Snow Blind

Pick me up and put me on the ground
Set me up and spin me all around
–Live

Even if the data is inconsequential. Ok, so I haven’t had as much time as I would like to play this month. In fact, there were only about 3 days that I have played at all. So sums up to 423 hands for a profit of ::drumroll:: $12.98.

My first session had a horrible run where I just couldn’t drag down a pot. I had a run of almost 100 hands where it seemed I couldn’t win a pot. That happens sometimes though. Oh well. I’m just glad that most of the stars players seem to have the poker aptitude of your average chicken with their heads cut off. The don’t seem to do anything for any rhyme or reason. Even with my bad skid there at the beginning of the month, I’m beating the game there for a winrate of 16.5 ptbb/100. Again, over a small sample size, but the play is much different here than at FTP and I think I can take advantage of that.

If I keep this up, my next review from any substantial amount of hands should look pretty good. I might even hit my 10ptbb/100 mark I was hoping to hit. I do have to try and finish up a bonus I’ve had lingering there that will be expiring at the end of June, so you should expect me to be somewhat of a regular at the tables from now until then.

So I’ll leave it with one of my last hands I played for the month. Not tremendously interesting, but does offer a question of how to play these some situations.

Hand 1:
POKERSTARS GAME #10206163332: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) – 2007/05/31 – 21:00:45 (ET)
Table ‘Sibylla V’ 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: xoohmymoshxo ($48.20 in chips)
Seat 2: donnyaceman ($45.15 in chips)
Seat 3: x cool guy ($32.95 in chips)
Seat 4: blt_page ($72.70 in chips)
Seat 5: dingonater ($50 in chips)
Seat 6: MaAnthony ($50.20 in chips)
MaAnthony: posts small blind $0.25
xoohmymoshxo: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [7♠ 8♠]
donnyaceman: folds
x cool guy: folds
blt_page: folds
dingonater: raises $1.50 to $2
MaAnthony: calls $1.75
xoohmymoshxo: folds
*** FLOP *** [8♦ Q♣ 3♥]
MaAnthony: checks
dingonater: bets $3.50
MaAnthony: calls $3.50
*** TURN *** [8♦ Q♣ 3♥] [K♣]
MaAnthony: checks
dingonater: checks
*** RIVER *** [8♦ Q♣ 3♥ K♣] [2♠]
MaAnthony: checks

I’m not even gonna taint it with results. Here is the situation. I’m out of position with a decent drawing hand and I hit the flop. I could bet out and get raised or called by a hand that beats me and chase off the continuation bet from a hand that likely missed. Instead I decided to check/call it. The bad part of this type of play is that is gives me little information and then another over card hits the turn. I need to check it hear I think since a lead out would look super suspicious. He checked behind so I have to figure he missed and here is where the question comes in. Do I lead out on the river risking getting raised by a big hand that slow played the turn in hopes to chase out Jacks or Tens or do I do yet another check/call hoping that a totally whiffed hand takes another stab at it? As you can see, I went the check/call route, but is that play have any more merit than leading out? I tend to do both fairly evenly, I think, and I’m not sure there is a big difference between the ev of either play, but I would like to know what other people think.

The WSOP starts tomorrow and the only extent I will be enjoying it is with a fantasy league that is just for fun. I do know a lot of people who are gonna try and gain entries for the lower buy in events and some that are gonna buy in outright into some events too. So good luck to emmasdad, hard2tel, xaston, gadzooks and all the others that are gonna take a shot.

I don’t really have much to complain about since I didn’t really even take a shot at getting a seat. I don’t recall a single satellite I played to get in. It just wasn’t a good year to try and do it. There is always next year and hopefully the online poker outlook will be better then too.

