Played some poker tonight. Took second in a $30 1-table NLHE SNG for about $50 in profit, 3rd in a $20 1-table NLHE SNG for about another $15 in profit, and played in a third $20 NLHE SNG for no result. Then I managed to blow about $20 at a PLO table, getting CRAZY money in good against a complete fuckin' maniac, and having the numb sonofabitch draw runner-runner to two pair against me (I had an overpair, and against this freak, there was no question it was good). Went all the way down from my $100 buy-in to about $26 at the low point, then made it all back in two hands, first busting two people (including the maniac) with quad queens, and then taking a guy down when my TTsJsA hand hit a flop of 7s 9s Qh, and I wound up all-in against a dude that wound up having AAsKsXs. I got lucky and hit the offsuit 8, then dodged a spade (with the two of us having spade draws, and him with the extra, there were only 6 left in the deck). With the straight flush draw, I couldn't fold, but if I'd had mirrors and seen that he did, in fact, have the bigger spade draw, I might have considered it. At least it worked out this time. Net win tonight of just a few bucks, but it beats losing :)

I now have a new all-time favorite blog post, from The Agitator, back in June of this year:

Killer Fringe Benefits

Barely a week into its attack on KFC, the health fascists at CSPI are now targetting Starbucks for its "high-fat" and "high-calorie" products. They've joined up with the fledgling union of Starbucks employees, which thus far looks to have all of about a dozen members. Here's the best part:

The union contends that Starbucks staff gain weight when they work at the chain. They are offered unlimited beverages and leftover pastries for free during their shifts.

God damn you, Starbucks.

This is why organized labor is so important. Otherwise, who's going expose Starbucks' exploitive practice of giving its emloyees free stuff?

One thing I forgot to mention: big time props to The Agitator, one of the best libertarian blogs out there on the net (as one might imagine from my politically oriented posts, I lean strongly to the libertarian side). Forceful, eloquent, and down-to-earth, its owner, Radly Balko, knows his shit, and knows how to communicate an idea like few I've read. He posts over at foxnews.com in an occasional opinion column, but don't hold that against him. His stances on all things social, from the (bullshit!) Internet gaming ban, to police abuses, to the drug war, to Iraq, to the Bush administration, continually ring true. He's not afraid to get silly, either, with the occasional post just being a normal blog-link to some shit that struck him as funny.

I've been digging through his archives and continue to be impressed with his work.

And he appears to know poker!

Man, been way too tired to post much stuff. Did have one of the better cash game nights I've ever had last night, in just over an hour and a half playing on 4 different tables:

0.5-1 NLHE game at Stars
0.25-0.5 NLHE game at Stars
0.5-1 NLHE game at FCP
0.5-1 PLO game at Full Tilt

Between the two 0.5-1 NLHE games, I wound up up about $30, in the 0.25-0.5 NLHE game I wound up up about $120 (!), and at the 0.5-1 PLO game I wound up up about $160! Cards just kept falling my way and pitting me up against donkish opponents. A few interesting Omaha hands:

JJA9 in late position, 4 limpers to me, I limp, total of about $6 in the pot when we're done, flop comes 27J with two spades (I had none). Checked to me, I bet pot ($12 in pot), get one caller from EP ($18 in pot). Turn comes 4h, safe card, checked to me, I bet close to pot for $15 ($33 in pot), am min raised ($48 in pot). Now I'm a bit worried, but even in a worst case scenario (something like 3s 5s 6x x), I'm still a (very) slight favorite, so I push. Numbnuts calls me with 4499!!!!!! Dude, wtf were you doing calling the PSB on the flop? And of course he should have folded that turn, because, well, what could I have had? Regardless, the river was a meaningless king, and I dragged a $180 pot.

Another, I had a 24 in the small blind, called with something like 500 limpers, and had a nice A35 flop, taking someone for another 50 who had A5!!!

Another I got away with a nice bluff against a weak-tightie on the river, after a double-gutty didn't fill on the turn, but turned into a bdfd as well, which missed, but I was able to represent a nice straight. Pretty decent pot.

