Sayid Woods? and 1/2 NL heads up

Man does that Sayid hit a nice drive. I thought I would chime in after one of the strangest LOST episodes ever. Not only does nothing at all get answered in this episode, we open up about a bag of 500 questions. This is just standard classic LOST. Love it or hate it, that's what this show is all about. Now I can't say that I didn't call it with Ben being the guy at the end because I told my buddy Keith that Ben would either be the economist or Sayid's boss. The picture is starting to become a little more clear though. It's apparent that Ben is essentially holding the other Losties hostage in a way to protect himself and have some of the Oceanic Six eliminate his enemies. Look for Matthew Abbadon(big scary black guy that talks to Naomi and Hurley) to be on Ben's kill list.

I think the next episode will be a Desmond episode and we will finally get answers to who is on the boat.

Survivor: Micronesia fan vs favorites was outstanding tonight. The total blindside that occurred on the first tribal council is always a telling sign that shit is about to hit the fan. I think the guy that masterminded that whole plan just took a super huge risk in week 1, but it paid off. If that risk doesn't work, he's basically gone. On a side note, when Ozzy (my favorite survivor in the history of the show) is in the water, it is about the same as Tiger Woods with a Sunday lead at the majors. Game over! He also was caught late night with a little romantic rendezvous with Amanda. He's my hero.

On the poker front, my new article is up and it's very technical and poker related. You can find it on the home page of pocketfives.com
A lot of the articles on this site don't deal with very specific poker related information. That's perfectly fine, but I wanted to add some content for people to think about and throw around. Also, the experiment I really did has really improved my thinking process in the game. So many times in poker, the real difficult decision is the hand that makes or breaks the tournament. The more you are thinking about those situations and the previous failures in decision making, the better you can improve your specific game. I have really been trying to work on my tournament game and this was a great start. On a side note, if you want to read some solid poker articles, I've really enjoyed Bond18's articles on Pocketfives.

When I have been knocked out of tournaments lately, I've been playing a lot of 1/2 NL heads up. Last night I got destroyed by an opponent and it was partially my fault and partially the cards. I had J 8 of diamonds on one hand and raised to $6 from the button, he raised to $20. I called. Flop came J 3 2d. He made a large continuation bet here, but I had reason to believe I was in decent shape here so I called. Turn was a 4d giving me a flush draw. He checked. Now earlier in the game, I had made a similar play here and bet the turn with nothing. I did the same here and was raised all in by 7 7d where I instantly called, river 7c good bye $550 pot. That along with a couple other dumb plays and misfortune cost me. It's always a good sign when the chat box starts filling up with people lining up to play you. Either way, I think there are a couple lessons to learn from heads up poker.

1. It is 90% about how you feel the game is going.

2. Sometimes, no matter what you will never be able to win and the opponent will talk trash to you despite the insurmountable luck curve you are experiencing.

3. Doing the same thing over and over or mixing it up completely are very important.

4. Adapting to your opponent and then readapting and readapting is the key to winning. It's hard to explain, but this is all feel.

5. Don't play someone when you have $500 and they have $15, you have nothing to gain.