Res Ipsa Poker

Why Young Players Are Dominating the World Series of Poker

2011-11-26T10:59:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago, 22-year old Pius Heinz won the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. He became the most recent 20-something champion to take down the prestigious title. With the recent string of "barely legal" Main Event champs, one has to wonder if anyone over the age of 25 will ever win the title again. Also, why are the younger players dominating so frequently? Here are a couple of things to consider.

Younger Players Dedicate Their Lives to the Game

Frequently you read stories on Pokerlistings.com and other online news sites talking about young players coming up and playing 60+ hours a week on a regular basis and having poker consume nearly every waking moment.

Younger players have the ability to allow poker to dominate their life in this fashion more so than players in their late 20's, 30's, and beyond. After 25, more and more people are establishing families, careers, and have other interests outside of poker. For players to become and stay truly great, they have to let poker dominate their lives. Younger players are able to get away with this more often than older players.

Younger Players Accustomed to "Modern Era"

Players just now becoming of legal age pretty much only know poker as it is currently played. They may have the knowledge about how poker play used to be, but those modes of playing are not ingrained into their brain like they are in older players. Many older players have trouble adjusting to the ever-changing styles of today's younger players. Younger players adapt to the changes because they are always changing their style. Adapt or die sounds cliche here, but it is appropriate.

Better Concentration, Stamina, and Better Nerves

The other reason is the typical advantage that younger players have over older players. They are stronger, able to last longer during long days, and the ups and downs of the day to day life of being a poker player are tolerated better. Even players like Phil Galfond have admitted they don't have the same nerve they used to when they first were coming up in the game. This allows many players to play without fear and makes them forces at the table.

If you look at any list of online poker rooms and their pros, you will notice that the majority of them are becoming younger and younger. The face of poker's elite is becoming younger, much like the game. While players of all ages will continue to play, and play well, the young will continue to dominate large events like the WSOP Main Event for a long time to come.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T10:55:00.000-05:00

This is the time of the year where I would ordinarily be thinking about poker. With the holidays, it's a slower time at work. In years past I would be looking forward to the WPBT gathering in Las Vegas. There would be year end bonuses to chase.

Instead it's turkey and football, which isn't a bad thing. I even found a few extra dollars that I'd forgotten about that I could use to make a low budget return to the local card room if the fancy strikes.

Many Unhappy Returns

2011-10-13T14:19:00.000-04:00

Today is the 5th anniversary of the UIGEA, the first body blow delivered to what is now the corpse of online poker in the United States.

Senator Kyl, Mr. Frist and all the result of the boys: You still suck.

(h/t Bill Rini)

This Post Needs More MS Paint

2011-09-27T17:06:00.000-04:00

As the endless wait continues for our "friends" in Washington to decide that online poker isn't the devil and that society won't collapse if people like to toss around a few electronic cards and win or lose a few dollars, I really have nothing new or interesting to say. It just happens to be ten minutes to five on a rainy Tuesday afternoon and I'm thoroughly fed up with everything I've been doing, so why not blog.

Lately I've been debating what the wins and losses would be if I simply abandoned the internet. I don't feel like I spend outrageous amounts of time on twitter, Facebook and other social media sites but I do check them pretty often. I waste quite a bit of time reading the 2+2 Forums - not so much for the poker strategy but because trolling the idiots who post there is pretty amusing. There are a few other sites that I read. All in all the internet consumes a pretty decent chunk of my week.

Back in the day (a hackneyed phrase that I love nonetheless) the internet was a source of profit. Now, since there isn't any income coming in it's a liability. Not a major one - I wouldn't save much money if I canceled my domains and my ISP - but an expense nonetheless.

If I abandoned the internet I would certainly be less informed. I rely on the net for news as well as entertainment and that news includes both "hard" news and Facebook updates about what everybody's kids are up to these days. I'm not sure it matters.

I would miss interacting with my invisible internet pals, but I'm not sure how much of a hit that would be. I enjoy y'all but it's not like we talk daily. Other than a couple folks with local ties I'll probably not see many of the WPBT folks ever again (Las Vegas is not happening in the foreseeable future).

It would not be difficult to fill any time saved. There is always something. When I canceled my cable subscription the internet filled the time. If I surfed less I would probably read more. There is always something.

I don't make rash decisions - hell, it seems like I hardly make any decisions. I haven't thought this one all the way through. But that's what I'm thinking about today. Honestly, I miss online poker.

No, Full Tilt Wasn't a Ponzi Scheme ... Not That It Matters

2011-09-22T12:15:00.000-04:00

The big news of the week obviously is the branding of Full Tilt Poker as a "Ponzi scheme" by the Department of Justice. The "big lie" technique once again proved effective, landing Full Tilt coverage a leading spot in major news outlets including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

So was Full Tilt a Ponzi scheme? I would say no, not in the classic sense of the term. Not even close.

A Ponzi scheme at heart is a simple investment swindle. A con man takes in money, promising an abnormally high rate of return. Old investors are paid using money taken in from new investors, with the crook pocketing as much as he can skim. There is rarely any operating business or actual investment involved, at least beyond whatever facade is necessary to perpetuate the scam.

Full Tilt, on the other hand, was a legitimate, operational, almost certainly profitable business - and it remained so almost up to the end. Distributions would have been made out of actual revenues. It is entirely possible that the distributions may have been excessive, but that fact in isolation is neither criminal nor indicative of a Ponzi scheme. The DOJ conveniently doesn't tell us much about when distributions were made.

In the end game, the rules changed and Full Tilt was not receiving money from new "investors" - to the contrary, it was crediting accounts but not receiving the cash. Cannibalization of existing assets followed and you get to today. It's media-friendly to call it a Ponzi scheme but that's it, it's not the truth. The truth is far more complex.

That said, it doesn't matter.

At this point, Full Tilt as a viable entity is almost dead. For U.S. customers it is absolutely dead. It is possible that some offshore investor might find value in the name and non-U.S. customer base, but it's far more likely in my opinion that the company will end up in liquidation and those assets will be sold piecemeal.

I also think that U.S. customers are going to find it particularly difficult to recover any money even in the case of a last-minute white knight because of the payment processor problem. How do you fairly compensate player X who "deposited", was never charged any money, and ended up with a balance on the site? Do you just deduct what was never received? If so, how is that fair to player Y who had actual money at risk and lost? It's going to be a mess.

So, in conclusion, RIP Full Tilt, RIP bankrolls, gg online poker.

A Slightly Lifted Veil Still Offers No Clear View

2011-08-31T10:41:00.000-04:00

So Full Tilt Poker put out a statement yesterday. Great. Nice to see them provide some facts - things like how much money was tied up with the DOJ and a large theft by a payment processor. There have been some people kicking the tires on the investment front but nobody has bought in. Still not licensed to operate.

In other words, nothing has changed.

The longer this process drags on the less value the Full Tilt name and player base have. The software will continue to have some value for a while and the Rush Poker patent is worth something, but at some point it will become silly to expect an investor to inject enough cash to cover the balances owed to players.

While I don't think that anyone is comforted by the statement it is a positive that it was released. There has been an awful lot of frustration vented over the lack of communication. Hopefully in any future lockup agreements FTP can retain the right to provide regular updates.

On the legislative side of things I haven't been paying much attention. I hold little optimism that our 'elected' officials and their unelected bureaucratic minions will ever allow internet poker on reasonable terms.

The More Things Change

2011-07-25T09:42:00.000-04:00

Another World Series of Poker has come and gone (except for the November Nine of course). Bracelets were won, hearts were broken, donkey blood was spilled* and billions of people around the globe paid no attention at all.

It might have been apropos for the WSOP people to borrow the catchphrase of golf's PGA tournament for this year's event. "Glory's Last Shot" might just be the best possible description of the 2011 series. More than 6,000 would be heros took their shot, and without widely available internet poker feeding the beast you would expect that number to decline in future years.

It was great to see (almost) live streaming added to the menu. Caesar's Entertainment or whatever they are called now does appear to be working to keep the series accessible, relevant and the biggest deal in poker. The question is whether they can succeed.

***

I think I have enough for a handful of happy meals on one of the sites but I just haven't felt like playing, so I haven't. I did get approached for a new ad, but that appears to have fizzled due to a strange circumstance (or cold feet). Poker is on the back burner personally.

***

I believe the Full Tilt Poker hearing with the Alderney gaming people is tomorrow. Accordingly, there is a good chance that some news breaks this week. I continue to want to believe, but hope continues to diminish. There is quite a bit of value in the FTP software, euro player base and the Rush Poker patent but the longer the site remains offline the less it's worth.

Rise Poker

2011-06-03T09:57:00.002-04:00

Amidst the turmoil of the post-Black Friday landscape a new site launched this week: RISE Poker.

Rise Poker is a joint venture between some heavy hitters and promises the U.S. player a 100% legal experience. Why? Well, Rise is a little different. You can play for free and work your way toward various prizes. You can pay a monthly subscription fee and get more features and more events. You can win real money. The site is ad-supported, so unless you subscribe you're getting ads.

The folks at Rise were kind enough to invite me and several hundred others to play a launch freeroll, with the top 10 players splitting $1,000 in prize money. I had a decent run but finished cashless in 23rd after QQ < AQo with the dreaded ace on the river.

I'm not going to do a full review - seriously, it doesn't cost you anything so if you're jonesing and want to see if it's worth your time go check it out - but I do have a couple comments. First of all, the concept is pretty good. Frankly this is what ESPN Poker or Facebook poker should have looked like all along. Sell some ads, draw in the recreational player, pay out some prizes.

On the flip side, if you're a serious internet player the software will give you hives. It's horrible. Slow and annoying in almost every way possible. Hated it. Also not a big fan of how the ads are integrated into the windows, but I did get used to that after a while. Unfortunately some of the earliest advertisers are dreck like lowermybills and penny auction sites. And have I mentioned that the software sucks?

I don't think it's likely that I'll become a devoted RISE Poker player. I prefer cash games to tournaments. I'm spoiled by what Stars and FTP have provided software wise. I'd rather play rush poker. Still -- you never know.

I Want To Believe

2011-05-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

I've wasted way too much time lately reading the 2+2 message boards. The ongoing freakout in the Internet Poker section is particularly gripping.

CK (blog no mas) waded in this week to try and educate the idiots as to what is really happening. I'm not sure it's working but that's no fault of hers. The average poster does not appear to be capable of saying anything more sophisticated than "Me Want My Money Now Ugh".

I'm really puzzled as to why people cannot seem to grasp a simple concept: Just because Stars shut down at the same time and has already paid out does NOT mean that Full Tilt is in the exact same situation.

Stars may have had a better disaster plan.

The sites may have been subject to different oversight and rules in their home jurisdiction

FTP may not have segregated player funds

The sites may have had different accounting that made it more/less difficult to track player funds in third party accounts

The legal issues may not be exactly the same in dealing with the DOJ (duh)

Etc, etc, etc.

Why is this so hard to understand?

Of course the delay in paying out to U.S. customers is bringing out the tinfoil hat crowd. Add them to the growing number of FUgimmemymoney haters and the boards are melting down. Full Tilt PR isn't helping any by being evasive but still, it's ridiculous.

I would like to receive my funds and at this point I still think I will. It may take a couple months - remember Neteller? That took a while - but I think that FTP will make good. They have to if they are going to continue as a viable business elsewhere.

I still believe and am waiting patiently for what will probably end up being a new dishwasher or something.

LOL'd, Probably Due to Rust

2011-05-14T22:57:00.000-04:00

Playing a lil' PLO on the dog.

The whole world is limping, so I join the party from the button with JJ77 single suited.

Flop is J73 rainbow. Two shoppers.

Turn is the case 3. Still two in.

River is the case J.

Too bad for the poor guy holding 33xx. Oh, and LOL at the guy who thought AAxx might be good on that board.

Paid In Part

2011-05-06T10:36:00.000-04:00

My Stars withdrawal came through without a hitch, credited to my bank account in two days, cleared in three. If only it were always so easy.

Still waiting on Full Tilt to announce what they're going to do. Fairly or not FTP is being pilloried on a regular basis on the message boards. I have no idea what's different about their dealings with the DOJ but I have to assume that there is a difference - while FTP could be more forthcoming I still don't think that they're crooked. There has to be a reason for the delay.

On a completely unrelated subject, I think that being FTP's customer support czar would be a fascinating job. I admit to being very curious as to whether (and if so how much) support could be improved without breaking the bank.

Also, I would be very curious to see what some U.S. resident (former) FTP players would take for their balances if I paid them in cash today. I get the impression that there are people out there who are so pessimistic that they might take ten cents on the dollar. I would definitely be on the offer side, since I (obviously) think that deposits will be repaid in full. If there were a way to facilitate this it would make for a fascinating gambling market.

Waiting For Cassius

2011-04-30T17:26:00.000-04:00

According to the message boards, Pokerstars has started processing cashouts for U.S. players. I put in my request yesterday and will update when received. Most people are choosing direct bank transfer and it seems to be taking 2-3 days.

Full Tilt hasn't said anything yet but has said they'll be making an announcement next week. Let's hope they get their act together sufficiently to start doing the same thing. Tilt is - unfairly imo - being pretty well roasted on the message boards for the delay. We'll see if they can deliver.

In other news, the Bodog client still sucks.

Making The Best Of It

2011-04-22T16:09:00.000-04:00

It's now been a week since the U.S. government effectively pulled the plug on Full Tilt and PokerStars.

Has it been any different? I would say yes.

As regular readers (lol) of the blog know, my level of play tailed off significantly after the passage of the UIGEA. It simply wasn't worth the hassle to figure out how to move money to bonus whore, the offers were fewer and far between and the games got somewhat tougher.

Over the last year my play has varied wildly. I played a lot early in 2010 when I finished a hot streak that saw my bankroll more than triple - followed by a downswing that wiped out all those wins and a bit more. I took a few months off and started playing a bit more in the fall. Most recently I had completed the Full Tilt "Take 2" promotion - playing 9 days in a row - right before the shutdown. I was even up about four buyins over that stretch.

