Comfort Poker
Friday, August 12, 2005
I was sitting at my computer desk two days ago, in an uncomfortable chair, with a cramp in my right hand and wrist (tendinitis, I think), and an ache in my back. I looked over to my left and saw the plush, couch-like chair. Not quite a lazy boy, but comfortable none the less.
In my head, all sorts of calculations were going on. Me, here. Chair, there. Computer and mouse, here. What to do? Fiance Kim was asleep, so moving the furniture was an option. In between hands of my three simultaneous tables, I went to work. The chair was near, but once it was in place, I realized that the mouse was tethered to the damn computer. Distance was an issue. But, like a lightbulb bursting above my head, I had an epiphone. Absolute is the only site I've seen with a Hot Keys option. Basically, if you turn on the option, when the prompt asks Check, Raise or Fold, you can hit H, R, or F, respectively. If it is Call, Bet or Fold, you have C, B, or F. My keyboard is wireless. I don't know why, other than they had a great deal on Woot.com and coincidentally on that day my brother spilled a drink on our old keyboard. Viola! I had myself a wireless keyboard. But what are you going to do with a wireless keyboard? You can't type and see the screen while across the room. You don't move the keyboard around as you type? You can't work out while writing a dissertation.
Wireless keyboard + Hot Keys + Comfortable Chair = Solution. I grabbed the keyboard, set up my Hot Key option and plunked down into my chair. Poker at its best. Boxers, comfortable chair, and three simultaneous games. My own piece of heaven.
By way of recap, yesterday was brutal. I did enjoy some namesake, which can hurt my poker. I lost a heads-up practice match against TripJax because I held 86o, and the board was 774X4. For some retarded reason, I thought I held a 4. This is ONLINE poker, where a glance at the bottom of the screen is all it takes to confirm or deny my delusion. And I still made the error. So, we play a second one, and I lose again. It was some lose play, and a suckout on the end. I held Ax, and he held Kx. The flop was AKx, so we both hit a pair. I called. On the blank turn, I checked, he bet, and I pushed. He called....and hit a K on the river. Trip was nice enough not to gloat, but I say gloat away. We arranged for a third match, because I wanted to win back some pride and Trip knew I was playing like a high fish on poker (or so my theory goes). Unfortunately (or fortunately), we were having some problems with UB, so we decided to do it on Noble, my home turf. It was some back and forth, and at one point, I was down from 1000 to 150 chips. However, I made a surging comeback, and took home the third match. Earlier in the evening, I lost to SteelerJosh, further destroying my practice Heads-Up win/loss record. With three losses and a win, I've went from 4-1 to 5-4. It's a sad day.
But let's not stop there. I proceeded to lose $50 on three-tabling $1/2 limit on Absolute. $50 hurts, but I have to remember that it is only 25BB. WillWonka asked recently why players describe their losses as BBs, instead of $s. The reason is, I went up from .50/1 to 1/2. If I had stayed at .50/1 and did everything the exact same way, I'd be down $25. So, the win/loss by $ takes into account the real FINANCIAL value of the win/loss, but does not take into account the real POKER PLAY value of the win/loss. If I was playing $25/50, then a $50 would be nothing. But if I'm playing .10/.20 and lose $50, something is seriously wrong.
That's it for now. I'm chalking the $50 loss up to variance, and not letting it get to me. I believe between Noble, UB and Absolute, I have a bit short of $300 online, which is an okay amount. According to the Limit Challenge structure, the $1/2 was the right amount to play for my bankroll (if the bankroll is taken in total), so I'm sticking with it in the future. I also finished my PSO promotion, and hope to get my Poker Tracker soon. Remember, referral code GCox25 or TripJax.
Poker up!
posted by Jordan @ 9:37 AM,
3 Comments:
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At 10:51 AM,
TripJax said...
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Thanks for pimping my PSO dude. You've done it numerous times and I've never given props. I appgreciate it.
For the record, I don't think I can gloat on a 4 outer. I was damn happy when it hit, but I hate bad beating friends. I don't mind slapping a bad beat on a helpless schmoe, but I digress.
That's one interesting thing about the SNG Challenge vs. the HU Challenge. Now, everytime we win we are guaranteed to take a fellow bloggers money. Me thinks I'll be able to sleep at night though...
I was impressed on your comeback on the final game.
One of my problems...I get used to the betting style of UB with 1500 in chips and I don't adjust when I go to another site, like Noble, with a smaller starting stack. A 150 bet at UB might need to be adjusted to a 100 bet at Noble...otherwise, if you don't win the hand you can find yourself quickly shortstacked.
That's all, except for...
HHHHOOOONNNNKKKK!
could that horn at Noble be anymore annoying? -
At 11:18 AM,
Jordan said...
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Yeah, I know what you (HONK) mean. But even so, I really like Noble. It's (HONK) probably because I've done trad(HONK)itionally well there. I'm comfortable with their software. (HONK)The difference in stack sizes are an issue. But (HONK) the difference in betting is also an (HONK) issue, as with UB, you can click "Bet Pot" but in Noble you (HONK) have to slide the bar to your bet, which creates less uniformit(HONK)y.
For all of you who don't get it, Noble makes a honking noise (HONK)whenever you wait 3 sec or so without acting. (HONK)Thanks to my explanation, it's no longer funny. (HONK) -
At 11:33 AM,
TripJax said...
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Heh...you said...
Uniformit(honk)y
Hilarious.
