Month: June 2009

Our group is doing a Tournament of Champions this year. Each week a little money is pulled out of the prize pool. The top players each week get a few points, and you get a point for showing up. After 15 weeks, the top 8 players will have a winner-take-all tournament for the winnings and monster bragging rights. The starting stacks will be partially determined by how many points you accumulate during the year. You can follow my progress over here.

Also, nine months ago I was calling out Klaus as a terrible player and using a ridiculous hand we played as a perfect example of being Hellmuth’d. I said, “He’s a nice guy and will probably be a good player when he gets through paying his dues. I intend to be his dues in the meantime”. I’m updating to say that Klaus has payed a lot of dues and has improved his game a lot. He’s still in the bottom half of our group, but he is a legitimate player now.

The omens were horrible. I had been battling Montezuma’s Revenge all day. I untwisted the front wheel of my bike to ride it to the poker game and the entire brake caliper snapped in half. Not good omens at all.

I was determined to play tight. I didn’t play many pots. I didn’t have to show my cards during the first 90 minutes or so. Everyone was folding before me. That was nice, since I never got premium cards. I found myself with a small lead.

With blinds at 100-200, the player to my left raises to 500. There is one caller. Then an all-in bet of 1850. I look down and see pocket kings. O my, I couldn’t ask for a better time! I call. His pocket queens don’t hold up, and I find myself almost 3,000 richer. I felt bad for him, he made absolutely the right play, just happened to run into kings at the wrong time.

Blinds at 200-400. It’s raised to 1,200. From the big blind I have K-J of clubs, that’s worth calling. The flop has two clubs and nothing else. I decide to push a little (I am the big stack after all) and throw in another 1,200. It’s called. The turn is a blank. I check. He goes all in with his remaining 2,300. Seeing as how any ace or board pair beats me, I am probably behind. I figure I have 15 outs on the river: 3 kings, 3 jacks, and 9 clubs. That’s 30-35%. Plus there’s the chance that the other guy is bluffing. It costs me 2,300 to get back over 7K. With the pot odds on my side I call. He has an ace. The river is another club, I get my flush and knock him out. Note to self: That’s a bad beat in my favor!

Blinds at 400-800, we’re down to 4 players. At this point any ace is a good hand. With A-7, I raise to 1,800. The next guy goes all-in. I reluctantly fold.
The very next hand I have A-4, I again raise to 1,800. This time he calls. The flop is A-10-7, he goes all-in. I don’t know what to do. It feels like he’s pushing me around, but there are a lot of hands that can beat me. I call. He has A-Q and it holds up. It’s lucky I was the big stack. That hands knocks me way down, but I’m still in it.

I don’t remember a lot of the rest. I got some good cards and some good reads and some good luck and made my way back to the lead. We eventually get back to heads up at 1,000-2,000 (there’s 35,000 chips in play). On the very hand I call his all-in with Q-J and get knocked down to about 12K. I fight back a little. But it’s 11:45. We’re exhausted. We have to close up the pool and we have work the next day. He offers a chop, with him getting an extra $10 on top. I agree.

Tonight: $70
Running Total: I haven’t put this up lately because it’s so depressing. I figure with this win I’m somewhere around -$50. I’m going to use that.

I was folding laundry for the kids. Because it was slowing me down so much I noticed that most of the shirts were inside out. Why is that? Is there any reason they should all be inside out? What are the odds of this happening randomly. Time to run some numbers.

33 shirts
24 or them inside out.
Probability of that (or worse happening)?

Two-tenths of one percent.

Conclusion: My kids hate me.

Skydyne tech support emails

Stupid crook of the month

The one thing duct tape won’t work on.

Book review

Beatles Rockband is here

Superhero economics. Really. How come as soon as someone in the comics gets rich, they buy some crazy suit and start trying to destroy or save the world? Clearly having five million dollars makes you insane. And how long would it take The Flash and few others to rebuild the World Trade Center? Why doesn’t anyone go into construction?

