Recently I made another big withdrawal from Stars and have been grinding things back up at 50nl for the past two weeks or so. The past two days I did battle with a reg who has apparently been beating up the games. Suffice to say I held over him pretty hard and we developed an aggressive dynamic early on. I think I adjusted extremely well to our dynamic. Let's look at how it all went down:

Hand 1: Here he shows a pretty clear leak in raising. This is the biggest pot he has won off of me. I am not going to get caught up enough in battling to not recognize this for what it is. Moreover he should know my range to bet here includes value hands I am going to value shove and air I could bluff shove on the river if he just calls.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

CO: $96.61
BTN: $34.30
SB: $63.05
Hero (BB): $58.24
UTG: $69.50
MP: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with K A
1 fold, MP raises to $1.50, 3 folds, Hero raises to $5, MP calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.25) 5 9 3(2 players)
Hero bets $5.50, MP calls $5.50

Turn: ($21.25) A(2 players)
Hero bets $11, MP raises to $22, Hero folds

Final Pot: $43.25
MP wins $41.30
(Rake: $1.95)

Hand 2: Here I make a loose open which I do not like. I think opening is a mistake and I am trying to cut back on some of these opens. Anyways once I flop like this I think firing twice is my best option. The turn bet may be getting thin but I am not letting him take control of the hand and I know he wants to station/float me on a lot of flop textures. So the way to punish someone for that is to widen your value ranges. I really like the way I played this hand postflop. He should be betting the river one would think.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
BTN: $50.00
SB: $50.58
BB: $76.62
Hero (UTG): $88.39
CO: $81.51

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 9 A
Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, BTN calls $1.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($3.75) Q A 5(2 players)
Hero bets $2.50, BTN calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.75) J(2 players)
Hero bets $6, BTN calls $6

River: ($20.75) 6(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Final Pot: $20.75
BTN shows J Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
Hero shows 9 A (a pair of Aces)
BTN wins $19.82
(Rake: $0.93)

Hand 3: I continue my turn aggression here and I again think it is fine. A ton of players at 50nl would check-call this turn and I think its just clearly inferior to betting.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BB: $50.75
UTG: $60.47
MP: $97.60
CO: $92.79
BTN: $132.47
Hero (SB): $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with A T
4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) K 2 6(2 players)
Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

Turn: ($7.00) T(2 players)
Hero bets $4.50, BB calls $4.50

River: ($16.00) 3(2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Final Pot: $16.00
BB shows K 7 (a pair of Kings)
Hero shows A T (a pair of Tens)
BB wins $15.28
(Rake: $0.72)

Hand 4: So onto the winning hands. I am going to include any hands that saw the turn with us HU. Consequently this next hand is very standard.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hero (MP): $174.87
CO: $48.37
BTN: $28.58
SB: $36.50
BB: $64.02
UTG: $96.80

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP with A K
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, 2 folds, SB calls $1.25, BB calls $1

Flop: ($4.50) K 2 5(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $3, SB folds, BB calls $3

Turn: ($10.50) 9(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6.50, BB calls $6.50

River: ($23.50) 3(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $14.50, BB folds

Final Pot: $23.50
Hero mucks A K
Hero wins $22.44
(Rake: $1.06)

Hand 5: Here I use my image of showing down strong hands versus him so far and load up on his capped range. I expected him to have folded some AX in game when I shoved and given how long he tanked (forever) I assume that it is a strong possibility that he did. File this one under: don't try this at home if you are trying to beat 50nl. To make a non-tilting hero call he has to put me on a float or a made hand being turned into a bluff. Most people at 50nl don't do that, so if he is thinking, he should come to the right conclusion and fold his bluff-catcher on the river.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hero (CO): $66.41
BTN: $50.00
SB: $78.03
BB: $23.33
UTG: $116.65
MP: $38.05

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with 4 5
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, SB raises to $5, 1 fold, Hero calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.50) 9 5 A(2 players)
SB bets $6.01, Hero calls $6.01

Turn: ($22.52) A(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $11.50, SB calls $11.50

River: ($45.52) Q(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $43.90 all in, SB folds

Final Pot: $45.52
Hero mucks 4 5
Hero wins $43.47
(Rake: $2.05)

Hand 6: This is one of the hands that came after the 45hh bluff so hopefully it made him feel good about his fold. Getting lucky against a player like this just goes a long way into turning things in your favour so when you find yourself so fortunate you really need to make sure you keep him down (see subsequent hands).

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

Hero (BTN): $56.87
SB: $55.28
BB: $20.50
UTG: $54.36
CO: $53.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with A A
1 fold, CO raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, 2 folds, CO raises to $10, Hero raises to $56.87 all in, CO calls $43 all in

Flop: ($106.75) J 3 T(2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($106.75) J(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($106.75) Q(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $106.75
Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
CO shows K K (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
Hero wins $104.25
(Rake: $2.50)

Hand 7: This was in our first session seven minutes after the 54hh hand. When you suspect someone is 3betting you very wide one adjustment you can make is 4bet/calling wider. One of the things that has to happen for this to be the best adjustment is that they have to follow up their 3betting frequency by 5 bet shoving lighter. In this instance I expected him to make that adjustment and consequently adjusted my 4 bet/calling range about 2 notches wider than I would normally have it in this spot. This is a really clear example of something that is pretty rare at 50nl tbh, being able to adjust to a thinking player. Another factor is that we are 117x deep, giving a 5 bet some alluring fold equity. Also a lot of 50nl players will start tightening their stack off ranges as early as 110x, something I, usually to my detriment, don't suffer from :).

