Last week I was in Dallas (as opposed to Arlington) doing my job shadowing for the week when the following occurred:
I was monitoring a supervised visit between a child, his mother, father and grandmother, with a coworker from my class and either the FBS worker from the case. Apparently there was a second child in the family, but he/she had passed away recently. The police were putting together a case against the parents and they were trying to figure out which of the many charges they could choose from would be most appropriate for the case. Murder? Child abuse? Or perhaps a third one we hadn't considered. We'd find out the results at a staffing in a couple of days, at which point the parents would be arrested. Basically the child had been starved, beaten, and in some way tortured. Did I mention that the deceased child was like two years old? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the child was two.
So there we are behind the mirror. We can see the family, but they can't see us. We had to let them see their younger child, even though they'd just let their older child die. The caseworker was describing the case and I recognized the tone of her voice so clearly. It was a tone that just let me know how numb she was. It was like she was describing something in a dream, because she didn't want it to be real. We have to sit here and let these parents see their kid after they'd let their other kid die? Is this a joke?
The caseworker told me that I needed to get used to this. She said people are generally pretty terrible. I told her that I disagreed with that statement, but conceded that there are many terrible people in the world. She asked me why on earth I'd want to work in a place like this and I laughed and said, "Why not?" She responded by saying, "No, really, why would you want to work in a place like this? Why would you want to work for CPS?" Oh, she was serious. My mistake. Regardless, I knew the answer to her question, but was trying to decide how diplomatic I wanted to be with my answer. I decided to throw caution into he wind and just answer truthfully: "I believe that Jesus is going to use me to heal broken families." (At this point, my other coworker said her standard NIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK.) I stole that from my friend Jake, but that doesn't make it any less true.
"OH! You're one of THOSE people! You think you're going to save the world!"
"No."
"Give it time, you'll come around and come back to reality."
We talked for a couple more minutes. She was kind enough to explain to me how out of touch I was, and how I need to lower my expectations. I didn't want to upset someone who was doing me a favor by being there, so I didn't point out that she had actually told me her expectations, and that I should be disappointed by the expectations she set for me (huh?)
What I REALLY wanted to do was talk to her about Jesus. Does she know Him? I'm pretty confident that the answer is "No." I guess the real question is, "Are you a Christian who has missed the point or are you not a Christian at all?" I feel like because I'm in the bible belt (Deep in the heaaarttt of Texas) she probably was a Christian, but I shouldn't assume that. Anyways, it tied in with a conversation that I had with a friend recently. Christianity is a source of hope. Jesus died for our sins, and because of this you, yes YOU, can inherit the kingdom. This woman I was talking to, she was just so sad. She had been working at CPS for 5 years and it seemed like this case had really gotten to her. I wish I had told her not to worry. As my friend Ashley says, "This battle has already been won." Jesus died because of the sin in the world, and this was very much included in that.
I hope that if you're a Christian, and you know Jesus, that you're telling everyone of the good news. There is hope. God loves everyone and he wants you to know Him. Don't let his world get you down. It's only temporary.
Here's a little background for the following story. Coco is probably about 6'7'' or 6'8''...or at least that's how big he seems.
On Saturday at Dallas Winter League we had a couple of guys who got "racked." I'll save you the trip to urbandictionary and just tell you that it means taking a shot to the balls. After our second or third guy took an unlucky hit, Trashley tells the following story:
A guy she used to live with decided he wanted to be a bad ass and just straight up jump over Coco. Did Coco know this? Were they playing ultimate at the time? I'm unsure of the answer to either question. What I do know is that this kid failed, smashed his balls against the top of Coco's head, landed, and threw up everywhere.
...and that's the greatest story I've heard in a really long time
***As an aside, I really wish that Trashley and I were madly in love with each other. I don't know her very well, although she seems really nice. The reason is that so I could tell my mother and father, "I'm in love, and her name is Trashley."
I haven't posted in a while so I figured I needed to get back to it! I sort of have an idea of where it will go, but chances are it will still wind up off target. I'll have a bit of this, and a bit of that, and then my triple range merge will be complete.
