Friends of Bradley (Not All Poker Related)

About Friends of Bradley (Not All Poker Related)
[info]dmorr: wsop main event report Thursday 9 July 2009 @ 10:38
Not much to report, sadly: I busted on the first day.

Things started out quite well. The table was pretty soft, lots of people seeing flops, no three betting. One player seemed to me to be dangerous, playing lots of hands, making lots of small bets -- I later found out it was John Tabatabai. But I had position on him, and he never really got it going.

I actually really like being behind players like that. We'd have hands like: he minraises from the field, I call in latish position with like T7o, flop comes AT4, he continuation bets then folds to my raise. That turns out to be much better for me than stealing the blinds. I didn't do it every hand, but did it pretty often.

For some reason I got a ton of hands utg -- I think I raised 6 of the 8 utg hands I had in the first level. Only once was I really out of line, with A7s. The most memorable was raising with AKs, flopping the nuts, smooth calling the flop and the turn and getting a bet called on the river. After the first level, I had about $40k.

But I lost half my stack over the course of several hands in the second level. Here are two:

I defend the bb with KJo against a late position raiser. Flop comes J87. I check intending to raise, but he checks behind. Turn is a 4, I bet, he calls. River is another 7, I bet half the pot, now he raises to 2.5 times my bet. Can I fold here? Is he ever bluffing? I call and he has 67 for trips.

Here was a bad one. Early position tight player raises the 100 blind to 525, another guy tries to limp, and then once he is informed of the raise says he would have folded but since he is forced to leave his limp in now calls. I defend the BB with 8h7h. Flop is 76h5h, ding. I check, utg bets 1000, guy cold calls, I raise to 4200, utg folds, limpy guy calls. Turn is the Jh. I'm actually slightly concerned about a higher flush draw since he called twice, so I check. He checks behind. River is the ugly Qh. I check again, he bets 7000. I tell him I can only beat a bluff, and he immediately flips down his sunglasses and stares stone faced at the center of the table. I'm not sure what to make of this, but I eventually call -- in retrospect I don't like this call at all, since I hadn't yet seen him bluff. He declares straight flush and flips over Th9h. He is genuinely surprised to discover he doesn't have a straight flush that he was slowplaying on the turn -- he said he was hoping I had the Ah. I sure wish I had it too.

The next level I went back to playing lots of small pots and mostly winning them, firing at weakness and avoiding strength. Only that pro was playing the same game, and he didn't seem to be able to adjust to my picking on him from behind. The fourth or fifth time I raised him on the flop he thought for a long time, maybe to try and make a play. I had bottom set, so I really wish he had. I decided to slowplay the next time I had a real hand against him:

He opened early for 600, a minraise (no antes yet). I raise to 1800 with AQo, he calls. Flop is AJx, he checks and I do too. Turn is another A, we check again. River is a J, he bets out 2000, I raise to 6000, he thinks for a few seconds and calls... with A9. So I could have gotten a ton of value on the turn had I pulled the trigger then. And still chopped on the river.

I chip back up to a starting stack by dinner. After dinner, I stopped hitting flops. Lots of hands like, I raise to 1025, bb defends, flop is A high, he calls my cbet with an A and we check it down and I lose.

Here's a weird one at the 150-300-25 level: utg limper, the straight flush guy raises to 825, one cold caller, I call in the bb with 7s4s, utg calls. Flop is Ad8s5s, which seems good. I check intending to check-raise, checked around. Turn is the 4d, so I have a pair to go with my gutshot straight flush draw, and nobody seems to want this pot, so I bet 1600. Utg folds, and the raiser now makes it 5000. Button folds... and now what should I do? All my options seem reasonable here. I eventually decide to call -- I'm getting correct odds if all my outs are good, plus implied odds, but I don't know which of my outs are likely to be good. Against AK, say, I'm drawing fine, and I think there's a chance he's raising a diamond draw. River is the 7d, one of those cards I don't know if it's good or not. I check, he thinks for a long time and checks behind. Ok, I probably win. I turn over my two pair, and he tables... Qd6d, the second nuts. "You thought so long before checking I was worried you had the K high flush," he explained.

So at the end of level 4, I'm down to 16k. I'm still deep enough for some play at the 200-400-50 level, but have less than half an average stack. I decide to tighten up because of that and because it's getting late and I'm tired. After a couple of rounds I open raise with AA, get three bet with AKs and shove, he calls, and my hand holds up. Whee.

I rarely see a flop for the next hour, maybe two or three in that time, from the bb or steal position. I do take down two pots by three betting preflop, so I actually chip up a little in that time. Then, 15 minutes from the end of the day, a big stack who is new to the table raises to 1200 from three off, and I defend the bb with J9. The flop is Jh9xh, ding. I check, he bets 1800, I raise to 6000. He thinks for a bit and reraises to 16000. Hm. Well, I think my hand is good enough here, so I shove for 34000ish. He thinks for 30 seconds, says he hopes I don't have a set, and calls (correctly) with Ah9h. He's got 12 outs twice, and indeed hits a heart on the river and I am out.

