The Draft

I'll begin by talking poker as I'm certain a larger proportion of this blog's readers are interested in that compared with the NHL draft.

June was meant to be something of a vacation month, but I still wanted to put in some hands around the Vegas trip. Since returning, and especially the last few days, the games have been AWFUL. I think this is for three main reasons. The first, summer is here and people are going outside. Second, it's been long enough after Black Friday that many regulars have relocated and rejoined the games, throwing the reg:fish ratio out of whack. Finally, Stars had a technical problem a couple days back which wouldn't allow players to update their client without reinstalling the whole thing, which probably caused a lot of fish (who aren't as determined to log in on average as a regular grinding out a living) to simply say screw it and do something else. The result is that June is going to move from a "half vacation month" to "70% vacation month" in terms of volume. I don't really have a problem with that, but I'd love to see the games get better in the near future.

To make matters worse, I haven't been running particularly well this month. A couple HHs to illustrate:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
MP3 ($96.30)
CO ($56.55)
Button ($118.50)
SB ($100.50)
BB ($125.65)
UTG ($50.80)
UTG+1 ($59.90)
MP1 ($116.05)
Hero (MP2) ($100)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A♠, A♥
2 folds, MP1 bets $3, Hero raises to $12, MP3 calls $12, CO calls $12, 3 folds, MP1 raises to $116.05 (All-In), Hero calls $88 (All-In), MP3 calls $84.30 (All-In), CO calls $44.55 (All-In)

Flop: ($354.35) 4♦, 10♦, K♦ (4 players, 4 all-in)

Turn: ($354.35) 2♦ (4 players, 4 all-in)

River: ($354.35) 5♦ (4 players, 4 all-in)

Total pot: $354.35 | Rake: $3
Main pot: $227.70 between MP3, CO, MP1 and Hero, won by MP3
Side pot 1: $119.25 between MP3, MP1 and Hero, won by MP3
Side pot 2: $7.40 between MP1 and Hero, won by Hero

Results:
MP1 had A♣, Q♣ (flush, King high).
Hero had A♠, A♥ (flush, King high).
MP3 had Q♥, Q♦ (flush, King high).
CO had 9♦, J♦ (flush, King high).
Outcome: MP1 won $3.70, Hero won $3.70, MP3 won $343.95

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed)
BB ($105.75)
UTG ($101.80)
UTG+1 ($101.50)
MP1 ($41.30)
MP2 ($183.75)
Hero (CO) ($100)
Button ($115.20)
SB ($36.20)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A♣, A♥
2 folds, MP1 bets $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $4, 1 fold, SB raises to $36.20 (All-In), 1 fold, MP1 raises to $41.30 (All-In), Hero calls $37.30

Flop: ($119.80) 10♠, Q♥, 3♣ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($119.80) J♠ (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($119.80) A♠ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $119.80 | Rake: $3
Main pot: $109.60 between MP1, Hero and SB, shared by MP1 and SB ($54.80)
Side pot 1: $10.20 between MP1 and Hero, won by MP1

Results:
SB had K♥, K♠ (straight, Ace high).
MP1 had K♣, K♦ (straight, Ace high).
Hero had A♣, A♥ (three of a kind, Aces).
Outcome: SB won $53.30, MP1 won $63.50

Twosmeets posted a great quote from a Starcraft 2 commentator a couple days back:

"It's a good thing you're playing Starcraft, and not that horrible, horrible game of poker. Imagine you're playing a game, you're doing great, you have a huge lead, it's a lock that you win, and suddenly FIFTY ULTRALISKS spawn and you lose. You shrug and say, 'That's Starcraft! Ultralisks on the river.'"

Couldn't agree more.

At any rate, the NHL draft was yesterday. As in most major North American sports, draft day also typically has a great deal of trade activity. The Flames selected a skilled but smaller Swiss winger at 13th overall in the first round, and a Finnish center (the younger brother of a very high end prospect from last year) in the second round. Overall, I'm fairly happy with the picks as we need skill and speed. Our new GM also felt the need to deal shutdown defenseman Robyn Regehr to Buffalo, unloading Ales Kotalik's contract in the process, netting us two younger players in return (great things aren't really expected of either). This deal has received a ton of public backlash, and for good reason. It is nothing more than a salary dump. Taking a deep breath and a step back to see the big picture however, and it isn't entirely unreasonable from the Flames' standpoint. Hopefully Butler turns into a solid 3-6 defenseman. We also managed to resign Alex Tanguay at a good price, though fairly long term (5 years) for his age. We really needed him back, and a $3.4 million cap hit for a first line player who has great chemistry with your franchise power forward can't be a bad thing.