Super Fun Game Time

Game: Guess how much I weighed when I was born.

Rules: One guess per lifetime to be left in the comments of this post. Deadline of 96 hours from the time stamp below. Closest to the correct answer wins (going over allowed and repeat guesses will be ignored).

Prize: The gift package from PCA. It includes a backpack, lunch bag, t-shirts, towel, beach ball, sticker, hat, cards, and dealer button.

Lesson

If there is anything to be learned, it is that one's professional performance is optimized when one's personal life is in order.

SIGH

Whenever I seem to brag on this blog things just fall apart. In the past week I have managed to go from a nice tournament score and a great month online to being stuck on the year. I feel like the biggest thing holding me back from being a great poker player is the fact that I am Italian. I get too emotional over the game and spazz out way too often. I have to take a step back because one more week like this and I would be busto after taxes.

A New Year

Thanks for all the votes peep. All the efforts resulted in me winning first place in the player of the year for high stakes omaha poll. It's a great way to wrap up my best year on the books thus far. I'll be sure to post pics of the jacket and give you a heads up if I end up making videos for drag the bar.

I have been down at the PCA for the past 11 days. It is pretty much my favorite trip of the year, mostly because it is the best place to bust out of a poker tournament. Rum drinks, lazy river and good company make for a deadly combo. I also made a little run at the title down there and finished 22nd for 75k busting with AQo<44.

On day 1 I called a UTG raise with 56s in MP from a young guy. Flop came out J45 and I called his c bet. Q on turn and he fired again. River was a 2 and he jammed me all in for about 28k into a 35k pot. I got a bit of a physical read on him and called rather quickly and he showed A9. That got me going for a bit.

On day 2 I made a super delayed min raise river bluff against a guy in a great spot and got him to make a fold. He said he would have called if I raised more. It was a really key pot.

On day 3 I got lucky in two all in pots against Faraz. We got in TT v KK and I chopped and then at the feature TV table I beat his AA with AQo HJ v Btn for about 25 bbs. I think both spots were pretty standard high five the dealer situations that ran into walls and sucked out.

On day 4 I actually ended with less chips than I started. I made one questionable river call with TT on a 99JJ and he had quad nines. I also maybe should have geared up a tad and made one or two more check raises and jams. Overall I didn't have much to work with and was happy with my game.

Day 5 I was all in the first hand I got dealt with AQ and Sam Stein made what I would consider a fishy call with 44 to my jam. He was getting 1.7:1 and was 33% to my range. It ran out with a wild one outter on the river.

I am pretty confident with where things are

heading.

NYE Fun Time

NYE Music

As always I have been devoting much of my time to browsing music blogs and getting jams for my new years party this year. Here are a few tracks that you may have not heard yet this year that I feel are a must if you are looking to get the party started:

Robyn - Indestructible (A-Trak Club Mix)


Girl Talk - Oh No


Lil Wayne - Swag Surfin


Rihanna - Only Girl (Mr. Larsson Dubstep Remix)


Eminem feat Rihanna - Love the way you lie (Sick boy remix)


By the way I am only one vote out of first place in the high stakes omaha player of the year race. Feel free to vote if you want to see me win - could make for some awesome super fun game time prizes wink wink.

HH

davin77 posts the small blind of $25
citizenmax posts the big blind of $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to gamblegambel [Jh Ks Tc 9s]
bp513 folds
OnTheRize raises to $150
gamblegambel has 15 seconds left to act
gamblegambel raises to $525
TheMasterJ33 has 15 seconds left to act
TheMasterJ33 folds
davin77 folds
citizenmax folds
OnTheRize calls $375
*** FLOP *** [9h Qs 2h]
OnTheRize checks
gamblegambel has 15 seconds left to act
gamblegambel bets $1,125
OnTheRize has 15 seconds left to act
OnTheRize calls $1,125
*** TURN *** [9h Qs 2h] [7c]
OnTheRize checks
gamblegambel has 15 seconds left to act
gamblegambel bets $2,913
OnTheRize has 15 seconds left to act
OnTheRize calls $2,913
*** RIVER *** [9h Qs 2h 7c] [9d]
OnTheRize has 15 seconds left to act
OnTheRize bets $5,101, and is all in
gamblegambel has 15 seconds left to act
gamblegambel has requested TIME

Real tough river spot, still not sure what to do.


gamblegambel calls $5,101
*** SHOW DOWN ***
OnTheRize shows [6h Ah Ts 9c] three of a kind, Nines
gamblegambel mucks
OnTheRize wins the pot ($19,400) with three of a kind, Nines

Facebook

I am not much of a panderer, but I may never have a year like this again for the rest of my poker career and it would mean a ton if I won high stakes omaha player of the year. If you have some spare time it would mean a ton if you could vote for me here: http://www.pokertableratings.com/fulltilt-player-search/gamblegambel#

thanks!

HH

I really liked this hand today. There is a lot going on for some simple action.

