The only WCOOP I played on Monday was the 4-max, which is always a wild and crazy time. I stayed out of the fray for a bit, but sooner or later a draw comes along that simply bets to be played aggressively. I don’t hate my line, but I think there are a few things I could do differently, including checking the turn (probably to check-shove), checking the river (probably to fold), and possibly even calling the river:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB (t5010)
Hero (BB) (t4605)
UTG (t4085)
Button (t6010)
Hero’s M: 102.33
Preflop: Hero is BB with 7♥, 6♣
UTG bets t75, Button calls t75, 1 fold, Hero calls t45
Flop: (t240) 5♦, 4♥, 2♣ (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t170, 1 fold, Hero raises to t444, UTG calls t274
Turn: (t1128) K♣ (2 players)
Hero bets t666, UTG calls t666
River: (t2460) 7♣ (2 players)
Hero bets t888, UTG raises to t2900 (All-In), Hero folds
Total pot: t4236
Results:
UTG didn’t show
Outcome: UTG won t4236
I got those chips back from Villain by flopping top pair and getting it in on a 45/55 against his big draw.
Then there was this ugly business. I was going to fold a river that didn’t improve me. Not that this one made a huge difference, but I thought AK could be a possibility for a Villain. Possibly I should have folded anyway.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG (t3930)
Hero (Button) (t6181)
SB (t3694)
BB (t5905)
Hero’s M: 137.36
Preflop: Hero is Button with 10♠, K♠
UTG bets t60, Hero raises to t160, 1 fold, BB raises to t400, 1 fold, Hero calls t240
Flop: (t875) 7♥, 7♠, K♥ (2 players)
BB bets t390, Hero calls t390
Turn: (t1655) 6♠ (2 players)
BB bets t915, Hero calls t915
River: (t3485) 10♦ (2 players)
BB bets t1815, Hero calls t1815
Total pot: t7115
Results:
Hero mucked 10♠, K♠ (two pair, Kings and tens).
BB had 7♦, 8♦ (three of a kind, sevens).
Outcome: BB won t7115
After a while I got it in on the good side of a 55/45 and won.
My next big loss came on a three-barrel into a hand that I didn’t expect Villain to fold because it was a hand I didn’t expect him to hold. He 3-bet pretty aggressively and also called more hands than your average player out of the small blind, so I misjudged his hand based on the pre-flop action here:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 15 Ante (4 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG (t22704)
Hero (Button) (t5845)
SB (t39034)
BB (t17386)
Hero’s M: 24.35
Preflop: Hero is Button with J♣, 8♥
1 fold, Hero bets t240, SB calls t180, BB calls t120
Flop: (t780) 10♥, Q♥, Q♣ (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t444, SB calls t444, 1 fold
Turn: (t1668) 4♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t888, SB calls t888
River: (t3444) K♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t1777, SB calls t1777
Total pot: t6998
Results:
Hero had J♣, 8♥ (one pair, Queens).
SB had A♣, A♥ (two pair, Aces and Queens).
Outcome: SB won t6998
I lost the last of my chips ATo < 88, nothing too exciting there.
I finished up early enough in the day that I still had time for some activity. A venue in Old Montreal (the main tourist district) was hosting the World Press Photo Exhibition, a collection of the year’s best journalistic photography. Many of the photos dealt with headline-grabbing issues like the tsunami, the Arab Spring, etc.
These all made for compelling photographs, but the one that grabbed me the mostof a rhinoceros. The demand for rhino tusks is so overwhelming that rangers often remove them pre-emptively to protect them for poachers. The poachers got to this one anyway and cut out the stump of a horn that was starting to grow back. The sad story and the look on the rhino’s face nearly moved me to tears:
In the same space there was also an exhibit of photographs of a huge protest/occasional riot that, unbeknownst to me, took place earlier this year in Montreal. Presumably on the assumption that everyone would know what they were from, the photos weren’t accompanied by any explanatory material.
I had to go home and look up details about “Quebec Spring”, a name which struck me as presumptuous and insulting to those who risked their lives in the “Prague Spring” and “Arab Spring” demonstrations. According to Wikipedia, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against a proposal “to raise university tuition from $2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2017.” As an American whose annual tuition was ten times that, it’s hard for me to sympathize.
I assume there’s some additional political context here that I’m not aware of. Still, the reaction seems extreme to me. The exhibit features photographs of protesters carrying signs about changing the world, and, in one case, shattering the windshield of a police car. I guess that’s just the sort of thing that happens when a few people out of a few hundred thousand get out of hand and not necessarily a reflection on the movement itself, but even after a little research, I had trouble figuring out why this was quite so big a deal as it apparently was.
When you’ve gotten used to the free ride, the entitlement runs deep. It’s always a shock when someone asks to pull more of your fair share. It’s not as if education is free, after all. Someone’s been paying for it.
Free market capitalism Democracy vs Socialism
USA vs (France/Sweden)
You might not have read that like concordia business students and Mcgill(more English and something like 25% american students) voted against the strike and kept going to class.
I know part of the Idea is that “arts” students contribute to society in ways that cant be “monetized” or “counted” and they shouldn’t be burdened with student loans they can’t really be expected to pay back at the same rate as other “subjects”. So keep tuition cheap for everyone.
Partly about the meaning of education: enlightenment vs employment
And equal access.
It’s hard to compare cost here with cost in US because the taxes here are so much higher (though we do get free health care) so it is harder for the middle class here to contribute to cost of education for their kids…of course in the US the cost is so high it makes it hard to.
It also helped I am sure that the people who tend to believe in the “France system” also tend to be for “separation of Quebec from Canada”…which made them opposed to the government of the time “Liberal” as of last week it is now a “PQ” government.
I have heard the default rate of student loans is something like as high as 30% (that’s with Interest relief available for most people who apply). If you ask me that means there is something wrong with the system.
Thanks for the background, Eric. This is the sort of thing I had in mind when I said there was probably political context I wasn’t taking into consideration.
Eric pointed out a few things that can help you understand what happened.
But basically it also has something linked to the global discontentment people had against the government that was in place at this time.
We should talk about it together sir. You are surely missing a lot about the background here in Quebec but I do understand that for an american that must look like child’s play.
It’s also funny because actually I saw the expo you are talking about on saturday !