Like I mentioned earlier, the core business of making profit in poker is playing just a little better than your opponents. Also was said that sometimes this doesn’t mean you have to play on a high level. It’s really unbelievable what happens now and then on tables of (what you would suppose is) a decent level: $11 turbo hu sng.

I play online poker for about two years now and I have to admit: nothing has been so profitable till this moment than hu-poker. Only thing being negative is the fact that it becomes very boring after playing 4,5 encounters. Moreover, it’s very tiring because you have to stay so focused and concentrated all the time. However, some people beg to differ on that point. And that’s why it’s so profitable .

I mean, look at this hand I played an hour ago. I just don’t understand how people can make this move without being completely drunk or something.

So I admit, maybe I had to bet my flushdraw on the flop and for sure on the turn. But hey, I hit my spade on the river and try to get some more chips in the pot. But then… (s)he just moves all-in??!? Of course the fact that (s)he could have a better flush went through my mind for a second. But what the hell, why on earth would (s)he go all-in and prevent me from committing more chips with, who knows, a straight. So I called and he had the jack, probably thinking (s)he had the nuts… no wait, i’m pretty sure there was no thinking involved at all.

Number nine is the last song in the list of definitely one my favorite bands of all time, as you may have noticed: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Have You Ever Seen the Rain (Pendulum, 1970)

Pendulum, the album the track appeared on, was the last CCR-album with guitarist (and brother of leadsinger John) Tom Fogerty. John sometimes mentioned this song is about quarrels within the group, leading to the departure of Tom. Others sources speak about the ‘rain’ representing bombs, so the song has to be about (just like Fortunate Son) the Vietnam War. Whatever is true, it’s a brilliant piece of jewellery in music history. A happy 2009!

Poker is a strange sport or game, however you name it. Somebody who has no clue about what he’s doing is most likely to be ruled by somebody who controls all aspects of the game in other disciplines. However in poker, ANYBODY can beat you in ANY situation.

I came to that conclusion again in a very strange homegame last week. We were playing micro-stakes (€ .10/.20) and a lot of people who consider poker as a pleasant form of pastime and only posess a basic knowledge of the poker rules sat down . Well, I have to admit this, I had a very pleasant evening, but this was mainly caused by the booze, weed and company itself instead of genious poker plays . Sometimes I literally had to pick myself off the floor from laughing after seeing what happened in the game. It’s however astonishing to observe how people outside the ”poker world” perceive poker as a cosy and social game of luck. The scenario that’s subsequently carried out is also beautiful to watch: the players who have some clue about the game all try to catch the easy money as fast as possible. Unluckily I was a little carddead and ran about break even. Some tips for those games:

* People pick up their cards from the table to see what they have, like in a game of hearts. Peeping is allowed in that case.
* The dealing of the cards is mostly very chaotic, what gives you the opportunity to ”read” a lot of hands already in an early stage.
* While you thought you ended up in a No Limit Game, everybody else seems to play Blind Limit. Seldom you”ll see a raise before a flop is dealt, so feel free to limp with any two cards.
* Try not to get irritated when a hand is interrupted for a small chat. This is not a tournament, when the intermezzo is over you can pick up the pot without anybody noticing it.
* Don’t forget to reload somebody’s booze now and then.
* If you hit the flop, don’t hesitate to make a big bet. A flushdraw is like holy to beginning players and they’ll pay anyway.
* If you make a bluff, show it! From that moment you’ll be perceived as Mr. Bluff. Makes good money if you have the nuts.
* Don”t be surprised if anybody asks you if poker books really do exist after saying you read somewhere you should always call with KK preflop.

I hope you can use these tips when playing some kind of homegame . Now it’s time for number ten in the all-time music list, Beatles - I am the Walrus (Magical Mystery Tour, 1967):

I think these are the Beatles at their very best, that’s why I rated this song the highest of all. It has got everything: Lennon’s voice is better than ever, Ringo’s drumming is an example of how something simplistic can contribute to a song in a great way, the clip has a level of absurdity never equalised later on, brilliant costumes and the lyrics are how psychedelic lyrics are meant to be. If you like the psychedelic side of the Beatles, you should absolutely see the movie Magical Mystery Tour, where the song originates from.

