Neither can you

if the draws never got there, there would be no game.

Is it bad to play a 4 hour session and not have a single hand that's memorable or worthy of discussion? For some reason I feel like I am missing out on a lesson somehow. Maybe it was just a boring session...

It probably means you're so nitty that you never have a tough decision, or more likely, you're like me and you don't make it a point to remember a hand to post about it.

There are two hands from months ago that are still bugging me, but at the time I didn't think they were post-worthy so don't remember enough details about them now that I think they might be.

Of all the places in walk two european guys. Old guys are licking their chops but they dont know what they are in for. When I see the guy get on the list I immediately got on his left. So far raising light and 3 betting twice. Old guys sitting back thinking, "Just wait I'll get you." Wiiiiiiiii.

I've got a dozen books out now. In the writing, and the reading of various people's opinions, I've come to some odd conclusions. One is that whether the fictional character is one or two or three dimensional depends almost entirely on whether the reader wants that particular character to be one or two or three dimensional, which, in turn, often depends on whether the reader hates that particular writer or not. (I'm _much_ hated in some circles. Much.) I think it was Lois Bujold who observed that the actual story is a conspiracy between the writer and the reader, such that to every reader the story is different. I.e. "I don't know about the story you and X wrote together in your head, but the story X and I wrote together in my head, by the very same title, coincidentally, was great."

I've also come to the conclusion that male readers typically prefer character to be revealed mostly by action while female readers prefer it be revealed mostly by innermost thoughts.

I've come to the conclusion that literary fiction is - or, at least, has become - pretentious, meaningless, useless junk, substituting mere style for substance. I despise it.

Were I bad mannered enough to pass that on to David, I'm pretty sure his answer would be along the lines of, "John, please tell Tom to tell DK to pound sand until he learns to appreciate [whatever it may be David thinks you should appreciate)." Now me, personally, I'd boot Honor Harrington out an air lock (ask mpethy if I'm kidding) for the special favors she's given because of her connections. I hate the bitch. That doesn't mean, however, that she's not well written or - and this is surprisingly important - that David can't make a bundle off her.

Everyone's fine. Julie's learning to write with her left hand, finally. Inez just did a commercial for the San Diego Latin Film Festival. Sarah's a nag. Yoli needs to gain some weight.

I knew about Vegas. But I didn't and don't know anything else. Phone number? New / latest email? That you're alive...(well, I know that _now_...)

1/2

BTN($180) is white, 20's. Has been tight over 45 minute sample.

Hero(covers) white, 20's, nit.

Hero opens in MP to $8 with JT
BTN calls

Flop AA6

Hero bet/folds half pot every non ace street?

Villain is not folding Ax, and with two aces on the board, he's probably not folding a decent PP either, unless you barrel pretty hard.

Don't see this as a profitable bluff spot at these stack sizes.

Let me out it this way, his range is Ax, PP, and maybe little bit of random cards.

You are not folding out Ax; you probably won't fold out PP unless you double barrel, and only the remaining small percentage would probably fold to your cbet.

So overall, it is a very crappy spot to cbet.

This is a good point, and one that I'd forgotten. But IIRC, the Posleen series has first Earth landing in 2003, so perhaps we can split the difference.

Generally speaking, people who are happy with the status quo don't protest. In order to generate counter-protests, the level of the first group of protest has to reach a point where a significant part of the majority thinks that the spreading culture of protest is the new norm that they must counter-protest against.

Huh! I sense some bitterness. I'm no Schroeder fan, but he did authorize Germany's first ever combat deployments since WWII (Kosovo and Afghanistan). He was admittedly outspoken against the Iraq invasion and used that as a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. I presume that's the speech you object to?.

Further discussions might be better via PM, as I doubt many other of these poker aficionados are very interested in dissecting the cultural imperatives of SF works.

Let me just say that I enjoy your wordcraft very much, sir, and I don't expect to agree with everything I read. In fiction as much as in scholarly works, reasonable and well-informed individuals will not always reach the same conclusions.

Eh, I wrote my last before I read the DK exchange. I guess others are interested. And I actually very much enjoy Weber and have (I believe) his entire catalog. If I had the opportunity to pass a message to him and Mr. Ringo it would simply be this.

"I love your battle scenes, but the word 'actinic' is played out."

Everybody's got those little quirks. I can't read Harry Turtledove anymore because with each page I turn I have to face the dread of reading yet one more iteration of, "I ain't sayin' you're wrong," or something close to that.

I know I've got some writing quirks, even leaving aside my penchant for very precise punctuation. I try to fight them, if I know about them, but what about the ones I don't know about...

Thanks.

I'm a bit bitter towards Germany, yes, though I'm rather fond of the food, the beer, das Heer, and the women. We lost about 5k dead in Germany in training accidents alone during the cold war. We were prepared to lose millions. Come right down to it, we were prepared to be nuked out of existence on their behalf. They owe us at least that many dead, 5k, back again, and, frankly, owe us as much risk as we took for them. I see no sign of them owning up to that. Yes, they have troops in Afghanistan...but not doing much, not permitted to do much.

