It's All Chinese to Me
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
It's time to throw a bunch of things in the literary blender to see if we can make a post smoothie concoction. Let's start with something that has bothering me for a while, but has absolutely nothing to do with poker.
Am I the only one who noticed that Lost and Heroes are both racist?! Yes, racist! Exhibit A, in the background storylines for Lost, Sun and Yin, the Korean couple, speak in Korean with subtitles on the bottom of the screen. In the background storylines for Mr. Eko, a Nigerian priest, he and all the other Africans speak English! I know! Ridiculous. But it doesn't stop there. Exhibit 2, in Heroes, the Japanese character named Hiro speaks in Japanese with English subtitles. The Indian scientist, though, he speaks English in India to his fellow Indians! What gives?! Does Hollywood thinks we can accept an Asian speaking an Asian dialect but it would blow our minds to hear Nigerian or Indian?! Or does General Tso have nude pictures of some studio heads with sheep? Either way, shame on you sirs!
DADI X is coming up tomorrow and Trip and I are a little concerned with the amount of people who will show up. I swear, these private tourneys can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but I always find myself coming back to make a new one. Well, don't get to complacent, because this may just be DADI X's last tournament before DADI goes into retirement. I'd cite the explosion of blogger tournaments as probably one of the largest reasons for this non-final decision, but I cite it in a positive way. DADI was meant as an opportunity to play more with fellow bloggers and readers, and I can do that just about any night of the week now anyway. DADI's retirement party will be at 3pm in the large conference room. We have cake and soda, but don't tell DADI because it's a surprise party. And if you chip in, we can get DADI a retirement gift. I'm thinking a nice watch!
While on the subject of watches, you might want to watch out for some awesome Heads-Up action! The HUC4 is under way, and while most of the Round 1 matches have not been scheduled yet, we do have our first player to advance. Butch, a non-blogger, took TripJax out in four matches, winning 3 to1. Congratulations to Butch, especially now that I don't have to worry about facing Trip in the Bracket B finals. If all goes well, I'll be playing HUC3 champion WillWonka at 9:30 tonight, right before the Mookie. Stop by and wish me luck, cause I'll probably need it.
Hey, and while on the subject of poker (shut up, I already ran out of all my smooth segues), I had a very interesting night yesterday. While wifey Kim packed for her trip to Miami for a speech conference (read: suntanning with her friends under the guise of work), I was packing away the bonus by playing some 8/16 Razz. While I played, Fluxer, recently back from the blogging dead, IM'ed me. He watched as I attempted to struggle my way back to even. So far, that 8/16 game has been a boon for me. Maybe I have a natural edge in the game because of my pattern recognition and ability to read both players and boards, or maybe I've just been lucky so far. All I know is, I hadn't book a significant losing session yet (and perhaps, none at all). So, I went about my usual course, and suddenly found myself deep in the hole. I mean, deep, like $300+ deep. That sort of swing is a bit new to me, both at Razz and at any online poker, so I gulped hard while figuring out the ramifications. I considered leaving the room, but the losses would be just too great to swallow and a part of me still thought I had an edge.
It was slow going, over the course of probably an hour and a half, but but the time I ended, I was up $13. I also had the pleasure of playing a bit with Hoyazo, my initial inspiration for trying that Razz game. The $13 was enough for me, so I packed it in, using the Razz profits to covere my $11 loss at the WWdn, compliments of Maigrey, who was playing an excellent game. I was doing well myself, but my TT vs her AA sent me packing...even though I thought I was behind to QQ when I called her re-raise all-in. Yeah, not the best play by me, but sometimes it goes that way.