During the past week I haven't played any poker at all. Having kept track, there were two days where I would have played, including a couple hour stretch last night. I would have played Rush Poker on Full Tilt, which is very much my game of choice despite the largely unfavorable opposition.

Instead, I did nothing. I watched a repeat of 'Wipeout' on ABC (which was dumb), reread a chapter in a book I've read many times before and was generally bored. I've wasted a tremendous amount of time reading the message boards over the last week - I'm amused by the stupid - but was pretty well caught up on that. I was definitely conscious of the fact that I would have rather been online playing for cheeseburgers.

I felt little more than a mild annoyance that I wasn't able to play poker, but I certainly feel for those for whom poker is a way of earning a living. Having your world turned upside down isn't much fun.

I'm not going to analyze what's happening. There are plenty of people doing that and well. I don't know what's going to happen. I can't see the future. I do think that U.S. player deposits will be refunded - I have a lot of confidence in Stars and Tilt, they to my mind have always treated players well and fairly. I think both sites will continue operations more or less as is, just without a chunk of their player base. More money and more prestige will attach to overseas tournaments - via sponsorships and by some U.S. pros heading offshore. Poker will continue, just without a lot of people who have lost convenient access.

I do hope this gets resolved in a way that fully restores the ability of U.S. players to play internet poker. I can't say that I have any confidence in our elected officials to do the right thing, but the hope is always there. Until something happens, I will be trying to make the best of it ... and spending more time on the golf course.

Bring On Don McLean

2011-04-16T01:48:00.000-04:00

It may well end up that April 15 was the day that the Department of Justice finished the job that Senator Jon Kyl and his merry men kicked off back in 2006: The killing of online poker in the United States.

There will be a million words written about this subject over the weekend and most of them will be better and more informed than mine. Go read them.

I am a little surprised that Full Tilt and Stars are suspending service to U.S. customers. I would have thought that they would continue to hold to their position that poker is not unlawful gaming, ultimately having a day in court on that issue. Perhaps they have decided that there is no point in serving a market where the customers cannot cash out - or perhaps like many others they've simply caved in response to threats of prison.

It's a sad indictment of our increasingly broken political system that a small number of people - most of whom are bureaucrats, not elected officials - can exert such power by making what feels like an end run around the law. You think internet poker is gambling? Fine, go get legislation that says that.

I would go hunt up message board posts from people who encouraged votes for this administration but it's not worth the bother. Both parties are corrupt as hell and give little more than lip service to personal liberty.

It's late. I'm not drunk although I kind of wish that I was. Bye.

Spring Fever

2011-04-09T20:44:00.000-04:00

I has it.

Nothing much going on in my poker world. I got a nice bonus offer from Full Tilt but haven't even worked off the first twenty bucks. I'm hoping to do that before it expires this week.

Full Tilt is also running their Take 2 promotion. Play 2 tables or Rush Poker and earn at least 5 points a day and you get cash. Check the site for details. It's not a ton of money ($25 max) but it's easy pickings.

I did a little searching on Stars and I think that SCOOP is still a month away. Looking forward to donking it up tournament style.

Issues

2011-03-22T11:08:00.000-04:00

Been away from blog with real life issues. It happens.

If anyone I know has an interest in getting $ onto FTP, I'm looking to get some off. Please email to addy above.

Back at some point.

Possibility Check

2011-02-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't played any poker for a couple weeks now. My reason has been that I've been ... too tired?

Is it even possible to be too tired to play online poker? I mean the lower levels of Rush Poker do not require any functional brain cells, at least as far as I can tell.

I guess I just haven't felt like playing. I've been reading, watching a little TV and generally malingering. It's not good.

Where Is The Love?

2011-02-14T22:15:00.001-05:00

Happy February 14 y'all. If you don't have anyone to share the day with, surf on over and enjoy free hugs in video form from the homeless grinder.

The world's torrid affair with poker continues largely unabated. People love to play poker online. Despite various governmental efforts to ban it, domesticate it or regulate it, poker on the internet continues to flourish. And it's all for good reason: Internet poker is that steady date that never asks you for money (unless you blow your roll). It never nags you (unless it's your turn to act). It doesn't expect flowers or candy. You can even choose your level of commitment -- you can play for real money or you can play free poker. Basically, internet poker is the perfect mate.

Just kidding.

Really. Kidding. You don't need to spend the rest of your life in your mom's basement trying to become one with your iMac. Go outside once in a while. Poker will still be there when you get back.

***

I know this subject comes up every time there is a holiday: There is a "holiday" for everything. Not only is February 14 known as Valentine's Day, it's also Library Lovers Day, Ferris Wheel Day and the first day of Alzheimer's and Dementia Awareness Week.

Today, I wondered if there was a "nationally recognized" poker holiday. Or even an international one.

To the Googles!

Okay, so I ran out of motivation before I encountered great success. I still don't know if there's an International Poker Player Day. Or Women in Poker Week. If you happen to know, clue me in.

Until that happens, I think there should be a poker holiday. I'd like to see it be the day of the November Nine. Give the whole world the day off so we can all huddle around our computer screens watching the moves of total luckboxes as they vie for millions of dollars. Add in some pizza rolls and I think you've got instant tradition.

Or maybe this is just me going on about nothing. That's happened before too.

***

In keeping with the love theme, I'm not feeling the love on the tables. About all the love I've felt lately is on the very rare occasions when someone bites on an overbet for value.

If you haven't overbet for value (h/t Fuel55) lately, remember to do it from time to time. You'll get a warm fuzzy feeling when your poor victim calls your bet of 2x, 3x, heck 100 times the size of the pot.

***

Can you believe that we're only a couple short months away from a whole new World Series of Poker? Yeah, me neither. I'm not loving my chances of playing (ever), but it still provides a bit of a thrill when results start coming in.

Anyhow, time to "celebrate" the holiday by donking it up. Until next time, I overbet for value.

Just Whining

2011-02-11T23:28:00.000-05:00

Well it's been fun playing with the tards at 2NL but I think I'm going to have to give it up after rage quitting this evening. Let's just say I'm not running good.

The last straw was having 72s on the button, in a raised pot (lol), seeing a flop of 226 ... and losing to goddamned J2o. I had already donated a stack to the same villain with T7o on a 8887x board - to 98o. So rigged.

Some days. Given regular life at the moment, I really should expect it.

Hand of the Day

2011-02-10T20:29:00.002-05:00

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

DRybes (BTN): $6.90
on_thg (SB): $5.98
TBobLP (BB): $5.00
JC_copkilla (UTG): $5.65
Swarley2727 (MP): $7.42
maxx1717 (CO): $4.88

Pre Flop: ($0.03) JC_copkilla raises to $0.08, Swarley2727 calls $0.08, maxx1717 calls $0.08, DRybes calls $0.08, JC_copkilla says "obv family pot when i raise utg", on_thg calls $0.07, TBobLP raises to $0.14, JC_copkilla raises to $0.20, Swarley2727 calls $0.12, maxx1717 calls $0.12, DRybes calls $0.12, on_thg calls $0.12, TBobLP raises to $0.26, JC_copkilla calls $0.06, Swarley2727 calls $0.06, maxx1717 calls $0.06, DRybes says "ladies and gentlemen, fixed limit holdem", DRybes calls $0.06, on_thg calls $0.06

Flop: ($1.56) A 3 4 (6 players)
on_thg bets $5.72 all in, JC_copkilla says "flush draw alert", TBobLP folds, Swarley2727 says "dont let him bluff you sherriff", JC_copkilla says "problem is you have two overs to my pair", JC_copkilla folds, Swarley2727 says "bluffed", Swarley2727 folds, DRybes says "nice job folding the Q3", JC_copkilla says "3 5 no club", maxx1717 folds, DRybes says "dude", DRybes says "in the hand", JC_copkilla says "if had club insta shippage", DRybes says "not cool", DRybes folds

Final Pot: $1.56
on_thg shows 2 5 (a straight, Ace to Five)
on_thg wins $1.49
(Rake: $0.07)

So That's What It's Like

2011-02-03T16:44:00.000-05:00

I like to think that I'm honest when I post about my poker play in this space. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. But I don't think I've ever felt the need to embellish what happens. I know that I too often complain about running bad. Again, I do feel that I'm being forthright. I generally run colder than Antarctica.

It's been a long time since I've had a hot session.

I see players all the time sitting at Rush Poker with 5, 10, 15, 20 buyins in their stack. I can see 5 - I've been there. I can even see 10. But once you get above that - and every once in a while you'll see someone with a bunch more - I just don't get it. I've never understood how you can run that good - there is always a cooler waiting around the corner.

The other night I finally had one. A smokin' hot session. I truly don't think I've experienced anything like it before.

Pocket pairs hit sets. Flush draws hit. Almost everything hit. If something wasn't going to hit or didn't I got out cheap.

I laid a soul crushing beat on some poor guy with 66 > 88 on a board of A8766. I had a crappy flush draw on the flop but basically the guy let me see the turn for nothing and I hit a money card on the river.

I doubled that stack again with top set over middle set. Sometimes poker is easy.

I should have moved up in limits. I should have played NL1000. I should have gone down to the liquor store and purchased a lotto ticket. I didn't do any of those things. Instead, I shut it down with a 4 buy in win in less than an hour.

So that's what it feels like to run good. I liked it. I hope to feel it again sometime - hopefully it won't take six years to come around again.

Prepared to SCOOP

2011-01-31T09:43:00.001-05:00

Another World Blogger Championship of Online Poker is in the books. Some people won giant prizes. Some won medium size prizes. They're all good. Thank you PokerStars!

Playing poker on Sundays has always been a problem for me. I have obligations that conflict with tournament scheduling. Always have. I do periodically wonder if I would have become a MTT donk if I had ever been able to play Sundays, but it's just pointless speculation. Sundays are not poker days for me.

At least it's winter and the 15:00 ET start meant that I had a little time to play in the Main Event.

I had drizz at my starting table. About three hands in I picked up QQ. Some unfortunate soul had JJ and decided to put all his chips in on a 9 high flop. He didn't get there.

Still in the first half hour I found another willing donor, a donk who decided to shove with AQ on an ace high board. Alas for him my AK held and I had 9,000 chips and was up to 3rd overall.

And then nothing much else happened. I floated up and down between 9,000 and 12,000 chips through the second break, when I had to leave. I had about 9,000 left when I shut it down and didn't think I'd make the money with ~450 runners left. I was wrong. I blinded off in 192nd place, good for another $11 SCOOP ticket.

I got nothing in Saturday's qualifier, so the final count for the series is 2 x $11 and 1 x $16.50 SCOOP tickets. Not stellar but not bad. I'll definitely be looking forward to the release of the SCOOP schedule.

Nothing Additional

2011-01-29T12:05:00.000-05:00

No more WBCOOP scores to report so far. I played the PLO8 event on Wednesday and busted in the 240s. I donated thousands of chips to the tard on my direct left who ran hotter than the sun. No success in Thursday's NLHE event either - I busted very early when AK < AQ all in preflop.

And then I just plain forgot about yesterday's 8 game mix. I certainly could have played, but I'm not sad that I missed it. Rough day yesterday.

Today is the final NLHE "qualifier" and tomorrow is the main event. I will probably play both like a complete tard, since as usual I have no time to play, especially on a Sunday.

Good luck to all who are playing, get those SCOOOOOP tickets

Twickets

2011-01-26T10:13:00.000-05:00

Many years ago my parents took my siblings and I to the Great America amusement park outside of Chicago. It was a pretty big deal to us and we had a great time, but curiously enough one of the random memories that sticks from that trip was an advertising promotion. Great America had an offer of some sort - I don't remember the details, this was a long time ago - where if you brought in your full price ticket for the day you could get a ticket for the next day for some absurdly low price. It might have even been a dollar. Obviously they just wanted your body in their park spending money.

The promotion was called "twickets". For twin tickets? Two tickets? I don't know. Twickets.

For whatever reason it stuck and we've been referring to twickets for years.

And now, for the SCOOP, I HAS TWICKETS.

Yeah, yeah, crummy build up, cool story bro, I know. I was just trying to come up with a way to embellish slightly the "oh hai I finished 51st in WBCOOP event #2 for another baby SCOOP ticket last night" post.

Sigh. FAIL.

Fair Compensation

2011-01-24T19:06:00.001-05:00

After the fact "live blog" of WBCOOP Event #1 on PokerStars:

14:00 - Play begins. Pot limit omaha, full ring. 540 entrants, lots of eurotards. T3000 to start. 200 people get tickets to the WBCOOP Main Event, the top 153 get various SCOOP ticket prizes too.

14:01 to 14:20 - I play about two hands past a limp. I pick up some chips with top set versus second set on a straighty flushy fugly board. I pick up some more when I push out five limpers with a pot bet after I flop top two and a gutshot on a 9 high board.

14:20 - I have to leave. I sit out with about 4500 chips.

14:20 to 16:40 - attend pretrial conference and conduct other business away from the office. It takes longer than it could have/should have.

16:45 - return to office, check tournament status. Discover that I just blinded off in 148th place, winning my main event ticket plus an $11 SCOOP ticket. Boom!

16:46 - Tiger Woods style fist pump

16:47 - much LOLing

Yeah, that was pretty unexpected. My goal was to get to 10,000 chips (or busto) before I left, but my horrible weak/tight nature prevents me from tarding it up with hands like Q663 unsuited. As it turns out the delay in getting back probably helped, since I would have shoved any four cards pretty much long before I blinded off.

I still can't believe that my dead stack survived TWO bubbles. That's just crazy.

Event #2 tomorrow evening, I think it's at 17:00. A friendlier time to Eastern US donkeys.

Lighting An E-Ticket On Fire

2011-01-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

Under the weather this weekend. Really didn't feel like doing anything. What do you do when you don't feel like moving? Play online poker of course.

I had a 109 ticket in my Stars account courtesy of a prior WBCOOP (reminder: WBCOOP starts TODAY) so I played the 40k guaranteed 6 max on Saturday.

