More Quick Hits

Lots on my mind today, and not a ton of time to spend blogging, so here we go in the "quick hits" format once again.

First, I was actually interested in watching the Winter Olympics for the first time this week on Wednesday night, even though Hammer Wife basically has the NBC coverage on the tv in the room with me all night every night this week. For whatever reason, I just don't find most of the winter Olympics to be fun to watch. I mean, of course I -- like the rest of the free world outside of the U.S. of A. -- don't take silly hobbies like snowboarding seriously as an Olympic sport, as America only lobbied for these to become Olympic competitions over the past couple of Olympics since we figured we could stuff the ballots with some free gold medals in those hobbies since we are after all the country that spawned the X Games and which otherwise has the money and the free time to pursue such newfangled activities. The figure skating does not particularly interest me, and basically any sport that relies on judges to subjectively decide who wins a medal -- judges who time and time again, mind you, have proven themselves to vote with their eyes closed based on biases wholly unrelated to who the best skaters are on that given day -- are more or less dead to me. I watched an hour or so of the ski jumping earlier in the week, but come on that is about as bad of television as there is. It's basically just a guy skiing motionless down a pre-dug track on a hill, and then pushing off with his legs while he stands, motionless, in the air for maybe five seconds as he floats to the ground. I'm not saying I could or would go and do that myself right now, but if you had to invent a boring, absolutely-no-action tv sport, that would pretty much be it. That, or the luge, which basically amounts to someone lying on their back for 80 seconds and trying to remain as motionless and flat as possible. I also saw some of the mogul freestyle skiing a couple of days back, but how many times can I watch someone break their knees over and over again by just bumping up and down in a way that deliberately impedes their pace and keeps the action slow and boring?

But then came the ladies' downhill skiing on Wednesday night, and I have to admit this was really pretty cool. Not being a skier myself, I am always amazed at how quickly these people move and how sharply they take these turns back and forth. What was cool on Wednesday night was that -- and I don't know if this was due to track conditions or what -- these skiers were completely and totally out of control from the moment they left the gate until their either face-planted or somehow finished the race still upright. Without exception every single one of these downhill skiers had absolutely no control whatsoever, and basically they each experienced the most terrifying minute and a half of their lives as they hurtled at 75 miles per hour back and forth down a track with a hugely steep downhill slope and much sharper cuts and curves than most other downhill tracks in the world, and you could just tell that each and every one of them was just praying to hold on for dear life. It was pretty amazing, and the complete franticness of the pace combined with quite a few entertaining face plants made for the first interesting watch of the entire Olympics in my view.

Oh and while I'm on the topic, I've seen several people mention in blogs or elsewhere how much they enjoy the speed skating. Really? At least in the head-to-head battles on the large course, there are some nice straightaways for the skill people to have the chance to power ahead and maybe even pass somebody due to their incredible leg strength and drive to win. But most of the speed skating they've shown so far is this ridiculous short-track kind, which I cannot understand how people can enjoy. There is no straightaway to speak of at all in this thing, and one lap takes all of maybe 7 seconds, 6.8 of which are all curves as the skaters are by design too busy crossing-over their skates on the curves to even think about actually racing. It's more like WWE skating than actual speed skating in any event, and I don't care if Apollo Ohno wins gold medals at it for America. In fact, I'm sure the silly short-track is just another format pushed into the Olympics by the Americans because we think we can win the gold in it with more regularity than the old, more pure speed skating of days past. At least with the heads-to-head skating races on the large rinks, there is some actual time and opportunity for those with the most actual speed skating skill to come out in front. Short-track speed skating is like the super-turbo version of a classic Winter Olympics sport, just a push-and-pray donkey's dream of someone who grew up watching real speed skating in the real Olympics, back when they used to only come around every four years instead of every two years nowadays. I think of the short-track speed skating as the Rush Poker of the Winter Olympics, which might sound like a compliment to many of you who have extolled the virtues of the Rush on your blogs but who are actually just unknowingly shilling for full tilt as they further bastardize poker in the name of the almighty dollar.

On an unrelated sports note, does anybody know why is Tiger Woods having another "press conference" on Friday at the PGA headquarters in Florida? And why on earth are these jackmonkeys on the radio saying he better say he's sorry so he can move on with his life? He already said he's sorry. About five different times. And I have news for you -- unless you are Elin Woods and happen to be reading this blog (I'm sure she is a big fan), Tiger never owed you any apology for what he did. Period. You're not married to him. He never made any promises to you regarding his off-the-course activities or his fidelity to his wife. And he certainly doesn't owe you five different apologies. So get up off the guy's back please. What Tiger did is despicable to say the least, and if I'm his wife I wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near him, not for any amount of money (even $300 million). But this lemming-like insistence across the media and the country that Tiger had better apologize (again!) on Friday in front of the cameras is just that -- lemming behavior. Newsflash: for the most part, the media in this country are the least intelligent, least integrity-having, and least honest or "good" group of people out there. Mindlessly following what they tell you to think to serve their own selfish agendas makes you closer to a 1930's Nazi than a 2010's American. So wake up and give the guy a god damn break.

