Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[TightEnd]

not forgetting the £400 ice cream, that sooned turned into an £1800 round of desserts........

[celtic]

 

[77dave]

I know there was a rice pudding involved somewhere along the lines

[ripple11]

 

[Djinn]

Cool - I seem to have been instrumental in provoking a debatelet - that never happens, so I am going to join in again.  What I actually said r.e. shortstacking (in response to a %bankroll point of Tank's) a couple of pages back:


"1) Is £100 the max or min sit down?  If it's the min, you shouldn't really be playing it anyway as a) you're not going to have a bunch of raises in you and b) you are very likely to be outstacked by most of the others on the table.  You might have to pull up several times, suddenly making it look like a not-so-affordable game (NB. some people play a short-buy-in well to great effect - see Rolf Slotboom's Omaha book)."

Whether or not people know how to play a short stack effectively (i.e. 'control' of stacked player next to him etc. which is totally viable) when it's a question of playing a bankroll to avoid going skint, then you are effectively increasing your own variance by playing the Short Stack Way.  Being 'bullied' is an irrelevance - the point is that even if you do the push-based-on-others'-range thing you are still going to be all in pre or on the flop a lot more and in the Fingers Crossed Position.  Even playing this way optimally, you are going to have to take larger swings as you watch your races and 60/40s just get played out while you are out of ammo.

Some people do this well, but I would imagine they are not sitting with a minimum £100 when their roll is £2k.

[ifm]

Am i wrong in thinking Slotboom's omaha book was quite severely criticised by the top omaha players?
Seem to recall it not going down well

[Ironside]

rolf is one of the top omaha players maybe from a different school that elblondie and williamson but he is still a top player

[Karabiner]

Am i wrong in thinking Slotboom's omaha book was quite severely criticised by the top omaha players?
Seem to recall it not going down well

I thought it was just me that thought it was poo.

Although undoubtedly his method works if the bottom line is all that counts, but I would hardly call it playing.

[tikay]

"The Sun" - eat your heart out.

Robbie Williams is in dispute with EMI, with whom he has an £80 million recording contract, and he has delivered just 2 albums in the last 5 years. His Management refuse to "deliver" any more albums because they are in some dispute about distribution. Fair enough.

Today's Independent reports on this dispute under the following Headline.

".....(you dont) sing when you are whining....."

[tikay]

A great hero of mine died yesterday, John Harvey-Jones. I could bore you to tears with Harvey-Jones stories, but he was a truly great man, & one of the UK's best businessmen. He was in the Navy, then British "Intelligence", which he left with some acrimony, after they treated him inhumanely whilst his 4 year-old daughter was dying of polio.

He ended up at the (then) ICI, which was losing money, & within 3 years he had turned it round, to become the first British company to make over £1 billion in a year.

He became something of a management guru & legend, & even had the first "reality" show, in which he took the role of Company Doctor, "Troubleshooter".

But I knew & admired him best for one of the books he wrote, which became a best-seller for over a decade. I don't remember a single thing about the book's contents, but I did not need to, for everything I needed was in the simple, three word title. I identified with the title so well, I've lived my entire life doing what it suggests. You can succeed at work by following the advice in the title, in fact, you can succeed in poker (I'm serious!) by doing it. Or knitting, fishing, management, anything you like really. The title of the book was.....

"Making it happen"

Try it. You'll be amazed at the difference it can make to your life. Put simply, in life, we can let things happen, or we can make things happen. The difference is massive. It's like, for example, the difference in poker between betting, & calling. Some folks never got that, either. But those who have cottoned on to the logic of "making it happen" will generally succeed in life. If not in love.

Apply it to poker for a moment. Do you do better by passively calling, or by making action? Correct. And what about everyone who moans about poker's woeful organisational ineptitude, especially at some venues? They have a choice. They can moan about it, but just carry on. That's "letting it happen". Or they can try & so something to improve it. "Making it happen".

