Mean Gene

Ooh, Look, There's a Trap! Let's Stick Our Foot In!

Full of myself after my HUGE win yesterday I played a simple 1-table SNG after work yesterday. And when we were down to three (of COURSE I cashed, you silly goose) I was neck-and-neck with one player with the shortstack snorting felt. Both players were fairly decent, no all-in calls with K-10 and bitching about "another bad beat" because the other guy had AK, which happened earlier in the game. I really need to start cataloguing some of the strange rants I've been seeing lately. Are low-limit players actually getting DUMBER?

I have to say, reading Harrington's books has definitely helped my game. I'm not all the way through either yet, and I haven't studied them as closely as I shall, but they're very good. At least they're making sense to my poker brain. As I've been reading I've been pleased to find that I already do a lot of what he recommends, but there are a few Suez Canal-sized leaks that I now see in my game that I'm trying to dam up. I'm not going to tell you what they are, because you're probably pressed for time and don't want to read a 4,000 word essay on why I suck.

So I'm waiting for the shortstack to go belly up so the heads-up can begin. I nearly take him out with A-Q versus pocket eights, but I don't pair and he doubles up. He makes a nice laydown (apparently) against the new chip leader to stay alive, and then came a sad, sad hand. With the blinds at T100-200 I'm dealt QQ in the small blind. That's nice. The chip leader raises to T1,600. Wha? He hasn't pulled a shenanigan like this all game. It seems an obvious steal attempt, but T1,600? There's no way I'm beat here. I quickly go all-in, hoping he'll realize I wouldn't do that with anything but an eight-legged and befanged monster.

The shortstack flings his card away and the raiser instacalls my all-in. Uh-oh. And turns over kings. Ouch. Ouchy ouch ouch. Actually, that's exactly what I typed after I lost and my remains were carted away. This time I didn't leap up ang brain myself on the chandelier (good thing too, as I haven't dug my bike helmet out of the garage yet). Why raise so much with pocket kings? I think he was hoping that the shortstack, with T200 already in the pot and just T550 left, would be tantalized by the hefty pot and take a stand. Instead, I blundered into his trap first. Oh well.

I might play in the PLO8 tournament Jordan and TripJax have put together on Stars tonight. Some Omaha/8 might be a nice change of pace from Hold-Em. I like playing Omaha because you get four cards instead of two, and for a tight player like myself that means I get to play at least twice as many hands.

Wait for it...wait for it...waiting for Felicia's head to go "pop!". Ah, there we go!

If (if?) I get knocked out early I may head to the bar and play some live poker. Have a few beers, sling a few chips, see if I can win whatever it is you can win at these things. I've never gotten too far in these things, I guess you get coupons for free food and whatnot. And as they have tasty goodies, that's good enough for me.

I simply have to relay something that Drizz posted today. He saw this guy at a bar tourney of his own, this is just the most heinous, the most unacceptable...just read:

List the things that spell WPT-fanboi at a live table, then multiply them by 10 and you’d get this future $25NLHE PartyPoker dominator:

Mirrored Shades: Check
Ball cap listing in sharpie pen the dates of his recent “cashes” at the bar: Check
Oversized Bose headphones: Check
Free swag from an online site (actually I like swag…): Check
Huge card capper(s) (he had 4 of them, maybe he though Omaha was gonna get dealt?): Check
A scarf masking his mouth (no, he was not sick): Check
Rock-like stillness (even between hands): Check
Two minute staredowns even while folding 93o in early position: Check

A ball cap listing in sharpie pen the dates of his recent “cashes” at the bar??? That's perhaps the sickest thing I've read in the two years I've been writing about poker. The level of pathology at work here is staggering. I...I...I'm actually at a loss for words. Honestly, me of all people. There's nothing I can add.

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