Aussie musings

End of term report for April 2009.

Lets start with a quote from the OP, which was at the top of a massive upswing which I naturally and incorrectly defined as me playing fantastically well

April to date (14) -

17,059 hands! (avg 1200 / day)
+$450.35 (11.14 BB/100)
+~$20 (MTT 4th, minus entry fees paid into about 7 tournaments)
BR - $760!

Suffice to say, the 14th was the peak of that upswing. To be honest, most of the 14th upswing (+$143 day) was from a lucky fish-chasing pot shot, which gave me false courage -

Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;Hero$99.00:///////;BU$104.65:33/36 /33 /1.0/14 /50 /100 /0 ;[/tg]
0.5/1 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.67 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9♦, 9♣
3 folds, BU raises to $3.00, Hero raises to $9.00, BB folds, BU calls $6.00.

Flop: ($19.00) A♦, T♥, 9♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $12.00, BU calls $12.00.

Turn: ($43.00) A♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $18.00, Hero calls $18.00.

River: ($79.00) 7♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $60.00 (All-In), BU calls $60.00.

Final Pot: $199.00

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows a full-house, nines full of aces (9d 9c)
BU shows three of a kind, aces (Ac Kd)

Hero wins with a full-house, nines full of aces (9d 9c)

Yes. Thats me playing NL100 with a BR around $600 chasing a friends listed fish and catching a red hot heater against a different guy at the table. Guilty as charged. My $143 was made up of $120.95 profit at 100, $23.48 profit at 20 and 83 cents lost at NL2.

Of course, the potshot gave me the confidence to keep potshooting, which is shown in the graph posted below. You can see the obvious +100 spurt at about 17000 hands. The fall at about 18000 hands is my AA being cracked by QQ on NL50. Then the potshot jagged line is from about 23,500 hands to 25,500 hands.

The graph is now back on track (posted at the foot of this post). A little bit of discipline back into my game helped, as did a couple of days off / less volume hands - day. April 27 produced a breakthrough to the slow + line I had built betweeen the 19th and 26th (about +4bb/100 for the period). 29th put a bite on that with the hand posted above (nit highway robbery). The 30th was a strong up day, +112 - and no shots. My best +BB day (562.75, 48.55/100 over 1159 hands). NL20 SH is generous when you have some cards.

Anyway, April summary -

35,397 hands total
NL100 - 440 hands, +$171.74 (39BB/100)
NL50 - 2,265 hands, +$50.36 (4.4BB/100)
NL20 - 30,060 hands, +$305.85 (5.1BB/100)
NL10 - 2,625 hands, +47.36 (18.0BB/100)
NL2 - 7 hands, -$0.83 (-592.9BB/100)

Overall - 35,397 hands, +$574.48 (6.3BB/100)

BR - $1272.33
Pending bonus - $80
Titan points (20,000 = $150) - ~16,000

(deposited $340 for max reload bonus of $100 during the month, so "effective" BR is $942.33)

Not bad. Not indicitive of good BRM, but good all the same. My "shots" were always played hunting known fish on a tight line of 1 stack stoploss, so my BR was never at serious risk I guess. Towards the end of the month I realised its probably safer just to wait though. The fish will still be there, or there will be new fish, come the time I have the BR to move up to 50 and then 100.

MTT report -

Down a bit. I have had only one more ITM placing to add to my 4th for $40 in the 0.50c RA and $15 in the $2000 freeroll, which was in a $50 beginners freeroll for about a buck. I estimate being down about $10 for entry fees now. I think I am playing too tight / mousey in early times, but the few times I have shoved into the shove fest that is early in a cheap rebuy tourney I often have had the best hand but to no avail (30% equity in a 5 way pot is still only 30%).

So I have chosen to invest in some more literature for tournaments. I am thinking Harrington's books. At $40 AU a pop they dont come cheap, but poker winnings will cover the expense.

