The main reason I hate flying economy is cause I'm 6'5", and not skinny per se, and not really that social with strangers. So economy tends to be uncomfortable on several levels. I've only ever taken one economy flight overseas, that was when Rachel & I went on our Scotland/England vacation a couple years back (also the only vacation I've ever taken where I didn't stay in hotels, we had friends or family in every locale; surprisingly, it was kind of pleasant). That flight was hellish, and I vowed never again. I'd rather, if faced with the choice, take a third the number of total vacations but fly business class. I mean, as far as long flights go. I don't mind economy for the Vancouver-Salt Lake City jaunt, as one example.
But anyway. There are two main problems with business class. Here they are:
1) It brings out your inner Thurston Howell. I mean, the airlines really stress the caste system they're selling. You get a separate line at check-in (they even attach 'priority' tags to your bags, although I noticed they were gone in Rome). You have a lounge for waiting in (can't be just milling about the airport like the common folk). You load first, even though you're at the front of the plane and generally they load back to front. This creates the slightly awkward 'parade of the lay person' where you sip champagne while the bulk of the passengers dejectedly make their way to the back. It's like you're some kind of sadistic rich fuck and condemned people are being brought by for your amusement.
But anyway, while you feel slightly guilty about this, you also find yourself getting kind of irritated when someone in economy tries to board during the business class boarding period, for example. Which is when you realize the airlines have won. You thought you were just going to get some extra comfort, but they've succeeded in breaking your brain.
2) It brings out your inner Junkhead. ie, you eat (and, okay, drink) pretty much anything. They just keep bringing you stuff, and it feels like a missed opportunity to pass on anything. So man, by the time you hit Hamburg, you feel like total and complete crap. Plus, they hook you up with practically limitless options on the little entertainment system there. So you don't sleep, cause for some reason you just have to watch the Antonio Banderas/Meg Ryan movie that you had never even heard of pre-boarding.
So, yeah, that's business class. You get extra leg room, but you are transformed into a fat, drunk, overtired asshole. Oh well. There's pros and cons to everything.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Observe & Report/European Vacation/Poker Update
OBSERVE & REPORT
Saw it a couple nights ago at the Coquitlam megaplex. I thought it was strange (and not entirely in a good way) but overall worth seeing. Spousal unit didn't agree so much, although that could have been affected by her sleeping through part of it.
The previews made it look like Paul Blart, Mall Cop Part II. It definitely wasn't that at all. It was much darker, although like Paul Blart it was only occasionally funny. There's a scene where Seth Rogen's mall cop and Ray Liotta's police officer (Rogen's nemesis in the film) are having an exchange in an office, and Liotta's partner is hiding in the closet to hear it go down. After a couple minutes, he steps out of the closet and leaves the office, saying something like "I thought this was going to be funny, but it's just kind of sad". It's not too much of a stretch to say that quote summarizes the whole movie. There's nary a redeemable character to be found (well, perhaps the gal who gives Rogen free coffee and for reasons unbeknownst to the viewer has a fondness for him).
As often is the case in movies of this ilk, the lead character is sufficiently pathetic and delusional that you feel kind of confused if we're rooting for him, or hoping he's locked up before he does any real damage. This isn't helped by the fact that Seth Rogen is a wholly unlikeable lead. I won't say his movies are funny in spite of him, because he is often involved in the writing so clearly he's a funny guy. But I definitely feel his movies are funny in spite of his acting. Which is a weird thing to say, I guess, given that I would consider myself a fan and would go see a movie just cause he's in it. But bottom line is I expect his movies to be good, and I expect him to suck in them.
EUROPEAN VACATION
I would go on and on about Observe & Report, but I've gotta keep this relatively short. The town car is do outside the building lobby in about seven hours to take us to the airport. A day of travel will get us to Rome, where we're renting a car and tolling about for a while. Eventually a flight down to Marrakesh and then a ferry across the Mediterranean for a week in Spain. I'm real excited, I'll let you know how it goes. The wife makes fun of me for my inclination towards ordering cars, as opposed to calling a cab. But I'll tell you, it's practically a negligible price difference and it's much better on a few different levels. No brainer, if you ask me. You should check it out.