In any case, having fun with poker again, and watching season 1 of the Wire on DVD. Man, I missed most of those epis the first time they were out and they are tight.

So The Wire didn't hit a home run like they did last week, but they seem to have taken a long single and stretched it into an extra base hit with a headfirst slide just to beat the tag, when half the fans in the stands thought it was bullshit*. I thought the episode was okay, though certain parts didn't really work. I was happier for Carcetti that he won than he was, I think, but I didn't really buy his bittersweet, almost disappointed reaction. The scene between Cutty and Michael was really fucking creepy in a way I can't quite describe (and I don't think that's a good thing, unless it was more intentional than I'm guessing), Namond's punkass mom being cut off was meh, and the scene with Randy and the assistant principal didn't quite ring right (I hate to say it, but I think the fault was with the kid that plays Randy - he's the most natural of the bunch in the hanging out situations, but his desperation came off as too scripted, even though the scene was pretty well written).

Still, there were highlights. Omar's plotline, particularly the reaction he got in Jail (chilling but accurate), was a standout, and I like that Marlo threw it in the face of Herc and the new Major Crimes unit by setting up what was pretty much a straight-up punking. (How fucked is Major Crimes when HERC of all people is the top dog?!) Prez's bits worked, too, setting Dukie up with a means to clean himself up, and using his police connections to try and see that Randy doesn't get lost in the system. The election day scenes worked, and so did the after-party, with Carcetti getting hit on by his campaign manager and turning her down. What a great, horny-celebratory-creepy-drunk-ass vibe that whole scene gave off!

Solid but far-from-overwhelming episode.

*And speaking of baseball, how 'bout them Tigers! Sheeeeit, four straight over the A's, winning with a walk-off shot in the bottom of the mofuckin' ninth! I remember growing up in Michigan in the 80's, when Sparky Anderson was ruling the roost, with Kirk Gibson (before his heroics with the Dodgers in later years), Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker (they're not booing, they're Louing!"), Roger Morris (what the FUCK was up with that moustache?), and the rest. Going from the laughingstock of Major League Baseball to the world series, after seven straight wins! Yowza! Go Tigers! [hell, even the Lions seemed to carry some of that momentum, getting their first win of the season against the struggling Bills.

Jesus Christ, "The Wire" is good. Last night's episode (my backwater bullshit town doesn't get On Demand, so I'm resigned to waiting for Sunday nights) was another fuckin' masterpiece, launching the election plotline into the stratosphere. Watching Royce's collapse was cathartic as hell after all the bullshit he's pulled over the past couple of seasons. He's fucked with a capital FUCKED. Losing delegate Watson, fucking Burrell over, all but promising Commissioner to his lietenant, then watching the Lieutenant jumping right into Carcetti's ship. Then losing Delegate Watson, who's gonna jump about 4 points into Carcetti's lap right out of Royce's base. And then ... here come the bodies. Looks like, from the previews, that it's gonna be Randy that lets on that Marlo's been dumping all kinds of bodies in all kinds of abandoned houses. The timing is perfect for that to surface just prior to the primary.

Chris and Snoop approaching Michael - gotdamn, that's a rough spot to be in. The producers let on that they were crafting Season 4 as the makings of a gangsta, and they're doing a sublime job of showing the pressures that are being exerted on these kids. In the first episode, it looked like Michael was the least likely one to be taken into the life, with Namond pretty much already lost to the game. Now it looks like Michael's the one that's going gangsta, with Namond somewhere on the fence. Dookie's in rough shape (I'll have to review the earlier episodes to see for sure, but it seemed to me that the dude that gave Bubbles the beating was Dookie's dad, who we know's been selling Dookie's clothes, probably winding up in Bubbles' shopping carts.

