALKER75: Raise (NF) $5.00
hupenolaf: Fold
sangiacomo: Fold
JoNNyGilBert0: Fold
Another Donk: Call $2.00
Hero: Call $2.00
Skywalker only has $35 in chips, but his $2 reraise is woefully inadequate.. Indeed, it's so inadequate that one would be tempted to peg him with Aces. But, it doesn't matter what he haas to me. If I hit a set I'm going for it and if I miss, I'm gone. In addition, the guy seems a bit too loose and heavily stacked for the mini-raise indicates Aces play.
$16 in the pot.
*** FLOP *** [6♡; J♣; 2♣;]
Another Donk: Check
Hero: Check
You can normally predict what's going to happen here.
SKYWALKER75: Bet $29.91
And it does.
Another Donk: Raise (NF) $117.38
Oh, but that came as a bit of a surprise. Would he have done this with a higher set? Not if he was any good. Still , no matter.
Hero: Allin $83.50
*** TURN *** [2♡;]
*** RIVER *** [7◊;]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $244.29 Rake $3.00
Another Donk: Shows [A♠ J◊;]
SKYWALKER75: Shows [K◊; 6♣;]
Another Donk: wins $33.88
Hero: wins $210.41
And then this happened.
GAME #1087628720: Texas Hold'em NL $0.50/$1 25-Jul-2008 11:39:00
Seat 1: Hero ($94.50 in chips)
Seat 2: H4rbysAce ($102.00 in chips) DEALER
Seat 4: TiltBitchTilt ($56.35 in chips)
Seat 5: chrisvika ($46.00 in chips)
Seat 7: selina2 ($29.27 in chips)
Seat 9: Cat26 ($69.20 in chips)
Seat 10: yurika ($110.23 in chips)
TiltBitchTilt: Post SB $0.50
chrisvika: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [T◊; T♣;]
selina2: Call $1.00
Cat26: Fold
yurika: Raise (NF) $5.00
Hero: Fold
Many would criticise this fold, and it's very marginal. Raiser is tightish and the size of his raise tends to indicate JJ/QQ. Whatever he has, my TT effectively became a medium pair. If I flat call I've got a lot of players behind me who might wake up with a reraising hand. I'm being offered 18-1 and if I was on the button I'd be calling here. If I was confident that the players behind me were loose-passive I'd be similarly inclined. But this table has looked fairly tight. I don't think that the odds are there for me in this spot.
H4rbysAce: Call $5.00
TiltBitchTilt: Fold
chrisvika: Fold
selina2: Call $4.00
*** FLOP *** [6♠ 8♣; J◊;]
selina2: Check
yurika: Bet $13.00
H4rbysAce: Fold
selina2: Allin $24.27
yurika: Call $11.27
*** TURN *** [Q♣;]
*** RIVER *** [Q◊;]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $62.04 Rake $3.00
selina2: Shows [6♣; 6◊;]
yurika: Shows [J♡; A♠]
selina2: wins $62.04
Hold on. Haven't I just played that hand?
And here we have another fine example of an insufficiently large reraise.
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, July 25, 03:11:
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Hero ( $95.50 USD )
Seat 2: sanpok ( $19 USD )
Seat 3: Gunray67 ( $104.06 USD )
Seat 4: sinsyn ( $25.88 USD )
Seat 5: samuraijim ( $109.29 USD )
Seat 6: promyk8212 ( $105.13 USD )
Seat 7: natcat_83 ( $20 USD )
Seat 8: Sashi2P ( $59.63 USD )
Seat 9: LuckCharm13 ( $102.50 USD )
Seat 10: berlinaas ( $121.71 USD )
Hero posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
sanpok posts big blind [$1 USD].
