Muttroxia

Last night I knocked out a player who was so stunned at how it went down he couldn’t talk for ten minutes. And if I had been in his shoes I would have felt the same way. But from where I stood, it was a perfectly logical sequence of events.

Readers: Did I play this right, or did I just get extremely lucky?

I was playing loose. I bluffed a lot. I showed my bluff cards a few times also. I was having fun, but also hoping to set up that big play where my huge raise with premium cards would be discounted and get callers.

I had a stack of 6,000 or so, a bit above average. I was dealt 9-3 offsuit as dealer.

Preflop:
Everyone folded to me and the blinds. Sure I only had 9-3, but I raised the blinds from 200 to 600, hoping to steal. It was certainly an aggressive play, but not crazy, right? The small blind folded. The big blind thought about it, and re-raised, up to 1,200. What to do?

I had no read on him, but he could certainly be re-raising with nothing. I would be getting a good return on my money (calling 600 to win 2,500). And I have a feeling that I can push him out after the flop with a continuation bet. Certainly this is not an obvious play, to call him with total junk. But I don’t think it’s crazy either. I called.

The flop:
The flop is 9-7-4 (or something very similar). I have top pair. I am still planning a big continuation bet, hoping to push him out. But he beats me to the punch, with a healthy bet of 2,000.

But I think I have the best hand. Very roughly speaking – he either has an overpair (I have 5 outs, about a 20% chance of pulling it out), he has two high cards (I’m favored at about 75%), or he has junk (I’m heavily favored). I am mostly worried that he had junk and got luckier than me, he could have 7-4 or a straight draw or something. I also think that even if he has pocket 10s or something similar, an all-in bet might make him fold. I would be showing a consistent story of premium cards that he might have to respect.

I go all-in, another 3,200 or so on top. He moans, and grudgingly calls. He turns over A-K. He did have premium cards. But he doesn’t pair up, and I win the hand to knock him out. He is understandably incredulous that I called his pre-flop raise with 9-3.

So, readers, am I just a stupid player with a lot of luck, or did I take reasonable chances and get a little lucky along the way?

It’s hard to believe that anyone would go out on a limb like this, for all to see:

That ought to create some buzz!

Dream girlfriend… one day will become a wife

18th century ship found at Ground Zero site

Sad stormtrooper

That it is a man who just doesn’t care

The sequel to World War I was just ridiculous

Nice resume, but…

I never thought about sacrifice quite this way

Incredible superhero CGI. Why go to the movies?

Common Cause

Scott meets Family Circus

Mila’s dreams: A mother stages what she thinks her infant daughter is dreaming about

A potentially disturbing question (must read all the way to the end)

Interesting Car Wrecks

Sledgehammer and Whore

Ninja Ball Girl

Pac Man

People who bought Jon and Kate also bought…

Hauser’s Law: No matter the tax rate, tax revenue is about 20% of revenue

At the kickoff meeting of a new project I witnessed a depressingly common phenomenon. The useless business introduction. Since some of us didn’t know each other, we went around the room introducing ourselves.

“Frankie Bellomer, Marketing.”
“Jackie Bouillabaisse.”
“Alex Alexis, IT.”
etc…

This is next to useless. How about something about what you do, or what role you play in the project?

“I’m Frankie Bellomer. I’m going to driving the final look and feel of this, as well as aligning it with our other marketing pieces.”
“Jackie Bouillabaisse, Product. I’ll be figuring out exactly what this thing does, similar to project so-and-so.”
“Alex Alexis. My team will actually build the product, so I’m here to make sure the specs are technically possible.”
etc…

In a few of these meetings I’ve ignored convention and explained who I am, with the idea that someone who doesn’t know me might actually get some useful information. But since no one else does it, I mostly look like an egotistical blowhard.

WordPress’s latest update includes this theme, which the developers seem very proud of it. I’ll try it out for a while.

It took us a solid week to track it down from the phrase or two we remembered.

We could have sworn it was a French woman singing it. Whoops!

PhD Challenge

There’s no ninja like an office ninja

Gods feelin’ happy

Life before Google

He wore just the wrong Eagle shirt

My kind of cat

Contra vs Tetris

Calvin and Jobs

“Love is like a water park”

Zach Anner fooling around with Dennis Quaid. If you’re not familiar with Zach, he’s a comedian with cerebral palsy.

The new i-phone

Watch a deaf 8-year-old hear for the first time.

Another great roommate

Future warn past

Defiance

Needed: An Apple douchebag

Tragic

Weightlifter tries to squat 1008 lbs., projectile vomits on judge, passes out

Bon Voyage y’all!

See if you can balance the budget. I got it done by 2020, but I would never get re-elected.

The loss of Perkins is big. I put the Celtics chances at 40%.

Halftime Update: Okay, maybe 50%! I love a good defensive struggle. And it’s nice that the refs haven’t made any egregious calls.

Nothing goes out of style in Japan

The University of television

Ozzy Osbourne scares people at the wax museum

Proofreading

I’m not going to cry

Kobe reacting to Chris Rock

Passport rejection

A personal letter from Steve Martin

Ridiculous overreactions by sports parents

Who’s at the door HoverCat?

That newspaper article seems kind of familiar…

Luckiest bike rider

Scarred for life

Non-handicapped woman gets ticketed for using handicapped space. Sues city, because her poor arm hurt.

Monsters

What evidence?

Fan catches baseball in beer cup, chugs it and balances ball.

Inspiration from Bruce Lee

Dream marriage.

Want ads: Unemployed are not eligible. Unbelievable.

A handful of nice nice nice reviews of Sex and the City 2.

Now that is a crater

Very neat paint commercial

How laws get made, modern edition

The cancerous impact of smoking: Every 3 cigarettes is a genetic mutation

It’s been over 10 years, but I still get sad thinking about Peanuts ending. Charles Schulz died on the same day his last strip was published.

Increasing numbers of homeowners figure instead of fighting foreclosure, they should just maximize the time they can live rent free. The average foreclosure takes 438 days to finalize, 14 months of zero rent rent.

Screw ’em all. You signed the loan papers. The bank didn’t force a pen in your hand. Maybe they were deceptive, but maybe they weren’t. Maybe you were an idiot. Being an idiot isn’t good. And now you’ve decided to go a step further, and just be a liar and a cheater.

It may be a rational step for some, but you can’t feel good about the ridiculous logic and complete lack of morality. The featured couple in the article is taking weekend trips and hitting the casino.

But the couple also refinanced at the height of the market, taking out cash to buy a truck they used as a contest prize for their hired animal trappers. It was a stupid move by their lender, according to Mr. Pemberton. “They went outside their own guidelines on debt to income,” he said. “And when they did, they put themselves in jeopardy.”

Did they really say it was a stupid move by their lender!? How delusional do you have to be to think that? It was a stupid move by you! And you don’t get to throw out a deal because you think the other side shouldn’t have offered it. Too late. The time to bring that up was before you shook hands.

If it was just between the borrowers and lenders I would care so much. But it’s not. My tax money is subsidizing all this garbage. The people who bought houses they could afford don’t get government money. We get higher tax bills to bail out all the morons. Fantastic.