Winner!

Well that was at least the major victory that even though I thought it was likely, I still had fears in my stomach that it wouldn't happen. I was (am...) very ready to pack up and move to Sweden, or possibly Australia now that the AUS$ has fallen so much do to the mistakes of the USA, and is affordable to live in for somebody on my very low budget.

I had three other concerns this election, which do not look to be panning out well, but the happiness over a competent, smart, able, and inspiring President is dwarfing those at the moment. They are California's Proposition 8: the ban on human rights to happiness (similar to what Nevada did in -- either '02 or '04, I forget which year), Al Franken's race for the Minnesota Senate, and Washington State Initiative 1000: the right to choose how you're going to die if you're going to die soon anyway.

With 48% precincts in, it's not looking good for gays in California to the tune of 53% to 47%. With 95% precincts in, Al Franken is 1500 votes behind incumbent Norm Coleman, with a tie at 42% a piece. Franken needs to get these last votes to win it, and I'm hoping he does; he's a good and decent person with a proper perspective, and he has the ability and the will-power to get shit done. (Edit: I just checked before I'm off to bed, and it looks like California has officially regressed to pre-enlightenment thinking. Also, with 98% precincts in, Al Franken has pulled ahead by about 950 votes. But those last 2% are worth a lot, since Franken's lead is less than 0.09%. It's a dead heat, I will certainly have to check it when I get up tomorrow... Now off to bed! ) (Edit 2: With all 3 million votes in, Al Franken is behind by about 500. Coleman, his opponent has not officially won yet, as a recount is obviously being done. It's not looking good for Al Franken, but we can hope!)

And finally, good news for those with less than 6 months to live!... You can end the pain earlier if you'd like, thanks to 58% of Washingtonians.

On the poker front, I've been playing SNG's a lot still, but I've managed to get in a few hands of cash game play. And if play cash regularly again, I can save some money thanks to a CardRunners promotion--they are giving away free membership months simply for earning Full Tilt points, with no strings attached.

I posted a graph below my stats which is a graph of my total winnings (green line), my profits from hands that went to showdown (blue line), and the money from hands that did not get shown (red line). I'm not spectacular at post flop play, but I'm practicing, and I can see how just a little better postflop play can REALLY increase profits, because you get better at winning the small pots, and they come up often, so even a small extra edge in them is worth quite a lot. I also have found once again, despite my big loss at it earlier, that 0.50-1 NL games are easier for me than 0.25-0.50 games online. 50NL is much more straightforward and you just have to grind and play more solid than the next guy, and make some moves in the right spot. 100NL OTOH, everybody is making moves on everybody else, so you get a lot of light 3betting and lots of floating and flop raising, and all the standard "steal" moves that are the first deviations one makes from ABC play at 6-max games. So by identifying which spots are more likely steal spots and by having stats on players (read: datamining), I can make a ton of light 4bets preflop, light flats in position, floats for my stack, and other moves that may cost a lot, but work such a high percentage of the time that they are more than worth it.

It will be really interesting if I ever hit 1-2 because based on what I've watched, they are again one level up, and can spot the 4bet re-steals, so you get people who are 5bet shoving with a range of KK+, AK, 65-98, 84o, A3s, A5o and maybe some other random garbage in there, so they are far less exploitable in the direct 4bet re-steal sense.

Before I move up there, I'll have to figure out how to counter them. The first things that come to mind are 3 and 4-bet less, and 3 and 4-bet larger, make open-raises smaller, ship (or re-raise a committing amount) any and all (half way decent) draws on the flop to a raise that is likely a steal, prefer bet/raise-folding the turn and (less frequently) the river over calling down light like I can (and do) to players now. But we'll see what happens. I'll datamine and watch the games for a bit, and if I ever get the roll or feel frisky one night, I'll see how I do.

Sp here's my stats, my graph, and a picture of a place I dearly miss and am heading to next Tuesday!









-Max