Where Animals Go To Die, Part 3

You may want to catch up on part 1 and part 2 before venturing onward.

I recently joined a poker league that is run out of a local bar. There are two tournaments per night. One starting at 6:30, the other around 9:30. Last Thursday, I busted out about 1 hour into the second tournament. I left the bar disappointed and headed home around 10:30pm.

On our front stoop, by the front door, we have a large planter. Since my wife and I are not very good at keeping plant-life living, the only thing in the planter was an empty wicker basket.

As I walked up the stairs toward the front stoop, I noticed something out of place in my peripheral vision. I turned my head and was startled to see a bird perched on the wicker basket.

As a child, my family had a pet parakeet. Because of that, I know that when a bird is ready to sleep, it settles down on its perch and its feather fluff out and can look like a big puff ball. This bird looked like that…like it was getting ready to sleep. However, the bird did not appear to be asleep, since its black eyes were wide open, coldly staring at me.

I would expect that when a human being approaches a bird, that the bird would startle and fly away. However, this bird did nothing. I looked at it and it was frozen like a statue. I moved toward it and the bird did not budge.

I felt like I had to document this, so I took out my phone and got pretty close to it and took a picture. The bird did not flinch. Either this bird has had a particularly tiring day or it was approaching the end of its life. I instantly thought of the cat and the rabbit that died in my yard and thought, “Here we go again!” Is my house built on some sort of Wiccan burial ground? What is it about my house that attracts animals with limited time left?

I gave up on the bird and unlocked the door with my key. I was hoping that when I opened the door, the bird would get scared and fly away (and not into my house). I turned the door knob and opened the door. The bird moved! Just slightly, but it definitely turned its head toward me. It’s alive! At least for now. I went to bed worried about what I would find when I woke up in the morning.

When I woke up the next day, the first thing I did was go downstairs to see if the bird was a) still there, and b) still alive. I slowly tilted the blinds opened and peered down into the basket. The bird was gone! Fortunately, it did not seem to suffer the same fate as the cat or the rabbit. Well…as far as I know. It is certainly possible that a predator got a nice meal in the middle of the night, but there was no evidence of that.

I feel a bit more secure that my house will not be the setting for a Pet Sematary sequel. I truly hope that the bird is ok. I would offer it our house as a resting place any time it wants, but hopefully not its “final” resting place.

---

And now a haiku:

Fluffy and tired
Please just be here for the night
Not for your last breath

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I Swear It's Not Fixed

I host a poker tournament at my house every other month.  Including last night, I have won 3 of the last 4 times I have hosted. I am not complaining. I like winning and I have no qualms taking money from my guests.

Lately, I’ve been playing in two regular games:  mine every other month and another guy’s monthly game where he alternates between tournament and cash.

I haven’t been playing much anywhere else. I haven’t been to Atlantic City since August. I have pretty much stopped playing online because I find it to be extremely boring and it doesn’t hold my attention anymore.

While I seem to be doing well in tournaments lately, I can’t catch a break in cash games. I think I’m just much more disciplined when I play tournaments. There is an obvious goal:  collect all of the chips. The blinds increase at a fixed interval and I’ve read enough books about playing tournaments to develop a strategy that has served me well.

In cash games, the goal is to accumulate as many chips as you can. Believe it or not, there is a very fine line between:

1. accumulate as many chips as you can
2. collect all of the chips

The difference is that in a cash game there is an infinite number of chips. When people bust out, they buy more chips. People can come and go as they please. It also feels like you are not risking as much per hand and the blinds never increase, so I find that I make sub-optimal calls; both pre-flop and post-flop. Basically, I lose my discipline when I play in a cash game and just play really bad poker.

I don’t know if I can break out of my cash game slump. Maybe a trip to Atlantic City would help. 🙂

Why Am I Awake?

