Poker update

I've not played too much on VC of recent really, NLHE tourneys bore me a bit at the moment. Instead I've mostly been playing the micro PLO8 at Stars. It's so soft it's unbelievable, more or less guaranteed winnings. Anyone and their monkey can shove all their money in at HE if they see a big pair, but people will play KTTT at Omaha/8 for raises at this level. That's unplayable at high only. It's a massive aquarium. It takes patience though, even though I am seeing a flop on about 50% of hands. Massively loose, but it's nothing compared to other people at the table. It's so passive that you can afford to limp with fairly junky stuff (KKxx, QQxx, A3xx etc) and hope to hit a good to perfect flop. Mainly because the pot odds are huge. You'll often get paid too - people will draw to and hit less than the nuts and pay you off (one guy berating me for my nut flush beating his queen high flush. What did he expect). They'll also stop around till the river, so it's possible to stay around for just hitting one way and make profit. A2xx is always playable here. It can be waiting for the nuts at times, but that's Omaha to an extent.

NLHE also isn't appealing as for some reason I played a free play tourney on Stars, and came about 80th/4000+. Why, I don't know. Someone dared me to or something.

When you think a sport has reached its ultimate nadir...

The US Grand Prix happened. Jesus H Christ. Considering by all rights there should be precisely two people that are still interested in Formula One after the whole Ferrari internal race rigging scandal, the general lack of overtaking or any action after lap one and outside of the pit lane, Ferrari and Ecclestone (not Doctor Who, the other one) having way too much power and the lack of Murray Walker, we now have the farcical situation where one tyre manufacturer can't make tyres that are safe to race on or something (I don't give a shit about the specifics or how they allowed that to happen), and we've got six cars racing - namely Schumacher, Barrichello (very much the Val Venis of the F1 world, jobber to the stars), the Jordans who are about as fast as a broken 2CV, and the Minardis, who've got the same budget for their cars as Blue Peter have to make crap out of sticky back plastic and half the performance. Fantastic.

Here's a clue - give everyone the same cars, same tyres, same engines, same everything (you know, like how it works in most other forms of motor sport that are actually interesting), make the tracks so that overtaking is possible, and then sod qualifying and have those leading the championship start from the back of the grid. It really is that simple. Do it, or everyone will fuck off to watch the rumoured new rival tour, MotoGP, even bloody speedway. That only lasts a minute, roughly the same amount of action you have in your average grand prix. And people were actually outraged that this tour de farce wasn't going to return to Silverstone!

And I didn't mention Australia-Bangladesh once. Oh how we laughed.

I'm not dead

Long time no update... basically I haven't been arsed to recover the password to this on the other computer. Back at home now, and it's pretty much the same shithole as it was when I left, except the nearest offy has now closed, which is an arse.

Saw System Of A Down on Tuesday. They kicked ass. Shame about the support (80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster) who were pretty poor. The main show was quality - almost two hours of straight up non stop rock. Excellent. Had a few drinks beforehand - strangely (U2 gig possibly?) most of the pubs in Manchester were heaving, in fact one Spoons wasn't even letting any new punters in. At half four. Ridiculous. Still, found a nice pub on Mosley Street that was fairly quiet and very cheap (£1.70/Guinness, £1.20/Carling or Beck's). It's just a pity that the transport here really is of a third world standard. Integrated transport does not mean diving onto a tram, then running and diving onto a train, then running and diving onto a bus, and paying £1.70 for a journey which I can (and have) walked before. It (bus pricing) truly is extortionate around the Manchester area.

So, one year at Sheffield is out of the way. Let's analyse, shall we?

Sheffield positives:

- has Fuzz Club
- has a cool lift in the Arts Tower
- hall bars are competitively priced, and bar one is usually cheap
- er...
- that's it

Sheffield negatives:

- hills
- no one centralised computing facility
- no one centralised library
- never had a lecture in a lecture theatre
- never had a seminar that wasn't massively overpopulated or only had about five people in
- only had one essay to do and the rest was all exams
- seen essay questions for answering in exams suck
- have seen my tutor once, and only contacted him on one other occasion
- has three club nights which all sound the same and are probably all equally shit
- no self catered halls, leaving flats as an option which are crap for socialising
- uni LAN is sketchy
- all sports are elitist, overpriced and inaccessible

In other words, the university and course sucks large amounts.

