Marvelous Macro

Here's a better example of what the Canon S3IS with the Raynox DCR-250 Macro add-on lens. The picture below was taken late Saturday night beneath the light on my deck. It was taken through the Raynox at 8x optical zoom and he is about 3/4 of an inch in length. Both of these shots can be clicked on for a larger image view without taking up your whole screen. Thanks to Terry Fletcher for his tutorial on how to implement thickbox.

This is the same insect taken at full magnification (12x optical, 4x digital) and I focused on where the antennae connect to his head. This Raynox lens gives such great detail! Hope you like these. Please leave a comment if you do.

Peacock Feathers

This was taken at my daughter's birthday party at a petting zoo from about 20 feet inthe air. Full framed, uncropped shot at full magnification (12x optical, 4x Digital).

No Poker Today, But Some Cool Pics I Took

So this past Sunday I'm relaxing on the deck and chatting with Mrs. Whodat and this little anole comes running by. Luckily I had my camera handy.

He's sitting there doing what looked like push-ups, and then shows off his dewlap to attract females (can't say that I blame him...it's a beautiful day and I'm sure the lady anoles are cruising as well)and defend his territory.

They're about 9 inches long and this particular reptile is the only one native to the U.S. They're commonly confused as chameleons as they have the ability to turn brown also. There was actually a brown one on my deck. I almost caught a shot of him grabbing a bug but it wasn't meant to be.


Below is a closer shot of him taken with full maginifcation on my Canon S3 IS (12x optical, 4x digital)

The shot below was even closer as he scurried to another beam on the deck. All these shots are full frame and no cropping at all. Hope you enjoy these. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Poker, Poker, Poker

In a recent post I talked about losing focus on what games I wanted to concentrate on and I think I've come up with an idea that will work. I'm going to stay with NL 6-max for the most part on Full Tilt Poker and Bodog. I'm also going to drop down a level at FTP to work out some of my leaks. But I'll be playing 6-max Limit on Poker Stars since my bankroll is quite smaller there. Playing limit will give me something to do at work during the slow times (semi-brag, I guess).

There's a new site that I would like you to try out called The Poker Basement run by one of my mini mastermind members, Flamm. He's a successful player who's turned $84.00 into well over 4 digits and is really generous with his time. His site is very good to get your feet wet if you like playing online poker but just don't know where to begin.

He has some great articles for beginners, bank roll building, reviews of training sites, books and software, and if you get stuck in a hand you can email the hand history to him and he'll analyse it for you. Kind of like having a personal coach.

So now you're thinking, 'great, but what's the catch'? That's the best thing about The Poker Basement. There isn't one because it's a FREE SITE. Please check out his content and leave him a comment. His site will be huge one day and you can say you were there in the beginning. Until then, good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Bradford Pear Blooms

These are the blooms from a Bradford Pear tree in my neighbor's yard. This particular bloom had 4 or 5 flowers on it and was no larger in diameter than a silver dollar coin. Each individual flower is about the size of a U.S. nickel.

Below is a magnified version of one of the flowers to show the stamens up close. These are hand held shots and are also uncropped.

Wednesday

I've been bouncing back and forth recently between playing Limit Hold 'Em (LHE), Full-Ring No Limit Hold 'Em (NLHE), and 6-max NLHE and seem to be losing focus. I like all three games, as they each have their own merit, but by playing all three I'm seeing a lot of variance now. I think I need to pick one and stick with it and hopefully it'll be soon. I've been talking to NeonBlack about this and he's given me some good advice on Full-ring if I decide to go back to that game, so thanks for that, Neon. Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.

Yesterday My daughter was excited to pick the first flower from the phlox plant on our deck and I wanted to get some shots of it with the Raynox lens before it wilted. This is a sign that warmer days will reamin constant, since this perrennial is usually the first to bloom down here. The first shot is kind of close up to show scale. That is whodat's thumb in the top left of the frame. These are all full framed, uncropped shots.

This second one is shot with full 4x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom to get closer.

The third one is taken with 21x digital zoom. The Canon S3IS is capable of 48x digital zoom, but this photographer isn't steady enough to get a good shot. Yet. Hope you enjoy these and leave a comment if you like.

Macro Monday

So I'm playing fetch the ball with my Golden Retriever to wear her butt out and I spy this weed coming up in the lawn. The flowers looked pretty cool so I thought I'd give it a look through my Raynox lens to get up close. This lens allows you to really get inside the subject, almost like having a microscope. The flower you see below is slightly larger than a grain of rice, so imagine how small the bug is that's sitting on the top here. This is a full frame, hand held shot using the magnification (21x) from my Canon S3 IS.

As always, you can click on the thumbnail for a larger image. Comments welcome.