I didn't play well but I played decently enough I guess. I got a timely double late in hour 2 with KK but was still below par. I saw a guy go out when he had KK and AA cracked on back-to-back hands (by pocket 7s and KJs), all in pre-flop.

The next hand, I fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book. UTG limped. I found AKs in MP and was in shove-monkey mode. What does UTG have when UTG limps as things are getting close to the bubble? 99% of the time it's AA.

Duh.

Maybe if I hadn't been shoving every half-decent hand for the previous 30 minutes I could have gotten away from it.

Oh well, it was just an e-ticket.

So 2011

2011-01-10T22:37:00.000-05:00

Many years ago, someone -- I want to say ftrain -- eviscerated the medium in a mere three words: "Blogs are gay".

Now that it's 2011, you get people like this, some random 2+2 NVG tard:

A blog doesn't get viewed and i'm not interested in being a part of one anyway. I love this website because it discusses all aspects of poker and has useful contribution from people of all facuets of life. blogs are just useless and never taken seriously whereas here there will at least be an open discussion of ideas and they will be thrown out for valid reasons not just because no one looked at or considered them.

Headline: It's 2011, blogs downgraded to just useless.

Oh Poker

2011-01-10T11:05:00.000-05:00

Here we are ten days into 2011 and I haven't done anything pokery. Odd. I think that might change tonight as I "watch" the BCS national championship game. (I say "watch" because I don't care in the slightest who wins). It should be the perfect time to poker it up.

What I should do but won't do is play some tournaments to sharpen up my weak/tight tourney game. Our friends at PokerStars have announced the 2011 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) and it's coming up FAST:

Game	Date	Time
Pot Limit Omaha	Jan-24	14:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em	Jan-25	19:00 ET
Pot Limit Omaha HI/Lo	Jan-26	22:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em	Jan-27	14:00 ET
8-Game Mix	Jan-28	17:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em	Jan-29	19:00 ET

The 2010 WBCOOP Main Event takes place January 30 at 15:00 ET.

Assuming that Stars can get my registration issues resolved in time, I plan to play as many as possible. There are a ton of goodies on the line, namely $58,000 in SCOOP tickets and a $5,000 in live events package.

Thank you PokerStars!

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T12:13:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. Personally, I thought 2010 sucked. It was right up there with 2009 as a contender for worst. year. ever. But that's just me and whatever, it's history. It's never too early to start writing a different story and a change in the calendar just makes it cleaner when you write the story later on.

I don't know about you but I'm still waiting for an earthquake to reshape the poker landscape. There was a lot of chatter at the end of the year about the Reid bill. I can't say that I'm sad that it failed. I would like online poker to be explicitly legal as much as anyone, but not at the cost of giving away the store to Caesars Entertainment and other brick and mortar gambling entities.

***

I haven't been playing much and when I do it's been down in the bargain basement of Rush NL. I even got in an hour of Rush on the phone the other day while waiting for a service call. I didn't quite win enough to pay for my bill for the month, but at least I got a couple days paid.

Poker will continue to be a pleasant diversion as long as it's available.

The social aspects are probably more enjoyable than the game itself. It felt like 2005 for a while yesterday while a bunch of people popped in to rail Drizz as he earned a nice payday. As a bonus I got to extol the virtues of Brett Favre to the lone Russian player at the final table (thank you Google Translate!).

I have no goals for 2011 other than to have fun and to continue to not risk anything I can't afford to lose. I like my chances. Oh, and yeah, add fix my blog template to the list.

***

It may be that I need to find an outlet for all my random personal observations. I shouldn't clutter up this space and not everything can be crammed into 140 characters. Could it be ... time for another blog?

Cowboys Full

2010-12-13T22:28:00.001-05:00

Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker

James McManus

Picador, Softcover, $18.00

Let's cut right to the chase. You have 12 shopping days until Christmas. If there is a poker fan on your gift list, this right here is the answer to your gift giving questions.

The folks at Picador were kind enough to send me a copy of Cowboys Full to review. I have been working my way through it, slowly, and it's been a very enjoyable read. You may know Jim McManus for his book Positively Fifth Street, his account of a trip to cover the World Series of Poker and the murder trial of the killer of casino heir Ted Binion. McManus knows poker.

Cowboys Full covers huge swaths of poker history, from riverboat gamblers to today's internet whiz kids. It's like having an encyclopedia of the history of the game at your finger tips, with many of the great moments and characters covered in brilliant detail. It's just a good read.

If you enjoy poker, get this book.

Lifetime Supply of Runbad

2010-12-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

I didn't feel like doing much this weekend so I played a fair amount of poker. Lord only knows why.

As I am short on dollars to dish out I will spare you most bad beat stories. I have found myself wondering, though, how it is possible to run this bad. I lose to a dazzling array of rivered two outers, four outers, you name it. It's just disgusting. Sure I play bad sometimes but it's the brutalizations after I get big chunks of money in good that stick and sting.

Alright. One.

Right at the end of my session last night I had snared an idiot perfectly, holding the nut flush on the turn. His action could not have screamed "I HAS A BIG POCKET PAIR" any louder. Donktard wasn't getting away from it. The board was paired but I had a dead perfect read. A king hit the river and I said out loud (to nobody, obviously) "when he has KK I'm gonna be mad."

Sure enough, the crumbs left in the villain's stack go in, I make the crying call and am shown king f&*(ing king.

I mad.

A Turkey Of A Day

2010-11-26T10:04:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend is the most American of holidays. We eat way too much - several times in fact if you have leftovers. Drink too much. Watch football. Get up early to spend money on stupid crap imported from China. You have to love tradition.

A lesser-known (but poker related) tradition is playing in Dr. Pauly's Turkey Cup tournament. This year it was pushed back to nearly midnight thanks to the Jets being on TV, which posed a challenge to eastern time zone peeps who crushed too much tryptophan-laden turkey.

I did sign up for the tournament and I guess you could say I played. By that I mean I dozed off between hands and only regained consciousness long enough to fold or play a hand when the super shrill Stars "hey it's your turn dumbass" buzzer went off. It was a good thing I had the volume turned up to the max because there weren't many times where I managed to stay awake for two consecutive hands.

Here's what I remember: I got AA my first big blind. And got a walk. I got AKs in the big blind shortly thereafter. Got a walk. Come on people. ZZZZzzzzzz. Fold, snooze, fold. I finally got tired of waking up so I called an all in, lost and blacked out.

When I woke up this morning it said I finished 18th out of 56 runners. Not so bad for a zombie. And a first time zombie at that - I don't ever remember having so much trouble staying awake. Must be getting old. Oh well.

And now it's on to a full day of footbaw. Love holidays. Enjoy.

BOC

2010-11-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

I stopped by the casino today. It was just like the WPBT except with 100% less fun and no pai gow.

A work project brought me to the area and I figured I should stop in and sign up for the players club. Not that I'm likely to visit anytime soon, but it never hurts to be on their mailing list. So I did.

As I had heard, their poker room is long gone, converted to a smoke free slots area. The table games crowd was sparse at 11 AM on a Wednesday. So, after I lost $20 on Wheel of Fortune (and then won $15 on freeplay on another machine), I left. Ballin.

Whatever the opposite of degenerate is, that is what I am.

I think I might go play some Rush 5NL.

Mild Monkey Action

2010-11-22T10:04:00.001-05:00

I continue to be entertained by the lesser developed life forms that inhabit the world of Rush NL5.

There were some standard swings during my last session. I had AA hold up against QQ and AK for a nice pot which nearly tripled my stack. After I bled some away I then gave up the entire balance to a guy who open shoved a huge stack with AK on a JJT flop. I didn't have too much trouble diagnosing what he had based on the preflop action - and no, I'm not laying down AA when I'm 95% sure the villain has AK or AQ - but there was nothing I could do about the standard Q on the river.

I do think that playing at this level is helping some aspects of my game. I've been getting better about betting to win pots, avoiding fancy plays and trying to trap every time I have a hand. I'm less attached to the play chips and that's the biggest factor. The practice might even offset some of the bad habits that develop from playing against people who fold way too much while simultaneously overplaying garbage far too often.

Good times.

Anyhow, since it's a holiday week I'm looking forward to getting in a few more hands. No goals, no challenges, no aspirations, just pure entertainment.

Rush Poker Mobile

2010-11-20T09:12:00.002-05:00

Rush Poker is now available to the public on your Flash-capable smart phone. An Android app is available in the marketplace. I played a couple orbits and I have to say, it's pretty slick. I had no problems.

Is this the future? I dunno but it's pretty neat that poker on a phone has finally happened.

I should note that I only tried it at home on WiFi and have no idea how performance would be on the go or on 3G.

***

Also on the tech front, I was pleased to bumble upon the solution to an annoying problem. Some months ago I got a new router and my old laptop didn't like it. It refused to connect via wifi so I had to cable it. The easy - and in hindsight totally obvious - solution? I needed to update my drivers. Duh. Old wireless card.

The lesson, as always, is that I'm an idiot. This also means that I can make the old 'puter last for a while longer. Which is a very good thing since there is not budget for a replacement at the moment.

Is This Some Sort Of Flashback?

2010-11-16T22:23:00.000-05:00

What. The. Hell.

Look. I'm not a professional poker player. I don't play a million hands a month. I'm barely even an enthusiast. But I've played enough online poker - not for real money as far as you know - to know when people are playing bad.*

And boy were they ever playing bad this evening. It was like a trip back to the early days of Party Poker. Or the BOSS network (which was rigged as hell but I digress).

Seriously. People check raising all in with air. Calling all ins with gutshots. I even had a dude call an all in with queen high. I'll give you that this isn't exactly high stakes poker. Rush 5NL. But still. These people are usually nitty not retarded.

Yeah, I'm loving it.

* And yeah, I know, I'm often the one playing bad. I never said I was good, just that other people sometimes are worse.

Bad Beat Insurance

2010-11-11T20:46:00.000-05:00

Killing time. I despise days like this, days were I have lots of work to do but struggle with having the discipline to force myself to do it. It doesn't help any that it's 70 degrees outside, in November, and I'm stuck indoors.

I read Dr. Pauly's excellent new post on Pai Gow Poker (it's very much worth your time) and was introduced to something that I haven't seen before: Pai Gow insurance. Apparently there are now tables where you can buy insurance against having a Pai Gow. According to the Wizard of Odds, payouts begin at 3 to 1 for an ace high paigow all the way up to 100 to 1 for the rare 9 high paigow. As a victim of a brutal cold streak the last time I played at the Imperial Palace, those payouts could have saved my bacon.

I tip my cap to whoever came up with the idea. It's the sort of thing that keeps me away from just betting the Don'ts on the craps table full time, or maybe betting on a hit of zero numbers at Keno.

***

The concept of insurance also got me thinking about a new idea for online poker rooms: Bad beat insurance. Get your money in good but got sucked out on? If you bought insurance you get paid!

I'm absolutely certain that this could be done in a way that would be both profitable for the house and fun for the players. Wouldn't you like to get shipped some cash next time you lose to runner-runner perfect? I don't even think it would be that hard to set the rake and the payouts. I'm not going to do it, but I am available for consulting (lulz).

***

Reading through some of my old posts for the links above definitely stirred the pot on Vegas fever. To combat it, I sat down and wrote out a plan - what I would need to do to get there next year. It won't be easy, and there will always be that nagging "you should just apply that money to your student loans dummy" voice, but so far it looks possible. Then again, from 12 months away just about anything looks possible...

November Ten

2010-11-10T10:01:00.001-05:00

Another monster World Series of Poker came to a conclusion (on television) last night. I ended up watching the ESPN episode version of the final table with commentary. Considering that they had essentially one day to produce it I thought the episode was very well done.

Surprisingly, I didn't find that knowing the order of finish affected the viewing experience. I think that showing the hole cards makes all the difference in the world - something that I definitely had not given enough consideration to previously.

I didn't come to any other startling conclusions. I thought the players for the most part were likable enough. There weren't any obvious egomaniacs - even the Grinder - and the level of play appeared to this amateur to be pretty decent. Better than last year's donkfest anyway.

***

My last two poker sessions have been pretty sad. I'm definitely in the midst of a stretch where the Full Tilt RNG hates me. Nothing I can do but ride it out at the micro limits and wait for better days. I mean I could try and play better but really, you can only get your money in ahead so often.*

I'm so glad I'm not a "pro".

* Okay, I admit it, sometimes I get my money in behind. I'm a sucker for a flopped nut flush draw, too bad I went something like 0-for-7 having them fill yesterday.

Giving Credit

2010-11-08T09:38:00.000-05:00

I don't talk much about televised poker in this space because, well, because I don't watch televised poker. I think the last time I was a regular viewer was the year Moneymaker won the WSOP. I saw some of Hachem's run and probably haven't seen three hours of coverage since.

So you can probably understand my puzzlement as to why I found myself watching the live stream of the November Nine (WSOP final table) on Saturday night. It was being broadcast with only a tiny delay on ESPN3, the internet service of the ESPN networks.

No hole card cameras, no Lon and Norm show, none of that jazz. But you know what?

It was good.

Seriously.

It's easy to criticize ESPN for some of the things they do when they package up the WSOP for mass consumption. Sometimes the poker gets lost amidst all the 'entertainment'.

The November Nine stream was pure poker. Sure there was commentary (which was very well done) and some rudimentary graphics showing bet sizes and chip stacks but there is only so much they could do. Much of the coverage was just guys doing what really happens in poker tournaments: Folding.

I stayed up way too late watching and actually wished I could have stayed up longer. It was good TV despite not even being on TV. Kudos to ESPN for showing it.

***

Otherwise on the poker front I only played for a bit on Friday and had good times. I picked up a few bucks early but determined I really wasn't in the mood to play too seriously so I moved all the way down to the land of my people, the rush 5NL tables. Yeah buddy. The players, they were tight. And stupid. Tight/stupid. With the help of a bunch of large cards I abused them for several buyins. It was most enjoyable.