POKER UPDATE
Good thing results don't matter, cause I've been getting positively kicked in the teeth the last few days. As a matter of fact, I hit my bench mark for dropping down to exclusively 100NL. Even though it'd be easy enough to reload, I really don't want to, so I'm sticking to those guidelines. I need to win ten buy-ins at 100NL before I mix in the 200NL again. That can happen super quick, but so far I'm down at the 100NL too. It does really drive home the results not mattering, thing, tho. Because I feel way better about my game then I did when I was on the 21-session winning streak. Especially towards the end of it, I felt a little out of control, compelled to play longer than I should (and to chase losses), and my game was slowly loosening up (which is a tell tale sign of trouble for me). The last few sessions I have focussed on playing my tightest game. I'm a full 5% lower in VPIP than I was last week. I don't necessarily think that's ideal, but I like the feeling of having a target range and then being right in that range.
It's odd how good I feel about the pokers right now. For some reason, I can accept the variance and the streaks easier when I'm losing then when I'm winning. Of course, if I had my druthers, I'd take more uncertainty and the ~$3k back in my roll. But for now I'll have to settle for the certainty.
Saw it a couple nights ago at the Coquitlam megaplex. I thought it was strange (and not entirely in a good way) but overall worth seeing. Spousal unit didn't agree so much, although that could have been affected by her sleeping through part of it.
The previews made it look like Paul Blart, Mall Cop Part II. It definitely wasn't that at all. It was much darker, although like Paul Blart it was only occasionally funny. There's a scene where Seth Rogen's mall cop and Ray Liotta's police officer (Rogen's nemesis in the film) are having an exchange in an office, and Liotta's partner is hiding in the closet to hear it go down. After a couple minutes, he steps out of the closet and leaves the office, saying something like "I thought this was going to be funny, but it's just kind of sad". It's not too much of a stretch to say that quote summarizes the whole movie. There's nary a redeemable character to be found (well, perhaps the gal who gives Rogen free coffee and for reasons unbeknownst to the viewer has a fondness for him).
As often is the case in movies of this ilk, the lead character is sufficiently pathetic and delusional that you feel kind of confused if we're rooting for him, or hoping he's locked up before he does any real damage. This isn't helped by the fact that Seth Rogen is a wholly unlikeable lead. I won't say his movies are funny in spite of him, because he is often involved in the writing so clearly he's a funny guy. But I definitely feel his movies are funny in spite of his acting. Which is a weird thing to say, I guess, given that I would consider myself a fan and would go see a movie just cause he's in it. But bottom line is I expect his movies to be good, and I expect him to suck in them.
EUROPEAN VACATION
I would go on and on about Observe & Report, but I've gotta keep this relatively short. The town car is do outside the building lobby in about seven hours to take us to the airport. A day of travel will get us to Rome, where we're renting a car and tolling about for a while. Eventually a flight down to Marrakesh and then a ferry across the Mediterranean for a week in Spain. I'm real excited, I'll let you know how it goes. The wife makes fun of me for my inclination towards ordering cars, as opposed to calling a cab. But I'll tell you, it's practically a negligible price difference and it's much better on a few different levels. No brainer, if you ask me. You should check it out.
POKER UPDATE
Good thing results don't matter, cause I've been getting positively kicked in the teeth the last few days. As a matter of fact, I hit my bench mark for dropping down to exclusively 100NL. Even though it'd be easy enough to reload, I really don't want to, so I'm sticking to those guidelines. I need to win ten buy-ins at 100NL before I mix in the 200NL again. That can happen super quick, but so far I'm down at the 100NL too. It does really drive home the results not mattering, thing, tho. Because I feel way better about my game then I did when I was on the 21-session winning streak. Especially towards the end of it, I felt a little out of control, compelled to play longer than I should (and to chase losses), and my game was slowly loosening up (which is a tell tale sign of trouble for me). The last few sessions I have focussed on playing my tightest game. I'm a full 5% lower in VPIP than I was last week. I don't necessarily think that's ideal, but I like the feeling of having a target range and then being right in that range.
It's odd how good I feel about the pokers right now. For some reason, I can accept the variance and the streaks easier when I'm losing then when I'm winning. Of course, if I had my druthers, I'd take more uncertainty and the ~$3k back in my roll. But for now I'll have to settle for the certainty.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Thank Goodness For The Donks
Man, I am playing terrible tonight. Fortunately I have the good sense to be bailing after not too long a session. Just can not focus, calling every three bet and constantly overcalling with hands that would barely be good enough to open with. Just full-on autopilot, not really thinking through anything preflop (even as I write this I have one table open and I just opened with 84s on the button and called the 3-bet).
