Change I Can Believe In

In this scene from D2, the sequel to The Mighty Ducks, Coach Bombay is missing from Team USA's sidelines. The team's tutor Michele McKay is trying her best to fill in for him, and although she has absolutely no idea what she is doing, even she can see the obvious.

McKay: "We look tired out there. We need to ... trade places."

The kids exchange a confused glance.

McKay: "Uh, new players?"

Charlie Conway: "Ohhh. Say 'Change it up.'"

McKay: "Change it up."

Charlie: "Scream it."

McKay: "CHANGE IT UP!!!"



Immediately five players come out of the game and are seamlessly replaced by five fresh players from the bench. The entire exchange takes two seconds.

McKay: "Cool!"
_ _

As you may recall from this post, I was pretty much raised by this film. I grew up in a pretty strict household, so we didn't get to see too many movies that were rated higher than PG. We happened to have D2 on VHS (I know), and since this was one of the few pre-teen movies in the house, my sisters and I watched it over and over and over. Maybe I should make this the second in a series of life lessons gleaned from the Mighty Ducks franchise. Could turn out to be cathartic.

I had been on a sick run playing the $1-2 No Limit at the Hustler Casino of late. But the past two sessions were losing ones for me. The amounts weren't huge (-$45 and -$190) compared to what I've been winning, but after last night I am starting to feel that I need to change it up.

But I don't want to mess with my playing strategy, as that has been wildly successful for the most part. I'm thinking of a more dramatic shift, at least temporarily. I'm talking switching to stud for a little while, because in the last two sessions I could really feel myself starting to get frustrated with grinding for hours and playing really tight, only to get it all in with a big pair against someone who decided to call a big raise with a goofy high-card/low-card hand and flopped a monster.

Of course, there are a lot of suckouts in limit stud as well -- indeed, I daresay there are more. But it is tougher to get stacked on a single hand in that game. You only have to pay off one or two bets to find out if the deck screwed you again. I am hoping it will be a nice change of pace. Ideally I'll win there for a while, and then once I start to get frustrated with that I can switch back to hold'em. Or maybe play some Omaha-8 if I can find a game where the stakes are high enough.

I'll let you guys know how it works out.