So... bah. I was happy to be making day two even with a slightly below average stack. I felt like I had a lot of good opportunities, shoulda made a couple of laydowns I didn't, but was generally happy with my play and with the table. But I'm not sure what I could have done on the last hand. I guess I could stop and go on the flop to defend against the draw, but I at least did get it all in with the best hand.

Oh well. Next year, I guess.
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[info]flatvurm: Return to semiotics Wednesday 8 July 2009 @ 15:27
Been a while since I've dropped something on you guys from the Encyclopedia of Symbols, huh? Well, here is Symbol 47:28, found "carved into a rock wall in Inyo County, California."



Worst. Tic-tac-toe game. EVAR!
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[info]flatvurm: Wha... Wha... Wednesday 8 July 2009 @ 14:52
They...they made a movie of Hogfather? And The Colour of Magic?! Wha...why...WHY WAS I NOT TOLD OF THIS?!?!
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[info]flatvurm: Today's inspirational quote Tuesday 7 July 2009 @ 20:01
Anonymous attribution, sighted on Jonathan Carroll's blog here.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave
with the intention of arriving safely
in an attractive and well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways,
chocolate in one hand,
body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming
"WOO HOO what a ride!"
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[info]flatvurm: Grieve in your own way Tuesday 7 July 2009 @ 19:27
The other day on the Jitney ride to work, I saw a teenage white boy with "RIP MJ" shaved into the side of his head. Today I was on the Boardwalk trolling for more cheap souvenir t-shirts and, although I should have expected it, I was still a little surprised to see a prominent selection of Michael Jackson memorial shirts available. Angela tells me it's a thing in Asia now that people are killing themselves over MJ's death. I haven't seen any real news in a while now, since every time I catch CNN on in the break room at work, there's always Michael Jackson news on.

I haven't really been able to explain this feeling, but I keep expecting to hear that Jackson has come back to life. Not that I expect he'd make a really good zombie or anything. You know, on reflection, yes...I think he actually would. But that aside, I just feel like it's one of those things...I just feel that the world is that twisted. Like if I heard on the news on day that Michael Jackson had risen from the dead, I just wouldn't be that surprised. I also get the impression that the rest of the world would take it in stride, too. *shrug* I dunno. Just haven't been getting out a lot lately. :)

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I'd taken a little break in my Asian Action Movie block recently. What happened was...some time ago, I got the urge to watch Pulp Fiction again, so I queued it up and watched it. That led me to a few other somewhat-related movies, namely a parody film called Plump Fiction and another Tarentino feature, Jackie Brown. I can remember when Jackie Brown came out, but what with one thing and another, I guess I'd never seen it. So this seemed like a good time. I watched it, and I was satisfied. It was, of course, a descendant or homage or something to the 70s Blacksploitation genre, and after watching it, it was with that cultural predisposition lodged in my mind that I went out to greet the world later that evening. And so, I was mightily pleased to hear the theme from Shaft playing on the radio when I got on the Jitney that night. I don't know what station or music mix or whatever the driver was listening to, but let me just say that I was subsequently highly entertained later on when "The Humpty Dance" came on. :) I mean, come on...you just don't get music like that any more. :)

* * *

Back in the world of Asian action cinema, I've wandered back into the Thai arena and have good things to say about the Tony Jaa flick The Protector. This is, at its heart, a story about a boy and his elephants. Yeah. See, our hero is part of a family who...raises royal elephants? They raise elephants, and they also become Muay Thai masters. That's just...what they do. Don't ask questions. So it comes to pass that this particular royal elephant caretaker and master of Muay Thai runs afoul of some kind of international elephant-smuggling operation, and he ends up in Sidney, Australia, going up against the most powerful organized crime family in the area, which, unless I completely miss my mark here, is somehow a Chinese family. So there's that. There's also what I consider a complete lack of pacing in this movie.

Once the major plot points are established (vis-à-vis, you know, elephants), we're basically just launched into one massive action sequence after another with very little in between. That said, the action is copious and varied, for the most part. We've got a high-speed boat chase. We've got our hero fighting off a gang of extreme inline skaters trying to beat him to death with fluorescent light bulbs (a fight which, by the way, eventually leads to the protagonist squaring off against an ATV four-wheeler with both driver and vehicle being trimmed with studded leather). We've got a pretty interesting scene of our hero fighting his way up each level of a spiraling tower populated by innocents and mooks and which is covered, more or less, but one long, uninterrupted steady-cam shot, which I thought was cool. (The fight choreography definitely feels slow...like it doesn't make use of the frenetic pacing you get used to with those Hong Kong flicks, but come on...it's one long camera shot! Do you know how hard that must have been?) There's a series of one-on-one fights that take place in a Buddhist temple or something that, inexplicably, someone has set fire to. (Remember that thing about no pacing?) The best in this series, in my opinion, is the fight with the dark-skinned, braided guy who, if I'm any judge, is a Capoeira fighter. Dudes, if you want to see a cinematic pit fight between a Muay Thai and Capoeira, well...this is it, son. Plus they're fighting while standing in a couple inches of water, so...that adds to the show. Other opponents in this series: a white guy with like a Chinese Wushu sword who our hero fights with what I believe are two giant drumsticks; and hulking giant Nathan Jones, who you may also remember Jet Li fighting in Fearless. (Serious, man...the dude is like seven feet tall and built like He-Man. How do you look like that and then get typecast fighting diminutive Asian men?)

