Wednesday, March 24, 2010

On the Nature Of the Role Of Government...

...brought to you by a graphic I came across today (original author unknown, at least to me).



Now clearly, not nearly every broad-based program the federal government has gotten behind has worked out in the most efficient or effective manner. In areas as diverse as food safety, fuel economy standards, and gosh knows online poker transactions, there's an awful lot that can be improved upon.

But to those who would simply parrot the standard issue Palin/Beckisms of "the government's taking over your lives, ZOMG death panels!", I would cordially invite you to skip out on the benefits enjoyed in all other areas of your lives where the government has actually made a positive difference -- perhaps a fresh coat of lead paint in your bedroom, or just rip out the seat belts and air bags in your car and hope you don't have a highway accident (because such equipment only reached the ubiquity of becoming standard equipment thanks to government regulation).

I'm not suggesting the recently-passed health care legislation is perfect. Far from it. The failure to pass some form of drug reimportation is saddening, when Americans have to pay exponentially more for the same medicine from the same manufacturer, than Canadians do (as well as those of other countries).

However, all the fear-mongering in the world, most loudly by those who stand to financially benefit from fear (Limbaugh, Beck, et al.), only reflects how out of touch with reality a person can be. See, Limbaugh and Beck don't actually care that much about policy -- their riches come not from policy one way or the other, but solely from inciting and stoking fear and anger, because it builds ratings. And without ratings, they have no portfolio at all.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

All Quiet (Mostly) on the Poker Front

Played a lengthy tourney session last Sunday, probably around 22 events in all. Meh. Lived up to the nickname my wife gave me "Almost". Five cashes, most of them of the true mincash variety. Bubbled one final table. Did manage to pull out a 2nd place finish in one tourney, though sadly (for my bankroll), it was only a $2.20 PLHE/PLO event with about 220 runners, so even winning it wouldn't have added a hundo to the roll. I think I managed to just about break even on the day.

Heads up in the PLHE/PLO was interesting, though. We came into heads up roughly even in chips, and went back and forth, back and forth, such that heads up was easily more than 100 hands.

Thought I was going to take a massive chiplead when I turned an 8-high straight flush in spades, during PLO level 26 or whatever it was. Unfortunately, I lost him on the river. At any rate, at one point I swung from down 4:1 in chips, to up 4:1 in chips, to back down 4:1 in chips...and eventually out. It was a very enjoyable experience, though, to be in a heads-up battle lasting that long. Both of us definitely had to change up our styles during it, to keep either of us from becoming overly predictable in our levels of aggression.

Anyway, not much else to report. I doubt you'll see me in any Mini FTOPS, as my Full Tilt roll's a bit low to take that on. Maybe I'll put in another session some time this weekend, but with the Good Doctor Mondo having scheduled a dinner out with friends, and several friends coming over, it may just not be in the cards. Heh. A pun.

Enjoyed reading the Mastodon weekend reports. Live bloggerments are f u n.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Friday, March 05, 2010

Don't Hold Out On Me

Or I will cut a Keefe.

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The least Keefe could have done down in the bayou is actually hire a couple of talented Republican wiretapping operatives...I mean, aren't the Watergate burglars, I mean, bunglers, out of jail by now?

Wow. Just Wow.

One way to successfully put me on tilt...

Deepish (well, just before bubble) in a huge field donkament...in this case, FTP's Daily Double A, when facing action from me...hem and haw in the chat box for about thirty seconds before deciding to call off all your chips in middle position with.........the mighty T6o.

Then proceed to flop trip sixes (I had ATs, by the way).

Then, berate me for the bad play of calling your bet. (Um, you, sir, acted after me in the hand.)

Then, proceed to brag about winning $300k online. When I checked, you are a lifetime -82% ROI on Stars, and while you have won a total of $26k on FTP, you've done so at a -13% ROI clip, and with nearly half of that lifetime total consisting of winning a WSOP ME satellite two years ago. Without that flukeament, your total lifetime losignitude is at least 50%.

Then, proceed to actually luckbox your way to 7th in the entire tournament, by having called off all your chips in middle position with..........the mighty T6o, for your only triple-digit cash of any kind since last September.

Well played, Chaconas, well played, sir. I can tell by your results since last weekend, you've put that money to good use.