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hero (BTN): $84.87
SB: $50.25
BB: $58.37
UTG: $26.79
MP: $115.15
CO: $34.51

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with 8 8
2 folds, CO calls $0.50, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, BB raises to $6, 1 fold, Hero raises to $12.50, BB raises to $58.37 all in, Hero calls $45.87

Flop: ($117.49) K 7 3(2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($117.49) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($117.49) K(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $117.49
Hero shows 8 8 (two pair, Kings and Eights)
BB shows 9 7 (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
Hero wins $114.99
(Rake: $2.50)

Hand 8: Hand 7 really comes into play here, the next day, where I pull the 3-way 5 bet bluff pre. Pretty much the perfect spot for it. Not going to go into all the details but since he will remember the hand above I think that works to our advantage here. Yes, I do this. He is SB.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

SB: $88.07
BB: $99.82
UTG: $43.25
Hero (CO): $110.78
BTN: $51.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with A J
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, BTN raises to $4.50, SB raises to $11.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $24, 2 folds

Final Pot: $28.00
Hero mucks A J
Hero wins $28.00

Hand 9: Final hand we played together. Just a really clear case of adjusting to a flumoxed opponent trying to win pots too hard after some things haven't gone his way. He insta-quit after this. His river bet is really bad considering that A) His perception of my c/c'ing range should be a lot of TX, JJ type hands. B) All the draws missed C) He has no TX in his river bet range that isn't a boat. Again, not a lot of players at 50nl will change their line from c-betting to c/c TPTK on this wet of a board, they will usually autopilot the flop decision and start thinking after that.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

CO: $76.32
BTN: $109.44
SB: $48.75
BB: $41.25
Hero (UTG): $125.53
MP: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with A Q
Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, CO calls $1.75, 3 folds

Flop: ($4.25) 8 Q T(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2.84, Hero calls $2.84

Turn: ($9.93) 2(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $7.58, Hero calls $7.58

River: ($25.09) T(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $14.37, Hero calls $14.37

Final Pot: $53.83
CO shows 7 A (a pair of Tens)
Hero shows A Q (two pair, Queens and Tens)
Hero wins $51.41
(Rake: $2.42)

I know this space had been lacking some poker content lately so... there it is!

I wish every confrontation with a regular could go this way .

Gareth

I realize that I caveated the last entry with a spoiler warning concerning Homeland. Well that warning is still in effect. But I am just going to assume everyone has watched every episode of Breaking Bad and of Dexter. Like, how could you not?

* * *
Homeland's Carrie Mathison is an overachiever. In the first episode of the series we saw her reveal to her mentor Saul that she believes a lapse in her prowess meant the non-prevention of 9/11. She, like a lot of poker players, internalizes results as a reflection of her abilities. Moreover, she takes responsibility for things outside of her control. In short, she suffers from the illusion of control. Back in the pre-9/11 days she was presumably just a jejune analyst in her early 20s, fetching coffee for Saul and fetching to her boss Estes, without a hope of preventing such a calamity. But to this she would respond, as she did to Saul, "Everyone's not me." When we meet Carrie we see that, ostensibly, her drive to perform her job to the best of her abilities is a reflection of this perceived shortcoming and that urgency her work demands. Getting to know her, we quickly figure out that no amount of success will satisfy her. If there were no more threats to stop she would imagine one. Poker players often suffer from a similar affliction, sometimes into perpetuity, that no amount of money is enough. And poker makes most people as Carrie, strong but fragile, to the point where losing five days in a row can engender an existential funk. Some vocations, take that of the pastor, never provides one with stark falsification, and maybe this is how some of those so employed never suffer their self-doubts to live. For no poker player is this ever the case, since evidence of one losing money in poker is constantly pouring in, every session, every day, every week. Even a long term winner can come to believe they are washed up after a bad run. Sometimes they are right.



Carrie's fervent, emotional commitment to the cause of protecting America is strangely offset by her fleeting concern for the bodies left in her wake. She has become hardened to death by her experience, yet for the cause hers is a teenage fixation. As unhealthy as this seems, the poker equivalent, I would argue, is close to optimal. It being, becoming indifferent to the swings, the beats, and the mistakes, while remaining fanatical about long term improvement. This requires not acting like a girl on prom night waiting for the doorbell to ring, every time you lose five flips in a row. But internalizing results is not entirely an unproductive thing. The philosophy of results-oriented thinking as sin has some major downsides; it increases victomology, promotes cocksure attitudes, and discourages self-criticism. All of these are to a poker player's disservice. In the quietude between sessions, one would be hard pressed to make a case against Cartesian doubt. Moreover, a downswing is almost always partially, and sometimes entirely, the fault of the player. Given the positive feedback loops poker inspires (confidence begets confidence, unconfidence begets unconfidence), often a downswing is only sparked by something out of one's control, something we should not be results-oriented towards. Concerning the twenty thousand hands of terrible play subsequent to that event, however, it would be a huge mistake to sweep it all under one unoriented rug.

Niggling for some Homeland watchers is the fact that Carrie is the protagonist of the show. She is lionized for her obsessive qualities, punished for speaking truth to power, but absolved totally of negligence in the death of innocent people. As in Breaking Bad, the characters in Homeland operate in a universe without considerations to ethereal karma; sometimes things come around and sometimes things don't. This is also known as reality. Breaking Bad charts the ascent (or was it descent?) of high school chemistry teacher Walter White into the violent, territorial world of methamphetamine trafficking. In one of the more controversial treatments of Breaking, Chuck Klosterman sees the series as a comment on personal choice. He quotes creator Vince Gilligan, "Television is historically good at keeping its characters in a self-imposed stasis," meaning that someone like Dexter, or more obviously, like Bart, never really evolves. Sure things happen to Dexter which change his life and force adaptation, but they never manage to change him. He gets married, he's a psychopathic serial killer with a wedding ring; he has a child, he's a psychopathic serial killer with diapers to change. To Klosterman, "It's not just that watching White's transformation is interesting; what's interesting is that this transformation involves the fundamental core of who he supposedly is, and that this (wholly constructed) core is an extension of his own free will."



Certainly Walt and his partner, the unlikeable, temperamental Jesse, feel the repercussions of breaking bad. But at the decision point they have little to lose. Walt's dying of a lung cancer with colossal treatment costs. Jesse has nothing to live for. As they become emulsified in the drug trade, their circumstances change. Walt's lung cancer finds itself in remission; Jesse finds a kind, decent woman with a kid he grows to care for. There is no turning back though, as the saying goes, and Walt finds his family in upheaval and he himself responsible. I doubt none but the most soapbox enamoured would see this as a censorious comment on the quick and dirty choices Walt has made. Being a drug dealer puts a strain on your familial relationships, you don't say? The more interesting observation to come out of Walt's choices, to Klosterman, is that, "He changed himself. At some point, he decided to become bad, and that's what matters." To be sure, Walt becomes bad. By the end of season four, he just doesn't give a fuck. He phones his neighbour and, under the pretense that his family has left town, asks her to check if he left the oven on. He watches her oblige, from his car down the street, waiting to see if his house explodes from the potential trap laid by the callous, unequalled empire maker, Gustavo Fring.