A couple things may drag a bit in the film. One, as noted, the pacing of the story isn't really given that much consideration, and you're occasionally left with the feeling that either the film wasn't edited all that well, or else they just didn't shoot enough footage to really let the audience know what's going on. This will be of varying importance depending on your point of view. Like...everything's held together by fight sequences, you know? On the one hand, you don't really need to know what's going on. You know who are the good guys and the bad guys, and you're watching people's asses get kicked. But if you're the type who is watching a martial arts flick and likes to take a breather now and then to check in with the story or characters or something, this may not be for you. Two, the fight scenes themselves can, on occasion, drag. Our hero's particular leanings in the Muay Thai world are toward the flavor that follows a sequence like this: (1) Someone is punching and/or kicking you. (2) Grab your opponent's limb. (3) Break said limb in three or four places. This technique is used an unruly number of times. Especially toward the end, when it is applied to a seemingly endless supply of identically-dressed mooks. Over and over. For a long time.

What does not drag is the movie's devotion to it's storyline. A lot of films would be contain to just kind of get the ball rolling with a little background, and then let the action take over. Oh, no, not The Protector, friends. This movie will never let you forget that this is all about elephants. I'm serious, man...this kid loves his elephants. There are, like, flashbacks with elephants, dream sequences with elephants...fighting lessons learned from elephants. I also like that this movie couples that unusual subject matter with a film taking place in at least three languages. One of my favorite non-action sequences: Our Thai hero (Kham) is tracking down the man he feels responsible for the elephant trafficking (Johnny), who is a Vietnamese guy working for a Chinese gang in Sydney, Australia. Kham finds Johnny on a bridge in Sydney chatting up a Thai woman.
Kham, being held back by a couple bodyguards, screaming in Thai to Johnny: "You bastard! You stole my elephant!"

Thai woman, in English, to Johnny: "He says he's looking for his elephant."

Johnny sneers at Kham and says nothing, though you feel a thought bubble rise of his head that says, "WTF?" Johnny then kicks Kahm in the head.

Anyway. If you've seen Ong-bak (Tony Jaa's breakout hit), you will note many, many similarities between this film and that one. The Protector is actually a lot like Ong-bak, except distilled and cranked up a couple of notches. Ong-bak had a lot more dealing with characters; The Protector doesn't. The Protector probably has something like triple the action quotient of Ong-bak, with the added bonus of probably about twenty times the amount of limb-breaking. The kind of rustic nationalism presented in Ong-bak has been replaced in The Protector with...well, love of elephants, basically, but the melodrama has been quite noticeably increased. Both movies, besides centering around Tony Jaa, also have the same supporting actor, who I had to look up to know was Petchtai Wongkamlao, but who I think of in both movies as "that funny little round guy." So if you were so-so on Ong-bak (as I was), and felt that it would have been better if it was, well, more, then I recommend to you The Protector. Plus, and I just feel it necessary to point that out, I will see any movie with an end-credit like this one, and this is a direct quote: "Passer-By When Mark Talks With Goong on the Phone." Put that on your résumé. :)

Ah, and one last note. Do not (I repeat not) confuse this movie with the bizarre 1985 feature of the same name starring Jackie Chan and...ahem...Danny Aiello. Although I did see that one long ago, and it is...well, just about what you'd expect, I guess, from the pairing of Jackie Chan and Danny Aiello. It's just...like...weird. Check that one out if you're in the mood for...well, watered down Jackie Chan action, I guess, with added Danny Aiello. But if you're instead in the mood for crazy Thai action sequences and near-endless limb-breaking, then by all means check out The Protector. Just make sure it's the one with the elephants.
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[info]timprov: Now that's getting your geek on. Monday 6 July 2009 @ 18:32
Ctein writes a really awesome post about preparing to photograph a potential Betelgeuse supernova.
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[info]jellymillion: Splish Splash Monday 6 July 2009 @ 16:20
Trying to get enough mileage (is "kilomet[e]rage" a word? If not, why not?) in the bank to allow for a likely two-week pool absence. Total covered to date this year: 26409m (strange less-than round number a product of sometimes swimming in a 33m pool) out of the 50km target. Distance per session up to 850m now and overall "gasp-time" substantially reduced. I'm more-or-less on target to finish the whole thing by the end of October. Since March, my 500m checkpoint time (I wasn't getting to 500m before March) has come down from 23+ minutes to 13:30.

