UB hand results/Music and Film Review part 2. . . .

I would like to thank a few resident experts for the comments. Now for the results: Fahigulqwua called with 4s5s with a few seconds left to take it down with two pair. When I saw the hand, I thought "(apply Cartman voice) Oh Jesus Fahigulqwua, you're breakin' my balls. . . " In reality, he probably was just confused a little and had no intention of folding, but didn't want to just make it look like he was paying off my set. As for the hand, Ike is right that there is no shame in check-calling the flop, but I just felt since Fahigulqwua didn't raise, I thought I might as well build the pot and use that to define the strength of my opponents hands. When Solid just called and now Fahigulqwua did the flatcall/reraise line, it defines his hand in my mind as a big draw that doesn't mind getting money in but could also use a free card. I can't see him not raising the flop with anything but a draw, as there were already 13 smal bets in the pot when it was his action. So, when he 3 bet, I tried to exploit Solid's probable weakness by just capping the betting right there. I led the turn hoping that Solid would fold and I could get heads-up with Fahigulqwua and possibly win if no draws get there; or, better yet, river a spade and get a bet/3 bet in there. Anyways, when they both called on the turn, and the river was the innocuous non-spade 5, I slung the $100 out there. When Solid folded and Fahigulqwua raised, it presented an interesting situation. When I told Glenn the hand, he said "oh yeah that's fine (the insta-3 bet), he can't have anything there. . . " Ed Moncada, who some of you may seen taking down the pot-limit holdem event last summer on espn reruns all year, said "why 3 bet if you claim he is a bad player??....i can only understand this if you put him on a last ditch effort to steal pot when you actually believe he has a missed draw." I think it's close between calling and 3-betting. Following through the whole hand with a missed draw is something I rarely do. I have to think if I 3 bet he wouldn't put me on a missed draw ever; in fact, he is probably going to put me on a minimum of flopped top two. However, if he just had a pair - even if it was 4sxs, he would not raise the river, he would just call - esp since the pot was enormous at this point - 16 big bets to him on the river. His river raise would either be a bluff or something he is not folding. There are only a few hands he might be capable of laying down to a river reraise that I do not beat - AT and AK come to mind, where he would 3 bet the flop to try to get a free shot at his gut shot/overcard(s) that may be good, esp since Solid just called flop check-raise. This play is much more common heads-up, but I have seen it more frequently from players like Fahigulqwua in short games lately in the past few months. The small possibility that he might lay down a pair that he tried to raise as a last-ditch effort against someone he clearly does not like (G.P.), and that he may have bluff-raised a hand that beats me (AK or AT) made me 3 bet. thinking things through, though, just calling to snap off a non-paired flush draw or KT or T9 may have been better. Also, when an opponent loses a few hands to you in the recent past, and you exchange some verbal jabs, they become less likely to try to steal pots without the goods. In this hand, however, it seems like that logic would be foiled, since he obviously had a plan and it spiraled out of control. Then he found himself on the river heads-up after Solid folded with 16 big bets in it. These are the times where I make a lot of mistakes - simply unable to make the best decision in the heat of battle, so that had to be factored in as well. In any case, hands like that are not bad for one's image - one just has to adjust quickly to similar situations that follow. Interesting hand anyways. . .

I'll throw in a bonus hand, for no other reason than it made me temporarily feel like Will Ferrell in Undeclared, when he was demonstrating his awesome video game skills while strung out on speed:

"I call this move "Farewell my Concubine." Ok, now side, right, left, right click click click then left, ok, then I sneak up from behind (intense use of body english). . . . and THEN I PAUSE, ok. . . . . . . . and THEN I BLUDGEON!"

Also, I won the hand off Lee, so I want to post it because it is my blog - I won the hand, and it is my blog. . .

http://www.pokerhand.org/?334800

Ok the bludgeon is not a real bludgeon (would need a T on riv for that), just a little re-suck on river. Maybe he was inspired by the last hand I posted, but the flop 4 bet was probably spewage - he would take it down, though, if I had overcards with no diamond that I decided to get a little crazy with with the flop 3 bet. . .