Something I've been thinking about lately is how much I've been humbled by the people around me. It started when I first moved up to Dallas and joined an ultimate league in Allen. My friends had played in a league similar to this one and basically just dominated everyone. That's pretty much what I expected would happen. I'd walk onto the field, everyone would stop what they were doing, watch as I put on my cleats and just marvel at the way I threw the disc as I warmed up. "Is this Nick Molnar? In the flesh? The captain from Baylor? We're so blessed that God sent him here to humble us all! I look forward to him dominating me on the field!" Uhhhh not quite.
I got drafted to a team full of seasoned veterans who had been playing the game long before I even knew it was a sport. At first I was annoyed that people were trying to tell me, ME!, NICHOLAS MOLNAR, where to cut, when to cut, how to play defense etc, but after playing with them I let my guard down and realized they were way more knowledgeable than I am. As soon as I acted like a mature adult and decided that my best form of leadership would be by following, my game improved drastically. This eventually carried over to the Dallas Winter League I'm playing in now. I'm getting to play with a bunch of University of North Texas players and they're showing me offenses and defenses I've never even seen before! It's such an awesome experience. Now, let's shift gears. Try to keep up!
Everyone knows that my favorite poker player is...everybody say it at once, "Jason Somerville!" I feel like a hipster poker player. "He's really good...but you've probably never heard of him." His videos for poker vt, the poker training site I used to use, transformed me from a bad player to a pretty decent one with a strong grasp of the game. He completely shook up the way I viewed the game. I remember in one video he says something like, "Because of our chip stack, the stacks of the players in the blinds when we're Under the Gun, and the tables respect for an Under the Gun raise I feel like the best position to steal from would be Under the Gun." Woihjwiodhaiwoudhiuawh!?!?!?!?! What? You think the best position to steal the blinds from is...the weakest preflop position? You have my attention...
Anyways, he started a youtube series where he just plays online and talks about the hands as they're going on. It's pretty similar to what he does for poker vt except...free. I'd say about 90% of the time I can predict his actions (you can see his cards) but then there's that other 10% of the time...It's the paragraph about ultimate. It's so humbling listening to him talk and explain the game. It's light years ahead of where I am and so amazing to listen to.
All of this got me thinking: People watch youtube videos of JS playing poker...in fact they even pay for his videos on poker vt. People watch videos of Ultimate Frisbee on youtube. There are magazines, websites, and clinics dedicated to improving your ultimate frisbee game. Will anyone ever pay me for something like that? Will I ever be so amazing at something, that they'll say, "Yes, I will pay Nick Molnar just to listen to him talk about xyz." I feel like the answer is no, and that makes me kind of sad. I learned poker via videos from a guy who now has a World Series of Poker Bracelet, and Ultimate from a handful of players who have played on national level teams. What do I have to offer? Well...I've played a lot of poker...but if there's one thing I've learned from old people in the casinos, it's that just because you've been doing something for a long time, doesn't mean you've been doing it well. Oh well. That's all for now. A couple of weeks ago, I told Wes this would be the next video at the end of my blog. I'm a man of my word:
This was inspired by a session I had a couple of weeks ago. I was playing at a $2/$5 table and there was this player who was especially bad. I had played with him once before and I just remember him playing really poorly and than having to listen to him talk about how poor his luck was. The thing that made this player especially epic was that after literally every hand he played, he gave his commentary on the hand. In addition to this, he probably showed his cards roughly 60% of the time. It was insane the amount of free information this guy gave out.
Aaaanyways, this guy plays a head up pot and basically the board runs out A76xx (turn and river were insignificant.) He bets the flop, bets the turn, and check calls the river. He turns over A7 for a flopped two pair, and his opponent turns over 76 for a flopped inferior two pair. After the guy wins the hand he goes on and on and about how well he played the hand, he knew he was ahead, he was so smart to bet, blah blah blah blah. I was sitting there listening and thinking, "YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. YOU FLOPPED TWO PAIR WHEN SOMEONE ELSE FLOPPED TWO PAIR. YOU CANNOT MESS THAT HAND UP UNLESS YOU FOLD!" Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately for me,) this kind of player simply looks as the result of the hand, decides he must have played it well, and that's where the thinking stops. He didn't bother to say/think, "Man, it was lucky that I flopped a better two pair there. After that, the hand really just played itself out." In spots like that, I don't even bother to get excited. This is where the poker road goes straight and I'm going to take a hard right.