Last few days, I’m beginning to mix up my heads-up play again with multi-handed sit ‘n gos, because it always starts to get boring when you play one pokergame over and over. But when boredom during playing hu-games reaches his maximum, there are always the dealers from FTP to cheer you up with a fine joke. As I wrote elsewhere, they like to degradate a fine starting hand with a spicy board.

Apparently, they love their own jokes very much, so they tend to repeat them. Especially when yours truly flops a set. As you may know, I defended the betting of a set on the flop earlier in some situations. However, notice that we were mainly speaking about multihanded games there. In hu-games, there’s a smaller chance that your only opponent has hit the flop too, so checking and hoping your opponent catches something on turn or river can be in your advantage. Ofcourse, in some situations you should still bet for obvious reasons. Example: opponent raises preflop, you call with 9T suited and the flop comes A99, there’s a good chance (s)he will pay you off with an ace or a pocket pair.

However, I checked my set two times yesterday and see what happened on 4th and 5th street:

Wow, plant went wrong there, didn’t it? If you think you’ve seen everything, I’ve got another beautiful hand for you against a shortstack:

Luckily I still won the game… To have an idea about the percentages, I imported the hand into a poker calculator. Ofcourse, preflop (s)he’s ahead: 63.52% against 35.12 %. But after the flop (s)he has only a 3.84% chance to win, which only improves to 4.55% after the turn . Guess I was unlucky there…

Next are the numbers 25 till 11 in the top 200. The final ten songs will be commented separately in the next posts.

25 Alice Cooper - Halo of Flies (1971, Killer)
24 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who’ll stop the rain (1970, Cosmo’s Factory)
23 Tool - Parabol/Parabola (2001, Lateralus)
22 Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (1968, The Beatles (’White Album’) )
21 Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970, Paranoid)
20 Pixies - Gouge Away (1989, Doolittle)
19 Radiohead - Karma Police (1997, OK Computer)
18 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son (1969, Willy and the Poor Boys)
17 Guns ‘n Roses - Estranged (1991, Use Your Illusion II)
16 Beatles - Helter Skelter (1968, The Beatles (’White Album’) )
15 Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986, Master of Puppets)
14 Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter (1969, Let it Bleed)
13 dEUS - Instant Street (1999, The Ideal Crash)
12 Dire Straits - Telegraph Road (1982, Love Over Gold)
11 Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (1971, Led Zeppelin IV)

At some moment in the near future, I hope I can join them: the group of people who had the honour of having a royal flush. I did have a straight flush a couple of times, but never with an A high. This is ofcourse not that surprising, if you look at the odds:

The odds of flopping a Royal Flush is 1 in 649 740 times. How is that so? Well, the first card you receive can be of any suit but has to be between T and A: that’s 20 out of 52 cards. Your next card has to be one of the remaing 4 high cards of the same suit: 4 out of 51. Then the flop, where you need your 3 remaining cards: 3 : 50, 2: 49 and 1 :48. Now throw those numbers together: 52×51x50×49x48 / 20×4x3×2 = 649 740.

Despite of those odds, I sat down with two people this week who joined ‘the club’, playing some $.10/.25 cashgame on FTP and making the ultimate hand:

I guess the only way of catching a royal flush some time is keep on playing a lot of hands .

