I’m pleased to announce that the Gentleman Drinker is now online. Think Oscar Wilde by way of the Banana Republic outlet in Camarillo. The editor is one of our weekly regulars, and if the first post is anything to go by, it’s going to be some pretentious ass shit. Sounds good to me. The blogworld could use more pretention and fewer hand histories.
Monthly Archives: July 2004
Slaughtered
Wow. I got slaughtered today. My bankroll still has a little less than the recommended buy-in at a 1/2 table, but that’s only a third of what I started the day with. It was the same story all afternoon and evening. I couldn’t catch cards, I couldn’t win with the ones I did, and I had odds for all sorts of draws that never materialized. On top of that, I kept ending up at tables with tough players and suckout kings that sent me away crying like a little girl. My VP$IP was pretty damn low: 16.81% And my loss rate pretty damn high: -7.74BB/100 hands over 589 hands.
I think a holiday from poker is in order–online poker, anyway. The weekly game tomorrow night is still on, of course. The worst I can do there is lose the $5.
Poor showing in the morning freeroll
Two bad plays, two bad beats, and I bounced out in 98th place.
Bad play #1: Hiltons in the big blind, 6 callers. I should have raised before the flop. Flop comes up K-x-x and I fold to a 2.75xBB bet. Winner had pocket sevens. Damn.
Bad play #2: Tens in LP, 4 players. Fold to one small bet after a pair flops with an ace. Turn is a 10. Damn.
Bad beat #1: ATo in the SB, 2 players. Flopped an ace, with a flush draw on the board. I bet 2xBB and the other guy raises 5xBB all-in. I outchip him by 5 times and call. He’s Q5s and makes his flush on the river.
Bad beat #2: With about 2xBB left in my stack, I raise all-in in LP with rockets. Two people call, including Mr. Flush from SO#1. His KJo makes a straight on the turn. And I’m out.
Good thing these are freerolls. I clearly need the practice.
Public Service Announcement: Dealing with Spyware
In the last few months I’ve had to deal with crazy spyware on my machine and my sister’s machine. It used to be the case that you’d get spyware on your machine by installing a program like Limewire or getting suckered into adding the Bonzi Buddy to your computer. Now visiting the wrong web page with Internet Explorer can get spyware installed without your knowing.
Removing spyware
If you’ve been infected, you’re in for some work. It’s like dealing with a flea infestation, without all the vacuuming.
1. Download and install these three free programs: AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, HijackThis! AdAware and Spybot S&D are similar, but they each seem to cover some things that the other doesn’t, so it’s good to get the overlap. HijackThis is a very powerful and dangerous tool. Don’t mess around with HJT unless directed to do so by a guru (more on that in a bit).
2. Use AdAware’s update function to install all available updates and run a full scan. Then allow it to fix everything it finds. There might be some things which you’ll want to keep, but if in doubt, fix it. AdAware might require you to restart your machine.
3. Use Spybot’s update function to install all available updates and run a full scan. Be sure to select a mirror located in your country, or you may get a checksum error when downloading the update. Then allow it to fix everything it finds. There might be some things which you’ll want to keep, but if in doubt, fix it. Spybot might require you to restart your machine. Spybot also has some Internet Explorer protection features. I’ve only run into a couple issues with this one, and usually it involves watching some cartoon on the web. Since doing this kind of activity isn’t critical to my happiness, I just move on.
4. Run a full anti-virus scan. If you have AV software, make sure the definitions are up to date. If you don’t, you can do an online scan at BitDefender or you can install AVG Anti-Virus.
5. Run HijackThis and save the log of what it finds. Do not mark/fix anything until you’ve gone to The PC Guide Discussion Forums and posted a description of your problem, your prior actions, and the full log file. One of the experts (Budfred’s a good one) will go through your log file and give you further instructions. If you’re not comfortable with rebooting into safe mode or using a command line to delete files in your windows\system32 directory, recruit someone who is.
That’s about it. It’s a lot of steps, and it’ll take you a few hours to do it, but for the really vicious stuff, it’s the only way.
Preventing spyware
There are a couple options:
1. Don’t use Internet Explorer. The combination of insecure software and market domination makes IE the target for all kinds of hijinks. Try Mozilla instead.
2. If you’re like me, you like using IE (for no good reason). In this case, use Windows Update to get the latest security patches for Windows and IE. Download Spybot S&D and/or SpyWare Blaster and run the protection scheme. Update your virus definitions or get AVG to protect your system.
Good luck.
Link of the day
Yahoo! News – Body Of Woman Found In Rural Area Identified
(PDF of original web page)
Thanks to Iggy.