May goals -

* Redeem Titan Points @ 20,000 for $150 rakeback (should be about mid-month)
* NL50 FR @ $1500; NL50 SH @ $2000
* research tournament play. No playing fee tournaments until happy with research level
* final table in a fee MTT post research
* learn 7 card stud (minimum limit. Its time to add another string to the bow)
* Platinum Titan VIP status
* Continue posting in hand eval forums to improve game

April chart -

May officially blows.

Lured to take a shot at NL50 by feeling good on a saturday morning and a $1000 titan bonus to clear some of, it appears May is "donkey benefit month".

2011 Edit - deleted a bunch of hands. You didn't want to read them. Trust me. Long story short, I lost a few hands where I was in front on the flop but the station villains turned weird backdoor draws or 2pairs/trips. Woopee

I love the inflated arrogance of my 27 year old self here. It is amusing. I was (still am) the

Behold!

I sucked out in the manner so often inflicted upon me. Much singing and dancing resulted from my one allocated suckout for May -

Crying call cries but makes good (flatting flop then shoving turn was always a set, 2p or superdraw):

Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;MP2$14.29:55/35 /11 /1.1/28 /31 /100 /40 ;MP3$12.24:54/52 /11 /2.4/24 /22 /67 /60 ;Hero$38.03:///////;[/tg]
0.1/0.2 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.67 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is CO with A♥, A♣
MP2 calls $0.20, MP3 calls $0.20, Hero raises to $0.80, 3 folds, MP2 calls $0.60, MP3 calls $0.60.

Flop: ($2.70) 4♣, 6♣, 3♥ (3 players)
MP2 checks, MP3 bets $2.70, Hero raises to $7.00, MP2 calls $7.00, MP3 calls $4.30.

Turn: ($23.70) 9♠ (3 players)
MP2 bets $6.49 (All-In), MP3 raises to $4.44 (All-In), Hero calls $6.49.

River: ($41.12) A♠ (1 players)

Final Pot: $41.12

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows three of a kind, aces (Ah Ac)
MP2 shows three of a kind, threes (3s 3d)
MP3 shows a pair of sixes (6s 5s)

Hero wins with three of a kind, aces (Ah Ac)

So with that I am back up to about -$120 in suckouts today.

Redeemed the -$130 NL50 disaster to -$55 so far. Though obviously I have no right to approximately $41.12 of that and should really still be "down 90", although along that line of thinking I should really be "up" 30 (neg $55 minus my suckout of $42 plus opp suckout $160 total)

So, Titan threw me a big, big bone this month.

Apparently for hitting Platinum I get a $1000 bonus that expires at the end of the month, redeemable at normal rates.

EXCEPT

I already had a $80 bonus still going from reload day!

And as my first bonus clears first, despite expiring in July....

OHNOES!

The volume I will have to play to put a dent in the new bonus is similar to last month's volume. last month was about 14,500 Titan Points. Another 9,000 remains, meaning last month all over would redeem around $50 of the $1000 in addition to clearing the bonus I already had.

Urgo, I have a pretty useless $1000 bonus

Then again, why cry about free money. I figure if i can get a decent bite into NL50 I can probably push up to Titanium (18,000 pts / month) which would be about a $75 redeemed.

Oops, I did it again. What is this, I dont believe in crap like karma -

Cooler turns into a rare hero suckout -

Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;SB$25.66:285/14 /10 /11.0/13 /32 /100 /50 ;Hero$69.28:///////;MP3$20.00:16/50 /19 /1.5/29 /50 /-/0 ;BU$15.33:192/40 /10 /6.3/17 /14 /88 /55 ;[/tg]
0.1/0.2 No-Limit Hold'em (5 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.67 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9♥, 7♥
MP3 calls $0.20, CO folds, BU calls $0.20, SB calls $0.10, Hero checks.

Flop: ($0.80) 4♦, 9♣, 7♦ (4 players)
SB bets $0.80, Hero raises to $3.20, 2 folds, SB raises to $10.55, Hero raises to $69.08 (All-In), SB raises to $25.46 (All-In).