It is strange to me how I never seem to go on autopilot postflop, although I did make one horrible sort of misclick. I had flopped bottom two in a multiway pot. Fired flop and turn and was c/c'd. River paired the king (which had been high card on the flop), which made my hand near useless. Villain, who stank, made a big bet and I called before focussing on what the river had been. WTF? Might be good to check the board before choosing an action. Turns out he had flopped top two and filled up on the river, so I was drawing extremely thin the whole time. But the river obviously should have saved me money.
Plays like that really make me wonder how it is I make money at poker. And it's obvious. As bad as I am, there are some REALLY bad players out there. In fact, despite all the hand-wringing on certain forums about the toughening of the games, it seems to me like the REALLY bad players are in abundance. They play bad enough to make up for the money I spew to the regs (and sometimes even spew back to the donks), and to make up for the times they suck out, and to make up for the endless stream of rake that's siphoned off all our stacks.
This is all obvious, of course, but I'm just thinking about it tonight because I played about as bad as I'm able but still broke even, thanks mainly to one donk who shoved his full stack anytime he had ANY pair. I stacked him a couple times with marginal hands. Of course, if he had turned or rivered 2p or trips my bottom line's different. But that stuff balances out. In the main, this guy is going to constantly get it in bad. And when he's done, there's someone else coming up behind him to the same thing.
When this particular guy left, I noticed a couple of the reg's instaquit the table. Which kind of surprised me, because, hey, I was still there. I really thought that. Which made me realize I have poor poker self-esteem. If I try to really articulate reasons I think I have an edge in the game, it's very difficult (except to criticize the extreme donks). Articulating my leaks, conversely, comes very easy. Hopefully it's part of whatever success I've had, the fact that I generally think of myself as a lucky fish who manages to get paid off by the worse players more than I do the same for the better players. I don't think it affects my play negatively at all. Indecision or self-doubt are not issues for me at the table. Sometimes I look at my results and allow myself the thought that I couldn't be up over this many hands without some skills. But my main thought on that front is more like, 'if I'm making some cash from this game now, with all my grievous leaks, imagine what it's going to be like when I plug 'em up a bit'. Okay, plug 'em up a lot.
It is strange to me how I never seem to go on autopilot postflop, although I did make one horrible sort of misclick. I had flopped bottom two in a multiway pot. Fired flop and turn and was c/c'd. River paired the king (which had been high card on the flop), which made my hand near useless. Villain, who stank, made a big bet and I called before focussing on what the river had been. WTF? Might be good to check the board before choosing an action. Turns out he had flopped top two and filled up on the river, so I was drawing extremely thin the whole time. But the river obviously should have saved me money.
Plays like that really make me wonder how it is I make money at poker. And it's obvious. As bad as I am, there are some REALLY bad players out there. In fact, despite all the hand-wringing on certain forums about the toughening of the games, it seems to me like the REALLY bad players are in abundance. They play bad enough to make up for the money I spew to the regs (and sometimes even spew back to the donks), and to make up for the times they suck out, and to make up for the endless stream of rake that's siphoned off all our stacks.
This is all obvious, of course, but I'm just thinking about it tonight because I played about as bad as I'm able but still broke even, thanks mainly to one donk who shoved his full stack anytime he had ANY pair. I stacked him a couple times with marginal hands. Of course, if he had turned or rivered 2p or trips my bottom line's different. But that stuff balances out. In the main, this guy is going to constantly get it in bad. And when he's done, there's someone else coming up behind him to the same thing.
When this particular guy left, I noticed a couple of the reg's instaquit the table. Which kind of surprised me, because, hey, I was still there. I really thought that. Which made me realize I have poor poker self-esteem. If I try to really articulate reasons I think I have an edge in the game, it's very difficult (except to criticize the extreme donks). Articulating my leaks, conversely, comes very easy. Hopefully it's part of whatever success I've had, the fact that I generally think of myself as a lucky fish who manages to get paid off by the worse players more than I do the same for the better players. I don't think it affects my play negatively at all. Indecision or self-doubt are not issues for me at the table. Sometimes I look at my results and allow myself the thought that I couldn't be up over this many hands without some skills. But my main thought on that front is more like, 'if I'm making some cash from this game now, with all my grievous leaks, imagine what it's going to be like when I plug 'em up a bit'. Okay, plug 'em up a lot.