In The Membrane

2010-11-02T16:55:00.001-04:00

I've frequently read that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting the results to somehow be different.

If that's accurate, I must be insane. At least when it comes to poker.

My lack of tilt control is what eventually does me in. I string together a number of winning sessions and then WHAM-O I have one bad one and it just decimates things. And I do this over and over again.

Argh.

I played a little session on Friday. I played bad, but my old buddy the Full Tilt RNG also had it in for me. I got rivered by a constellation of inferior hands. It was sickening. A little more than 1.5 buyins went poof.

Suitably tilted, I moved games and moved down. I just didn't move down far enough. If I had ANY sense I would move down and just play 2NL where I can steam raise at will and still not lose much. That would be too logical. Instead I moved down to my regular PLO game and proceeded to get hammered some more.

Sigh. Those quarter-of-bankroll beatings are frustrating. I had to take the rest of the weekend off to simmer down.

***

I should post this on the forums, but I'll ask here instead. As always, please take into account the fact that I'm not good at poker. You're welcome to criticize my multiple mistakes but yeah, not good at poker. I think I'm remembering the facts right.

The game is Rush NL100. I have 99 in late position. Early position makes a standard raise to 3. I call, both blinds call.

Flop is 965 with two clubs. Checked around to me, I bet it, one of the blinds check raises. I call. Guh.

Turn is another club. I think it was the king of clubs. Blind boy bets out big.

What do you think are the chances that blind boy doesn't have either 87 or clubs?

***

Under miscellaneous, I did pick up an HTC Incredible and have already wasted a fair amount of time messing around with it ... without even scratching the surface of what can be done. Thanks to my invisible internet friends who recommended it.

It remains to be seen whether I can stay under the 150MB limit or whether I'll have to upgrade to the unlimited data plan. There are a lot of places I can use wifi, but it will be downtime where I don't have access that will make the call.

Mini Goal Time

2010-10-26T22:28:00.000-04:00

I've been catching up on my Las Vegas themed reading lately and it's set off a bit of envy. WPBT 2010 is only a few short weeks away and I'll be missing out again. Sad. But I'm doing what I should have done last year - trying to work out a plan that will get me there in 2011. If I can survive April 15 I think I'll have a shot.

***

The big plan definitely won't involve luckboxing any donkaments though. Considering how many I used to play just a couple years ago, I find it amazing how little patience I have for them anymore (thanks Rush Poker). Even super turbos feel like they take forever. I played the Tuesday Spewday super turbo and LOL'd each time I thought to myself "I should sit out to see how this hand plays out". You don't have to DO that, dummy!

***

I did make a few shekels playing Rush so it was a good evening. Off to go do some planning.

[O/T] Reducing Tech Lag

2010-10-25T12:37:00.001-04:00

Nothing poker specific today. I took "yesterday" off after the late night bender. Still paying the price for that. I really need a couch in my office so that I can nap on days like today.

Anyhow, I decided the other day that I'm ready to advance out of the stone ages and upgrade to a smart phone. I have an old unsmart Motorola RAZR that's getting up there in age. It still works OK other than the battery not holding much of a charge.

After getting some recommendations (thanks BG, gadzooks, luckbox et al) I'm leaning toward the HTC Droid Incredible on Verizon. I currently have AT&T and have no complaints except for one big one - they have a large dead zone right where I do a large amount of my out-of-office work. Zero bars. I'm not the only AT&T customer who experiences it and there's no reason to expect it'll change any time soon. It appears that VZW and Sprint both have good reception.

I'm not eager to sign up for another contract (after being without one for quite a while) but I guess I can. It looks like I can get a deal on the Incredible if I shop around - minimizing that upfront outlay is a plus.

I considered the Evo on Sprint or possibly waiting to see what would happen with VZW's 4G service but after thinking about it - why? No carrier is going to have 4G where I live for at least two years and probably longer. It'll probably be a while after that before it makes sense to upgrade to a 4G phone. So really there's no reason to dawdle. Except that I've read that VZW will be going to tiered data plan pricing next week. It's always something.

Anyway, that will probably be the non-poker fun time task of the week. Looking forward to it.

Edit: I'll have to look at the Samsung Fascinate too. Time to go to Best Buy and ~~fondle~~ examine the options.

Owling It

2010-10-24T13:05:00.000-04:00

On any ordinary day I am on what you would describe as a "normal" schedule. I get up, work an 8 to 6 job, relax a little in the evening and crash before the 11:00 news. I might sleep in a little on the weekends but I rarely deviate from the basic routine.

Yesterday, I was hurting. I got very little quality sleep Friday night and after the usual Saturday morning stuff I was bushed. Although I fought it for a while, eventually I succumbed to the need for a nap ... which lasted until 8:00. Oops.

Needless to say, that threw my body clock totally out of whack. After watching the Oklahoma-Missouri game, I still wasn't ready to sleep. What to do, what to do. Oh, yeah. Since this is a poker blog, obviously I fired up the internet poker machine.

Yeah, you can say it's been a long time since I've played a late night session. A long, long time. Apparently I've been missing out. I know I bag on the FTP RNG on a regular basis, but for once it was mostly kind to me. I got off to a quick start via an egregious suckout (KK > AA) and just boomed from there.

I did give back a couple buyins on total misreads, but still ended up nicely in the black. And I got in my 10th day of Take 2 so I should have an additional lil' sweetner coming my way. I think I finally called it quits about 4:00 a.m.

Mobile Rush Poker Is Coming

2010-10-22T22:05:00.002-04:00

Rush Poker for your Droid device is on the way! Currently in beta testing, reports of GREAT SUCCESS! are starting to trickle in. BadBlood says it is teh awesome (or something). If it's eye candy you want, the Full Tilt blog has a little video clip.

From reading through the initial reports, it seems like people are generally positive although there are mentions of disconnects when playing on 3G service. It probably won't come as any surprise, but I think Full Tilt is onto something here ... if they can make it stable enough and secure enough.

Also: Sorry, iPhone fans: The beta uses Flash which is not supported by Apple. Don't look for officially sanctioned Rush Poker on the iPhone, iTouch or iPad anytime soon.

***

I've always used Blogger for this site. I've had good luck with it. I think my lucky streak is over.

Playing around with the template, I have been completely unable to fix the problem that I was having - that everything in the right sidebar was getting pushed to the bottom of the page. I went from my custom 3 column layout to a pure stock layout. Vanilla. No help. Tried wiping everything out and rebuilding with a simple two column layout. NYET. Anything I add to the right sidebar goes to the bottom. Argh. I've messed around with the width settings, no dice.

For the moment I'm leaving it with this simple design. I have saved a copy of my old template and may go back to it ... or I may switch to something else.

Blogger, you're on the list.

***

Another session, another win. Dug myself a nice hole by failing to lay down my flopped straight when the board paired on the river. I need to do better at laying it down when I'm pretty sure I'm beat. But I came back with some better play and some minor donktardery to end up a couple happy meals in the black.

Be they ever so small, there is nothing like a win.

Wasted Zone

2010-10-22T10:21:00.001-04:00

Although it is Friday and there is a non-zero chance that I will enjoy a beverage or two this evening, that's not the kind of wasted I'm talking about.

I got in another session last night and was really feeling good about my decision making. I felt more alert than usual, did a much better job of maintaining fold discipline and was taking actual time - yes, even at Rush - to think situations through before acting. In other words, I felt like I was "in the zone".

Such a great feeling.

As it turns out, though, being in the zone proved to be largely unnecessary. It's not all that common to play a huge pot preflop at Rush100 but when somebody 4-bet shoves on you when you're holding AA what are you going to do? Call, pray and grin when your favorite holds. Yep.

I was grateful for the courtesy double and promptly shut things down. More and more it makes me happy to book a win no matter how small. Now if only I can get better at sticking to a stop-loss on those days where I can't get it going I'll be where I want to be.

***

Much else to talk about but no time. With the weekend forecast looking dismal and the home teams on a bye maybe I can crank out a few words. We shall see. It's been a long time since I've been "in the zone" when it comes to blogging.

Thrown A Bone

2010-10-21T12:01:00.002-04:00

The Take 2 plan rolls on. I played a little longer than expected last night. I dug myself a modest hole through bad play (yeah I play bad. Really really bad.) plus a few times when I saw an ace hit the flop when I held a big pocket pair. And I managed to run AK into AA on a King high board. I didn't go crazy on any of these hands so the hole was one I could recover from.

Anyway, the RNG finally decided to take pity on me. I finally picked up AA in early position and got action. 3 players to the K-T-6 flop. I lead out, one fold, was raised and I called.

Turn A. I bet it again and was insta-snap raised all in.

I took a moment to think and came to the conclusion that if my opponent had QJ so be it. I didn't think the chances were real high that he did, the action just didn't support that conclusion. I called.

He showed KT. Massively misplayed (dude, I could have had AK) and also unlucky for him. Good for me, though. Thanks for the stack.

One quick shutdown and another positive session was in the books.

Takin Two

2010-10-19T20:10:00.005-04:00

Five days of Full Tilt's "Take Two" promotion in the books, five days to go.

After Sunday's crushing I've changed strategy - instead of playing a lot, I'm playing a little. I've booked a little win and a very nice little win the last two days, recapturing most of the losses. I haven't earned a ton of points in the process which is a shame - double FT points are a good thing.

Here's hoping for more promos -- with golf season winding down and the holidays approaching it's rapidly becoming online poker season.

***

With bloglines going dark on November 1 I need to figure out what I'm going to do as far as blog reading goes. Using a feed aggregator like bloglines is certainly convenient but I waste too much time with subscriptions to stuff that's not really worth reading. I'll probably switch over to Google Reader or something and just try to weed out 50% of my subscribed feeds.

Note to self: Just do it already.

***

Also on the to-do list: Figuring out just what the heck I did to break my blog layout. Either that or go to an entirely new style - blogger really isn't overly fond of my hacked 3 column design. Hmm. Might have to flip a coin.

Some People Never Learn From Experience

2010-10-18T09:29:00.003-04:00

Hi, I'm one of them. I'm not good at collecting bonuses without getting killed.

***

I filled some 'relaxation' time this weekend with Rush PLO. Friday's session went quite well. An early session on Saturday during football wasn't good. A later session was OK and yesterday I got drilled for multiple buyins.

Most of the time I muddle along OK, but there are these stretches where I get outdrawn time and time again that are just killer. I usually play a pretty conservative game but when I tilt it can get ugly. Essentially, the FTP RNG (still) hates me:

I have AAxx double suited. 3 way all in versus AAxx single suited and a shortstacker with crap. The other AA guy hits his flush. Yep. Okay.

I flop top set with a redraw to the nut flush. Guy with second pair goes to war and hits runner-runner broadway. Uh huh. Jeez.

and my personal favorite:

I have AAKQ double suited. I get it all in against KKJJ single suited - I have his suit dominated because I have the AQ. This is about as favorable a position as you're going to get pre-flop in LOLmaha. Door card is OF COURSE the case king, followed by a pair of 8s.

Standard.

#$%^&!

I would offer to pay you a dollar for reading those but you'll have to collect it from Full Tilt. Stupid rigged game.

The object lesson, as always, is that I'm not good at poker.

***

Otherwise, I breezed through "Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling" by Beth Raymer. An easy read with some solid lulz about an unexpected career working with sports bettors. Worth picking up (especially via the library which is what I did).

I received a copy of Jim McManus' Cowboys Full this week and that's next in the queue.

***

Last and pretty much least, I was thinking about playing a little charity poker this weekend. When I went to see what was happening I was sad to discover that my room of choice shut down a couple months ago. There are still options, but that was the place where you'd always find the same opponents doing the same things. RIP Holland Poker Zone.

DDQB

2010-10-15T23:08:00.002-04:00

The rare DOUBLE QUADS!

2011 Version Coming Soon

2010-10-15T12:23:00.001-04:00

[Mostly O/T] The Floodgates

2010-10-15T10:24:00.002-04:00

First, the poker. Full Tilt is running a Take 2 promotion over the next ten days where they'll give you either $5 or $25 (depending on how many days you play) if you earn a couple points playing two tables or Rush Poker. You have to opt in so check the FTP site for details. Free money it's a good thing.

***

Now. Off topic time.

I have a couple domains - including this one - that are registered with godaddy. I think it's three domains total. They're all timed to renew about the first of the year. I try very hard to avoid having anything auto-renew because auto-renew sucks so at some point I will need to sign in and fork over a few dollars.

The expiration notices and renewal reminders have already started. I think I've received five emails already this week.

If I don't sign in and renew - and if history is any guide I'll take care of it in mid-December when I have time and hopefully a few spare dollars - I'll continue to get notices and reminders. Several each week. I feel like I should set a line, but even at something at the higher end of reasonable like 50 reminders I'd still take the over.

What a waste of bandwidth. One weekly reminder would be MORE than ample. Even monthly until the last couple weeks prior to expiration would be great plenty. This constant contact stuff is kind of annoying. So I'm quick on the delete button. Hey godaddy this isn't making me more inclined to register future domains with you.

Way O/T: Perspective

2010-10-06T09:28:00.004-04:00

There are times when the FAIL of other people puts your own personal fail in perspective. This is one of those times.

The K Mart bandit I ran across last week screwed up even more than previously expected. Not only did she get busted for shoplifting four cans of air freshener and seven twin packs of deodorant, she allegedly bit and went after the security guard with a pair of scissors she had in her purse.

Charge? Upgraded from unarmed robbery (probably) to armed robbery. Prison time is fairly likely.

Great Success

2010-10-05T08:50:00.003-04:00

Well, not on the scale of a LJ great success (yeah, um, wow), but I'll take it.

Footbaw was watched. Greyhounds were consumed. Alas there was no Paigow but I did relieve some Rushing omatards of their pocket change. Good times.

Opulence I Has It

2010-10-04T09:54:00.004-04:00

Since I've been watching a lot of football on Saturdays (ESPN3 is GOLD) I see a lot of the same commercials over and over and over again. This usually leaves me with a lot of time to consider ways in which the creative minds behind those commercials could die.

