Random thoughts about my interests which include (in no particular order) poker, finance & investing, politics, football and whatever else I happen to see that piques my interest

Monday, February 8, 2010

The difference between rights and privileges

Been thinking about this for a while but could not figure out how I wanted to say this. Say you lived in Chicago. You have never had a drivers license. Hell they got the El etc and you probably didn't need it. But you decide you want one now. So you read your book, you go to a driving school just to make sure you understand the rules of the road. You take the written test and ace it and then go out on your driving test. You pass it with flying colors. Someone at the DMV then tells you that you can't have a license because a few of your fellow citizens are afraid of you when you drive that 1965 Chrysler New Yorker tankmobile on the highway as you might flip out and crush their little Prius or Civic with your 4 ton steel monster.





What would happen in this instance? Do you think the person denied a license would be able to sue and have just cause? He isn't guaranteed a license now is he? There is no right to drive listed in the Bill of Rights, no amendment was passed to the Constitution. We are told time and again that driving is a privilege and not a right and yet to be denied a license on such grounds is unthinkable and a lawsuit resulting from it would be granted pretty quickly I am willing to bet.





All this is a lead in to my thoughts on a right we are supposedly granted by the Constitution, the Right to Bear Arms. Read it sometime. It's number 2 on the Bill of Rights which leads me to believe the Founding Fathers thought pretty highly of it. And yet, try and buy a handgun in Chicago or New York City and see how hard that is. Try to get a Concealed Carry Permit and not to have your permit revoked in Philadelphia (see how pissy they are too that because of reciprocity, Pensylvanians are getting concealed weapons permits from here in Florida and they can't revoke those unless the holder actually breaks a law) when your home is broken into. Apparently your gun "scares" some people so badly that they want to do what they can to ban you from even having a handgun. Some areas of the country pass restrictions on how many bullets your clip can hold or try to make every bullet be microencoded and trackable from the people who sell it to you. Which would make the cost of bullets very expensive. Or they refuse to issue a concealed weapons permit to you but won't tell you why.





What I'm trying to tell you is there are a lot of people out there who want you to believe that they know what's best for you. They want you to rely on someone else to help you when your life is threatened but they certainly don't guarantee someone will be there to help you in your hour of need. They tell you women especially that your body is your own to do with as you like but won't let you carry a concealed weapon to protect that body. And let's face it ladies, we may all be equal but in 95 cases out of 100, a man will outphysical a women in a confrontation. Cuz thankfully we aren't all built the same and as Pepe LePeu says "Vive la difference" We live in a free land supposedly but it's not as free as you think. You can't let them take away what you are guaranteed in the Constitution "for your own good" Keep that in mind boys and girls as its a dangerous world we live in. Remember the Boy Scout motto and Be Prepared.





On a lighter note, I mentioned I would talk about Valentine's Day in my last post, I believe. It is a tradition in the Cavemann household for Mrs Cave and I to play in the Valentine's Day couples poker tourney at the local dog track/poker room. We have played in all but one since they inaugurated the thing and about 6-7 years ago and have hit the money twice before. Though the Mrs has not had great luck in playing, I have done pretty well. It's a time limited tourney so everyone left at the end of 3 hours of play is in the running. Each couple (if both people are still left in the tourney) totals their chips and the top 5 out of 50 couple make the money. It's a fun tourney and like I said, we have had some success.





This year unlike other years, the entire tourney was No Limit Holdem. Other years it was either all Limit Holdem or Limit for the first half and then No Limit the rest of the way. I started out pretty well, didn't get much hands but make the most of them to be a little over my starting stack. Early on I was playing an A-10 in late position from seat 10 against the two blinds. The woman in the small blind in seat 4 I didn't recognize but I had played against the guy next to her in the big blind before. Older Asian dude who played loose aggressive. Flop came 3-9-10 the lady in the small blind who I had tabbed as pretty aggressive earlier checks and the guy bets out for 500. Blinds were only 50-100 and there was only 400 in the pot at this time. I put him on a pure steal or maybe a pair of 3s or 9s. I didn't want to screw around with him and have him suck out a second pair so I raised him to 1500. All folds and I pick up some chips. Then the cards were dead for a while. The lady in seat 4 hit some hands mostly against the Asian guy and played very aggressively, me and the guy next to me kept it pretty tight and dumped most of our hands. Everyone was having a good time except the Asian guy who was pretty short stacked by then and the chatter was pretty light around the table.



A little later on I pick up AA middle position. I decided to risk it everyone had folded to this point and just call. I was hoping the aggressive lady in the big blind would raise me. Unfortunately the aggressive lady just called along with 2 others. Not what I wanted with AA. Flop wasn't bad with Q-8-2. Checked to me and I make an almost pot sized raise. Seat 4 calls of course but everyone else folds. Next card is a J. I don't put her on 9-10 for the straight but QJ is a possibility. She checks and I bet 2/3 of the pot which she calls again. Not sure what to put her on but definitely a queen, hopefully not something like QJ or Q8 suited. Next card is a low blank. She thinks and then checks. Wasn't sure if I was ahead or behind but felt if I bet and she raises all in I'm screwed so I just check. She showed a queen and I breathed a sigh of relief when my AA held up. This I think set me up later to win a very big pot. Got AA again in early position and this time I made a normal raise. It gets folded around to seat 6 who thinks for a minute and pushes all in. I think he put me on middle pair or AK or AQ and even if I have JJ or QQ he is not much of a dog. Boy was he surprised when I called and flipped over AA to his AK. Took him out and almost doubled up.

By now I had a nice chipstack going. Played carefully but made a few moves to steal some pots and keep my stack up. People are getting knocked out by my wife is hanging in even though she is short stacked. She saves herself a couple of times with all in bets. Later on I get KK and raise. Get reraised all in by a guy with half my stack then two short stacks push in. I call and am ahead of 6-7 (reraising me with this?? ) KQ for the shortest stack and JJ for the other short stack. Unfortunately the one short stack gets a J but the 6-7 does not make his flush and so even though she almost quadruples up, I still get more chips from Mr 6-7 than I lose to her and two more people are gone.

Not long after our table breaks. We are down to 3 tables now. And the new table is not good to me. Lousy hand after lousy hand and people are making some crazy moves since time is running out. The short stack gal from my table who quadrupled up is hitting all kinds of stuff and passes me in chips. I am getting worried about not making the money the way the chips are flying around. Finally last hand comes around and 4-5 people get all in. A guy makes a sick straight with 8-5 and takes a massive amount of chips. He ends up with the biggest stack at my table and his wife was still in so they have a lot of chips. They end up finishing first. A guy at a different table had a monster stack and would have finished first but for that last hand. His wife was knocked out though so they got second on his chips alone. The short stacked gal ends up finishing third even without her husband as he was knocked out. Luckily Mrs Cave had enough chips to get us up to fourth so it turned out to be a good Valentines Day.

Enough of my life from a month ago. Next post will be more up to date I promise.

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