The interaction between Prez and the kids was refreshing. After the madhouse that was his first few days, it's good to see them developing a rapport. Prez's reaction to the kid breaking into his car, brief as it was, was priceless. And then there's the dynamic of Bunny's research study that'll separate the Corner kids from the Stoop kids. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

And that's not even getting into the Marlo/Omar feud. Marlo's a stupid, vicious thug, but not so stupid that he can't eventually see sense in joining Prop Joe's co-op. The plan to set Omar up (get his shopkeep buddy to finger Omar for a murder that Chris was responsible for) so one of Marlo's boys can do him in prison isn't too bad, but with McNulty getting in on the investigation, it probably isn't gonna work. That, and the development of the bodies...

Damn. I think I have to watch the damn show again.

One more TV comment, then it's bedtime:

The second-best show on television, Battlestar Galactica, starts with new episodes this coming Friday. Bu-yah.

The best show on TV, The Wire, knocked another one out of the park today, crystalizing the dealers' side with Prop Joe pulling a Littlefinger-worthy maneuver (c.f. George R. R. Martin's a Song of Ice and Fire) by tipping Marlo off on a phat card game (with the intention of playing) and then tipping Omar off (with the intention of knocking it off), getting no small cut for himself in the process, and puncturing Marlo's balloon of self-styled invulnerability and gaining his muscle for use against the New York dealers that are munching up the east side. With New Yorkers on the East Side I'm just waiting for the return of Brother Mouzone!

Favorite scene: Bunk out for drinks with Lester, getting increasingly agitated that he's not out with McNulty, since Lester's totally unable to get his mind off the murder case he's working.

"You know what the plural of pussy is? Pussi. McNulty taught me that!"

Been active with my bread and butter recently, 1-2 limit hold'em. No matter how rough the poker times have gotten, this old standby's never let me down, usually good for at least $15 an hour spread over four tables. That's not live-off-it-mortgage-car-payments-and-all kind of money, but it is, like, afford-a-new-TV-with-it kind of money. It's funny how many sick beats I'm taking. I always love that.

My favorite hand from today.

I have A6 in the big blind, and the maniac to my left limps, maniac #2 in middle position raises, I go ahead and see the flop, maniac-on-left calls. Flop comes 677 rainbow. I check, maniac #1 bets, maniac #2 raises, I three-bet.

I can see the Jon Stewart "Whaaaaaa?!"s starting now, so let me explain my reasoning.

The maniac on my left was stone-cold, with FPS (fancy play syndrome) like a mofucka and that had yet to play a strong hand with anything but absolute slow play. The bet indicated to me that, certain as sunrise, I was ahead. The only hands ahead of me are an overpair, a boat, or any hand with a 7, and with any of these, the slowplay would have been a trivial decision for the guy.

I was a little worried about maniac #2 though, since though he was fairly stone-cold pre-flop, his postflop play was a bit more sane and rational. I was gambling that he didn't have the 7, and that, since my three-bet represented the seven, it was possible that I could push him off a weak overpair like 88, 99, or TT, either now, or on the turn, if a high card hit. Plus, I knew that the maniac on my left was likely to four-bet, continuing his bluff and hoping to save face, and that makes for a classic "use the maniac" play: when a maniac is on your left, you can bet into them with vulnerable or just-barely-behind hands to instigate a raise on their part, charging the rest of the field two bets. By this point I was certain I had it over maniac #1, and maybe 70/30 that I could get maniac #2 out. With a weak overpair, it's hard to call when your raise is answered with a cold 3-bet, and then the original beter comes over the top for a fourth, with a pair on the board.

That's exactly what happened. Maniac #1 put the fourth bet in, and maniac #2 folded. The turn was a K, and I decided that after my display of strength, the best way to get money into the pot was to induce a bluff, so I check-called, and check-called the river of a 9 as well.

It just so happened that maniac #1 had 2-9 suited (?!) and took the pot down with it. I'm sure he was happy with $30 score, or thereabouts, made all the more incredible when maniac #2 declared that we'd pushed him off of pocket nines, meaning maniac #1 caught the case 9 in the deck that could save him. Incredible. That was a hand that I technically lost, but the play was so correct, and so +EV, that I consider it a win. I finished up for the day anyway, that being one of about 500 or so hands (a light day, only playing on and off).