Looking at the newly-arrived torrential downpour hammering down outside, one would suspect the the heatwave is, for the time being at least, over. No doubt we'll be shivering in our "canvas cottage" next week.
Current Mood: grumpy
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[info]mbrubeck: Smitten Sunday 5 July 2009 @ 21:36
Being a parent is like having an unrequited, unsuspected crush. All she has to do is smile, and my heart stops and my world goes from black and white to color. And she has no idea that this happens. Is it always like this? Does this explain all the cute, pathetic, embarrassing things parents do?
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[info]dmorr: third time's the charm? Sunday 5 July 2009 @ 15:27
Main event, here I come. Playing tomorrow, for the third time. In '04, I died at the very end of the first day. In '05, I got all in with just one out and busted in the second level.

This year I'm a much better no limit player than I was then, though I actually think I played quite well both those times. I don't look back at any of the major hands and have any regrets at how I played them.

In Brasilia, table 161 seat 2.
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[info]flatvurm: Why not? Saturday 4 July 2009 @ 17:31
Want to get religion? Want to get religion...on a Turkish game show? Check out this CNN story, courtesy of our friends that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. RAmen.

* * *

And happy Independence Day, Americans. Let's not squander it. :)
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[info]flatvurm: Make a wish Saturday 4 July 2009 @ 17:20
So, at various holidays and festive times throughout the year, the cafeteria at work sometimes gets all decorated and churns out thematically appropriate foodstuffs. For this weekend's celebration of Independence Day (which also coincides with Borgata's anniversary, by the way), they've got some shiny cardboard stars pasted around the place high up on the walls. I was in line at the steam tables last night to grab a meal before I started my shift, and one of the stars disengaged from the wall and fell on my head. So it goes.

Also noteworthy last night: the bad beat jackpot hit again during my shift. The bizarre part was: that was the second time it got hit that day. It apparently hit earlier that same afternoon. I think the time previous to that was like two weeks ago or so. I dunno, man...twice in one day. I mean, there are long odds, and there are long odds, but this is as good an illustration as any that...well, improbable shit happens. I mean...it just does. This is an idea that all gamblers just have to get used to.
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[info]jbailey: Taxes; Bixi Friday 3 July 2009 @ 17:03
Finally filed our Quebec, Canada, California and US taxes today - two stops for local tax agencies and then the post office.

Another "How awesome is Montreal" moment: Biking downtown on a rental bike for which I pay ~$80CAD/year, going past cars that were stuck in traffic, past the jazz festival on a warm sunny day. Drop off the rental bike a stand, and walk the 2 or 3 blocks to the destination, pick it up to return.

Less than an hour of time to make up for work, all included.

Bixi takes a bit of getting used to since they don't have all the supply and demand quirks worked out, but I've been remarkably lucky with it.
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[info]jrbl: Kate Beaton's history comics Friday 3 July 2009 @ 11:49
Go read this one and tell me you're not the least teeny bit interested in buying her book. Go on, I dare you.
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[info]jrbl: The Crime Cabal Friday 3 July 2009 @ 11:12
One of the things on my Christmas list this past year was Tales of the Red Panda: The Crime Cabal. [info]anami's dad ordered it for me on preorder, and it took a while getting to me. I think I finally had it in my hands in late January. Well, now the mass-market edition is out, and it's even been updated (more polite than retconned) to track with revelations in the most recent season of the show.

So anyway, I thought it was pretty good. Folks should consider getting ahold of it. Or at least listening to the show.
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[info]jrbl: Automatic headline extraction FAIL Thursday 2 July 2009 @ 21:36
From my google News feed of July 01, 2009:

Automated headline extraction FAIL

Part of me thinks this is really unfortunate, and part of me finds it funny, and part of me thinks it's just really really icky.

Where are you, Semantic Web?
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[info]timprov: Belated Canada Day Thursday 2 July 2009 @ 17:31
[info]mrissa: If the world was arranged around me, everyone would have had poutine specials the last week. And then we could see, like, how Cam Ranh Bay does poutine.
[info]timprov: We could go get beef broccoli and put it on some french fries.
[info]mrissa: That's OK, I already have plans for dinner tonight.
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[info]timprov: Holy shit we got Martin Havlat. Wednesday 1 July 2009 @ 23:01
I was pretty much giving up on scorers when Cammalleri went to the Habs. This was a pretty nice second best. Almost as good as the Rangers paying an insane amount of money to ensure we don't have to deal with Gaborik anymore. (Though that is what the Rangers are for, after all.)

Still one Koivu short, though.
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[info]dmorr: more on the mega Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 16:09
I abbreviated my last post when I got to the mega, so here's a bit about the final table.

Super satellites are very silly at the bubble. Here's an example hand to see why.

