From a cold garage...
Warning: haphazard! :)
Read 'em and Weep
I'm posting something on LJ
For I have nothing better to do
Well okay that's not strictly true
I'm sitting in a cold garage
In Christchurch Kiwi Land
A due return to Paradise
Was originally planned
But I don't have a visa
The red tape has me trapped
And with no Aussie visa
I have no future mapped
A pretty girl from Paradise
Is what I truly need
Without a girl from Paradise
My heart will surely bleed
I've had a ball in Kiwi Land
It's a gorgeous little place
Even though I speak not the lingo
Which is a true disgrace
Hearing a strange language
Overwhelms you like whoosh
The edible creature in the sea
That swims is called a fsh
Myself I call a fsh a fish
That's just the way I am
If you don't like it scram
All you card players out there
Sitting among the bods
Can easily track my future
In terms of implied odds
If I don't draw the cards I need
My hand goes in the bin
But should I make a live straight flush
I'll get to go all in*
In more ways than one it seems
My future's fun and matey
Fingers crossed that I'll catch good
Like Ungar** in 1980
But Ungar caught just one wee chance
In twelve to fill that straight***
And my last name's not Ungar
So no wonder I have to wait
But implied odds means that if you do
Get paid off then it's worth it
And the real life version of that hand
Is an Aussie girl so perfect
Real life's true injustice
Can be unbearably hard
And yet so close to the fantasy world
Where outcomes hinge on the turn of a card
Whether by light or by dusk
By activity or by sleep
I'll be the one with the last laugh
The one to say read 'em and weep
* Can you spot the (obvious!) double meaning? ;)
** Stu Ungar was an all-time great poker player, who won the WSOP main event three times: in 1980, 1981 and 1997. He was not as lucky as made out in the poem because he in fact committed suicide.
*** This is a real hand - the clincher - that Ungar played against Doyle Brunson (poker's "godfather" of all time) in the 1980 WSOP main event. Brunson's hole cards were A7, and Ungar's were 54. The flop came down A72, and with $30.000 sitting in the pot, Brunson bet $17.000. In spite of the seemingly slim odds being offered by the pot to chase a long-shot belly draw, Ungar decided it was worth a call to see fourth street not because of the money sitting in the pot right there, but because of the possibility that his opponent would end up paying off with a good but second-best hand if the draw did fill, that is to say implied odds. In no limit poker there is the possibility to win all of your opponent's money in this fashion: a game of huge implied odds. And in the case of Ungar-Brunson 1980, this is in fact what did happen. Ungar got lucky and filled his straight, and Brunson called his all-in raise, subsequently failing to catch one of his four outs to fill up on the river. Ungar took all the chips, winner's prize money and the title that year.
Read 'em and Weep
I'm posting something on LJ
For I have nothing better to do
Well okay that's not strictly true
I'm sitting in a cold garage
In Christchurch Kiwi Land
A due return to Paradise
Was originally planned
But I don't have a visa
The red tape has me trapped
And with no Aussie visa
I have no future mapped
A pretty girl from Paradise
Is what I truly need
Without a girl from Paradise
My heart will surely bleed
I've had a ball in Kiwi Land
It's a gorgeous little place
Even though I speak not the lingo
Which is a true disgrace
Hearing a strange language
Overwhelms you like whoosh
The edible creature in the sea
That swims is called a fsh
Myself I call a fsh a fish
That's just the way I am
If you don't like it scram
All you card players out there
Sitting among the bods
Can easily track my future
In terms of implied odds
If I don't draw the cards I need
My hand goes in the bin
But should I make a live straight flush
I'll get to go all in*
In more ways than one it seems
My future's fun and matey
Fingers crossed that I'll catch good
Like Ungar** in 1980
But Ungar caught just one wee chance
In twelve to fill that straight***
And my last name's not Ungar
So no wonder I have to wait
But implied odds means that if you do
Get paid off then it's worth it
And the real life version of that hand
Is an Aussie girl so perfect
Real life's true injustice
Can be unbearably hard
And yet so close to the fantasy world
Where outcomes hinge on the turn of a card
Whether by light or by dusk
By activity or by sleep
I'll be the one with the last laugh
The one to say read 'em and weep
* Can you spot the (obvious!) double meaning? ;)
** Stu Ungar was an all-time great poker player, who won the WSOP main event three times: in 1980, 1981 and 1997. He was not as lucky as made out in the poem because he in fact committed suicide.
*** This is a real hand - the clincher - that Ungar played against Doyle Brunson (poker's "godfather" of all time) in the 1980 WSOP main event. Brunson's hole cards were A7, and Ungar's were 54. The flop came down A72, and with $30.000 sitting in the pot, Brunson bet $17.000. In spite of the seemingly slim odds being offered by the pot to chase a long-shot belly draw, Ungar decided it was worth a call to see fourth street not because of the money sitting in the pot right there, but because of the possibility that his opponent would end up paying off with a good but second-best hand if the draw did fill, that is to say implied odds. In no limit poker there is the possibility to win all of your opponent's money in this fashion: a game of huge implied odds. And in the case of Ungar-Brunson 1980, this is in fact what did happen. Ungar got lucky and filled his straight, and Brunson called his all-in raise, subsequently failing to catch one of his four outs to fill up on the river. Ungar took all the chips, winner's prize money and the title that year.