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peterbirksI was writing a week or so ago about this book-swapping concept, whereby you read a book and then leave it somewhere with a note in it, explaining why you have left it, and asking the recipient either to read it and pass it on, or just to pass it on. By such a manner, books have found their way to Moscow, Myanmar, and many another place.
Anyway, I wonder if the same kind of thing applies to scarves, or whether it was a karmic matter. Having lost a scarf in John Lewis a couple of weeks ago, I found one this morning, resting serenely on a railing in Wells Street, in perfect condition, as far as I can see. It was an "Easy & Relax" Hermans Knitting Product, made in Roppongi, Tokyo. Weird.
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These are tough times for online players. After the credit card madness of Christmas, reality bites and the donators reign in their spending. Looking at my stats for the past four years, the two weeks starting around January 3rd have always been hard. Last year was somewhat distorted by the continuation of the Betfair party (I really should have taken more advantage of that at the time than I did -- it's all over now) but the previous two years I sunk to a deficit by the end of the third week of January that took five or more weeks to eradicate.
In that sense, I should be glad to be up this month at all. Yesterday I went to Ultimate Bet to clear off some more of the deposit bonus (this really is knitting at its worst). The most efficient way to do this is at $1-$2 limit. Unfortunately, it looked yesterday as if every other player was just there "to clear the bonus". I've never seen so many passed pots. I got caught a couple of times on semi-steals when the blinds woke up with monsters (just my luck), but struggled back to a win of $6 after an hour or so, at which point, if I had not quit playing, I would have lost the will to breathe. You can get too much of "Birks wins $2.50".
I suspect that I'll have to play at a level where the majority of players are not bonus-clearers, or pick my times rather more carefullly. Wouldn't it be neat if all the great games appeared on different sites at different times? As it is, the good games are all at roughly the same times, meaning that you have to decide where to play when all the games are bad, and work out how this affects the overall win rate. I don't like sticking to just one site all the time (it's boring and it can lead to your game becoming stultified by playing too often against the same type of player) so you have to allocate some time to games where your expected earn might be less than if you were playing elsewhere.
I looked at my stats for the three-tabling session, suspecting that I was playing too weak-tight. To my surprise, I was actually seeing more flops than normal. Similarly, my proportion of winning showdowns was up there where I wanted (perhaps a bit too high). What was bad was the percentage of pots won when I saw the flop. Compared with a target in the region of 40% and a performance this year of 38%, I was looking at something like 20%.
This seemed to indicate that I was being too loose pre-flop and too tight post-flop, avoiding any hands that looked like trouble. That's curable. Just raise even when I have a hunch I should fold (alternatively, fold pre-flop when I think I should call).
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Now, here's something that you don't see every day at 6.40am in Trafalgar Square. So I thought I would take a pic:
The Kremlin (I think), carved in ice.
Anyway, I wonder if the same kind of thing applies to scarves, or whether it was a karmic matter. Having lost a scarf in John Lewis a couple of weeks ago, I found one this morning, resting serenely on a railing in Wells Street, in perfect condition, as far as I can see. It was an "Easy & Relax" Hermans Knitting Product, made in Roppongi, Tokyo. Weird.
++++
These are tough times for online players. After the credit card madness of Christmas, reality bites and the donators reign in their spending. Looking at my stats for the past four years, the two weeks starting around January 3rd have always been hard. Last year was somewhat distorted by the continuation of the Betfair party (I really should have taken more advantage of that at the time than I did -- it's all over now) but the previous two years I sunk to a deficit by the end of the third week of January that took five or more weeks to eradicate.
In that sense, I should be glad to be up this month at all. Yesterday I went to Ultimate Bet to clear off some more of the deposit bonus (this really is knitting at its worst). The most efficient way to do this is at $1-$2 limit. Unfortunately, it looked yesterday as if every other player was just there "to clear the bonus". I've never seen so many passed pots. I got caught a couple of times on semi-steals when the blinds woke up with monsters (just my luck), but struggled back to a win of $6 after an hour or so, at which point, if I had not quit playing, I would have lost the will to breathe. You can get too much of "Birks wins $2.50".
I suspect that I'll have to play at a level where the majority of players are not bonus-clearers, or pick my times rather more carefullly. Wouldn't it be neat if all the great games appeared on different sites at different times? As it is, the good games are all at roughly the same times, meaning that you have to decide where to play when all the games are bad, and work out how this affects the overall win rate. I don't like sticking to just one site all the time (it's boring and it can lead to your game becoming stultified by playing too often against the same type of player) so you have to allocate some time to games where your expected earn might be less than if you were playing elsewhere.
I looked at my stats for the three-tabling session, suspecting that I was playing too weak-tight. To my surprise, I was actually seeing more flops than normal. Similarly, my proportion of winning showdowns was up there where I wanted (perhaps a bit too high). What was bad was the percentage of pots won when I saw the flop. Compared with a target in the region of 40% and a performance this year of 38%, I was looking at something like 20%.
This seemed to indicate that I was being too loose pre-flop and too tight post-flop, avoiding any hands that looked like trouble. That's curable. Just raise even when I have a hunch I should fold (alternatively, fold pre-flop when I think I should call).
++++
Now, here's something that you don't see every day at 6.40am in Trafalgar Square. So I thought I would take a pic:
The Kremlin (I think), carved in ice.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-11 04:44 pm (UTC)Having resolved to get back to my old cash cow, Party SNGs, I've so far (statistically insignificant sample size warning) dropped about $130 at those while making almost the same amount back in cash play. All of it if the occasional Full Tilt $10 bonus drips are factored in. Last night's slightly drunken MTT win pretty much guarantees a reasonable month, particularly when compared to the neither-here-nor-there quarter that preceded it.
Regarding multi-tabling, I wondered how your aggression factors compared to single table play at similar levels? They should be an indicator of whether you ought to be raising more, although I suspect you're right anyway. Two ways to win with a raise...