FunkyTown

There's a radio station up here that plays all '80's tunes on the weekend. It seems that any time I turn the radio on they're somewhere into Lipps Inc.'s "FunkyTown". Which, by the way, isn't a good song, but it's one of those where you just simply cannot get it out of your head. So, there's your Sunday afternoon hum job.

You're welcome.

Grubby nailed down a victory in a multi-table NL tourney, pulling down a Kilobuck for the trouble! Seems every time I try to play a multi-table tourney on Party the whole system takes a big steaming... crash. Perhaps I'll take the last $5 I have on UB and pour them into a multi table tourney there. We shall see. Anyway, CONGRATS to the Mighty Grubby! You're buying.

I'm going to take a guess that the Bloggers Inaugural NL Hold'Em Championship will be held on the 22nd of February, better known as Sunday. To that I say... CRAP! I work Sundays! How about Monday night?

Been messing around with PokerTracker today. Appears, of the 10,600 hands I've played thus far, only 4,600 of them have been in ring games. Very interesting. I also appear at this point to be winning at .50/1 at the rate of a little over 3BB/100 hands. These are all off the top of my head, since I'm at work. Other interesting tidbits when I actually get inspired to write one of these at home!

Did about 3 hours of grinding at the .50/1 table today. Started off horribly. In the two days since I last played poker, I apparently forgot how to, you know, play. I get 88 in the pocket in MP on a loose/passive table full of people I'd never seen before. I call it along with 6 other people and the flop comes 442. Hmmm. Checked around to me, and I bet. 5 call. Turn is a K. Someone in early position wakes up and bets... What do you do?

HDouble had a rather prophetic quote on his site. Allow me to shamelessly gank it and post:

Any time you play a hand without firmly believing that you have a positive expectation, you are on tilt.


So, back to the original question. The board is now 4h4c2hKd and you hold a pair of 8's. Lessee. What could the bet ahead of you mean? He could have paired up a King in his hand. He could have been slow playing a set of 4's on you, or worse, he could be holding onto 4's full. So, assuming you're behind, what can save you? A 4 might be good, but with 5 people still in, the case 4 is a danger, and if someone has a king, you're dead. An 8 would be real nice, but there's only 2 left in the deck: 2 outs.

Not alot of options here... It looks so good, but it's really a death trap, especially for a grinder.

I called it. A rag hits on the river and EP shows the king. I stopped and thought alot about that. I sat out a couple of hands. And then it hit me... I'm playing loose. I'm chasing.

I've been on tilt!

Immediately, I changed up my game a little bit. I actually started loosening up a little on my pre-flop selection. The passive table allowed me to play alot more of the suited connectors and Ax suited stuff. Where the big change was made was in post flop play. I started really concentrating on what the board was holding. Started taking bets from others seriously. In a word, I was in the zone.

Total take for the day = 3 hours of play, +$37.

Textbook. Fold fold fold pre-flop and pound pound pound post-flop. If there's big evidence that you're beat and you don't have sufficient outs to continue, muck and get on with the next hand. The difference between a good player and a great player in Hold'Em is knowing when to abandon a hand. It's been said many times, and I'll say it again; you make money at poker by folding.

On the football front, I'm thinking that the Pats will win, but won't cover the spread. Not that I care. The Bears won't make it back any time before I die, and Green Bay sucks. You heard it here.