August

Goals: $15k BR, 7 glasses of water a day, less junk food/pop, & more sleep.

$15k is a bit high but I have a whole month. I would be happy with 20K hands @ ~4PTBB/100 which is, hmm, 800PTBB or 16 buyins. Assuming at least half of that to be at 1/2, that's $1600 and maybe, uh, $3200 at 2/4. Which leaves me $5k short. Still, 4PTBB would be sweetness compared to the shit that went down last month (flush over flush, set over set, etc, etc). Still, it's not as if I can wash my hands and say "sigh, variance". Playing better poker should be my number one priority; money is just a way of keeping score.

And, I think I am playing better. Still pretty nitty and relying on good table selection but better. I've been adopting standard lines sans reads, e.g. if he comes over my 3bet I am done with my overpair, if he calls flop and turn bets he can beat Ace-high, if he check/raises the turn TP is no good, overbets are often bluffs/semi-bluffs but they are not worth stacking off to catch. Simple, SSNL stuff but stuff I have been routinely fucking up.

(Sit at 2/4 monster table, second orbit SB get 55 and call CO's raise [considered 3betting], T75r flop, boom! Watch him have NOTHING. Fire $25 into ~$30, call. Yes, he has a pair! Turn 3 putting a bdfd out. ~$60 into $80. He thinks, he thinks, he folds. Obviously.)

(44 OTB. Folded to me, I raise, SB calls. Uh oh. Bet flop, bet turn, check behind river. Busted draw no pair and MHIG. WTF.)

(Ah, this is the party I know. 2nd nut flush v. nut flush, he check/raises me on the flop with an overcard and a runner-runner fd. AND THEN: My TT gets setted for another ~$110 pot. -50BB at that table. -25BB at another table when someone who hasn't raised a cbet in ~300 hands C/R my AQ on a JK6fd flop. -25BB at another table when my JJ loses to a gutshot. I would have bet the turn but he was shortstacked and the turn paired TP...which was an overcard anyway. Need to fold the river.)

(I FLOP A SET AND STACK A DONK. Holy hell, it's been awhile. Flop 27A, PFR and limper check to me, I bet. C/R to $100. I minraise by accident??? could have sworn the button had 'all-in' on it. Donk has AQ. I really, really thought set over fucking set.)

(Net? BREAKFUCKINGEVEN. What did I do right? I flopped a set. What did I do wrong? Didn't bet full pot on wet boards. The J76r is pretty fucking wet. Need to pot & bet turn OR pot and fold turn/fold river. I felt this was somewhat complicated by the fact that he was shortstacked and if I bet the turn I am almost committed to calling a push when there's a paired overcard. QJ on a J94fd flop. Minraised with ATo. WTF. IDK, I'm OOP turn brings an overcard [K] AND the flush but then I river the second nuts. ALWAYS the second nuts.)

(SO. I flop a set, my cbet gets c/r when I have nothing [I feel I may have been fortunate not to have a pair here], SS gets there with his gutshot, & 2nd nuts. Mistakes: -35BB [calling the river bet with my JJ, betting the river with my TT - nice set value), the rest is normal party-ness.)

Um, so where was I? Oh, I'm "playing better". Yeah, right. 35BB of mistakes is pretty significant. However, if I make these plays and...I catch a bluff OR he folds to my river bet then I think I'm a goddamn genius. I even managed to fuck up a flopped set by MINRAISING! Rofl, I swear it said all-in.

Bet pot script is pretty nifty but I'm still getting used to it. Reload script is nice...only I wish I didn't have to use it so often tonight :)

Bought (but have yet to pay for) a refurbished 22" CRT off ebay. It does 1920x1440, OMGASH. Now I don't know what to do with my old 19". I have two of them, I figure I can put the 22" where the right one is but then if I want to triple-head I'm a little fucked. Besides I need to buy a 1600x1200 pci card to do so. Still, might be worth it. WTF @ electricity. Keeps flicking on and off.

BROWNOUT! Christ, can't keep my computers up for more than five minutes. All these interupts cannot be doing them any favours :(

Anyway, paid for the CRT. I remembered what happened to the pci card I had, and perhaps I can get it back from the person I gave it to. If not, I'll have to buy another one to triple head. Not entirely sure what the point of that would be. It would look cool.

World Series of Donkaments...circuit events? Bleh. God, do I hate these announcers. Give me Gabe Kaplan anyday. Watched EP3, now watching EP1. Russell's wife is super hot. I am going to Hungry. Juanda played badly HU. Okay, JJ v. AA is kind of a cold deck but that AKo was ugly. EP2, nice call with 44. Jesus. Rofl, quad 6's.

Tuesdays = No play. I actually looked at the games this morning and they looked juicy. Evening games are same old shit. Fish were hitting the monster tables ~8pm. Mining continues...Reminds me: Need to see if it's possiible to create SQL queries to show a) 3betting frequency PF & known hands/boards and b) known hands/boards after check/raising slash 3betting the flop.

WTFBBQ. More torrent gayness. Because I have a bad ratio I can't yet download the effing new HSP. Fuck that.

EP4, rofl, Zilem is so bad. Cap, sunglasses, and ipod. Been playing 9 months, seems like a total tard. Lol, Rick Saloman. One night in Paris. Hmm, need to find that DVD.

Champ!

Do you see why?

Light! Luck!

Maybe I'm not so deranged:

Let's say you come in with QJs. You flop QJ3. You bet. All fold. You won. Tiny pot. Were you lucky or not? Lucky to catch it, lucky to win, but unlucky not to get paid off? Which matter more? Netlucky, or unlucky?

You flop quads. Can't get luckier, right? Unpaid. Feel lucky now? If the other players have cards that just can't call on any street, no skillful choice of when to bet would have helped. You were just unlucky to have made a monster without any playable opposition cards.

You flop top set, bet all the way, and win a really big pot against three opponents with top pair, second set, etc. Were you lucky? Not lucky to win; top set holding up is the "expected" result, but you were certainly lucky to have opponents who were second best giving you action or caught in the middle.

Is getting KK as a starter lucky? Not if others got AA. Is geting AA lucky? Sure. But it's LUCKIER if others got KK at the same time; that's really lucky. Unless they board a king, of course, in which case it's phenomenally unlucky

Can't be arsed with the Sunday afternoon/evening party games. They're always so shit. Except that time I found a 1/2 player donking up 400NL to the tune of -$1800. That was pretty sweet, except I got nothing (see "luck" above).