Walt comes to control his world. Back when he was a washed up research chemist teaching at the local high school, sporting an attenuated moustache, and hardly ever fucking his wife, he was suffering from, among other things, the disillusion of control. By force of realizing the inevitability of his death he elevates himself over his circumstances through will and guile, but most importantly, outlook. This Heideggerian carpe diem is fully affirmed by Walt while he sits in a clinic waiting room, listening to prognosis predestination from a feeble 'survivor.' "That is such bullshit," Walt interrupts him, "... life comes with a death sentence, so every few months I come in here for my regular scan, knowing full well that one of these times - hell, maybe even today - I'm gonna hear some bad news. But until then, who's in charge? Me. That's how I live my life."



There exists a mindset whose only concern in game is making the correct decision. Playing well is its own reward. And it satisfies. The way the board ran out, who won the pot, those things are just the interstitial aether separating one decision from the next. In the redux following the last pot being pushed, it seems to me, the poker player must also understand that transcending the illogic of results-oriented thinking does not go far enough. There is a higher plane upon which one takes responsibility for one's results. After all, getting one outered isn't a natural disaster or an act of god (and not just because one doesn't exist). It is what you signed up for. It is what you have come to expect. You know what someone working at Subway knows after eight hours of eight dollar per hour work? That they are owed sixty-four dollars. You chose to wander in the chaos.

Dexter certainly did. True to his psychopathic nature, whenever he gets in a spot where the threat of death or of detection seems elevated beyond what he can quell with steely rage, never is a regret uttered, never is a repentance formulated. Usually his intonation could be used to voice "oh well." His sentiments are often "I guess I got sloppy." Dex is realistic about the inevitability most of history's mass murderers have come to know, all too soon. He lives it a few times a week after all, when he executes a defiant, or a slobbering, or a proselytizing human being wrapped in plastic.

Walter certainly did. In the penultimate episode of season four, with some things that once went around coming around, the chaos swirling, he explains to his wife Skylar, that he chose this life.

"I have lived under the threat of death for a year now. And because of that, I've made choices."

"Walt, I-"

"Listen to me. I alone should suffer the consequences of those choices, no one else. And those consequences...they're coming. No more prolonging the inevitable."

Carrie cannot. In a mania, leading up to the terrorist strike (of which her clairvoyance informs her), she completely loses control, shouting at unwitting cops "The world is about to end and we're standing around talking!" The messy possibility of failure doesn't just fall short of Carrie's acceptance, its incarnation breaks her. For both Dexter and Walter, personal demise, the ultimate undesirable result, is not a failure of the ultimate kind, for they have already come to accept the ramifications of the choices they have made, a power they will never relinquish. They are above being results-oriented, while simultaneously taking responsibility for the result, no matter the outcome. For the poker player, who can only control the decisions he makes and the reactions he has, the lessons are clear. The choice to take responsibility for wandering in the chaos won't be an easy one to make, but it is a path that makes tempting promises. And the choice to break with oneself is incessantly available. All you have to do is take it.

If you aren't interested in reading spoilers to the show Homeland, I would stop reading right now.

* * *

The first thing I thought after watching the first episode of Homeland was, "why didn't anyone make this show sooner?" I would guess, not having watched it, that 24 had fulfilled the previous demand for post-9/11 covert narratives. And I suppose also that every show, from CSI:NY to Little Mosque on the Prairie, has had its little terrorist that couldn't episode. So in that way, everyone attempted to make this show sooner. Well they all failed.

Homeland is a sculpted whodunit (or whogonnadoit?) chock-full of intelligence personnel, politicians, terrorists, and soldiers. Islam and the war on terror have an obvious role and are by necessity painted in some light. But it seems to me this light wouldn't offend the sensibilities of a nonpartisan who reads Foreign Policy, which is contrary to what you would expect from anything commissioned by TV execs (it is on Showtime). This prevents some of the more unwatchable triteness of the previously mentioned offerings.



Homeland might be, I imagine, criticized for not taking a stance on either the motives or the actions of terrorists. Instead the audience is presented with a world coated in realism. Homeland doesn't see making a political statement or even giving each side its due as a necessary condition for wrapping up any one episode, like the various incarnations of Law and Order, for example. So with that kind of politically correct, and therefore stupid, preoccupation out of the way we follow the characters on a very believable goose chase, populated by a balanced mix of minor, medial, and major characters. If there is any one thing to say about the cast to a man (or to a woman) it would be that each character makes you demand more knowledge of them, their friends, their backstory, their motivations, and above all, their intentions. When a character that would be a throwaway on any other show has you dreaming up alternate universes, you're probably watching the skilled execution of an intricate script.

In the first few episodes Claire Danes was spectacular, in the kind of way I had to look up who she was, to find out that yes, she was that young hottie from previously fluffy work. Now at just thirty-two she is acting out high tension scenes with Mandy Patinkin, who plays probably the most badass character on television yet to grab a guy by the collar, much less point a gun. Fans of Band of Brothers will recognize Damian Lewis as Brody, the marine sprung from an Iraqi hell hole after eight years of captivity, torture, and plenty else to be revealed through well-conceived flashback scenes.



While Homeland may not offer the indignant moralizer enough clarity on the culpability of the state, it does focus very clearly on personal responsibility, particularly of Danes' Carrie. Through an unfortunate twist of events Carrie puts a highly valuable asset in danger, lies to her about the presence of protection, and arrives all too late to the alley where she was slain. Later she engineers a sting operation that blows up in her face, killing a number of innocents including once again, (freshly turned) intelligence assets. These are not her only failings that result in loss of life, but they are the ones that were a direct result of her borderline quixotic pathology for unraveling a plot that may or may not exist. The audience is left directionless concerning the consequentialism Carrie invokes everyday.

Danes' character, running herself ragged, turns Icarian as the season progresses. This provides the audience with two competing hourglasses, that counting down to a horrific terrorist attack and that counting down to Carrie's own professional and psychological unravelling. In this believable and therefore immersive world however, there is no need for a constant ticking reminder that little time is left.

I can't quite remember the quote but Adam Carolla once harped on people who wanted things to be easier, for life to not be "such a hassle." His response was (and I paraphrase very liberally) "why don't you want a hassle? What isn't a hassle? Life is a hassle. Would you rather be dead?"

Anyways I often think about that when I am traveling, not knowing where I am sleeping that night, or where I am exactly in relation to anything. I am in Grenada for the third day today and moving into a room for a month, it has no air conditioning but is in a breezy place. Who knows how it will work out.