I’m not sure why I’m awake. My sleep schedule is totally out of whack. I was on a good roll and feeling really good. I think most of that was due in large part to the boot camp exercise class I was taking. When the 8-week session ended, I decided to try to work out on my own to see if I could be disciplined without a class to go to. Unfortunately, I’ve barely been getting to the gym 2 days/week. I need to get back on the stick.

Right now it is 1am early Wednesday morning and I’m still up. I think my problem started last week when I got my new computer. I stayed up late configuring it and moving files over from my old computer, etc. Then, I had to work all day on Saturday. I thought I’d be done by 2pm, but unfortunately, I ended up working from 7:30am to 7:30pm. On Sunday night, I went to the Redskins game and didn’t get home until 12:30am. The bad sleep cycle continues.

The rest of the week isn’t going to be any easier:

• Thursday night: I am hosting poker.
• Friday night: I am going to the Capitals game
• Saturday night: I am going to my company’s holiday party
• Sunday morning: I have to drive car pool to Sunday school

I could use a day off.  No…that’s not true. Sure, I’d like to take a day off, but what would be better than a day off? Sleep. Even if I could take a day off, I wouldn’t be able to sleep because I have two young kids. I’d like to go to bed at 10pm and sleep until 10am. Twelve hours of sleep ought to do the trick.

Maybe I’ll call in sick tomorrow. Nope…can’t do that…my boss reads my blog. I’ll be in the office bright and early and I’ll have a very productive day.

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I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 978028

King Plays

I had an interesting hand in the $0.25/$0.50 cash game I played after the tournament finished last night. I was dealt K9 in the big blind. There were a few limpers and I checked my option.

The flop comes [6 6 9]. I bet about half the pot and everyone folds except the guy on the button.

The turn brings a 6:  [6 6 9] [6]. I’ve got a full house. The only card I’m worried about is the 4th 6. I bet, the other guy pushes all-in. He’s got me covered. I figure he’s either got a 6 or a 9. Those are the only cards that make sense. I call the all-in.

We flip over the cards. He has 97. We laugh and prepare to divvy up the pot. Then, we realize we still need to deal the river. I actually have some outs and we thought it’d be funny if the river was a K giving me a better full house.

He deals the river.  It’s a 6: [6 6 9] [6] [6]. There’s quad 6s on the board. We laugh again and prepare to chop the pot. Then, we all realize that I actually won the hand. My king plays. My hand is 4-of-a-kind K kicker, while my opponent’s is 4-of-a-kind 9 kicker.

That’s one of those hands you don’t forget. I didn’t win a lot on the hand, but I was down and it was enough to get me back in the black.

Extra, Extra: Host Wins Tourney

The host would be me.

I had poker at my house last night. We had a good crowd; 17 people showed. There weren’t a lot of memorable hands for me, which hopefully means that I played solid poker. I’m just glad I won. I had a rough couple of days playing poker in Atlantic City earlier this week and it was nice to recover some of my losses last night.

Worst. Hand. Ever.

I blew it. I played poker at a co-worker’s house last night. I finished 5th out of 20. Top 4 paid. The last hand was a total mess for me.

There were 6 players. The blinds were 300/600. I had about 6500 in chips. There were two people with shorter stacks than me.

I’m sitting in the big blind and get dealt Kh 9h. Three people limp in and I gladly check my option. There is 2400 in the pot.

The flop comes Jd Kd Qh. The guy in the small blind checks. I check behind. Next guy moves all in for 2400. I’m already thinking about calling when the other two guys surprisingly call the all-in. Now the pot is 9600. The pot is giving me 4:1 odds to call. I have top-pair and a gut shot straight draw. There’s a flush-draw and a straight-draw on the board. I figure that I probably have the best hand at the moment.

I called the all-in. Maybe I should have re-raised all-in. However, that would have made the pot about 15000 and only an extra ~3000 for the other two to call, so I probably wouldn’t have been able to push out any draws. Actually, I just used PokerStove to figure out my odds. With that flop, against 3 random hands, I am the overwhelming favorite, however, with that board, I’m sure I’m not up against “random” hands. I probably should have folded, but the pot odds….I just had to call. The pot is now about 12000.