I’m gonna run, I’m gonna win
I’m gonna do what I need to do
’cause it’s time to be what I need to be
It’s time to be what I need to be
You can’t tell me what to do anymore
You can’t tell me what to do anymore
Now I’m free, now I’m free, now I’m free
–VAST

So there I was, downloading some Kooks song from the iTunes music store this morning (why? cause it was free, so get off my back) and I get inquired about an iTunes Plus format. Plus? Sure. Plus sounds better, so then I do some research on it. Apparently today Apple is releasing the service for a small amount more per song to have higher quality DRM-free songs. The big part of that statement is DRM-free.

People have been harassing Steve Jobs for a while now cause they thought the statements he was making that if he could release songs without a DRM, he would. They have been criticizing him thinking it was a safe sales pitch he was making behind the guise that his hands were tied and there wasn’t any control he had over it. Well, from what it appears, he has put his money where his mouth is.

For me, this isn’t a terribly big deal. I have our music on my wife’s computer, my music on my computer (which I had to authorize) and my wife’s iPod (which really has migrated to our family iPod). I will probably get another iPod if I can get enough points at a poker site to get one, but even then, I will still be within the bounds of the DRM license.

What this does do, though, is take away one of the biggest criticizations the iTunes music library has. When I would here tech podcasts complain review iTunes in the past, it would usually boil down to that. So now what are they gonna bitch about? I’m sure they will find something. That’s what critics do, they criticize. Look, it’s even in their title.

This still seems to directly influence me very little since our usage falls well within the bounds of the DRM. My only motivation at the moment to pay .30 more a song would be some additional music quality but I really haven’t had much of an issue with the current quality. Still way better than the cassette tape deck that is in my car. But should I change my mind down the line, it seems they have my butt covered there too. From what I’ve read, they are gonna allow you to update your library or certain songs by paying the difference from your current purchases. It really seems that Apple is trying it’s hardest to meet the needs of their customers. A good mark for a company to have.

Amy: what does IC mean
Me: I see
Amy: ah
Me: like OIC
Me: Oh, I see
Me: noob
Amy: stop talking computer code

I want to hold you
Protect you from all of the things I’ve already endured
I want to show you
Show you all of the things that this life has in store for you
I’ll always love you
The way that a father should love his daughter
Sweet Zoe Jane….
–Staind

Today is Zoe’s 1st birthday. We had the official birthday today. We had a party with Amy’s sister and parents yesterday. So she really got two parties, but being just turning 1, didn’t really understand any significance for the day. That doesn’t mean she didn’t enjoy herself. That she did.

Amy planned a bath themed party with individual little blue cakes with rubber duckies on them. They were good, and cute, but also a lot of work. Amy almost regretted having such a good plan for the party since it was so much work.

All the kids seem to have a good time, but it was obvious that, at least our kids, were getting tired from the long weekend and it was obviously showing. The big plans for the weekend are over and I think we will be able to slow down tomorrow for Memorial Day.

I’m sacking the man
cause the man is a thief
I’m kicking the plan
before the plan kicks me
I’m gonna get me
Get me out of here
–Jet

I played a bit of what started out a bit strange. There were 13 hands before we saw a flop. I don’t ever recall that ever happening with me. It went a little something like this.

AtlFalcon28: posts small blind $0.25
MaAnthony: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [4♦ K♦]
Supwithbates: raises $1.50 to $2
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates collected $1.25 from pot

MaAnthony: posts small blind $0.25
Supwithbates: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [6♣ 5♥]
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: raises $1.50 to $2
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates: folds
AtlFalcon28 collected $1.25 from pot

Supwithbates: posts small blind $0.25
Thomas_Key: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [3♣ J♥]
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key collected $0.50 from pot
Thomas_Key: doesn’t show hand

Thomas_Key: posts small blind $0.25
Klaraku: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [5♠ 6♠]
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: raises $1.50 to $2
Supwithbates: calls $2
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: raises $6 to $8
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates: folds
Klaraku collected $6.25 from pot
Klaraku: doesn’t show hand

I really thought about calling here, but 2 things stopped me. One, we hadn’t seen a flop and I wasn’t sure how any one would play postflop. Two, we hadn’t seen a flop which means everyone was playing pretty conservatively. At a minimum, Klaraku had AK and likely had a good pair. Three, everyone seemed to be playing conservatively so I couldn’t expect supwithbates calling to give me better odds. He took plenty of time to call my raise and instafolded after I folded.