I just want to point out that I think there are good problems to have and that in fact, we should hope that our lives are filled with problems of this variety. Life should be a hassle, the kind of hassle we enjoy, the kind of hassle we can get over with some hard work. And when I travel typically just the right amount of things go wrong. Maybe I am doing something right, maybe I am doing what works best for me. But whatever it is, it seems to me, that I come across just the right number of obstacles and the right kind. Got to go for now.





Salud y Suerte mis amigos.

Gareth

So dear readers, I have an update on HM2 to post. This has been a little while in coming, sorry about the delay. If you need reminding the gist is that I had trouble running HM2 on my 2.0GB RAM laptop for about 6 months. After I posted a not so complimentary blog about it I was contacted by Jim Varnon, the HM CEO. We had a Skype conversation about the way my system was running and the inefficient support I had received. After a few weeks he had a download link for me to an improved version that seemed to alleviate a lot of the lag I had been experiencing. Since then I have updated HM2 a few more times with good results. It seems like the progamming team has not neglected those of us with less than top of the line systems, though I would still submit that, given the minimal requirements the PokerStars cleint requires, HM2 might not be for everyone. I can say that inexpensive system's such as my own have been brought into the fold. Jim promises even more updates of this nature to come as the programming team continues to enhance the product.

HM2 is now operating in the way one would hope such a tool would; the effort I put into my game is going to translate onto the tables. HM2's note-taking system is definitely one area in which I will be putting such effort. There are tabs for notes on different streets and there is effective but more importantly, customizable, integration with "NoteCaddy." NoteCaddy is basically a note generator that takes hands you have played to create generic notes on your opponents' play. "C-bets A high boards 14/15" would be an example -- so say I have an opponent who c-bets 67% in my sample, but I suspect he would c-bet an A-high board much more often. NoteCaddy can confirm that read for me or give me an idea for making a read of a similar nature in game time. In the earlier incarnation of HM2 I was running I wouldn't even open the note box because my system would lag and often freeze, creating timeout issues.

There are simply more options for the way you can build your HUD with HM2, I have definitely not finished playing with them. Customizable pop-ups are one thing I definitely use to my benefit, meaning I can pack as much information into a non-cluttered display as possible. There are now more detailed stats for 3-betting but also things like 5-betting or villain tendencies versus you. Think that guy is running you over? What if your HUD told you he was only 3-betting 6% versus you? What about that guy you think is nitting it up, only 3-betting at 4%, but your HUD mentions that, versus you, his tendency is to 3-bet 10% of the time? I don't think I need to go on and on but again, if you are willing to put in the work, HM2 certainly promises some rewards.

I never had an issue with the features HM2 promised. I think the layout of the application, the depth of available analysis, and the increased HUD functionality are all great. I have been on the road lately getting in a session here and a session there. I've been 6-12 tabling without issue since I upgraded my version and working in a variety of Wifi situations. I don't think Jim or anyone would disagree that they may have been a bit hasty in offering HM2 for public consumption or that their support has been a bit overwhelmed, especially in the initial release phase. I am not putting words into anyone's mouth as it happens, and those are my thoughts and would be my criticisms. But those kind of criticisms can be made obsolete, namely by resolving the issues that the software had during its premature release and improving the support customers receive. I know the former has come to fruition because I've been able to play thousands of hands lag free (spew free, not so much). On the latter, everyone's support experience is different. Certainly people had better experiences than me in August (I had a bad one) and certainly people have had worse experiences than me in December and January (hard to have a better experience than personal correspondence with the company CEO). What I can say is that I know Jim and his staff are very aware of the challenges they are facing and the areas they have to work on. All those things should be taken in light of the fact that HM2, when fully functional, can be used as a vehicle for becoming the type of online player you want to be. If you want to put some hours into looking over your game or your opponents, I have full confidence that HM2 is going to translate that into money made.

I hope you find this blog to be even-handed. I know the initial post was very negative and this one is quite positive. HM is a product affiliated with CR, I know that. I didn't take bashing it lightly for that reason. In the same way I don't take writing a complimentary update lightly either. There are some poker blogs, on CR and elsewhere, that I would suggest to readers do a sloppy job of examining their interests and how their endorsements might be perceived. I won't name names. But insofar as you can trust someone who various women hold a very low opinion of, I would say if you know me at all you'll know I am not worried about saying anything or offending anyone at any time. Offending people is in general a good thing. If you do it too often in bed though, you're liable to be kicked out. But I digress.

Next week I hope to settle down in a spot for a few months and grind out some serious volume, preparing for my first WSOP. Expect more frequent blogging. One of the things I am looking forward to is working with HM2 an hour a day to keep the downswings away.

From Trinidad with love

Gareth

There are some photos below, but a 50 photo gallery of my Galapagos trip can be found here. I will have an update on HM2 out within the next week max in this space. Basically this is coming late because it is hard to write long blog posts well while traveling and working. My turning made hands into bluffs quickie series has its first episode coming out on the 22nd and is 3 episodes. I think it is my best work yet and all you micro guys will enjoy it. The 22nd is also a Sunday so that should be pretty sweet as parts 2 and 3 will be out on Sundays as well with CR loading up the weekly content to start 2012. I am also just finishing up a 2 part 100nl series which should hopefully be out early March I imagine, depending what CR wants to do with scheduling. I think that's about it for clerical details, so without further ado...

Having waited twenty minutes with no expectation of a bus, I hopped in the back of one taxi not knowing when the next opportunity would be. The contrast was droll as we zipped off to Puerto. I could see a traveling family's tour guide inside the truck flicking through his iPod's catalogue of pristine flora and fauna photos, while two locals and I huddled on their luggage, zipping up and down hills at fifty kilometers per hour. It sure seemed as if it was the younger local's first ride in this circumstance, he was visibly cringing, crouching to avoid the wind. It seemed like good fun to me, but perhaps because it was to be my first and only, while his was a daily hell.

Naturally the cab driver, after delivering the family to their hotel, had never heard of the hostel I had booked online just days before. It was called Los Pinguinos, or the penguins, and wasn't on the tourist map I had received after disembarking. Asking him to drop me off in the middle of town I took to getting lunch, fresh fish, before looking up online just where exactly I was supposed to be. One issue was the dissonance between the internet's maps and mine. The brochure had names like Ferdinand, Isabella, and so on for streets, while Google had a simple grid, with helpful names like Sixth Street. In the real world of half-finished grey cement two stories and dirt roads, not a street sign was to be found.