Body intake and output diagram

A brief animated history of weed

This should make George Bush’s head explode

Iowa marks the birthplace of it’s best-known citizen. 200 years before it happens.

If you like tennis…

I may never stop using this music tool

Pixar vs the Rest. What an incredible run.

Google’s economist

Photos that changed the world. I can tell I’m a parent, the pictures of children make my heart stop.

Geography and the economy: The Jared Diamond style perspective on the recession

Store owner gives robber $40 and bread, robber breaks down.

(We have a Power Wheels Jeep we bought at a yard sale a couple years ago. The battery died recently. It wouldn’t take a recharge. We bought a new battery. They’ve been driving it around all morning.)

Him: Dad, we stopped using the Jeep.
Me: Why?
Him: We didn’t want to waste the battery. We want to save it for later!
Me: Oh. That’s good thinking. But you know, the battery doesn’t need to be saved. You can use it all day. If the battery runs out we can recharge it overnight.
Him: ?
Me: Okay. You know how batteries run out, right? When this runs out, we plug it into the wall with a special tool called a “recharger”, and that gives it new energy.
Him: Why didn’t we do that for the old battery then?
Me: Good question. We did. But each time we recharge it, it comes back just a little bit less than it did before. So if you use it enough times recharging doesn’t do very much. We used it so many times that it was all used up. That’s why we needed to buy a new battery.
Him: Oh! But we don’t use it very much.
Me: Sure you do. We’ve had it for two years. And don’t forget that Mom bought it from another kid. So there’s all the times he used it also. That’s a lot, right?
Him: What? I thought we got it from Santa!
Me: Um… what?
Him: We got it for Christmas one year, don’t you remember?
Me: Really? Are you sure?
Him: Dad! Yes! It was in our driveway at Christmas! Santa brought it!
Me: Uh.. I’m not sure about that. Anyhow, why don’t you go play on it some more.
Him: Okay (going down stairs) but we really did get it at Christmas.
Me: [weakly] Well, maybe Santa got it from the other kid.
Him: Dad! Why would Santa need to steal a Jeep!!!??
Me: Okay. You win. Go outside and play.

In the early going I min-raise in with A-9. Only one other caller. The flop is K-J-7. I bet a couple hundred and he calls. I figure he has K-x. The turn is an A. I figure I have him beat. I have him read as K-x. Now my Aces beat his Kings. I put in a couple more hundred and he calls. The river is a blank. I put in 500. He comes over the top with 1000. Oh man, he can’t have K-A can he? Or any other two pair? I have to call. He turns over pocket 7s. His set takes me down. I never saw it coming. I really thought I had the correct read. Short-stacked, I get knocked out quickly and rebuy.

I played A-9 four times and lost every single time. The fifth time I decided to play conservative and fold it. The flop was 9-9-x. Sigh!!

I played well the next two hours. I have a below average, but not super small stack in the final eight players. I am playing tight. The blinds are at 200-400. The player under the gun pushes in to 1000. I look down at Ad-Qd. I go all in with 2,350. To my suprise a third player calls as well as the 1,000 bettor. The flop is A-J-10. I feel pretty good with top pair and a very high kicker. One of the other player goes all in, the third player folds. We flip up our cards. He has K-Q and has flopped the straight, I get knocked out.

I wonder why he called. K-Q is a pretty good hand, but to call a 1,000 better and an all-in with it? It is just me or is that a foolhardy bet that happened to hit?

Postscript: It’s the day after, I’m reviewing in my head. It’s true I’ve gone all in with marginal hands a few times. If it had been just him and me it could be considered a reasonable gamble on his part. However when one player had raised and when I had raised all-in, calling it with K-Q is a bad play. It’s very likely you don’t have the best hand, and you can’t bluff me out when I’m all-in already. It was a bad play by him.

Coincidentally, it was the same guy who had the pocket 7s earlier. Also coincidentally, two hands before K-Q had called an all-in against A-A. Two kings came up on the board. Maybe he just figured K-Q was lucky.