This got me thinking about something else. The wonderful thing about facebook is you can post whateeeeeeeever you want! A guy I played ultimate with just got named Academic Player of the Week! So cool! On the other hand, a lot of people using facebook to express disapproval with how their life is going. I know people to complain about friends, school, sports, and just life in general. I know sometimes it just feels good to vent and put something out there, even if it's just a simple "Today really sucked." However, what I don't understand is people who complain about the same things. I have a couple of friends who seem to really struggle with how their friendships are going. It's unfortunate because they're great people, but it reminds me of the guy in the poker hand. You've gotten to the end of the hand and you're saying, "This is disappointing." When I see people constantly expressing disapproval of the same thing, it makes me wonder, "What got you to that point? How have the hands with this person been playing out? Was this result inevitable like our friends who both flopped two pair, or could your disappointment have been avoided?"
It can suck to look back and realize the conclusion that you disliked were actually caused by the steps you took to get you where you are, but it can be really eye opening. Find better friends, a better job, and win more money.
I feel like this was really poorly written, so it'll be saved with the trailer to my favorite movie:
"It seemed like a lot of killing over a very small amount of money."
I had a couple of people mention that they were interested/surprised at the amount of thought I put into the last hand I posted about. I was hoping to write about something besides poker...but this has been on my mind so this is what I'm writing about!
The table had 4 people (including myself.) It was a cash game with the blinds at $2 and 5$ with a mandatory straddle to $10 (this means that the first person who would normally act before the flop has to put out a blind raise of $10. In return, he gets to act last preflop.) Because there is a mandatory straddle, the stakes are more like $5/$10 than $2/$5. Earlier in the night when the table got to 4 people we decided to make the $10 straddle mandatory to encourage the 4 of us to play more hands. As an aside, when the decision was made to make the $10 straddle mandatory, it was definitely one of those moments were Jesus was high fiving me. Basically, I had played at the table with the other three guys for a while, knew how they played, knew I was better than them, and then they basically said, "Want to raise the stakes of the game?" Thanks, Jesus!
Anyways, back to the hand in question. I'm on the button (with about $2000) and am first to act preflop and raise to $40 with Jc9c. The Small blind (who has about $500) calls, the BB folds and the straddler calls (he has about $580.)
The pot is ~$120 The flops comes As8s3d.
They both check to me and I bet ~$80.
SB calls and the straddler calls. The straddler then elect to check to me before the turn is shown.
Pot is ~$280. The turn is Ah. The board reads As8s3dAh.
Straddler had elected to check in the dark, I bet ~$175. He calls. He elects to check in the dark again.
~Pot is $640. River is Jh. The board now reads As8s3dAhJh.
He had elected to check to me. I put him all in. He folds and shows an 8.
Alright, so this hand was pretty ballsy, but I figured I had a pretty strong read on my opponent. It looks like I just bet a bunch of money and then said all in and was happy when he folded, but there was a lot more going on than that. Here's the breakdown:
My raise to $40 preflop was standard. It was the same amount I raised every other hand, so this was no different. If I'm the first one in the pot my raise size is always the same. It disguises the strength of my hand as well as gives me an opportunity to take the blinds preflop. The added value of raising on the button means I got to act last preflop. The small blind was a super tight/nitty so if he calls he is just going to check/fold a lot of flops. The straddler was a massive spew box. He really overvalued his draws and hated folding, so if I flop anything against him I was just going to pound him with value bets.
~120 pot. Flop is As8s3d. Everyone checks to me.
I'm not surprised that everyone checked to me, as checking to the raiser is generally pretty standard in raised pots. This is actually a pretty good flop for me (although not for my hand as I've completely whiffed.) Of the three people in the pot, I'm the most likely to have an Ace in my hand as I raised preflop. I think a lot of times I can just bet here and they'll either fold on the flop, or fold on the turn if I decide to bet against. It's hard to call here twice if you have just an ace, or even a flush draw. Because I have position (this means that I'm last to act) I will have more information post flop because they have to act first.
I bet out ~80. The SB folds and the straddler calls. I just mentioned the advantages of betting here, so I won't go over that again. I bet ~80 as I would with any hand I'm betting. I'd bet an ace, an 8, a flush draw, or even possibly 99-KK. When he calls I think he might have an ace, but I really feel like based on the way this guy had played hands in the past it was more likely than he had an 8 or a flush draw. He liked to raise with top pairs (and two pair+) and would often get carried away and over value his hands.
