Hey All,

Not a ton to write about these days with regard to poker. I've been playing a mix of nlhe, plo, 2-7 nl single draw and 2-7 nl triple draw. I've kinda tapped out of the big 8 and 10 games at the moment just because it takes so much experience to play every game well or even competently. Really what freaks me out is looking at Phil G, Brian Townsend, Cole South and Stinger's results in the big mixed games. These are (in my opinion) 4 of the best poker players in the world and collectively they have been getting shafted to the tune of 5 million or something in these games. From the various gossip I've heard, they are probably down most of that in EV, but the bottom line is just that there's a ton of variance in the games and they might not be as soft as they seem, In some ways it stands to reason: all the experienced live pros have found a way to bust the new crop of online guys for a bit- 10 or 20 years of experience playing everything gives them a huge advantage even if the online guys are more analytical, smarter, and will get better faster. I'd rather not bust my roll that way even if there is a lot of action to be had.

As far as my poker playing, the most fun I've had is putting in a bunch of hands at 2-7 nl single draw and triple draw. I think they are more fun than nlhe and plo and I hope they catch on and get more popular. I think there's a perverse satisfaction for fish to play them too when tilted because they get to draw to the worst hand. I've mostly been playing the commerce regulars in 2-7 single draw- Yan Chen, Alaei and then also Nick Schulman and occasionally John Hennigan or David Openheim. They definitely have more experience than me but I'm hoping they do a few things wrong which I think they do wrong. There have been a lot of really sick spots where say I flat a 3bet with 842 and resolve that I'm going to bluff or bluffraise if I draw top 2 or better. Then one of my commerce opponents pats and leads for 2/3 pot and my reads are that they are going to hold about 5% bluffs, and 95% T8+ which they aren't going to fold. So I just ship my stack in and sure enough they snap me off with 98642 and "Lo, Sauce1234 doth sacrificed his stack to the Gods of Game Theory." Uhm .. Reload ?

If you're ever particularly stoned I absolutely recommend playing the NL 2-7 TD variant: it's a huge action game with a ton of skill involved. And there's just something magical about drawing one vs your opponent's 97+ and binking that wheel yessssss.

I might suck at PLO. I don't understand how I can still suck so bad, I've been playing the godamn game for 2 years now and I think I'm just doomed to everlasting suckage. It just scares the shit out of me really, I look down at my hold em manager and see a 230 bb standard deviation and given that standard deviation and the (rather small) number of hands I play, there just isn't any way to know what my edge is. Ever, really ...

No limit hold em is still fun. Negreanu has come back bigger, faster and stronger and he's romping around at 100/200nl ante on stars. I think he plays pretty good minus a few leaks I won't talk about. The games are insane though, since the lineups are usually like Jungleman, Molswi, Takechip, Hal0, Kanu, Me, Nuts, Kingsofcards, Urnotindangr and everyone is like 300+bb deep. Each of those killers 3bets and 4bets like 15% and then 20% respectively and it just seems impossible to fold anything to anyone, ever. I don't even really know who the fish is in these games, maybe it's me ??

Rumors of my death have been exaggerated. Granted, I am running around 80bi below ev recently and have had to move down, but someday on the wings of the deuce games I shall rise again or die drawing.

In life news, which I almost never post in this blog, I'm still plodding towards my degree in philosophy at the University of Toronto. Toronto in the winter is an extremely cold and grey place. Because of pathological stubborness, I have decided to bike to school (around 4 miles each way) throughout the winter. I must hate myself. Also, long johns are the nuts. I think that's how I know I'm becoming Canadianized, I own multiple pairs of long johns which are by far my favorite article of clothing and go under my jeans whenever I leave the house. I'm considering a balaclava as well, but I'm still weighing the implications of getting that gross frozen spit caked on it all the time, especially before my early morning classes when my breath is especially stinky. Note: Canadian winter is depressing.
Luckily, during reading week my girlfriend and I are going to Turks and Caicos and staying with a friend there. If any readers here are Turks and Caicos experts or general Caribbean vacationing studs please leave me suggestions for warm and relaxing things to do. Scuba diving classes ?? I think I could get into that.

Canadians have this weird obsession with groundhog day. Every province has its own groundhog with its own name and they all celebrate groundhog day on the same day province to province and it's kind of a big deal. What happens if the groundhogs get conflicting forecasts ? That's what I want to know.

GL

Ben