The turn is Qd. I’ve got two-pair. My only move is to go all in, but with that size bet into that large of a pot, I wouldn’t be getting anyone to fold. Everyone checks around.

The river is the Ah. The guy to my right goes all-in. At this point, I know I’m beat. I have to be beat. If I fold, I have about 3000 left. With the blinds at 300/600, I’m pitifully short stacked. I think long and hard. There’s no way my two-pair is any good.

To recap, the board looks like this:   Jd Kd Qh Qd Ah

I make the call. I gave myself a lifeline by checking the turn then I used it to hang myself on the river. I’m still trying to figure out why I called as I turn over what is sure to be the losing hand:

Seat 1 (the guy who pushed on the river):  As Qc, for a full house
Seat 2 (me): Kh 9h, for two-pair
Seat 4 (the original all-in on the flop): 10h 4h, for a straight
Seat 6: Ad 4d, for the nut flush

Honestly, I think I was just really tired. If I had folded the river, I’d be totally short stacked. I suppose  I could have stolen some blinds and/or found a good hand to push with. It’s possible I could have lasted long enough to finish in the top 4. Also, I did not even notice the flush on the board. Sometimes, when I have two pair, I just don’t see anything else. I knew that somebody had a straight. Hell…if somebody just had an Ace, I would’ve been beaten. There were so many ways I could have been beaten. What a dumb call! For some reason, I convinced myself that I was pot committed. I’m so convinced that I had to lookup a definition of pot committed:

• From PokerZone.com:  Who has already contributed such a high percentage of one’s chip stack to the pot so as to make folding no longer a reasonable choice even if holding a hand that is likely to be beaten on the showdown.
• From Learn-Texas-Holdem.com: Being pot committed simply means that you have so many chips already invested in the hand relative to your remaining chips, and the odds, that you have to call. Folding would be a mathematical mistake.
• From conjelco.com: A state where you are essentially forced to call the rest of your stack because of the size of the pot and your remaining chips.
• From wiktionary.org: Being in a position where the odds dictate a call of a bet or raise (almost) regardless of one’s opponent’s cards.

Yes, I’m trying to convince you (as well as myself) that I made the right decision. The actual odds of winning after the flop (Jd Kd Qh) were:

Seat 1:  As Qc (7.5%)
Seat 2 (me): Kh 9h (39%)
Seat 4: 10h 4h (11.5%)
Seat 6: Ad 4d (41%)

I was surprised to see that I was a slight underdog after the flop even though I had the best hand. I’m going to remember that. That’s poker math that I certainly couldn’t have figured out at the table. Overall, I probably played the hand correctly…until the river. I still don’t know what I was thinking. It’s hard to play fatigued.

iTunes has coincidentally chosen to play Boston’s Peace of Mind right now. I could use some right now.

The Face of a Winner

There’s a guy I play poker with who likes to point out people’s physical tells. But, he doesn’t do it at the table. At the table, he’ll tell you that later, in private, he’ll tell you, so he doesn’t give away your “secret” to anyone.

To be honest, if I picked up on someone’s physical tell, I would a) not make anyone aware of the tell (especially the guy with the tell), or b) not reveal the tell even in private. What you should do is crush the other guy when you get the opportunity to take advantage of the tell.

But, he’s a nice guy and I think he actually is trying to be helpful. We talk about cards a lot and about how to play certain hands, so this kind of goes hand in hand with that. I’m certainly not going to complain if he helps me plug holes in my game.

So, there was a hand where I made a pretty aggressive play. He folded and then told me that later he needs to show me something in the mirror.

I replied, “What? The face of a winner.”

I could end this blog entry right there, but there’s more.

I didn’t quite get the riotous reaction from the rest of the table that I was expecting from my comment. Come on! That was quite a witty comeback, don’t you think?