So, July is pretty much over and I'm slightly up. I honestly cannot believe how piss poorly I ran at 100NL to end up breakeven over 10K hands. Seriously some ridiculous shit. I know 10K hands is nothing really but to be up and then come down so, so hard is depressing to say the least. And now I'm experiencing some positive variance at 1/2 but I doubt it will last.

olol, played one SSNLHUSNG and lost to a pair of 7's with AJs. Q7o called me down and I check the river instead of pushing, he pushes...and I call with Ace-high o_O Owned the second one pretty fucking hardcore. Guy kept open pushing preflop or open pushing the flop. Of course, in the first couple of hands he folds when I have AKs in the BB. Then I limp K9s and I guess he realised pushing after I limp may not be a good idea. Flop T9xfd, middle pair with flush. He open pushes, I instacall. Turns out he has T2 but I "suckout". That leaves him with t400. He open pushes preflop again the next hand. One trick pony? A few hands I get KK and I limp with it. He decides that's his queue to not push. Flop A35fd, he open pushes and I reluctantly call. 64o no goot. Wow, so I play a 4-way shootout. First hand I get minraised. Second hand I get KQs OTB. 3.5BB raise, call. Flop KTx. Check, t120, call. Turn second club, check, t320, call. River Qs, he pushes, I call. K3 clubs no goot. He pushes next hand for like 3BB. I call with Q8o. 52s makes two pair. Drat. I get Q8o again, fold. I get K8o, limped flop. K9J flop, check, check. I bet blank turn, he pushes for maybe 2BB more. T8o doesn't make a gutshot. Oh, fucking hell. Two pair loses to rivered straight and then AK loses a coinflip in the final. What a fucking waste of time that was. Shootouts are gay. Oh well, I think I'll join one and open push every hand like the rest of these donkeys. Tha's pokah!

Wow, that strategy actually worked better than playing properly. KQs, minraised, I push. JJ calls. Flop Axxfd and I have a flush draw! Turn another Ace. Uh...River, spade. SHIPITHOLLA. One hand donkament. Poker, poker, it's all skill...

Right, enough donking around. Pictures of Keeley make me feel better.

Downloading WSOP episodes and some porn. That's a wrap on the weekend.

Stop ITT

Just a quick thought: I should stop calling/putting SS all-in with TT since it's marginally -EV if their range is KQ+,TT+. Of course, not all short-stacks play that tight but, as a rule, if I call only with AK/JJ I come out ahead.

Super EX

I watched this last night while I was recompiling my kernel YET AGAIN. Fucking vmware/nvidia/reiser4 keep panicing. No fun. Anyway, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" was okay. Anna Faris looked hot, Uma looked good too. Some/most of the film was quite dumb but it was enjoyable. Props to Maven on a good release.

Dunno, maybe a bad call here. Villain is a reguar running at 32BB/100 and started the hand with 75BB. I have to call $83 into a $170 pot with 10 outs. Losing play according to pot odds. I would like to say my thought process went: He hasn't rebought preflop so he may be tilting, he raised UTG (probably the reason I didn't reraise preflop) so he's unlikely to have a straight but flush is possible, he probably thinks I fold too often so why would he push with the flush? Last one made me suspect a semi-bluff. However, ultimately, I thought "fuck it, if he has it I will just have to suckout".

Woohoo, I flop a set of Fours! On a A45fd flop...turn a 3 and I get raised...river doesn't pair and I muck to 2/3 bet. I love the way my sets turn into bluff catchers every fucking time. How about a blank turn one time Party? I mean, yes, he could be bluffing but what idiot bluffs at 4 card straight board? I think the fold was justified give how cautiously he later played the nut straight on a paired board. At least I don't pay off the river, I guess.

I raise JJ, tard limper calls. Q9xfd flop. Limper overbets the pot with slider. I DP and am waiting on the HH...OESDF got there, and he was holding one of my outs. Fucking tard, though, seriously. Overbetting the flop like that. I am pushing a lot of shit there, probably incorrectly.

Rofl, one card straight flush CHECKS the river OOP. King-high flush checks behind.

MOTHERFUCKER, I lose $50 finding out my Jacks are beat on a 356fd flop. I bet, minraised, I 3bet, he doubles it. Look buddy, if you play 77-TT that way, more power to you. This was against the guy who checks the King-high flush behind on the river so I don't feel too bad about folding. Just a serious PITA.

Oh well, I make it back with AKo trying to trap a shortstack. Unfortunately, 2 others see the flop and I am in a horrible position on a 4 card straight board. This time I block the river and win the fucking pot. Woo.

AA gets action! I love the button's call preflop. I thought I was fucked when he instacalled my raise. And then I got the Ace on the river and thought I sucked out. Nope.

Ugh, QQ. Flop 88xfd. He calls my flop bet, which I thought he would. Turn 8. SHIPITHOLLA. He bets, I call. He bets river, I miss a push. 33 no goot.

Ugh, TT v. JJ for like 15BB. Moments later he loses QQ to AJs. HAHA. I don't know why I find that funny but I do.

Ugh, running at 18BB/100 over small sample. Up 6 whole buyins. That can't last. Time for Party to throw me a dozen set over sets. I've actually been making some draws too so that will stop.

Turning nuts

Ran a stupid bluff after getting minraised preflop with KQs. BUT IT WAS SOOTED! Almost as miserable as the AK bluff made against me but not quite. Still, a good way to burn 50BB. God, I hated that table. 2p2er was 3betting me all the goddamn time. First time AJ and he squeezed me. Second time TT. I was going to call but I wasn't completing the action, & I couldn't call for set value, & I'm a pussy. He got pushed off his hand postflop by a minraise. lol?

I pay off a SSs two pair by calling with 11 outs and missing all of them. Sigh, bad call.

Then I turn the nut straight and the flopped set pays me off. Move up to where they respect me making a good hand and them having a good enough second best hand to call? Standard.

Oh, but earlier I royally fucked up a hand. His name is "BluffKing" FFS and I bet in to him. I need to check the turn and let him push me off my overpair/AK. Or I need to 3bet that flop and hope he caught enough to call/push. Actually, I like a 3bet on the flop as that IS how I should play an overpair; 3bet and (possibly) fold to a push. (Uh, I'm not saying I fold top set o_O)

Meh, I cannot believe I: Called an all-in with what I figured to be 13 outs, didn't 3bet my set of Queens or check turn, & bluffed 50BB away with King fucking high in a reraised pot. FISH MINRAISED ME PREFLOP. HELLO???

Ugh, I'm getting there but I keep making obvious mistakes and responding emotionally.

Is it a MONSTER?

So sick. Obviously this sucks hugely at 200NL. If I choose to sit at regular tables exclusively I'm more likely to be sitting with savvy TAGs. However, if I sit at a monster table I'm bleeding money. However...if all the SMTT leave then it will be me, the fish, and the rake. Which would be semi-nice, I guess.