Turn: ($95.34) 8♥
River: ($95.34) 7♣ (1 players)

Final Pot: $95.34

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows a full-house, sevens full of nines (9h 7h)
SB shows a full-house, fours full of sevens (4s 4c)

Hero wins with a full-house, sevens full of nines (9h 7h)

Theres a $50 suckback. Makes total sucks balance at -$70 for the day; redemption session ending in the green! +$4.33 after the -$130 hole.

I think im done for today. Probably stab NL50 again tomorrow. Fingers crossed?

2011 Edit

This isn't actually a cooler. It violates the rule of limped pots - never go broke in a limped pot without the nuts. Exactly what hand that we beat is going all-in with us here? Diamond draws? Perhaps diamond combo draws that are in front of our 2pair anyway?

I take "suckbacks" well since its poker's way of balancing out their suckouts

I do make sure I dont make the same mistake again though...

nice bone thrown to you!

Originally posted by Jaissica

Who plays TT for set value for 20% of their stack, much less vs a regular TAG, much less again when you are a complete 100% pure blood nit?

That still has me completely flabbergasted. Throw in a lost 99 vs AK blind wars flip for the balance of the $40 turn around and youve got my night in a bottle.

Perhaps he called by mistake. I Guess I will never know. 3000 hands of 9/4(2 3bet) and bang, this hand. I feel like I was robbed in a dark alley.

Nice blog Jaissica, keep up to post answers to hand reviews. I learing a lot from you.

About the hand, you played very well imp, thats a cooler... How's your BR doing?

Absolutely Brood, I never feel bad when I get one back. Since we get our money in behind so few times relatively and therefor suckout so few times, when it happens, no remorse

Glad to be helpful Maya I learn alot just posting observations there. Its good to evaluate hands you didnt play outside of live-pressure situations because you generally come up with a well considered answer, and when you encounter the same situation live you can play as you remember deciding to. It helps alot.

BR is doing okay. Im just under $10 from the mark I told my girl that I would withdraw $50 and take her to dinner ($1330 - $340 deposit for reload bonus = $990 effective). 1137.45 points to go (18,862.55/20,000) to a $150 Titan point redemption too

Cheers for the comments, good to know someone reads my musings, rants and tants

How do you cope with the Titan popup? ♦

The popup is infuriating! Especially when you are 4 tabling SH so the action is fairly hot, and you have hands on a few tables to react to, and bang - "$250,000 garunteed! Just $300 + 30 BI! Come play!" popup in the way of our acting. The clock is ticking while you take the time to "okay" that and get on with it...

Very annoying

The only other client I have used is Partypoker. I have to say Titan's interface is a bit cleaner than PP's, and alot better than PP for multitabling due to CPU use. I find PP can struggle with Elephant +2 tables running, while Titan I have no trouble 4 tabling + elephant + movies running on the 2nd monitor.

I had had plans to move to Fulltilt when the reload bonus was cleared on Titan but I am reconsidering after getting that $1,000 bonus through Titan. Perhaps Titan will keep throwing things at me that are worth more than 27% rakeback So far Elephant says I have paid about $700 in rake, and I could redeem my TP for $150 so thats an indirect ~21.5% rakeback... though being able to spent FTP on other things would tip the balance there. Im just unsure if its worth leaving the profitable iPoker network for the reputedly more sharky FT network, especially when it means leaving behind 54,000 hands to date of player data as well

NL20 SH continues to be one long heater so far for may.

After a $74.40 profit in 1.5 hrs (~500 hands) last night, NL20 SH sits at about $270 profit for the month at over 40BB/100. That is rediculous!

However it has inspired me to stop shot-taking NL50 for now. With the BR now mid 1450s I think I will sit on 20 until 2000, then take another run at NL50.

At work I dont have access to my elephant, but I can replay a couple of last night's hands from pure memory -

NL20 SH. Hero is BU with 44

UTG1 raises to 80c
MP3 calls
Hero calls

Flop 9 7 4 rainbow

UTG1 checks
MP3 bets pot
Hero flats
UTG1 raises to triple bet
MP3 calls
Hero shoves
UTG1 calls
MP3 calls

At this point I am excited because MP3 is pretty loose and fishy, so I am reasonably expecting to see MP3 holding top pair (A9 9T J9 89) and UTG1 to be holding an overpair.