Lost was effing awesome this week as any true Lost fan knows. So much left unanswered, but we probably got as much information in this show as in any episode in the series's history. That Flocke is "recruiting". That Jacob touching the six people he touched (Sawyer, Hugo, Jack, Sayid, Locke and either Sun or Jin) allegedly is what set them up to eventually end up at the island, as had been assumed. That strangely the other of Sun / Jin, Claire, Charlie, Rose, Bernard, and especially Kate were not touched by Jacob and were not drawn to the island by him in that way. That the mysterious numbers from the first couple of seasons are somehow connected to the selection of these six people. That Jacob is looking for "candidates" to replace him as guardian of the island. That Ileana scooped up Jacob's ashes and put them into a bag to take with her to the temple presumably for some purpose. That there is some kind of a "referee" in the battle between Jacob and Flocke in the weirdo blond kid who showed up out of nowhere a couple of times in this episode. That Sawyer was able to see the kid, while Richard Alpert of all people was not. How much of what Flocke told and showed Sawyer is actually true though? And is Sawyer really going to fight for Flocke, or as Doc Jensen of EW surprised me with in his column this week, is Sawyer running one final con, against the doer of evil, the Man In Black. Can Sawyer even fool Flocke like that, is that even possible to do? We'll have to wait and see. I'm just glad Kate wasn't featured this week again, for that I am eternally thankful. And WTF is up with the alternate reality storyline? The more they show of that story line, the less likely it seems to become to me that this is actually just a final flash forward to the end of the series when the Losties finally get it right. Although I will still say that it is obvious to me that the writers will find a way to bring the two story lines back together, as there is just no way that they are going to keep these two realities separate without tying the two together in some way.

Ahh, and of course, there is always poker. Lovely, fair, poker. Mother fucking dickshitting poker. Poker is destroying me right now. After all my talk of playing less after a great 2009, I have broken my own rule between double guarantees week and now the FTOPS and am instead playing a lot, which would be great if not for the Sick Ass Beats I take about 10 to 15 times every single night. Last night's standout hands include my KK vs TT on a KTx flop, allin, and then another Ten on the turn (that's not something you see every day!) in the $100 1-rebuy tournament on full tilt, and the flickaflonk in a $220 heads-up nlh sng who called my preflop raise with KK with his K6s, flopped 457 and called an allin from me for twice the pot on the flop, and then of course turned the 3 to bury me. I've been such a dick in the chatbox to these monkeys over the past several weeks of just plain brutal suckouts that it's a wonder my chat hasn't been perma-banned. I know I can play profitably in most of the games I play, but withstanding the kinds of suckout streaks I have seen over the past month-plus is more than any human can take. Rest assured that if most of you had to play my hands for even one night, your heads would fucking explode and we'd be cleaning up your brains off the walls for weeks. Clearly, I need a break from this shitgame right now. When you run like I do, too much poker can definitely be detrimental to my world view.

OK back to the grind. Working for the man sucks almost 1/1000th as much as playing poker does!

Fun Poker Weekend

It's Monday agaiiiiiiiiiin!



That's right, guys. Only two more Mondays at the Hoy tournaments left in the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments, and although we will of course be continuing on the tradition that is the Monday night MATH tournament for a tier I token buyin and with double stacks on full tilt for the foreseeable future even after the BBT schedule is completed at the end of this month (more accurately, on Sunday, July 1 with Don's Big Game as the big finale to the fabulous tournament challenge schedule), there are still those prizes for the top few finishers on the BBT leaderboard, as well as your seats in the lucrative BBT freeroll coming later in July up for grabs. So, those of you who have not yet qualified by playing in the required 20 BBT tournaments will really want to kick things in gear over the next two weeks, starting with tonight's MATH tournament, in order to play your way in to the freeroll, as well as those of you who don't think you will reach the 20 events played plateau but think you might be able to squeak your way in to the top 50 spots on the leaderboard. Remember, that's what it takes to get in to that BBT freeroll -- either top 50 on the BBT leaderboard or at least 20 BBT events played -- and as of right now we're already looking at a freeroll prize pool of around $1500, with more to be added over the last few weeks of the challenge. Now if that kind of free cashish ain't worth playing for then I don't know what is, so get off your arses and come out and play, starting tonight with Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt!

In other better-late-than-never news, be sure to go by and congratulate Jordan who last Thursday scored his biggest-ever poker win by taking down the $8500 guaranteed tournament on full tilt. The $3000+ that Jordon won was far and away his largest ever poker score, eclipsing his previous single-event best by a factor of five times, so go stop by and congratulate the man on joining the big time and read his writeup post that we all better hope his work does not read or we may be hearing less and less about his sick-day poker exploits in the future.

