PLO Pimpin'

What’s up Degens?

As always, I’ll get all of the non-poker stuff out of the way…

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays of the year, mostly because it’s one of those weekends where everyone seems to have a good excuse to act like a fool, and get drunk for the entire weekend. Also, the girls dress unbelievably whorish, which consequently makes them behave whorishly as well; definitely a plus for all involved!

Since we’re on the topic, I need to mention how unbelievably hot the women in Denver are; I’m really impressed. I think I wrote somewhere else about how disappointed I was with the crop of attractive women in Santa Cruz, so it’s refreshing to be around a ton of good looking women everywhere. Chicks in Denver seem to be more down to Earth as well; probably because they’re more outdoorsy and they don’t live close to LA, Vegas, or NY so being a hot chick doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a model or an ‘entertainer’.

Anyway, so for Halloween my two roommates and I went to Wal Mart and bought some shitty seat suits to make costumes out of. We got stencils, and made these “International Muff Diving” costumes, equipped with belts holding female deodorant, shavers, mouthwash, condoms, and hand sanitizer, while also wearing some goggles and a beanie. It was pretty funny for sure, but my costume got pretty nasty after wearing it for a couple of nights.

The first night we drove down to Colorado Springs to meet up with some girls we know for a house party. One of my roommates ended up getting too wasted and beating up somebody dressed as Toad, so needless to say we got kicked out of the party, but up to that point it was pretty awesome. The next night we hit the bars in Denver, which ended up being really sick because daylight savings added an hour onto the closing time for the bars, so everyone got extra shitfaced.

The following events is where it gets a little interesting… My roommate took home a chick from the bar, and had to give her a ride home around 5am. He woke me up on the way out, but then came back inside after just a couple of minutes and was like “hey man, I don’t want to be the one to tell you this, but somebody shot up your car really bad. There’s bullet holes all through your car. You should probably go check it out.” I decided that being drunk and wandering around the streets at 5am wasn’t the best idea, so I figured I’d wait to check it out until the morning.

Sure enough when I went out to the car, I found about ten bullet holes that basically ruined the driver side door/window of my car. It’s pretty scary because it wasn’t like someone drove by and shot a gun at my car randomly. You can tell very clearly that someone drove up on the car, and fired all the shots intentionally into the driver’s side door to kill whoever was in there, or to send a really violent message to the owner of the car. The bullets shattered my windshield, ruined my door, and the seats in my car because the bullets made it through the door and glass obviously.

This is pretty alarming for a couple of reasons besides the obvious. First off, I’m not a violent person, nor do I know any violent people. I also don’t live in a violent neighborhood. In fact, I don’t even know anyone who owns a gun, much less involve myself with people who would do this sort of thing as a joke. My hunch is that whomever shot up my car was after someone else who drives the same car (I drive a Cadillac CTS), and mistook my vehicle for theirs. Nonetheless, I’m not risking getting shot, so after my car gets fixed I’m going to go buy something else. If anybody has any recommendations for me, I’d love to hear it. I’m looking to spend about 15-20k, and need an AWD car since I go to the mountains a lot. I’ve heard good things about Audi’s and Toyotas, but will probably end up getting a Volvo.

In other news, everything else has been pretty spectacular the last couple of weeks. Poker has been going pretty well, and I’ve been able to log some hands each day since I moved in and got internet. I used to always play at least four tables, and many times I’d play six or more. In the last six weeks since I started playing again, I’ve been playing a maximum of three tables, and I can’t begin to tell you how much it’s improved my game. To be honest, unless you’re opponents are brain dead, it’s going to be difficult for the majority of people to play optimal poker on more than four tables; there’s just too much to think about/consider for each decision in my opinion. It’s funny, because now that I’m trying my best to play optimally on 2-3 tables, I feel like four tables would just be way too much to handle. It’s amazing how many mistakes I start to make when I finally add one or two tables. I think you can do it on the weekends when the tables are the softest, but otherwise if you’re playing anyone reasonable you probably need to focus a lot. It boggles my mind when you see those high stakes guys playing 4 HU tables at once; I just don’t know how they can do it!

This is something else I’ve been meaning to write about, and it’s a question I get a lot from my students. Often times I’m asked about the “EV” stat on HEM in regards to its accuracy. I’m a really big opponent of even having that stat on your display to be honest, and to be honest I don’t even pay attention to it whatsoever. If you know your game and the tendencies of your opponents, you should be able to tell if you’re running bad or not. Additionally, there’s many types of running bad, not just the bad beat kind of bad. There’s situational run bad, cooler running bad, and bad beat running bad, most of which HEM can’t account for. The biggest one it doesn’t account for is when you’re coolered repeatedly. For example, hands like this

Full Tilt Poker $400.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $399.20
Hero (BTN/SB): $400.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN/SB with 5 9 6 Q
Hero raises to $12, BB calls $8

Flop: ($24.00) 7 J 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($24.00) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $23.00, BB raises to $93, Hero calls $70

River: ($210.00) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $210.00, Hero calls $210

Final Pot: $630.00
BB shows 5 A K Q
Hero mucks 5 9 6 Q
BB wins $629.50
(Rake: $0.50)

Or this

Full Tilt Poker $200.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $170.50
CO: $111.70
Hero (BTN): $206.70
SB: $214.50
BB: $200.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN with 8 A 9 A
UTG calls $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $9, 2 folds, UTG calls $7

Flop: ($21.00) J T A (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($21.00) T (2 players)
UTG bets $10.50, Hero raises to $46, UTG raises to $82, Hero calls $36

River: ($185.00) 2 (2 players)
UTG bets $79.50, Hero calls $79.50

Final Pot: $344.00
UTG shows T T 7 Q
Hero mucks 8 A 9 A
UTG wins $341.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I guess what I’m trying to say is there’s just too much to account for, making that stat unreliable. In addition, it could even be -ev for you if you have a tendency to tilt when you run bad. Having the EV stat staring you in the face before and after each session will remind you of how bad you’re running, when truthfully you should be focusing that energy on more productive things that will help you win more money. Besides, you can’t control it anyway, so what’s the point of having it? Like Baluga says, to get better and win more money, you should focus on being a “learner” instead of a “winner”. Take care of the process, and the results will take care of themselves, I promise! It’s easy to fall into the trap of being results oriented in poker (especially in PLO), but you really just have to LET IT GO.

Anyway, I’m going to write more later or tomorrow, but for now I’m heading to the gym. I hope everyone is running well, and if you’d like to add me on facebook to check out the pics of my bullet-ridden car, then holler at me on facebook. I’m too lazy to add all of the images right now, lol.

http://www.facebook.com/john.beauprez?ref=profile

GL,

John