how many employees does it take to hang a picture?

this isn't poker related but i think its a great way to highlight how rediculous big businesses really can be.

i currently work for a huge american company employing over 100,000 people globally, half of which in my opinion are wasted resource and here is some evidence to back that up...

on friday a guy came round to hang two pictures near our photocopier, which he did. later on friday 2 further guys came round to inspect the pictures and decided to rehang them 2 inches lower then they already were. today (monday) 2 women came round to check all the pictures that were hanged on all the floors, it didn't look like they were happy! later one of the women and 2 guys came back round and she showed them where they should be hung. then later still another guy came round to move one of the pictures from being next to the other to under the other.

so far, 2 days 5 visits and 7 different people have been required to hang 2 pictures.

wasted resource, of course not! and this may not be over yet!

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a few days off

i've been feeling a little strange about poker the last few days. i feel like our relationship his hit a funny patch for no real apparent reason.

as i'm sure most poker players will agree, we have a love/hate relationship with the game. sometimes we love it (usually involves winning) and sometimes we hate it (mostly involves losing). for some reason i've slipped into the hate category with no significant losses to shout about.

i think these ups and downs are natural, amatay seems to go through 6 or 7 of these daily so i guess i'm allowed one! i'm probably going to take the rest of the week off playing and hopefully get my gggeeerrr-roove back and go from there. i've also got another idea in my head which i'm working on. for those of you who don't know me, i tend to come up with a fair few ideas/hair brained schemes to make some extra dolla and am currently trying to do that as well, hehe. none of them ever work but its normally fun finding out and i always learn a new skill.

cheers fishsters, oh and some nice voting action going down around my poll, keep it up!

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your opinion matters

yes it does, and i want to take advantage of what you peeps out on the interwebs think. to do this i'm going to run a monthly poll, eyes right, which will ask a simple question for you guys and gals to vote on.

i've started with a simple blog poll but ultimately i'd like to hear your suggestions on what you feel are valid questions. the next poll will begin at the start of may and i'll share the results each month.

in the meantime please take 30 seconds to answer the current question and we will see where we end up.

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hhmm, not fairing well

just finished a huge session for me and didn't perform as well as i had hoped. down just under a buy-in, which is not catastrophic but still a loss.

found a super huge mega fishie though, the whole tabl was there just to milk this guy playing aomthing like 85/50/2. i lost a buy-in early when his monster 6/4 off beat my a/k but managed to make it back with another a/k all in pre to his 8/9. picked up a few other pots here and there but even though he was a mega fish he was hard to play against because you never knew where you stood against him. plus with everyone else being so aggro with him you had to pick your spots pretty carefully.

on other tables i didn't have a great time either, a few pots here and there but in general i just wasn't hitting anything and there were too many calling stations to really bluff at a flop.

i did start noticing, more clearly then before, certain lines other players were taking and how strong they really were. if i had ben able to enter more pots i think i could have exploited them some more but i just wasn't comfortable opening with the mighty 7/3 or q/2. really need to forget my cards and just play the player but its a weird feeling!

thats about all for now. have a work night out tonight...which i'm paying for and won't be drinking at because i'm still on meds. boo!

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slightly dying

no poker news to blog about but i have managed to get some evil sinitus infection from my never ending cold.

i caught a cold about a month ago which i got over about two weeks ago then instantly caught another one! aarrgghh, so annoying, the second one was a little worse but i thought i was getting over it. how wrong i was, i woke up on thursday night/friday morning and literally couldn't breathe. i've never had acute sinitus before but this was fricking awful. I mean, one side of my nose had swollen shut and the other was clogged with snot....nice! i kept thinking i was going to suffocate and it totally freaked me out.

since it was like 2am friday morning and there is nothing i can do i watched some tv, went on the net and then tried to sleep but had no luck so got up and wandered the flat until about 6am when i started to get ready to head to the docs. got to the docs at 7:45, had some antibiotics by 9, went to work, came home from work as i was fecked and have been slowly tried to get better.

