Manly Folding

Attended the guru's class last night and had a good time. As usual, I (re)learned a few things I had forgotten and picked up a few new tidbits that I didn't know. We worked some math examples and sample hands. One of the students had just gotten back from an Annie Duke 3-day seminar in Vegas and gave us the rundown on what she learned there. Said it was math intensive, too, and that her head was still spinning. The seminiar cost $1700 (yes, $1700!) and, according to this student, was well worth it. Yikes. People really do take this silly game seriously...

That said, the real highlight of the guru's class for me was when one of the his new students logged into Full Tilt and played some $.50/1.0 limit poker for 40 hands or so. The class helped out by telling the student to fold, call, raise, etc. In about 30 minutes, the student was up $5 and we were getting a good read on the opp at the table. For me, the interesting part was when Mark would offer his read on other players at the table and guess what hands they held. I'm starting to get better at this skill, but I felt like I was in the presence of a master last night. I mean, how the hell is the guru able to watch a couple dozen hands projected on the screen behind him while he lectures and fields questions-- and still be able to put players on specific hands. Four or five times he turned around and said something, "Uh, I would fold; it's clear the other guy has KJ and has your QJ dominated" and, voila, the opp would turn over Kujo. If you give me five minutes, I could probably have deduced the same reads, but damn is it fun to watch a pro do it in real time.

In other news, I moneyed in 2 of 4 SnG's yesterday for a small net gain. The big news, however, was my buddy Bret winning a 45-person multi yesterday. I didn't get to watch it, but his description makes it sound like the start of him taking the game to the next level. Here's a quote:
"i don't think im playing annette [roulette] yet, but i'm much more aware of the situation, who's limped, where the aggressors are, and why folding can be a manly thing to do" and "I think my win is a combination of stealing aggressively and getting lucky a few times when cards hit the flop. I'd most always fold to a reraise, raise big when first into a pot, and rarely limp."

Cool. Now if we can just him to substitute the word "never" for "rarely" we'll be on to something... ;-)

All-in for now...
-Bug