The carpet too is moving under you

Yay, exams are all over. ILLS 2 is out of the way. Naturally, the exam was exactly the same as the previous two years, only the wording was slightly different which threw me a bit on question 5 but I managed. Part A went well, the other two not so great but probably enough for a decent mark. Afterwards, went to Walkabout for a couple of Tooheys and then to Earnshaw for some deserved Guinness.

Now just an unusually busy day to clear up lots of crap before I head off home, mixed in with drinking and slacking. Excellent...

Never give up

I didn't find time to play with the code to the blog over the weekend, so I'll either do it on Thursday or wait until the weekend.

Anyway, there's a saying in poker, "a chip and a chair", meaning that's all you need to win. It's perfectly true, no matter how bad a situation in a tournament can be, never quit it.

Point in question. $2 STT. Blinds at 30/60, and I'm down to T1190. I decide to make a play at the pot on the button with 6-3o when the only caller is the cutoff (who was bitching about his A-Q being outdrawn by J-T on the previous hand, so he could easily be steaming - he's down to less than me as a result). I raise to 180, blinds fold and cutoff calls. I've also got a note on the cutoff that he seems a bit fishy. Flop comes Q-9-2 and I push for 1010. He calls his last 890 with Q-5 (making his complaining about calling raises with junk rather hypocritical), and IGNH. 120 left, I fold in the next hand and the blinds go to 50/100. Game over? Nope.

A couple of hands later I get 7-7 and push. Three callers, I hit a set (cracking A-A in the process), up to 480. Muck next hand, I'm the big blind with K-4. Three callers, but I wait to push. Flop is K-J-3, I push 380 into a 400 pot and nobody takes me on. 780 now. I then find rockets in the small blind. Only the cutoff called, I made it 3xBB and the cutoff calls again. I push my last 480 and he folds. Up to 1180.

I fold the next hand and then find kings. I limp in EP and then there's a raise and reraise before it comes back to me. I call all-in and see A-K and 10-10. Kings hold up and I'm at 3640 and comfortable again. Two hands later I double through the original tilting fish in an A-Q vs. J-J race, up to 6380, a third of the chips in play. I knock him out two hands later when I have kings (again), making it 500 to go preflop (blinds now 100/200), he flat calls, and then on a K-9-5 flop with two hearts, he removes any need for me to slowplay or milk as he pushes with Qh3h. My set holds up, and all of a sudden I have over 10K in chips.

I go on to finish second, getting as high as 13,690 at one point but cocking up the three handed and heads-up. Limping with 3-8 in the small blind and then pushing on a T-5-2 board but walking into rockets knocked me down to 11K, I fail to knockout a shortstack with A-9 against A-8 when he spikes his 8, then I lose to the same guy three hands into the heads-up, as he refused to fold his nut-straight when a third diamond hit on the turn [Qs 3d Td Ad], his K-J of spades holding up against my mighty 8-4 off (one was a diamond, I had outs). The moral of the story is - don't push with junk and get called.

I could get used to these $2 tourneys

Just won another one for about $120. Get in.

Oh, b3ta are geniuses

Genii? Who cares. Anyway, this looks like an experiment to try. Nothing but Guinness for a week. It sounds like a challenge. I'm still a student, it's the kind of silly thing students do. Here's the link: The Guinness Diet

Possible site alterations

I'm going to be playing with the coding of this blog to add some links in to stuff that I like. If for some reason you come here and the site looks like crap, I've probably cocked up this trivial exercise. I'll probably do this over the weekend.

By the way, if you want your site/blog added, just post a comment.

Sephiroth wins. What a surprise.

If you don't give a shit about the GameFAQs contest, ignore this post. For you, I'll likely be watching the cricket tomorrow, doing the whole revising + test match = fun thing again.

Contest announced. Initial thought = Sephiroth wins. Easily. Fire in nominations.

Bracket announced. Ridley in as a 2, excellent. No Wario or Donkey Kong, disappointing. Sephiroth still wins, but there's a clear lack of difficult matches to decide in later rounds, as Bowser, Ganondorf and Liquid Snake have been kept apart and will all fall to Seph at different stages.

