Although I’ve had a great Christmas, and my family is here through tomorrow, I miss poker! I was able to sneak in a late night session at $3-6 last night, but I was exhausted so I wasn’t on my “A” game. This is very unfortunate, because one of the tables I was at had a true maniac, who played 75% of hands and capped probably 50% of the betting rounds. This guy was out of control. I even started to suspect collusion, as the maniac and another guy ended up trapping one other player between their capped betting rounds quite often. Who knows.
Anyway, in PokerTracker here are the guys stats:
34 hands, $32 won (12 BB/hour)
Percentage of time player voluntarily put money in the pot: 80%
50% pre-flop raise
So the guy played 80% of his hands, and raised 50% of the time preflop. His biggest hand was a $124 win with 67s, and the next biggest was a $103 win with QJo.
Unfortunately the maniac is not me. This guy was obviously a maniac who could play, and he set the whole table on tilt (including me). I know how to play against a maniac when I can get him heads up, but in this game there were always 2 or 3 other players in the pot. My top pair, top kicker would end up getting sucked out on by a flush or straight draw– the pots were so big that it was incorrect to fold, so there would always be 1 or 2 chasers on the river.
Anyway, I ended up even for the night after doing quite well on another table. I wish I could have stayed up and played all night, but I was just too tired. If I was serious about making some profit playing poker, I would play all my hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The games just seem so much juicier on the weekend nights, and your win rate will be so much better on these nights.
Alright I gotta wrap this up as the family is on the way… I just lost probably $500 bucks in future playoff bets as Tom Brady’s ACL probably just got demolished in the Buffalo game. I had the same exact thing happen to me in my sophomore year in college… a 300 lb guy lands right on your knee, and snaps the rubber band that attaches your femur to your tibia. Poor Brady. What a year. Hopefully I’m wrong, and the MRI will show a sprain. But it don’t look good folks.
WOW. Brady is staying in the game! The trainers must be on crack… you could almost see the ligament tearing on the replay. Their up 21-0 in a game that only has home field implication, and Belichek doesn’t pull him. This is a terrible move, but maybe the trainers are confident that it’s only a sprain. We’ll see…
Quick Picks:
Last week in the regular season, 3 picks.
Philly (-6.5) at Washington: Reid vs. Spurrier, and the Redskins have already mailed it in for the season.
Denver at Green Bay (-6.5): Brett rises up again, this time at home after an emotional roller coaster week. Portis won’t play, and the game is meaningless for Denver, so I’ll take my chances with Brett this week.
Dallas (-2) at New Orleans: The Saints coming off probably the toughest loss in NFL history after they made the miracle “lateral play” comeback and the idiot kicker botches the PAT. Parcells is a bulldog, and won’t let his team lose this game in preparation for the playoffs. The Saints have nothing to gain, so I think the Dallas D will come up big in this one.
Shout outs:
Iggy’s Poker Blog never disappoints.
The Poker Penguin discusses money and its abstraction.
A Poker Odyssey offers up one of the best “betting systems” I’ve ever seen in his “Sophomore Poker” project.
TFG rambles about a variety of topics, and offers up some great quotes:
“No-Limit is like playing against Danny DeVito in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
I think tonight is gonna be a great night on Party, and I’ll do my best to be on. Good Luck!