GOOD NEWS EVERYONE, well for me !
after 7-8 hours of tirelessly unplugging my router and changing the wires around I FINALLY GAVE UP and borrowed TommyC’s dongle.
so i have internet YAY.
Got a few things on my mind this week, first thing is poker players. Some people I play with really upset me. Im gonna use the Gala game as an example, I could use my friends as examples but it would probably offendpeople by accident!
I know I kinda whine and bitch about poker a little bit – just like anyone complains about their jobs, but I do still really really enjoy playing – I genuinely love the game, i love its intricate spine – where subtle moves andalterations to bets/timing/fake tells/real tells/position can change the course of action and that you can (or at least attempt to) control these things. Getting inside peoples heads and trying to trick people intomistakes, brilliant! this is why iv re-fallen back in love with LIVE poker I think, all these great things! the thing that really upsets me about live poker and massively online as well, is the people who have turned thefantastic game into a dull and meaningless cycle of circumstances. yawn. people who play the game governed purely by EV and risk aversion (this is the live guys MUCH MUCH more than the online guys, even if thelive guys don’t know they doing it!) These guys play poker with no heart and no gamble and it saddens me to see them win. Tons of them playing live poker, and thanks to the Supernova Elite program on stars (which isincredible dnt get me wrong) online poker is crawling with them as well.
Thinking maybe this is my problem with poker, I love the game too much?? I wanna do my game and the game i’m in justice and it probably costs me money, difficult part of your personality to remove though!
On the other hand you have some real PLAYERS out there, people like Faz, Garry Fitzpatrick, My old pal Rob Woodcock, and even though its a controversial name to mention, Marc Wright! These guys are what i reallyreally like about poker. Garry for example, a really really great guy who iv known for a bit now and played a ton with, up until recently i thought Garry might have lost it a bit in the poker world, not that he doesn’t haveit any more, just that maybe he was making a decent enough living from his horse betting that he could settle into a much less inspired, slightly dull style of poker, that made money – not optimally profitable, butprofitable nonetheless. That is until the last week when Garry has been literally explosive! I have a reputation as one of the most active players in the gala game (obviously Faz wins any award that involves lunacyhands down!) but I play tons of hands, make loads of moves and even wake up with hands in spots sometimes! Most of the guys in the game think Im reckless, but as anyone with a brain will testify every play i make isof course reasoned and balanced into my overall style!
Garry this week gave me a semi-masterclass in old-school aggression, and it was cool to watch him rip the table apart a bit – he really owned me in a few spots this week where I was a bit behind the adjustments he wasmaking aas he stepped it up about 4 gears! I lost a ton of money to him but I dont think I played badly versus him at all – he cuaght the best of the cards i think, here is one hand you might find interesting,
playing 4 handed I am on the BTN and Garry in the C/O. Garry is in the straddle i make it £10 he makes it £34 I call I have A2clubs. Board comes 223. Garry bets £40 and I call. This hand is quite deep into our weeklong war and for this reason this has to be a flop call, I have not been raising any flops vs Garry, which is a decision I took as a adjustment to his unpredictably, whereas before raising with bluffs and semibluffs/merging with weaker hands was profitable with such deep stacks, now with Garry’s propensity to turn hands into bluffs, and 3bet flops much wider for value, my natural adjustment was to eliminate most bluffsand semi bluffs from my flop c/raising range meaning that I cant really have much of a flop c/raising range. My plan for this hand from the flop onwards was to call all turn bets and then either raise (call occasionally)or big bet if checked to on the river for value, in the knowledge that if Garry is checking the river after betting twice, chances are he is now either giving up or bluff catching, most of the time he bets the river will be abluff. Turn is the 5hearts (now there are 2 hearts down) and he checks, I was expecting him to bet this turn card most of the time as his range still consists mainly of overpairs in my head. I lead for £64 and he raised to£145. I have about £350 effective behind, so its quite a strange c/raise. This desicion becomes a little more difficult because Garry is aware i like to float flops a ton and on a board like this which would improve myrange more often than his it is obviously an ideal float and bet turn when checked to candidate, hands like A2/K2s/23/33/46/55 are all ion my range so i can credibly rep a house/big made hand.
