CSI > Quincy

Here's my favorite play from yesterday. It's a VERY basic play, and everyone should be familiar with it. In fact I would hope it's the first REAL BLUFF that most beginners should learn after they have advanced to rock phase.

***** Hand History for Game 2144270136 *****
30/60 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 12751141) - Thu Jun 02 18:07:30 EDT 2005
Table Table 11589 (Real Money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: OklahomaDug (980)
Seat 2: jasonbourque (810)
Seat 3: Tug88 (950)
Seat 4: joez11 (1180)
Seat 5: csk623 (640)
Seat 6: forli145 (300)
Seat 7: Bluebah (675)
Seat 8: h8dafuknrvr (770)
Seat 9: turk90 (820)
Seat 10: bagger79 (875)
bagger79 posts small blind (15)
OklahomaDug posts big blind (30)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to OklahomaDug [ 9c, 5d ]
jasonbourque folds.
Tug88 folds.
joez11 folds.
csk623 folds.
forli145 folds.
Bluebah folds.
h8dafuknrvr folds.
turk90 raises (60) to 60
bagger79 calls (45)
OklahomaDug calls (30)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8c, 8h, 3s ]
bagger79 checks.
OklahomaDug checks.
turk90 bets (100)
bagger79 folds.
OklahomaDug calls (100)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ts ]
OklahomaDug checks.
turk90 checks.
** Dealing River ** : [ 4s ]
OklahomaDug bets (300)
turk90 folds.
** Summary **
Main Pot: 680
Board: [ 8c 8h 3s Ts 4s ]
OklahomaDug balance 1200, bet 460, collected 680, net +220
jasonbourque balance 810, didn't bet (folded)
Tug88 balance 950, didn't bet (folded)
joez11 balance 1180, didn't bet (folded)
csk623 balance 640, didn't bet (folded)
forli145 balance 300, didn't bet (folded)
Bluebah balance 675, didn't bet (folded)
h8dafuknrvr balance 770, didn't bet (folded)
turk90 balance 660, lost 160 (folded)
bagger79 balance 815, lost 60 (folded)

This is why Min Raises Make Baby Jesus Cry. When the small blind called, I had to call 30 to get into a 180 pot. There aren't a lot of hands that are better than 6 to 1 against another. With 95o though I will have to catch perfect to win a showdown, but the raiser is so weak here I don't feel like I have to catch perfect to win the hand.

The most important event for me in the hand was when the small blind folded. I have decided on the flop that I am going to represent an 8. So I have three fears: #1 - The button doubled the blind with A8. #2 The small blind has an 8. #3 The button has Aces or Kings and cannot lay them down.

If #1 were true, then I don't think the button would have bet 100 on the flop. If #2 were true, the SB never would have folded to the bet of 100. So all I need to dodge is #3. When the raiser checks the turn, I'm not afraid of #3 anymore.

The third spade on the river was the complication that I didn't want. But it looks like the button was convinced I had an eight when he insta-folded on my river bet.

There are a lot of basic elements to a bluff that I don't think a lot of beginners consider. I am considering EXACTLY what card I am representing, and whether it is believable that I have that card. I am considering what cards the main opponent might have and whether he is the kind of player that will respond to pressure. I am also considering any other players that might interfere with the play I have in mind.

CSI > Quincy

Last night, in a fit of boredom, I watched an episode of Quincy. UHF is great, isn't it? A 25 year old show on in prime time. Mrs. Bogey has a master's degree in criminal justice. We met in a criminal justice class in college that was taught by a Doctor who was a medical examiner in New York City for over a decade. So any television show that deals with trace evidence and medical examiners is must see TV in our household. Needless to say she loves all the CSI shows, even with all the flaws. "Quincy," aka "Quincy, M.E." is just the 1976 version of CSI. Ironically, it appeared in exactly the same time slot as CSI: Criminal Investigation, the flagship of the CSI family of shows.

The fascinating things to look at between CSI and Quincy are the differences between the shows. The plots are exactly the same. Someone's been murdered, and the ME must find evidence to both find the killer and prove he did the deed.

But in Quicy the producers were much more limited in what they could show, and how they had to deal with the grisly nature of the material they were presenting. There were ZERO bodies on Quincy's examination table. Everything is shot from 12 inches above the table and up, with Jack Klugman and Robert Ito miming extremely fake autopsy moves. At one point Klugman says "I'm going inside," and picks up a scalpel and swishes it just below the frame, supposely opening the victim's chest cavity. Not even slightly convincing, and yet they immediately cut away.

And what did they cut away to? Quincy's boss. I'm trying to remember the character's name. Oh yes, I believe it was "Mid-level government paper-pushing weasel." This guys job is to say something so inanely stupid that people forget that Quincy just sliced, diced and julienned a human being in the other room.

In CSI, you get all the gross details. You get to see inside the victims brains as the bullet penetrates. What a difference between 2005 and 1976! The victims are always layed out on the examining table naked, with their prohibited parts lit so brightly they are burned out of the picture. A brilliant technique to maintain realism and still get past the censors. But there is very little comic relief, and especially not a built in comic relief character like Quincy's boss. The show is very morose, very grim, and extremely depressing.

The laughable part is when they announce before certain episodes that "Parental Discretion is Advised." Shouldn't parental discretion be advised on ALL episodes of CSI, not just the ones that deal with sexual perversion? If you mention a grown man who wears diapers, parents must be warned, but if you have violently graphic details of a human body's destruction, parents should fend for themselves? Silly.