As for me, this weekend was the worst weekend of bad beats that I have experienced in as long as I can remember. As in, I'm sure I've experienced worse, but it's been long enough since it was this bad that I don't remember the details anymore. In the end I am pleased as punch to say that, for the second time this spring already, I lost a third of my online bankroll in one weekend, although unlike the last time this happened, this weekend was not at all the result of tilt. This time it all basically happened in the span of, if you can believe this, five fucking minutes. Playing two tables of 2-4 6-max nlh at once, I found pocket 3s and called a preflop raise from a guy across the table. The flop came AQ3. I bet out with my set because I'm a man, and the guy raised, which I friggin knew he would since his preflop raise had indicated an Ace. I reraised him the size of the pot -- not even allin but just a pot-sized reraise, again because I'm a man, and of course he insta-pushed. And of course I insta-called. And of course he showed me Queens. Sweet.

Barely 100 seconds later on my other 2-4 table, this time I was the one who raised preflop when I found a pair of 8s in middle position. Just the big blind called, and the flop came down A84. I bet out with my set because I'm a man, and the guy raised, which I friggin knew he would since his instacall of my preflop raise told me he had a strong Ace. I reraised him the size of the pot -- not even allin but just a pot-sized reraise, against because I'm a man, and of course he insta-pushed. And of course I insta-called. And of course he showed me Aces. Delicious.

I'd love to tell you that this is where the story ends, that I accepted that it was just not my night and I packed it in for the day. But I didn't. I couldn't. For whatever reason, I wasn't even tilted in the least after two set-over-set stackings in less than two minutes. In fact, I had been playing well and killing the competition at both of my tables before these two setbacks, and I have played enough cash these days to recognize this as just a major cooler run, but I was completely level-headed and I figured I'll just go and make this money back. I had been on another big run at the cash, lifting my PT stats up to fresh all-time highs after the past few days of action, and I had no problem accepting what had just happened as the ass end of variance that everyone will experience if they play enough. I had already immediately closed out the second table where the second set-stacking had occurred, but I went ahead and reloaded back to $400 at the first table where the players were truly terrible and I started rebuilding. I won a small pot before the flop and another larger pot after float-calling a preflop stealer's c-bet on the flop and then leading out big on the turn. Then I look down to find Jacks, I raise it up and get one caller, and the flop comes down JT4 rainbow. Top set, no way that shit is happening to me again at least. I bet out with my set because I'm a man, and I get raised which actually surprises me but in a good way. I reraise him the size of the pot -- not even allin but just a pot-sized reraise, against because I'm a man, and he just smooth calls. I'm lovin' it. The turn is an offsuit King. Knowing for sure he cannot possibly be playing AQ in this way, I lead out for the size of the pot into the now large pot, and he insta-pushes for his last $140 or so into a $600 pot. Of course I insta-call (please tell me none of you are fonks enough to fold here). And of course he shows me pocket Kings.

Just fucking delectable. I'm leaving out a fourth time I ran into a set, this time with TPTK, which also happened within 30 minutes of the three losses above, for another nice loss, albeit a limited one for me at least. And I'm not even going to mention the 96.77% favorite hand (thank you CardPlayer holdem odds calcualtor) that I lost after the flop lateish in the 26k on Friday night, which Goat got to experience in all its jaw-dropping splendor while watching it live with me, when I got my fonkponent to call my allin raise on the AK9 flop with his A8 (!!!) against my 99, only to lose to runnerrunner clubs for a four-flush. Let's just say that overall this was about as gross of a weekend as one can have at the tables. I mean, running into set-over-set is inevitable if you play a lot of cash, and with experience you come to accept that this is an unavoidable part of playing the game, in both directions. So for every time my set of 3s loses to a set of Queens on the AQ3 flop, you expect that I'll get to be the set of Queens in that scenario an equal number of times. Theoretically, anyways. But running into two flopset over flopset scenarios in 2 minutes, both of which with you as the loser, that is something special, something which I'm still waiting to get to experience on the good end of things in my cash game play. And when it happens a third time in the span of 5 or 6 minutes, well that is a favor which I honestly do not expect to be returned to me by the poker assgods no matter how long I play this game. It just sucks to have to go and rebuild my online roll for all those losses again, after I was playing so well this weekend and had actually gotten lucky (I thought) to have flopped not just one and not just two but three of those one-time-in-eight sets with my pocket pairs.

Anybody know the odds of running into set-over-set on the flop in no-limit holdem? I'd love to know the odds of that happening twice and then running into a turned set over a lower flopped set as well, as a series of three connected events (not even counting the odds of these all happening within 5 minutes, which I can only assume are beyond astronomical. Galactic maybe.).

See you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt! And in keeping with my thematic bounties of late, if you bust me with set over set from the MATH tonight, I'll buy you in to this week's Mookie and next week's MATH tournament with a $37 bounty to boot. What a deal that is going to be for someone.