Anyway, I knew what he was talking about, but I wasn’t actually aware of it until he “discreetly” pointed it out. And, yes, I’m going to reveal my tell in the hopes that I can be careful enough to control it in the future.

I tend to furrow my brow when I have a tough decision to make. It’s not much of a tell, but the lack of the tell probably indicates that I have a monster hand or at least a hand that doesn’t require much thought.

So, a hand or so later, I pushed all in. I think I had JJ. It gets around to my friend and he’s deep in thought. I say, “Oh wait! Let me get my game face on.” and I furrow my brow. He cracks up, “oh…you know what I’m talking about!”

He folded.

WTF?

For the past 8 months or so, I’ve been hosting poker regularly on the first Thursday of every other month, which was last night. When I first started playing poker semi-regularly, my poker group consisted entirely of my co-workers. When I say “semi-regularly”, I mean “semi-regularly”. Someone would decide to host a game and we’d have a game…there wasn’t ever any kind of hosting rotation. We probably averaged a game about every 4 – 6 weeks over a period of about 3 years or so.

Why Thursdays? I’m not really sure. It wasn’t always Thursdays, but it was always during the work week. Very few of my co-workers wanted to play on a Friday or on the weekend. I guess it may have been easier to get a night out during the week with co-workers then to have to convince the spouse that they are going to spend part of the weekend socializing with people that they see all week long.

I personally like to play Thursdays because it’s a good way to head into the weekend, which is similar to the way Thursdays was always a big night out in college. However, it seems that less and less people at work are interested in playing poker and the time between games seems to have gotten longer and longer.

I started hosting every other month with the hope that someone else would fill in the months that I wasn’t hosting, but that hasn’t happened. Also, since less and less people from work are interested in playing poker, I extend an invitation to friends, neighbors, and other people that I’ve met through playing poker over the years. I probably invite 50 people or so. The most I’ve ever had at my house is 18.

Last night was supposed to be different. As of yesterday morning, I was expecting 24 people. I was psyched to have a 3-table tournament. I borrowed a table and extra chairs from a co-worker and I was all ready to go. The cost to play in the tournament is $30, so the total prize pool would have been $720. The winner would have gotten about half of that. How great that would be?

Then…people started dropping like flies. One guy who said he was coming never comes, so right off the bat I was down to 23. I had 4 people from work cancel at the last minute. Two people that were friends of friends that I thought were confirmed were just tentative and they didn’t come. So, we’re down to 17 confirmed. Two people just didn’t show up. So, my wonderful, exciting, big money, 3-table tournament ended up being your run-of-the-mill 2 table tournament.

My final hand: blinds were 300/600 and I had 3200 remaining. The general rule of thumb is that if you have less than 10x the big blind, you basically need to fold or push all-in. I was dealt AKs. I was in early position. I pushed all-in. The guy to my left, who ended up finishing 2nd, is a guy who tends to call all-ins on the turn with a gut shot straight draw and then defies the odds and fills his draw on the river. He called my all-in, which didn’t concern me. Then, I got another caller. AKs against one player who makes questionable decisions is ok. Against two players…not so good. In fact, AKs against any random hand is a 2:1 favorite. Against, two random hands more like a coin flip for me. A fourth guy very nearly called me also, but opted to fold.Cards flip. The guy to my left has QQ. The other guy that called has AKo. If I was only up against the QQ, I’d be a very slight underdog…basically a coin flip. Add the other AK in there and my odds of winning the hand go down to 22% pre-flop. The odds of splitting the pot are about 40%, which would’ve been fine by me. The guy who ended up folding made a great lay down with JJ. The QQ held up and I was done.

Even though I was disappointed in the turnout, I still had fun. Everyone had a good time. I was relatively happy with my play. There were one or two hands where calling or re-raising, would’ve been the right poker decision, but I was too tentative (read: chicken) and folded. Unfortunately, one of those hands would’ve allowed me to take out 2 people in the same hand, which may have changed my final standing. I finished out of the money in 6th place.