Friday is the New Monday

Many thanks for the comments on the busto hands from yesterday. I was fairly certain that I was playing hand #1 too fast, so, umm, yeah, what you said.

9 times out of 10 I just call on the flop there and see what develops on the turn. Once there, though, I struggle a good bit if I brick the turn and SB takes control and leads out for a decent-sized bet (which he can do with a wide range of hands, some that I'm ahead of, as it's a pot worth stabbing at and I haven't shown much aggression, other than my wee probe bet on the flop.) I pretty much have to fold to any reasonably sized turn bet from SB, which I do, gnashing my teeth and bemoaning the fact that I played the flop passively with a draw I'd like to see the river with, instead of getting muscled out on the turn. But, as pointed out, there's obvious danger in overcorrecting the other direction and lumping it all in on the flop. Just as there's danger in giving Pretty Good Not so Good Player too much credit based on too few hands of playing with him.

Much good luck to the bloggers slugging it out at the Main Event today. How freaking cool would that be for one of you cool kids to make a serious run at the thing.

I actually *gasp* played a good bit of Stud a few days ago, clearing a reload offer from Littlewoods. It apparently works for everyone despite it being emailed out and not on their website, but type in bonus code JULPOK in the cashier before depositing, and you'll get a £25 bonus after playing 200 raked hands, then an additional £50 bonus after clearing 400 more raked hands. 'Tis a little slow to clear but a decent bonus if you don't mind playing on the Cryptos.

This week has flown by, largely due to splitting time between the day job and working on the new house at night. Still prepping the floors for refinishing, which would have been done already if not for the lovely surprise unearthed in the master bedroom, where I ripped up the carpet to discover that someone, while painting the walls in there, thought it'd be fun to spill a bucket of paint on the hardwood floors and lay down and make paint angels. Not really, obviously, but pretty close, as far as the amount of paint slopped on the floor.

As most people who have bought a previously-owned home have thought, at some point or another, I'm constantly baffled at the things previous owners do. You have a home with nice hardwood floors and suddenly one morning you wake up and think "Hey, I know, let's paint the walls in the master bedroom and then put carpet in there. And since we're putting in carpet, let's be sloppy as hell with the paint and not use a dropcloth or anything, because whee, we can, since it will be covered up by the carpet! And it will always be carpeted so it won't matter, since the Rapture is coming soon anyway! Whee!"

And don't even get me started on the last minute "improvements" that they had done. Buying the ugliest-assed carpet in the known universe and having it installed in two rooms by Koko the Gorillas less dextrous, much lazier cousin JimBob isn't adding any value to your home. It's setting $500-$1,000 on fire, as any sane buyer is just going to rip it up and throw it away. Hurriedly and sloppily tacking on the cheapest trim and baseboards you can find, that any sane person is going to replace? Not so much of an improvement, hoss. Especially silly, too, when you're selling the house as-is, and it needs much, much obvious work, so much so that slapping a few cheap band-aids on it here and there just calls attention to the cheap band-aids.