I suppose that's why I have so little sympathy with the moaning minnies in poker. The situation at Luton, where so many are moaning, (which is pretty easy, even my cat can do that), & so few are "doing", (which takes a little more effort) is a classic example. What we are doing in APAT is another example.

Making it happen.

John Harvey-Jones, RIP.

[Newportlad]

He was a good man.

I remember those 'Troubleshooter' programmes.  Fascinating stuff.

[tikay]

I got heaps of stuff to catch up on, & lot of fascnating DTD stuff to write up, but I gotta get to "work" now, I'm in Cardiff for the APAT Weekend. Am staying at the lovely "Future Inn", & I just bumped into a few of the lads downstairs in the Lounge, including one Dewi, who uttered these words, which I never thought I'd hear Dewi say.

"I'm not going to drink today.......".

There was some mirth at that statement, as you can imagine. Pressed, he modified it slightly.

"...until I'm out of the Tourney".

What's the over/under on that?

[jizzemm]

I got heaps of stuff to catch up on, & lot of fascnating dtd stuff to write up, but I gotta get to "work" now, I'm in Cardiff for the APAT Weekend. Am staying at the lovely "Future Inn", & I just bumped into a few of the lads downstairs in the Lounge, including one Dewi, who uttered these words, which I never thought I'd hear Dewi say.

"I'm not going to drink today.......".

There was some mirth at that statement, as you can imagine. Pressed, he modified it slightly.

"...until I'm out of the Tourney".

What's the over/under on that?

I have a feeling he might not after the last showing in Manches tar

[tikay]

Took my car in for a Service today, only the 2nd since I had it - I got it in August '06 I think, with 6k on the clock, it's got 60k+ now. John Grice (MPower), who sorted the car for me, nags me to get it serviced, & he even booked it in for me. 4 times.....

What an amazing experience Car Servicing is now. For 20 odd years, whilst I was with the B & K Group, my (Company) Cars were always serviced & looked after by our own Garage, which was, in itself, a Profit Centre, so I've forgotten what a real Car Service is like, though I remember it back in the 60's & 70's as a dreadful customer experience.

I arrived at Sytners at 1.30pm, & a man asked me to sit down at a desk, almost like going to the quacks, it seemed to me. "Can I have your car key please?" says he. It's not a proper "key" as such, it's like a car remote-control door unlocker thingie, but it serves as the key for the ignition too, you insert it into a slot on the dash & press a button & the car starts up.

Anyway, I give him the "key", & he inserts it into a slot in his desk - wtf? Then he says, "hmm, you need brake fluid, oil change & microfilter, da de da de da". What? How he do that, ffs? "Come back in 2 hours & it'll be ready" says Desk Man. Wow! It used to be "come back tomorrow, it might be ready - if you are lucky".

There's a lovely coffee machine, leather armchairs, big telly, proper newspapers - and the Daily Mail - even an Internet Cafe, though the latter was not working. I had a wander round the workshops - superb lux levels, floor shiny clean, mechanics smart & tidy, no mess or toot. Jeez.

They had a word with me after 10 minutes, & bollocked me as I - apparently - had a non run-flat tyre (a what?) on the front off. I'd replaced it recently as the tyre had worn through to the fabric. So I bollocked him - "thats twice I've had to renew my front tyres, wassamatter with BMW's?". He asked how often I checked the tyre pressure - I told him the truth, "it's a Beemer, I don't expect to have to do things like that, I've never once checked them". He looked at me gone out, & delivered a little sermon. And 2 hours later, I get summomed, "your car is ready Mr Kendall".

And I'm dreading the bill, but what a lovely surprise - full service, (60,000 miler), two new tyres, consumables, £408 the lot. How cheap is that?

I've had the car about 18 months, this was it's 2nd service. I've never opened the bonnet - & never intend to, don't know how to - & it's never missed a beat. It does 44.1mpg, & I can do 650 miles on a tank.

My oh my, cars have changed.

[AlexMartin]

Played in that numpty DC game last night Tikay. I got some player notes for you