Mind you, I take all the blame (with all respect to Maigrey, who outplayed me), for my loss. Sure TT on a 775 board is okay, but don't go broke on an overpair and all that jazz. The writing was on the wall. On that note, I have to give a big shame on you to the blogosphere. Maybe I'm just getting on my high horse, but I really think we need to curb the idea that if a player goes bust with a good hand like top two pair, there was nothing they could do about it. I'm specifically talking about a post that Iakaris made, when his AK with a board of A29/K lost to 22. Iak bet pre- and post-flop and was cold-called. He bet the turn and was raised. He re-raised all-in and was busted. I don't knock Iakaris' play, but he asked what he did wrong. To many, the answer was, "There was nothing you could do there." WRONG! He could have FOLDED and saved his money, or at least called and saved some of it, if the river was a scare card that created one of the two flush draws. Again, I'm not knocking Iak, whose success is clear to any of his readers. But, in channeling my inner Felicia, I do have to say that you do him no service with such kind and supportive answers. In situations like that, I might go broke too. You saw my analysis of my TT hand. But when I look back and analyze either my or his hand, there were some indications that we were beat, and we chose not to see them or not to follow them.
Hey, while I'm on a poker thought rant, let me answer a question from TwoDiamondPhillips. He asked about when you are really pot committed in a hand. Get comfortable. Here we go. In some situations, you know you are beat. In those situations, you may still be pot committed where the bet is less than 10% of the flop. Why 10%? Because even the tightest player will bluff sometimes, and 1:9 odds are pretty damn good. But on a less specific level, you have to analyze your opponents' likely range, your outs, and the pot odds you are getting including implied odds. That's a lot of calculations on the fly, so it really boils down to an overall feeling. And it really has to do with individual hands. I tried to come up with some examples, but none are coming to me. Shoot me an example, though, and I'll gladly explain. Sorry if that was less than helpful.
I do believe that is all for today. Sign up for DADI X, and I may just put up a bounty on myself.
Until then, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 8:44 AM,
6 Comments:
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At 10:41 AM,
DuggleBogey said...
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While most Indians speak Hindi or Urdu as well as a local language, you will find that large groups or people from different areas are most likely to speak English to each other. In fact, the only common language to the entirety of India is English.
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At 11:43 AM,
Doog said...
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Also, remember that India was a British colony for a long time. Although Hindi (with its many differing dialects) is the official language, English has also been recognized by the Indian constitution as an official language. Additionally, since the character is a scientist, and since most of the institutions of higher learning in India primarily use English, I think it's pretty legitimate that he speaks English on the show.
Same thing goes for Nigeria, as with most African nations. Though there are countless tribal and local dialects, the official language of all African countries is either English of French, depending on their colonial history. I have a friend from Benin whose 'mother' tongue is Fon, he also speaks Mina (both are tribal dialects), but we converse in French. In fact, since there are so many tribal languages, all schooling in Benin (from grade school on up) is solely in the French language - and I'm sure it's the same in the English-speaking African countries, such as Nigeria.
I would say that these representations are fairly accurate. After all, if it's on TV is has to be real, right? -
At 11:50 AM,
Jordan said...
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I never expected to get such thoughtful answers. But still, in both shows the Indian and the Nigerian have conversations with family members (brothers, fathers or mothers) and still speak English. Seems a bit two-faced to me, but the explanations provided will allow me to continue to watch those shows without yelling, "RACISTS!" at the screen, to satisfy my liberal white guilt.
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At 4:46 PM,
said...
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I'm just proud your racist radar is on. Most people will take for granted that all people speak english even if they are from a foriegn country. Now its time to turn on you misogynistic and homophobic radars.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." MLK JR. -
At 6:00 PM,
Wolverine Fan said...
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Jeez, I just thought it was T.V. I guess I didn't want to put that much thought into a show where the people can fly, stop time, read minds, etc. or to one in which even Gilligan had a better chance of getting off the damn island.
Its just T.V. folks. At least all nationalities are portrayed (including gay people). That is a step up from the old days of T.V. -
At 1:45 PM,
said...
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Okay, I never have watched these shows (I only ever watch sports on TV), so I didn't get that these conversations were with family members. You're right, that pretty much is BS. All of the Africans or Europeans that I've ever known have private conversations with family members in the mother tongue, even if they speak a more universal language also. If we're talking about a more public conversation meant for a large or diverse audience, or perhaps a workplace setting, then I could see the universal language being spoken.