One of those commercials never gets old, though. It's the DirecTV ad with the Russian gazillionaire. When DirecTV offers him five months best television package he says

I JUMP IN IT.

And I LOL every single time.

Yeah, I know, I am easily amused.

***

I am also officially old today. I plan to celebrate this evening with a little online poker for imaginary money, a few greyhounds and if I'm lucky some Monday Night Footbaw.

Ennui

2010-09-30T21:48:00.005-04:00

I walked out of K Mart tonight to a scene I haven't run across in quite a while. Just a few steps from the doors two skinny dudes straddled a woman, keeping her pinned to the pavement. A spilled sack of stuff from inside the store was nearby. It looked mostly like things from the health and beauty department - shampoo and such. Even though I hadn't seen what happened it was pretty obvious that the lady had been busted for shoplifting.

I hung around for a moment to wait for the police to arrive. It took about three minutes, a nice testament I guess to the efficiency of the local PD. A second cruiser arrived seconds later and within another minute or two the suspect had been double cuffed and stowed in back. As she was being put away one of the two dudes - obviously store security - told her to 'have a nice day'. The lady returned the pleasantry and I wandered off to my next stop.

***

I don't have any poker to write about. It's been ages since I've played live and I hardly even consider it an option. It would be a struggle to come up with a meaningful roll and I don't see a point to going to a game with barely one buyin. What's the point?

Online is somewhat the same. I do have a little there (thanks largely to to Full Tilt and the occasional bone thrown by Stars) so I could play if I wanted to, but again - what's the point?

It's a struggle playing well below where you are used to playing. It's hard to keep focus. Some guys (like BadBlood) can do it. I admire those who can. I'm just ADD enough to fail.

***

In my book, if you're going to try to steal something you might as well make it worthwhile. A couple bottles of Prell ain't gonna cut it.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I hear you ask. Well, nothing.

I've tried to keep this space pretty focused on things which are at least somewhat poker related over the years. As a result, it's been languishing. Going forward I might find some other things to "write" about.

Or then again I might get tased by store security. It sure as hell won't be at K Mart though. And when I tell the dudes to 'have a nice day' I'll probably be a little more sincere than what's her name.

Just Stay Home Already

2010-09-10T11:24:00.004-04:00

Another reason to never leave the couch: Pokerstars 50 billion hand promo coming soon!

I hope I have 3000 FPPs (think so) to get the fifty dollar cash credit - it would be nice to be able to step up to $0.02/$0.04.

Just kidding.

Mostly.

Again With The It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2010-09-10T10:48:00.003-04:00

Football season. Yes. You know what that means: Fantasy Sports Live and their fantastic Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion. Ripped straight from the FSL blog:

For 2010 we thought we would step things up a bit with our Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion and increase the free bonus cash up to $1000. For qualified sports or gaming bloggers this year, all you need to do is play in our regular SWDP leagues, and we will double any bonus cash you win for up to an extra free $1000. That increases the potential amount of bonus cash added up to $2000. Not bad for just playing some fantasy football. The details are below and week 1 leagues are already forming.
FantasySportsLive.com announces the new and improved Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion for 2010 with at least $1000 in free bonus cash added. In Sundays with Dr. Pauly you get to compete against one of the top gaming bloggers in the world, Dr. Pauly himself, as well as against the other participants in the challenge. Sundays with Dr. Pauly will run throughout the 2010 NFL football season and offer multiple ways to earn free bonus cash. Simply enter the weekly fantasy football leagues called “Sundays w/Dr. Pauly” to qualify for your share of the free bonus cash. Bonus cash will be distributed as follows:

$150/$75/$25 will be distributed to the top three individual weekly fantasy football scores obtained during any week that Sunday’s with Dr. Pauly runs.

The series will be broken out into three 5 week mini-series with the winner of each series receiving $75 and entry into the week 16 Tournament of Champions

$250 will be added to the Week 16 Tournament of Champions. To gain entry into the Week 16 tournament, you need to either win a 5 week mini-series or beat Dr. Pauly’s fantasy football score over four consecutive weeks during weeks 1-15. Anyone beating Dr. Pauly’s score in the TOC will receive a pro-rated share of the $250 added based on the amount they beat Dr. Pauly’s score by. If Dr. Pauly scores highest in the TOC, he wins the entire amount.

$150/$75/$50 will be awarded to the top three cumulative scores over the entire 17 week NFL season. Only the top 15 scores will be counted for each entry, so you can miss a week or two if you have to and still earn the bonus cash.

As an additional bonus, if you are a sports or gaming blogger and participate in the challenge we will double any bonus cash you receive. To be eligible for a doubling of the bonus cash prizes you must have an active sports or gaming blog that has existed for at least one year prior to September 1st 2010, and must post the Sundays with Dr. Pauly image, with a link to www.fantasysportslive.com. Approved blogs will have links to them shown in the Sunday’s with Dr. Pauly standings that will be updated on the FSL blog.

Sunday’s with Dr. Pauly leagues will have an $11 entry fee and payout 91% of the fees in regular cash prizes not counting the added bonus cash. We will offer a choice of either a 25 player league paying the top five or 10 player leagues paying the top 3 each week. We will try to keep SWDP leagues available until the league start-time, but we can’t guarantee this, so please enter the leagues early to reserve your seat.

I've taken out most of my FSL bankroll since the end of last season but I definitely will be in for this.

#WPBT Alert

2010-09-09T17:16:00.003-04:00

One of many reasons why I find myself wishing that I could go to the WPBT Winter Gathering in December: Pokerstars sponsorship of the tournament.

There's a reason why I only play on two sites (Stars and FTP) anymore - they support the community. Thanks Pokerstars!

***

In other news, FTP has a "Fast $50" bonus promotion running. Check your bonus offers.

I haven't been playing much but will probably pick up the pace with the launch of football season. That also means that my dormant Fantasy Sports Live blog will probably fire up again too.

Puttering Along

2010-08-19T09:39:00.002-04:00

Not much content here.

I stayed up too late last night playing some 50 Rush. There wasn't any good reason to do it, it just kinda happened.

Even in Rush Poker there are loooong dry spells when your hand usually never improves and you're constantly being outdrawn on those occasions where it does. I had a frustrating stretch that lasted about a thousand hands and featured no sets, no big draws coming in, nothing. And when I did finally flop a set I ran directly into a flopped set of aces. Thankfully a scary board (or a charitable opponent) meant I didn't get stacked in the process.

Sigh.

I did manage to stack a donk one time on the evening which got me back to even. I really should turn off automatic rebuys - I lose track of how much I'm down due to folding and it's too easy to call a raise and then check-fold reflexively like a wuss.

Then again, I probably won't play again for a while so whatever. I'll probably forget.

I Need To Un-Hobby

2010-08-09T12:18:00.003-04:00

Summertime and the posting is sparse. Long hours at work and a lack of air conditioning at home are conspiring to sap any initiative I might otherwise have.

On the poker front I received another bonus offer from Full Tilt last week - again for a couple hundred bucks. While I took the time to opt in over the weekend, the chances that I rack up the 10,000 FTPs necessary to clear it over the next 30 days are rather slim.

I will be taking a different approach this time. Rather than focusing on grinding out hands and racking up FTPs by playing multiple tables of Rush Poker above my bankroll comfort level, this time I'm just going to play a little microstakes. If I get inspired and move up so be it, but for now I'm planning on low and slow. I won an extra value meal playing PLO on Saturday so things are off on a positive note.

***

Going off topic, I always enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I try some new handyman project and manage to succeed. I've posted about some of those battles before - I've had issues with oddly sized light bulbs, a faucet that had no flow and I may or may not have posted about fun with drains. Thanks to the internet and especially YouTube it's easier than ever to figure out how to fix stuff yourself.

Unfortunately I have a really, really long list of things that I need to do. One of the things I did last week involved breaking out a needle and some thread for some minor clothing repair. I'm sad to say that the lessons I learned in 8th grade home ec haven't really stayed with me, although I did do what I set out to do. Still need to do some buttons but that's a separate project.

And then I went and effectively volunteered myself for something completely new -- upholstery work. I picked up an chair for a couple bucks via an auction site sight unseen. It turned out to be in very solid condition (and very comfortable) but the upholstery is both fugly and worn in a couple spots. For the time being I cleaned it up and have it covered with a sheet but that's a short term fix. Once winter rolls around I see myself working on a more permanent fix.

***

Not too much else is likely to happen around these parts for a while. The dog days are here. I'll probably spend far more time hanging out at the golf course than playing cards. And football season is right around the corner too.

Who has time for poker?

Mostly O/T: Las Vegas and Shirts

2010-07-27T11:36:00.003-04:00

I received my quarterly mailing from Harrah's last week.

For the last couple years I have always received an offer for two free nights at most of their Las Vegas properties, good anytime except for a tiny number of super premium dates like New Year's Eve. Last year with the economy hurting they even upped it to three free nights.

This time, I'm back down to two and they're mid-week nights only.

I think this means one of two things - either it's been a long time since I've been to Las Vegas, or the Vegas economy is improving enough that they no longer have to give away the store just to drum up a little traffic.

I don't think the economy is improving all that much.

Anyway, I see that April has determined dates for the December WPBT gathering. If you've ever thought about going it's a terrific time. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to go but you never know. If I can I'm gonna have to call up Harrah's and convince them to restore me to Semi-Valuable Customer status -- I don't mind staying at the House of Broken (a/k/a the Imperial Palace) but I'm not crazy about paying for it other than through donations at the Pai Gow table.

***

I was in Staples yesterday and I saw a kid wearing a really, really faded Full Tilt T-shirt.

Congratulations online poker, you've officially been around for a long time.

Bad Blogger, Good Blogger, Good Book

2010-07-24T22:14:00.005-04:00

I have been a bad blogger. It's just the way it is. I haven't logged on since my last post. Haven't played a hand. I briefly considered going to check out the live charity game scene but no follow through on that either. It happens. Maybe once golf season slows down.

Since reading my blog is a waste of time right now, maybe you should read a good blogger. Or better yet, buy a book from him. Dr. Pauly from the Tao of Poker (as opposed to the Yao of Poker) has finally published Lost Vegas. It's available from Lulu, for the link visit Pauly's site.

I got my copy a couple of weeks ago and read it in very short order. If you're a regular Tao reader you'll recognize a fair number of the stories. Even so, it's very much worth it for the tales that you hadn't heard or have forgotten. Pauly is right there in the trenches, living the life and his writing puts you squarely in the middle of the action (cliche score: 3). You'll meet the degenerates, hopefuls and total scumbags that make Las Vegas such an interesting place. You'll also read about a lot of ~~douchebags~~ poker players.

Buy a copy of this book. It's a win-win proposition: You support one of the hardest ~~living~~ working bloggers in the business and you get entertainment in return. It's a no brainer. Like me.

Short Microsoft

2010-06-30T20:10:00.002-04:00

Man, I am just on perma-tilt. Technology is such a pain.

In the last couple of weeks I have overcome the mystery of the vanishing cable internet. I have done a clean install of Windows XP on an old machine. And now I am a freaking wizard at laser printer repair.

Or at least I will be once my replacement fuser arrives. It's really not a good thing when the coating starts peeling off one of the rollers. Tends to gum things up pretty severely.

I still have things I need to do. I need to run some cable. I need to assign some new user names. I need to upgrade a few boxes to Service Pack 3 before the middle of July.

Who has time to play poker? Not this guy, too busy being an IT department.

Lost Vegas

2010-06-30T12:03:00.002-04:00

You've enjoyed Dr. Pauly's reporting from the World Series of Poker for years.

(What, you haven't? Do you live under a rock or something? Go read. Now.)

He's been working on a book for years.

It has finally arrived. Go read about Lost Vegas and order a copy. I ordered mine today.

What are you waiting for?

Tin Cans and String

2010-06-29T11:25:00.004-04:00

I was all geared up to play a few hands last night.

Didn't happen. Consider yourself lucky - no bad beat stories.

So I was watching something online on Sunday night when my internet crapped out for no apparent reason. I recently switched to Charter and everything was working perfectly fine. Until it didn't work at all. I figured it wasn't a big deal and just went to sleep.

Tried it again last night. Nothing. It's not finding a DNS. I tried unplugging the cable modem and plugging it back in. Nope. Took it off the router and ran an ethernet cable to my computer. Nope. No internet. Checked outside, the cable is still in place. Checked out the settings, everything appears to be in order.

Sigh.

The Charter support website didn't offer any blinding insight in the couple minutes I've spent. So far I've determined that I should keep the cable modem unplugged for at least 30 seconds. And I should try rebooting. Again.

Yeah, that's going to work.

I have a bad feeling that I'm going to end up having Rajiv from Bangalore telling me how much of an idiot I am sometime tomorrow.

F***ing technology how does it work.

Program Note

2010-06-28T13:21:00.003-04:00

Still alive. Working and golfing. Not pokering.

The Golf Channel has a show called (I think) Golf in America. According to the promos, tonight's episode is supposed to feature high stakes gamblers. I know that I saw Doyle Brunson as one of them in the ad ... but didn't see Phil Ivey (?!). I would guess Daniel Negraneu will also be part of it since he showed up on the Hank Haney - Ray Romano show also on the Golf Channel.

I hope that he is, if only for the comic relief that his swing brings. Of course he's a deadly putter, no self-respecting gambler is going to be weak with the flat stick.

Anyhow, if you're really bored I think it's on a 9 ET tonight and will probably be replayed periodically. If I happen to see it I'll post a review.

1100

2010-06-17T10:10:00.002-04:00

They finally pulled the plug last night.

My ISP, that is. What were you thinking I meant?

I've been using the same provider for about five years now. Last year they put out notice that they were going to be changing to a different wireless technology. I wasn't crazy about the change but I had them come out to see if it would work. No luck. So I've been living on borrowed time for months and months.

I got a call last month that they were really serious this time, the network was going to be shut down as of the first of the month. That date came and went and the leeching went on. At least I haven't received a bill for this month.

