Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

We finished Poker Week Filming at about 7pm, Compo & Co were in Leicester Square - in the grassy bit, I was on a balcony, & we re-enacted Romeo & Juliet. I kid you not. You have to work out who played Juliet.

Then we jumped a taxi to The Sportsman. We were in Oxford Street, & the Cabbie suddenly says "You've been on telly a lot, yes?". I put on my humble public personna, & said "why thank you, well, yes, quite a bit, you know". "No, not you, Compo" says daft Cabbie-bloke.........Well, Compo was insufferable after that.

So we played the Comp, a £250 Freeze, & Compo did very well. Lasted almost until the break, in fact.

The Sportsman is right by Marble Arch, the Cardroom is in the Basement, & is rather nice, though "compact". Only 43 runners, word was that many were playing the NPL thing across at Loose Cannon.

But we still had Brian Johnson - my, he's some fun to play poker with, sees more flops than Jac Arama - speaking of whom, him too, Ian Woodley, Tony Chapman, Jeff Rogers, Koresh - lasted 10 minutes - and the usual crew.

It was my first Live Comp of a week in which I've budgeted to spend £1,700, so I'm fairly keen to bank some cash early, if I could cash here, it kinda makes the rest of the week easier.

I managed to get paid with Aces to double up, but the structure is a bit fresh, so I had to keep playing, & I had a bad accident caused by not watching the game properly. I Raised in late position (blinds 200-400) to 1,400 with 3-3, only to find there'd already been a Raise! Oops......Well the Raise goes, so I had to Re-Raise the minimum, & Matey-Boy, after watching me squirm, promptly re-popped it, & I had to let go, so a bunch of chips wasted there.

Soon I'm down to 6k, Jac Arama makes it 2k & I have AK, so I'm gonna shove here. Before I can, man to my right shoves for 10k! I decide this is still worth a pop, & call all-in for my 6k. Jac then works the coup out a treat - "one of you has a big pair, the other AK, so I pass my AK", which he does, & shows. And he was right, I was against TT, Rivered the K, & we are back in business.

Soon it's "final", a 10 man jobbie, with only 8 paid, & Tony C has mentioned that there is normally a saver done for 9th & 10th, but nowt was said, & I was OK-ish for chips, so no worries.

I found AA again first hand, but could not get on, still, the Blinds were big, so no sweat. I fancy my chances here, actually, I have swapped 20% with the Fish Compo, but I can still draw a 4 figure suim with a top 3 or 4 finish. NO MISTAKES I say to myself, I could be freerolling for the rest of the week with any luck.

Two hands later, with 3 players very short, I pick up KK, & action in front of me, a Raise to 3k, happy days. Now, I've never seen this Gent before - nice man - but I fancy he's a gambler, & he's got a mountain of chips. You can tell he's a gambler, his eybrows met in the middle. So we have a some silly speech-play, all good-natured, & I shove the rest of my 13k in, hoping I can somehow entice a call. And he walks right into it, with his 7-7. Double-Up time, 20% to Compo, & a 4 figure cash is nailed on.

The flop was lovely, 4-8-J, easy stuff, but a 6 turned - noooo, surely he cant suck out with a perfect-perfect straight? And there she was, the 5........

"Good game guys", I cheerrily say through gritted teeth, as the dream of a nice start to the week goes down the pan, & as I walk away, I hear them doing a saver for 9th.......

Character building stuff, this poker lark.

[tikay]

Faced with the opportunity of my first night at home for 4 days, I did the sensible thing, & went to Stanley Notts last night, I had some business to discuss with Chili, so two birds with one stone.

Only 17 runners, but good fun, though I did not recognize too many faces, just Sean & Tina from Gala.

They have the weirdest "clock" for their Tuesday night affair, though I'm not saying it's wrong, or bad, just odd.

It's £50 to enter, then a maximum of three rebuys (including Add-On), so the spend is £200 max.

The first 2 levels were 45 minutes each, excellent, so with limited rebuy availability it stops the nutters from going silly.

But then it does the weirdest thing - the clock reduces to 20 minutes. 20 minutes!

I politely enquired of Jim "are you sure?", & he said "yup, but once we get to 1,000-2,000 (we were at 200-400), it goes to 30 minutes.

I really don't know if that's good or not, but it's certainly different.

[tikay]

I read an interesting comment by Michael Greco on the DTD Pros Board yesterday, in which he commented that he thought poker was 70% luck. Good for you Mr G, so many players think the luck factor is much less, it's not. IMO. 