Predictions? Let's see. Top half is incredibly easy to predict. First division is easy enough. Bowser wins. Only question is who he beats in the last 8 out of Ocelot and Wily, and who he beats in round 2, out of Sigma and Andross. Andross winning would be cool, but MM > SF there, so Sigma it is. Ocelot seems to have a lot more support than Wily as well, so Ocelot wins that one. Done.

Next. Sephiroth walks the division. Liquid Snake walks to Seph then jobs. Lavos will beat Mother Brain, both are useless characters but CT > Metroid there. That just leaves Vergil vs. Ghaleon. I initially put Ghaleon but then switched, as cult RPG figures are fodder.

Now then. Kefka as a 1 seed. Hmm. Something's up here. Kefka has shown no strength ever. EVER. Still, Kefka's path to the last eight is easy. Wesker or Luca? Thought about Luca for a bit on account of having appeared before, but switched to Wesker. Then we have Albedo-Bison and Ridley-Diablo. Bison wins his match, but is a complete wild card. He could be anywhere from just sneaking through and getting pounded in round 2, to winning the division. Ridley-Diablo. Hmm. Halo-Starcraft anyone? Now this match will make or break a bracket. Either of these could win the division, and this will be the hardest match they face before Ganondorf. Still, I pick Ridley. Blatant Metroid fanboyism. It can go either way, but I'm going with who I've been rallying for for a year to get in one of these things. And when I pick Ridley, I pick Ridley to the final four.

Ganondorf wins the last division easily, but the rest is awkward. Ansem-CATS? I'd love CATS to win, and put CATS in initially. But Kingdom Hearts isn't fodder, and I was on the rightside of Sora-Hayabusa in 2004 and let people know about it. Then we have Robotnik/Sin and Kuja/Master Hand. This will bust brackets as well. Kuja over Master Hand is easy enough. It's a glove. Robotnik ought to beat Sin. It'll be close, but Robotnik has a lot more games than MH. So why put Kuja over Robotnik? Seeding I guess. Kuja's a 2, Sin a 6. That should equal more support. In a close thing, it could be enough.

Final is clearly Sephiroth over Ganondorf. Now let the flaming begin...

Bowser starts out looking solid. Nothing unexpected there. Pyramid Head is useless. Nothing unexpected there. Sigma starts out OK, but then keeps dropping percentage, and dropping... it goes below 53% before a late recovery. Not unexpected at all, this closeness. Then Ocelot does the same thing against Nemesis. What the hell? This wasn't on the cards, a showing of some weakness. If Wily puts up decent numbers, we could have problems here. Wily does somewhat better, but against a weaker character in all likelihood. Constantly in the 60's, not quite managing a doubling. 4/4 so far, but Ocelot>Wily is looking shaky, and the board knows it.

Sephiroth beats Ramirez as expected, comfortably in the 80's. Ghaleon gets an awful picture and Vergil runs with it, pressing for a doubling at one point before settling for a mid 60's performance. Lavos then only managed 55% on Mother Brain. This was good news for the Ridley camp, a decent showing from the other Metroid contender. Unless of course Lavos is weak. Some people opine MB>Ridley. What nonsense. Then in a performance somewhat reminiscent of Tanner's "efforts", Liquid Snake pounds Officer Tenpenny, threatening 80% for long periods. 8/8 so far.

Kefka beats Mithos as expected, but fails to get a doubling. Those with Kefka winning the division are somewhat worried. Wesker does the business against Luca, but in unconvincing fashion, failing to make 60% and making the Wesker>Kefka claims look weak. I'm on the leaderboard after this one, and stay on it as Bison doubles Albedo, being over 70% for large chunks of the match and threatening to win another should Ridley/Diablo show hints of weakness. I'm not at a computer for that one. I make a call to find out the score roughly 11 hours in - Ridley 43%, oh fuck. There goes the bracket. Diablo has help from diabloii.net but it really doesn't make a difference as he wins by a clear 10,000+. Ridley lead, according to best estimates, for two minutes. That's seven points gone straight off the bat. Bison-Diablo could be close.

