Tuesday, October 07, 2008

QUADs anyone?

Apparently, you should play at my table. I have lost to Quads twice in 2 days. Wow. Once with AA on a board of T74 rainbow. the final board has two tens and 3 spades and I EXPECT him to bluff off his stack now. TTTT is NOT bluffing. Awful read on my part. I even sat there and frantically tried to figure out why he called my 2/3 pot bet on that board. Made no sense without a set, but with the reraise preflop, I was less likely to see 77,44. When the river came a T, I somehow figured I was good even though he made a peppered-beef bet. I am still kicking myself.


I am watching the presidential debates now and my head is spinning. My dad thinks all democrats are one step away from socialism and communism, but I am trying to evaluate the candidates and not the party.

another 5% off the dow? I bet we just found the bottom. It should now swing around 9500 until there is some stability in something other than housing. Why do we pretend that buying up the bad mortgages helps fix everything? It just frees big banks from Debt but doesn't solve many other problems. I am not sure what it solves. Maybe we should remember the concept of money going in to stocks for DIVIDENDS instead of speculative get-rich-quick mentality. Maybe a little more grinding and a little less gambling is in order on wall street? But by getting the rest of us to buy into it, they eroded away our investments on seeking better returns instead of consistent returns.

I caught a break when my company was bought in that I had a year's salary worth of stock which I converted to cash in January just before the start market slides began. It's not a huge amount, but right now its a big deal to me and my family. I can stretch that money for 2 years if I had to, without missing a mortgage payment. I live pretty frugally, never buying a "new" car (try that in Detroit), taking family vacations every couple of years instead of every year, having inexpensive hobbies, and sometimes moon-lighting as a consultant.

I have a decision to make about this poker hobby of mine too. Am I willing to increase my investment in time and money into this hobby to see if I can move to the next level? The opportunity comes at an interesting time, eh?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Why are you kicking yourself? I'd make the same move/call, probably. Maybe do it as a one-minute mystery. See what Chris says. Didn't Doyle say "Play as if quads don't exist?" The only thing I would question is how hard he bet on the flop...he would obviously have top pair there. Maybe you could have gotten away from it.