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Streak Is Over (Hallelujah)
Two gigs left on this tour. Tomorrow night in San Antonio and Wednesday in Austin. It’s that dichotomous thing where I feel like I’ve been away from home forever, but the tour itself has flown by. Only been three weeks. Hard to believe we used to do 10-week plus tours back in the day. If Rachel could travel with us more I could still knock those down no problem. I have yet to develop any serious issues with hotels or highways. Although I have found some of the long drives a little more tedious than usual this tour, but I think that’s mainly cause I’ve been overtired from playing too much poker.
How much to tour nationally is still a pretty tough question to answer, near impossible. Fact is, our best paying gigs in our strong regions sometimes pay as much as we’ll gross in two full weeks on the road other places. So financially there’s nothing even to discuss. But bottom line is we just like touring nationally. We like seeing new cities, and old friends, and the challenge/sometimes-excitement of not really knowing what the next night’s show is going to be like.
If the new record ends up on a label (the lawyer is about to shop it, and there’s some confidence it will) then I’m sure we’ll keep doing the national tours. The publicity we got from Nettwerk Records (who released the previous two albums) made a big difference. We have surely felt the absence of a national publicist these last weeks. But if it doesn’t, I guess we’ll just carry on what we’re doing. Which is making tour by tour decisions on whether to continue taking on the whole country, hopefully finding some bigger shows to anchor things, and generally carrying on ad infinitum about how hard a decision this is (often times having the discussion while traversing an interstate in Texas, or Florida, or Illinois, or Maryland, or, – well, you get it, right? I don’t need to list any more states, right?)
In poker news, my winning streak crashed to an end after 21 sessions. I booked two straight losing sessions totaling ~7 buy-ins (hard to say exactly cause I’m game selecting from two levels) before recovering about half of it in a third session. Had a fourth session too that was basically break even. (though technically a loser). Those four sessions were spread over about 36 hours in Little Rock, and along with the Saturday morning (felt like Friday night to me, but not to the FullTilt clock) session I wrote about previously I ended up making about $500 in rakeback. Big jump in that department since I started mixing in the 200NL. Will end up at about $700 for the week, which is the biggest for me so far. I’m curious what the extreme multi-table/long session grinders pull out of it. I would think there’s some guys making a couple grand a week, but hard to imagine it could get much past there. Maybe for the high-stakes sit’n’go guys, but I think they’re more on Stars.
Losing the streak was a great relief. I instantly felt more able to focus on the ‘process model’ type of stuff that I think needs to be the basis for my poker career if I want it to be a successful one. Very odd that I knew it was happening, and I knew it was going to keep happening until I booked a loser, and yet it seemed I couldn’t do anything about it. Yet another thing to figure out. As much as I want to not care about results, I’d rather not have a losing session be good news.
How much to tour nationally is still a pretty tough question to answer, near impossible. Fact is, our best paying gigs in our strong regions sometimes pay as much as we’ll gross in two full weeks on the road other places. So financially there’s nothing even to discuss. But bottom line is we just like touring nationally. We like seeing new cities, and old friends, and the challenge/sometimes-excitement of not really knowing what the next night’s show is going to be like.
If the new record ends up on a label (the lawyer is about to shop it, and there’s some confidence it will) then I’m sure we’ll keep doing the national tours. The publicity we got from Nettwerk Records (who released the previous two albums) made a big difference. We have surely felt the absence of a national publicist these last weeks. But if it doesn’t, I guess we’ll just carry on what we’re doing. Which is making tour by tour decisions on whether to continue taking on the whole country, hopefully finding some bigger shows to anchor things, and generally carrying on ad infinitum about how hard a decision this is (often times having the discussion while traversing an interstate in Texas, or Florida, or Illinois, or Maryland, or, – well, you get it, right? I don’t need to list any more states, right?)
In poker news, my winning streak crashed to an end after 21 sessions. I booked two straight losing sessions totaling ~7 buy-ins (hard to say exactly cause I’m game selecting from two levels) before recovering about half of it in a third session. Had a fourth session too that was basically break even. (though technically a loser). Those four sessions were spread over about 36 hours in Little Rock, and along with the Saturday morning (felt like Friday night to me, but not to the FullTilt clock) session I wrote about previously I ended up making about $500 in rakeback. Big jump in that department since I started mixing in the 200NL. Will end up at about $700 for the week, which is the biggest for me so far. I’m curious what the extreme multi-table/long session grinders pull out of it. I would think there’s some guys making a couple grand a week, but hard to imagine it could get much past there. Maybe for the high-stakes sit’n’go guys, but I think they’re more on Stars.