Ganondorf dispatches Giygas with minimal trouble, just failing to stay above 85% at the end. Then CATS naturally gets the board lead. And holds it. Seconds become minutes, minutes become hours. The board is ON FIRE. CATS just leads at the 5000 vote mark. Ansem ties it up but can't gain any command of the match, as they go toe to toe until about 5 hours in when the kiddies wake up and give Ansem the win, by less than 6000 votes. All "ceiling" theories about CATS are out the window - given the right match, CATS can win. I want Gordon Freeman/CATS in the summer. Robotnik then wins by less than 2000 - the match was never really in doubt, although Sin chopped around 700 off the maximum lead. Then we have a huge bracket buster. This killed all but one of the remaining zero brackets and a lot of the perfects. Kuja got a lead of 400. It didn't last. Master Hand pulled it back, and then ran with it. The lead went from hundreds, to thousands, to multiple thousands in an awesome day vote display. Hundreds of people are disgusted, there's loads of fads, and Kuja becomes a joke. This costs me three points, and puts my maximum at 70, which I actually get.

Round 2 begins, and Bowser isn't taking any chances with Sigma, crushing him with a 78% tripling performance. 80% was never really threatened. That isn't looking good for Wily. And so it transpired - another hyped match became a damp squib as Ocelot lead from start to finish, finishing comfortably in the mid 50's with a near 6000 vote victory. Vergil holds Seph under 80%, but still gets tripled. Liquid Snake then completely chokes against Lavos, only managing 55%, and throwing the strength of the whole LS/Chief/Frog group into doubt.

Kefka then does the unthinkable and shows genuine strength, pummelling Wesker and gaining 70% of the vote. Turns out Nemesis may be stronger than Wesker. Bison-Diablo looks like it might be close, as the Street Fighter gets a decent start and gets a three figure lead. This lasts for about four hours until Diablo takes over and wins, falling just shy of a 5000 margin of victory. Renewed hope for Kefka then, in what looks like being the last match where the result is in doubt. Ganondorf stays at around 75% all day on Ansem, but fails to triple up in the end. Robotnik/Hand was a huge disappointment, Robotnik looking like doubling early on, but falling back to just under 60% by the end.

There were a few people who thought Ocelot might have had a chance - not really. Bowser starts nicely, increases percentage throughout the day and nearly doubles Ocelot. Nice going. And in a vulgar display of power, Sephiroth triples Liquid Snake, causing people to declare any stats for this null and void, has others making crazy adjustments to try to justify this, yadda yadda yadda, whatever. Liquid couldn't even hold Seph for a minute, despite the board's notorious anti-FF7 sentiments.

Kefka starts out well against Diablo. The lead is up to over 250 at one point, but then Kefka's famously bad day vote kicks in and Diablo takes over. The match is level within five hours, Diablo leads by 1000 after about eight and is 3000 away and safe by halfway. Diablo ended up with over 54%, more than against Bison, and I start to throw out occasional Diablo>Ganondorf jibes to generate controversy. This match also killed all remaining perfect brackets. So much for predictability... then Ganondorf triples Robotnik and makes Kuja look like a bigger joke than before.

Final four time... Bowser-Sephiroth was tight for a little while, in fact they were dead level after 1000 votes (see the earlier post for the board reaction to that one), but the match is inevitably won after around six hours. In a moral victory, Bowser kept Seph under 60%, something Mario couldn't do. Everyone wants to throw the stats out of the window by this stage. Ganondorf is up by 1000 against Diablo within an hour, and there's no attempt at a comeback at all, with a 26,000+ vote victory and a near tripling. More or less what was expected given Kefka's known performance.

And to today's final. Ganondorf holds for a little bit longer than Bowser but the end result is the same. We're at roughly halfway now and Seph is stalling at around 57%. A 105,000 vote turnout would make my tiebreaker look great, but I'm not breaking any ties on -10. Ganondorf should be able to finish ahead of Bowser, but it could be close. It's a shame we couldn't have had them in the same half, with Liquid Snake in one of their divisions as well, for some more interesting late round matches.

I hope that this contest was set up so that Seph got an auto-win and could then be retired with Link and Cloud to make for a hugely interesting summer contest... we'll see.