Play online chess
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Review: Deathly Hallows part 1
Saw the HP movie last night at midnight. Here are my initial thoughts:
It was nicely done, included enough of the books to appeal to HP fanatics and was intriguing--I hope--for non-HP fans. It lacked the piecemeal quality that so many of the earlier films did. There was honest dialogue and a good mix of action and intrigue. Also, there were some really fun moments. The scene in the Ministry of Magic with the Polyjuice Potion was classic, well acted, and fun to see the actors retaining Harry, Ron and Hermione's characteristics. Just loved that.
But the scene that made this movie for me was the retelling of the Tale of the Two Brothers by Hermione. I thought this was going to be hard to re-create in film, but the ink blots were fantastic. Whoever decided to do it that was a freaking genius.
Only some small things that bugged me. Seriously, would it have been so hard to put in Wormtail choking himself to make the silver hand relevant? But let's be honest, you're never going to make a Harry Potter fan completely happy.
Anyway, it was a good movie--not the best I've ever seen but enjoyable and hitting close to the heart of what HP is all about, and I'm really looking forward to the sequel.
It was nicely done, included enough of the books to appeal to HP fanatics and was intriguing--I hope--for non-HP fans. It lacked the piecemeal quality that so many of the earlier films did. There was honest dialogue and a good mix of action and intrigue. Also, there were some really fun moments. The scene in the Ministry of Magic with the Polyjuice Potion was classic, well acted, and fun to see the actors retaining Harry, Ron and Hermione's characteristics. Just loved that.
But the scene that made this movie for me was the retelling of the Tale of the Two Brothers by Hermione. I thought this was going to be hard to re-create in film, but the ink blots were fantastic. Whoever decided to do it that was a freaking genius.
Only some small things that bugged me. Seriously, would it have been so hard to put in Wormtail choking himself to make the silver hand relevant? But let's be honest, you're never going to make a Harry Potter fan completely happy.
Anyway, it was a good movie--not the best I've ever seen but enjoyable and hitting close to the heart of what HP is all about, and I'm really looking forward to the sequel.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
And now for something completely different... poker
This isn't about Harry Potter: I realize I have become fairly obsessed with HP recently. I really don't think about this as much as I post about it, but my public identity has become A) Harry Potter, and B) everything else.
However, I do other things in life, including weekly poker night at the seminary on Saturday nights. This last Saturday I lost money for, I think, only the second time this year, but it came on an interesting hand. So, for those of you who care about poker (which may be nobody), here is what happened. I'll tell you what I had, and figure out what I did wrong (or right) in this hand.
Blinds are 5 cents/10 cents. I'm the dealer and I have KJ of clubs. There are five players in the hand. The first two to act both fold, so I raise to $0.30. Ken in the small blind and Josh in the big blind both call.
The flop comes 7clubs/8clubs/10hearts. Ken checks, Josh bets $0.30, I raise to $1.00. Ken and Josh both call.
The turn is a 6 of hearts. Ken checks. Josh bets $2.00. OK, now it gets interesting. I have committed $1.30 to the pot, so the pot is $3.90 before Josh's bet. So I have to commit $2.00 to a $5.90 pot. I'm assuming at this point that Josh has a 9, so he made his straight and I am losing, but I can take the pot with a 9 or a club. That leaves me with potentially 12 outs out of 45 unknown cards. That's a little better than 1/4, which is about what I'm getting on my call with implied odds. So, I make the call.
Then things really get interesting.
Ken goes all-in behind me. Now, Ken had about $10 before this hand started, Josh had about $12 and I had $7.30. Josh calls immediately.
Oh dear. So now I have committed $3.30 to the pot and I have $4.00 remaining. The pot I can win is about $18.00. So, basically I am getting 4-18 on my money. In other words, if I'm getting 22% to win I should be making this call.
I ran the numbers. I'm thinking they both have a 9. If they have nothing else of import I can win the hand with one of the two other 9s or the other 8 clubs. So, best case I have 10 outs. 10/44 (plus the two unknown cards from their hands). 10/44 is... 22.7%... brilliant. So I'm right at that boundary. I decided to go for it and make the call. Probably the wrong decision.
Ken shows 9/9, and Josh has 10clubs/Qclubs.
