Mean Gene

Actual Poker Content

After a day spent not finishing the article I'm working on I decided in disgust to play some poker and see if that might refresh the creative energy. I made a deposit into Party, one small enough that I could clear the bonus in an afternoon. As usual I didn't win for the first 37 hands I played, and then something strange happened--I won two big, big pots. It's been so long since this has happened that I almost felt guilty about it.

First pot was when I held 3-6 outta the big blind and had the flop come 2-4-5. A three came on the turn, which at first I cursed, but it soon became obvious from the raising and re-raising I faced that someone out there either had an ace or a six. If they had 6-7 I was going to pay them off, but the betting ended up capped on the turn and river and in the end I was heads up with a guy holding a cursed ace. That took me from way down to just about break-even. Which is like hitting the lottery when I'm clearing a bonus.

The next monster came when I had the ace and five of spades and an ace hit on the flop. I hate playing ace-weak, but I bet to see what was up and sure enough a quartet of callers told me I was in no position to relax. A second spade came on the turn, and after checking I decided to call a single bet, seeing as there were still 4 others in the pot. "Come on, just this one time, give me a spade, come on, just this...oh, thank you.". Because the six of spades appeared on the river. The old Mean Gene would've played this cute, he would've tried to check-raise. No more. I bet out, there was a raise, a re-raise, and I capped it. Two of the four called, and I turned over the nuts. Biggest pot I've won in 274 days (I'm estimating) and it put me in position to clear a bonus without ending up in the red.

I hung on to do just that. To celebrate, I played in an SNG. And won the thing. True, I didn't deserve to win, exactly--down to five I was the shortstack, went all-in with 99, had the other shortstack call me with goddam cowboys, and I spiked a nine on the river. Then, when we were heads up and I was about a 4-1 chip dog, I raised with 4-5, got re-raised, and decided to gamble with my 2 live cards. Uh, no, they weren't live--bastard re-raised with 4-6. I was about to say "shit", but the first card that turned was a five and I was back in business. I won a small pot to take a tiny chip lead (like $10) and was dealt my former nemesis, KK. I knew this guy would re-raise me if I limped, so I limped, he re-raised me, and I put him all-in. He had to call, and while he had an ace it did him no good. So I won, and by the end of the day my bankroll had increased by nearly 50%.

It might be even larger had I not blown $20 on this Poker Tracker Guide you've heard all about. I downloaded it, opened it with Acrobat...and none of the screen prints would come up. No problem, I have such an old copy that I'm amazed the computer didn't start laughing at me. And anyway, I planned on printing it out at work on the high-speed printer and putting it in a special poker-only binder I've put together. You know, put this in here, other good poker stuff I've found online, and if I want a quick reference guide I've got it all in one place. Smart. Except that the firewall here won't let me access my copy. I think that's the issue. 'Cause it won't work. So, looks like I'll be downloading an Acrobat update tonight, printing it out at home, then bringing that to work to run front-and-back copies for the binder. Paperless office, my ass.

As you can see, I've dropped the "Poker Blog" from my title above. Of course, that doesn't mean that this won't have lots of poker content and commentary, but I've thought for awhile that having it read "Mean Gene's Poker Blog" looked a bit...stupid. And obvious. Now I'm trying to figure out what to put up there in the title field so it doesn't look so empty. Anyone know any good sites with poker clipart or pictures, I want to graphic it up but I haven't been able to find anything I like.

My NCAA bracket...I literally could have done better by picking at random. Or letting my cats make the selections. Every upset I picked got crushed. I lost Syracuse and Gonzaga out of the Final Four. I embarrassed myself, again. Goddam Gerry McNamara, couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. I take it back--I think McNamara could throw the ball in the Pacific Ocean, but the Indian? No way.

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