What things are made of:

• Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice
• Little boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails
• Poker players and their game very widely as to content

Before I get to the last bullet, what is it with these sexist cretin that write and publish children’s literature? I am starting to see renowned ergogenics expert Jose Conseco’s protest at the California State Women’s Championship in a whole new light.

The other day I mentioned I played in a tournament on FullTilt Poker. I said I was a bit shocked (translate: confused) by the rather aggressive, early play I encountered. I’ve thought more about the generalities in that statement. What had changed were betting patterns.

In many tournaments, early play is marked by a lot of limping. At this table, position players were not allowing that to continue. They challenged it with their significant but not quite outrageous bets adding significant risk. More often than not it lead to their pre-flop success. The all-in donk fest was missing too. Quality standards had risen.

Loose-aggressive players were disguising better. It normally doesn’t take too long to mark the LAGs. At this table there was a lot of gear changing going on. I wasn’t getting the level 1 and -1 thinking that I look for early.

What really changed is that I was being put off my early game style. I wasn’t getting a chance to play some small pot poker with the marginal hands we often get. I was getting waylaid and wasn’t liking it. A graphic example was a 3-way pot. I had top pair on the flop; bet and was called. The turn brought an ace and I checked (mistake) and the early player made a big bet. Now I’d started the hand with around T1760 and ended up folding my jacks. The hand was won by that early player holding a pair of 9′s and a flush draw. His post oak bet with a scare card up did what it was supposed to do. The process took me from a decent stack to one approaching trouble.

Even though I lasted about 1:20, I was off-balance most of the way. I had let other dictate the game. The only way around that is for the deck to hit you over the head and I got somewhat substandard hands instead. I left after getting in with the best of it. That’s little more than an excuse. A lousy excuse really for getting myself in that position of needing to move strong and blowing some image in the process.

There’s more ways to be a donkey than just being a chaser of the gutshots.

ADDENDUM:

Fifty years ago today the space age was born. Sputnik sent back its first signals from orbit. It was a basketball size beeper not quite equal to the technology in Ron Popeil’s Mr. Microphone. But it was the first artificial satellite and set in motion a revolution of technology that includes Teflon and the Internet.

In two days is the anniversary of a far more important event occurring. See if you can guess! I will devote the weekend blog to this watershed event.

—————————————————————————–

But here is an event that dwarfs all others:

Congratulations Carmen — 9 months and counting!!!!

The kid does qualify for the cookie recipe that kicked off the blog.