RIO GRANDE

My wife is out of town, so I can't watch any of our usual programs, since I need to save them for her return. So each night she was away, I watched a movie while playing poker. I could start giving movie reviews slash poker analysis capsules. For instance, last night I watched the Duke in his first pairing with mega-babe Maureen O'Hara, of fiery red hair fame. The film was the last of John Ford's so-called Cavalry Trilogy, and by all reports was the weakest entry, while still regarded as a minor classic.

I enjoyed the film, though it was rather light. They set up a good situation up front with Duke's estranged son joining the cavalry by lying about his age after flunking out of West Point. Duke makes it clear that there will be no special treatment, and the son clearly doesn't want it. That was a nice relationship. Things get complicated when the boy's mum, Duke's wife, shows up to get papers signed to get the boy out of camp. Neither dad nor boy will sign the papers, and Duke has such an overdeveloped sense of duty that he won't even do the wife, since he is on duty, no matter how hot she looks in black and white.

The story was all set up, then didn't have much left to say, so there were many scenes of military minstrels serenading Duke and his squeeze. The music was nice, and I enjoyed the scenes, even though the story was at a halt. Since I was multitasking, my interest in the film began to lag, and next thing I noticed they were shooting at some injuns, er, Native Americans. At the end, Duke was healing from an arrow to the clavicle, and everyone seemed happy. I played $2/4 NLHE and won $425, so I left happy as well.

I am a UFO buff and regularly sit in on coversations with the world's leading ufologists in an online forum. Last year, there was a clip that I watched with a supposed UFO in a scene from a Duke movie, and it turned out to be the movie I watched last night. In a scene where Duke is dressed in finery and O'Hara is ironing, Duke moves in for a two-shot, and over his shoulder there appears to be a strange craft in the sky flittering about. I had forgotten the clip and didn't even remember that it had come from this film. The funny thing is that I was enjoying the cinematography and scenery for over an hour, then when they first showed O'Hara at the ironing board, the first thing I thought was wow, she is so overlit, this is obviously shot on a soundstage. The lighting of this scene was really poor compared to every other scene in the film.

She looked to be in front of some set dressing with a matte background behind her. Once the Duke moved into the frame, I immediately realized it was the scene from the UFO debate. Over his right shoulder, at frame left, there was a strange light, which flew around a bit, then split into two, before rejoining and flying out of sight. That would be really cool if there really was a UFO captured on film in an old Republic Pictures film, but this particular light must have been some kind of reflection off the matte backrdrop. Having seen the entire film, I just can't believe that this scene was even shot on location, much less captures an unexplained phenomenon.

Most of my profit last night came from two hands in which I bet a flush draw on the flop, made it on the turn, and got paid off on the river. I have been concentrating on improving my cash game this past week, and I really believe I turned a corner two days ago. I had been playing overly passively, chasing draws, and trying too hard to be sneaky. I missed so often, that I would just choose random times to play aggressively like I had something. It worked occasionally, but backfired often enough such that I always went broke eventually.

I had been in a pattern of buying in, building up, then crashing down. I was winning and winning, then suddenly I was broke. I decided it might be better to keep with the winning and winning, while avoiding those situation in which I might go broke. Sounds like a simple plan, and not surprisingly, it is working. Two days ago, I won $1000 playing $2/4 and $3/6 NL. Yesterday, I won $800 more. I toned down my reckless aggression, and focused on getting my money in with the best of it. I'm now laying down draws and folding more hands to raises, knowing that I needn't make a stand on every hand, but am much better off awaiting better opportunities.

So last night, I got into a pot in which I limped in for $4 with 76d, then called a raise to $16 that had been called by two others before me. The flop came QJ3, favoring diamonds, and I led into the raiser. With two others to act after him, I figured chances were good, he would just call here, even if he had trips. He did call, and the others folded. I hit my flush on the turn and lead out with a 2/3 pot-sized bet. He insta-called, so I was fairly sure he had AA, KK, or possibly trips. When the river blanked, I bet out good and let him call me down. He showed KK and I made a ton on the hand. Not long after, I played another hand the same way against a different opponent, who actually tried to raise me off my hand at the river when the board paired. I made a killing there too. Those two hands were pretty much my whole night, which was only two hours.

Earlier in the day, I made a great call. I got into a hand against a frequent preflop raiser, as I held K2s in the big blind. The flop came J42 and I check/called. He had a habit of making strong continuation bets, so I wanted to let him fire, since I thought my pair was good. Rather than check/raising him though, I bet out half the pot on the turn, which happened to be a nine. Holding bottom pair, I liked this play better than a check/raise, since the turn was sure to offer an overcard to my pair, and I could define my hand as playable and let him make the tough choice with only one card to come. He flat called, so he might have the jack, or he may have QT or a diamond draw. The river paired the 4, and I checked to him. He bet $120, which was a little more than half the pot, and obviously a tough call to make with bottom pair. The board read J4294, no flush.

I took a few seconds and thought through the hand. There's no way the four helped him. Either he had me beat already or he is trying to buy it. If he had me beat, then he's either got AJ, an overpair to the board, or possibly a boat to bet that strongly. But even if he had a hand that strong, would he be pushing that bet in now as opposed to on the turn with all those draws out there? I had shown an interest in the pot at the turn and he responded by simply calling. If he had a monster, he would have raised me in that spot. So then why bet so much now? If he actually had a monster, like a boat, he would be inviting a showdown. I decided he had missed his draw and was now trying to push me out of the pot based on the scare card at the river. I made the call and he showed AT offsuit. I took down a big pot with my deuces. This hand was a turning point for me because I used to be the other guy.