Ok Flack Jacket On and Crutch Guard in Place!
January 8, 2007
So we enter the 2nd week of January and we’re all checking our bank balances and wondering how we spent so much and what was all the fuss about.I know my local stores were trying to sell me Christmas candy and crap as far back as September!
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| Three months of hyper advertising and consumer carrot dangling for one short week consisting of three days of celebration and four days of recovery. Ah don’t get me started on the cynicism and exploitation of it all, let’s move on pronto.Regarding my “New Year, New Idea” I can’t report on how this is going yet as it is still too early to make a judgement. I am logging all my MTT games though and to a lesser extent my SNG’s. I can say I am in profit, so far, for the new year.I played a couple of late night sessions with Dog, where we both made some profit despite some cringing suck outs along the way. It is funny how it goes when we go playing the tables together. We both normally will at the least break even, or be in small profit, yet if one of us is hot, the other isn’t.I sat one night after bubbling out and watched Dog storm through a $20 table with accurate betting, good cards and not a small amount of outright bravado, picking up $100 along the way.
He stayed hot, so the rest of the night continued, me always trailing Dog in the games that evening’s session. Another night the situation is diametrically switched, we are both playing our same game but for some reason the fickle finger of fate has plucked the horseshoe from Dog’s rear end and planted it firmly up mine and I am slicing through players like so much warm butter wielding a hot knife. You know how it is? Every now and then you just know you are hot and you are totally focused and zoned in, you feel in complete control. In fact I almost get carried away with my own seemingly invulnerability and confidence. One particular $20 SNG Dog was out very early 1st or 2nd, I was big stack with one other player half my stack and the other 6 players on or around the starting stack size. We had been playing about 40 minutes or so and I felt I had a handle on almost all of the players there, I was pulling them apart, this way and that. Then one hand comes and I am in with the 2nd chip stack and we have had the flop, I call to Dog I know exactly what this guy is playing and he has me beat and just to prove I have this guy’s style nailed down I go through to the river with him, losing 25% of my chip stack so we can see his hand. I think if I was within reach of Dog I would be nursing a swollen ear. Totally crazy play yup, but I was that over confident sheesh, I told Dog no problem I’ll take him out shortly and I fully believed my own PR. Fortunately I did so soon after and ripped through the rest of the field with impunity. Man it was fun. Lost the heads up to a bugger of a beat though, had JJ all in called by K9.. board came 5678A. Here’s a tip. Practice your heads up play as much as possible. It is the one area of the game you get the least amount of experience in, yet it is also the defining area of the game where you win or lose, there is no 2nd in poker. Get together with a friend and try and find play money heads up games and play seriously, as though it is the final table of a 100 seater MTT. Honestly, don’t wait to get your experience of heads up play in real money games. Practice as much as possible until you come to grips with the dynamics of heads up play and start to understand how dramatically the statistics and odds alter when mano-a-mano! As far as my league play is concerned I didn’t play any league games this year until yesterday. The first was a NL Hold’em where I lost on the final table, I can’t recall what position, as by the time I was knocked out my eyes had glazed over and my mind was drifting off to more interesting things, like the weather outside and how many biscuit crumbs I could shake out of my keyboard. My 2nd game of the day (and year) was a freeroll my league put on and to be honest I was only signed up for it to make up the numbers. Dog rang my Skype phone minutes before the game started, waking me up from a most luscious dream I was having on the couch, involving me and that chick presenter on the WSOP and a monopoly game. And that’s all I am going to say on that matter! The actual freeroll… I lasted one hand.. Let me say that again, I lasted ONE hand. Lol I knew there would be more than a handful of monkey bingo’ing players in the freeroll, there always is. What I didn’t expect was to get knocked out in monkey fashion by a league player, go figure. Those of you that are reading this blog and are not a member of my league, do not take this out of context. The league I belong to I highly recommend, if you join up and play the league games, your game will improve in leaps and bounds and you’ll meet some of the nicest and friendliest folk you could hope to meet online, everyone there will help everyone there. That said and hoping not to turn this blog into some kind of confessional, I’d like to try express some of my angst, regarding the league I am in and my aspirations for the coming year. I am sure most of you out there have seen the film “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Where Bill Murray’s character Phil Conners is forced to relive the same day over and over, until he gets it ‘right’ and then is he ‘allowed’ to move on to the next day and the rest of his life. Well that’s how I feel about the league right now. Just like the quaint friendly little town in the film (Punxsutawney, try saying that after 5 tequila slammers!) where everyone is nice and the surroundings are so pretty and homely. So is the league, the people are nice, the chat room and the forum are friendly comfortable places to hang out. Yet, just like Phil Conners I feel I am re-living the same day, over and over again. Every tournament it is the same 20-30 faces as the day before, and the day before that. The same playing styles, maybe someone tries to throw in the odd bout of something different, but that is a rarity. Yeah some new faces join and some old faces fade away, but again, at the end of the day, like Phil Conners, I am still stuck