The blinds are 4000-8000 with 1000 ante. I'm the second biggest stack with 68000. I find A9 in the cutoff, and I jam. The button has 48000, and 99. Here's the crazy part: he has me dominated, yet if I showed him my hand, he still has to fold.

We're 7 handed with 6 seats and 4500 for 7th, so this is a $5700 bubble. If he wins, which he does 70% of the time, he's very likely to get the seat, say 98%. If he loses, he's out -- that's 30%. What happens if he folds? Well, he's short, but there are two shorter stacks, one of whom is in the bb this hand, and the other of whom will hit the blinds before he will. He only has to outlast one of them. If they were even he'd have a 66% chance of being the next out; given the positions of the blinds and the nonzero chance that some bigger stack will make a mistake or run into aces, he must be over 70% to get a seat. Plus there's a chance of a deal, always, though as it turns out he took a bad deal so maybe that shouldn't be a consideration. If I show him an A, he should only call with rockets there.

He tanked for a long time, then asked for a clock to be put on him (never seen that before) then folded. Calling would be only a tiny mistake given that I had A9, but it would be a huge mistake if I had AJ instead, or any other two overs. So he has to fold, even though, as he put it, "he has my range crushed".

The big stack at the table with 94000 has AQ. He has a very easy fold, since he's basically a lock for the seat, and getting involved in a pot that could jeopardize that can only be a mistake. He should fold AA there. The other small stack had rags, and I won the pot.

Now, I don't know if it's right for me to jam A9 there, but it's certainly right for everyone else to fold almost everything. The problem is that if someone makes a mistake by calling with 99, say, or QQ, they lose equity but I lose even more (the rest of the table benefits). So I don't want to get involved in too too many pots for fear that someone will do something dumb and hurt me.

There are also weird degenerate hands that come up. For instance, one player has the 8000 blind and another 8000 back. Everyone at the table with a playable hand came in for the minraise and checked it down to try and knock him out (I folded 72o). The bb had K9, hit his 9, and quintupled up. The next time it happened, though, it worked and the bb busted (that got us to 7).

Once the guy to my right folded 99, he needed to outlast the other two short stacks. Each of them jammed and took the blinds, which were huge at this point. He decided to try to deal instead.

First he proposed an even split. I objected on the grounds that as a big stack I wanted a little extra. His next position was that the big stacks would get $10k instead of the $10k + $200, and the small stacks would divide up the rest. Um, that seems good for the big stacks, so sure. Then there was some negotiating about who counted as a big stack, but I didn't care since I was one, so I stayed out. But let's check the math.

I have like $86000, and the small stacks have $40-50k. So let's say they're twice as likely as me to bust out. And let's further say that the big stacks are all in the same boat as me, even though there's some variation in stack size. So 4x + 3(2x) = 100%, so x = 10%, which is my chance of busting next. But actually I think it's rather lower based on the fact that I'm much, much harder to call than a small stack, so I'm going to claim that I only have a 6% chance of bubbling here. That means my fair share is 9858, so 10k sounds just fine with no risk. If I think I have a lower chance of bubble then the deal gets worse, but I'm only giving up $29 if I have a 3% chance of busting, and that seems ok too. It's hard to believe I have less than that. If I really do have a 10% chance of bubbling here, my fair share is $9630, so $10k looks like a steal.

So I got a decent deal, but not amazing. The guys who got the amazing deal were the two shorter "big" stacks with 75k and 68k. The 68k guy was halfway between the small stacks and the biggest stacks, and yet got the full big stack payout even though it was totally clear to me he would have settled for less. But the small stacks were motivated to make a deal work out, and the #3 stack was starting to make noise about getting on with it (he'd looked at his hand and it was good), so they didn't argue about it. The 68k guy did agree to chip in enough money to even out the payout for the small stacks so they ended up with $8600 instead of $8566 or whatever, so he did take $120ish less than I did.

I'm happy it ended when it did, because it was 12:40 or so, and could have gone on for a good while longer since it's so damn hard to call someone if they shove.

One note on strategy: a couple players were raising small amounts. This is completely horrible, because they have to fold basically everything if a bigger stack shoves on them. Because taking a small bustout risk is so bad if you have chips, you throw away everything, so raising with smaller amounts is just giving them away. And indeed the guy who came to the final table with $102k bled down to half that via that method, before reverting to jam mode and getting back up a bit. Just awful. I took advantage of that several times to build to my big stack status.
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[info]timprov: Coleman concedes. Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 17:44
Ladies and gentlemen, the first Senator from Trading Places.

Eddie Murphy, I'm lookin' at you.
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[info]dmorr: wsop update Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 10:42
It's been a while since I updated here, so here goes.