It was a good thing I had left my big pack in Guayaquil; my load was just 13 kilos according to the airport's scales. It didn't take me too long to find the place; the city isn't that big, though it was on the rough edge of town. It wasn't a hostel either - it was a house with a bunch of penguins painted on the front gate. No mas, breakfast was good as were the hosts.

I was looking again at that beachfront sign, being a very strong swimmer an undertow is something I can handle, especially with two giant snorkelling fins. But despite seeing a few surfers brave the open waters I declined, remembering the gatekeeper's warning about the presence of sharks. The cove was supposedly sheltered from danger by rocks, coral, or something, I wasn't too sure. It is almost 7:30 now and I'm dropping trou and wading out into the shallow waters with my fins in hand. I was the third person on site, one was practicing yoga at the head of the path and the other asleep under a tree, had woke up and wandered off. Donning my mask and fins I made my way towards the far end of the cove.

On Monday I had seen snorkelers on the near side checking out the iguanas and the crabs. That was my finishing point in my preconceived circumnavigation. I saw little tropical fish of all colours and stripes. I passed over coral and seaweed, rocky banks to my right and murky shallows to my left. After about twenty minutes of lazy snorkeloping along the bank I came to a jutting crag forming the smallest of inlets. Here the water below got a bit deeper; I was after all heading out towards the ocean. Snorkeling is relaxation by way of constant distraction. A fish here a fish there, is that an eel? Just more seaweed. What's over that rocky outcrop, oops I kicked up the sand on the bottom again, I can't see. Fuck that is a giant sea turtle.

So maybe it was inevitable given the low visibility to which I was naturally limited that I would not be prepared for what happened next. In any case I distinctly remember being distracted by something, nothing in particular, on my right. When my view wandered back to my left there were, about five or six feet away, three sharks in a row beside me. They were going, lazily, at my speed. I didn't know what kind of sharks they were. But they weren't a size I was comfortable with, because they were my size. And there were three of them. I thought there were no sharks in the cove. I thought this was the safe area. Why was it safe again? What had the sign-in sheet man said...I didn't remember. Wasn't there a barrier, a reef, or a something? Why didn't I even look up what marine life to expect before I came out here? Who goes to the Galapagos Islands not researching all the species milling about? To be honest I was not calm in that moment. I had read somewhere that the hammerheads and the white tipped reef sharks were basically harmless to humans. These were brown sharks. I just didn't know.

The main thought I had was that I didn't want to be one of those people who, after reading the article of their unfortunate and all together avoidable demise, people inevitably remark to themselves "how could they be so stupid?" I did not want to be so stupid! I had just watched 127 hours on the bus ride from Lima to Guayaquil. I couldn't just turn right to the bank and be safe on land. The "bank" was insurmountable, sharp, lava-formed rocks, with mangroves intervening in the shallowest parts, their roots forming an underwater forest, passable only by fish that could fit through a four inch window. In turning right I was turning around, taking my eyes off the threatening vanguard. And there he was, bringing up the rear, not of their little line, but rather, of my rear, the fourth shark of the retinue. Looking up the name for a group of sharks of this type I came to understand it was "shiver," quite appropriate despite the warm waters. He was directly behind me, almost as if he had been following me. I wondered for how long. I wasn't that far out. I was further out than I realized. If I had to I could get to shore in minutes at top speed. But unlike say, an undercurrent, I knew that I had no chance of out swimming a motivated shark.

On Saturday, the day before I left, I had booked a day long tour to visit one of more beautiful spots in the chain, or so I was told. We toured Bartholomew, a recently formed (by geological standards at least) dormant volcano of an island. It was hot. But seeing such a raw geological formation, in terms of the lava flows, the craters, and the sharp edges that only a few eons of erosion affords, was pretty spectacular. The ground was a deep ochre, replete with sulphur, iron, and carbon. It was a landscape which could be mistaken for lunar in a black and white shot. The reward for our steep ascent of the main crater was snorkeling in the surrounding reefs.

In our group was a pair of Americans who had just spent months tagging the boobies of the remote and inaccessible Espanola, an island far off any tourist's itinerary. The scope of the project extended to the construction of a full hereditary genetic map (i.e. a reverse engineered family tree) of the island's non-migratory population. He was heading to mainland Ecuador and the Amazon in a couple days while she was staying put in the islands for three weeks of vacation. She introduced herself to me while we waited for the boat's dingy. Things were starting to smell like the cancellation of my Sunday ticket back to Guayaquil.

And sure enough aromatic turned ambrosial when she stripped down to her snorkel gear -- think Jessica Alba, Into the Blue. As thought provoking as our initial chat concerning the endemic ecology was I would be lying if I claimed the remainder of our interactions didn't consist of me visualizing scenarios for getting her from scantily to un with respect to the varieties of clad. The unrestricted angles, afforded by the weightlessness of water, with which to view a body in motion, while said body dove to inspect a sting ray, impaired my lucidity. I think it's still impairing my lucidity. But at least the water was clear! I narrowly avoided a faux-pas on the boat ride back, noticing some foot on foot action between the two. At some point on their scientific investigations, isolated from civilization, one can only assume... but being the scientist types they were distant and ambiguous long enough for me to decide what restaurant I would recommend for dinner.



Maybe it was the knowledge that I could outswim the ten other, somewhat corpulent, snorkelers twenty meters behind me, maybe I had come to accept with zenity the shark as my fellow earth-creature (yeah right). But when that Saturday I saw the white-tipped reef shark swim across my field of vision, this time, I was chill. She or he was one of four I swam with that day, assuming none were repeat encounters.

At one point our guide yelled that there were eagle rays to be seen and I shot over to his call, lucky to have heard it. And there they were, two monsters, swimming wing to wing, gliding through space. And finally being a swimmer came in handy as I plunged down a couple, then a few, then ten meters, to swim alongside them, their whip tails nonmenacing. They were gradually descending; we were past the coral encrusted shoreline, going down over a sandy hill that made up the base of the island. We got far enough out that nothing else became visible, just a spacious fog on all sides, the sun's soft glow above. And so that's where I left them, my powers extended. Tranquilo is the word they use in Peru for such situations - as I rose to the surface they flew gracefully into the fog.

