A couple more things

I thought of a couple more things about the criticism of my blog.

The guy called me a Donkey. Well, he's right, but not for the reasons he thinks. I make Donkey plays all the time. If I didn't donk off my chips every once in a while, I'd be the perfect player. I'd sound just like Phil "If it weren't for luck I'd win all of these" Hellmuth.

Here's an example. I was playing in a Tournament at PokerRoom.com on Wednesday and got QQ in the small blind. The big blind was $400 and I raised to $800 (GOTCHA! It was a limit tournament) and got instantly called by the big blind. He didn't even take a second to think about it, just called. He was a very tight aggressive player, so red flags should have gone up all over the place. The flop came with an ace. Now any non-donkey would have said "oh well" and let the hand go. But I didn't consider his stack size much of a threat, and I played him down to the river to see his AK.

Total donkey move, if you consider that I prevously had plenty of chips to cruise into the money, which was actually pretty significant. Losing that pot took me out of the money. All the extra chips I lost on the turn and the river probably would have been plenty. I left myself in a spot where I had to win a pot pretty soon, and that didn't happen.

The point of telling that story is that I, of course, am a donkey. I don't recall EVER denying the fact that I am a donkey. EVERYBODY (Hellmuth excluded) makes a donkey play now and then. Even if min betting the flop when I caught a full house is a donkey move, I don't think it invalidates the advice that min-betting and min-raising pre-flop is ALMOST ALWAYS a bad move. There are no absolutes in poker. If someone tells you that something is NEVER the right move, or something else is ALWAYS the right play, they are simply clueless. Situationally, any move can be the right move. (Except maybe checking in position on the river with the nuts. I've seen it many times, but I still don't get it.)

But just because I call people donkeys and idiots doesn't mean that I am immune to acting like a donkey or an idiot. Fuck, I do it all the time! Anybody who says they don't is a FUCKING LIAR.

I also take issue with the fact that I chastise people for min-betting and min-raising, yet I "post about hands all the time where I min bet and min raise." I searched through my blog and didn't see any NL hand histories where I min-bet or min-raise. (I assume he's talking about pre-flop min-raises, because there's NO WAY IN HELL I am against min-raising after the flop. Min-raising the turn with the nuts is a great play IMO, because it almost ALWAYS gets called, even by a bluffer.)

Since I have been playing limit poker almost exclusively for the last few months, maybe he is reading limit hand histories and seeing me min-bet and min-raise all the time? And he is just too much of a MORON to realize that I'm talking about limit poker?

Because in NL ring games and tournaments, I very rarely min-bet, and almost NEVER min-raise pre-flop. Unless you are in a tournament and the blinds are big enough that a min-raise pre-flop is actually a significant amount to the other players based on their stack size, it's a bad play. But I don't even mean to take credit for that evaluation. I actually learned it from TJ Cloutier. So maybe that guy doesn't have an issue with me at all. Maybe he needs to take it up with TJ.

Update: Yesterday he added to his list of blogs he "hates to read." Choice number two was The Blogfather. I feel honored not only to be included in such company, but to actually be listed ahead of him? I am not worthy.