I finish with some of the best songs of all time, ranging from 50 to 26. You’ll notice that neither A whiter shade of pale nor Hotel California will be the number 1:

50 Pixies - Where is My Mind (1988, Surfer Rosa)
49 Golden Earring - Eight Miles High (1969, Eight Miles High)
48 Eagles - Witchy Woman (1972, Eagles)
47 Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused (1969, Led Zeppelin)
46 Pearl Jam - Even Flow (1991, Ten)
45 Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale (1967, single)
44 Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan (1997, Young Team)
43 Tool - Schism (2001, Lateralus)
42 Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (1979, The Wall)
41 Golden Earring - Going to the run (1991, Bloody Buccaneers)
40 Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers (1984, Perfect Strangers)
39 Cuby & the Blizzards - Window of my eyes (1968, Trippin’ Thru A Midnight Blues)
38 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Almost Cut My Hair (1970, Déjà vu)
37 Tool - Forty Six & 2 (1996, Aenima)
36 Eagles - Hotel California (1976, Hotel California)
35 Pearl Jam - Jeremy (1991, Ten)
34 Pink Floyd - Time (1973, Dark Side of the Moon)
33 Queen - Innuendo (1991, Innuendo)
32 Buoys - Give up Your Guns (1971, Timothy)
31 Rainbow - Stargazer (1976, Rising)
30 Beach Boys - Sloop John B (1966, Pet Sounds)
29 Fleet Foxes - Mykonos (2008, Sun Giant)
28 King Crimson - The Court Of The Crimson King including The Return Of The Fire Witch and The Dance Of The Puppets (1969, In the Court of the Crimson King)
27 Aerosmith - Dream On (1973, Aerosmith)
26 Brian Wilson - Song for Children/Child is Father of the Man (2004, SMiLE)

People who play poker on a regular basis will immediately know what I’m talking about. You sense that your hand isn’t good enough, but you make the call anyway, most of the times because your own hand is so enormous. Maybe it’s even more frustrating than making a donkey play. When you see somebody else doing it, you ask yourself why and some time later you do the same thing.

Today I saw an excellent example of this on the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from this year. The hand proceeds between the Italian player Andrea Piva from Rome and the American pro Erick Lindgren, who met eachother already in some previous hands. Piva picks up AcKc and raises to Lindgren, who calls with 44. The flop comes as following (starts after approximately 3′):

Ofcourse this is terrible for Piva, especially because he’s playing against Lindgren, who plays his monster very well (wonder if Sheiky would play it like this). The turn and river don’t help Piva and then he’s confronted with another enormous bet from Lindgren on the river. Piva suspects that Lindgren flopped his full boat with 44, he even says this out loud several times, but still it’s too tempting to call the bet and so he does.

Most of the times, those situations are about big pots, and that’s why it’s so important to be able to lay such hands down to make your way through big multi-table tournaments.

In the next section of the music list you’ll notice that the Beatles’ A Day in the life and Pearl Jams Black, two songs you can vote for in the poll, will certainly not be number one. Radiohead is well represented in this section with three tracks, with the recent and beautiful Reckoner on #73:

75 Dire Straits - Private Investigations (1982, Love Over Gold)
74 White Stripes - The Air Near My Fingers (2003, Elephant)
73 Radiohead - Reckoner (2007, In Rainbows)
72 Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (1965, Highway 61 Revisited)
71 Zombies - Time of the season (1967, Odessey and Oracle)
70 Nirvana - All Apologies (1993, In Utero)
69 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Sweet Hitch-Hiker (1971, Mardi Gras)
68 Pink Floyd - See Emily Play (1967, Piper at the Gates of Dawn (US) )
67 Beatles - A Day in the Life (1967, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band)
66 Metallica - One (1988, …And Justice For All)
65 Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand (1976, Presence)
64 Guns ‘n Roses - Civil War (1991, Use Your Illusion II)
63 Radiohead - Paranoid Android (1997, OK Computer)
62 Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body (2005, Plans)
61 Nick Drake - Place To Be (1972, Pink Moon)
60 Monster Magnet - Negasonic Teenage Warhead (1995, Dopes to Infinity)
59 Jethro Tull - For a Thousand Mothers (1969, Stand Up)
58 Pink Floyd - Brain Damage (1973, Dark Side of the Moon)
57 The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man (1965, Mr Tambourine Man)
56 Kraftwerk - The Man Machine (1978, The Man Machine)
55 Metallica - Sad But True (1991, Metallica (’Black Album’) )
54 Pearl Jam - Black (1991, Ten)
53 Al Stewart - Year of the Cat (1976, Year of the Cat)
52 Guns ‘n Roses - 14 Years (1991, Use Your Illusion II)
51 Radiohead - Knives Out (2001, Amnesiac)