Losing the streak was a great relief. I instantly felt more able to focus on the ‘process model’ type of stuff that I think needs to be the basis for my poker career if I want it to be a successful one. Very odd that I knew it was happening, and I knew it was going to keep happening until I booked a loser, and yet it seemed I couldn’t do anything about it. Yet another thing to figure out. As much as I want to not care about results, I’d rather not have a losing session be good news.
It's All Over Now (Rolling Stones)
Little Steven played it on his satellite radio show this morning (when we were, on an unrelated note, driving through Hope, Arkansas, birthplace of the 42nd president). I tuned in partway through his introduction, but I believe he was saying it was recorded at Chess Studios. He said Muddy Waters helped the Stones carry in their gear.
The track’s got a pretty bad guitar solo. It’s not completely without charm, certainly has youthful exuberance, and I’m sure plenty of Rolling Stone fanboys would argue for it actually being ‘note-perfect’ or some other such nonsense. But I couldn’t help but think of the swagger and assuredness the regular Chess Studio denizens possessed (the Chess grand masters, as it were) and wish one of them had taken a crack at it instead. Also on the negative side of the ledger, the five or ten second intro is worse than the guitar solo. It’s all washed out, incredibly dated sounding, and almost enough to make me switch the station before the song kicks in. There are, after all, a couple hundred stations on this thing,. No need to linger.
But I’m glad I didn’t, cause those two complains notwithstanding it is a pretty good little rocker. It’s a cover, but just like when you’re listening to covers the Beatles recorded early on, you can hear why the band became huge. Other bands undoubtedly could have played it better, but the Stones play it exactly how you want to hear it. Of course, this could be revisionist history, they’re playing it the way the following 40 years of pop music have trained my ear to want to hear it. But I don’t think it’s just that. Despite the subpar guitar break, and despite the best efforts of the engineer to fuck it up in the mix, and despite the fact that they reportedly recorded this and 14 other tracks in two days (maybe partly because of that last one), it is as alive and direct as any recorded music. That swagger missing in the lead guitar is in abundance most everywhere else.
What struck me most, though, was how good Mick Jagger sounded. It’s hard to remember that he really was a great singer. He’s like Dylan in that way. It’s like they both listened to their own records too much, and started doing cheap imitations of themselves. Taking the quirks that gave their voices character and bringing them to the front, until the real substance was near buried. On their early records they’re among my favorite vocalists, but it’s not long before they sound like caricatures of themselves.
The track’s got a pretty bad guitar solo. It’s not completely without charm, certainly has youthful exuberance, and I’m sure plenty of Rolling Stone fanboys would argue for it actually being ‘note-perfect’ or some other such nonsense. But I couldn’t help but think of the swagger and assuredness the regular Chess Studio denizens possessed (the Chess grand masters, as it were) and wish one of them had taken a crack at it instead. Also on the negative side of the ledger, the five or ten second intro is worse than the guitar solo. It’s all washed out, incredibly dated sounding, and almost enough to make me switch the station before the song kicks in. There are, after all, a couple hundred stations on this thing,. No need to linger.
But I’m glad I didn’t, cause those two complains notwithstanding it is a pretty good little rocker. It’s a cover, but just like when you’re listening to covers the Beatles recorded early on, you can hear why the band became huge. Other bands undoubtedly could have played it better, but the Stones play it exactly how you want to hear it. Of course, this could be revisionist history, they’re playing it the way the following 40 years of pop music have trained my ear to want to hear it. But I don’t think it’s just that. Despite the subpar guitar break, and despite the best efforts of the engineer to fuck it up in the mix, and despite the fact that they reportedly recorded this and 14 other tracks in two days (maybe partly because of that last one), it is as alive and direct as any recorded music. That swagger missing in the lead guitar is in abundance most everywhere else.
What struck me most, though, was how good Mick Jagger sounded. It’s hard to remember that he really was a great singer. He’s like Dylan in that way. It’s like they both listened to their own records too much, and started doing cheap imitations of themselves. Taking the quirks that gave their voices character and bringing them to the front, until the real substance was near buried. On their early records they’re among my favorite vocalists, but it’s not long before they sound like caricatures of themselves.
I Misremembered
So in the last blog I talked about the hand where my Aces got cracked 200BB’s deep. Didn’t look up the hand history at the time, was just recounting it from memory. Today I decided to post it on CP, mainly just for fun.