$5000.00 USD PL Omaha - Friday, December 10, 12:15:34 ET 2010
Table Savin (6 max shallow) (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 3: Far Away Boy ( $9456.00 USD )
Seat 4: gamblegambel ( $2000.00 USD )
Seat 5: c.heap cheap ( $1950.00 USD )
Seat 6: electra ( $2222.00 USD )
cheap che.ap posts small blind [$25.00 USD].
electra posts big blind [$50.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to gamblegambel [ 8h 9d 8d Qh ]
Far Away Boy raises [$112.50 USD]
gamblegambel calls [$112.50 USD] I am not the biggest fan of flatting these hands to half pot opens, but I think he is pretty weak, so I ain't folding here.
cheap c.heap folds
electra calls [$62.50 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, Js, Ts ]
electra checks
Far Away Boy bets [$150.00 USD] I think in general people cbet these flops too much, plus I have decent equity against all none made flush hands. With the cards I have it is super unlikely he is drawing to straight too besides maybe an AKxx.
gamblegambel calls [$150.00 USD]
electra folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ As ]
Far Away Boy bets [$300.00 USD] Interesting turn here. It changes things a lot since he couldnt have flopped the nut flush and wasnt bluffing the magic card. It is pretty rare here to be betting a set for value since the big straight just got made and it just got tougher to have a flush with four spades out. Because these sort of hands slow down it makes much more sense for me to be flatting this bet than raising with flushies.
gamblegambel calls [$300.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
Far Away Boy checks
gamblegambel bets [$512.00 USD] Perfectly balanced and sized. The only way he could be expoiting this line is if he was on the 2618th level; like taking candy from a baby.
Far Away Boy folds
gamblegambel wins $1260.50 USD from main pot

The EV of Running a Red Light

It kind of really pisses me off when I am driving home at 2am and I am sitting at a traffic light for 2 minutes when I can clearly see there isn't a car within three thousand feet. I usually end up just running the light, but I am kind of curious if it is a plus EV play. Besides a few minor intangibles, I believe the two factors to consider here is time lost/gained and money. For arguments sake I will not factor in the fun factor of running the light and the stress of talking to a police officer.


Option A - Obeying the law

I would guess the average time spent at an intersection at an uncensored traffic light at 2am on surface streets is around 40 seconds. I feel its safe to assume there is almost no opportunity cost of money you would be earning if you were home.


Option B - Running the light

Assuming you take a good 5 seconds to scan around and see no cars around, I'd say there is around a 1:300 chance of getting pulled over for running the light. Assumably one would be sober, not have any warrants, nothing illegal in the car etc... so the only money lost would be the ticket fine. My guess is 100 dollars. I would also guess it takes on average 12 minutes to get issued a ticket. Presumably there is also inflated insurance costs for getting lots of tickets. I'd set a value of around another 150 dollars in insurance premium hikes for getting caught once. So a little math:

12 minutes/300 + 5 second scan = 7.4 seconds lost

$(100+150)/300 = 71 cents in fines

Conclusion

So after some simple arithmetic it seems to come out that if you value 32.6 seconds of your late evening life more than 71 cents, you are a fish for waiting for the light to turn green.

Factoid

I know it is most likely 99% hogwash, but my win rate the past few months has been ten times higher when I play with some candles lit nearby.

Wise Words from Churchill

"Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has no heart; and any man who is over 30 and is not a conservative has no brains."

Checking It Twice

I check PTR a couple times a day. I believe I am supposed to be top hat, but it doesn't seem to be updating the past few days for my page.

Funny story, I went out last weekend to this bar with a good friend of mine. We had a good amount to drink and the dance floor was getting pretty wild. There were these two girls who were dancing with each other right up front and some dude was all up in their face filming it with his phone and encouraging them to kiss etc. It had an obnoxiously bright light and everything. I approached and told him he was out of line and he shrugged me off. In my drunken state I went ahead and grabbed the phone out of his hand and tossed it across the bar. It was sorta hero epic.

P.S. He was black and I am lucky I suffered no bodily harm, he was super pissed.

Making the List

Gamblegambel is currently 47 on the list of most winning online players according to table ratings all time; pretty cool. I have been playing about 10 hours a week of poker and 40 hours a week of Starcraft. Some thoughts why great Starcraft players make great poker players:

You Have to Stay Aggressive: There is a big advantage to being the first person to attack. It gives you more ways to win and lets you dictate the game flow. Those who are passive/turtles usually fail.

It's all about countering: Almost every play out there is exploitable. You need to know how to counter it properly and do the recon necessary to make a good guess what your opponent is doing. Information is king.

It takes a fire in your belly: You have to love it, dream about it, always want to play. As soon as you finish a game you have to want to play another. It takes a pretty sick competitive spirit to be wildly successful.

Replays, Research, History: All the best players look back to see why things did or didn't work. Sometimes you have to really review plays to know what makes them successful and what you can tweak to make it better.

Pattern Recognition: People tend to be creatures of habit. Once you really immerse yourself in the game you will develop a sixth sense for what is about to happen next and be able to predict plays before they happen and have the trap set waiting.

Bound by Positivity

I used the rubber band that my asparagus came in to hold my money clip together, so now it says produce on my roll.