Last night I went to check the weather and the network was gone. They finally did it.

Now I have to actually figure out what to do instead.

Crap.

Honestly, none of the options are all that appealing. I could get dial up or DSL service but I have no interest in a home phone line. I could get cable service through Charter but I have little interest in television service and none in their phone service. I could get AT&T Uverse but since I have little interest in TV their rates would suck plus installation sounds like a pain.

Or I could just live in a world with no home internet. Last night was kind of weird not having it but it's not like I missed much. Instead I got my laundry done and read a few chapters of Will Leitch's surprisingly (to me) good book "Are We Winning?".

It would kind of suck though to have to go to the office anytime I wanted to do anything online.

***

On a related note, the bonus clearing quest and attempt to get iron man status for the month is pretty much dead. I'm just too crunched for time and get too frustrated when I take a beat playing on a short roll. If I get something lined up I may yet try and clear some more of it but if I do it will probably involve playing something different. If I didn't completely suck I would be tempted to just play sets of super turbos or something. We'll see - I still have a couple weeks left.

And I obviously missed the WPBT gives back tournament last night. Kudos to OhCaptain for organizing and hopefully the turnout was good.

I Could Quit At Any Time

2010-06-07T22:34:00.003-04:00

Man, I hate to sound like a broken record.

Stop me if you've heard this before: I kinda hate poker.

As usual I'm just venting. I had an OK session last night, booking a reasonable win. And then tonight I donk off three nights' worth of gains plus the bonus I'd cleared ... in two hands. QQ less than AA, JJ less than QQ. Stupid.

Unlimited hold them, I am not good at it.

So I'm back to the start and if this is how it's going to be, why even bother?

What Holdem Taketh, Omatards Giveth Back

2010-06-05T22:02:00.002-04:00

Day 2 in the book. Much like yesterday, I played about 1000 hands. Much like yesterday the RNG decided to administer a red hot poker to my uh never mind. I did a lot of good work and then screwed up when some tard called down with an open ender and hit the ass end on the river against my aggressively bet top set. Give a donkey six or eight outs and they'll call any size bet.

The only problem is that they hit.

So I dumped two thirds of a buyin playing NLHE. I decided to wind down with a little Rush 25 PLO and despite it being 6 max which is not my game some tards decided to gift me with nearly two buyins so I ended up in the black for a couple sliders on the day once again.

I'm really going to hate poker before this is over, you know. I'm getting close as it is.

Kiddie Pool

2010-06-04T23:42:00.002-04:00

Opted in. Day 1. I timed it to max out the weekends since that's going to be my best shot at grinding through the required hands.

Got in 1000 today (thanks Rush). Keeping it simple, 2 tables of 50.

Nice to see that the Full Tilt RNG continues to hate me. I wasn't keeping close track, but I think I got AA seven times. I picked up the blinds, picked up the blinds, won a small pot, got cracked by a set, got cracked by a set, got cracked by a set and got cracked by a rivered straight.

Wheeeee!

That's like a bunch of bad beat mini-stories for the price of one. Apparently I am the White Castle of bad beat stories. You want fries with that?

And yes, I still suck at poker. Ended up on the positive side by a couple sliders though so it's all good. I should clear my first 20 early in my next session.

I'm going to really hate poker by the time this is done. And you're going to hate me by extension.

Bonus Baby

2010-05-29T20:39:00.004-04:00

I opened up my email this evening and found that I had one from Full Tilt offering me the largest bonus I've ever been given. I mean, I usually see 25 or 50. This time: Five hundo.

My initial reaction was "huh?"

Second reaction was ... "um, WTF?"

Upon further reflection I do kinda wonder if the sites are experiencing/anticipating an outflow of cash with the June 1 UIGEA implementation date. Offering bonuses is certainly one way to keep people playing.

I mean it's not possible that the bonus was triggered by me coming back for one day after taking a couple months off due to the doomswitch, right?

Right?

***

As for the bonus itself, I'm undecided as to what to do about it. I have 30 days to clear it from the day I opt in. I would need to average around 300 points per day.

To accumulate that kind of pointage in a reasonable amount of time each day, that means playing Rush 100.

I am not rolled for Rush 100. I am not close to adequately rolled for Rush 100.

I could play longer and play mostly Rush 50.

Honestly, I'm not even rolled to handle any kind of downswing at Rush 50.

Sigh.

The points come very slowly at Rush 25.

I see shot taking coming up.

Depositing is not an option. The funds are not available.

If I traded out everything I could find elsewhere online I'd still be pretty under rolled for Rush 100.

I guess I'll think about it and wait a day or two before opting in. I think I could devote the time to clearing it - even though I shouldn't - and unless I come up with a better idea I'll probably just clear as much as I can playing conservatively.

Now that I think about it, if I play in June, I can probably tack on a pretty good size Iron Man bonus for playing so much Jan-Mar.

***

So if I play, who will show up: Will it be the player who tripled his roll playing the cash games or the player who pissed away all those gains plus some once the doomswitch kicked in?

Expect future ~~prayers~~ whining in this space about why can't I just be a break-even player. Break-even over the next two months would be all sorts of win.

A Winner Is You!

2010-05-27T23:41:00.004-04:00

Yeah all you people playing for WSOP seats and stuff can just suck it.

I actually fired up Full Tilt tonight for the first time in a while. Probably the first time since the implosion that I did so with the intent of playing. And play I did. I won almost half a stack playing Rush and then played a 135 player Rush SnG. Min-cashed in 14th for like a 50% ROI.

That's right, WINNER.

***

By the way, if you're not up to date on your Goat, you fail.

OOSSUUU754 IS THE FULL TILT RNG!!!

Almost WSOP Time

2010-05-24T15:28:00.002-04:00

... and for the however-many-there-have-been-th year in a row I won't be there. Actually that's not entirely correct -- I did go to one of the early summer WPBT gatherings I just didn't bother to make my way over to the WSOP.

I always expect that I'll be completely uninspired by the WSOP. I haven't watched any poker on TV in about four years. I know I'll almost certainly never play in an event. It will probably be many years before I return to Las Vegas. I can identify fewer and fewer of the relevant personalities. There just aren't reasons to care.

And yet I always end up following the action. I guess that's in large part a testimony to the abilities of the various folks who migrate to the desert every year to provide online coverage. That plus the occasional run by a blogger deep into the money.

So to those who write - and boy are there a lot of y'all - good luck and thanks. To those who are playing, good luck and JFC WHY AM I CLICKING REFRESH EVERY TWO MINUTES er, I mean gogogogogo.

***

No content otherwise. I haven't played a single hand since the end of SCOOP. I did load up Full Tilt yesterday thinking I would check and see who was doing well in the BBT5 invitational but I ended up just shutting down after I updated the software.

I don't know if this week is part of the BBT5 or not. Even if it is, I'm sure I won't be playing which means I'll have an big fat zero next to my name for total events entered.

Humpin A Minimum Wage McJob

2010-05-15T22:35:00.005-04:00

My SCOOP has come to an end.

Thankfully.

5 1/2 hours of Event 36-L (HORSE) resulted in a 341st place finish out of 3800some, good for thirty six dollars and change in imaginary cash. Good thing it was on a freeroll - a fourteen dollar "win" would have really kinda sucked.

Also: Good lord I am terrible at limit holdem.

Thanks for the "fun" Pokerstars. (It's not you, it's the nature of the game).

I Should Just Submit Everything to Failblog

2010-05-14T10:20:00.002-04:00

Played SCOOP 30-M (PLO/8) as planned. Had a decent first hour. Missed the entire second hour as I left work, went home, found I had no internet, turned around, got dinner and went back to work. Amazingly - thanks PLO/8 - I only lost a couple hundred chips to blinds.

The third and fourth hour went badly. I played very few hands but should have played even fewer. Really it wasn't memorable at all other than for the fact that I folded junk hand after hand. I know you have to do more than play your own hand, but when you keep getting Q722 and you have two heavy raisers on your right you fold and fold and fold some more.

I made one fairly stupid play that cost a decent part of my stack. Holding A4xx I got a free card following a A94 flop. Turn was a 2 iirc, checked around, river another ace. Called a bet thinking chop only to find someone holding A94x. Sigh.

So I busted in the middle of hour four, taking a stand (when you have almost no chips can you really call it that?) with a pretty crappy hand that whiffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffed completely.

Standard.

Not good at poker.

So I have one chance left, most likely Saturday's HORSE low event. I'd play tonight's NLO8 pushmonkey fiesta but I don't think I'll be home. Besides, there is no freaking way I run good enough to cash in unlimited four card split bingo.

Semi Live Blogging SCOOP Event 22-L

2010-05-10T17:10:00.016-04:00

Here we go. 4-max NLHE. This should be interesting, I don't think I've ever played 4 max.

17:10 - I open at a table with a pig, a Spongebob and an anonymous Russian. So far I've taken about 1,000 chips mostly off the Russian.

17:12 - Spongebob has just observed "it's gonna be one fun tourney". Yeah budday.

17:16 - Already I've had AA and QQ. The aces got me some chips, the hos got me the blinds.

17:20 - If there was ever a tournament to turn on auto-muck, this would be it. Also: I should be paying more attention to the game and less to this.

17:24 - Anonymous Russian goes down when his trip 2s fall to a 6 high straight. K2s vs 54s. Wheeeeeeee. I folded the other 2. Ivan replaced by an anonymous American. I'd like to kick these people with no avatars in the nuts. Also: Spongebob is from France I think and has the makings of a table captain. It could get ugly if he wins a few hands.

17:35 - Back down to my starting stack after a couple marginal plays. I laid down a rivered straight to a decent sized bet on a 4 flushed board. Sigh. This game doesn't really suit my non-aggression.

17:38 - I think Spongebob is complaining that people are playing too tight but I'm not familiar with his terminology. WE ARE NOT SNUG **** YOU VERY MUCH.

17:39 - First all in preflop is ... AK vs AK. How VERY surprising.

17:45 - Okay, so that bluff didn't work. Duh. You can never push anybody off ace rag on an ace high board dummy. Down to T4700. I think Spongebob is getting impatient. He's betting odd amounts and talking to himself in chat. Of course just as I type this he wins a pot.

17:51 - KK and AKo on back to back hands gets me the blinds and a walk. CAN'T YOU FEEL THE ACTION OF 4 MAX WOOO !!!!11!

17:55 - Break time. T4325 after A8s loses to AJo for a small pot. Looks like about 6,700 entrants and a $200,000 prize pool. 1200 places pay and there are about 4,700 players left.

18:05 - Finally some action. I three-bet with AQ and get two callers. Ace on the flop and a bet takes it down. Back above the starting stack but not by much.

18:10 - Somewhere around here someone FINALLY responds to Spongebob in chat.

18:11 - Oops. AQo goes down to a super passively played AKo. I mean I got check called all the way. Down to T3700.

18:19 - Standard setup. River J gives me TPTK while missing my frush draw. It also gives Pig a one card straight. Rrrrr. Down to T2700. And I have to leave the office soon so I'll probably get blinded out while I make the trip home and fire up the computer. Okay probably not but it'll still be annoying.

19:07 - Okay, usual standard crap. I won a couple hands, got back over T6000. Then work interfered, played like a tard for a few hands, my AJ doubled a shorty who hit with A6o, then I had to go home, blah blah blah. Got home just as the break ended, had T1900 left. Stellar.

And I'm out, A9s goes down to K8s when he flops trip 8s. 2670/6695.

FAIL.

I think I'll spend the evening pondering why I can't ever play without life stressing me out so much.

Edit: Decided to play a turbo satellite into tonight's SCOOP event. Build up a little stack but not enough to be comfortable. Boom, neighbor comes over. Ten minutes later I return to less than T1000. Why do I even ****ing bother?

Re-Edit: Huh, lucksacked my way back into it in the satellite and got a seat into the SCOOP event. That, however, did not go so well. Stupid rebuys.

I Blame Whoever Invented the Datebook

2010-05-07T09:37:00.004-04:00

Logged on to Stars last night since I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I was kind of hoping that there would be a SCOOP event at 20:00, but no dice. I settled for a micro limit 180 man sit n go.

I don't know if it's having played a bunch of Rush Poker or my undiagnosed ADD or what but I eventually remembered the main reason I don't play many tournaments - I just don't have enough patience. I hung around, folded a bunch, picked up a few chips here and there and then donkeyed my way out in the 70s trying to get a guy to fold TPNK. That's never going to work. Absolutely no reason I had to bust there, but there was a definite moment of awwfukkit-itis.

Yeah, I should be deadly when I get around to playing some SCOOP events.

Anyhow, since I had this vague feeling of discomfort that the SCOOP is passing me by - I mean it's been a week and I haven't played in any of the events - I took a minute this morning to try and figure out which events I'm going to play.

It's not pretty.

Basically I'm kind of screwed by not being able to play on Sundays and (to a lesser extent) most of Tuesday. Here are my options (thanks to Short Stacked Shamus for the nicely formatted schedule btw):

$22 Events:

Saturday, May 8, 14:00
Event No. 16: No-Limit Hold’em Shootout (10-max.)
Low -- $22 buy-in (quadruple shootout, i.e., max. 10,000 players), $150,000 guaranteed

or

Saturday, May 8, 20:00
Event No. 18: Limit Hold’em (turbo)
Low -- $22 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed

or

Friday, May 14, 20:00
Event No. 33: No-Limit Omaha/8 (turbo)
Low -- $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed

or

Saturday, May 15, 17:00
Event No. 36: H.O.R.S.E.
Low -- $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed

$33 Events

Monday, May 10, 17:00
Event No. 22: No-Limit Hold’em (4-max.)
Low -- $33 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed

or

Thursday, May 13, 14:00
Event No. 29: 8-Game Mix
Low -- $33 buy-in, $75,000 guaranteed

$109 Events

Tuesday, May 11, 14:00
Event No. 24: Triple Draw Deuce-to-Seven
Medium -- $109 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed

Tuesday, May 11, 20:00
Event No. 26: No-Limit Hold’em
Medium -- $109 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed

Thursday, May 13, 17:00
Event No. 30: Pot-Limit Omaha/8
Medium -- $109 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed

I've already tossed out the rebuys (not going to happen) and some of the daytime tourneys that I know I can't possibly make.