I busted out of the comp last night, no complaints at all, but you tell me if this was bad play or bad luck. Remember, we are on a 20 minute clock, & the average at this stage is 20 x BB.

I limp (yes, mistake) with  , Tina is in the SB & makes up. I'm not just limping to catch a flop, I'm in late Position, & I can perhaps pinch this post-flop if they show weakness on the flop. We are 6 handed, so nicking pots is quite important, & relatively easy compared to a full table.

We see this flop......

 

Now I like that. A lot. So I'm gonna play it strong.

Tina now bets out, 1,200, that's "pot". What do you do here? Call, & hope to catch the flush later? Pass? (You jest?). Re-Raise? I shove, happily, she can't call I am thinking.

Wrong. She can if she's holding the delicious  ......! And it flushed.

Now, is that bad play? Good play? Debatable play? Bad judgement by me? Or just plain bad luck?

I went home quite happily. I think I made the right play at the wrong time. Luck, or a mistake?

I may stick this on PHA, to gauge opinion, actually.

[RED-DOG]

70% luck is fine by me, 30% is a massive edge.

[tikay]

I thought Mr Greco's "70% luck" comment was excellent, particularly coming as it did from someone who's won a biggie, usually big winners claim it's more skill than luck. Arise Sir Greco.

But this one from him caught me short.....

As I,m not really a card rack and dont tend to get many big starting hands I have to use my bluffing skills more than I would like.

Now, he may have been saying it tongue-in cheek. Or he may have been saying it "literally" - in that, of course, NONE of us get many big starting hands, there simply aren't enough to go round, that's the whole essence & beauty of the game.

But, well, the notion that some of us get less big starting hands than others? That kite don't fly!

[AlexMartin]

70% luck is fine by me, 30% is a massive edge.

Decreases over time, im sure someone could write a good equation showing how the luck effect we term variance decreases in a direct relationship to hands played.

[tikay]

70% luck is fine by me, 30% is a massive edge.

Decreases over time, im sure someone could write a good equation showing how the luck effect we term variance decreases in a direct relationship to hands played.

Possibly, probably, but which way? More hands played = less or more variance? Less hands played = less or more variance?

And what decreases, the 30% or the 70%?

Serious question, I'm fascinated by this.

[AndrewT]

But, well, the notion that some of us get less big starting hands than others? That kite don't fly!

Looking forwards, of course none of us are more likely to get big starting hands than others. But retrospectively, some people must. And because of the relatively few number of hands you'll see in live tournaments (even if you play a lot) hot and cold periods can run a long time.

I read Beppe's comment as more 'I've not been getting big hands so have had to bluff more recently' rather than 'As a player who doesn't get big hands, I'll have to bluff more when I play in future'

[AndrewT]

70% luck is fine by me, 30% is a massive edge.

Decreases over time, im sure someone could write a good equation showing how the luck effect we term variance decreases in a direct relationship to hands played.

It stems from the fact that luck, by its very nature, is a value which fluctuates randomly, equally likely to be negative (bad luck) than positive (good luck). Whereas an edge due to superior skill should tend to be more often positive (you'll outplay your opponent more often than he will outplay you, if you do have a genuine edge).

When you add a whole stream of these random numbers together the luck numbers should roughly cancel each other out in the long run, leaving the (hopefully positive) remnants of your edge as a positive number.

[RED-DOG]

Casino's operate on a tiny, but constant edge.

[RED-DOG]

The thing about the casino's edge is that is inbuilt, they dont tilt or have off days and lose it.

[tikay]

I was working at the Sky Office one day last week, someone said "want your car cleaned or valeted tikay?". And I'm thinking, wow, I'm a star now, & they wanna clean my car.

But no, there is a little man who comes round (little, as in 5' tall, steady now), & cleans folks cars.

Well, my car doubles up as a tip. I live in it, & it's full of crisp bags, empty coffee cups & water bottles, carrier bags, junk, fag ash (sigh, the shame) everything. And I never - ever - clean it, inside or out, it's a tool, not a toy.

So I decide to ask him to do it, inside & out. It took him over 2 hours, he said he'd never seen a car so filthy. Marvellous. But true.

And how much did he charge? £15. Fifteen quid! For a full, inside & out, valet. And it shone like a new pin afterwards. I gave him £30, & I got a bargain.

He had a lttle van, & he just goes round factories & offices cleaning folks cars. When I gave him the £30 I thought for a mo he was gonna cry. He just looked at the three tenners, almost in awe. "£30, £30" he kept repeating. "Thank you very very much Sir", says he, "May your God be with you, my wife & I will have a drink tonight".