~$280 in the pot. Ah on the turn, making the board As8s3dAh. He checked to me in the dark.
The dark check was goofy. I think he just saw it on tv and wanted to do it. I wish I was making that up but that's sincerely how I felt. With that being said, this is where my having position in the hand is REALLY advantageous. I really don't feel like he was going to check in the dark with an Ace. It seems like if he had an Ace he would want to see if the flush hit on the turn, and if it didn't, he would bet to make me draw to the flush he may think I'm hoping to hit.
As sort of an aside, I think this is a good spot to explain how helpful position is in the hand. Let's pretend he didn't check in the dark. Instead he sees the Ah fall and acts accordingly. Let's say he just made trip aces and decides to bet. If I have a flush draw I can pretty easily fold to his bet on the turn. Because I had position I chose how much I wanted to pay to draw on the flop, while giving my chance to win outright by betting on the flop. Now let's say he just made trip aces and decides to check. If I have a flush draw I can check it right back and get to see the river for free!
Now reverse it, let's say I had just made trip aces and he was drawing to the flush. If that third ace comes and he bets, I'm going to raise to protect my hand/get value. If he decides to check his flush draw, I can bet my trip aces and choose how much he pays to draw. This is why position is so important in poker! I have the upper hand in all of those scenarios!
Anyways, back to the actual hand. I was trying to decide whether to continue my bluff on the turn, or just check and sorta give up. I could also check and if the flush misses on the river then I could try and bluff then as well. I decided that because I was almost positive he didn't have an ace, I should continue this bluff on the turn. By bluffing the turn I make it more believable that I have an Ace in my hand and would be able to push him off an 8 by bluffing again on the river. If I check here and just try to bluff if the flush draw misses on the river, I think he'd call with an 8. This also means that if the flush draw gets there on the river, OR if another Ace falls on the river, I have to give up. If another Ace falls I don't think I could make him believe I have four of a kind.
The other important thing here is how much to bet. I had to bet an amount on the turn that makes my hand look strong, BUT ALSO leaves him enough money in his stack so that he'll fold to my all in bluff on the river. So let's say I bet an amount on the turn that makes it so he's got like $100 left in his stack on the river, he'll definitely call off his last $100 on the river because he's put so much money in the pot already. I like $175 bet because it leaves him the perfect amount to fold on the river, but also if he check raises me all in on the flop I could pretend to sit and think and then fold.
He checks in the dark again.
Pot is ~$640 river is Jh. The board now reads As8s3dAhJh.
This is an interesting river. I'm now beating any king or queen high flush draw that missed, as well as any 8. I suppose it is also possible that he could have QJs or KJs and now be beating me, but that makes up a very small percentage of his range. I decide to put him all in just like I planned out on the turn (and kind of on the flop.) It now looks like I'm ahead so I'm kind of hoping he makes a hero call with an 8. It's definitely possible because my bluff actually became what's called a "range merge." The way the hand played out it looks like I'd only be betting trip aces, a full house, or a bluff (most likely a missed flush draw.) So it's definitely possible that he could sit there and think, "I don't think he has trip aces or a flush draw, so my 8 must be good." I know that he knows I might not have an ace in my hand, so betting with the jack makes a bit of sense. He thought about it for about five seconds, said something like "I'm pretty sure I'm folding the best hand," flipped up an 8 and folded. Thanks for your money =)
I obsessed over this hand for like a month after it happened, but now I'm over it. I still think of it from time to time, so I'm hoping by writing about it I'll finally lay it to rest.
It was my second time playing 2/5 poker (I generally play 1/2 NLHE but was feeling cray cray.) I'd been playing at this table for about 5 hours or so. I was pretty much beating the shit out of everyone I was playing against, so I was pretty happy with how things were going for me. I was raising and squeezing a lot. It was funny because some of the players were talking about the ridiculous amount of raising I was doing...but nobody had any kind of solution. It's pretty funny when players are openly talking about your play at the table but are just completely baffled/annoyed by what's happening. I had a loose aggressive image with anybody who was paying any kind of attention to how I was playing. Anyways, the following hand came up:
I was in the Big Blind and it got folded around to the CO (he has about ~1k), who had a rock image. He played pretty straight forward, and generally only showed down strong hands. He limped in and the button raised it to $30. The button played A LOT of hands. He was running super hot and had about $2k in front of him, so this raise could be a pretty wide range of hands. It got folded to me and I decided to call with Td8d. The button played pretty aggressively in position, regardless of whether or not he had a hand, so I knew if the flop hit me that I would be getting paid regardless of if the BU made a hand or not. The CO called the raise as well.