Incredible Billiards Video

Anyone who enjoys playing pool will love this video of Semih Sayginer. He's a world class 3 cushion billiards player and it's unreal what he does in this video.

New add-on lens for macro shooting

I'm getting used to my Raynox DCR-250 macro lens and wanted to share a shot here. I'm trying to find interesting things to shoot for a macro feature here so this is the first in what will be a semi-regular thing.

This is a hand held, non-cropped, full frame shot at 21x magnification with my Canon S3 IS. I'll reveal what this actually is after a few people take some guesses. As always, I'm using thickbox so you can click on the image for a larger view.

Sat. Night Home Tourney

Went to a friends house for a semi- regular tournament this past Saturday night. 8 runners showed up for the $30.00 buy in tourney. There were 2 players I had no experience with so my strategy was to play this like a Sit & Go; tight early playing only premium hands with some c-bets thrown in to keep the weak passives/donk bettors honest.

The blinds started at 1/2. First hand I'm in the Big Blind and was running late so I didn't get to play it. Next hand, in the SB I get 77 and raise it up to 7 and get 2 callers. The flop comes Q 9 6 which doesn't help me and I check. Normally this is a spot I c-bet when playing in cash games but I know one of the players likes to bet (usually 1/2 pot or less) with any piece of the flop so I check with the intention of calling. No such luck as it's checked around. The turn brings me a 7. The card is great for my hand but brings a possible straight so I protect my hand by betting 2/3 pot and I take it down. Nice start.

I pretty much sat back from there and waited for opportunities to come up to gain some chips. Most of the hands I played I opened in the CO or button and would take it down with a strong c-bet. The general feel I got was that my aggression was going to pay off in the right spots. Most of the players don't really have a good concept of how to properly bet, or assess their opponent's ranges except NeonBlack whose always dangerous in terms of poker play.

A good example was one of the unknowns is in middle position. UTG opens to 4, and he min. raises to 8. All fold except the opener who is getting great odds here with any two cards. Flop comes Axx with a flush draw out there. Unknown openly groans and starts shaking his head. I knew right away he had KK. So UTG leads for a bet and Unknown calls. Turn comes a deuce and UTG leads again. Unknown shoves and loses when UTG shows A2. He's not happy but if he raises more pre-flop he gets him to fold.

So I noticed that the UTG guy will be susceptible to some light 3-betting since I'll have absolute position on him. I get to do it to him twice. One time he outright folds pre-flop. Next time he calls and checks the flop. I had like QT off , miss the flop completely and give him a stiff c-bet. He tanks for a few minutes and stares at me saying "I know you have AK. I don't think I can call though." Thanks. You just told me you have maybe mid pair with a weak kicker. If you call here I'm double barelling you 'cuz I know you're folding that weak sauce. Too bad he folded.

Nothing else really happened except when we got to the bubble. 3 places pay. 3rd place gets their buy in back and 2nd gets double that. I have a nice stack after earlier knocking out NeonBlack, who was getting pretty low on chips. He shoves in early position and I'm on the Button w/ 77 again. I know he needs chips and will shove a huge range here so call, as the blinds were on life supprot and hanging on for dear life. He shows KQ spades and I send him to the pool table when he doesn't improve.

The chip leader has a giant stack so my play now is to avoid him for the most part and punish the shorties. Thanks to Ryan's Sit & Go videos and my Mini Mastermind group at Poker Dynasty for improving my bubble play a lot. I knock one of them out and am in the money. I get it to Heads Up and start shoving any 2.

The blinds are now 20/40 and I have right around 11 or 12 BBs so I'm not folding much. I get no action when I shove. We go back and forth for a few hands until he finally open shoves. I know he doesn't have a pocket pair, as he LOVES to trap people with big hands. I figure I'm a 60/40 with my T9 os and call. He shows A7 os. Just about what I figured he have. I hit a T on the flop to take the lead. If this holds up I'll be in great position to win my third tourney here. ( I've won twice and placed in the money 4 out of 5 times ). Sadly an ace hits the river. I'm sure I a case could be made for folding the hand since my M was right at 11 and my calling range should be really tight. I went with my read here so I'm not worried too much about it.

I did stack him in the cash game that followed, although he only bought in for 10BBs. What is that weak sauce buy in after winnig the lion's share o fthe money? LOL. We played 1/2 NL. I bought in for 30 BB and was one of the biggest stacks on the table. Most everyone else bought in for 10- 20BBs I had 88 UTG+1 and raise it to 6, get one caller (10BBs). I hit my set and lead/ call his shove for the win. The cash game didn't last too long though and I made a little bit more so all in all it was a good night.

Good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand....