Random musical musings

I just realized something that some of my favorite songs have in common: a distinct conversational nature in or between different tracks of the song. I'm talking music here, so it's difficult to describe why it sounds like a conversation to me, but it does. It's always a dialogue - there are never more than two "voices." The most unsubtle example of this is the intro to the song "Vow" by Garbage. I guess this could be compared more closely to an echo than a conversation, but it serves to convey the point. The effect is best experience with head phones. A better example is the guitar background you hear in Radiohead's "Street spirit (fade out)" that starts att around 2:19 but really kicks in with some drums and bass at 2:47 in the album version (The Bends). This sound makes me visualize a wheel intersperses full rotations with nearly full rotations in a manner akin to that of a pendulum. OK that sounds trippy but deal. Another example is "Impact" by Kooz, who few people have ever heard of but has produced some kickin' beats. In this song, there are two independent tracks that interact like kids at play - one chasing the other around, getting caught, and vice versa. Pretty sweet.

Adventures in $3/6

This hand went down last night after a sweet dinner out on the town, during which I drank about three glasses of great wine. I think I would have played it pretty much the same way sober, except for on thing. Can you guess what it is?


***** Hand History for Game 2932717274 *****
3/6 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Wed Oct 26 00:49:45 EDT 2005
Table Table 64904 (Real Money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: BonitoKing ( $120)
Seat 2: noddyslade ( $237.50)
Seat 3: LogansAKRun ( $187.25)
Seat 4: ezmoney1232 ( $81)
Seat 5: oilchange111 ( $111.50)
Seat 6: gwaijai888 ( $113)
Seat 7: klemovit ( $311)
Seat 8: JackAce_21 ( $257)
Seat 9: ChokingDog ( $134)
Seat 10: KCB29 ( $181.25)
KCB29 posts small blind (1)
BonitoKing posts big blind (3)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ Ts, Qh ]
noddyslade folds.
LogansAKRun folds.
ezmoney1232 calls (3)
oilchange111 raises (6) to 6
gwaijai888 calls (6)
klemovit folds.
JackAce_21 folds.
ChokingDog folds.
KCB29 calls (5)
BonitoKing calls (3)
ezmoney1232 calls (3)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Ac, Qd, Qs ]
KCB29 checks.
BonitoKing bets (3)
ezmoney1232 calls (3)
oilchange111 calls (3)
gwaijai888 calls (3)
KCB29 folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Tc ]
BonitoKing bets (6)
ezmoney1232 folds.
oilchange111 calls (6)
gwaijai888 calls (6)
** Dealing River ** : [ 2h ]
BonitoKing bets (6)
oilchange111 raises (12) to 12
gwaijai888 calls (12)
BonitoKing raises (12) to 18
oilchange111 raises (12) to 24
gwaijai888 folds.
BonitoKing calls (6)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $117 | Rake: $3
Board: [ Ac Qd Qs Tc 2h ]
BonitoKing balance $81, lost $39 [ Ts Qh ] [ a full house, Queens full of tens -- Qh,Qd,Qs,Ts,Tc ]
noddyslade balance $237.50, didn't bet (folded)
LogansAKRun balance $187.25, didn't bet (folded)
ezmoney1232 balance $72, lost $9 (folded)
oilchange111 balance $189.50, bet $39, collected $117, net +$78 [ As Qc ] [ a full house, Queens full of aces -- As,Ac,Qc,Qd,Qs ]
gwaijai888 balance $86, lost $27 (folded)
klemovit balance $311, didn't bet (folded)
JackAce_21 balance $257, didn't bet (folded)
ChokingDog balance $134, didn't bet (folded)
KCB29 balance $175.25, lost $6 (folded)

Oh that hurt. I think that betting out the whole was was correct since I figured to get paid by any and all donks holding an ace. Not value betting the flop for fear of being up against AA, AQ, KQ, or QJ seems pretty weak. After the turn I only had to worry about AA and AQ. Once I was raised on the river I should have realized that I was up against something a whole lot stronger than AK or AJ. TT was the only plausible option that I could beat. Live and learn. Learning is easier when two minutes later you hit a draw on the river and drag a big pot like this one:

***** Hand History for Game 2932811630 *****
3/6 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Wed Oct 26 01:09:47 EDT 2005
Table Table 64904 (Real Money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: BonitoKing ( $143)
Seat 2: noddyslade ( $239.50)
Seat 3: LogansAKRun ( $167.25)
Seat 4: ezmoney1232 ( $20)
Seat 5: oilchange111 ( $289)
Seat 6: gwaijai888 ( $67)
Seat 7: klemovit ( $275)
Seat 8: JackAce_21 ( $257)
Seat 9: ChokingDog ( $124)
Seat 10: KCB29 ( $200.25)
KCB29 posts small blind (1)
BonitoKing posts big blind (3)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ 5s, 6d ]
noddyslade folds.
LogansAKRun folds.
ezmoney1232 calls (3)
oilchange111 folds.
gwaijai888 calls (3)
klemovit folds.
JackAce_21 folds.
ChokingDog raises (6) to 6
KCB29 folds.
BonitoKing calls (3)
ezmoney1232 calls (3)
gwaijai888 calls (3)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8s, Ad, 7s ]
BonitoKing checks.
ezmoney1232 checks.
gwaijai888 checks.
ChokingDog bets (3)
BonitoKing calls (3)
ezmoney1232 calls (3)
gwaijai888 calls (3)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 7c ]
BonitoKing checks.
ezmoney1232 bets (6)
gwaijai888 calls (6)
ChokingDog calls (6)
BonitoKing calls (6)
** Dealing River ** : [ 4c ]
BonitoKing checks.
ezmoney1232 bets (5)
ezmoney1232 is all-In.
gwaijai888 calls (5)
ChokingDog calls (5)
BonitoKing raises (11) to 11
gwaijai888 calls (6)
ChokingDog calls (6)
Creating Main Pot with $78 with ezmoney1232
** Summary **
Main Pot: $78 | Side Pot 1: $18 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 8s Ad 7s 7c 4c ]
BonitoKing balance $213, bet $26, collected $96, net +$70 [ 5s 6d ] [ a straight, four to eight -- 8s,7s,6d,5s,4c ]
noddyslade balance $239.50, didn't bet (folded)
LogansAKRun balance $167.25, didn't bet (folded)
ezmoney1232 balance $0, lost $20 [ 7h Qh ] [ three of a kind, sevens -- Ad,Qh,7h,7s,7c ]
oilchange111 balance $289, didn't bet (folded)
gwaijai888 balance $41, lost $26 [ Ah 2d ] [ two pairs, aces and sevens -- Ah,Ad,8s,7s,7c ]
klemovit balance $275, didn't bet (folded)
JackAce_21 balance $257, didn't bet (folded)
ChokingDog balance $98, lost $26 [ Qd As ] [ two pairs, aces and sevens -- As,Ad,Qd,7s,7c ]
KCB29 balance $199.25, lost $1 (folded)

Note that when ezmoney hit his trip 7s on the turn it set me up perfectly for a check raise on the river since gwaijai and ChokingDog were trapped in between us. Too bad his stack wasn't a little bigger!!!

In both these hands I called a raise from the big blind with marginal holdings. In one case I was dominated and paid dearly for it. But in both cases I was getting good pot odds and figured my implied odds were great given that these people tend to go way too far with their bad hands. I still need to figure out when it is correct to fold for one small bet in the big blind. E.g. you have no read on a dude who open raises from the cutoff. The button calls and the small blind folds. You are the big blind with T8s. Getting 5:1 pot odds here with no chance of getting reraised but in the worst position after the flop do you call or fold as basic strategy?

Goals

So lately I've been reading a lot of the Maroon's old posts. If you don't know who I'm talking about and you are into online ring games then get on it. http://www.thepokerchronicles.com/) The main idea from Matt's blog is that most players at Party suck and that if you are making less than $50/hour there you have nothing to brag about. Lol. If I made $50/hour now I would be pretty psyched (and I could do a lot of bragging to my non-poker-playing friends), so clearly I have a lot to shoot for. I started out as a total bonus whore. I never wanted to gamble - I wanted to make money in a risk-free manner. But now my aversion to risk is crippling me. Two years of play have left me with a single $30/60 bankroll. About two thirds of that came from bonuses, and another third from a $10/hr grind at the $50 and $100 NL tables. Note to bonus whores out there: if you are serious about clearing bonuses at the Party skins, NL tables are WAY better than limit tables for the following reasons: 1) the rake starts at $1 at NL and $5 for limit. 2) the rake is 5% for NL and 10% on the first $5 at limit. 3) since you can actually bet people out of the pot at NL, the hands go much more quickly. So lately I've been hitting the $3/6 tables to explore the limit option. Is the competition fishier there? Seems like it would have to be to make more money than at NL, since NL provides more avenues to exploit weak players. Well, from my early experience at limit I have come to the following conclusion: either the players at $3/6 are a WHOLE LOT weaker than at $100 NL or I just don't know how to play NL. I've only played about 20 hours, which is nothing, but I'm making way more than I ever did at NL. It feels good to make more from actual play than from bonuses. So the goal is to start putting in some real hours and see what happens. So far this year I have averaged an hour/day. That's how much poker you get in when your trying to finish your Ph.D. Now that I've graduated I hope to play around 15 hours/week and advance to the next limit after making 100 big bets of the current limit. That's $600 for $3/6, and I'm at around $400 now. If I drop a bunch of cash doing this it won't be a big deal. It won't be life changing money. But if I have the ability to work my way up and make a few hundred/hour at $30/60, that would be life changing, and something to really brag about.

The Great Poker Mystery

My first experience playing casino poker went down at the Ameristar in St. Louis about four years ago. I was so clueless that when the dealer asked if I wanted to post a blind I had no idea what that meant. She must have spent a minute trying to explain it to me. Yeah that was embarassing. I had bought in for $60 at a $3/6 table, which should have been nearly as embarassing as not knowing what it meant to post a blind, but I didn't realize that either. I can't believe how clueless I was back then. Here are the only two hands I remember from that day: I had J3 and the board ended up something like J J 9 5 2. Don't ask me how I got involved with J3. I can only hope I was in the big blind. Anyway some other guy with a towering pyramid of white chips had QJ and he took a hefty chunk out of my stack. I asked the dealer why we didn't split it cause I had seen another hand where two people had top pair on a paired board where another board card made the best kicker so they split. The dealer had to tell me how to make your best five card hand. Then pyramid guy chimed in, "it helps to have a good kicker." Lol, that was what I learned that day. Kickers matter. Brilliant. Ok so here's the other hand I remember: I had open limped with 66 from middle position. The flop was something like T 6 3 rainbow. The big blind, who looked like he knew what he was doing because he was wearing dark sunglasses and was effortlessly shuffling his chips, led out with a bet. So what would you do here? Well these days I would put him on a some trash hand like T4 or J3 and try to keep him in the lead as long as possible because he probably had a 0.3629% chance of drawing out on me. That is, I would pause for a second as if considering folding, then call. What did I do? Having no idea what the word "set" meant or just how fucking powerful a hand that is heads up on a rainbow board, I asked the dealer if I could raise!!!! Ha. Of course the dealer told me that I had every right to raise and without a second thought sunglasses man mucked his cards saying "can't beat three 6s." At the moment I wasn't all that shocked because I didn't realized what a feat that was, but looking back on it I am just mystified. It would have been one thing if he had said something like "oh you got me beat fo shizzle" or "yeah you got top two at least. But he knew which fucking set I had!! How the hell did he know I didn't have 33? I will never know.