Last week was a big pile of hosing. I went somewhat deep into the $2500 mixed limit/no limit event, with 50% more than average chips at dinner, partly from picking off bluffs. But then I picked a rather dumb time to bluff myself and was out. Some hands:

I open raise on the button in limit with 22, Victor Ramdin tells me I have K high and three bets me. I call. Flop is T84r, he bets, I call. Turn is another 4, he checks, I should check behind but I bet, and now he check-raises. I decide it's worth two more big bets to see if he's bluffing, so I call the turn and the river, and he shows down KQ no pair. I explain to the table that they should refrain from trying to bluff me.

A few hands later, 100-200 no limit, I open for 525 late with 75s, Victor cold calls on the button. Flop is T63r, and I decide to check instead of betting my gutshot, and Victor checks behind. Turn is a 2, check check. River is a 7, and I value bet my pair for 600. Victor now raises 1000 more with like 1400 back. Odd... I don't really see how he could have a hand other than like TT or 33, and a bluff sure seems more likely. So I call and he raps the table and my hand is good.

Much later, I'm in the 800 bb in no limit with 18000 back, big stack opens for 1950, button who just has me covered call, and I defend with 97s. Flop is K86, checked around. Turn is a Q, I check, big stack bets out 2000, button raises to 6200, and I think my stack is a good size for a resteal and jam my straight draw. But actually this really isn't a good spot -- the button has shown a lot of strength this hand, is a pretty tight player, and would be getting better than 2:1 on his money and might not lay down a hand like AK. The big stack folds and indeed the button has bottom set and calls. I was in a really good spot on the flop with an open ender against a set getting a free card -- my equity there is huge if I don't stack myself if I miss on the turn. Which I did.

The next day I play a few one table satellites, and lose them all. One I got down to four handed with a big stack, but ran into AK on back to back hands with worse aces and was out. In another I was the first person out: lost a small pot, then had my KK cracked by a set but lost the minimum -- I checked the flop and called the turn and river with my overpair -- then ran JJ into KK. Bah.

The trip this week started out with a series of small annoyances. I get to the airport a bit early for my flight, and they're boarding the previous flight to Vegas. I ask about standby but even though they plane is half full and it would cost them nothing to put me on it, they want to charge me $95 for it. I decide I can wait an hour after all. I guess they have to think about the longer game so people don't book the cheapest flight and just standby onto earlier flights that would be more expensive, but it sure seems like there should be some way for them to get me on for a nominal charge instead of more than doubling the cost of the ticket.

Then in a tiny bad beat, despite me having the best boarding pass, the gate guy decides there aren't enough people to bother with being organized and declares everyone can come up at once. Only 14 people on the flight and I got my front row seat anyway so whatever.

Then, when I get to the Bellagio, the computers are down and they're checking in everyone by hand. So it takes an hour to get through the line and get checked in, and during this they fail to put in my credit card for room charges so I can't get internet when I get to the room.

So I've stayed at the Bellagio 5 times this month now, and there have been annoyances every time. The first trip, the lights over the beds didn't work, and it took two trips from the techs to fix them (they fixed one but didn't bother to check the other). Next trip the shower clogged, and again it took multiple calls to fix it. Also there was an annoying buzz coming from I think the ice machine in the hallway that was loud enough it made it a little hard to get to sleep. The third trip they put me in a smoking room, then when I complained told me I would get an upgrade but it'd take a few hours, then reneged on the upgrade. Last week I got another buzzing room, and this one had the check in problem. Plus I couldn't check out this morning from the room, and had to spend another 10 minutes in line to check out.

None of these things are a big deal, but for a hotel that thinks it's high end, it's a pretty long litany of complaints. On the other hand, it really is pretty cheap for a nice hotel this month, so I guess it still feels like a good deal. Especially compared to trips we've taken to places like New York and Madrid, where the hotels were like 5 times the cost and not really that much nicer.

So after the hotel annoyance, the next morning I head over to the Rio pretty early because I think there's some chance the 1500 event will sell out, so I figure I'll buy in at 8 or so and have breakfast. But I get there and discover it sold out the night before at around 9. I hang around in hopes of unregistrations, but there is a line, and eventually I give up and go eat. I come back and Kenny is there planning to unreg because he isn't feeling motivated, and we try to figure out some way for me to get his seat, but the unreg process is strict and they won't transfer the seat to me. We hang around in line planning to get me to the front and then have him unreg and have me be next in line, but the line refuses to move and we give up. He decides to play anyway.

Well bah. I sit on a bench outside the registration room and read my book for the next couple of hours in case there are late unregistrations from people who made day two from the previous day's tournaments, but nothing doing. So I buy into the 3:00 $330 super satellite (which is called a "mega satellite" because I guess "super" isn't impressive enough); the tournament doesn't start until 4, natch. No cash games or one tables running either due to no tables being available, so I end up playing pai gow for an hour. I win $10. It's slightly odd playing a game where I was betting $50, and the woman next to me was betting $450 on my hand. So my wins and losses on my hand are dwarfed by hers (she's also betting that much on her hand). I let her opine on my settings since she cares more than I do, but pai gow is pretty formulaic.