Dealt to Hero [ 9◊; 9♠ ]
Gunray67 folds
sinsyn folds
samuraijim calls [$1 USD]
promyk8212 folds
Sashi2P folds
LuckCharm13 raises (to) [$4 USD]
berlinaas folds
Hero calls [$3.50 USD]
sanpok folds
samuraijim raises (to) [$6 USD]
LuckCharm13 calls [$3 USD]
Hero calls [$3 USD]
I'm well priced-in here, despite being OOP. It's also early morning Party time, so there may well be some serious late-nighters (or moderate late nighteres if they are in Canada)
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7♠, 9♡;, 3♣; ]
Hero checks
samuraijim bets [$8 USD]
LuckCharm13 raises (to) [$21 USD]
Hero raises (to) [$34 USD]
samuraijim calls [$26 USD]
LuckCharm13 calls [$13 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3◊; ]
Hero is all-In [$54.50 USD]
samuraijim calls [$54.50 USD]
LuckCharm13 is all-In [$61.50 USD]
samuraijim calls [$7 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ J♣; ]
Hero shows [ 9◊;, 9♠ ]a full house, Nines full of Threes.
samuraijim shows [ A◊;, A♡; ]two pairs, Aces and Threes.
LuckCharm13 doesn't show [ Q♠, Q♡; ]two pairs, Queens and Threes.
The time at which hand ended:Jul 25 2008 03:13 ET
samuraijim wins $14 USD from the side pot 1 with two pairs, Aces and Threes.
Hero wins $284 USD from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Threes.
If SamuraiJim puts in a raise that denies me 11-to-1 odds (my own personal cut-off – Harrington's 20-1 is ridiculously high, I feel) then I either call and lose money to him in the long run, or fold and give him a heads-up situation. But, those Aces, people hate to take down small pots with them. They'd much rather lose big ones and then moan.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 04:06 pm (UTC)I utterly despise socialism and its top down approach to life.
Promising to make Kings and Queens out of all of us with no understanding for how the world really works, resulting in dragging us all into the gutter.
A vile government with Blair as a facade. As soon as he goes we see it for what it is. Gay marriage is its only "success".
Nice hands. Does Mr Bun trump a full-house?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-26 08:15 am (UTC)Ludicous statement in modern politics. Besides which, this governement is hardly socialist. Modern politics is about personalities, thats how people vote these days, a la USA. Labour look tired, bankrupt of ideas, they need to go. Today's problems are in the main global, which doesn't save them in the present, but will in the future.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-26 07:59 pm (UTC)I agree with you completely. Labour will get hammered and deservedly so, but that does not mean the Tories are in for a generation.
What might make that possible however is the Scottish situation. The Scot Nats are doing so well up there that there is a serious chance that they would win a vote on independence that would lose Labour any prospect of MPs at Westminster from north of the border. Should that occur (and I'm tempted to put a few bob on it) then the only way the Tories could be defeated at Westminster would be via a Lib/Lab deal. Politics could get very interesting.
Brian
What should we do about Gordon
Date: 2008-07-28 08:17 am (UTC)But then if you see it in these Machiavellian terms, now might be the only time for some of these 30/40-something kids. Is it better to win the leadership, lose the election and dig in for 2013/14? Or to bide your time waiting for a somewhat more crowded field of candidates in 2009/10? Interesting times.
I must admit I find it distressing to have to describe Jack Straw as a has-been, a man who I remember well as president of the NUS, not quite contemporary to me, but near as damn it. What does that make me?
GOMs
Date: 2008-07-28 08:31 pm (UTC)http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/groovy-old-men-the-rise-of-the-silver-swingers-878567.html
Any self recognition?!
James D
Re: GOMs
Date: 2008-07-28 09:06 pm (UTC)I'm also a 34-inch waist, although I ought to be a 32.
PJ
Re: What should we do about Gordon
Date: 2008-07-29 08:34 am (UTC)I think that you misjudge the character of politicians. I've never met one who genuinely wanted to win who would say (and mean it) "I don't want the leadership this time round, because we are bound to lose".
One reason is that all potential leaders have an ego so large that they believe thatthey can perform a miraculous turnround where all others would fail.
A second is that, if expectations are so low, even a defeat might not be the end of the world. Kinnock, for example, got two shots.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2012-11-04 03:26 pm (UTC)