madness

New Blog

I started a new blog for 2006. The URL is http://gnightmoon2006.blogspot.com. This blog and all Crewhater blogs can be accessed through www.observetheownage.com.

Ping Pong

The other night I got involved in a marathon ping pong battle with Leo, Paul, and the Wolf. All three of them were in the zone and I got crushed repeatedly. Normally I play these guys pretty even but on this night I had no chance.

It got me thinking. I don't really get into "the zone." I tend to play solid and feed off the mistakes of others, be it in ping pong, frisbee golf, ultimate frisbee, or poker. It's very rare for me to play "above the rim" and beat people. My victories come when people beat themselves. I don't know anyone who has had more success playing frisbee golf and poker than I have, though I know friends who are more talented at these games. I tend to surpass them because I do not make as many mistakes as they do. If they play flawlessly, they should beat me almost every time.

It's important for me to stay patient. Sometimes when I am losing I press and force things a bit. When I think about my greatest successes in poker, they came when I was patient and gave myself the chance to get lucky. I lose when I try to outplay people and I make mistakes. If an opponent plays his best against me, he will usually win. But most people don't play anywhere near their best, no matter what the game.

Vacation/WHOTW

I haven't seriously played poker in a week and it may be another two weeks before I do. I have a bold plan for when I do return - which I will reveal then - but until then all I want to do is hang out with friends, eat, drink, sleep, and exercise.

From the archives:

WHOTW

Dealt to GnightMoon [ Jd, Kd ]
KriyaYoga folds.
hotmark777 folds.
HotNikkels folds.
thorrun folds.
MrW0nderful9 folds.
lancealot1 folds.
kingdavid18 folds.
hustler813 calls (10)
GnightMoon raises (45) to 65
hustler813 calls (45)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 6s, 5c, Kh ]
hustler813 checks.
GnightMoon bets (84)
hustler813 raises (492) to 492
hustler813 is all-In.
GnightMoon calls (408)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 6d ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 9h ]
Creating Main Pot with $1111 with hustler813
** Summary **
hustler813 balance $0, lost $557 [ Jc 4h ] [ a pair of sixes -- Kh,Jc,9h,6s,6d ]

WHOTW/DDOTW

WHOTW:

Dealt to GnightMoon [ 4d, 6s ]
GnightMoon folds.
War_Eagle86 folds.
pokerisivut folds.
svizec24 folds.
OrvarKalle folds.
MrW0nderful9 raises (80) to 80
athorn10 folds.
likaden folds.
willc69 raises (280) to 300
MrW0nderful9 raises (1847) to 1927
MrW0nderful9 is all-In.
willc69 calls (1282)
willc69 is all-In.
Creating Main Pot with $3171 with willc69
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7s, 2d, 7h ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3d ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 8s ]
** Summary **
Main Pot: $3171
willc69 balance $0, lost $1582 [ 3s 2s ] [ two pairs, sevens and threes -- 8s,7s,7h,3s,3d ]MrW0nderful9 balance $3516, bet $1927, collected $3516, net +$1589 [ Qd Qs ] [ two pairs, queens and sevens -- Qd,Qs,8s,7s,7h ]


DDOTW:

donutboy18 posts small blind (10)
Lucky168la is sitting out.
JackWould posts big blind (20)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to GnightMoon [ 3s, 8d ]
RED__BIAN folds.
slothr0p folds.
cballs25 folds.
BadVoodoo folds.
GnightMoon folds.
ILUVTOLOSE folds.
l_D1d_Th1S raises (80) to 80
donutboy18 raises (1994) to 2004
donutboy18 is all-In.
JackWould calls (1980)
JackWould is all-In.
l_D1d_Th1S folds.
Creating Main Pot with $4077 with JackWould
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3d, Tc, Qh ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jc ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 5h ]
** Summary **
Main Pot: $4077
JackWould balance $4077, bet $2000, collected $4077, net +$2077 [ Qd Qc ] [ three of a kind, queens -- Qd,Qc,Qh,Jc,Tc ]
donutboy18 balance $4, bet $2004, collected $4, lost -$2000 [ Ac 7c ] [ high card ace -- Ac,Qh,Jc,Tc,7c ]

Poker is Hard

It's easy when you have J9 against T8 and AhKh and it comes T87 with 2 hearts and your hand holds up. It's easy when you get aces against kings and ace-king. It's easy when you get aces against queens and it's easy when your opponents are folding ace-king to your button raise, as one fellow (actually a good player) did at Canterbury.

It's not so easy when you've got two Swedes and Layne Flack staring you down as you try to bluff with 8 high. It's not so easy to accumulate chips when you get continually reraised and you have nothing. And it's downright hard when you sabotage your own chances by playing afraid and making amateurish mistakes.

I didn't play my best today and I didn't get lucky. I did flop quads twice but there was little I could do to get much out of my opponents. I lost about 20k in the first level and then slowly gained ground back to around 54k when I was moved to a new table, no more Swedes. The new table did have my nemesis from yesterday, Rajj Kattamuri, Kenna James, Clonie Gowen with a big stack, and the legendary Sam Farha tilting off the remains of a once towering stack on my right. None of them really caused a problem for me though - it was this kind-looking older lady who plays a very mean game of poker who busted my ass.

Day Two Draw

Table 11

Seat One: William Thorson, 112k
Seat Two: Me, 66k
Seat Three: Thomas Koral, 12k
Seat Four: Anh Van Nguyen, 28k
Seat Five: Jeff Rine, 59k
Seat Six: Bo Sehlstedt, 56k
Seat Seven: Francis Mariani, 27k
Seat Eight: Bradley Berman, 19k
Seat Nine: Christopher Eddy, 49k

My table looks a lot like yesterday. A lot of semi-well known players, but no real superstars. Several medium stacks and two desperate ones. It's probably good having the chip leader Thorson directly on my right. I have heard he is very aggressive so it may be hard for me to open many pots. The guys to my left are all good players and circuit regulars. It should be a challenging day.