How do You Prevent Laser Focus?

We watched Nell, which I had somehow TiVo'd, last night. First, I couldn't stop laughing for the first five minutes, with Jodie Foster wailing, "Shamina mena sehhhh," and other nonsense over and over. Liam Neeson and Natash Richardson, who are married, also starred in this movie. Liam's character is a big pervert, basically wanting to jump poor ole Nell if the camera's would stop rolling. He's pretty horrible in this. It's a great movie if you need your wife to bawl continuously so you can play poker later, as Sweetie cried for probably the last hour or so.

I've been yearning for Quisp cereal since my childhood, and I just discovered that it was reintroduced in 1999 via the web. Made by Quaker Oats, Quisp was a competitor to Cap'n Crunch, which has a slightly malty aftertaste that can stay with you after your second bowl. A box of Quisp can easily be eaten in one Saturday morning sitting. I would normally have a Cool Whip bowl filled with Quisp, eat it all, add Quisp to existing milk, then repeat until I had to add milk. Quisp had none of the sturdiness of the Cap'n, with it's flying saucer-like shape turning into mush after five minutes. There could be few things worse for a growing boy to eat than Quisp, and I loved every bite.

I snuck in a 193 hand, 140 mintue session on Party $10/20 yesterday. I got stuck $400 and ended +$456. I continue to struggle balancing attacking the fish with playing solidly. I had one bizarro guy three to my left, who got my attention with the following hand early in the session. He posted after missing his blinds and I'm dealt AA. UTG had called and I raised it up in middle position. Bizarro calls and the limper calls, so three to the flop. Qh5h7c comes, and the limper bets/I raise and am called by Bizarro, with the limper folding (?). 4s on turn I bet/called, then 8c on the river I bet/called by Th6h. A couple hands later he beats AJ with A3o on a rag board with the 3 on the flop, he then limps with Q9o in my bb, I bet the flop of 67T with Q7, he calls the 9 on the turn then checks behind me with the K on the river. He then takes calls after limping and betting a couple flops. A couple orbits later from the bb I call a raiser and a couple callers with 6s4h, flop comes 5h6h7h and I bet then three-bet the guy to my immediate left, Ad comes on the turn and I bet and am raised, then 4c comes on the river and I check/call his KhJh. KK vs. AA an orbit later and I'm in my stuck position. I tend to just stare constantly at the Bizarro guy, not really tilt/anger but definitely affecting me. I've overcome loosening way up (putting aside the brilliant 46o and I'm folding tons), but I just keep focusing on this guy. To my detriment? It affects me for sure, so that isn't good.

Anyways, I then limp/call the bb with JTo and catch my gutshot on the turn (QQ) to get back going. I then win a monster pot with KK, four are in pre-flop capped 32J with two clubs and four stay with the two bets (I'm the last actor and raise), 5s just gets one guy out, then 3h has one caller with 99. I flop a set later for a nice pot, flop top set with J25 only to have to lay down after 43 come. Monster hand comes when I cold call three bets with AhJh and two others, flop comes Ks9hQh, and there is a check, bet/I raise, checker three-bets/bettor caps and we both call. Th on the turn brings the checks to me, and 5s and they again both check/call with AdKd (first position) and the black AA (second position). I'm then up and down, filling up on the turn with 97o from the bb, getting called down by 88 to my AK and overcards that don't hit me, AK holding up vs. AJo when I bet it out and nothing hit. Then a truly bizarre hand. A fairly straightforward guy raises and I call with KJo with five seeing the flop. TK3 rainbow gets checked to me, which I bet with the initial raiser raising (check/raise), and I slow down HU with a call. 5 and he bets/I call, then 6 same, when he drags the pot with 56s. Then a sprint to the finish line for me, with AA holding up, Ah8h with 6s9h7h from sb with 5h coming on the river (T7o stayed in), then I end with 88 raising from middle position and called two to my left; flop comes 242 and I bet/raised/three-bet/capped (bb folds after checking the flop). 7 and I check/call, then and A leads to check/check for the 66. A big chunk of the upside coming in the last fifteen hands.

It is easy to become enamored with your PokerTracker data and table selection (see Poker Gnome and Poker Cats for recent discussions). I tend not to do too much with table selection when I'm waiting, just clicking on the wait for any table with 8 or 9 players. Putting aside true maniac tables, what I'm starting to believe in full-table limit is that the low-pot tables vs. high-pot tables are just recent variance driven, meaning that there is no waiting list for the low-pot tables who are normally assumed to be a collection of rocks/sharks when often I find they are just a collection of random players. When I was using Poker Edge, I definitely got altered in my play when looking for players with seductive stats. I do less of it now just relying on PokerTracker, but I do agree that it is best in limit to understand who the tight players are, the loose players, then proceed. I'm able to be more aggressive with my solid hands post-flop, three-betting flops and re-raising turns when I have the better hands. I don't use HUD/Gametime+ or whatever it's called (anyone who can help with this would be great), just PokerTracker. I also can't compress PokerTracker due to some bug it has.

So that's it for today: Nell, Quisp, focusing too much on the lucky bizarro wack-job, being stuck then getting unstuck, tools. One final note: go and get Bluff Magazine immediately. I finished the Michael Craig write-up on Andy Beal vs. the Corporation Part I, which ends with Beal taking their bankroll with the final session vs. Ted Forrest. He does just a great job getting us to the felt, but frankly the pot sizes become a blur after a while ($700k, $1.1mil, $1.4mil). Part II next month will introduce our new character, Mr. Phil Ivey. Can't wait for the month to get here...