The importance of paying attention

WARNING! There's ANOTHER HURRICANE ENTERING THE GULF OF MEXICO!

Okay, I realize that Hurricane Katrina only happened three weeks ago, and that it was one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country.

But how many more hurricanes are we going to overreact to before we go back into normal "watching the hurricanes" mode?

I guess I'm cold hearted, but I was always a hurricane watcher. I have a lot of family in the south and in Florida so I always watched them, sometimes even staying up late at night and watching them hit land.

I've always felt that the hurricane coverage was a TEENY bit over the top, with the standard "insane weather guy" holding onto a lamp post or something, but other than that a healthy respect to hurricanes is given.

It's hard to NOT give hurricanes respect. We drove back through Mississippi and Louisiana from Florida just after Hurricane Dennis hit, and there was quite a bit of damage.

But now, it seems like mayors and governors from the ENTIRE GULF COAST are declaring mandatory evacuations, days before we even know where the potential hurricane might strike land.

I guess it doesn't do too much harm to by hyper-sensitive to a hurricane, but doesn't that inevitably lead to problems? If we pay TOO MUCH attention to the next few hurricanes, eventually we will not maintain that attention, and another one will suprise us?

Paying attention

I'm all for multi-tabling, but I don't know how some guys do it. I've seen a screenshot of someone 11 tabling tournaments. I just couldn't do it. I like to watch all the players and know how they play.

In a SNG last night there were 6 players left and I had a pretty healthy stack, maybe second in chips with around 2500. I was on the BB (120) with 55, and the UTG player goes all in for 600. The CO player thinks and thinks and thinks, and then just calls.

Against a good player, to me this means MONSTER HAND. If you aren't trying to isolate that player, and you don't mind if another player calls, with three more to act behind you, you must REALLY like your hand.

But I had been watching this player the whole tournament, and my read told me he was thinking about whether he could call with his hand. So it had to be fairly strong, but definitely not a monster. He didn't want to risk the rest of his 1800 stack on it.

So I pushed all in with my 55, hoping he would fold when suddenly his tournament was on the line. This is a risk because while a good player would fold, a good player probably wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

He called, and I got lucky when both opponents showed AJ. The original raiser showed AJ of clubs, and two clubs hit the flop. But I stood to win the larger pot as long as no A or J fell on the turn or river.

No A, J or club fell, and I was leading the tournament, going away.

If I had been multi-tabling 11 tables, I doubt I could have put that player on a weak hand. But I don't know what I would have done in that situation.