in the same scene in the same town. I am coming to the conclusion that I have now got it right and am ready to move on to the next day. I feel I am no longer learning anything new from the league games and if I am brutally honest I very rarely enjoy the league games these days. I feel I have a commitment to the league and its members, I am not sure what this commitment entails but there is definitely a bond. With certainty I can say that the league games are now effecting my general aspirations of moving my game up to next level. I need to be more selective about where I use my online time regarding playing poker. A 20 player $2 tournament in our league can last 2 hours plus, a $10-20 100 player tournament outside the league will usually last scant longer. It’s not rocket science is it? I also am having trouble adjusting back to the league games, when I do play them. I hate to say this and it may sound very arrogant, but there are too many illogical players in the league games. After playing higher stake SNG’s and MTT’s you get used to playing final tables and such with players that understand pot odds and statistics, sure folks will make ‘moves’, that is a part of poker, a rather exciting and skilled part at that. When I raise 5 or 6 times the BB I just don’t expect people to come with K9 off or A4 off, especially when I haven’t made a bet for 20 hands! I also don’t expect them to come with a pot sized bet when the flop has given them nothing. I also don’t expect them to go again on the turn with a pot sized bet on a gutshot draw. Yet many of the league players are capable of such illogical betting and I don’t just mean the obvious maniacs. In my opinion too many people in the league games simply seem to have no idea of pot odds or statistics. Many come over as solid tight players, yet, they seem sometimes to have no other aspect to their game. Just sitting there folding hand after hand unless the hole cards are in the top 10 list. When they get into a hand (e.g. not folded) their game can go quite awry, because they haven’t got a grasp on the logistics of the cards. And this is where I get fed up with playing in the league games, I expect the seasoned players to know about stats, logistics etc. and not make silly stupid luck bets, yet many of the players can do just that, once they move beyond the flop. Yup I know I am gonna come in for some stick for that one and I am ready to argue my corner on the issue, here on the blog, in the forum, in the chatroom, in MSN etc. By playing SNG’s of $5 to $20 my bankroll can comfortably afford me to play these $10-$20 MTT’s and that is what it is all about, isn’t it? You make the bankroll and play to your bankroll, hopefully realising the gains and moving your game up as your bankroll increases. So Like Phil Conners I am going to move on to the next day. Unfortunately unlike Phil Conners I don’t get to sleep with Andie MacDowell by doing so. Hopefully the league regulars and admin will allow me to still hang out with them even though I’ll not be playing more than one game in ten. Till the next time.. and with my flack jacket tightly buttoned on… Arrogantly yours Blagger |
Comments
10 Responses to “Ok Flack Jacket On and Crutch Guard in Place!”
Got something to say?
How Bloddy Arogant of you! LOL
Seriously though, I agree to an extent on the majority of what you are saying but you also have to remember that a lot of the league members are there for the community and friendship that goes along with leagues.
I have to agree though that the games are getting a bit stale with the same players turning up day in day out. Its not the players who are involved who are at fault though. They are people just trying to support the league, while having a bit of fun and hopefully making a few $$$. But we do need a bit of variation. As forum members reading this will know, there are changes afoot on how the league is set-up. New point structures and hopefully a more varied buy-in set up will hopefully appeal to the masses. We can only wait and see!
I understand that Gopher, I am probably only there for the camaraderie. Sorta my point really.. nothing wrong with just being there cos it is a social thing.
Re; The league changes it isn’t really going to effect me too much mate though I do think it is a positive change. I’ll probably get 20 games under my belt in 3 months, but I am not that competitive about the league standings. You can move the furniture around, but once yah step back take a look, it is still the same furniture. You’ll be doing the $2 shuffle to a different tune, that is all.
I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, just simply a fact. But no doubt it’ll be read in the wrong context again by the same people that do it it the leagues forum.
I do agree with what you said there Blagger about moving the furniture about it really dosent make a lot of difference to what it was before, but it does make it easier for those that want to play the $2.00 Buyins and so on.
The fact remains if you could get every member in the league forum to vote ( hell freezing over and all that ) you would find that almost 90% would prefer to play these games maybee because they are happy at that limit maybee because of there bank balance.
The other 10% do want and do play other buy in games for larger amounts. I have noticed this by floating around the Poker sites to see who is registered for other games.
I see players in $10.00 - $50.00 buy in games and I think that may come as a suprise to many thinking they wouldnt play that amount but they are its just that we dont know about it.
So I think the $2.00 League games or there abouts are for some just a wind down and a relaxing game with not to much pressure and secure in the knowledge that they are losing cash to another league member.
My point here is if we set up games on a regular basis for lets say $20.00 Buy in you would not see 20 league players involved, why? thats simple they all know how eachother plays and they are more than likley to make a cash payout in a none league event.
We did set them up before, even Gopher tried to set them up but the turn out was not good and didnt warrant the time involved as poker sites like to complain when they dont meet expected figures.