Someone did some calculations and suggested a 0.5PTBB/100 dent in your winrate (@ 2/4NL, iirc). That's a pretty big hit considering YOU GET NEXT TO NOTHING IN RETURN. Oh sure, you might get some equity in this freeroll. You might hit a jackpot. However, that is not worth the half-BB. If the games were significantly softer it would be but they won't. The regular games will be significantly harder, the monster games will become the regular games. Fish will probably not play to make BBJs on the whole. They'll just sit at the first table they can which is a monster fucking table. GODDAMNIT.

Again, however, if the SMTT guys leave the games will be softer on the monster tables. I doubt they will, though.

No doubt in my mind where I'm going if Party becomes worse. RB, allegedly fishy MSNL games, deposit bonus? Oh yes.

Hmm, Clerks2 was pretty good. The beastiality thing was hilarious. The ATM stuff was funny too. Definitely worth watching.

PT took maybe 2hrs to import 12K hands. So, I did the obvious thing of moving PHG to the HH folded and running the timer. Ship those HHs, bitch!

And the beat goes on

Eh, I'm just going to reinstall OpenBSD 3.9. Hopefully that will magically fix my networking problem. However, I can't get right on that because I'm trying to import last nights 1/2 HH. However, PT has been choking on that for an hour now...Meh, I'm going to give it another hour or so and see if it does complete. Then I can dump my PSQL DB off of the OBSD box and reinstall.

However, choking like that precludes me from playpokah! Which is...I dunno. Tuesdays Party games have always been terrible in my GMT experience. However, I was going to tweak my PAHUD layout (uh, tweak it from standard; yes, I suck). CTS gave me his config but it doesn't load :( However, he did mention that he has C/R numbers for flop/turn/river which sounds pretty cool. So does adding cbet/fold to cbet/att. steal/folded to steal/folded to turn bet/folded to river bet. That will help with straight forward/weaker players. I also want to ID as many 2P2ers as possible. Generally to avoid them or to try and pick them apart.

Ugh, work is eminently shit but the end is nigh for me there. Two people who used to be good friends, and the older guy got the younger the job, can no longer stand each other. Much yelling ensues. And then, when I get home from work, I go to relax and read a little Nature via Nurture on the deck, the fucking chair collapses and I bruise the base of my spine. I think one of next doors kids was messing with it and moved the back leg to far forward unintentionally. Might take the day off if it's hurting badly in the morning, all the better because it was the boss' kid. Or maybe no one touched it; it's a stupid design anyway.

Oh, I could only find a .torrent for the Lazy-B album, which of course has no seeds. 97% FFS. And the "Life of...Jennifer Stone" dvd is a damn DVD9 but, um, well, I <> Jennifer Stone pretty bad. Fucking jesus, I have to go to Czech Republic. European women are so unbelievably beautiful.

*Watches Clerks2*

It never ends well

Representing the hand your oppenent has, that is. I did puke on the river and was honestly surprised when the pot got shipped to me despite the King. That's what I like: 99.6% on the flop, 100% on the turn. Douchebags all-in drawing dead don't suck out. Even on Party.

My float like a butterfly, sting like a bee strategy is working still, although that was the only big pot I actually got involved in tonight. I'm up 4 buyins at 200NL but then again I was up at least 7 at 100NL before the bottom fell out of that swing. Bad play accounts for maybe 3 of those. Specifically, pushing 98s FD in a huge family pot on the flop. Although, that was questionable not necessarily bad. Calling all-in with 98s on a naked FD was undoubtedly bad. Doubly so because the board was paired. Sure, I knew he did not have Kings full because obviously he would want me to make my FD if I was on it.

Ho hum, things are bound to start sucking at higher limits too. Mustn't be negative :x

Rogue Traders album is rocking. Not too impressed with TCM CSII, though. Give them both a relisten tomorrow. Bed, so I can go to work and earn in a day what I can make in a hand. When I can make more in a hand than I can in a week, work is history.

Stepback

I really, really need to stepback and stop looking at results. My only concern is playing well and I'm not. I'm making stupid fucking mistakes all over. Throwing away buyins allover, calling when I know I can only beat a bluff. Big hands, big pots. AA is not a big enough hand for 100BB if 90% goes in postflop. Typically.

Yes, yes I do. Hmm, gamer girls.

Watched A Scanner Darkly today. Awesome movie. Sort of overly abrupt ending but whatever. The rotoscoping (?) animation was fantastic. The four main characters were good. Ryder was kind of meh but whatever. Harrelson, Downey Jr., & Reeves were all very good, especially Downey.

Anywho, going to try and play a chilled out dids session. Keep moving around so as no one adjusts to me.

I got AA v. KK...for 30-something BB. Typical. I flop Fours full of threes but no one has a three, evidently. I try flopping sets at 400NL to make up for my dropping a buyin yesterday. To no effect. Won a coinflip for 50BB at 200NL with JJ vs. AK. Would have won another coinflip at 400NL vs. shortys AK but the original PFR overcalled which is pretty fucking scary. Mucked my snowmen and A6o beat shortstacks AK.

I found out what huge flop check/raises mean from some people. I raised KK UTG, few callers. Checked to me, I pot cbet FD board, BB 3x c/r me. I think fuck it, tilt call and re-evaluated turn. Turn: Ace of FD. Fucking great. BB makes a weak bet which is either suckering me in or because he hates that turn as much as I do. Fuck it, sucker call. River is something unimportant. Might have even been the 4th flush card (of course!). BB checks, I check. BB mucks QQ.

lol

Looking a little more robusto. Flopped two sets of Jacks. First one no one wanted to do business :( I may have been better off check/raising and representing a draw. Second one I turned quads, bitches. I actually played it "okay" in a FTOP way. I don't know why he's not coming over the top of me with two pair on the flop. Probably because of the connectedness of the flop. Still, how can he put me on Q9/97 exactly? He should really 3bet that shit. Check/caller obviously has a straight draw. Turn I can't bet since I put him on two pair and he's now counterfeited if he thinks that I have an overpair. If I did bet there the other guy may call with his straight draw or he may fold because the board paired. I don't know what he's doing on the river calling my valuebet with second pair. He beats AK/AQ & 99. Of course I am very glad he did call. I would have been much happier had he tried to blow me off my overpair. And, FWIW, if I do bluff AK there it will be bigger bet.

So my running around tables strategy seems to be fairing well enough so far. It's not exactly hit and run because I'm not always hitting. However, if I showdown a huge hand I generally do run because I know that I am not getting any action for awhile afterwards. I don't mind staying if I made a boneheaded play or two because I will get action. For instance, SS minraised UTG, I have TT on the button. I put him all-in (a little risky but the blinds obligingly folded). He has AA. Meh. I stay around because I look foolish. Then I made a dumb mistake. Instead of raising to 7 with my AQo, I raise to 74. Thankfully no one capitalised. Where are the aggro 2p2s? Do I have to move up to 5/10 where my raise to $420 will get a push?

