Yorky Pud

Although I have had my HDTV and Blu-ray player for about a year now, it did take me a while to ditch the old technology and enter the new era though. Some of it was due to the cost of buying the new gear and also because I didn't actually believe it made much difference to a persons viewing pleasure.

However, now I have been converted I have turned into a snob and find it difficult to watch anything that is not in HD as it basically looks crap. I can't remember the last time I watched a standard DVD or even anything on “normal” TV simply because I don't enjoy it, so much so that I had kept switching off the various Harry Potter films until I could get them on Blu-ray. The Mrs knew this and bought me the boxset for Christmas and we've now watched them all.

Whilst the first two are pretty turd, simply because the majority of the cast hasn't even grown any pubes yet, the later ones are pretty damned good and look excellent in 1080p resolution, especially the magic tricks etc that are performed. I've not seen the very latest one, the one currently in the cinema, but I reckon it'll be pretty dark as the films have got darker and darker as they have progressed. Who'd have thought it, me a Harry Potter fan!

Of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't find something strange about the films would it? Those of you who have seen it may agree that it is pretty wrong on a few levels, mainly the fact a load of old, bearded blokes getting young boys and girls to dress up and sneak off to their dormitories. That Hagrid is the worst, lives on his own, surrounds himself with weird animals and gadgets, takes the kids into the woods and asks them to get their wands out. If I did half of that I would be banged up or hung by the local vigilantes!

Seeing as this is a poker blog and not a film review site I better talk about the stupid game that I am striving to beat. One of my biggest problems in recent years has been logging enough volume to get over the bitch that we call variance. Well I have been actively trying to make changes to counter this and so far I have managed to play 2,769 hands since Big Ben sounded in the new year but it has done little to eradicate the dreaded variance, if anything it has made it much worse.

I currently find myself down by a few cents less than four buy-ins, though I have cleared a part of a bonus that works out as a buy-in for my current stakes, so about three buy-ins down overall. However, I am running like death when I am all-in, especially when I am all in with a decent amount of equity. So far I am down, in terms of all-in expected value, to the tune of 6.35 stacks! I didn't even think it was possible to run so badly over a small sample size. I've lost stacks as an 84.1% favourite and twice as an 81.8% favourite. Holding 75.4% and 75.3% equity doesn't mean you will win either, it's been frustrating to say the least. Maybe I need to invite Master Potter round to do some magic schnizzle on my laptop?

I've obviously doing something right to get my money in good repeatedly so I will use that to keep my spirits up, along with the fact I know it is mainly just the cards not falling as they should. It also doesn't help when you raise preflop with AdKd, get three callers and the flop comes down 6c-7c-8c and stuff like that. It also doesn't help when villains call my preflop raises with 74o and J5s only to turn an unlikely two-pair against my overpairs. I guess it is just poker and if I play 30-50,000 hands this month, which I am on course to do, then this will just be a minor blip. Oh, and my timing and reads have been off too a few times. In one hand I bet the river with king-high after I sad to myself that the villain wasn't capable of calling with ace-high and he did just that. I also made a play based on the fact I thought my opponent had nothing but he actually had quads!

Well that's all for now I suppose, all that is left is to sign off and look forward to the VAT increase at midnight. Robbing gits. As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!