Klaraku: posts small blind $0.25
matematyk: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [K♦ T♦]
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: raises $1.50 to $2
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: folds
MaAnthony collected $1.25 from pot
MaAnthony: doesn’t show hand

matematyk: posts small blind $0.25
AtlFalcon28: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [A♣ Q♣]
MaAnthony: raises $1.50 to $2
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony collected $1.25 from pot
MaAnthony: doesn’t show hand

I thought someone would get sick of my raises and play with me, but no one did. This reaffirmed my thought that I shouldn’t need to call in situations with my 56s because I was getting little resistance to my preflop raises.

AtlFalcon28: posts small blind $0.25
MaAnthony: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [K♥ 7♥]
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: raises $1.50 to $2
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: folds
Thomas_Key collected $1.25 from pot
Thomas_Key: doesn’t show hand

MaAnthony: posts small blind $0.25
Supwithbates: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [5♦ K♠]
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
matematyk: raises $1.50 to $2
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates: folds
matematyk collected $1.25 from pot
matematyk: doesn’t show hand

Supwithbates: posts small blind $0.25
Thomas_Key: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [7♦ A♠]
Klaraku: raises $1.50 to $2
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku collected $1.25 from pot

I thought about calling here, but did I really want to see what would happen post flop with a crappy ace even if I was in position? Maybe. I chose to wait.

Thomas_Key: posts small blind $0.25
Klaraku: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [3♦ 8♠]
matematyk: folds
AtlFalcon28: raises $0.50 to $1
MaAnthony: folds
matematyk leaves the table
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
AtlFalcon28 collected $1.25 from pot

Klaraku: posts small blind $0.25
AtlFalcon28: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [J♣ 7♥]
MaAnthony: folds
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: raises $1.50 to $2
Klaraku: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
Thomas_Key collected $1.25 from pot
Thomas_Key: doesn’t show hand

AtlFalcon28: posts small blind $0.25
MaAnthony: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [T♣ T♦]
Supwithbates: folds
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
AtlFalcon28: calls $0.25
MaAnthony: raises $1.50 to $2
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony collected $1 from pot
MaAnthony: doesn’t show hand

I thought this would be a decent opportunity to see a flop, but no.

MaAnthony: posts small blind $0.25
Supwithbates: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MaAnthony [Q♠ J♠]
Thomas_Key: folds
Klaraku: folds
AtlFalcon28: folds
MaAnthony: raises $1.50 to $2
Supwithbates: calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [3♠ 7♦ 7♠]
MaAnthony: bets $3
Supwithbates: folds
MaAnthony collected $3.80 from pot
MaAnthony: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4 | Rake $0.20
Board [3♠ 7♦ 7♠]
Seat 2: AtlFalcon28 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: MaAnthony (small blind) collected ($3.80)
Seat 4: Supwithbates (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Thomas_Key folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: Klaraku folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

MaAnthony said, “holy crap, was that a flop?”

It was a strange series of hands and I hadn’t ever been in a situation like this at a ring game. Tournament, yes, but not a ring game. What do you do when you want to get information on people, but aren’t really getting an opportunity? Do you call with a marginal hand in position? Suited connectors and hope to hit?

I chose to be content playing a preflop game since no one seemed to be giving me much resistance and I was picking up my fair share of blinds. I ended up $.30 over these 13 hands but if I would have played a bit more aggressive in position, I might have done better.

A few hands later, some of the tighter players left and a more aggressive bunch moved in which totally changed the dynamic of the table to something I was more accustomed to. I just thought it was an odd series I wanted to share.