It's been a long lonely lonely time

So I've been absent for a bit. A few things you've missed while I wasn't updating this blog:

-I'm engaged to marry the lovely and charming Bronwyn Jones. She'll become Mrs. Bronwyn Jones-Mortell Feb. 29 in Honolulu. (beat: hyphenater. variance: who cares?)

-I'm fat (178), so I've embarked on a new commitment to excellence that includes some running and three trips to the gym every week. I'm hoping to be up to 10 miles a week by mid Jan. I have no lung capacity at all right now and my legs are shocked to discover how hard it is to drag my fat ass around the block. That changes pretty quickly though.

-I'm learning to cook. Mainly from Anthony Bordain's Les Halles Cookbook. This partially explains the fatness. French country food is delicious though. I have no problems working out a bunch to make up for one amazing meal a week. Saturday I made onglet de gasconge (hangar steak, in a white wine and mustard sauce) and bronwyn made a side of gratin dauphinoise (sliced potatoes cooked in cream, butter, rosemary thyme and butter, then baked with shredded Gruyeres over the top), all accompanied with a nice bottle of malbec. Life is good.

-I'm finally comfortable playing in games commensurate with my roll. I'm making the commitment to play in 2/4 games online whenever they are at least acceptable and definitely when they are good. This is a fair amount. So far, so good, but not a sample worth talking about.

That brings me to what got me writing this again. I've found a nice 1/3 game that usually becomes 2/5 by the end of the night. 100bb max buyin, and the game can quickly get deep as there are no shortstackers.

It's an interesting game that I'm being purposely vague about. But it's mainly regulars who tend to know each other. The dealers know the players, the players know each other, etc. There are one or two outstanding fish, but a lot of players are pretty competent. They have their leaks. Bet sizing, of course. Most are pretty passive when it comes to reraises, though they're decent about raising. There's almost no restealing preflop, and top-pair, ok-kicker is usually still worth a stack if you do it right.

But still, it's a game that isn't easily run over. Nothing at all like the soft 2/5 300-max down in Indiana. I suppose one answer is just go to the boats and fleece the donks, but this is a nice game, 10-minutes from the house, and I think there's something to be learned from it. I'm going to start with more patient aggression and see where it goes. C-betting in particular seems tricky and taking advantage of tilt, and taking advantage of it in the right way, seems particularly profitable. I think it comes down to an annoyingly vague concept--fitting into the flow of the game. Not forcing anything and being much more aware of what and why you're doing what you're doing.

I'm going to try to write a bit more about the games and see what I can find. I'll be playing most fridays, so hopefully something will come out of it. More money at the minimum.