I don't know what shark species I ended up being surrounded by that morning. It couldn't have been young Galapagos sharks (the sharks, as I found out later, that will eat you), because the killer's long dorsal fin is quite distinct and they are averse to shallow coves. Nurse sharks appear to frequent the region and exhibit a similar affinity for low waters, but there was no mention of them on any tour or any Galapagos related material I could find.

In all likelihood they were brown-tipped reef sharks, the darker version of the more common white-tipped, coming into the cove for their morning snooze, being nocturnal hunters, and hopefully with full bellies! They had let me go, their encompassing most likely happenstance. After I raced back to the safety of the beach that morning I asked myself what the chances were that they were really dangerous. Sure, I could take the trip an hour back to town and look it up, to return at some later time. Or I could wake up, think straight, and make a reasonable calculation regarding the absence of danger. So that's what I did. At a bit past nine I plodded back into the cove's waters, made my way back to that smallest of inlets, and looked down at the napping shiver.

I have been in Guayaquil for a week. The weather has been quite bad since Wednesday, so my exploring, and morning five mile runs through the ghetto (and I do mean run), have been rather sodden. I ate some strange food, hiked around, went to a few museums, and watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in Spanish IMAX. At least the six minute preview of The Dark Knight Rises was en ingles.

I was originally to fly out to the Galapagos on Thursday morning, but the website I booked through told me they couldn't find me a ticket at the price they quoted, and didn't confirm the cancellation until the day before, at which point I couldn't get a reasonably priced ticket (from Expedia instead) until Sunday the 8th. It is not too surprising from a company called CheapOAir.com. I spent the intervening rainy days playing some poker, writing, running, and working on my next CR series (4 tabling 100nl live session on Stars).

I got the chicken stew at a Jack Astor's style restaurant and it came with sides of rice and fried bananas. I can't say the bananas were good or bad, they were just weird. The usual gratis starter was not chips and salsa nor potato crisps, but you guessed it, dehydrated banana chips with peanut dipping sauce. There is a fast food chicken joint here called simply Gus, which I like to pretend is owned and operated by Gus Fring, even though he was from Chile. I ate something for breakfast that is apparently quite common, but I can only describe it as a big ball of cheese curds held together by an unknown non delicious muffin like substance. It was a perfect sphere and eating a big perfect sphere for breakfast is unnerving. The fruit juice here is spectacular though.

If I had to make wild generalizations about the Ecuadorians I have met so far I would say that they are much more fun loving than Peruvians, willing to joke and to dance where a Peruvian would keep a stiff upper lip. They also don't understand a single word of what I say. I found the claim that Spanish was spoken differently here well founded, having had trouble ordering a bottle of water. Service is what you pay for, apart from at the more expensive of the two hotels I have stayed at service has been terrible everywhere.

Guayaquil is not a tourist city like Cusco, its milling downtown is a place of business with an infrastructure that seems to be disintegrating from the inside out. This is mainly on account of a Malecon 2000 project the city undertook to build a beautiful boardwalk alongside the river Guayas in the main part of downtown, which serves as stark contrast to the cracking roads and washed out sidewalks that constitute the interior grid. People have been a bit more prone to openly stare at me and I usually take this as an opportunity to practice my Ivey stare down. Simon Bolivar is really big here (surprise!). Also, there are enormous iguanas roaming around.

I have downloaded a bunch of Darwin related books. My ticket to the Galapagos is one way. I don't know what to expect and have no plans on when I will return. I am leaving my big pack here at the hotel so I will be travelling light with my day pack and laptop bag.

Today (the 7th) I turned 26 and feel a good deal younger than I did on this day five years ago. This may seem like a strange thing to those people who didn't know me five years ago, but let me assure the readership that it is quite the positive development.

Salud y Suerte

Hello dear readers. I've been asked to review a recently released book by Nathan "Black Rain" Williams called "Crushing the Microstakes." I just want to be clear that the opinions below are solely my own, not tied in any way to those of CardRunners, and that I am in no way being compensated for my effort. Williams is an instructor at Drag the Bar, a site I don't frequent or necessarily recommend, and keeps a blog at his website www.blackrain79.com.

Know Thy Audience

The subtitle of Nathan Williams' "Crushing the Microstakes" is impressive: "The definitive guide from the #1 winner of all time." The last phrase is evidenced on the first available page with a 5.4 million hand screenshot from HEM, showing 44k in pre-rakeback profits including an astonishing 26k in profits from a combined 4 million hands at 2nl and 5nl. The book concerns those two stakes. In the interest of full disclosure I cannot say I am entirely qualified to offer a review, though I am a big winner at 50nl and was one at 25nl before that, I have never grinded anything lower. Then again, the list of people who have played a million hands of profitable 2nl is probably quite short.

This provides one raison d'etre for Williams' undertaking, which I found plausible, that "there is a real lack of quality information out there for people trying to get better at these games," since few training site instructors are actually playing 10nl, much less 5nl or 2nl. The other of course being that Williams sees a market; his blog is inundated by the many enthusiasts of the game struggling to profit at these stakes. It is for these players that Crushing is written and it seems to me, it should be evaluated in that light.

Williams shows an understanding of his audience from the start in that he finds it necessary to discuss and to dispel, for example, the merits of limp re-raising kings and aces from early position. Some of those things that may seem trite to online poker veterans such as advising the reader to use the auto-top up feature, or explaining the difference between a set and trips, are necessary evils to include in a work like this. Quashing canards like the need to play "real poker" (the where they respect my raises illogic), Williams warns "I have seen far too many people get frustrated at the micros, move up too fast and get crushed."

There is a section recommending a simple HUD, explaining what the stats mean and at what sample size each should become useful. The idea that certain stats converge quicker than others is explained and for neophytes, the advice is practical. Williams links to further resources of his in the form of blog or forum posts, providing for further learning opportunities should the reader desire.

Crushing offers both rational and empirical arguments for why one should be more inclined to raise pre-flop in order to continuation bet. The homespun version of the rational argument being that you can win two ways, when they call and when they fold, reasoning novice players typically distrust. The empirical evidence consists of HEM screenshots of hands filtered for when Williams raises pre-flop, versus those he plays but does not raise, and the corresponding win rates. While either could stand a bit more fleshing out, I was glad to see both arguments included. On the one hand the empirical is just indisputable proof that a novice player is going to have to deal with, while the inclusion of the rational means Williams isn't giving a simple "copy my style" sermon, but rather teaching people to fish, as it were.