Pot is ~$90 Kd 6d 3c.
I check, the CO bets ~$50, the BU folds and I decide to call. The CO range is generally going to be betting middle pocket pair, Kings,flush draws (unlikely because I have two diamonds in my hand) and sets.
Pot is ~$190 the turn is the 8 of h, making the board Kd 6d 3c 8h.
I've now turned a pair. The pair itself isn't that significant because I'm probably now only ahead of 77, and some kind of 6 he may have bet, although I feel it is unlikely he would have bet a 6 on the flop. I decided to check to the raiser. The thing about players like this is that their bet sizes are often very telling with regards to the strength of their hand. Larger bet=stronger hand. It sounds ridiculous, but yes, they play their hands that face up.
He bets ~$80. Ok, I'm pretty confident he has a King in his hand. Because he limped preflop that generally means KT,KJ, and MAYBE KQ or K9, but almost never AK. Those hands are both suited and unsuited. I'm pretty confident that he's got some kind of middle strength king that he's trying to get some value from here. I feel like if I call the turn bet then my hand looks like exactly what it is: a flush draw. There's no point in drawing to a hand that the villain knows you're drawing to. If you hit your hand, you're not getting paid. So I wonder: "Is there any way to disguise the strength of my hand here?" This is where all hell breaks loose. I'm pretty confident that because he has a middle strength king here, I can blow him off the hand.
I raise to ~$220. I really want him to fold here, but if he doesn't I have a ton of outs. My outs should be 8s,Ts and all diamonds. I don't think he'd ever call this raise with a set, so if he 3 bets me I'm going to fold. I'm pretty sure that if he calls and I miss the river AND the river isn't an Ace, I'm just going to check fold to a bet. He elects to call.
Pot is now ~$630. River is Th. Board now reads Kd6d3c 8h Th.
Ok, sick river for me. Of all the cards to help me, this one is probably the worst. I would have loved another 8 because he's never putting me in trip 8s, but ho hum, I'll take my 2 pair. My hand is also ridiculously disguised here. He's never putting me on 2 pair (8s and Ts) because it's just so random. I also decide that it's extremely unlikely HE has 2 pair because he's not the kind of player to limp with K6, K3 or K8. So I feel like right here I'm only losing to KT. My hand is looking pretty good! I think and decide to bet ~$350.
He thinks for about 20 seconds. As each second passes I get more and more excited. He's sort of groaning a bit, which is equally awesome! If he has a set he would have either Called already, or not be groaning because he'd be deciding how much to raise. I was trying to decide what I'd do if he raised and I wasn't really sure. Then he called! Boom goes the dynamite. I silent flipped over my two pair. He looks for a second...then says YESSS! Wait. WTF? I look at his hand. KT. The ten also gave him 2 pair...a higher 2 pair than me, and a ~$1200 pot. Oops!
I still can't decide if I liked how I played the hand. After I calmed down (just start guessing the words that insta flew out of my mouth when I saw his 2 pair) I asked him how on earth he called the turn! He said "I put you on a flush draw." Here's what I've learned about poker. A lot of times when people say "I THOUGHT you had xyz," what they are really saying is "I was HOPING you had xyz." Maybe he thought I had a flush draw, maybe he didn't.
What I loved about the hand is how I was thinking critically about my options. A lot of (super poor) players get stuck in this "can I hit my draw or not" rut. If they hit their draws, they win. If they don't hit, they don't. Probably is flushes and straights only hit about one third of the time. I feel like super standard ABC poker says I should fold on the turn, or maybe call because I have made a pair to go with my flush draw. I like thinking outside the box, but the problem is sometimes "Thinking outside the box" =super mega spew box. I haven't decided if this was genius or insanity. Only time will tell.