No, I didn’t go out in the country with my gun and boots to shoot some deers and hares. Why would I go outside anyway when I can play some poker inside, warm behind my laptop. I decided to play some $11 heads-up sit ‘n go’s on FTP again.

I was playing against an opponent who, in contradiction to most of the other players playing heads-up, knew what he was doing. But you also need some luck in poker, and that happened to be my special weapon in this encounter . A lot of pokerhands have a nickname and so does A2. Sometimes it’s called ‘Acey-Deucy’, others refer to it as ‘hunting season’: a bullet (the ace) and a duck (the deuce). I got this hand when the blinds were already 50/100 and my stack was 1 042, so… :

Yeah I can dodge bullets baby! ^^. But as I said the other player was solid, he didn’t steam and fought his way back into the game. But hey, then I found A2 again!

So I was lucky once again, catching two ducks on the flop. Well sometimes you face a bad beat, sometimes you’re lucky. Poker is so fantastic .

We’re coming closer to number 1 in the list with among others two songs from Monster Magnet’s Powertrip and a song from Led Zep as well as his predecessor, the Yardbirds, in the next selection:

100 Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love (1969, Led Zeppelin II)
99 David Bowie - Rebel Rebel (1974, Diamond Dogs)
98 The Cure - A Forest (1980, Seventeen Seconds)
97 Mercury Rev - Goddess On A Highway (1998, Deserter’s Songs)
96 Doors - People Are Strange (1967, Strange Days)
95 Neil Young - Old Man (1972, Harvest)
94 Monster Magnet - Crop Circle (1998, Powertrip)
93 Fleet Foxes - Your Protector (2008, Fleet Foxes)
92 Porcupine Tree - Arriving Somewhere But Not Here (2005, Deadwing)
91 White Stripes - Hotel Yorba (2001, White Blood Cells)
90 dEUS - Theme from Turnpike (1996, In A Bar Under the Sea)
89 Tool - Rosetta Stoned (2006, 10.000 Days)
88 Ray Charles - What I’d Say (part I and II) (1959, What I’d Say)
87 Raconteurs - The Switch and the Spur (2008, Consolers of the lonely)
86 Madrugada - The Kids Are on High Street (2005, The Deep End)
85 Nirvana - Dumb (1993, In Utero)
84 Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath (1971, Aqualung)
83 Monster Magnet - 19 Witches (1998, Powertrip)
82 Kings of Leon - Knocked Up (2007, Because of the Times)
81 Boudewijn de Groot - Naast Jou (1966, Voor de Overlevenden)
80 Yardbirds - Over Under Sideways Down (1966, Roger the Engineer)
79 Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven (1989, Doolittle)
78 Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around (2002, American IV: The Man Comes Around)
77 dEUS - Nothing Really Ends (2001, No More Loud Music)
76 Kraftwerk - The Model (1978, The Man Machine)

Hi pokerplayers! I want to dicuss a specific competence in poker today, because I used it twice today: inducing a bluff. This means that you show weakness (after showing strength in previous betting rounds) on purpose, so your opponent will try to take the pot with a marginal hand (a missed draw most of the time).