Turns out I actually held the Ace of clubs (I called it spades yesterday, but whatever). So the NFD was not possible. Now that I see that, I do recall thinking that at least I had the backdoor FD. Everyone thinks I played the hand super spewy, and of course I know I did. I’m not stressed about it (though I wouldn’t mind the few hundred extra I put in back). I just acted too quickly, I had that “winner’s tilt” mindset I was talking about, where I think somehow he shows up with JJ or KQs or a weird two pair which I counterfeit on the river. I mean, I played the hand terrible and it’s obviously a leak on a couple levels. But it’s pretty obvious. Just don’t do it again. Simple game.
But what I find interesting, blog-worthy even, is how my mind messed up the hand history to make it more palatable to me. Even though it’s still not good, it’s definitely not near as bad if the NFD is in villain’s range. Subconsciously my brain wanted there be a reason I would get it all-in in that spot, and so it altered things a bit for me. It’s also interesting to me that even though it’s a super spewy play, I found it worth posting on the forum. And I posted it with a tone that kind of expected people to see it as a cooler. Even though it’s very clearly not. I was in some sort of denial, or delusional state, or something.
There was a thread on CP a bit ago about what factors have caused the extreme upswing in the level of play online. Whether it was video training sites, coaching, forums, tracking software, whatever. I said the tracking software, and this experience really crystallizes why I think that’s the case. Without the software, I never go back and realize how I was misremembering the hand. It’s a small example, just one hand, but of course it applies to my skills (such as they are) at large. It would be extremely difficult to realistically assess my game without the tracking software. And without realistic assessment, how could I expect to get better (especially in a game that often seems to reward bad play and punish correct play)?
Turns out I actually held the Ace of clubs (I called it spades yesterday, but whatever). So the NFD was not possible. Now that I see that, I do recall thinking that at least I had the backdoor FD. Everyone thinks I played the hand super spewy, and of course I know I did. I’m not stressed about it (though I wouldn’t mind the few hundred extra I put in back). I just acted too quickly, I had that “winner’s tilt” mindset I was talking about, where I think somehow he shows up with JJ or KQs or a weird two pair which I counterfeit on the river. I mean, I played the hand terrible and it’s obviously a leak on a couple levels. But it’s pretty obvious. Just don’t do it again. Simple game.
But what I find interesting, blog-worthy even, is how my mind messed up the hand history to make it more palatable to me. Even though it’s still not good, it’s definitely not near as bad if the NFD is in villain’s range. Subconsciously my brain wanted there be a reason I would get it all-in in that spot, and so it altered things a bit for me. It’s also interesting to me that even though it’s a super spewy play, I found it worth posting on the forum. And I posted it with a tone that kind of expected people to see it as a cooler. Even though it’s very clearly not. I was in some sort of denial, or delusional state, or something.
There was a thread on CP a bit ago about what factors have caused the extreme upswing in the level of play online. Whether it was video training sites, coaching, forums, tracking software, whatever. I said the tracking software, and this experience really crystallizes why I think that’s the case. Without the software, I never go back and realize how I was misremembering the hand. It’s a small example, just one hand, but of course it applies to my skills (such as they are) at large. It would be extremely difficult to realistically assess my game without the tracking software. And without realistic assessment, how could I expect to get better (especially in a game that often seems to reward bad play and punish correct play)?
Sunday, April 5, 2009
21 (the hard way)
Talk about doing it wrong. After the gig last night I went down to the hotel lobby (the internet in the room was kind of sketchy). It was about 2am, and I planned on playing for an hour. The session went terribly wrong early on. Wasn’t playing that bad, I don’t think, but it wasn’t like I was getting coolered either. Just nothing was working. Made a couple moves that maybe weren’t that bad but sure bit me in the ass. One I remember most clearly was shoving after opening with AJs , getting called by the BTN, and then 3-bet by a very frequent squeezer in the BB. I thought he was full of shit, and that if I had bad timing and he did have a hand I probably had at least one live card. He had AA, so I had none. None live cards.
The key hand for the first part ofthe session I had AA UTG. Was about 200BB deep and covered by MP, who called my open (as did the button). Flop came 843 two spades. I bet, MP raised (button folded), I 3-bet and he shoved. It’s one of those spots where I pretty much know he has a set, but I just can’t find a fold. He’s 26/18/3.5, which to me means he might play Ax of spades exactly this way. Possibly even an overpair, although probably not. I can really only put him on the NFD and a set, but that probably still makes it a shove. Maybe not actually, I dunno. But I do know I don't have a fold in my repertoire at this point. It was the biggest pot I’ve lost online in the ‘modern era’ of my online poker career (back in the day I’d build it up and then play a red pro heads up at 25/50, or something similarly ill-advised; didn’t have a tracker back then, which is probably good cause it’d probably make me sick to look back).