Fucking OBSD box suddenly died. Either the PCI NIC is busto or it's a software problem. Was up for over 3 months and it just suddenly fucked up :/ Going to upgrade to 3.9 anyway and if that fails, try another NIC.

Flopped another set and B3B all-in on the flop. I think he only called because I might have been on a FD. I run better at 200NL than 100NL (for now). Still jumping around tables looking for fish to fry. Had a fucking Canadian shortstack on my left crack my KK. Flop is a beautiful Ace-high, monotone monstrosity. I cbet, he calls. Turn 4th fucking club turning my Kings to dogshit. I check/fold. A few hands later I raise AA to the exact amount of his stack but he folds.

Reef girls.

Now the kernel on this computer has started choking. Fucksake.

One time

WHY CANT THEY EVER FUCKING FOLD. JESUS. FUCKING. CHRIST.

Shortstack reraises my AKo from the SB. I think about putting them all-in but I want to see a flop. K6x flop. Short stack has 66s. OH WELL.

Newcomer opens in EP. I smoothcall with JJ looking for a set. JT5r flop. He bets pot, I raise half my fucking stack. He calls with AKo because he has a gutshot. Turn Q. I can't fold now after putting so much in on the flop. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, CANT YOU FOLD A MOTHERFUCKING GUTSHOT ONE TIME? JUST ONE TIME. (N.B. I don't want him to fold; I just don't want him to get there every time). FUCK IT.

JJ in the SB. I pop it up to $7 trying to get the limpers & BB out. NOPE. 563r flop, I bet, he pushes. Could be a draw, could be two pair, could be a set. FUCK KNOWS. I fold because if I am ahead, it's not by far.

I'm looking over my biggest losses this month. 2buyins to pushed draws, 99 v. flopped wheel. Why, no, I did not expect him to have A5 in a reraised pot. STUPID ME. QQ v. calling stations turned two pair (I was pushing any non-flush turn). AA v. AT board pairs top pair (Ten). SWEET. Set of Jacks v. gutshot just now. What should I do on the turn? Assume he has AK and check behind? Set v. runner-runner flush. I actually got it all-in before the river. SO FUCKING WHAT. QQ v. shorty's KK. Stupid bluff v. weak trips. Ace-high flush v. King high flush. Poorly played AA v. backdoor flush. AA v. shorty's flopped two pair. Two pair v. unknown. Turn/river put 4 to a straight and 4 to a flush out. FANTASTIC! KK v. probably Jx. Turn pairs top pair (Jack) so I fold. Set over set v. short stack. THANK GOD FOR THAT MINISCULE MERCY. Plus there's a sea of red that seems to me folding hands because they don't hit the flop. HEY, THAT NEVER HAPPENS. I HIT THE FLOP EVERY TIME, HARD AS YOU LIKE.

And now my month at 100NL 6max is breakeven. NEW PLAN. Everytime I think I have significantly the best hand, I am just going to go all-in. Forget lost value. Just forget it. AA preflop? Push. KK preflop? Push. QQ preflop? Push (w/ read). I flop a set? Push. I flop two pair? Push (w/ read). I flop an OESFD? FOLD. I flop an overpair? FOLD. I flop TPTK? FOLD.

Wow, I flop a set of Fours on an AJ4 board. All-in, JJ of course.

I've started nitting which is probably bad but at least I'm not losing so much on missing every monster draw, etc.

Wow, I take a shot at 400NL. Within 12 hands I drop $400. Motherfucking AA in the BB. I 'trap'. Fuck that shit. T9o turns a straight after flopping OESD. Trap gone awry?

Sit with $400 at 10/20 table. One time they don't get there! Such a shame that I sat at $400NL first. 14 hands -$42. 2 hands at 10/20 +$358. 12 hands at 2/4 -$400. Standart?

Play a little 1/2. Hit a set. I guess it is as easy as B3B all-in. Turn made me sick. I thought here's hearts or KK. River made me happier. I cracked two peoples AA in the space of about 20 hands. HOLLA. If only I'd pushed river in the first hand.

Maybe I should be like Eezspearfish and just play a few hundred hands here and there for ${STUPID}BB/100. Beats grinding for nothing.

I can also see shortstacking 10/20 is stupidly profitable but I can only imagine the sick variance.

Random thought: Like a lot of tight players I overlook the fact that loose players make mistakes for small bets. However, I (and many like me) make mistakes for big bets because we cannot believe that we've been outdrawn yet again. Take my AA hand that I tried trapping with, for example. If I played it straight forwardly, I would have picked up the pot preflop, most probably. After the flop, in my mind he was betting to make me fold, not because he had any equity in the pot whatsoever. River push, he's telling me has a huge hand and asking if I believe him. I did not believe he had the hand he was representing and called hoping to catch a bluff. So his small mistakes preflop and on the flop are nothing beside the huge mistake I made on the river. I thought that he thought that I was trying to steal the pot with a bluff on the end. I need to stop making such large mistakes.

Wow.

Fuck poker. Wow. Just...just fucking fold you backdoor flushdraw already. Please. I know if you call you will always get there but just be charitable for a change.

I made back almost all my losses on this table. Almost. God, I should have folded to his push since he could have TT/JJ there easily. However, I thought there was a good chance he had QQ/KK/AK too. Guy was a complete fucking downie who was 70/40.

Play bad + run bad = no profit. Even though I can take solace in the fact that I don't run that bad I would still like to make a decent winrate.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. HAHAH, and he played it like shit [see your AA hand. Perhaps he had a read? - Ed. {See the river play?} Oh... - Ed.].

Fucking groceries were supposed to be delivered between 8-10pm. No sign. Fucking, bastards. They were supposed to deliver at a more reasonable time yesterday (5-7pm) but they rang me to cancel. Just came, missing my bananas but I can't be bothered ringing to get the money for them (£1). More to the point I'm missing all my frozen meals because there two main refridgeration units exploded in the heat wave. Uh ohs. Probably have enough to last until next week...if they have meals then.

Hmm, looking through biggest losing hands this month: 98s, looks so, so pretty but both times I've pushed draws with it I've missed. 44, a stupid bluff costs me a buyin. 77, set over set, backdoor flush. Also, interestingly my playing aggressively with PPs doesn't seem that profitable. Hmm. In addition I am not really stacking anyone when I do hit. Perhaps playing them passively is preferable? I am seriously going to start pushing AA preflop or finding folds. Hmm, looking at KK v. AA historys there's really no difference. Only when I've called with KK I've mostly been right and when I've called with AA I've been wrong. Okay, from now on I'm going to have 'misclicks' with AA, betting $45 instead of $4 or $5. Or fold more often. Or something. Winning small pots with AA and losing big ones is no good.

