Poker - 'The Hammer' comes through

In my weekly poker game, I have the joy of playing with some of the coolest guys I've met in this town. Lotta high-tech guys, which one would think means a lot of cash in play, but that doesn't really hold true.

Our game: we play a 'low-limit, no-limit' game where the blinds are .25 and .50, and the betting is no limit up to $20 (meaning a player has no more than $20 at risk on any one hand). Typical pots are around $20-30, and we play for about 5 hours before the limit comes off. I go home at that point.

Well, my weekly game hasn't been played in several months, due to the host having taken a job that keeps him out of town a lot. Well, I hooked up with one of my coworkers who just moved here. He hosts a weekly $10 buy in tourney with unlimited rebuys for the first hour. The crowd is mostly college students.... college students who watch a lot of poker.

As most hold'em players know, the worst pocket cards you can have are 2 and 7 off suit, because they are the lowest cards in the deck that cannot be used together. In my ring game, the hand is jokingly called the hammer. This is a garbage hand. Well, last week, my first week at the game, I find myself in the final two players with about 20-23% of the total chip-stack. I'm at a huge disadvantage.

Well, he's pushing me around, and the blinds are killing me. I lose about 5% of my stack with every hand I fold without betting. After three bad hands, I get dealt 2-7 offsuit! I internally sigh and muck it when he bets. Next hand, I'm small blind and look down at my cards to see 2-7 suited. CRAP! Two in a row?!?!? Well, out of frustration, I call the big blind and he checks his option to raise.

FLOP: Jack, Two, Seven RAINBOW! I check, he bets about half my stack, I go all in. We flip 'em up. He's got J9o and can't believe he's about to go down to the HAMMER! He gets no help on the turn or river, and I take it.

He's still in the lead with about 60% of the chipstack, but he's rattled. Next hand I get AQo, he gets JTsuited. He goes all in, and I call, winning the hand on just the Ace high... after that, it's pretty much over.

Moral of the story: Watch out, cuz the Hammer might just nail you!

Kerry Lost and Here's Why

First of all, the presentation of this argument is key. Kerry lost the election. Bush did not win it. Kerry did not lose because of Right-Wing conservatives. Kerry lost because he did not inspire. Kerry had no ideas. Kerry had no substance. The best thing that Kerry had going for him was that he was not George W. Bush.

Combine that with a flamboyantly gay lifestyle, marital infidelity and a grapefruit goiter on his neck and he STILL should have won. So why didn't he? It's simple. You have to be something (ANYTHING) yourself. You cannot get by solely on not being the other guy.

Dean, as liberal/socialist as he was, at least had conviction.

The trick now for democrats is simple. They have to undertake a massive voter education effort... Educate yourselves as to why you are losing elections.

Here's the plan:

Step 1: Pile into the car.
Step 2: Drive to a red state (a red county will probably suffice)
Step 3: Get anthropological on their ass. See how people live in those areas, and you may understand why they vote a certain way as well. It's not about off-the-wall religion... it's about hard work and values.

Anyway, that's my $.02.

Hiatuses (Hiati?)

I must admit the election/grad school/and that little fucker Tim Wen****d got me distracted to the point that I have ignored jotting down some thoughts. I've got some beefs to air.


Excuse me while I whip this out....