i'm still a little fooked, can't breathe properly and had to leave the charlton match at half time because i thought i was gonna pass out but there is a little progress here and there which will hopefully see me right in the next couple of days. I managed to sleep for 5 hours last night for the first time since thursday which has made me feel a bit better but i really need to get some decent shut eye if i am to recover. so frustrating.

i might get some pokes in later if i feel any better but otherwise its another day away from the tables which is putting me behind my monthly goals. coupled with the time i have missed at work recently i've got tons to catch up on there which further fooks me up. mother feck sticks!! oh well, health first, pokes later.

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stack a donk

today i performed my first ever proper stack a donk. the stack a donk play permeates a lot of the videos on card runners and up to this point i've never had the opportunity to perform it.

for those of you not familiar with the play its not simply getting it all in with the best hand or making progressive pot sized bets until its in the middle. its a play where you release the initiative with the goal of calling that lovely juicy bet you expect.

here is my hand history with an explanation,

Table Greycrest (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Holdem

SB posts small blind [$0.25]
BB posts big blind [$0.50]
Seat 3 (BTN) has the button.
Seat 1 : MP with $41.70.
Seat 2 : CO with $98.30.
Seat 3 : BTN with $43.25.
Seat 4 : SB with $56.60.
Seat 5 : BB with $80.10.
Seat 6 : Hero with $52.25.

** Dealing hole cards **

Dealt to Hero :



Sklansky group: 4
Hero raises to $1.75
MP calls [$1.75]
BTN folds
SB folds
BB folds

** Dealing Flop ** [Potsize: $4.25]



first you need a flop of sheer greatness for you yet one that looks like it would have missed you completely

Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero bets [$2]

first make a weakish bet, you must be first to act and you must lead here as checking doesn't have the same effect

MP raises to $4

oh no, please don't min raise me! obv he has something, so have a little think and make a reluctant call, sob

Hero calls [$2]

** Dealing Turn ** [Potsize: $12.25]



Hero checks

oh no, a high card, i'm so scared of it i must check and give up on the pot...please don't bet heavy here as you'll just take the pot away from me you big strong bully player!

MP bets [$35.95, and is all in]

oh no! you didn't listen to my pleas to check behind and now you have gone all in betting 3 x the pot to take it away from me. what should i do, oh what should i do...

Hero calls [$35.95]

oh go on then, i'll make a crying call because i missed that board like you thought and you are totally out playing me after the flop...oh hang on, is that a full house i have, wait, does that beat a pair of deuces? oh it does, wow. aren't i lucky! i think you just been stacked my donk friend :)

MP shows :



Hero shows :



** Dealing River ** [Potsize: $84.15]



MP shows two pair, Fours and Twos
Hero shows a full house, Eights full of Fours
Hero wins the pot ($81.15) with a full house, Eights full of Fours

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $84.15 Rake $3
Board: [4h 4c 8c Qh Kh]
Seat 1: MP showed [2s 2d] and lost with two pair, Fours and Twos
Seat 4: SB (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: BB (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Hero showed [8h 8s] and won ($81.15) with a full house, Eights full of Fours

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back to nl50

so after a horrid nl25 session i decided to have a little go at nl50, not in a tilty way but because i had already withdrawn my roll from pokerstars ready to go into my ftp account meaning i would be rolled for nl50 shortly. so although not officially set for nl50 i decided to go ahead anyway, bbbrrraapp!

so far so good, have been reviewing a few nl50 vids on cardrunners to get my head on right and eliminate some donkfish mistakes. going into nl50 though i was already 3 buyins down from my last escapade so need to get that back before it really matters.

second, first impressions are much the same. there are a few more iron men about but the play doesn't seem that much better. people are very hard to bluff (which has cost me) but i've been getting good action when it counts.

so stats since i have made the move are as follows, small sample size but am happy so far, i wouldn't go as far to say as i'm crushing, in fact i would say i'm no where near that, i've enjoyed 99% bad card which i've managed to lose a little on and 1% awesome, smack me square in the face with the deck and call me shirley good cards which i've managed to get paid off on!

nl50
442 at 14/11/3
+$115.80
26bb/100

the above also includes my first ever $100 day, woop, makes me wonder why i'm not a professional :)

thats about all for nows i guess. got no correct answers for my pop quiz, not even close answers so you can all stay in the dark and i'll have the slightest of edges over you all when we play, ah ha!