Disaster. Josh has two of my clubs, so I'm only getting 8/42 or 19%. My outs are the other two nines, and the remaining 6 clubs (2,3,4,5,6,A). Sadly, the river came up blank.
So... was I right or wrong? What would you have done? When would you have gotten away from the hand, or would you?
However, I do other things in life, including weekly poker night at the seminary on Saturday nights. This last Saturday I lost money for, I think, only the second time this year, but it came on an interesting hand. So, for those of you who care about poker (which may be nobody), here is what happened. I'll tell you what I had, and figure out what I did wrong (or right) in this hand.
Blinds are 5 cents/10 cents. I'm the dealer and I have KJ of clubs. There are five players in the hand. The first two to act both fold, so I raise to $0.30. Ken in the small blind and Josh in the big blind both call.
The flop comes 7clubs/8clubs/10hearts. Ken checks, Josh bets $0.30, I raise to $1.00. Ken and Josh both call.
The turn is a 6 of hearts. Ken checks. Josh bets $2.00. OK, now it gets interesting. I have committed $1.30 to the pot, so the pot is $3.90 before Josh's bet. So I have to commit $2.00 to a $5.90 pot. I'm assuming at this point that Josh has a 9, so he made his straight and I am losing, but I can take the pot with a 9 or a club. That leaves me with potentially 12 outs out of 45 unknown cards. That's a little better than 1/4, which is about what I'm getting on my call with implied odds. So, I make the call.
Then things really get interesting.
Ken goes all-in behind me. Now, Ken had about $10 before this hand started, Josh had about $12 and I had $7.30. Josh calls immediately.
Oh dear. So now I have committed $3.30 to the pot and I have $4.00 remaining. The pot I can win is about $18.00. So, basically I am getting 4-18 on my money. In other words, if I'm getting 22% to win I should be making this call.
I ran the numbers. I'm thinking they both have a 9. If they have nothing else of import I can win the hand with one of the two other 9s or the other 8 clubs. So, best case I have 10 outs. 10/44 (plus the two unknown cards from their hands). 10/44 is... 22.7%... brilliant. So I'm right at that boundary. I decided to go for it and make the call. Probably the wrong decision.
Ken shows 9/9, and Josh has 10clubs/Qclubs.
Disaster. Josh has two of my clubs, so I'm only getting 8/42 or 19%. My outs are the other two nines, and the remaining 6 clubs (2,3,4,5,6,A). Sadly, the river came up blank.
So... was I right or wrong? What would you have done? When would you have gotten away from the hand, or would you?
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Minneapolis Open games
My games from the Minneapolis Open
Play online chess
Play online chess
Play chess online
Play online chess
Play chess online
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Election coverage from Frank
Let me sum up the elections for those of you who haven't seen a newspaper (or know what a newspaper is). This election we decided that what we need is change, so we voted in the Rebumblicans. This is opposed to the previous election where we wanted change and voted in the Dumbocrats. I continued being a good citizen and throwing away my vote for a party that will never hold office unless it comes in the form of a WWF wrestler who is certifiably crazy, though just as effective in office as anybody else.
Let me hazard a guess as to what will happen in the next election: we will want change and vote D. Then in the next election we'll want change and vote R. I love politics. It's like having the choice between pizza and steak every night. If you have pizza on Monday, then you probably want to have steak on Tuesday, then when Wednesday comes along you think, "Man, I had steak yesterday, better be pizza!" Then Thursday comes with the thought, "It's been two days since I've had steak!" And so on and so on, ad infinitum. Meanwhile, mac and cheese is sitting in the cupboard, feeling ignored.
All of this is ok... as long as you don't have any tea with dinner.
Let me hazard a guess as to what will happen in the next election: we will want change and vote D. Then in the next election we'll want change and vote R. I love politics. It's like having the choice between pizza and steak every night. If you have pizza on Monday, then you probably want to have steak on Tuesday, then when Wednesday comes along you think, "Man, I had steak yesterday, better be pizza!" Then Thursday comes with the thought, "It's been two days since I've had steak!" And so on and so on, ad infinitum. Meanwhile, mac and cheese is sitting in the cupboard, feeling ignored.
All of this is ok... as long as you don't have any tea with dinner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)