The Cure for Set Under Set

Britney and her man were in the ATL this weekend. Uggh! I'm sure she's psyched about LSU getting to the Final Four and all, but she's sure taken a turn for the worst.

I'd like to thank everyone who has responded to the three-part series on relationships and poker. I've gotten many emails from people who didn't want to post comments. I'm planning two follow-up posts this week: one from pros and bloggers to weigh in on the subject, and a second from wives and girlfriends. If you have a significant other who would like to add their thoughts, please have them email me at csquard@yahoo.com. I plan to post the spouses' comments anonymously as it is a bit sensitive.

Now many of you know that I'm a grizzled poker warrior. For you neophytes or players who lack sophisticated moves, I developed a very nice play this weekend in a touchy situation. It occurs when you flop a set but you're up against top set. Most of the time, you would lose large quantities of chips. This sitatuation was on Party at a $5/10 full-ring game. I called two bets with 44 only to have the button raise (five way action with three bets). Flop came 942. There was a bet, I raised, and the button three-bet with two of us calling. A 4 came on the turn, the UTG bet, and I called along with the button. A 2 came on the river. UTG bets, I raise, button calls, UTG re-raises, I cap, button folds. UTG had 99, button had JJ. One of the advanced poker plays I employed was accidentally calling the turn. As I was jumping up and down with my laptop, suddenly the action had passed me. I panicked, fearing that I had somehow mucked my quad fours (NOTE: while laying down quads does help you master the ability to lay down a hand, I don't recommend it). Fortunately, I had somehow called instead of accidentally mucking. Of course just to be sure what comes around goes around, I made a donkified call about two hours later with two pair/bad kicker only to be taken down by quad fives...

FHM just announced its Top 100 Sexiest Women, with Scarlett Johnanssen leading the top ten along with Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson, Keira Knightley, Halle Berry, Jenny McCarthy, Maria Sharapova, Carmen Electra, and Teri Hatcher. I need to think about my top ten, but probably only Jolie would make it from this list, maybe Keira Knightley (although I still don't know if she and Natalie Portman are the same person or not). Shakira has to be in the top ten, along with Charlize Theron. No Jessica Simpson, no way no how.

March is looking really solid poker-wise, 17-4 for the days that I've played, up a total of a little more than $2,000. That normally is like the SI cover curse for a poker blogger (even sniffing about results), so I'll leave it at that. Send me any thoughts you might have regarding relationships and poker, and let your girlfriend or wife (or both) email me if you like with their thoughts as well!

Finally, what would Monday be without Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, my exploration of who is linked to my blog and where it takes me.

• Fat Dan: Armed with a beautiful new blog template (I think compliments of TripJax), Dan is cranking away stuck in Ohio. Heck, I've got t-shirts as old as Dan (I actually now do have things as old as people, which is a bit scary).
• Pot Committed: Rumor has it that change100 is none other than Clare Danes from My So-Called Life, Little Women, and most recently Shopgirl and The Family Stone. She's buds with Pauly and the crew. She's got game, whether it is Danes or a Hollywood insider.
• High Plains Drifter: The dot blog template can hypnotize sometimes, so you have to really focus on reading the content. A mix of tourney and live cash games.
• Smokkee: California dreaming. How do you get people to your blog? One is posting interesting comments (about 10% of the hits to my blog come from people who ping me from comments on other folks blogs).
  
• Veneno: Hard worker behind the Heads-Up Challenge (HUC3). She has some really good stuff, and I actually like pimping folks who wouldn't know who I am from a hole in the wall. She ranks her own top ten blogs, keeps a running table of her heads-up matches, all really interesting stuff.
• High on Poker: Jordan comes in at #3 on her top ten list, and I always like to hit his site. And he's pimping me today--good deal. I'll hit his site from time to time, mostly when I see him comment on someone else's blog I think. His blog design is very distinctive and scary, so I always remember when I've been there.