Anyone who plays as bad as Neal is ok with me. So long as they don't do stuff to purposely slow the game way down. The only fish I'd ever yell at is one who tanks on every decision and makes the hands per hour plummet... get some glasses old man!

A little contempt for your opponents is healthy in LHE. Spite is a necessary component to playing well.

You're giving me zero credit for a zinger that took you weeks to figure out?

In an email recently a friend asked me whether or not I would defend my small or big blinds in 3 fairly different situations. My response was:

1. Fold
2. Call
3. Spite call

I'm not kidding.

such a great start to the session followed by losing every single pot for an hour or so.

Here is my live run for this year (mostly 8/16):

Ouch and ouch respectively

I was being tactful and ignoring you.

hi all, i am in vegas now. anyone else here/coming? pls PM for contact info imo

<3, BBB

You gonna be there for a bit? Btw, where the **** is James?

8/16 Live.

One limper to Old LP man in late position who calls, Btn in, Sb in, I am da BB with K9s and rap. 5 ways. Flop is K3K with two suits(not mine). Sb czechs, I bet, folds to LP man who slightly lifts his glasses up a bit and says quitely " let me see, whadda we have here" and he calls, rest fold. HU

So he pulled this exact same act when the board came JJx about a half hr earlier with JQo, successfully pulled off a river C/R vs some dude who wasn't paying attention. So he always has a King here and likely a better kicker than my nine. Something in the neighborhood of KTo or better. He likely doesn't have AK cuz even he would have raised this PF.

Turn comes off a 9. Sapphire! I bet out again, he slowly calls. Now I can sense him drawing the slingshot back....back...back......steady...steady now...

River is an Ace no flush. Mr. I have a King checks, I bet. He confidently announces raise and in his mind he is getting his arms ready to caress the mound of chips that he believes the dealer is about to push his way. I mildly grab a stack and say 3 bet. He gets a sorrowful look on his face and calls but he does so by flipping his hand over still thinking that it is good but was afraid to go more bets. He shows JKo(not the act but the hand) and I table my boat and say quietly "full house".

Kinda ruined his session. Nobody else even caught the speech. Amazingly, if I didn't boat up I likely would have just checked this river

I have one simple thing on my cell phone that I reread to myself: PAY ATTENTION

Good times

Awesome. Yeah, I noticed I stopped paying attention to the other players lately, but there is so much info out there if you just look. I need something like that to remind myself.

til about the end of the month

james is busy doing some work related thing iirc

Does this mean you're not gonna be there for the 4th?

[x] brag: first week of the unlimited hold them has returned a nice profit including a $1.3k day today at NL500
[x] beat: would still rather be playing the limited hold them
[x] variance: will likely be playing PLO500 tomorrow and might be lucky to get a 10/20 LHE game up.

Oh so true. We had the clock called on a guy today who was busy flipping his coin for best out of 5 to determine whether he should call.

In all seriousness though, you learn a lot of the meta aspects of poker in the big bet game that you tend to ignore with the limited variety. You can get a lot of info if you know what you are looking for especially if the other guy is talkative.
And wearing sunglasses generally loosely translates to "please check and let me value own myself with bottom pair all the way to the river".

I've come to realize that I no longer have to be a good poker player to win at small stakes live limit hold'em (which is nice, cuz I truly amaze myself at how bad I play sometimes); I only have to be slightly less ******ed than my opponents. Yesterday's 2/4 table (a 4/8 game didn't even get going, wtf?) was full of some of the most clueless people I've ever had the pleasure of playing poker with.

The Straddler straddles, a coldcaller, Terrible coldcalls, I three bet AQo (so far tonight I've woken up with AA, JJ, AKs and JTs on Straddler's straddles, everyone assumes I 3bet all of them for gamboool), some more take 3 to the face. Q92r flop, checked to Terrible who checks, I bet, some callers, Terrible calls. Turn 7, Terrible checks, I bet, couple of calls. River A (brings in backdoor flush). Terrible checks, I bet, two calls. I table my nuts, Terrible grumbles (actually, he didn't grumble, he was a nice guy) and flips up KK. Unlucky, sir, well played though. Later in the session Terrible flops a fullhouse (a fullhouse is a good hand, right?) and doesn't bet or raise AT ALL postflop; ha, maybe he wasn't that terrible and did soul read me for the AA and bigger fullhouse that I did indeed have.

One clueless wonder played every single hand and payed off every single time on the river; once on a 4 to a straight board vs a tightish opponent he bet/3bet/called his set.

Despite my own poor play (missed river value bet due to extreme MUBSYitis, plus *whispers* slowplaying a set on the flop - not sure what the hell I was thinking there...) I was incapable of walking away with anything less than a 25 BB win during this session.

Gslightlyless******edthanhisopponentsG

This is really the only reason I've been able to play poker for as long as I have; if one had to be anything but semi-competent, I would have gone busto a long time ago.

Here's to being only slightly less ******ed than one's opponents!

Pretty interesting what I have been seeing at one of the local rooms I play at. Been seeing several reg 20/40 players now playing 8/16, some reg 8/16 players now playing 4/8. Not a ton of them but def enough for me to notice. Obv the economy is effecting all levels. Even at some of the NL games some reg nl300 guys are now playing nl100.

When I first started playing some 15/30+ games late last year the games were still good and going fairly strong. Now at his place the 15 hardly ever goes and the 20 game is so heavily propped that it is not so great most of the time.

The 8/16 game is still great though. I knew right away when on one of the first hands I saw at the table last night, some guy in UTG1 with a mound of chips cold called with 97o to an UTG raise.

BTW, Still hating on Neal

Lately when I get in these games I seem to always manage a 3 rack loss.

I'm starting to get worried about the convergence of nearing my pooh-Bah post and the Vegas TR. I think I'm gonna have to work on my timing.

Pooh-bah TR for the win, imo.

Roll em up together?

That's the stuff.

Here's to running much better than we deserve for the time in Sin City.

I seem to lately start out getting buried for 1/2 racks cuz the table is loose/wild. You see some flops with say a pair or whatever that gets 3 bet and or capped PF 7 ways and you get odds to peel on a lot of flops and then it gets popped etc. Pretty easy to burn thru chips in no time at all when you miss. Only takes a few pots to get back ahead tho. Sometimes just one pot.

Some sad news: Farrah Fawcett Passed away

correct

Now I'm sad. I was really lookin' forward to shaking your hand and buying your supper. Another time, perhaps?