MP3 turns AA
UTG1 turns 99

Set over set for three way shove; pot ended up something like $65. Nasty cooler. 9s held up.

Next hand -

Hero is MP1 with AA, about 210 BB deep

Hero raises to 80c
Fishy villain in SB raises to $2.80 (about 230 BB deep)
Action folds to hero who raises to $7
Fishy villain calls

Flop comes out three rags (one heart)

Fishy villain shoves! (nearly $40 shove at a $15 pot)
Hero calls, expecting to see fishy villain turn QQ-AA

Fishy villain turns AhQh

Turn heart (hero poops pants; hero 94% flop 80% turn)

River J

Most welcome J ever

Well, the heater turned off in a hurry didnt it? Such is poker.

Day after (5th) - minus $84 total. Including one memorable hand with 67 vs KT board 77T, turn blank (all in here!), river T. Love it.

Then a quiet $25 profit session on the 6th.

Minus 96 shocker on the 7th;

+60 session on the 8th turned into a $30 loss with two unavoidable deepstacked hands (QT vs AK blind war, Q flop, all in vs idiot on the turn, river A - and str over str (not obvious idiot-end stuff and easy for him to have 2p , J9 vs KJ AQT board)

Ups goes the roller coaster; up $135 today at +112BB/100.

Ive come to the conclusion that SH variance is a ball buster.

Hand of the day - lose to a flopped str but still see a 60c profit all-in -

Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;MP2$44.70:36/19 /3 /6.0/50 /13 /100 /75 ;Hero$42.06:///////;BU$20.73:55/22 /16 /-/30 /30 /100 /33 ;[/tg]
0.1/0.2 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.67 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 8♣, 8♦
MP2 calls $0.20, Hero raises to $0.80, CO folds, BU calls $0.80, 2 folds, MP2 calls $0.60.

Flop: ($2.70) 8♥, 9♥, 5♠ (3 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets $2.20, BU raises to $6.60, MP2 raises to $43.90 (All-In), Hero raises to $41.26 (All-In), BU raises to $19.93 (All-In).

Turn: ($107.79) J♥
River: ($107.79) K♣ (3 players)

Final Pot: $107.79

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows three of a kind, eights (8c 8d)
BU shows a straight, nine high (7s 6s)
MP2 shows three of a kind, fives (5c 5d)

BU wins with a straight, nine high (7s 6s)

Set over set deep. Niiiiiice.

Funny story from the sort-of-felt at Crown Casino, Melbourne.

Last night was anniversary night for me and my girl, so we stayed in a nice hotel in the city. We went to dinner at a restaurant near crown and I managed to end up on the poker floor in the casino afterwards for about an hour or so.

Sitting on the 50c/$1 (max buyin $50) "pokerpro" tables (electronic tables) the following hand developed vs fishy nit -

Nit (SB) 99 completes
Hero (BB) J9 checks

Flop A 5 2, pot $2.70

Hero bets $2
Nit calls

Turn T

Hero checks
Nit checks

River J

Hero checks
Nit bets $2
Hero calls

Hero wins obviously, with a pair of jacks.

Nit proceeds to spend about 3 minutes complaining about how he got "sucked out" on the river. Attempts to explain that it isnt a suckout if you just check are met with misunderstanding. Hero should remember that the table is not a poker school.

Few minutes later, the following hand comes up -

Hero is SB with KTo
Fish MP holds KJs
Somewhat-cluey BB holds A8o
One MP limps, action folds to the hero who raises to $4. BB and MP call.

Flop T 8 blank, pot $10.60 (crown rakes during action)

Hero bets $8
BB calls
MP calls

Turn blank

Hero shoves at $30 pot (hero remaining stack about $24 after having lost a small pot earlier)

BB folds
MP calls with his remaining $8

MP turns KJ air; 7% shot on the river

River J.

MP fish pockets the pot; hero shrugs; fishy nit from first hand starts lecturing hero on how "what comes around goes around" and "you shouldnt build such big pots with just a pair anyway!"