Now, here's the thing. He was Polish, & moved here three years ago. Works his socks off, does nobody any harm, & thinks he's a millionaire because he is in England.

And try going to any London Hotel these days. The Reception Staff, waitresses, room-service, cleaners, all Eastern European. And they ALL smile, are genuinely nice people, & give excellent customer-service.

In the 50's, the West Indian folks started coming across, & soon did all the bus driving & nursing. They got abused & pilloried, but they did the jobs. They are now respected members of our Society, from the top to the bottom. Next were the Asians, they were (are) prepared to work hard & long to earn good money, good luck to them. Ditto, ditto.

And in the last 5 years, the East Europeans have found their way here, & thank goodness for that. They are wonderful people, & we need them.

There remains an anti-immigrant undercurrent in the UK, & I hate & lothe it.

Nature never designed artificial borders, we did, & half the wars have been caused by them. People should be free to go where they wish, "we" don't own the land where we were born, we just happen to live here.

"They take our jobs". Stuff & nonsense. We have full employment in the UK, anyone that wants a job can find one. Try advertising for half-decent staff & you'll struggle. Those that wanna work, work, those that don't (fine by me, that's their right) don't.

The law of supply & demand is a thing to behold, & it's stunningly efficient. It needs no maintenance, or interference, it sorts itself out. Damn politicians & Governments, when they meddle in the natural order of life, or interfere in business, achieve nothing but to delay the inevitablity of supply & demand.

Immigrants to the UK? Bring'em on, we could not exist without them. If too many come, don't worry, supply & demand will sort it out. Racism makes my blood boil.

I'm sorry, I feel better now.

So, about this  .....?

[AndrewT]

I was thinking about the immigrant thing yesterday morning actually, and thought it was entirely possible, nay probable, that, in London. you can go a whole day about your business (buying coffee, newspaper, shopping, travelling on trains/tube, going to pub etc) without meeting a single person who was born in this country working in a customer service position. All immigrants - hard-working, decent people putting effort in to earn their keep.

And yet, we're seeing now that the children of the earlier waves of immigration, from the Carribean and sub-continent, who were born here and have grown up exposed to as much of our culture as the white kids of similar age, have picked up the fecklessness of youth which is becoming endemic in society.

People who grew up abroad know what struggle and hard work is, and appreciate the quality of life we have here. Those who were born here are spoilt and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate. They don't know what real struggle is. I really do think we need some sort of national service style scheme for teenagers - break their backs doing something for a couple of years, seeing as we're not able to stick them in trenches in the French countryside anymore.

Judging from the East European women who are serving in the coffee shops of London these days, I'd be all in favour of extending the Eurostar to Warsaw, Tallin and Vilnius to persuade more to come over.

[tikay]

I was thinking about the immigrant thing yesterday morning actually, and thought it was entirely possible, nay probable, that, in London. you can go a whole day about your business (buying coffee, newspaper, shopping, travelling on trains/tube, going to pub etc) without meeting a single person who was born in this country working in a customer service position. All immigrants - hard-working, decent people putting effort in to earn their keep.

And yet, we're seeing now that the children of the earlier waves of immigration, from the Carribean and sub-continent, who were born here and have grown up exposed to as much of our culture as the white kids of similar age, have picked up the fecklessness of youth which is becoming endemic in society.

People who grew up abroad know what struggle and hard work is, and appreciate the quality of life we have here. Those who were born here are spoilt and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate. They don't know what real struggle is. I really do think we need some sort of national service style scheme for teenagers - break their backs doing something for a couple of years, seeing as we're not able to stick them in trenches in the French countryside anymore.

Judging from the East European women who are serving in the coffee shops of London these days, I'd be all in favour of extending the Eurostar to Warsaw, Tallin and Vilnius to persuade more to come over.

Sing my song Andrew, sing my song!

It's a delight to go into a London Cafe or coffee-shop these days, knowing it won't be a surly moustached miserable sod, but a smiling East European goddess. Not really my point exactly, but it's a nice bonus, eh? And what about the Poker Dealers, so many of those are East European, good dealers too, & very easy on the eye, but most important of all, always smiling.

[TightEnd]

but with the odd disadvantage..

Late one night in a Luton cash game a punter asks for "Toast with Marmalade please" to the very pleasant waitress from Tallinn.

Ten minutes later she re-appears, with a tray containing a pack of 20 Marlboro Lights...


I agree with the sentiments though