So after less than an hour I’m down close to $1300. So much for my 20-session winning streak. I tried to stay relaxed, and I think I did. Bounced up and down over the next few hours, got to about $300 within breakeven, dropped back down to my low point, and was down about $1k and about to call it a night when the heater hit.
The turning point hand I made a spewy call preflop. I had J5s in the BB. UTG, who was seriously atrocious, opened and MP (also very bad, it was a great table) smooth called. Everybody else folded, and I decided to make the loose call. I think it’s defendable because of the particular opponents (both were not just very loose, they also seemed willing to stack with any piece, so as long as I didn’t overvalue top pair or something). Also, I was closing the preflop action and had relative position postflop, and we were all deep (UTG and I were both well over 200BB’s, and MP had about 150BB). Still, all things considered I’d rather be folding in that spot. Anyway, flop comes J54r. I check raise, UTG shoves with KK, I hold. Biggest pot I’ve won in the ‘modern era’. Then a few hands later, I flop the straight and get it in against the same villain’s AA.
Hit two set over sets in short order (including one where I had JJ, villain smooth called the 10-6-3 flop with his pocket 3’s, and then check raised me all-in on the J turn). And then at about 7am I had KQh in the CO and raised it, getting called only by the extreme agro-donk in the BB. He c/r’d me on the KJ5r board. I just called, and the turn brought me the flush draw. He shoved, and though I felt I was ahead of his range I was still kind of shocked when he tabled J2. I held, and I was about a $100 winner for the session. I almost insta-quit my tables and took the 7am walk of shame up to the hotel room for 120 minutes of sleep before we drive to Little Rock.
It was a pretty fun session, although my heart rate got a little up there from time to time. But it definitely reveals that I’m way off the mindset I’m aiming for. Not that I didn’t already know this, but being driven to ‘booking winning sessions’ is a long-term recipe for disaster, and it’s showing up in my play. I mean, towards the end of the session I was actually making loose calls specifically because I was within a stack of breakeven and wanted to hit. I take some solace that it hasn’t hurt me too bad financially yet, but obviously I don’t know what my results would be if I was in the fully proper mindset. So maybe (probably) it has been hurting me. That doesn’t really matter, tho. What matters is playing well. Until a few days ago I was playing the best poker of my life, and all of a sudden I feel like I’m just playing to hit flops. My stats aren’t that bad, surprisingly. Maybe just a point higher than I’d like on the VPIP. And the much-maligned all-in EV stat actually worked against me a lot last night, so it’s not like I’m making my money on suck outs. So I’m probably (hopefully) not that far off, I’m probably playing overall better than I feel I’m playing. I mean, last night’s session was about 4200 hands. It’s possible to remember a few really bad plays but still have played decent in general. But bottom line is, I don’t feel at all good about the direction of the last few days. We’ll see how long it takes to fix.
The key hand for the first part ofthe session I had AA UTG. Was about 200BB deep and covered by MP, who called my open (as did the button). Flop came 843 two spades. I bet, MP raised (button folded), I 3-bet and he shoved. It’s one of those spots where I pretty much know he has a set, but I just can’t find a fold. He’s 26/18/3.5, which to me means he might play Ax of spades exactly this way. Possibly even an overpair, although probably not. I can really only put him on the NFD and a set, but that probably still makes it a shove. Maybe not actually, I dunno. But I do know I don't have a fold in my repertoire at this point. It was the biggest pot I’ve lost online in the ‘modern era’ of my online poker career (back in the day I’d build it up and then play a red pro heads up at 25/50, or something similarly ill-advised; didn’t have a tracker back then, which is probably good cause it’d probably make me sick to look back).
So after less than an hour I’m down close to $1300. So much for my 20-session winning streak. I tried to stay relaxed, and I think I did. Bounced up and down over the next few hours, got to about $300 within breakeven, dropped back down to my low point, and was down about $1k and about to call it a night when the heater hit.