BE

Wow, breakeven. Break-fucking-even. That will cut the winrate. Lets see: I call down with second pair because my read was wrong (he had TPWK), I call down a retarded shortstack with TPGK and he flopped the nut straight, I get 3bet with TT by an unknown and someone overcalls both raises (overcaller floats weak flop [K86r] bet, weak bets turn and 3bettor folds. Great. In retrospect, I think the overcaller sucked.).

Plus I lose value all over. Two hands come to mind: 55, I raise and, having not flopped a set in forever, of course the flop comes 8Q5 diamonds. Dude donks, I call, overcall. Turn 3s, dude checks, I...am in an awkward situation. If I bet pot, I am committed to calling the river, if I check I let them draw for free. I check so I can get away from the inevitable diamond, or hopefully check/raise but it's checked through. River 9s, dude donks, I raise, both fold. TERRIBLY played. Raise the flop, moran. Pay off/outdraw a flopped flush.

I complete the SB with K4s. Flop K46r. I bet, limper calls. Turn 4, I bet again, guy calls. River 8, I bet again, guy minraises. So it becomes apparent that he has been slowplaying something. I call thinking he may have Sixs full. A4o of course. Huge, huge, lost value there. A donk is probably stacking off with trips.

Play some more...oh joy. "Rough seas" costs me nearly two buyins, mainly because I decided I wanted the 30% pot equity of my flush draw now. Stupid call that I wouldn't make unless I was running like dogshit. What else happened at that table...Oh yeah, I flopped the fucking nuts fat lot of good that did me. I love villains value check. Mmm, I flop TPTK, villain flops a fucking flush. I lose QQ v. KK to a shortstack. I didn't win as much from him when I had KK v. his 99. BUT OF COURSE.

Uh, so that was the worst table. Then I dropped monies to a calling stations K3s flopped trips with AA. And that's about it.

So if it weren't for that motherfucking cocksucker of a table I'd actually be up on the night! God forbid.

Sigh, get there 1 time. I honestly can't remember the last person I stacked (oh wait, I doubled up AKo v. A9s either yesterday or the day before. Yippee?). I can only win smallish pots now, never the biguns. I actually flopped a set in a raised pot! They folded, of course.

Winrate is falling, falling, falling. Games after 10 o'clock seem excellent, however. Anyhow, fuck poker.

AA

Back to back AA. One wins the blinds, the other loses to runner-runner flush. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. Bitch of all is it wasn't that badly played since he pushed the river. Still not correct odds but GODDD. FUCKING. GOD.

Oh man, and now he's busto after slowplaying his KK until the river where the guy rivers his set.

I GET NOTHING.

He made some back and then aggrofish (loves to bluff big and show) joins the tables, raises his blind into calling fish. I limpcall with QJo, weak-TAGgy limpcalls behind me. Flop AJx. Checked to aggrofish who pots it. My Jack is well ahead of his range but calling fish calls so I'm done, tighty folds. Turn 8. Calling fish check/calls. Calling fish check/raises the river and aggrofish 3bets his snowmen. Calling fish doubles up aggrofish and I die a little inside.

So, lessons reiterated today: If I am prepared to back an overpair with my stack, do not offer good implied odds to outdraw me. My turn raise was retarded. It bloated the pot and left me with a difficult decision on the river getting 2:1. What should I have done? Well, his turn donk indicates a draw or a weak hand so I should call and play a small pot on the river or I should raise enough so that I have no river decision. If I had left myself $30 on the river, even if I pay him off every time he loses and I win. I should have just pushed turn since then he has a difficult decision with a bluff catching hand.

But I think my river call was...not unreasonable. What did I put him on? A FD. River completes the backdoor flush and he puts me all-in. 2:1 to call and it looks like he's bluffing. Of course he's betting for value here :(

I hate playing like shit/running like shit.

Reading not so good

Misread the board so valuebetting my rivered set into a four card straight was kind of donkspastic. Sets flopped: 0. Two pair flopped: 2+, the board pairing on each turn to counterfeit me. Gotten the worst seats and cards at the best tables. QQ+: 0. Jacks: All the goddamn fucking time.

Plus a retarded person just rang me. "Hello? ...Hello?", I said. "Itff Sary(??)...", comes the weak and feeble reply. CLICK!

HAHA, AK4Q4 board and dude donks off 200BBs+ with 88 v. AK. Standard? Fish hiding from search is a bad beat. Grr, can't get on the table where the 88 fish is 300BBs deep. Oops, make that 200BBs. Bah, can't get a seat. POTC and food. Woo, dropped nearly another buyin. Um, how? Donked JJ, yep. Oh, and not winning a goddamn hand, that will do it. Sigh.

Oh, and my mistake was only $25 or so whatever. OH, fucking typical. Even though I enqueued POTC2 this morning it's downloaded sweet fuck all. FUCK SAKE.

Goddamit

Back to running sickly. Dropped $70, $50, $40 on 3 tables and only made $90 on another (well, there's a few +/-$10 here or there but nothing major).

+$90 (yes, I did have a read), -$70 [$40, $17, & $12], -$50 [$29 & $22], & -$40 [$17, $10, & not winning a single fucking hand].

So probably a little bad play, hopefully not too much. 77 hand I could have called and hammered a non-heart turn. Kind of thin, though. Could have called dude's push with the wheel on board but I'm calling for a split? Truthfully, I misread the board, saw the river was a club and bluffed it. Had I noticed the wheel I'd have check/called. Oh, don't get me started on the JT two pair hand. Pretty precarious two pair to begin with and by the river I'm only beating a retarded bluff. Not to say that it wasn't a retarded bluff but still. What a shitty run.

Eating a late supper and watching Beowulf & Grendel. Then I have to go to work tomorrow since I run so bad at play pokah. One day...

Snowmen

I must, must stop berating fish when I play. Just stop talking altogether. Used DP to see what the BB pushed with once the whole table limped. As I suspected, AKo. He won that coinflip but I think he was pretty pissed that he saw a showdown. He pushed a few more times after that but I had nothing to call with.

Mm, what else did I do? I know I hit quad 3's somewhere after I was all-in. Donk had second pair or some rubbish. Then I played KK like AK on a Qxx flop/board. AQ stacked off by putting me all-in on the river. Reads rock when they are correct. I stopped cbetting calling stations and started value betting. He must have had absolutely nothing though because I sized it so that I bet $40 into $50 on the turn leaving ~$30 for the river. He folded getting 4 to 1 pot odds or something ridiculous. In retrospect I wish I would have bet more on the turn (possibly pushing).

I followed Sklansky's advice by checking the turn and giving a free card with TPTK, even though I thought it pretty obvious the guy was on a FD. River completes the draw and he bets pot. Instafold. THANKS SKLANSKY!