Being realistic about things, I probably can't do any of the remaining daytime (14:00) events, I would probably miss the first couple levels of the 20:00 Tuesday tournament (but that still might be better than playing PLO/8) and I think I'd rather be beaten with a blunt object than play a limit holdem tournament.

So it appears that the best option is to play:

Saturday, May 15, 17:00
Event No. 36: H.O.R.S.E.
Low -- $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed

Monday, May 10, 17:00
Event No. 22: No-Limit Hold’em (4-max.)
Low -- $33 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed

Thursday, May 13, 17:00
Event No. 30: Pot-Limit Omaha/8
Medium -- $109 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed

I think I'm gonna go throw up.

Stars FTW Once Again

2010-04-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

I may suck at the poker but I run super good in accumulating tickets thanks to the incredible generosity of PokerStars.

Now all I have to do is convert something into, you know, cash money.

Oh wait, that's where the whole sucking at poker things comes back into play.

Sigh.

If you need me I'ma be playing some 8 game mix.

Oops

2010-04-28T16:51:00.003-04:00

Sorry about the screwup over the Mookie/Buddy. I plain forgot what day it was yesterday.

Anyway, more for my own reference than anything else, the SCOOP schedule:

01	May 2 13:00 ET	NL Hold’em [6-max]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
02	May 2 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em [2-day]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
03	May 3 14:00 ET	NL Hold’em -6-Max, Rebuys]	Low: $5.50 Med: $55 High: $530
04	May 3 17:00 ET	FL Badugi	Low: $16.50 Med: $162 High: $1,575
05	May 3 20:00 ET	PL Omaha [Turbo, 1R1A]	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
06	May 4 14:00 ET	PL 5-Card Draw	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
07	May 4 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em [Heads-Up Match Play]	Low: $16.50 Med: $162 High: $1,575
08	May 4 20:00 ET	NL Hold’em	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
09	May 5 14:00 ET	Mixed Hold’em [6-Max]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
10	May 5 17:00 ET	7-Card Stud High	Low: $33 Med: $320 High: $3,150
11	May 6 14:00 ET	PL Omaha [Heads-Up Match Play]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
12	May 6 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em [Knockout]	Low: $27 Med: $265 High: $2,100
13	May 7 14:00 ET	NL Hold’em [Ante Up!]	Low: $16.50 Med: $162 High: $1,575
14	May 7 17:00 ET	FL Omaha Hi-Lo	Low: $55 Med: $530 High: $5,200
15	May 7 20:00 ET	NL Hold’em [2X Chance, Turbo]	Low: $16.50 Med: $162 High: $1,575
16	May 8 16:30 ET	NLH - Quadruple Shootout NLH - Triple Shootout NLH - Double Shootout	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
17	May 8 17:00 ET	PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys]	Low: $16.50 Med: $162 High: $1,575
18	May 8 20:00 ET	FL Hold’em [Turbo]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
19	May 9 13:00 ET	NL Hold’em [Big Antes]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
20	May 9 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em [2 day]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
21	May 10 14:00 ET	PL Hold’em/PL Omaha	Low: $16.50 Med: $162 High: $1,575
22	May 10 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em [4-Max]	Low: $33 Med: $320 High: $3,150
23	May 10 20:00 ET	NL Hold’em [Turbo, Rebuys]	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
24	May 11 14:00 ET	2-7 Triple Draw	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
25	May 11 17:00 ET	7-Card Stud Hi-Lo	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
26	May 11 20:00 ET	NL Hold’em	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
27	May 12 14:00 ET	Razz	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
28	May 12 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em [Rebuys]	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
29	May 13 14:00 ET	8-Game	Low: $33 Med: $320 High: $3,150
30	May 13 17:00 ET	PL Omaha Hi-Lo	Low: $11 Med: $109 High: $1,050
31	May 14 14:00 ET	NL Hold’em [1R1A]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
32	May 14 17:00 ET	FL Hold’em [6-Max]	Low: $55 Med: $530 High: $5,200
33	May 14 20:00 ET	NL Omaha Hi-Lo [10m levels]	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
34	May 15 14:00 ET	PL Omaha [6-Max]	Low: $55 Med: $530 High: $5,200
35	May 15 15:30 ET	NL Hold’em [Heads-Up Match Play, 2-Day]	Low: $270 Med: $2,600 High: $25,500
36	May 15 17:00 ET	HORSE	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
37	May 16 13:00 ET	NL Hold’em	Low: $22 Med: $215 High: $2,100
38	May 16 17:00 ET	NL Hold’em Main Event [2-Day]	Low: $109 Med: $1,050 High: $10,300

Scheduled All To Hell

2010-04-27T10:57:00.005-04:00

No poker being played so this will be a content-free update.

The BBT5 continues with the Mookie (or whatever it's called now) ~~this evening~~ TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY. 10:00 PM ET, pw vegas1, it'll be the $10+1 private tourney with over 100 entrants. I'm about 95% certain that I won't be there - really need extra sleep to deal with things right now - which means that I still won't have played an event in this series. I don't know if I'll make a Mookie or a Monday night Poker From the Rail event before it's over but there are a few weeks left so who knows.

Probably the next meaningful poker I'll play will be the SCOOP series over on PokerStars. Thanks to Stars I have a ticket to use on a low buyin event and I may try one or two others. More than anything else it depends on timing - I really think one of the reasons I moved away from playing tournaments several years ago is that I just find it impossible to block off any meaningful amount of time to focus. There's always something else that I should be doing. Or in the case of golf season that I'd rather be doing.

Speaking of which it was an odd weekend. The forecast was dismal - 70% chance of rain Friday night, 70% chance on Saturday, 80-100% on Sunday. Instead it rained overnight Saturday night for a while and there were a few drops on Sunday. Nice going weather people but thank you. Bonus thanks to the wonky low pressure system that had the lines of precipitation moving all over the place just not here.

Pairings

2010-04-23T16:17:00.003-04:00

{ed: Sorry about the width issues, too lazy to fix.}

Hello blog readers. Today’s topic is one which in my opinion is tremendously underexposed. I really can’t understand why there aren’t more posts about it. Let’s break it down.

Point One: Many poker players like to watch poker videos. Watching training films is a proven way to improve your game.

Point Two: Many poker players also enjoy a fine beverage. With so many to choose from, selecting the right beverage is something of an art form.

You see lots of talk and TV and stuff about pairing food and wine. Why don’t we see posts about pairing poker videos with the correct beverage?

That was a rhetorical question by the way. I’m all over this topic and right here, as a public service, I'm going to clue you in on some basic poker video-beverage pairings.

Let’s start with an easy one. This is a video of Phil Helmuth demonstrating how to correctly play the Hammer:

Because it’s Phil, the obvious pairing is with a fine ~~whine~~ wine. Specifically one that’s both sickeningly sweet and highly acidic. This makes for an obvious choice - I recommend a nice expensive ice wine.

See how easy that was?

Next up is a video from PokerStars, how to play badugi.

You have to be kind of weird to play badugi. You know who else is kinda weird? People that like the Insane Clown Posse. You know what those people drink? Faygo.

So let’s pair badugi up with a nice tall glass of Faygo Rock ‘n Rye.

As a bonus Faygo is non-alcoholic so you can keep your wits around you as you try and figure out this crazy game. And once you do (somehow) master badugi you can go crazy, mix Faygo with a wide variety of booze and get drunk right off your ass. It’s the perfect beverage for badugiots everywhere.

Moving right along we have another video from PokerStars, how to play 8 game mix.

Look, let’s face the facts. Only weird people with strange facial tics play 8 game mix, so it’s important to select a beverage that fits. My recommendation is a nice Japanese beer. And I don't mean one of those mainstream beers that everybody knows like Asahi or Kirin or Sapporo. I'm talking something from way out there:

Yeah, I have no idea either.

So anyway, further study is needed but I have a working hypothesis that the same people that actually like 8 game mix are the same people who have a Japanese beer fetish. Don’t agree? Go do a dozen sake bombs and check back with me later.

Right.

So I was going to do a couple more, but I've found that just plain old beer pairs really well with poker blogging and I've kinda lost initiative. So go experiment with your own pairings and remember one key phrase: If you overdo it, it's not my fault.

BBT5

2010-04-18T22:22:00.002-04:00

Back and better than ever, the BBT5 is a chance to win one of several WSOP seats by playing blogger tournaments. I could explain it better, but instead I'm just going to link you to the man behind it all.

The series kicked off tonight, I think, with some kind of invitational. I'm kinda fuzzy on that one. There are Monday and Wednesday tournaments each week for the next six weeks and then a tournament of champeens.

I don't think I'll be playing too many events - 10:00 pm starts and oh, yeah, right, I suck at poker - but it's a great series reworked so that you don't have to kill yourself to have a chance.

I have no other pokerings to talk about. I did sign on to check out Rush poker tournaments, but I didn't have the patience to wait 2 hours for one to start. ADD FTL.

Run Away

2010-03-29T09:15:00.002-04:00

It's all fun until somebody suffers a flesh wound.

Coolish

2010-03-29T06:47:00.000-04:00

Posting is going to be very light around here for a couple weeks. Work followed by a little vacation followed by more work. And then some more work on top of that. No poker will have been played, and I may not hit the tables until the SCOOP rolls around.

Really, it's probably for the best.

I haven't quite attained the legendary cooler abilities of Waffles, but I'm on some kind of roll. I figured out on Friday night that I had a great chance to win a NCAA pool if Tennessee beat Michigan State and (especially) if Baylor beat Dook.

Bzzzzzzzzzt. 0 for 2.

Now I'm pretty much out of it.

And then my last winter sports rooting interest went down in double OT in the hockey bracket after some seriously lousy officiating.

Bzzzzzzzzzt. FAIL.

It's a good thing I don't bet on sports - if I did, I'd be better off just lighting the money on fire. At least that way I'd get a micro hit of heat and light.

World Domination

2010-03-24T20:42:00.005-04:00

Stick finally had had enough. There had been one too many bad beats. He decided to take a break from internet poker.

"I don't need poker," Stick said, "I can get just as much pleasure out of watching TV!"

Unfortunately, watching television left a gaping hole in Stick's soul. It was obvious that TV was not the answer he was looking for.

"I need a hobby," Stick said to himself.

Being a man of action, Stick went and got himself just what he thought he needed. "No more poker!" he said.

Stick threw himself into his new hobby. His new focus? Nothing short of WORLD DOMINATION!

"I'll take Asia for plus seven armies, bitches!" became Stick's new motto. And it was good.

It didn't take long for Stick to come to a realization, though: True WORLD DOMINATION takes money.

Stick didn't have much money.

Stick was sad.

Then he started to think. "How can I get money?" he pondered.

The obvious answer? Stick knew it was poker. He knew that the SCOOP poker tournament series was coming to PokerStars in May with over $45 million in guaranteed prize money.

All it would take to fund his plans was one little win. Stick knew it was time to get back into the game.

So he did.

(Ed note: Oh the things we'll do for a shot at free SCOOP entry tickets.)

Content

2010-03-22T09:53:00.004-04:00

Still on hiatus from online play. I'm hoping that if I stay away for a while the Full Tilt RNG will forget about its vendetta.

Played in a home game yesterday. 7 player tournament, winner take all.

I made a few hands early and was in very good position as chip leader with 4 left.

Ran a rivered flush into a rivered full house.

Ran a flopped set into the same opponent's rivered flush.

Oops.

Out in 4th. Good times regardless.

Tweets of the Day

2010-03-17T19:49:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure which I like better. Both from @TheChristinaKim:

Dear Bermuda Grass, I'm sorry, its just not working out. Its not me-its you. The grass IS greener on the other side. Of the country. Goodbye

Dear Tight Bent Fairways, Long Sticky, Thick Bent Rough, and Fast, Carpetesque Poa Anna Greens- I've missed you. That is all. Love, CK

Spring fever ... catch it.

Golf Notes: FML It's Nice Outside Edition

2010-03-17T09:11:00.006-04:00

It's another beautiful day here at Res Ipsa Golf. The sun is shining, it's supposed to get up into the upper 50s (that's like 15 or so for you Canadians eh) this afternoon ... and of course I'm locked down in my office. It's also 100% standard that it's supposed to be beautiful through Friday and then the weekend forecast just keeps getting worse. Rain. Snow. Cold. Blech.

The start of the season might have to wait another week. Sigh.

The big news of the day is - of course - Tiger Woods coming back at the Masters. Other than the whole 'let's play a major without any warmup tournaments' thing this is the most obvious time to come back possible.

Think about it. The people that run the Masters will have the place on lockdown. The crowds are big but not overwhelming. They have the Pinkerton guys on security. They're not shy about ejecting people that violate their ideas of decorum. Augusta National is like a bubble and it's the obvious place for the comeback to begin. At any other tournament Tiger's handlers would have to make all sorts of plans for security.

I'm not going to hazard a guess as to how Tiger will do. He's enough of a freak - in the golf sense pervs - to be fully capable of winning. He's also human which means he could well shoot 78-78 and miss the cut. You could say we have data points from the past - when he took time off for his father's death or when he came back from injury last year - but I don't know that anybody in professional golf has ever experienced anything remotely CLOSE to what Tiger has and will continue to experience until things are back to business as usual.

I do know this - I am definitely bummed out that I didn't get any practice round tickets in the lottery this year.

***

Otherwise, I'm now caught up on the new season of the Haney Project. I thought episode 3 was pretty weak - there wasn't anything holding it together, no theme or anything. The one section that could have been a bigger part was the whole Ray's wife learning the game in secret. I hope there's more of that in coming episodes.

