Death By Position

Matt Farrell: You just killed a helicopter with a car!
John McClane: I was out of bullets.

"Live Free Or Die Hard"

I still have no idea why they have to release movies in Australia with different titles than they were released with in the US. Te latest was "Live Free Or Die Hard" which was released here as "Die Hard 4.0" – kind of a dud title if you ask me. Even if you didn't know that the original title was based on the state motto of New Hampshire, it's a kick ass title regardless! Another notable change that spring to mind was "The Rundown" – released as "Welcome to the Jungle" (ok, that one was a better title here). I just don't see the big reason for it. Interestingly, when the Michael Keaton movie "Mr Mom" was released in 1983, it was released as "Mr Mum" in England, but still released as "Mr Mom" here in Australia. Anyway, another little pointless tangent there, my point is why go to the extra trouble to change the name for an Australian audience – unless it is for legal reasons – we can understand the American culture to get the movie.

I had a down night at poker last week, but I didn't play too badly. It was the first time in a very long time that I have noticed how bad positions were really affecting me. A couple of times I laid down the best hand when caught in between two rasiers, but you get that from time to time. I had a couple of cooler hands that made a dent after being up early, and then came back at the end of the night to lessen the impact. Good people though and a friendly game – much more passive than the usual home games. 4BB pre-flop gets some respect here!

I have tried to get more time to play online, but have been really busy of late. I had a real up and down session last night that ended up, so that was good. I have set myself a goal of getting a hoodie through frequent player points – which I kind of need a goal like that to keep playing, being a bonus whore that I am. I haven't got any bonus dollars to clear at the minute on any sites, so this kind of action keeps me going. Besides, who couldn't do with a new hoodie 6 years after they went out of fashion?

We were talking over dinner the other night with some friend about buying clothes, and I couldn't remember the last time I actually paid for clothes for myself. The last lot of business clothes were bought by me but paid for by my parents or the in-laws as a Xmas present last year, and any casual clothes were either points earned in a card room or bought from Amazon vouchers through Poker Source Online. Half my closest is because of PSO now – not that I have an extensive closet to begin with, but you get the picture. I've always had trouble justifying spending money on myself, and to a lesser extent having the Distraction spend money on…well, anything. She likes to go crazy on the credit card from time to time, but such is her nature. When it comes to spending money on friends though, we're all for it and it sometimes can be generosity to a fault, but that is only because we have such great friends and nothing is too good for them (sincerely). And I just know for a fact that when Little Ed joins us, everything in that department will change. Of course, second hand will be second nature to this child, but when there is a dollar in my pocket, you can bet 99c will go to Little Ed.

Just finished reading the Stu Unger book. What a sad story – but a great read. Highly recommend it to any poker players out there. The bits of Stu's writings mixed in gave it a great feel as well as the many personal accounts. Although the level of his drug habit was talked about late in the book, it was a glancing mention in the early stages and even suggested that he was well against this kind of behaviour. I thought the book dealt with his fall from grace very well and showed how it affected everything – in particular, when he wanted to buy things for his daughter, and how at the time he reflected on the millions he had given away over the years.

The addiction of gambling is something poker enthusiasts sometimes choose to ignore. After all, we derive some of our profits from that very addiction and way well loose because of it too. Gambling addiction deserves further discussion here rather than a rambling tangent, so I will talk about it more in my next post.