So for about 10 minutes I try to teach this guy. I must admit I shouldnt have, again, the tables are not schools, but it was just embarassing the things he was saying.

Anyway, I had only put $50 on because I didnt intend for a long session so im left with a partial stack of about $18 and slip into SSS mode.

Following hand develops about 15 minutes later -

Hero is SB with KJs

7 players call the $1

Hero shoves, both because hero probably has the best hand and because lets face it, theres $7 dead money out there just asking to be stolen.

One player calls from MP with 33

Hero loses the flip.

Fishy nit starts again. Hero blows up while leaving the table. Parting shots such as "You are so bad you dont even understand what was going on there you idiot, go learn to play, you are an embarassment!" etc.

So anyway theres my tale of a short felt session last night. Ended minus my $50 investment; all in EV was about $60 short ($46 pot lost to 7%, $40 flip pot loss). Such is Crown Pokerpro, where the players are about as skilled as iPoker NL2 players and the variance just as brutal.

I think May is destined to be known as "the month the downswing hit".

May to date is "up" $3.40.

Today down a hunjie and a little. Like 106. Roll the credits -

I like variance
I like variance
I like variance

but only when its GREEN

2011 Edit The credits have been deleted. Think a bunch of cooler and or suckout hands. Trust me, you don't want to read them all.

Less whinging, more useful poker stuff = better blog. So I'm shredding some tear posts

I read your story of the casino $50 game and from what I saw, that guy really put you on tilt there; consciously or not. You seriously need to control that imo. Have you seen the Tony G videos? Just say nh and walk away before you donate another stack to them hehe

I just realized that live casino poker is much more prone to tilt since they suckout and then lecture you.

oh, and by teaching the fish how to play, the rest of the table gets a better read on yor level of play.

Yeah, it was a dumb move to try and explain to the fish why he is a fish

However I wouldnt call the shove tilt. Ill play the situation for you -

Ye average Crown Casino Pokerpro 50c/$1 player has stats something like -

VP$IP >80
PFR <5
AF <0.5
WTS 60+

Now, hero is BB with KJs, 7 handed. All players cold-call to hero. Hero has $18; do we raise or check? I dont want to play KJs 7-way, and there is $7 dead money in the pot counting our blind. I shove.

I like to think most advanced SSS players in a table like that would shove, not because KJ is a shove with 6 limpers in front, but because of the dead money in the pot and the probability of being called by coinflips or worse hands due to the fishyness of the table. Perhaps I should ask in the SSS forum.

So it wasnt unconcious tilt, it was a calculated shove that I would shove again next time.

I think the felt at Crown is a bit of a joke anyway. Im not sure if I could play serious to win money there yet; the rake is 10%(!), meaning if we beat it at about 7BB/100 we are still breaking even. 7BB/100 isnt epic but its nothing to sneer at for us beginners I think (its my average winrate to date according to Elephant). Even vs tables 100% full of calling stations itd be annoying merely because of all the times you stack off after raising to 4BB preflop AK vs fish who called with 72o on an A72 board.

I thought the $2$3 felt tables were 5% rake but they are definantly 10% capped at $5. The cap is small consolation.

I didn't mean to say you did a tilt shove, but when you start arguing it should be because you want him on tilt, not because you are on tilt.

Fair enough. You are correct to say that it did upset me though, because it definantly did.

Attacked the tables before work this morning and managed to garner back about $40 of the $106 debacle. Tough work session it was too, about 3 hours of 6 tabling NL20 SH, call it 1500 hands for 200 BB. Nothing to set the world on fire, thats for sure. A pair of aces that held up against queens and AJ vs fishy J2 on AJ2 J rag board made up the entire +$40. I seem to have lost the ability to get paid for sets somewhere; perhaps I am getting too aggressive / straight foward with them and need to slow down and suck people in a little more often again.

How do you deal with the swingy times that turn your edge into a breakeven or even a negative, especially after a heater that has you brimming with confidence, ready to take on all comers? The good times make the bad times even harder to respond to.