Incidentally, Ray and his wife come across like they don't like each other all that much. I very much enjoyed the hint of evil when she was talking about how much she was looking forward to spending a day at the course with him.

Also: Hank is still not Mr. Personality. That's not going to change. He makes a decent straight man I guess but you really need someone with truckloads of personality to play off him. Barkley had that, Romano comes up short - in my opinion and so far.

Working On New Logo

2010-03-16T09:11:00.007-04:00

First draft of the new top of the page design. I think it needs some work - time to break out the ~~crayons~~ MS Paint.

Also in the works: Getting one of those golf gadget infomercial people on board as a site sponsor.

Mat Tees

2010-03-16T08:44:00.004-04:00

It finally warmed up enough - barely - to get out and hit some range balls this past weekend. Actually it was plenty warm, but there was some serious wind on Saturday that had a cold bite to it. Fortunately the range I went to had a shed which blocked the wind and it wasn't bad at all. The trade off, though, was that I had to hit off a mat tee.

As mat tees go, though, this sucker was a cadillac. No jarring, no concrete feel, nothing like that. And the results were magnificent. Apparently if I take 4 months off, have a 20 mph left-to-right wind and hit off a mat tee I'm good.

A couple of the local courses were open as well and I thought about playing on Sunday. Decided that I was too busy. I'm hoping that my home course will open this weekend and if so I'll try and get out there.

***

Other than that, I caught up on the first two episodes of "The Haney Project - Ray Romano". I watched some of the first season with Charles Barkley, so I had an idea of what to expect, but man - Hank Haney isn't exactly Mr. Personality.

If I get bored one of these days I'm going to go back and watch the entire Barkley season - the golf channel website has the episodes available online.

If You Got Here By Searching For Poker, Try Again

2010-03-13T22:51:00.004-05:00

I think it's about time to turn this into a golf blog.

Seriously. Any confidence that I had that I knew the first thing about poker has been completely demolished.

I shook off another beating yesterday, handling it well. I wasn't even fazed by the ESP of the guy who called me down on a board of A23Q with two clubs. Of course he knew that a red 4 was going to come on the river to make his pocket 5s gold against my AQ. No worries.

Things weren't so positive today as I received another string of full-wind-up kicks in the junk. TILT. I especially enjoyed losing with Jc Tc on a 7h 8c 9c Qd board. Got flop action so I grossly overbet the pot on the turn. Can I just pick it up there? Fuck no. Standard low club on the river makes the naked ace high flush draw good. Way to call all in with that sir.

This just isn't any fun.

Other than the occasional pleasure of crushing shortstacker dreams or of outplaying some douche canoe who thinks 4-betting with Q8o in a battle of the blinds is a good idea, there has been precious little enjoyment involved lately.

I'm very very close to withdrawing what I have and just not playing on Tilt again until fall - although I would think about doing something with my accumulated iron medals. Maybe play a couple token tournaments or something.

Count me as really, really, really glad that spring is just about here so that I have something else to do. I'm as tired of the bad beat stories as you are.

Speaking of bad beats, it's almost time to take one from the government. Stupid ass daylight savings time.

One Step Closer

2010-03-10T21:33:00.003-05:00

I'm moving ever closer to just cashing out. Of course by the time I pull the trigger there won't be anything left, but whatever.

Minimal play tonight. Donked off a buyin at the 25 game playing stupid.

Also tried a few super turbo sit 'n gos for variety. FAIL.

Entry 1: 45 player. 6 places pay. I nearly triple up first orbit, don't see another hand worth a single chip, die in 8th place when A8 < KT.

Entry 2: 9 player. 3 places pay. Go out 8th when KQ < KTs.

Entry 3: 9 player. 3 places pay. Out in 4th. Couldn't outlast the 2 stacks that were equivalent to mine. A3s < AK < AQ or something like that.

Although I thought the push-or-fold game might suit my weak/tight style, I'm probably too tight to be +EV at these stupid games.

I Need A Giant Banner

2010-03-09T23:32:00.004-05:00

Speaking in gross metaphor, this has a feeling much like seeing the legendary "Mission Accomplished" banner from when Bush II declared victory in Iraq.

I'm declaring victory. Of sorts.

One final poker overdose this evening. I crammed in a couple hours of play and got to my point goal. I ordered my electronic gizmo, draining my point balance, and I'm done. No more goals.

Of course I dumped a bunch more cash in the process. Sickening.

I'm not sure which was most enjoyable:

Choice 1: I flop a set with 88 on a Q86 board and checkraise a tard all in. Tard tanks and finally calls with Q9. Turn 6. River Q.

Choice 2: I flop a straight with J8 on a QT9 board. I bet, get raised, three bet and call a four bet shove ... from Q9. Turn Q ends the drama, river 9 just in case the message wasn't clear.

Choice 3: Aww fukkit. KK goes down to 44 for a stack plus. A big stack.

Choice 4: Ditto. KK four flushed by some inferior hand.

Of all those, choices 4 and 3 happened first. I handled them well.

Then choice 1 happened and I got pissed. TILT. Choice 2 was just the last straw.

I'm undecided what to do now. I simply can't take a whole lot more of this. After tonight's session I am now down from where I 'started' in November. I tripled my roll and have now given all that back plus a few cheeseburgers. I know I'm not good - and I don't doubt that the constant cascade of beats has affected my mental game - but I'm sure I'm not this bad.

I may just try and cash out what little I have left. Honestly, I think that's probably for the best, but I'm undecided. I think I'll sleep on it.

A Comfort Zone

2010-03-08T21:41:00.004-05:00

It felt weird to not play last night. I assume that's a solid indicator of addiction.

As it turned out, I certainly could have played. I chose to putter around instead, doing some extra and unnecessary preparation for a trial today.

Thankfully I have tonight to relax and unwind. I just got in my session for the evening, which was entirely unremarkable. I neither received nor dished out any bad beats - the only time I got a stack in the middle I had a set of nines and got a call from unimproved pocket tens. Ended up a couple value combos and a happy meal. Or thereabouts.

Really I think that playing two or three tables of Rush for a half hour (during Rush Happy Hour) is all sorts of win. I can squeeze in about the right number of points to maintain some kind of status and I get 'em doubled as I inch closer to my goal. It just feels like the right amount of poker.

Of course since I'm me, I'll change my mind on that tomorrow.

Oh well.

***

Not much going on otherwise. I plan to kill some time window shopping the Dell site this evening - they're running a ten days of deals promotion, but what I think is pretty slick is the "add a netbook for $149" promo. Sure it's their older model, has a wimpy battery and all around mediocre specs, but for a functional 2.5 pound email and surfing machine that would be so easy to take on the road - at that price - it's a pretty neat deal -- especially when, I imagine, you're also getting yourself a new desktop or laptop or even another netbook.

I've been shopping the local Best Buy and Staples some just to increase my knowledge of what's out there, so I'll be interested to see how Dell compares pricewise in general.

Anyway, like I said, just window shopping. I don't know when I'll be in a position to pull the trigger on a new computer - even a netbook - but there's always hope.

Stored

2010-03-07T11:29:00.004-05:00

I had too much time to think this morning while waiting for laundry.

I've paged through the Full Tilt Store a couple times recently. I really have no idea how they select the items on offer. Some of them - iPods for one example - are presumably there because they're a well known gadget that lots of people lust after. Other items such as all the FTP logo'd apparel and accessories are obvious promo items. Some of the other items you almost figure they got a big discount on a skid of something.

It didn't really hit me until today, but one super logical item is not found in the FTP store: A netbook. Huh.

You would think that would be a slam dunk. It could be priced reasonably, between 60-80k points, which would make it attainable for a lot of folks. Shipping would be reasonable. You would think it would also encourage more play - especially with Rush Poker* making it easier to rack up the hands on a small screen. For myself, it would be a nice item to have and I would snap-order if something decent - like an HP, Toshiba, Dell, ASUS/Gateway, Sony or whatever - were available.

Like I said, too much time on my hands.

* I'm assuming they fixed the screen resolution requirement issue with the lobby, but I'm not sure.

WHAT THE

2010-03-06T20:11:00.003-05:00

Okay, this is just weird.

I know I was having some issues with the FTP client last night/this morning. For one thing, it stopped updating the tournament lobby of the Mammoth Rebuy. It didn't matter because I wasn't paying attention - I was Rushing.

When I finished, I checked my balance, both on the widget and by opening the cashier. I was very depressed by the number shown. I fiddled with it, thinking it was wrong. Nope. I went to bed trying to remember if the balance made me down two buyins or six.

I just logged on and my balance is completely different. And by different I mean it's where I thought it would be. Actually, up a couple extra value meals on the day yesterday. I also have a few more Full Tilt points.

I like this. I like this a lot more than being down six buyins.

But I'm really confused. Just what the hell was going on with the software last night?

Mastadonk Weekend Update

2010-03-06T15:07:00.003-05:00

I had a good time playing Kat's Mammoth Weekend donkament last night. I folded my way to a third place finish and some cash. Congratulations to Pokerwolf and OhCaptain on chopping it up. And a cordial FFFFUUUUU to Wolf for taking me out - I openshoved ATo on the button, he re-raised to get heads up with the hammer and made a fricking HAMMERBOAT (2 on flop, 7 on turn, 7 on river).

Sigh.

That's how I run.

At least I didn't rebuy much at all, so I think I made a decent profit (for a dolla donkament). Nice to see a lot of familiar faces. Chat didn't happen much as I was busy grinding through rush hands.

***

Speaking of Rush, yesterday's session has me thoroughly confused.

I know I dumped a buyin in the fifty game with what has been so VERY standard lately - I get QQ, the flop is AQ4, 4 on the turn (which is checked through) and I forget what the river was. I think it filled a flush draw. I bet out, have to call a shove and of course - OF FUCKING COURSE - I run into AA. I don't think he re-raised me preflop and the turn check was beautiful cover (I was looking to jam there anyway tbh).

That's the sort of thing that has been happening a lot. It's never AK or the flush, it's always the stone cold nuts or at least one hand closer to the nuts than what I have. And it's frustrating as hell.

At least I handled it much better last night than I have been.

When skimming through the hand histories to try and post the exact hand, I couldn't find it. I didn't spend a ton of time looking, but I'm still kind of irked that it may not be there. I might try importing the hands later to see if I can find it.

After a while I just played some 25, and I ended up basically up two buyins at that game. Combined with my donkament "score" I figured I should be pretty darn close to break even for the evening.

Here's the confusing part: I ended up down almost two buyins. (Initially I thought it was six, but I realized I was misremembering the start balance). I know I bleed off some with auto-rebuys activated, but I can't remember doing much damage at all. No other stackings, not so much chasing, no super retarded beats that I can recall.

Whatever. I'm sure it's right and I just spewed off more than I recall. Still a bummer to see the ending number in black and white though.

I'm almost within 1000 points of my goal. It's going to take longer than I would like - if I had last week's bankroll I could knock it out in one session - since I'm down about 65% in the last seven days or so. You can find me and the ghost of my roll donking it up at the nanolimit rush games until then. Once that's done I may just quit.

Intrastate Poker

2010-03-04T23:07:00.003-05:00

There have been a few blog posts recently about states that are thinking about getting into the online poker business. I haven't been paying too much attention - Michigan legislators have their heads way too far up their asses to consider allowing poker in our state - but was hit by a thought today:

Let's say you're an online poker pro from the midwest. California (for example) sets up an intra-state poker room. If the games proved popular and soft, wouldn't you want to get on the site?

I have no idea how they plan to regulate this - will you need to show an instate driver's license to open an account? Will they check your IP when you log on?

Does anyone really think that either of those restrictions will deter a determined - or even semi-determined - online pro?

Residency restrictions aren't all that effective in the internet age. Maybe someday our elected officials will catch on to that.

***

Two sessions so far this week. I moved down, dropped a table and have been hanging on with my fingernails. I actually had a hand hold yesterday (AA vs QQ tyvm) and won a cheeseburger. Back to running into monsters today and several extra value meals left the roll. Balance has not yet been restored to the force but there weren't nearly as many improbable beats.

At least it didn't feel as hopeless. I'll call that progress. If I can hold on long enough to get through these last 1500 points I can re-evaluate just what the hell I'm doing. Maybe I'll switch to trying to luckbox a donkament.

Hey Poker: F*** YOU

2010-03-02T22:20:00.005-05:00

I have never hated poker more than I do right at this very instant.

There have been moments before. The three or four massive losing days I've had in the last few months are up there. But NOTHING compares to right now.

I just had my usual shit session, running into aces multiple times and having my opponents hit miracle river after miracle river. Standard. It could have ended at 9:30 as planned, with the last hand being AQ going down to KK on a 9JQAT board. That sucked, but so be it.

No. I'll play one table of the big game for a while.

I finally hit something favorable. I have Kh Jh on a board of Ah Qh 6c Ts and the preflop raiser has just lead out for the pot. I adjust the slider for a raise, click the raise button and nothing FUCKING happens. I click it again a few dozen times. Nothing.

You get like 8 seconds in Rush Poker to act.

Full Tilt freezes for the first time all night.

It unfreezes in like 15 seconds, in time for me to watch the animation of my cards being folded as I hold the current nuts.

DAMMIT.

In my rage I just missed taking out my computer by about three inches. I think I would have done both of us (the computer and myself, but probably all my readers as well) a favor if I hadn't missed.

***

Seriously, it isn't humanly POSSIBLE to run this bad.

If anybody cared - relax, I know you don't, nobody does - I would got through my hand histories for the evening and list out the absolutely flat RETARDED shit that happened.

I try and learn from times when I play bad and there are plenty of those.

But when I can't do anything but lose, lose and lose again regardless of how well I play - sure, go ahead and shove your naked flush draw or your overpair or your overcards or your underpair or whatever the fuck you have, you'll GET THERE - it's mindboggling.

Whatever you do, don't join me here. Hell sucks.

Stay Up Late

2010-03-02T19:07:00.002-05:00

Alt hed: Be a Wooly Bully!

Friday nights were made for ~~drinking~~ donking.

This is a Katitude production.