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sometimes poker can be such a c*nt

Stacks:
UTG with $39.35
MP with $30.90
CO with $25.00
BTN with $34.85
SB with $24.40
BB with $25.00

Blinds: $0.10/$0.25
Site: Full Tilt Poker

Dealt to BTN:Q♦ K♦

Preflop:
UTG raises to $1
2 players fold.
Hero calls [$1]
2 players folded.

Total folds this street: 4
Potsize: $2.35

utg was a fairly tight aggressive player, i was happy to see a flop from the button here and see what develops

Flop:
A♦ 3♠ 6♦
UTG bets [$2.35]
2 players fold.
Hero calls [$2.35]

Potsize: $7.05

i thought i would float the guy here as we were both pretty deep and i didn't give him credit for an ace so i was going to re-evaluate on the turn

Turn:
3♦
UTG checks
Hero bets [$3]
UTG calls [$3]

Potsize: $13.05

great card for me, with the check i'm thinking he's scared of the flush but i don't want to lose him, half bet should suffice and it did

River:
J♣
UTG bets [$7.25]
Hero raises to $18
UTG raises to $28.75
Hero calls [$10.50] [ all-in ]
Uncalled bet of $0.25 returned to UTG

the rest is great, i raise hoping to get him to come over the top which he does and i'm actually smiling to myself as i had been stuck before this and this would make good.

Results:
UTG shows :
3♣ A♣

UTG wins the pot ($67.05) with a full house, Threes full of Aces

conclusion, what f*cking muppet raises from utg with a/3, and then luckboxes out with a turned full house. sooooooo soooooo sick, the poor guy got berated by the table after that and i had to leave as i could feel myself about to expload with rage.

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pop quiz

fellow fishies, its pop quiz time. think you know your poker numbers? then post your answers in the comment field;


1. how many possible hands can you be dealt preflop?

2. how many possible hand combinations are there after the flop has been dealt?

3. how many hands beat your pocket jacks pre-flop?

over to you, if you dare!

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poker and life

well i managed to escape any major embarrassment on april fools day, although i did believe that they had discovered flying penguins in the falklands for a little while. luckily i didn't mention it to anyone and my gullibility went undetected!

been doing quite a lot recently outside of poker which is good, been catching up with a lot of friends for a few bevs, been screaming at charlton a fair amount (not so much fun) as they throw away their chance at the play-offs, got a bbq on sunday with some buds although i hear its going to rain/snow, have booked a trip to go zorbing with my fiancee which is likely to be a laugh or make me sick and am heading away for a few days soon to stay in a castle up norf and just disconnect a little. so all in all been a good few weeks with even more planned in.

also back at the gym after a three week lay-off because i had the lurg. feels good and healthy again although i'm aching all over as well...but thats a sign of progress!

pokerwise i've just finished a little session and made just over a buy-in. quite happy with myself running at about 15bb / 100 which is above where i wanted to be. have also taken steps to consolidate my rolls so should be taking another better prepared shot at nl50 in the next few weeks.

also just watched a heads up match between green plastic and annette_15 which was pretty cool. green plastic was steam rolling over annette before he kinda out thought himself and made a few mistakes for annette to pull it back. i think green plastic was up by a little overall but could have been much much more if he slowed down a little towards the end.

thats about all at the moment. hope all else is well in blog land and thanks for reading

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