I'm a little worried now that my trainers are going to be more of a beat than a brag. Wait and see :(

Games got a little dry so I half watched Silent Hill and read 2p2. WTF? I have very little idea what happened, although obviously Radha and her daughter died. The 'villagers' (reminded me very much of "The Village", which was pretty rubbish also) punished Alessa because she was being molested? And then she was terribly burned...and then the demon came to her and offered her vengence? And the villagers believed that the apocalypse had fallen? Whatever, bitch got owned with barb wire at the end. I have read the Wikipedia entries on Silent Hill but having not played the games it's not the same.

I can't really say it was a bad movie because I wasn't giving it my full attention. Started out with Radha in underwear and went decidedly downhill from there. I'll reserve judgement until I see it again...which I have no inclination of ever doing.

Wherein I get owned

By a retarded bluff. Meh, I smooth-called the flop in order to get away if a scare card it. It did, he bets, I fold. Perhaps if I'd thought about it a little more I would ask myself why he was overbetting an obvious scare card into me. Whatever, he was a total unknown, I had no outs if behind, pot was small. Pretty retarded spew by him if I wasn't 'good' enough to fold or if I was better and didn't.

No other way to play this once I've seen a flop (maybe B3B all-in, it's still going all-in). With so much dead money it might even be EV neutral against a set. Probably not. If the other guy really did have two pair I'd wish he would have called. I really doubt he did, though. Mr. Alleged two-pair also hit a set of Queens against me when I had TPTK. Fortunately I lost about the minimum.

But then I actually won some hands. A coinflip (what a fucking lucky flop for him) and a suckout (my "pair the board" mantra worked this time. Honestly, having Q9o and flopping a fucking straight. FUCK YOU. The way he played it I thought he was on a combidraw at worst.)

So getting owned but sucking out. Sweet?

Ace Magnets

Meh, so I finished clearing the bonus. Early in the session I picked up KK on the button. CO raised, I reraised, CO called. JJ7fd flop. I pot, he calls. Turn Q completing the flush draw. I think for a bit and push (~pot). CO doesn't think long and calls with AA (nfd). Sweet start.

Blah, blah. I keep losing or winning little with AA/KK. Table with an 80/40 on it I make no hands. Flop no sets. Etc, etc. Finish up half a buyin by playing small ball. Wowie.

Friday night, I'm too fucked to play and I pass out at 9pm and wake up at 5am. I think "fuck it" and sleep until 11am. Today has been too beautiful to sit indoors much (and yet here I am now) so I've been doing stuff outside. Both my hands are fucked up from work which annoys me no end. I really, really hate missing Friday nights drunk donk fest but what can you do?

Ordered some cheap clothes on ebay since most of my socks/underwear have holes in. Got some shorts and t-shirts too. Just ordered some Adidas Pulsado boots since I've destroyed my trainers kicking a ball about with them. Hopefully they don't look too shit either. Bit concerned that the toe looks a bit rubbish. Meh, for the price I paid who cares.

Torrents

Meh. Not my winningest night but better than normal (i.e. running awful). The table that I thought I should be up the most at I lost $65 bucks on. Why? A 61/38/3 downie. First hand against him went down hill from the flop. After seeing some of the retarded shit he pulled later, he could be betting the river without a spade but I doubt it, really. Also there was another idiot (cba) who kept getting AK all-in preflop. He did it against JJ and lost but someone even more retarded pushed AQo and he won that. Of course, I had 99 and would have stacked both the big ace tards. Crazy.

Well, the torrent of HSP206 finally finished. Todd either played that hand masterfully or very, very badly, I can't decide which. His turn overcall represented huge strength but it looked like he really thought As/Ks would call the river, making his bluff a pretty weak play. Daniel's was much, much worse, IMO. Sure Todd can only have a bluff but to check/fold the river? Either bet $20k and fold to a raise, or check to induce a bluff and call a reasonable bet. This is poker not rocket surgery! I know, I know there's some zen 10th level shit going on at the table that we armchair players aren't ever going to wrap our heads around but meh. To me, it looked like Todd was representing either the nut flush or a boat with his 3rd/4th street play. So, since Daniel had the nut flush, Daniel assumed that Todd had to have a boat and could not merely be representing one. The fact that Todd looked completely poleaxed when Daniel tossed out the As I think shows that Todd at least thought it was a pretty poor fold. I also think Daniel was showboating, trying to make his supertough fold for the cameras. Oh, and Antonio's "all-in" joke was pretty funny :)

Anyway, the reason I'm watching HSP and not actually, you know, playing is because vmware has given me a bad beat. Beta expired and the last build I tried failed to install. Updated kernel to 2.6.17-beyond1 but updated gcc after compiling. So I now have to recompile kernel and hope the latest vmware server works with it...or that it works with my old kernel. EFF. Only have 56 hands to clear the JULYRELOAD bonus. Also will probably do the Full Tilt "bonus" even though it takes ~30k hands and is more like rakeback. IDK, $600 isn't exactly a huge amount to justify spending so much time grinding for. It might be more +EV to just keep building my roll on Party. If I'm reading the details correctly, and I like to think that I am, it can be cleared in 3300 hands if $3 rake is applied to each of those. However, it's more likely 10-20K hands playing 100NL. Playing 50NL, as I would do unless I deposited more than $600, to begin with it would take even longer. And considering I normally only 4 table 6max for 2 hours during the week, it would take 40 weekdays. Obviously very, very doable but is it really worth it? I mean I could even do 8 tables and be a total automaton but it would still take 5 weeks or so (unless I put in stupid hours on the weekend). So what I'm really trying to say is there's no point giving up the EV of playing med-stakes at party for a $600 bonus. END.

I lied

Party gave me a set over set (AA v. 99 v. JJ [all-in preflop], flop A9x). I also noted that he overcalled shorty's push with such a weak hand. Also at another table I kept making stupidly strong hands in blind battles...to no gain, obviously.

Very meh, session. Enough to stop me wanting to bet my bankroll on a a near coinflip but barely.

Of course

On some tables with the biggest downies I have ever seen. Of course I cannot get a hand. Oh, KK UTG. One downie calls. Flop AQxfd. I cbet, downie pushes. Wee. Before that I make a K-high flush...against an A-high one. Before that I flop a set on a monotone flop, turn pairs the board, I bet again, river pairs the board again. Sweet, I check call and see TP's runner-runner fullhouse. I did flop a set of Jacks, though...and got nothing. So lets see, I've lost with a flush, a set, KK, AK repeatedly, AQ repeatedly. Oh, JJ all-in preflop for 8bb. Q7o makes a 7-high straight, of course. WOW, AA hold fucking up for 40 whole BB. SWEET.

TT, raise at new table. Flop Txxr. BOOM, finally, yes! Betfoldfoldfold. Fucking super. More downies. OESD, no way I can hit an out. 77, no way I can hit a set.