Technical Instruction

A large portion of the book is spent extolling the virtues of very large bet sizes. In value betting, in shoving rivers, in isolating, in 3 betting pre-flop, the formula may change but the message is the same, bet big. This theme is returned to again and again (always alongside a censure of bluffing) and this is as it should be. These stakes are all about getting value and the emphasis is well placed.

As far as specific starting hand considerations William suggests 22+ AQo being playing from UTG and UTG+1 in full ring. A lot of theory nowadays suggests pitching the small pocket pairs from these early spots, even if it is just deuces through fives. I have to believe Williams gets it right in suggesting that deuces through sixes should be open limped while the rest get raised up. He offers the compelling point that players can buy in for 250bb at any 2nl or 5nl table and hence stacks are often deeper, in addition to the obvious tenet of these stakes, villains don't fold. This is just further evidence that Williams has in fact played millions of hands at these, the lowest of limits, and understands the nuances that the stakes provide as opposed to employing some rote tight-aggressive play. I was impressed to see him finish the discussion by noting that at the point of 10nl standard theory should be picked up and {66-} can in fact just be tossed in early position.

The author is extremely conservative in his recommended cold calling ranges. I would imagine a micro crusher would have wider cold calling ranges, especially when stacks are often deeper. That being said his conservative recommendations should suit readers quite well as erring on the side of folding pre-flop versus calling is likely a profitable reversal of their natural inclinations.

Very good advice about planning ahead can be found in this book, which makes a great case at one point for bet/folding AQ on a QT9 two tone flop, a seemingly strong hand, but out of position. Crushing integrates the earlier discussion of HUD stats well into these examples. The section on good and bad boards to c-bet however, is rather limited, despite a good explanation of the importance of perceived (as opposed to real) ranges. It isn't that Williams is giving clearly bad advice here, but some points, such as a cold callers' propensity to continue on a jack high flop, are oversimplified past the point of usefulness in my estimation. In general the discussion of c-betting includes all the pertinent factors but is just a little off in spots and for the 25nl player would certainly lack depth.

One can find places to gripe with the text's technical strategies. When facing an "open shove maniac" who is literally shoving every hand the reader is proffered a calling range of 66+ A9o+. This seems wildly tight irrespective of those left to act.

A screenshot of a Pokerstars table serves as a starting hand chart, surely of use to novice players who benefit from visual cues. Tiny errors that almost aren't worth mentioning, unless you were say, penning a review, are frequent in the text, like how said chart doesn't include how many suited kings you should open from the cutoff. It lists K8o+, all broadways (so KTs+), and all suited one and two gappers down to 56s and 75s, but this neglects K6s-K9s, certainly in the realm of possibility if K8o is being opened, but perhaps K2s+ is optimal in the author's mind, we cannot be sure. Nitpicking probably serves more use to the reviewer than anyone in convincing himself his due diligence has been done and once again the author makes explicit that the hand chart is not to be memorized verbatim but rather that "the most important thing to take away from this ... is the positional bias in starting hand selection."

There is a confusing juxtaposition at the beginning of the post-flop section, characterizing AcKc on 543cc as a "no pair hand." Despite mentioning that it is "actually a sizeable favourite against a lot of made hands" such as 99 and Q5, Williams goes on to write "But the facts remain the same. You aren't going to win in the long run with these types of hands. So for the most part you should just give up or check it down. There are some exceptions [presumably, but not explicitly, the example the author uses]... but in general these are garbage hands." This is more likely an organizational error than a conceptual one, but the example really hurts the overall cogency of the passage.

I found the book really neglects the question of how to play draws. Maybe this is a function of the author's limited cold calling ranges or of the book's focus on how to play top pair or better for big value. Crushing contains no complicated examples (a strength) especially when it comes to betting and to bet/folding. Getting value often means folding strong hands that are easily over valued by inexperienced players when they face aggression and this point is hammered on to great effect.

Overall Impressions

The book does not suggest much in terms of bankroll requirements or the resolution of tilt issues. I have a feeling that many of the players who struggle at the micros have terrible monetary and emotional management habits holding them back. In fairness the author makes no claims to expertise in either area, something he gets away with in part because of the personable nature he conveys.

The eight pages or so of introduction and conclusion could have used a professional editor. But it is my working assumption that criticizing a poker player for his writing is neither here nor there, even when it comes to writing a book. What matters is whether the readership can expect a profitable investment, not whether grammatical imprecisions or clunky phrases are the vehicle getting them there. The trick in writing anything of instructional value is having the writing disappear so that it can be passed over seamlessly, thereby elevating the concepts the author is trying to impart. At the core of the work Williams achieves this, only at the fringes do the prose fray. The organization of the book in terms of the linearity of the topics isn't perfect. But the clarity of the graphics and arrangement of the text itself is clean and clear.

The eBook is 251 pages in PDF format. It seems to me that crushing no limit hold'em, even at the microstakes, would require a longer "definitive guide," especially given the space consumed by the author's effective use of Pokerstove screenshots and hand examples. While it is true that the book is of comparable word count to other poker eBooks and that this was by design (from my bit of research), I don't see how this is particularly relevant to the idea that the work is a complete playbook or a definitive guide. Those would be as long as was necessary.

I have to believe though, that at a 30$ retail price Crushing the Microstakes could easily pay for itself for the novice player just getting into online, and for the player still struggling to do better than breakeven at 2nl, 5nl, or 10nl. So while by not any means a panacea, it should make for profitable reading.

From Peru to Ecuador

I stayed up most of the night of the 29th packing and preparing to leave my apartment in Lima. I had called my landlord on the 27th under the impression I could talk my way into sauntering out on the morning of the 1st. No dice, apparently he didn't let me in early as I had assumed, and the jig was up on the 30th. No problem, I booked a bus ticket online to Guayaquil that day. Ok, only one problem, the bus ticket printed and delivered to my email was erroneous, charging me the right price, but giving me a final destination of Trujilo, Peru about one third of the way on the same route. I knew traveling would be impossible on the 1st as both Peru and Ecuador have national holidays, so I spent an hour on the phone hotline the email confirmation provided. The guy ended up telling me he would call me back the next day. He didn't. The customer support email address apparently didn't even exist. Nonetheless I knew the bus to Guayaquil was supposed to leave at 2:30 in the afternoon on the 30th so instead of getting to the bus station for 8pm to catch my mal-assigned ticket, I showed up just after noon and explained the situation to the company's front desk as best I could. In about ten minutes I had a changed ticket at no cost, leaving now at 2:45 (either the original was moved back or this one wasn't offered online). A very smooth resolution to obstacle number one.