The satellite, however, went well. I play a bunch of small pots then win a big one, then resteal a lot. There are a couple of super passive readable players and I abuse them. I bust a small stack who pushed with TT, which obviously doesn't beat my 77 preflop, then double up another small stack when his AJ beats my AQ. But mostly I am jamming over raises a lot and taking it down. The passive limpy woman next to me tells me repeatedly she really wishes she had my seat, as if I could possibly be getting enough hands that were raising hands by her standards.

I suck out again when the sb limps and I check in the bb with 83s. Flop comes T32 with one of my suit and two clubs, and he bets. I jam over him, he agonizes and calls with JT, but I hit a 3 on the turn. Whee.

We get short and I have decent chips so I slow way down, picking on stacks that need a monster to call me, and avoiding spots where I could go broke. We get down to the final table, then 8 handed. There are 6 seats and 7th place gets 4500. Then, entertainingly, the small stack jams and the bb is agonizing, and the small stack declares he has a pair to get the bb to fold. The TD declares an 8 hand penalty, and the small stacks doubles with 66 against QTs, then has to sit out for a round. He begs but is rejected.

Ok, my flight is boarding, so long story short, at 7 handed I am the #2 stack, we agree to a deal where the big stacks get $10k seats (six places get 10k seats + $200, so I'm "giving up" $200), and the three small stacks split the rest. The small stacks are clustered around 40k, the big stacks around 80k (I have 84), so this seems like a good deal for me. I later did the math, and I think I made about $200 on the deal.

So I won a seat. Playing monday, day 1D.
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[info]jbailey: Google Montreal Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 07:17
Heya! I've had people occasionally ask me what the Google office in Montreal is like. Usually pictures aren't allowed in Google offices, so it's nice to have a whole bunch in the Gazette:

http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/tech/archive/2009/06/26/a-visit-to-google-s-montreal-office.aspx
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[info]flatvurm: Okay, I lied Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 04:23
Fine, just one more thing before I close up shop tonight. I loves me some aggressive spell-checking, from time to time. Netflix has the best I've ever encountered in that department. Tonight's example...

I was recently watching a double-feature of Stephen Chow flicks, Royal Tramp and Royal Tramp II. (Really fun movies, by the way.) Among the previews was a Sammo Hung film I wanted to check out, which the preview called Shanghai Express. I was just now looking for it on Netflix, but the only thing that came up was, well, you know, the real Shanghai Express. Like, from the 30s. Anyway...this kind of thing crops up a lot when dealing with Hong Kong flicks, as there are all sorts of title madnesses involved with that stuff, so I first tried searching for it by it's Cantonese name: "Foo gwai lit che." That title didn't come up, but among Netflix's suggestions for what I might have meant: John Lithgow. :) I had to kind of squint and tilt my head, but...yeah, I can kinda see where they got that. :)

(Oh, and for the curious, yeah, I eventually found the movie under the title Millionaire's Express. *shrug* These things happen.)
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[info]flatvurm: Last random thought for the night Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 04:08
You know that old saw about how, when someone was being executed by a firing squad, they'd pass out one dud bullet in the bunch? Ostensibly this was so each guy could think maybe he'd fired the blank and didn't actually kill the guy. This came up recently, and it got me to thinking...why would they do that? I mean...you figure sharpshooters hadn't been trained as sharpshooters to, you know, shoot apples off people's heads...right? You gotta figure these guys had already been trained to kill people.

I dunno. Just one of those things.
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[info]flatvurm: Day in the sun Tuesday 30 June 2009 @ 03:27
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood around here: sunny and warm, and also I don't have to work, which is refreshing. After waking up, I spent the afternoon out and about, basically running errands, but also just taking the opportunity to put a little pavement under my feet and get some quality walking time in. Besides the bank, post office, and library, I also hauled over to the Showboat to take advantage of a little slot freeroll they sent me because they miss me. Made five bucks. Got a corn dog.

I strolled the Boardwalk for a while, basically just taking in the sights. Which, you know, isn't really something you do around here, unless you enjoy geriatric bikini-spotting, but, hey. Something for everybody. I did take a little tour of the Steel Pier, which is basically Atlantic City's version of an amusement park. Which is to say...it's like an amusement park, except smaller, crappier, and more run-down than other amusement parks. As is my habit now, I stolidly refused to be taken in by any carny games.

It's not even close to the heart of summer around here, but it's already a lot warmer than I like. Which, granted, is basically always the case for me unless I can see my breath. I may have to take up constant poker time again just so I can spend my downtime in an air-conditioned environment. We'll see how the summer progresses. I also picked up some four-for-ten-dollars souvenir tee shirts, which I enjoy for summer and exercise wear. I'm generally a black tee shirt kind of guy. Anything approaching white that I wear and then sweat in generally then starts retreating from white rather quickly. But when it's a cheapo souvenir shirt, who cares. :)

Anyway. Now I'm back home, struggling to keep cool and remain motionless as much as possible. [I started writing this post early this evening, but then was interrupted, and am finishing up now in the middle of the night. So it goes. - Ed.] Welcome back to summer. The Borgata Summer Open is almost over, which led me to believe that I might have a little more free time coming up, but glancing at next week's schedule reminded me that next weekend is July 4th weekend, so...well, I remain busy. Looking forward now to the next week after that.