Fucking lol. So, crushing the game with expert play yields -1.24BB/100. That was at +20 on Saturday. Tonight's circus as I look through the tables: King high flush -40BB, JJ v. Q7o -8BB, set of 4's v. turned trips (I really had no business calling river here) -23BB, TT v. flop checkminraise/weak turn lead -16BB (I think I was ahead here, TBH). Plus missing every flop set mining, flopping Ace-high repeatedly and getting check/raised or bet into. Or, worse still, hitting a flop hard and getting folds.

The bitch of it all is how absolutely terrible everyone plays (including me, yeah, yea). They are litterally trying to give their money away but they can't give it to me.

Fuck this shit, I think I might just put my roll on black in roulette. Of course, doing so on party the bet will not be 0.474EV. 0.047EV is much more likely.

Of course

On some tables with the biggest downies I have ever seen. Of course I cannot get a hand. Oh, KK UTG. One downie calls. Flop AQxfd. I cbet, downie pushes. Wee. Before that I make a K-high flush...against an A-high one. Before that I flop a set on a monotone flop, turn pairs the board, I bet again, river pairs the board again. Sweet, I check call and see TP's runner-runner fullhouse. I did flop a set of Jacks, though...and got nothing. So lets see, I've lost with a flush, a set, KK, AK repeatedly, AQ repeatedly. Oh, JJ all-in preflop for 8bb. Q7o makes a 7-high straight, of course. WOW, AA hold fucking up for 40 whole BB. SWEET.

TT, raise at new table. Flop Txxr. BOOM, finally, yes! Betfoldfoldfold. Fucking super. More downies. OESD, no way I can hit an out. 77, no way I can hit a set.

Fucking lol. So, crushing the game with expert play yields -1.24BB/100. That was at +20 on Saturday. Tonight's circus as I look through the tables: King high flush -40BB, JJ v. Q7o -8BB, set of 4's v. turned trips (I really had no business calling river here) -23BB, TT v. flop checkminraise/weak turn lead -16BB (I think I was ahead here, TBH). Plus missing every flop set mining, flopping Ace-high repeatedly and getting check/raised or bet into. Or, worse still, hitting a flop hard and getting folds.

The bitch of it all is how absolutely terrible everyone plays (including me, yeah, yea). They are litterally trying to give their money away but they can't give it to me.

Fuck this shit, I think I might just put my roll on black in roulette. Of course, doing so on party the bet will not be 0.474EV. 0.047EV is much more likely.

Zidane

Raming the dude in the chest with his head? WTF? Why, oh why would you do that in your final international game?

And France lose.

And I join a 2p2 25NL game...that's a complete nit fest. Oh, why don't we wait for QQ+ each time. Fucking twats. I can think of much more exciting things to do then play 25NL with a bunch of nits. Next time I'll play BJ or roulette, or do something productive like working out. Dropped $75 donking around...after the first $50 I realised people were waiting for TT+/AT+. Then I got QQ v. AA :)

So no more donking poker...especially since it's boring as fuck. I play poker to make money (supposedly), if I want to gambool I go to Party Casino.

Damnit

Sooo I managed to drop another two buyins. I forget how I lost the first one. Second one I pushed my overpair into a calling station on a 'blank' turn. He had turned two pair.

Fucking shortstack minreraises UTG raiser. I have my favourite hand (44) but have to fold because he's not deep enough. Of course 664 flop and he open pushes. Christ. Few hands later I raise QJs EP, same guy calls. QQ5fd flop. He bets into me until the river where I decide that I'm good and raise. He calls with 53s, no pair, no draw.

I've decided the best result I can get with QQ is to take down the blinds. I fucked up AQo making broadway by B3B the turn all-in (double FD board). Guy said he folded Q9 or something. Kind of a dumb move on my part but I was pretty much on monkey tilt by that point.

It would have been worse had my Aces not sucked out on KQ's turned straight. JTxA...he smoothcalls my turn bet. River A. I valuebet. SHIP IT DOWNIE. He told me I was lucky. Yeah, it is lucky for AA to win more than 20% of the time on Party. QQ wins like 5%.

Jesus christ, more runner-runner than the special olympics. I fucking hate poker. Skill hardly matters when donkeys always win with their <10% flop equity.

Don't blink

You missed it. I was running good. Now I'm running normal, AKA fuck Party. Reraise 99 out of the SB. 234r flop. CUNT called with A5s. AA, pot, pot, turn pairs top pair. Uh oh, I make the crying call. Down two buyins, fish left soon after. God bless America. I knew sitting back down tonight was a fucking stupid idea.

Yep, dropped three buyins. Would have been +EV to go to sleep. Flopping the wheel in a reraised pot, meh, variance. Getting rivered variance. But then I decide to bluff a calling station on three streets. Retarhed. Very similar to tuff's infamous AK v. 77 hand only I had 44 and station had K8. No way could I have had a better King, man, no way!

So disappointed in that session, and the fact that I played at all. Still, I probably play the first two hands the same (well, with perfect information I push preflop and turn, respectively).

Well, oops

100NL 6-max BB: AsKs, I raise to $5 against two limpers. One caller. Flop: 2d Qd Tc. Well, fuck, a gutshot. I bet ~pot ($10), he calls. Turn: Kc. Well, TP but I don't like it. I bet $25 into ~$30. Instantly minraised. Um, I think my hand might be good but I can't see how. DP :( River: 4h. Villain shows Jh 8h and MHIG. Yes, OESD on the turn on a double FD board is worth a minraise. I thought he had two pair or a combi-draw. Damn, I feel weak for using DP, and it cost me monies. Needless to say I didn't have reads.

Other than that, pretty uneventful, breakeven session. Got AA once and everyone folded. Got 77 on the button, both blinds called my raise. SB bet, BB called, I folded flop. SB had JJ, BB had 33...and BB rivered a straight (OESD, I only had a gutshot).

It is in every man's dream to have that sweet flavor of not just a new girl, but the girl next door. Whether it's the sweet girl at the cleaners that always gives you that extra smile, or the blonde bombshell you always see parking across the street, you can never resist the urge to flog her flatula. You just want to nut in her ear, shout "that's one for the gipper!," then drop to the floor and bench press her stereo.

Um, quite.

Watching Ger-Por game. Ricardo is a fucking donkey for letting that in. Lahm's volley was pretty sweet. I hope Germany win this. I also hope one of the Portugese players get a red card. rofl, own goal. Awesome finish by the defender. KAHN! is the captain? Hmm. Again, fuck Realmedia. Absolutely atrocious stream. 3-0! Why can't they use QuickTime or Theora? Even ASF might be better (although probably not for *nix users). 3-1! FUCK REAL.