Funny is the fact that it was both times the same player (in a $ .10/.25 cashgame on FTP) who tried to steal a pot on the river. Let’s watch the first situation:

So I sit down on the table with 80 BB’s and have to post my BB with Ks5s. The two players surrounding also call and I flop toppair. I make a 3/4 pot-sized bet and the button calls. Same thing happens on the turn, what tells me he’s almost certain on a diamond draw. The river isn’t a diamond and I check, after which he indeed tries to steal with a bluff, which made me very happy . A couple of moments later I wake up with A9 off in the SB, with my good friend in the BB:

So I flop toppair once again and try to make a check-raise. Too bad, nobody bets the flop so I lead out on the turn. Again, my dear neighbour calls and the river pairs the board. I seized the moment for part 2 of my ‘inducing the bluff show’ and checked, after which he went all-in with his missed flushdraw and gutshot. From then on, his stack was finally safe in my hands .

So inducing a bluff is certainly a good method to gain some extra chips when you think your opponent isn’t going to call another bet from you when you lead out directly, because he missed his draw.
Meanwhile we almost reach number 100 in the list, with among other Dylan’s tribute to the Jack of Hearts :

125 dEUS - Put the Freaks Up Front (1999, The Ideal Crash)
124 Bob Seger & Silver Bullet Band - Fire Lake (1980, Against the Wind)
123 Tool - Patient (2001, Lateralus)
122 Beatles - Help! (1965, Help!)
121 Queens of the Stoneage - Feel good hit of the summer (1998, Rated R)
120 Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees (1995, The Bends)
119 Brian Wilson - Cabin Essence (2004, SMiLE)
118 Boudewijn de Groot - Als de Rook om je hoofd is verdwenen (1972, Als de Rook om je hoofd is verdwenen)
117 Sonic Youth - Trilogy: The Wonder (1988, Daydream Nation)
116 Bob Dylan - Lily Rosemary And The Jack of Hearts (1975, Blood on the tracks)
115 Led Zeppelin - Trampled Under Foot (1975, Physical Graffiti)
114 Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever (1986, A Kind of Magic)
113 Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings (1995, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
112 Beatles - Get Back (1969, Let it Be)
111 Beastie Boys - Sabotage (1994, Ill Communication)
110 Queens of the Stoneage - Little Sister (2005, Lullabies to Paralyze)
109 Golden Earring - She flies on strange wings (1971, Seven Tears)
108 Metallica - The Unforgiven (1991, Metallica (’Black Album’) )
107 Zager & Evans - In the year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus) (1969, single)
106 Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt.1: The Miracle and the Sleeper (1992, Images and Words)
105 Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky (1969, Spirit in the Sky)
104 Pearl Jam - Better Man (1994, Vitalogy)
103 Coldplay - Politik (2002, A Rush of Blood To The Head)
102 Tool - Stinkfist (1996, Aenima)
101 Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears (1991, No More Tears)

Today I had a great time on the heads-up tables again. I’m getting more and more used to the concept and I enjoy it very much. Moreover, it’s starting to become very profitable: today I played a serie of 12 encounters (6$ turbo sit ‘n go on FTP, blind levels increase every three minutes) of which I won 11! Hurray !

I have to admit, sometimes it just demands a little attention to beat your opponent extremely fast. That’s why it’s sometimes brilliant to wake up with a solid first hand. If you make a statement with it immediately, your opponent’s pride and his wish of not being perceived somehow as a tight passive player from the beginning, gives you the opportunity of dragging him into a first big pot. Sometimes that means all the chips on the table^^. Let’s have a look:

So on the flop on turn (s)he probably thinks (let’s suppose the poor fellow is thinking in any way) I missed my high cards. While that’s true, (s)he makes a retarded reraise and bet so I can chase my hand. But if the ace drops down, which MAYBE could have helped me (s)he decides it’s a good time for an all-in hehe. Few moments later against another opponent:

So I make another standard button-raise with KQ. His/her bet on the flop isn’t that bad. But when I make a decent reraise (committing one third of my stack) (s)he still isn’t convinced I have something. And when he catched a gutshot on the turn there was no way of stopping him/her anymore.
So, making profit can be easy when meeting people who can’t give up their hand. When you try playing some heads-up yourself, you could listen to some of the following 25 tracks from the list:

150 Pink Floyd - On the turning away (1987, A Momentary Lapse of Reason)
149 Queen - Love of my life (1975, A Night at the Opera)
148 Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm (1956, single)
147 Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road (1975, Born to Run)
146 White Stripes - Little Cream Soda (2007, Icky Thumb)
145 Beach Boys - I’m Waiting For the Day (1966, Pet Sounds)
144 The Velvet Underground - Heroin (1967, The Velvet Underground & Nico)
143 Golden Earring - Radar Love (1973, Moontan)
142 Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks (1971, Led Zeppelin IV)
141 Kraftwerk - Radio-Activity (1975, Radio-Activity)
140 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Born on the Bayou (1969, Bayou Country)
139 Beck - Hotwax (1996, Odelay)
138 Absynth Minded - In her head (2004, Acquired Taste)
137 Jimi Hendrix Experience - Foxy Lady (1967, Are You Experienced)
136 Smashing Pumpkins - Porcelina Of the Vast Oceans (1995, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
135 Eels - My Decent Into Madness (1998, Electro-Shock Blues)
134 Foals - Two Steps, Twice (2008, Antidotes)
133 A Perfect Circle - Thinking of You (2000, Mer de Noms)
132 Rolling Stones - You Can’t Always Get What You Want (1969, Let it Bleed)
131 Zombies - Brief Candles (1967, Odessey and Oracle)
130 White Stripes - Little Acorns (2003, Elephant)
129 Doors - LA Woman (1971, LA Woman)
128 Nirvana - On a Plain (1991, Nevermind)
127 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Ramble Tamble (1970, Cosmo’s Factory)
126 Pixies - Here Comes Your Man (1989, Doolittle)

Some typical day for a poker addict again. I was surfing on the internet to find some information about other books from ‘Action Dan’ Harrington, because I liked his Harrington on Cash Games very much. But instead of that I ended up on a site of some guys who made T 3 their signature hand and called it ‘Action Dan’. When I saw some hand historys, I couldn’t stop myself from some playing online . So I sat down on the heads up tables on FTP ($11+.50 Turbo) and guess what…

So the hand indeed gets respect! Subsequently I received an e-mail from Ultimate Bet that they deposited $10 in my account because they didn’t see me around for a while, I like them! So I took a shot at the micro stakes cashtables there:

Again, playing T 3 worked out very well for me hehe. By the way, nice about the ‘new’ Ultimate Bet is that you can activate the ‘rabbit cam’ option, which you can use to see the next card when the hand is over. Anyway, I lost my 10$ and went back to FTP:

So even when you are not playing the T 3, it can make you a good profit by being a beaten hand in the other fellow’s hands . What rests are the next 25 tracks in the list, with among others the first two Beatles songs (they are best represented with 8 tracks) and the ‘queen of diamonds song’: Desperado.

175 Buena Vista Social Club - El Cuarto De Tula (1997, Buena Vista Social Club)
174 Muse - Sunburn (1999, Showbiz)
173 Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave (1971, Master of Reality)
172 Triggerfinger - Soon (2008, What Grabs Ya)
171 Eagles - Desperado (1973, Desperado)
170 Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate this… (1998, This is My Truth Tell me Yours)
169 Guns ‘n Roses - Rocket Queen (1987, Appetite for Destruction)
168 Jimi Hendrix Experience - 1983… (A Merman I should turn to be) (1968, Electric Ladyland)
167 Placebo - Every You Every Me (1998, Without You I’m Nothing)
166 Tool - Eulogy (1996, Aenima)
165 Sonic Youth - Cross the Breeze (1988, Daydream Nation)
164 Neil Young - Southern Man (1970, After the Gold Rush)
163 dEUS - Mute (1994, Worst Case Scenario)
162 Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldier (2006, Broken Boy Soldiers)
161 Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (+reprise) (1967, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band)
160 Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds (1969, single)
159 Rage Against the Machine - Ashes In the Fall (1999, The Battle of Los Angeles)
158 Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal (2008, Fleet Foxes)
157 Eels - Cancer for the Cure (1998, Electro-Shock Blues)
156 Radiohead - Pact Like Sardines In a Crushd Box (2001, Amnesiac)
155 Eagles - Last Resort (1976, Hotel California)
154 White Stripes - Black Math (2003, Elephant)
153 Neil Young - Prairie Wind (2005, Prairie Wind)
152 Beatles - Come Together (1969, Abbey Road)
151 Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock (1993, Siamese Dream)

