zowie

won a 320-person mtt today. was lucky in key spots, twice flopped two pair vs AA, etc., but generally happy with how I played. here was a key moment, with the acknowledgement that this is a basic insight, but appeared new to me:

with blinds at 800/1600 and about 44 players left, I had 35k chips, about average; the button had 28k and the big blind (irrelevant) say 12k. the big blind was away from the table. the button raised to 4k, and I immediately realized that the button would raise an incredibly wide range here, just trying to grab the blinds, and four off the bubble, with a good stack, he could not call a large reraise without a premium hand. so I pushed, and he folded. I had the Q6 offsuit. this is a pretty basic hand, but it was significant to me because it required me to empathize successfully and act on a conviction about empathy.

also, chris ballard=good writer.

banrkroll: $2,413 morrisons
indigestion: fast and abstinence
soundtrack: "loose lips," kimya dawson