The turning point hand I made a spewy call preflop. I had J5s in the BB. UTG, who was seriously atrocious, opened and MP (also very bad, it was a great table) smooth called. Everybody else folded, and I decided to make the loose call. I think it’s defendable because of the particular opponents (both were not just very loose, they also seemed willing to stack with any piece, so as long as I didn’t overvalue top pair or something). Also, I was closing the preflop action and had relative position postflop, and we were all deep (UTG and I were both well over 200BB’s, and MP had about 150BB). Still, all things considered I’d rather be folding in that spot. Anyway, flop comes J54r. I check raise, UTG shoves with KK, I hold. Biggest pot I’ve won in the ‘modern era’. Then a few hands later, I flop the straight and get it in against the same villain’s AA.
Hit two set over sets in short order (including one where I had JJ, villain smooth called the 10-6-3 flop with his pocket 3’s, and then check raised me all-in on the J turn). And then at about 7am I had KQh in the CO and raised it, getting called only by the extreme agro-donk in the BB. He c/r’d me on the KJ5r board. I just called, and the turn brought me the flush draw. He shoved, and though I felt I was ahead of his range I was still kind of shocked when he tabled J2. I held, and I was about a $100 winner for the session. I almost insta-quit my tables and took the 7am walk of shame up to the hotel room for 120 minutes of sleep before we drive to Little Rock.
It was a pretty fun session, although my heart rate got a little up there from time to time. But it definitely reveals that I’m way off the mindset I’m aiming for. Not that I didn’t already know this, but being driven to ‘booking winning sessions’ is a long-term recipe for disaster, and it’s showing up in my play. I mean, towards the end of the session I was actually making loose calls specifically because I was within a stack of breakeven and wanted to hit. I take some solace that it hasn’t hurt me too bad financially yet, but obviously I don’t know what my results would be if I was in the fully proper mindset. So maybe (probably) it has been hurting me. That doesn’t really matter, tho. What matters is playing well. Until a few days ago I was playing the best poker of my life, and all of a sudden I feel like I’m just playing to hit flops. My stats aren’t that bad, surprisingly. Maybe just a point higher than I’d like on the VPIP. And the much-maligned all-in EV stat actually worked against me a lot last night, so it’s not like I’m making my money on suck outs. So I’m probably (hopefully) not that far off, I’m probably playing overall better than I feel I’m playing. I mean, last night’s session was about 4200 hands. It’s possible to remember a few really bad plays but still have played decent in general. But bottom line is, I don’t feel at all good about the direction of the last few days. We’ll see how long it takes to fix.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Good Tunes/Bad Poker (but there's more money in the poker)
Had a fun show tonight in Knoxville, TN. Real good energy on stage, and very supportive crowd. It was good last night in Georgia, too, so that's a couple in a row that didn't totally suck. Which is good, you know. If we weren't a bazillion miles from home I'd be fully intending to hit the last couple places up again soon. But we'll probably wait till we play that festival in Florida in November (a tour which I may not be on, but that's another thing altogether).
In poker news, I have now posted 19 straight winning sessions. The last few sessions my play has fallen off a fair bit. As much as I try to talk myself out of it, I seem to be unable to shake the feeling that I'm gonna hit whatever card I need. Or probably more accurately, the feeling my opponent's holding is going to be at the bottom of his range. Actually, the exact pattern that has developed over the last day or two is I play terrible at the beginning of the session, get down a buy-in or three, smarten/tighten up and grind my way back into positive territory, and then watch my game turn to shit again. So far I've been saved by coolers going my way, and the occasional suck out (especially my last session, I hit a miracle card or two and my opponents couldn't hit their combo draws). But my sole poker goal right now is to correct this trend without having to have a 5 or 10 buy-in losing session be the catalyst. Still happy with the overall development of my game, just gotta shake this winner's tilt. Like now.
In poker news, I have now posted 19 straight winning sessions. The last few sessions my play has fallen off a fair bit. As much as I try to talk myself out of it, I seem to be unable to shake the feeling that I'm gonna hit whatever card I need. Or probably more accurately, the feeling my opponent's holding is going to be at the bottom of his range. Actually, the exact pattern that has developed over the last day or two is I play terrible at the beginning of the session, get down a buy-in or three, smarten/tighten up and grind my way back into positive territory, and then watch my game turn to shit again. So far I've been saved by coolers going my way, and the occasional suck out (especially my last session, I hit a miracle card or two and my opponents couldn't hit their combo draws). But my sole poker goal right now is to correct this trend without having to have a 5 or 10 buy-in losing session be the catalyst. Still happy with the overall development of my game, just gotta shake this winner's tilt. Like now.
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