Music and Film review Part Deux:

First off, I have to apologize to Johhny O and George, who had left valuable comments in the first segment. I did not even see them, though. I thought I changed it so I would get an email when new comments were submitted, but for some reason I found them in the edit blog section, and they were emailed to me after I put them up (sigh). Anyways, I'm obviously gonna get the Jens Lekman disc. Also, I'm gonna get the There's Nothing Wrong with Love CD, Johnny. Speaking of Elliott Smith (which I suppose we weren't, but anyways. . . ), the only song I know off that CD is Car, and Elliott Smith covers it here:

http://lido.binaryops.com/

That site has a ton of other good stuff too, as you will see. Ok now let's get into it. . .

Stephen Malkmus - Face the Truth. (25) This is the best Malkmus solo album. His lyrics complement his music better than anyone I think. He writes extremely catchy, smart songs, and you'll find yourself singing stuff like "Upstairs mama's making some crepes, yeah From a fancy recipe book. To me they just look like tortillas. Boy, that mama can cook. . . ." while walking to the coffe machine at work. Brian, Chris, and myself once sat at the bar for about an talking seriously considering whether we could pull off doing the title track acapella for open-mic night at Brian's local dive bar - not just the words, but all the guitar solos and drums too. We would probably have to bring a smoke machine. It would probably be the most ridiculously awesome open-mic performance ever. We could even get someone to play the Malkmus' fictional villian Leather McWhip, who I suppose would probably be dressed up like the gimp from Pulp Fiction, but he would also have a cape and a stun gun. Maybe we still will, who knows. . . A-

Akron/Family. (6) I only listen to this when I play cards. It's too folky for me listen to otherwise I think - too many extended samples of running water, birds chirping, etc. It's like hippyish new age music for people under 30 (edit: wait, ok it's better than that description, as a lot of it is really good) - like how Neil Diamond is like heavy metal for people over 50. B- (I am listening to it as I write this, and I upgraded it from a B- to a B+ due to some excellent tracks)

The Bourne Supremecy. (2) Not a fan of action movies, but I like Matt Damon, and this movie has an overall great cast. Jason Bourne may be more effective than Jack Bauer if he were wired to perform his missions. Also, the guy that played Max Fisher's principle at Rushmore is in it. B (probably near the top of action movie scale for me)

King of Comedy. (1) An old Scorcese flick with Robert Deniro playing a delusional comic. Sandra Burnhard plays his sidekick. This stands the test of time, and has a great ending. It's refreshing to see Deniro play a non-tough guy in his prime. B+

Uncle Tupelo - 89/93 An Anthology. (12) Maybe it's personal preference, or the fact that I am a Wilco fan, but I just can't really get into the non-Tweedy songs. Farrar is not the singer or songwriter Tweedy is imo. Chuck Klosterman (who is now an expert espn page 2 contributor) wrote some good material on the country music scene, and Uncle Tupelo is one of the original "Alt-Country" bands:

"The problem is that guys like Farrar embrace a reality that's archaic and undesirable; the only listeners who appreciate what they're expressing are affluent intellectutals who've glamourized the alien concept of poverty. The lyrics on a track like Screen Door off No Depression have the texture of something old and profound, but they're not; techincally, those lyrics are more modern than anything off Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine. And more important, they're only viewed to be profound by people who've never had the experience described in the lyrics. Truly depressed people don't need depressing music. I don't think I would have any interest in hearing lines like, "Down here, where we're at / Everybody is equally poor" when I was sixteen, sitting in my parents basement in rural North Dakota, only vaguely aware that I (and everyone I knew) had no fucking money. I probably would have thought Jeff Tweedy was whining. Oddly (maybe too predictably), I love that song today. But that's because the lyrics no longer apply to my life. I would guess the average Uncle Tupelo fan earns around $52,000 a year and has two VCRs. I would also guess they don't shop at Walmart, which is where mainstream country music sells like Pokemon."

Tweedy does write great songs, though, and I do like all the songs that Farrar sings about drinking oneself into a whiskey oblivian. Black Eye is probably my favorite song because I like to pretend it was written from my point of view, even though it would not even be accurate if it had been. So, basically, I own 2 dvd players, and would recommend this cd to everyone. George, you should try to learn Black Eye on guitar. That would be something. . . B+/A-

I'll add to this, but for the time being, I would just like to note the inclusion of two friends' Flickr pages. They just take pictures when they travel around, and a lot of them are great. . .