107 in Vegas

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"We know everything we need to live in a balanced way. We know how to breathe, pay attention, stretch, eat healthy, visualize success, and so on. Being out of balance is a simple matter of forgetting what we know. Being in balance is a simple matter of remembering what we know." Jack/Zen


There is a real good thread here over at 2p2 about last week's WPT show reagrding some of the hands played between Barry Greenstein and Blair Rodman. It is one of the most interesting/informative threads I've seen on theat site in some time. Barry (barryg1) and Blair (Blair) both posted in the thread regarding their play and their analyses is very interesting. One of the hands they talk about is where Blair raised with TT, someone called in between, and Barry moved all-in with 77 and both Blair and the other player folded. Barry also talks why he declined to hold up a beer for the toast.

107 degrees today in Vegas. Welcome to June and thank God for a/c. I still can't sit too long at the table becuase of my back problems so I've been playing mostly online, mixing up n/l cash on Pokerroom, S&Gs on Paradise, and some h/l stud on Pokerstars.

In a S&G last night 4-handed I made a late position raise with T9s and got minraised and called and the flop came T94. We got it all in and I took down his KK. So much for the min-raise. He was very polite and said "Go read a poker book you fxxxin donkey!" Now, honestly, why would he want me to do that? So that I can get better? Obviously he thinks I made a bad play.

I just started reading Harrington's volume three. It's written in Quiz format with spaces for answers and can be graded as a test. I got through the first 8 problems so far and it's well-done. I disagree with Dan's analyses a few times and his scoring, I think some of the questions can have several stylistic differences. Also I think he advocates bets that are too small in a number of circumstances when a slightly larger bet will allow you to know where you are in the hand, such as betting 80 into a 110 pot rather than the 55 he recommends. For 55 I think we are too likely to get called by a very wide range and/or to be bluffed off the hand. But I like that there is a scoring system and it's good to see which type of hands you miss points on and can pinpoint that type as something you may want to analyse and keep an open mind about alternatives. I skimmed ahead and there are 591 total points available and he says anything 400 or better is a player who clearly should make good money in multi tournaments and 500 is a wold-class player. I think he is leaving some flexibility for different stylistic approaches by allowing a world class player to disagree with him by as much as 91 points. So far I scored 84/110, and I really need to think through the Jen Harmon hand cause I just can't see folding this hand on the turn right now and his suggestion of calling the flop makes for a very tough turn decision if the board doesn't pair. Anyway, I definately recommend this book for tournament players even if you don't have the first two Harrington books (but I recommend getting them as well).