Off The Canvas

I have launched a mini-fight back at HU this month and am now only down 5-6BI at GBP 50nl. I played a quite fun session against a guy last night - despite not running too well, I finished up 2BI over 400 hands. The guy is fairly fearless and getting action with regs isn't easy at these levels, so I'm keen to play him again as he provides a challenging game, whilst I still feel I have an edge.

The villain in question 3 bets a ton and monkeys around a lot both pre and post flop. Hand of the night went down something like this (I don't have the hand history here). WARNING: thinly disguised brag in progress.

GBP 50NL, I have GBP 100, villain covers, and am dealt AKo in the big blind.

Villain opens to £1.50, Hero raises to £5, villain calls.

Flop: 355 rainbow.

Hero bets £6, villain calls.

Turn: 7, completing the rainbow.

Hero bets £12.50, villain shoves.

I thought for ages about this, and I've tried to get away from hero calls, but what exactly does he have here. I haven't been three betting him that much, so my range, in his eyes, consists mainly of overs and pairs. By raising here he should fold out overcards and, possibly, some smaller overpairs (this is unlikely). If he has a 5 (he has folded to around 50% of 3 bets thus far but we are deeper here) it is likely to be something like 35, 45, 56, 57, 58 and maybe something like A5. With 35/45/56/57 he has the board locked up and shouldn't want to raise me off what are likely to be overcards (he has already seen me two barrel and fold in a 3 bet pot). He should also be unlikely to raise stuff like 67 as he only gets it in against better hands and folds out worse. He is extremely spewy and prone to bluffing, so I think he is quite likely to have bare overs here and I click the call button. He turns over Q9o, the river bricks, I ship the pot and my willy grows a little.

Well done to Wonderflop who has got back on the horse and started running a little better at the 6 max. About fucking time, as he runs like a landmine victim normally. He needs to update his blog though.

Up the stakes, Isildur1 has returned and generated some action at the nosebleeds. I never ceased to be impressed by the amount of money these guys win and lose daily, I don't know how they sleep at night.

Arsene Wenger made a prize cock of himself again last night when Arsenal lost to Porto in the Big Cup. Some good refereeing saw Wenger object (as he does when things don't go his way), you can read his comments elsewhere if you are interested, all that I would say is that the bloke doesn't understand the rules of the game judging by the bleating that came out of his mouth about the quick free-kick, I might nip down to the Cameldome to school him. They also appear to have found the heir apparent to Manuel Almunia in Luis Fabianski, which bodes well as I like it when other teams have a keeper that can't catch or even think coherently.

Otherwise I have been watching The Tower Block of Commons on TV. Basically, they send a bunch of MPs out to live in council estates and see how they get on. It has been quite interesting, with Lib Dem rent boy shagger Mark Oaten and Tory Tim Loughton coming across really well. Nadine Dorries is a bit of an embarrassment and must have had some Conservatives cringing.

The other thing that amazed me was seeing Oaten go out shopping with the family that he lived with - they have a budget of around £160, and with Oaten's help spend around £100. They then spend the rest on fags. Oaten is basically outraged by this, and the woman then starts harping on about MP's expenses. What she fails to realise is that she is living on benefits and is claiming how hard it is - Oaten's expenses are mutually exclusive and do not impact how much money she has. What should be of concern to her is to do what is best for her family with the money that she is being given - my definition of what is best would not include doing 37.5% of the shopping budget on fags. I'm becoming a right cunt as I get older, I should get a column in The Daily Mail if I keep churning out stuff like this.

Good luck at the tables.