I feel tuff_fish welling up inside of me. Set over set (turned second top vs. flopped top) and then the very next hand I get dealt AA in the BB and it's folded to me. Fucksake. ARGH. One table I just could not win at. -$58 with QQ v. KK against a donk who was pushing $60 preflop repeatedly and that's the only hand I made. Geebus. I actually said "i hate this fucking table". There was another godawful table. I raise AQs in the CO. 3 callers including button. AASKFJ. 5T5r flop, checkcheck $15 into $20 c-bet, button raises to $40. Not much I can do with AQ there. Obviously I doubt he has TT or 5x but I have nothing. Then before that he minraised my 33 cbet postflop. Buddylisted.

However...66 turned everything around for me. Hit two sets at the same time (as well as getting stacked with QQ v. KK). One was turned and earnt me a "fuck you". Can't really blame him. Other one was standard. I wonder what dj_ laid down. Seemed to fold pretty fast. Probably Tx. Need a break.

So I slept pretty much all day today, and most of yesterday. Taking a break from poker but I will hit it up for another few hours. Looking at Jessica Biel just makes me melt a little. It also makes me wish I could throw a perfect spiral (although I doubt very much that would impress her; she could have any NFL player she wanted, no doubt). IDK, something very attractive about her beyond the physical. Can't go wrong with a women who loves outdoor stuff and dogs. Playing the Marry/Fuck/Cliff game with the three famous Jessica's and it looks like Biel/Alba/Simpson for me. IDK, it's pretty close between Alba and Biel.

Mistakes

Weewoo, totally exploited a calling stations natural tendencies...and I bluffed him off his hand earlier. WTF?

First I bluff him with using the dark force. Awesome when it works...I think he had a big Ace anyway. Then I got KK...and everyone folded. And then I got them again. He's .286/.127/.091 PF/F/T. I thought he would had the Ad at least. Sheesh. If a King had come out I would have had to have broken something.

Damn, don't like the fact that pokerhand preserves names :(

And yet, Party still gives me reason to bitch. This was the only decent table I got a seat at. I managed to make it on to two others but they were broken and playing three-handed. Still, can't argue with the amount of QQ+ I've been getting. KK twice in 37 hands. QQ back to back the other day. I don't think this is standard shorthanded.

WC: Portugal fucking suck. All they do is commit fouls and appeal for free kicks. Cocksuckers. Zidane owns. Very good penalty, although Ricardo nearly got a hand to it. FUCKING REALMEDIA. rofl, ball across the 6-yard box and both Portugese strikers dive. zomg, Bartez's butter fingers. France squeeze through. Portugal can go suck some cock.

Passive

What a pathetic performance by England in this world cup, especially this game. All the talk of "peaking" and things coming right was patently false but people eagerly believed anyway. Yeah, yeah, 10-men with the captain and our only striker (lol?) off we had to play for penalties. Only it seemed to me that we were playing for penalties long before that. The whole fucking strategy was far too defensive. You don't win tournaments by keeping clean sheets; you have to score goals. And England can't even score from the spot (although, to be fair, Ricardo is awesome. Robinson sucked but keepers aren't expected to save penalties). LamTARD, omfg, what a donkey. Rooney also had a poor game and, while I believe standing on the guys nuts was unintentional, there was no need to be battling that hard against 3 players on the half way line. Muppets, as normal, but I'm sure the press will be proclaiming how unlucky we were to have Rooney sent off. How unlucky we were to lose on penalties again. Whatever. Piss poor from start to finish, England didn't even deserve to get that far.

Um, finished WoT11: Knife of Dreams today. Much better that book 10. I have forgotten so much of the story/minor characters since I read the first 9 back to back but dithered over no. 10 because it was supposed to be terrible. And it was pretty bad. I thought the Elayne kidknapping at the end was pretty dumb and Rand losing his hand. The Tuon/Mat storyline is definitely the best of the four. Perrin/Faile...I honestly didn't give a shit for the most part. Egwene's story is pretty bad too. Min also annoys the fuck out of me. And as for the "powerful vision of good and evil"...well, it's a bit too comic book for me. Give me GRRM's anyday. I'm going to finish it, obviously, perhaps even read the prequel(s) but it is no longer the epic I thought it was.

Been doing my own tuff_fish impressions. Got stacked with AQ when downie turned two pair. Finally had my chance to settle the score when I raised 77 and flopped a set. Two callers on a FD flop. Gee, great. Turn's the flush. LAGtard leads into me for pot, I call because we're semi-deep and board might pair. Two pair downie then pushes OTT of us both. "Fucking downies" say I and leave that table. I also lost KK to AA but the guy had 6bb. GG downie. I also freerolled a backdoor flush with AQs and it hit on a paired river. I pushed regardless and all the downies thought I had a FH. Oh yeah, there was another couple of funny hands: 22, I raise, get minreraised and call. Flop Kxx, check/check. Turn x, check/check. River x, check/check. Villain shows KK. lol? Later I get 99 in the blinds, LP downie raises I call. Flop Kxx FD, check/check/downie 1/5th pot bet. I type "lol" and call, lead turn 3/4bet/call/downie fold. Uh oh, no doubt he's got a King. River 9. Boom, shipit, holla. Possible weird straight but I'm good. 5/6bet/fold. lol? Downie and a FD chasing maggot. GG. I should have remembered from an earlier hand where I believe the chaser had 54 (pair+gutshot) and bluffed on the river. Got AA loads and didn't get stacked with them once, iirc. Managed to hit a set of them on the turn and I was hoping I was being slowplayed but alas no.

Holy shit, France beat Brazil. Did not expect that.

Goddamn motherfucking cocksuckers :) Dropped one buyin at a table of minraising fishes when my turned set of Aces lost to the shortstacks flopped nut straight...then he rivered the backdoor flush for good measure. Oh, and QQ got beat up on a Kxx FD flop in a reraised pot. And then...I doubled up a SS AQo v. 44, and 44 v. AA. Plus all the miscellaneous crap, missing every OESFD etc. Although I did take a nice pot off someone when he hit a backdoor flush and I hit a full house. Still didn't stack him, though. ~7BB/100 playing 15/8. My shorthanded experiment has put me in the black green for the month.

I think part of the reason I play 'better' at these stakes is the money doesn't matter which is both good and bad. Good in that I don't tilt much, I have no qualms about bluffing, or getting stacked as long as I think my play was 'good'. Bad in that winning hardly matters to me either. I think it's kind of tough to find a balance between the stakes not mattering and being able to play absolutely fearlessly (NO FEAR. NO FEAR AT ALL. GODDAMN). Which is where good bankroll management comes in. Me playing 400NL, multitabling even, with $2k was and is retarded. I thought weak-tight was some brilliant strategy and I couldn't really lose. Sure my winrate was low but pushing hugh postflop edges should mean constant growth with little variance. Uhuh. What a schmuck.

Also, from my experience so far, I don't think I can go back to fullring. It is just too slow, and so far my opponents in 6max are very, very beatable. I don't know if that's because of the stakes, though. I should really file another 8k hands where I am but I can't see myself doing that.