Well I'm disappointed in myself at the moment, before I started this blog I was having some good sessions sitting down with the max at the 6-Max Omaha H/L 1 cent/2 cent tables and doubling up. I was however also losing a lot of it on silly plays and chasing down low draws into split pots with too few people in the pot to give me a positive return from the hand.
At least this $10 thing has me erring on the side of caution and whilst I've folded a few would be winners because I was playing too cautiously I haven't pissed away huge (micro stakes) amounts by chasing bad draws or walking into multi-way split pots. (Well I did once and it hurt)
I'm currently stuck between $13-$14, I don't know if it's a psychological thing about 13 being unlucky and I'm being overcautious in my playing or what. This interesting pair of hands popped up to brighten my day (just before I pissed it away with a silly chase):
First time round and I catch this:
My usual strategy in these micro games is to bet with the best of it and to go up in increments and drag the callers and draw chasers with me e.g. I'll start out with a bet of $o.o4, if the turn is safe then it goes to $0.08 and the river, if not filled with danger, goes to $0.16. It's simple cautious and repetitive and should I get a chance to move up I'm gonna have to think about mixing it up with more variation within my safe zone.
Here I start out with a bigger opening raise than usual because I want to see off the low drawers who could make me paranoid should they catch their nut low by pumping the pot and making me wonder of they don't have the other 2 Aces as well. Player 5 just calls and I put him on the low draw...his call on the turn confirms my suspicions...but then on the end...yuck I hate that under-betting the pot on the end. If you have something then match or better my previous bet don't try and throw out a tiny bet because for some reason you think I'm drawing and overplaying it.
I give Player 5 the benefit of the doubt, maybe the phone is going off, the toast is burning and a bad hombre just strolled through his door or something, and he's not thinking straight.
Then only 4 hands later this pops up:
Firstly, I don't know why I bet $0.07 instead of $0.08 like the last time, maybe I wanted to round off my stack. This time I've got a far stronger hand and the turn denies a low draw, I have the nut flush draw, not that that matters. Again the only hand that is initially beating me is Aces over Tens. The Queen was a bit of a danger card because he could have made the higher Full House.
His calling the turn made me think maybe he was on a flush draw (not the nuts because I have that in my hand) but then I would have expected him to call me down on the river with his queen high flush or whatever. I suppose it's possible he had Kings both times and was drawing to a third one...or even one of the other Aces but then how does he build his house?
I guess I'll never know. I'll just be glad he contributed to the fund. Amen Brother!
Well enough talking shop and onto my first Western review, I'll admit I've got Django in the DVD player but just haven't found the words to sum up its excellence just yet. So as a place-holder here's an old school comics review: Geronimo Jones!
Geronimo Jones
Issue: 1
Publisher: Charlton Comics
Date: September 1971
Credits: 'Created and Written by - Tony Tallarico
Art by - Jose Delbo + Tony Tallarico
Edited by - Sal Gentile'
Synopsis: The opening page greets us with a split showing us he clean cut 'fifteen year old school drop out' and the slightly swarthier and bearded 'seventeen year old man with a mission' and promises us the years between.
Young Horace Jones leaves his pampered life at the College of William and Mary and finds himself in the army only to discover it 'looks like I've replaced a screaming teacher at school with a screaming cavalry sergeant!' However after a short action montage compressing two years of such bad-assery as jumping chasms on horseback; saving his sergeant from turbulent waters and shooting the head off a snake whilst riding; into one page Jones' sergeant advises him to go back to school as the country needs smart young men.
Hmmm maybe if the British government had this sort of approach the Universities wouldn't be filled with mindless post-hippy philosophy students regaling everyone with their 'wonderful' tales of a gap year getting pissed and pissing away mummy and daddy's money in India. I digress..
In 1846 Jones returns home to the weeping form of the family slave Harriet. Seems like whilst he was out becoming a man a gang of outlaws raided the house, 'did terrible things' to his ma and sister before shooting them before his father's eyes and looted the house. The sheriff's caught up with all but one of the men.
Jones goes to see his father who is catatonic, repeating over and over again 'He had no eyebrow...', so at least the last bad guy was good enough to have a distinguishing mark for Jones to track him down by...although on the Jonah Hex scale of facial disfigurement it's not much to go by.
The Sheriff sets Jones on the trail of the final outlaw and also deputises him, well he gives him 'this special deputy badge....it might help!'. Lucky Jones spent his army years on a Colonel Fremont expedition and knows the land well.
After weeks on the trail Jones moseys into town, spotting a moderately pimp beard for his age, and orders 'the thickest steak you've got'. Somehow just the waitress calling Jones handsome incites a dirty old cowboy to grab her...Jones busts out his Cavalry-Fu.
The waitress christens him 'Geronimo' after 'that Indian kid Geronimo who comes to town' and the name sticks with the town folk. The One-Eyebrowed Man is also in town and gets wind of Geronimo's mission and he soon slinks off into the night.
We next see Jones on the trail again where he bumps into a girl stuck on a runaway horse and buggy and under fire from a group of men. He saves her and listens to her story (sick father... run down ranch...helpless daughter sent to the bank to bring back silly amount of moolah) and it turns out that one of her would be assailants is the One-Eyebrowed Man!
Jones rushes off into our issue ending cliffhanger as the One-Eyebrowed Man leaves him dangling from a ruined rope bridge, although there's no doubt that Jones will escape as his nemesis leaves him with a warning for next time they meet.
The Good: I really liked the artwork, at first I was struck by how Jones seems a little pudgy but it won me over and made a nice difference from some of the other cowboy comics of the time. I also liked Jones transition into beardedness, sure it grows awful neat if they are implying he didn't shave on the trail but it marks a nice turning point in his growth from boy to man.
The Bad: The One-Eyebrowed man seems kind of lame as a gimmick but at least he stands out. Some of the writing seems a little off 'Get down Jones or you'll have a permanent part in your skull'...always thought it was a permanent part in your hair...might be wrong. His naming seems a little rushed, sure 'Geronimo' has the right connotations of Jones fearlessness but the reason for naming him seems a little slack.
The Extras: No Fight a poem by R.J.Simpson. The name draws a blank to me and search engines. 'Authentic Western Portraits to Frame' of John Charles Fremont; check the wiki link above if your that interested. Finally there's a 4 Page Charisma Kid story and no it has nothing to do with Barack Obama. No idea who's writing/art-work it is (bottom of page 1 has D-1966) Delbo on his own perhaps? The artwork doesn't match the Geronimo story...anyways its a nice little four page filler with a punch line that could have been compressed into a 3 panel comic but still got a chortle from me.
Well next time you hear from me hopefully I'll have broken the dreaded 13 buck barrier! :)
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