I had bought a "VIP" seat on the bus, which is to say, I was not in the sardine seats on the top floor. I have had a very weak stomach for auto or bus travel for the past few years and I immediately got nauseous after take off. This lasted more or less four hours and wasn't as intense as I've handled before so I was fine, though the first ten minutes of the drive were the most intense; I was wondering if I was going to make it out of Lima, much less to Ecuador. My strategy didn't involve taking any pills which I was happy about. I simply didn't eat, for about 16 hours before we left, and then for the whole bus trip (27 hours) all I had were some soda crackers. I don't think this is a sustainable strategy, but I kept myself hydrated and felt fine, its not like we were doing anything to work up an appetite watching Cinderella Man in Spanish between doze offs. We drove all day and through the night across the arid craggy dunes that make up coastal Peru. At 3 am we cruised by a roadside accident, a tourist bus just like ours had its entire front end smashed in, presumably by the nearby logging truck, a scene that gave the suggestion of casualties. In the ten meters of road between the askew vehicles was a bonfire and a semicircle of passengers enduring a long night.

We approached the Ecuadorian border around noon Friday, and the bus supervisor came round to inspect everyone's documents. He double taked between me and my tourist ID card, which said I had 90 days to enjoy Peru after January 20th, 2011. "Tu sabes esta para Febrero, Marzo, y Abril?" "Claro," I replied, which in this situation just sort of means yeah I know what I'm doing. Anyways I definitely didn't know what I was doing but I wasn't too worried. When we got to the roadside office that was the border control the immigration officer had a similar reaction, pulling me out and expressing me to the front of the queue. Apparently I was the creator of paperwork, but said officer in charge was quite gregarious, bustling me around without any consternation, but definitely an air of bewilderment about why I would overstay so long. The main stumbling block was one I hadn't conceived of, that in order to pay the fine I had to get the ticket cancelled at a bank, I couldn't do it at the office (greasing palms not being an apparent option). I was ushered into a local mototaxi (think rickshaw meets motorcycle) and was off to the races while the rest of the group waited. We arrived at the bank about ten minutes later, somewhere around 1230 in the afternoon. The security guard on hand told me and the driver the bank was closed. I assumed it was for almuerzo (lunch) and asked when it was going to open again (envisioning me losing favour with my fellow passengers as they waited on me).

"Lunes" (Monday)

They were going to be waiting a long time indeed! The driver said some things on my behalf that were too quick for my ears and I told the security guard it was important I use the bank (they had just closed, we gathered, and people were still settling things up inside). He went in and came back out a few minutes later, unlocked the gate, and told me to be quick. I thanked him, hustled in, and jogged into the managers office off to the side of the counter where he processed my ticket. The fine was 255USD, one dollar for every day overstayed. I had the money prepared. Like I said before in this space, the law doesn't discourage tourists from overstaying and continuing to contribute to the economy, it discourages poor people from overstaying. Everyone was extremely welcoming to me, as Peruvians are want to in situations like these. I shook the bank managers hand, slapped the security guard on the back with a smile, ran outside, and hopped back on the mototaxi to the border station. The group was waiting on me, but not too long. When I re-entered their company I joked to my row mate that I was an "hombre peligroso."

Ecuadorian immigration is also just a building along the highway with one service window. On the dustswept roadside a few bodegas surrounded the office, canopies of tarp or serrated tin slats make for commodious shade. Dogs and cats lope around with no direction, only the immaculate (and unattended) rooster seems to move with purpose and energy. Teenage boys bike up and down the highway shirtless, a feat sure to fry anyone not possessing a deeply browned complexion. A family dotes over a toddler, changing him on a stand usually reserved for selling pineapples (you can't make this stuff up), but whose owner took off early for new year's celebrations if he showed up at all. The change complete, the seven pile into a boxy red car made for five that I could only identify as late 70s soviet bloc. Two stunning girls make their way across the highway to a shop and a restaurant, confident the immigration line would be a while. They aren't shy about their beauty, but they don't strut. The Peruana ideal; long well kept hair, brown highlighted auburn, generous cleavage of the spaghetti strap variety, and loose yoga capris. Their skin is coloured evenly across the parts one would assume don't see as much exposure, in the rich light brown tone a Canadian blond would die for but always seems to miss orange, a darkness light enough that everyone knows they are Peruana Latinas with enough Spanish blood to turn heads in any circle. They don't hide behind large sunglasses or make up, content in themselves and content should a young man be caught staring.

Once we arrived in Guayaquil I hauled my stuff to the bus station food court and relieved my light head with some arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) before grabbing a taxi to the downtown square. From there I oriented myself with my guidebook's map, headed to a recommended budget hotel a few blocks away, and got a nice air conditioned room for 35 bucks. Easy game. After a shower and a shave I was ready to go out for the couple hours before midnight and soak in the New Year's atmosphere in a new city and country. Instead I passed out and woke up at 6 the next morning :).

Salud y Suerte mis amigos

Gareth

Preferable to actually packing and preparing is updating this here blog. I haven't given a tally recently of my live pokers. Since the last tally I have played the freezout 3 more times, blanking on all of them, so that is 330x3= -990 soles. I've had 5 live cash sessions in addition, which according to my iPod went

+185, 4 hours
- 159, 4 hours
+1022, 5 hours
-380, 5 hours
+165, 2 hours
-------
+ 833, 20 hours
-990
-----
-157

Last total: +2643 soles

Running total: +2486 soles

So overall in Lima I finished - 616 in the cash games and +3.1k in tournaments. I know I said like 7 entries ago that I wouldn't go to Maido until I finished up 600 soles in live cash overall and won 3 sessions in a row. Well tonight is my last night in Lima and there was no way I was not going to eat that most unreal maiki imaginable. I've posted some videos of Lima and pictures from Maido below. I'm going to try to be in Ecuador tomorrow -- the bus company has already gotten my ticket wrong, they're planning on sending me somewhere else so I have to go down early and try to sort things out. Hopefully I will be in Guayaquil, Ecuador by the afternoon of the 31st. Otherwise I will let you guys know. Let the adventure begin. Peace.


Los gatos de Kennedy

Miraflores nexus



Shoutout to OGSC repping La Gran Fruta with pride.