I do however agree with Gordons idea of the squad 20 getting involved in some of the bigger games as a collective to actually see if we can compete as a group but fairly of course.
So as you know I have taken a few days of and will be looking around for games that the squad can maybee get involved with as a colective and we will just have to wait and see.
Back to the grindstone I guess…………………….
Oh I agree it is a positive change especially for those that struggled to make the games before. And I agree for some the $2 average buy in suits there bank roll.
“I see players in $10.00 - $50.00 buy in games ”
Man, why the heck are they not sharing their experiences with the rest of the league then? If we have members regularly playing higher stakes games for $50 etc. I for one would love to hear about it and share observations and all that stuff. Where’s all the sharing and peer help?
Re: The winding down….Maybe, but to be honest if you have been playing 4-6 hours of cash poker online I really have trouble thinking that to wind down yah play even more poker! lol
Re: $20 games in our league……Again I agree, it isn’t the buy in amount so much as the same small group playing together.
Re: Squad entering MTT together….Yup this is something a few of us have had a stab at doing but it has only been on an ad-hoc basis, spur of the moment thing. A more formal and organized thing would be cool, though yah know what?
The final tables might just end up being the same old 20 players again. Hehe…
STALE!!! A very fitting word. The comraderie is great, the price is definately affordable for anyone who can afford to have the internet and damn the freeloaders who say they cant afford it.
Stagnation and boredom is abounding…crap..
My support for the league will remain (as always) throughout eyelids collapsing due to the “Grounhog Syndrom”..sigh.
The ocassional freeroll is (please don’t kill me) a welcome relief. At least it offers a fresh change of banter, playing style, and modest if not laughable attempts at play.
Do you suppose we (meaning the regular players who can afford it) can create a sub league? Sort of a super sub league of our top 10 or 15 players (statistical outcomes to determine these players).
Take these players and toss a challenge at another league for say $5 or $10 entry (per person) in a league battle.
This may spice up play in our own league to qualify for the opportunity to represent our league and actually win some real money.
Maybe even make it a headhunter challenge type thing or some variation such as half of your entry goes on your head and half goes to the final pot which pays x amount of places.
Either way, I’ll play as many league games as i can.
I think the problem with challenging another league is the same old chestnut….. collusion, chip dumping and cheating. Now we as a group are honest people. Each and every one of us plays to win and have no sympathy for whoever we take out - fellow league member or not (we might say sorry but do we REALLY mean it?? LOL).
On the other hand, experience has shown us that there are a lot of leagues out there who definately take ‘team play’ to a different level. Its one of the reasons our league dropped the TFCL like a hot potato.
But a slightly different concept to the team play would be to try and get 6 - 10 leagues involved and play $5 or $10 sit and go’s. One player from each league plays. This way each and every one of the players are fighting their own corner for their own league with little chance, if any, of collusion happening. Points could be awarded for each position and at the end of a series of games you would have the overall best forum. It would be a sort of inter-forum league.
I hope I’m making sense… its easier to talk about the idea than writing it down…lol. If you have seen the team play poker tournament on TV you will know what I’m rambling about.
hmmmmm..i’ve never seen team play poker on T.V. so you may have a valid point there. It was so very evident what was going on with TFLC and so very sad. Its a sad fact that profit = corruption. I was so aware of Cynfuls past too and should have known better. I wonder what ever happened to that league. I don’t think they like me anymore, BooHoo sniff sniff….NOT !!!!!
Still, I like the idea of league challenge even with that possibility and especially if the poker site will kick in some too. Sure the risk is there but it’s everywhere and in every game we all play everyday, with the exception of our league games. So we are accustomed to that fact yet we still fare well.
Perhaps have one qualifying league game a week and the winner represents the league the next week sorta thing?
This has the benifit that, the person who has to ante up an extra $10 to represent the league has in fact won their seat so to speak, because of their $$ win the week before in the ‘qualifying’ game?
Now thats a good idea! They would be playing the league game anyway, so they would have the money for the next game…. point noted in my wee book for when I get this up and running!
I’m really pissed right now and doubt that what I put out here will explain how I feel, but no time like the present.
Gofer said it above but he was talking about league against league, “collusion, chip dumping and cheating”.
Well, I think slow play has to be thrown into the mix here also.
Chip dumping is easy to spot for anyone that has their head in the game and can be detected by the poker site managers when they review the hands reported. Cheating is just another way of saying collusion but it is the subtle nature of slow play that makes it so hard to prove that, honest players don’t stand a chance against it and can’t report it without sounding like the kid that cried wolf.
Excuses for slow play are readily available and have to be taken for face value, as if a real poker player was saying them, “I always check with the top pair and a bad kicker” or “He is a tight player and I thought he had me beat”.
I’m an honest person and if I ask myself if I would slow play a member of my league in order for one of us to beat an opposing team, well, I’m not sure, I would have to play the hand and see just how I feel at the time, but I know slow play happens and if you haven’t seen it…well….get your head in the game, you will.