This makes the turn desicion very difficult for me, because Garry is aware of my floating tendancies he is more than capable of taking this line with missed flop hands, as my range for BETTING the turn becomes quitepolorized, he would RIGHTLY expect me to check back most of my one pair hands so when i bet the turn my hand becomes a house/a 2 most of the time a bluff a bit as wel, along with the odd time i bet with a hand like45, 66, 53 for value/protection, but then i a, definatley bet/folding those hands on the turn so its comfortable for him to c/raise bluff with the majoirty of his missed hands, and c/call with most of his overpairs. Sowhen he c/raises the turn his range leans away from overpairs and more into bluffs, which make a call here much more profitable I believe as he will be c/raise folding most of the time. Most liekly AIR hands hec/raises bluffs with here are hands that pick up additional equity on the turn, so hand thats pick up HEARTS, or goofy gutshots/pairs. There is of course the chance of him turning striaghts with A4/46 which are theonly hand he c/raises for value on the turn aside from 55 imo. River the 8hearts. I have no idea whether this is a bad card or not, if he had 46 then he was already there, i didnt believe he would 3bet 46o tht oftenpreflop, so 4 combos of 46suited are still in his range, obviously all air hands that make a flush draw now have a flush, this is a massive possibility, i had ruled 88 out of his range on the turn as with most over pairs. Hebets £150 into £400. lets put the maths into this.
2.75 – 1 on a call so i need to be winning about 35% of the time. so lets assume now the only overpair he has in his range is AA with the Ahearts, ( i have Aclubs) so that leaves 2 combos of AA. He has 45 suited (5heartsdown so 3 combos) 67s (NOT HEARTS 1combo) i dont believe 55 is likely but will include it (1combo) ruling out 23/33. then HH hands that turned into a semi bluff on the turn which is not that many when you take outthe 8 hearts, turned striaghts that he is betting for value along with A2/K2s. I am expecting most random hands that bluffed the river to give up on this river card except possibly for Ax hands that include the Ahearts,AK/AQ. Ran it through poker stove with these results.
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48 games 0.005 secs 9,600 games/sec
Board: 2s 2h 3c 5h 8h
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 32.292% 31.25% 01.04% 15 0.50 { Ac2c }
Hand 1: 67.708% 66.67% 01.04% 32 0.50 { AdAh, AhAs, 5c5d, 5c5s, 5d5s, AhKh, AhQh, AhJh, AhTh, Ah9h, Ah8h, Ah7h, Ah6h, Ah5h, Ad4d, Ah4h, As4s, Ah3h, Ad2d, KhQh, KhJh, KhTh,Kh9h, Kd2d, QJs, QhTh, JhTh, Jh9h, Jh7h, Jh6h, Th9h, 9h7h, 7h6h, 6c5c, 6d5d, 6s5s, 64s, 3d2d, AdKh, AdKs, AhKd, AhKs, AsKd, AsKh }
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SO as i suspected at the time, it is very close but a definite fold with about 31% equity versus his complete range. Im sure that actual equity vs his range is reduced because he gives up some air hands more often than hevbets worse 2s. As it happens I called and he had 67hh. I really like Garry’s line in the hand and his bet sizing seemed near on perfect throughout. I dont know how much im down to garry lifetime, i suspect probably inthe 5/6k region, but I really enjoy playing against him and will not shy away from confrontations with him, and I suspect he knows as much! I think lifetime I might have have had the slightly poorer of the handsagainst him, but maybe he has just had the edge in the play, will be very interesting to see who wins the next battle! If it isnt me then il probs be on garrys door for a loan 
Anyway back to my original point lol, the reason I like people like Rob/Faz/Pez/even Marc Wright is they play the game with such a lot of heart and don’t back away from anything, not like the stupid little nits who sitat gala limping JJ mid position and folding to a raise and 3bet, or the SNE donks who play 2.5m hands a year and are just clicking buttons never even thinking about the game. Make a living by all means but poker is asport, that challenges the guys with the guts and the passion like UFC or ICE HOCKEY, upsets me seeing these clowns turn it into the gambling version of WARHAMER!
Thats all from me folks, ESSAY OVER – play safe and get your GAMBLE OOOOONNNNN!