Worse, I have a discipline "shot taking" leak where a good session on NL20 can inspire me to try NL50 again, especially with that $1000 Titan bonus egging me on to higher titan point return rates. A good day earlier this week (+$60) turned into a disaster (-$26) after J9 (BB) ran into KJ (limped) on an AQ8 T board for a stack then a lost flip for the difference in the space of a quarter hour.

Oh well. Back to the fix-self drawing board.

* will not stack off with TPGK / OP vs not-stupid players
* will not stab NL50
* will not call donk bets with overcards
* will not cold call with suited connectors except in blind wars

Right. I dont believe it either

One too many tables.

That is the theme for this hand.

NL20 -

Hero is SB with 22.

UTG raises to 80c
MP2 calls
Hero calls

flop 2 4 4

Hero checks
UTG checks
MP2 checks

turn 7

Hero bets a reasonable bet (75% pot)
UTG folds
MP2 calls

river 7

Hero bets another reasonable bet
SB raises to 3x
Hero, while playing a marginal hand on another table and having mentally assigned action on this table to bet-raise-shove, shoves
SB thinks about it for a long time then calls.
Hero feels happy - then notices what the turn card was as the money goes to the wrong side of the Titan table.

Yes Michael. 77744 full house beats a 22244 full house no matter what his odds were on the flop...

For anyone interested, the odds of A7 cracking 22 on a 442 flop is approximately 1.16% -

4 turn, the last 4, any A or any 7 wins (0.32%)
A or 7 turn, the last 4 or a repair of the turn wins (0.83%)

And so ends my first experiment with playing 8 tables NL20 SH. Perhaps it was a bit ambitious to think I could keep up with the fast action of SH on 8 tables at a time after all.

It is fun posting around 700 hands per hour; but lets just say the -$94 session pricetag for around 3 hours play was not as satisfying.

Beware, ye who chase bonuses. The bonus chasing can often be more expensive than the bonus is worth

Back to basics.

NL20 FR 3 tabling while finishing 300th ish in a 760 $1 rebuy.

Busted out of the tourney with JJ vs QQ then AK vs QQ in the space of 2 hands. Bit brutal.

FR is so slow! 547 hands in a couple of hours 3 tabling. $45.49 profit though, first "green day" since the 9th. May now down $23.57.

I might build up to 6 tabling NL20 FR a bit over the weekend. Try and plug the hole before heading back to NL20.

All-in EV still taking a pounding. For every hand that holds up way in front another is being sucked out at 80-20....

94s on s flop cracked by a set that improved to quads on the river (all in on the turn) for a $14.42 pot,

QQ cracked by 99 (all in preflop) for a $8.30 pot.

Doesnt sting as bad when you are having a winning day (mostly small pots taken down with cbet) but still annoying.

After reflecting on the NL20 FR easy money, I think I know what happened.

I think I know why my NL20 SH game has turned to pure poop.

I have been trying to push my VPIP higher. Actively so. Raising more marginal hands and getting stuck in more marginal situations.

Now the night of "one too many tables" the last hand I actively played in was another annoying hand.

Hero is MP with A7s. Hero raises to 4BB as hero has been doing the last week or so, trying to push VPIP/PFR to about 22/17 for 6H. Hero of course has equal to or more than 100BB.

Hero is called by 15/4 weak-tight nit who has about $8.

Flop comes out A J rag. Hero bets and is called by the nit.

Turn comes blank. Pot is just under $5. weak-tight nit has about $6 left. Hero is not folding TP here for $6. Hero bets enough to put nit all in, who calls.

Nit turns JJ and promptly starts abusing the hero for being a "loose donkey" and thanking him for the money.

Now not withstanding that anyone who is 15/4 on a SH table with a $8 and calls 10% of it to set mine is an idiot who is going to get to deposit alot of money, that hand has a big point to make.

I got too laggy in trying to adjust to 6h.

I tried some more 6h this morning, after "re-adjusting" back to FR. The results were positive.

I think sometimes we can overcompensate when shifting to SH from FR, when the difference between Tight-Aggressive FR and Tight-Aggressive SH is not nearly as wide as we might think.