We had snow the other day. It’s all melted now again, but it got cold very quickly and Mother Nature decided to drop two inches of snow on us. This is when I realized that the car I bought this summer didn’t have any scrapers in the car, so the ice on the windshield had to be removed using a Henry Rollins CD cover. Sorry, Hank! Now it’s all sunny and slightly warmer again, as if Nature decided to apologize for its mischievousness.

From one thing to another, what’s this about?

I’m trying to decide if he’s about to break some astonishing news about how Bush just realized that he can’t play his usual $.50/$1 games on Party anymore, or if he (Iggy, not Bush) just found out that his next-door neighbor is Cindy Crawford and he found a peep hole into her bathroom or if he’s simply just warning us of an upcoming uber post. I’m curious.

Awhile back I made a post titled “Stop obsessing about preflop play” mostly trying to convey the idea that in terms of mistakes, preflop ones aren’t very costly. I didn’t mean to say that preflop play is unimportant though, because it isn’t. It’s a much more difficult street to play perfectly than any other because of the lack of information on what the others are holding, and preflop play largely dictates what will happen on other streets as well. However, being pissed off at others for not “knowing” how to play preflop, as if there’s some agreed-upon rules for what’s allowed and what isn’t, doesn’t make any sense. Being pissed off at others at all for playing poorly doesn’t make any sense. Embrace it. Exploit it. Profit.

“I’d be better off if I moved up in limits where people respect my raises” is a common theme in posts for people struggling to win money at low limit games. It, too, fails to make sense. If you can’t beat horrible players who make loose calls left and right, you’re simply not adjusting properly. And if you can’t adjust properly, you won’t do better at higher limit games either. I once had someone tell me, “ur so bad that u don’t even know when ur being outplayed” after I called his turn check-raise with middle pair, went to showdown and picked off his random bluff with 9-high. I think he may have made a post or two on the “I need people to respect my raises” theme, and he still won’t get it. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “play your opponent, not your cards” at some point or another. Most times, it’s used in the sense that when you sense weakness in your opponent, you can raise and win. But bluffing a tight and/or weak player is only one way to play your opponent, not your cards. In loose games, you should play your opponent by betting weaker hands for value, and by playing more speculative hands, and by folding high-card hands that don’t really stand enough of a chance to win large pots with many players in them.

If you can’t beat horrible opponents, don’t rush off to try to find a game that suits your particular style of play and you think you can win. Instead, learn from the experience, learn how to beat these particular opponents. Playing by charts and tilting because of players who don’t, means that you have work left to do.

Best music video ever? It’s close, at least.

I was going to post a Hillbilly version of Ace of Spades as well, but I’ll save that one for later.