{"id":4,"date":"2005-07-21T03:34:24","date_gmt":"2005-07-21T08:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dtrdev\/2005\/07\/21\/high-time-for-a-post\/"},"modified":"2005-07-21T03:34:24","modified_gmt":"2005-07-21T08:34:24","slug":"high-time-for-a-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/2005\/07\/21\/high-time-for-a-post\/","title":{"rendered":"High Time for a Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sorry to all of you who expected more from this blog. It’s been far too
\nlong. My poker playing slowed over the last six
\nmonths.  I was playing party poker bonuses at .50\/1, but 
\nthere wasn’t much to report.  In fact, I think during that time I
\nwas regressing, only playing to get through the bonuses and thus not
\nreally enjoying the poker.  it wasn’t because of my last Vegas
\nexperience in Jan., in which I booked my first major win.  For
\nmany reasons, my passion just got
\nsucked out of it.  Last summer, poker was exciting – it was
\na meaningful hobby.  But other things began to take it’s place.<\/p>\n

Well a few things have brought the fun back recently.  First, the
\nlast two weeks have featured a no limit ring game among friends here in
\nSan Francisco.  Last week I was up, this week I was even, but both
\nwere great learning experiences.   I haven’t played much no
\nlimit overall, and it really brought some excitement back into poker
\nfor me. We’re not playing for a lot of money, we’re drinking plenty,
\nand having fun.<\/p>\n

From tonight, two hands stick with me.  We’re 5 handed. 
\nPlaying .10\/.20, I called a pre-flop raise of .30 with QTo from the big
\nblind. The flop comes 56T, with the 56 of spades.  Three players.
\nOne checks, I bet out 1.50, get raised by math-smart, somewhat unpredictable
\nplayer to 3.00. He had initially made the .30 raise and had position on
\nme.  I call the additional 1.50, hoping for a blank and thinking
\nhe might have been trying to push his straight or flush draw.  The
\nnext card is the 2 of clubs, a seeming blank.  I then put him all
\nin for 8 bucks, about the size of the pot, he calls, shows me ATo.<\/p>\n

Now I don’t know if I played this right. I felt like he could have been
\npushing a draw or a weaker high pair, because he could make a move like
\nthat and had position me. I figured that making a pot sized bet was my
\nonly chance to win it and in fact 5 handed top pair solid kicker is not
\na bad shot.  I was worried about ATo or KTo because he made the
\ninitial raise, but he could have had spades or a mid-pair like 88 and
\nmade the raise.  Still, perhaps because he made that raise I
\nshould have been able to narrow his hand down further. He didn’t have
\nT9 or T8 because he wouldn’t have raised there, nor did he probably
\nhave lucky two pair. Maybe JT, but probably not.  With that in
\nmind, he either had a mid pair or he had me out-kicked.  If that’s
\nthe case, was my move right? I dunno.<\/p>\n

Later on that night, we faced a similar situation but with more money
\non the line.  I had KJs in the big, called the pre-flop raise to
\n.50.  Flop comes KQ4, rainbow.  I check, gets bet to 1.50,
\nnot by the raiser but by the same smart-unpredictable player, I put in
\n4, he calls.  The turn is a 4, still rainbow, I bet 5, he goes all
\nin for 12 more.  I call, he had K8o, hits the 8 on the river. My
\ncall of 12 into the 39 dollar pot seems right.  He didn’t raise
\npre-flop, so I didn’t put him on KQ or AK.  Unlikely for him to
\nhave K4, even though he was in the big, and he wouldn’t have called my
\nbets on the flop with just a 4 or J4.  He could have KT, KQ or K8, or just be on a bluff. But I felt I had it right.<\/p>\n

An important point though: his outs weren’t just the 8s.  The
\nremaining K, 4, or Aces would have split the pot – that’s 8 extra outs
\nfor him. I’m still ahead by a decent margin with one to come, but it
\nstill makes my decision a bit closer.<\/p>\n

Both those losses felt terrible, but overall the fun was back in
\npoker.  I still feel like I’m a shitty no limit player – I had great cards tonight and didn’t make a damn dime. I won a no
\nlimit tournament among friends the other night, and I can only remember
\ntwo things from it. One, how shitty I played (how could I call with
\nsecond pair medium kicker with 2 to 1? what kind of hubris led me to do
\nthat?).  Second, and much more importantly, how much fun I’ve made
\nplaying among friends for meager amounts.  <\/p>\n

And with that, I go to Vegas to play some more low limit among actual
\nhuman beings.  Among a host of friends attending Defcon<\/a>, I go with Doc Riley, the smart-unpredictable poker
\nbuddy of mine, who I need to train to play low limit.  I’ve reread
\nSSHE.  I’m playing around with my simulator. I’m ready to hit the town, put on my table persona, and have a good time.<\/p>\n

I hope I have half as much fun as Iggy<\/a>,
\nPauly<\/a>, and Wil,<\/a> among many others<\/a>, have been having. Even though I haven’t been posting,
\nyou bet I’ve still been reading. I was never really a full member of the poker
\nblogging community, devoting much more of my time to the copyfighters<\/a>. 
\nBut I still get a kick out of the poker bloggers and wish I could put
\nmy energy into hanging out with y’all too.  You’re all
\nterrific and deserve all the attention you’re getting.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry to all of you who expected more from this blog. It’s been far too long. My poker playing slowed over the last six months.  I was playing party poker bonuses at .50\/1, but  there wasn’t much to report.  In fact, I think during that time I was regressing, only playing to get through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1037"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dtr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}