Speaking of whom, do you think Wacht am Rhein paved the way for his "After the Downfall?" I found it interesting that he published it through a little known publishing house, though I felt it was some of his weakest work, and that may have played more of a part than the fact that his main character is an SS member.

That's what editors are for.

True, but what a huge step. They had to break some real "oh no, we're going down the warmonger path" fear to get there at all. Yes, their ROEs are very restrictive, but they are (admittedly occasionally) facing hostile fire and returning it in earnest outside their borders.

Since he's tight and knows I'm tight, I put him on 22-QQ, AT+, KQ, QJ and some bigger SC's preflop (but to be honest I don't have a clue how to put someone on a range).

OTF, 40% of his range is Ax and PP. If I bet half pot I only need him to fold 33% and if he never floats he should be folding about 60%.

If he calls OTF, I narrow his range to Ax, PP, and a few floats. So if I bet the turn, he's continuing with Ax, and maybe the bigger PP sometimes. That's only ~50% of his flop continuation range. So again, a half pot bet is profitable.

If he calls OTT, then his range becomes AT-AJ (he's raising AK, AQ, and 66 by now, right?), and let's say TT-QQ. So ~50% of his turn contination range is Ax and 50% is TT-QQ. So if he folds all his remaining PP then a half pot bet OTR is +ev.

It seems like 3 barreling should be +ev, but I think I'm probably waaay off in my assumtions of his range. Thoughts?

If villain is tight and you call yourself a nit, why would he have a 60% range of suited connectors and broadway cards.

If anything, I would put him on 80% of Ax and PP, and 20% of others.

I really rarely have hands worthy of discussion. Maybe one every 12-15 hours of play. I don't know, I just don't find I'm in difficult spots like ever.

From two nights ago the only two hands where I could possibly be up for discussion were just a "was value betting 1/5 pot better then shoving" questions. Still really confident that shoving was correct even if they folded both times.

Sounds like you don't pay attention. Once you know how to review your play and pokerstove. No spot should ever be unsolvable. So your not cool because no spot is difficult. They have programs that take care of everything.

But if your not trying to think about the game and you have this thought process that poker is easy. More power to you, each spot is always unique and worth plenty of discussion if you truly love breaking down lines in poker.

I can talk about a hand that was played at my table everynight. Some of the stuff you see in lowstakes just needs to be told to the world. Its incredible on how these people play the game.

Other day was playing with a guy, would bluff raise his bb every hour. Then they would pay him off with 6 when he has a 8 in 200bb pot.


My point is plenty of stuff to talk about. Too many variables to the pokerz.

Yeah I reversed my percentages before. I meant to say 60% Ax and PP, and 40% others. Your range sounds better than mine though. Thanks man

I think you slightly misunderstood my post. I pay a lot of attention at the table. I love to talk about hands I witness or play a part of. I just find it rare that I come home with a situation that I find had me in tough and I feel the need to post about it and get others opinions for validation on my play. I don't go in thinking the game is easy, solved or don't find every session challenging.

I had a really weird table saturday night, at the end of the night I commented how hard it was for anyone to just sit down and adapt. Guy to my right dropped about 1200 and was rebuying $100 at a time, shoving super light otf vs any pfr. This was after I got him for $300 on a 66KAsssQ board A6v32s.

Guy on my immediate left was super spewy, type that would straddle/re-straddle. Auto raise atc if it was limped to him on either occasion. Problem is no one had really picked him off yet. tWaited all night for a hand in that occasion, but never even had a mediocre Ax. Dude never said a word all night and had an angrier look then Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. Only mid 50s, but dude didnt even get close to ever cracking a smile.

Big hand that made him storm off for 30 min only to come back and not play again was to limp-call a raise to $10 on the button with A3s from him, 4 to the flop. He started the hand with around $600, I had him well covered with around $1k. Flop the nut flush on a 246c flop and spewy guy leads out $45 which is a PSB, I make it $145 and he quickly calls. Turn is a really interesting card with the Kc, which should kill my action, but he leads for $95. He's clearly blocking, but I think for a bit and decide to shove. He tanks and stares me down from like 6 inches away for 3 minutes and folds. Lifted up his cards multiple times and someone said he had the 5d. lol.

I'm going to add bluff raising otb in my session tonight. I think I will go with the venice quote from harrington, "you can bluff every 1.5".

Gl, to me, peace.

I sat at two of the most spewey tables today and I could not get anything going. It was one of those sessions where you feel like you kept getting outplayed when in reality these guys where probably just smacking the board. Even when I folded the board never ran out anything that would of hit my mucked cards. I won two decent size pots and was up 1BI at one point but blinds and raises widdled it down. Nights like this are good reminders.

Oh and I cant even counts how many times I had 73,74,92,82,Q3. Lol.

i had a full weekend like that ... i won $17, lost $60, won $90. never got up more than $110 at any point.

Just cashed out $4.5K from a 10-hour $2/5 session.

I was in for $500.

Ship it!

Yeah.

Pretty degen of me to jump into short-handed $30/60 with virtually zero limit experience, but the game was good. Didn't have to take degen shots tonight though.