* * *

At work the other night, I bore unfortunate witness to possibly the lamest misquote of all time. Somebody at the table had mentioned something about KFC. Someone else at the table said, "Hey, you ever seen Spaceballs?" "Sure." "'What's the matter, Colonel? Chicken?' Remember that?"

A slightly embarrassed silence briefly descended.

Someone else stepped up. "You mean, 'What's the matter, Colonel Sanders? Chicken?'"

I mean...come on.

* * *

Doing my bizarre periodic tax assessment on myself results in me having to keep closer track of my finances than I'm customarily used to. While wrapping up my June numbers, I noticed the startling statistic that my monthly income in June dropped like a third from my income in May. There are reasons for this, of course...notably that not only were there five weekends in May instead of four, but one of them was Memorial Day weekend, which is extra work and extra attendance at the poker room. Still...it's unnerving sometimes to have such a giant swing in income from month to month. As with any operation involving variance (like poker), the way to survive these swings is with bankroll. Sadly, in life as well as in poker, I don't really have a bankroll, so...these things tend to show up on my radar. Weird kinda life out this way.

* * *

As part of the block of Asian action movies I've been enjoying, I somehow stumbled into more Bruce Lee knockoff flicks. I told myself I wasn't going to do stuff like that any more since the mistaken procurement of a couple of such movies a while ago, but there was an actual, excusable chain of events that led to this. (I had requested a collection of movies from Netflix, because I wanted to see one of them, and that appeared to be the only way I could get it. Netflix ended up mistakenly sending me a different collection, which didn't have the movie I wanted, but...well, I am who I am, and I watched 'em all anyway.) One of these knockoffs was called Bruce Lee Against Supermen. It was terrifically bad.

So...technically you can consider this spoiler territory. Honestly, though, I gotta tell you...it doesn't really matter.

( Cut more for length than anything else )

And, well, there you have it, friends. What more can I really say? :)
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[info]easy_wind: Random baseball thought Monday 29 June 2009 @ 13:50
so, one thing i was thinking about this weekend was that, i bet most (all?) big league teams knew who on their team was juicing. i mean seriously, from an owner's perspective a player is a multi-million dollar commodity. so, every year i'm sure they all get a physical to check for shit like blood pressure, cholesterol, whatever... to think that they wouldn't have also conducted a comprehensive drug test as well during the physical seems highly unlikely.

i mean, i guess it is possible that the union stipulated as part of every single contract ownership can't test for drugs... can anybody confirm?

so, i guess i don't really have a point, but something to think about anyways.

it might be interesting to look at guys who were good from like 1998-2006 or 2007; who haven't been good since and who had contracts come up at the end of 2005-2006. i guess the theory is that if ownership knew a guy was juicing and there was going to be a real MLB testing policy next year, and his contract was up... you get the picture.
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[info]shunny: Life is good, send job Monday 29 June 2009 @ 02:15
I was trying to write a quick post on my netbook before going to bed. I failed before even getting to the livejournal page. Oh well.

I'm getting rid of/selling my car, well, at some point. My registration and insurance runs out at the end of the month, and it all around comes at a good time. My car is relatively crap. It runs well, but it still has issues that need to be fixed in order to pass inspection. And as two cops have found out in the past two months, those issues haven't been fixed for two years.

Basically, I think I'm done with cars. Oil prices will go back up; peak oil is an issue and while I'm uncertain about what will happen in the next few years--I know that gasoline prices will continue to be a problem. If I'm here at Amherst for one full year, I really do not need a car. I can get a Uhaul to move back into Amherst after my research internship at UMass is done, and then I wouldn't need to figure out what to do until next May. That will save me at least my $1000 insurance, not including the car problems, gas, etc. Money wise it's a no-brainer. Maybe it will turn out to be a mistake  (like it was to throw out my rusty, old mountain bike after I realize bikes are expensive), but its something I need to do.

Things are swell. Research is okay, but I'm not all gung-ho about computer science graduate school. Part of it is that I'm not a huge fan of the project I'm currently working on--I'd say power-saving computer architectures would be my ideal research field. Wireless networks are cool, but this project I'm looking at the data on just isn't mind-blowing enough for me. Note taken: proving obvious hypotheses are not my bag of tea. I definitely need to take some time off and work somewhere at something before making future decisions (and while paying attention to which way the world is falling apart at that time). But it would be cool to go to Montreal for graduate school.

Ahhh... living it up in the slow and steady lane.
location: UMass, North 205A, in bed
Current Mood: swell
Current Music: hummmm of netbook fan
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