I tried to play some online poker today, but I decided to quit after some bad beats in a row on the heads-up tables, to prevent myself from going on a tilt. Therefore I decided to watch some High Stakes Poker ( poker is really takin’ over your life once you’re addicted, isn’t it? ). I had the honour of observing my hero Daniel Negreanu once again.

It was on episode 10 from season 2 and Kid Poker was involved in a hand with Cory Zeidman. Zeidman, an advertising salesman but quoted a ‘poker pro’ now and then, is mainly a 7 card-stud player. Although he sure knew how to play poker, the difference with players like Negreanu became clear immediatley during the show. While Negreanu is really relaxed playing several hands and talking a lot, Zeidman very patiently waits on a hand, meanwhile almost admiring what he sees. Nothing wrong with that by the way, especially because he realizes the other guys play on another level.

The next situation is typical on this point. Daniel picks up Js8s in middle position and raises it up. Cory sees the AK offsuit he was waiting on and reraises. Daniel clearly realizes at this point he is behind but calls because he knows he can outplay Cory after the flop if necessary, moreover he checks the flop in the dark. Flop comes J T 5 rainbow and after some consideration Cory also checks. At this moment, the poker brain of Kid Poker makes up the balance and concludes that Cory has AK, which Daniel says immediately. Turn comes a Q which gives Cory broadway. Daniel checks, Cory bets and Daniel folds his pair of jacks while congratulating Cory with his nice hand.
Life must be good when you are Daniel Negreanu .

Besides playing and watching poker, I spent my time the last few days on my other passion: music. I was just wondering what my all-time favorite songs were and so I created a personal Top 200^^. In my following posts I’ll add 25 songs each time, from 200 to 1. By the way, in the poll you can vote yourself on one of ten songs I picked from the list. Those are all somewehere located between 200 and 1, including the number 1 .

200 The Byrds - Nothing Was Delivered (1968, Sweetheart of the Rodeo)
199 Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland (1975, Born to Run)
198 Flaming Lips - Moth in the Incubator (1993, Transmission from the Satellite Heart)
197 Madrugada - Stories From the Streets (2005, The Deep End)
196 Manu Chao - Infinita Tristeza (2001, Esperanza)
195 Rage Against the Machine - Guerilla Radio (1999, The Battle of Los Angeles)
194 Ray Charles - Hallelujah I love Her So (1956, Ray Charles)
193 The Rifles - She’s Got Standards (2006, No Love Lost)
192 Kyuss - Thumb (1992, Blues for the Red Sun)
191 ZZ Top - La Grange (1973, Tres Hombres)
190 Jethro Tull - We Used to know (1969, Stand Up)
189 Raconteurs - Carolina Drama (2008, Consolers of the Lonely)
188 Elvis Presley - In the ghetto (1969, single)
187 The Who - Baba O’Riley (1971, Who’s Next)
186 Easybeats - Friday on my Mind (1966, single)
185 Doors - When The Music’s Over (1967, Strange Days)
184 Pixies - Vamos (1988, Surfer Rosa)
183 Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love (1981, Making Movies)
182 Police - King of Pain (1983, Synchronicity)
181 Talking Heads - Slippery People (1984, Stop Making Sense)
180 Soulwax - Any Minute Now (2004, Any Minute Now)
179 Bishop Allen - Busted Heart (2003, Charm School)
178 Guided By Voices - Over the Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox (1992, Propeller)
177 Police - Synchronity II (1983, Synchronicity)
176 Wolfmother - Joker & The Thief (2005, Wolfmother)