No Limit Hold 'em, Dodgeball, and the Glengarry Leads
"Put that coffee down. COFFEE is for closers only." --- Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross
Life is sometimes harsh. If you aren't pulling your weight, they might even take your free, nasty office coffee away. Such is one of the lessons of Glengarry Glen Ross. By the way, they totally stole many elements of this scene for Boiler Room where Ben Affleck had the Alec Baldwin role. I can't even tell you who did a better job with this one. It's sort of like the Pacino/DeNiro debate. Affleck was more over the top with Baldwin just a shade more believable. My nod goes to Affleck, but I don't feel that great about it.
Anyway, I caught portions of GGR on Saturday night while sitting at my kitchen table playing online poker with my man Sam. Does that sound like an exciting night to you? Two men, two laptops, some malibu and pineapple, and a poker game in cyberspace? Well, it was. That's right - malibu and pineapple people. Give it a whirl. I ended up taking my $25 buy-in up to around $140 at one table. Unfortunately, after hovering around the $130 mark and playing kind of donkish a few times, I had to stack my friend for $50 or so on the last hand to get there. The meaning of stack here is taking all of the chips in front of a person. Another term one might use is felted. There is no actual felt on any of the internets though.
I felt bad about breaking the man. I did not literally break him, of course. You get my meaning. Anyway, he had just mounted a nice little comeback and I runner-runner a flush on him on the turn and river and he overplays his two pair on the end. What can you do? That's poker. That's life.
After putting in more time than I wanted to at the poker table (just from a sleep requirement standpoint), I was able to sleep in long enough to feel strong on the dodgeball court. Brian (the doctor) and I were thinking we might have to go 2 on 8, but thankfully the rest of our squad showed up with 12 seconds to spare. Well, enough to get us to 6 on 8. We had them locked up at 2 games a piece with 3 games to go. I was feeling good. I had several strong catches from their best throwers. Catching the ball is the key to dodgeball. It totally turns the tide. One of your players comes in and one of the opponents goes out. Drop a few balls and you are dead, it's really that simple. The thinking person's dodgeball game revolves around a few key strategies stemming from this over-arching idea. They are these -
1. Throw the ball low. Balls thrown below the knees are significantly harder to catch than balls thrown above the waist.
2. Only allow your individuals with the strongest arms to throw. Velocity is the major factor in whether a ball is catchable or not. Players with weak arms throwing for you shifts the catching advantage to the opposition.
3. Throw multiple balls at the same person using your strongest throwers. It's harder to catch a ball if there are several screaming towards you simultaneously. It's also easier to get hit.
How well did we execute these ideas in our final 3 games? The ideas we had down. The execution we failed on. We went down 0-3, falling to 2-5 on the day. In one exchange, we were down to 2 people and I was able to catch two balls in a row in about 12 seconds knocking out their two best throwers. I followed that up 15 seconds later by having my ball caught by my new dodgeball nemesis. I won't even get into that. Ugh. I do not like losing.
Anyway, I'm back at the poker table for a bit this afternoon before I attempt to pump all of the iron in my gym. My no limit game is really on the upswing I think. I'm feeling strong and reading situations well, at least at the lower limits. Confidence is high. Life is good.
Life is sometimes harsh. If you aren't pulling your weight, they might even take your free, nasty office coffee away. Such is one of the lessons of Glengarry Glen Ross. By the way, they totally stole many elements of this scene for Boiler Room where Ben Affleck had the Alec Baldwin role. I can't even tell you who did a better job with this one. It's sort of like the Pacino/DeNiro debate. Affleck was more over the top with Baldwin just a shade more believable. My nod goes to Affleck, but I don't feel that great about it.
Anyway, I caught portions of GGR on Saturday night while sitting at my kitchen table playing online poker with my man Sam. Does that sound like an exciting night to you? Two men, two laptops, some malibu and pineapple, and a poker game in cyberspace? Well, it was. That's right - malibu and pineapple people. Give it a whirl. I ended up taking my $25 buy-in up to around $140 at one table. Unfortunately, after hovering around the $130 mark and playing kind of donkish a few times, I had to stack my friend for $50 or so on the last hand to get there. The meaning of stack here is taking all of the chips in front of a person. Another term one might use is felted. There is no actual felt on any of the internets though.
I felt bad about breaking the man. I did not literally break him, of course. You get my meaning. Anyway, he had just mounted a nice little comeback and I runner-runner a flush on him on the turn and river and he overplays his two pair on the end. What can you do? That's poker. That's life.
After putting in more time than I wanted to at the poker table (just from a sleep requirement standpoint), I was able to sleep in long enough to feel strong on the dodgeball court. Brian (the doctor) and I were thinking we might have to go 2 on 8, but thankfully the rest of our squad showed up with 12 seconds to spare. Well, enough to get us to 6 on 8. We had them locked up at 2 games a piece with 3 games to go. I was feeling good. I had several strong catches from their best throwers. Catching the ball is the key to dodgeball. It totally turns the tide. One of your players comes in and one of the opponents goes out. Drop a few balls and you are dead, it's really that simple. The thinking person's dodgeball game revolves around a few key strategies stemming from this over-arching idea. They are these -
1. Throw the ball low. Balls thrown below the knees are significantly harder to catch than balls thrown above the waist.
2. Only allow your individuals with the strongest arms to throw. Velocity is the major factor in whether a ball is catchable or not. Players with weak arms throwing for you shifts the catching advantage to the opposition.
3. Throw multiple balls at the same person using your strongest throwers. It's harder to catch a ball if there are several screaming towards you simultaneously. It's also easier to get hit.
How well did we execute these ideas in our final 3 games? The ideas we had down. The execution we failed on. We went down 0-3, falling to 2-5 on the day. In one exchange, we were down to 2 people and I was able to catch two balls in a row in about 12 seconds knocking out their two best throwers. I followed that up 15 seconds later by having my ball caught by my new dodgeball nemesis. I won't even get into that. Ugh. I do not like losing.
Anyway, I'm back at the poker table for a bit this afternoon before I attempt to pump all of the iron in my gym. My no limit game is really on the upswing I think. I'm feeling strong and reading situations well, at least at the lower limits. Confidence is high. Life is good.
posted by chrismilone @ 2:40 PM
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