Dear Mason

[James282]

Sorry readers, Mason is away for the week, but we have a guest cast of pyschologists to help you out!

Dear Mason, my girlfriend doesn't listen to my needs. I tell her I need space and want to hang out with my friends on the weekends, and she tags along. Then the next night, she needs a "girls night out," what should I do?
-Confused in Chicago

Dear Confused, what determines who among us will get rich and who stays stagnant or drops down? Better players will have a better chance at success of course, and success on a greater scale. But even a WCP could very conceivably end up having to drop down to lower limits while a mediocre player may rise to the big games, maybe never even realizing they're as good as they truly are. It might not even be a stretch to say this HAS happened.
-Guy on Tilt

Dear Mason, I'm having trouble figuring out if I should leave my current career as a Waitress to try and become an actress. I've always felt like I should follow my dreams - what do you think?
Thanks, Hopeful in Hartford

Dear Hopeful,
You are dead on. Check-folding the river is bad for this reason. It's still probably close. Nonetheless, the point can still be made that as the games get tougher, players need to stop playing cookie cutter poker (i.e. if you call the turn, you HAVE to call the river - pay off one bet on the river mentality). If you don't have the check-call, check-call, check-fold line in your reportoire (with made hands) you are leaving money on the table.
-J_V

Dear Mason, we always ask you for advice, but how about you? What's your most embarassing story of love and lust?
Thanks! Curious in Carolina

Dear Curious - I don't normally do this, but fine. A real embarrassing one. Again, draw: I open with just a pair of jacks and I get called by a player who had passed the first time around. He draws one. I suspect he has two pair because he wouldn't play a draw head-up. So I draw one (and don't improve) and bet out as a bluff, confident he'll fold if he doesn't fill up. He calls. Uh-oh. I say "two pair," hoping he'll show his two pair and I can muck,feigning a smaller two pair, without having to show I only have a pair of jacks. He doesn't respond. I say, "two SMALL pair," with added emphasis on the SMALL. Nothing. Finally, I say, "threes and deuces with a four."

Now he says, "Chop it up," and turns over three and deuces with a four.
-andyfox

Dear Mason, the other night when I was watching TV with my boyfriend the phone rang and when I answered, the person hung up right away. Then today, I answered a call as the same time as him and there was a girl on the other line - I got really mad and yelled at him, and now he's so upset with me, what should I do?
Thanks, Sad in Seattle.

Your turn bet here is really quite bad. The guy was basically wearing a hat that said "checkraisin" on it. I guess it is possible he is just representing a huge hand, but making an expensive play like this with no real history between you two seems unlikely.
-Paluka



This post in honor of Diplomat, who did something just like this(and his was a lot funnier) a while back. Ever think about poker when it seems like there should be something slightly more important to think about?
-James