So, I truly have been racking up the miles! Not sure my last update of Foxwoods (aside from "leaving in an hour!") but it was a solid trip. Sorta a waste given how I need to get things done, but was fun seeing friends and random people as well as playing a sesh. Travis drove me to Northampton, MA (where my car was) and then I drove down to West Hartford, CT. (I suppose this is the 6th, Thursday)
I slept all day, woke up when my mom came back from work, and pretty much watched basketball. (Speaking of which, had a good past few days, finally back to even in terms of units, which is nice ) Yesterday after my mom got back, we went to see Religilous (yah 2nd time for me) which she enjoyed, and went to a decent restaurant afterward called Tapas. I had lobster bisque to start - my FAVORITE soup.

Today I need to drive back to Boston (just waiting for my mom to get home so that we can eat lunch together - technically my breakfast) so that I can be there when my mattress gets in. I will post pictures, but I got a super awesome bed. It was pricey, but I sleep alot, and sleep is important, so it's something that is worth splurging.

Group coaching seems to be getting together. I'm waiting on about 3 people per group before we can get started, but it looks like ~13 people have confirmed and are ready to go. So am I! Come on people!

In between last post and this, AI was traded for Chauncey and McDyess - this is a win for Denver. AI makes the pistons a little worse, and Chauncey makes the Nugs that much better. I posted some predictions and changes in 2p2 SE, so I wont overburden it here, but it certainly makes the East (and West!) more appealing.

Last note before hopping over to the top 10 list, I had 5% of Alex and Adam (Gary Stevenson/AAIsmyfriend) in the foxwoods main event. I would've played, but given all the moving around and so forth I couldn't commit the time to it. Adam busted day 2, but Alex is still in (it's midway through day 3) Let's gogogo Alex! I feel Alex is a GREAT cash game player, so obviously in a live tourney grabbing a % of him is printing money. That said, he certainly could brush up on some of his push/fold maths, as I think when shallow he makes a bunch of mistakes (folds). But he has a huge edge when deep/over the common WPT player, so GO MONEY.

~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVn6b7DdpA

My Favorite 10 Songs:
- #41 (Dave Matthew's Band)
- No Rain (Blind Melon)
- Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead)
- King Without a Crown (Matisyahu)
- Mrs. Potter's Lullaby (Counting Crows)

So, I think Blind Melon were 1 hit wonders. I mean, I never really listened to any of their other songs; I don't remember/know any of their other hits (IF they even had any?); and they certainly did not last a while. I heard this might have been because their lead singer die. That said, this was one of my *earliest* song memories, dating back to my sleep-away camp days. Being nostalgic for a little while, "waxing" on that section, I could listen to it repeatedly then, and probably still good. Almost a childhood song? (Juxtaposed by something like Fake Plastic Trees, where I wouldn't have understood/enjoyed it nearly as much when little!)
The other story worth mentioning while bringing up this song is that a girl in my 2nd home town (although wasn't really my hometown) - Weston, CT - (this will be a choppy story, bear with me) this was her favorite song. Anyway, I moved to Weston ~9th/10th grade from New Canaan, CT (which is like a 20 min move, heh, maybe 30 with traffic!) but it did not affect me since I went to boarding school.
I made a few friends in the Weston area regardless (due to working in the summer, largely) and one of my friends was named Jessica Krane. (I suppose she still is a friend, but we certainly had a weird friendship) While in highschool, a friend of hers (mentioned briefly above, I don't know her name) died while driving home, not due to alcohol or snow or anything, but because apparently she bent down while driving to pickup her phone and drove into a tree. This played at her funeral (I obviously was not at the funeral) but I know this because whenever I listened to this song with Jess she pointed it out. Not exactly my best literary paragraph(s), but it conveys the message!

Bringing this back to the whole group thing, I'm going to be working on dealing with the absolute best way to play a hand. Much like "vs an unknown," we're going to call this poker methodology.
I wanted to close with a hand I randomly plucked from the ~top of our SSNL forum:
http://www.leggopoker.com/forums/sma...-bet-4002.html

6handed hero OTB makes it 2.5 bb to go w/ Q9ss. Hero has 105 bb, blinds are 80 and covers for stacks. Flop comes A 9 4r w/ 1 spade, check check. Turn is the 6s, villain leads 5bb and hero makes it 15bb. River is a dud, and checks through. How do we think about this hand?

Preflop our hand is known as a tier 2 hand grouping; it certainly is worth an open, and in general (depending on stacks and size) we are calling a 3bet. The amount hero opened (2.5) is irrelevant. Once we get smoothed pf, there is little more to say about this street. (Which is nice, I didn't want to get into an intense lecture about pf!)

On the flop, it's a type 1 flop due to the dryness, with our situational hand value being midpair/bdoor flush, so we have a marginal made hand. On this sort of board I fancy checks due to shutting out move makers on this board, a common theme that I'd likely practice with any 9 through KK. We probably should be delayed cbetting any gutshot or paint/paint. I'd cbet bluff random paint/air (Q2o for example) and any TP+ for value. i would probably bet any underpair lower than an 8 as a bluff. Once we check through (in a vacuum, the "right" play) there is little more to say.

On the turn, there is a 13 PSR, but we have position - our situational hand also changed, to that of a situational dependent marginal gamble. (Marginal because we're so deep) In other words, if checked to us, we may opt to check again, since we're way ahead (they have fewer than 5 outs, possibly draw dead or 1) or slightly behind (a hand like AT, which is never folding, we have a full 14 outs, or nearly 1/3rd equity). We could have actually hit that 6 (hands that we could've checked behind that like the 6: (96s/o, 66, 46o/s, 57, 78 ss) - but if they had a hand situationally better than ours, there is no reason to think they suddenly are behind. (Contrast this to say the Qd, where a hand like TT may feel they've gotten outdrawn)

Given we got led into, raising (and opening ourselves up to get 3bet) is fairly disastrous in the scenario they actually do 3bet us. We can't suspect a hand stronger than ours (2pair, set, perhaps a big ace that flatted) to call and check the river, so we're ruining our made hand value - simply because due to the dry nature (board changed from type 1 to 3, fwiw) there aren't many (especially since we have spades, too) 3bet draw hands they could have. So from a combinatorics perspective, even if they are super tight with value range (not doing this with AK) and shoving every combo draw (AXss has us, so even if we limit it to 75ss, 78ss, T8ss) we are crushed and should raise/fold. Further, we have no true FE - so a raise here should narrow villains range (generally) to some draws that feel they are priced in (but dont possess FE to 3bet) or hands that "dont believe us," which scale from something like A2 to the villains actual hand, T9.

Basically, Villain calls and checks a blank river - Hero asks if we should VB. Absolutely not. If the player tendency (which changes the ABC play) is such that you can VB, sure - but in a vacuum, esp. given we have a 9, his range should be weighted more towards AX, and we actually shouldn't expect to win in a checkdown more than ~40% of the time - never mind when we bet how often we lose when called!

Had we just called, perhaps we can put the 2nd bet (the raise on the turn) in a call regardless of the river, further widening villains' bluffing range, and if checked to (since they could've paired the end, also a check means more 9x stuff that feels they cant squeeze a bet in, etc.) obviously we can launch the bet - thereby winning the same amount. We also dont get blown off our hand, so on an improvement, we can raise or shove over a river bet. Etc etc.

So should Hero look for value on the river? No. But he shouldn't have built the pot to that dimension anyway - squeeze the turn raise in on the river. All this, of course, is assuming unknown players. In group I will be asking more questions that could change this hand (various river cards, actions, etc.) but I'll leave this up for now.

edit: Also want to mention when I washed my clothes, I left my wallet in a pair of my pants. Ugh It was the 2nd time I've done this - it's a very nice wallet (a Prada wallet my mom actually got for me in Italy) and the quality of the leather has been substantially changed (for the worse) meh