Wednesday 31 December 2003

Howard Lederer & Annie Duke Poker Blogs
Or: How to prevent bad beats by always going in with the worst hand.

"The smarter you play, the luckier you'll be."
Mark Pilarski

Happy New Year!
This is amateur night, of course.
The pro's stay home.

This is gonna be a long post, so let's get right to it, shall we?

My regular readers have heard me squawking about wanting to tackle satellites to the

Monday 29 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Blogs

"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

What's the best way to shake up an otherwise boring Monday nite? No-limit multi-table tournament, that's what! I've shed the grinder persona and am solidly in no limit tourney mode. I'm one of those types who doesn't excel when playing both limit and no-limit. SNG's are a

Sunday 28 December 2003

Russ Gorgiev - GCA Poker Blogs

"The commonest mistake in history is underestimating your opponent; happens at the poker table all the time."
General David Shoup

Quick post of a few random thoughts.

Anyone else notice Russ Gorgiev's - GCA conspicuous absence from RGP? For the record, he sent me a nice holiday greetings email. Sorry Russ, I'm still not giving you my credit card number even if
Phil Helmuth Poker Blogs

"Las Vegas is the only town in the world whose skyline is made up neither of buildings, like New York, nor of trees, like Wilbraham, Massachusetts, but signs. One can look at Las Vegas from a mile away on Route 91 and see no buildings, no trees, only signs."
Tom Wolfe

From a prior post of mine:

John Feeny talks about the "strategic moment" in hold em in his fine book,

Wednesday 24 December 2003

Poker Blogs: Merry Christmas!

Wanted to post a few links for the faithful. I've updated nearly every day thus far and I'm not gonna let a little holiday like Christmas get in my way.

To be honest, I'm kinda tired of linking. I'd prefer to just ramble about poker but I worry that folks (all ten of you) are only coming here for my linkage. It's a difficult balance, poker links versus commentary.

Monday 22 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Blogs

I'm going to play the DrudgeReport of Poker Blogs today. I've discovered some outstanding poker linkage and two top-tier poker blogs. Enjoy the fruits of my labor and please come back.

But first, I woke up this morning both alarmed and pissed, thinking I had dropped 100 big bets in 3.6 last night. Make that ALARMED. Logged into Party and realized that I had just

Sunday 21 December 2003

Party Poker Blog

"Hold em is to stud what chess is to checkers."
Johnny Moss

Of course, Russ Gorgiev - GCA says stud is the best for learning. On the other hand, Johnny Moss, Mike Caro and Doyle Brunson say otherwise. Which is credible, a life-long cheat or the latter three?

Doyle Brunson > Russ Gorgiev

The complexities are so great in Texas Hold em that Doyle, in his treatise, SuperSystem,

Saturday 20 December 2003

Evelyn Ng Online Poker Diary

Nicole Sullivan
Nicole Sullivan poker online poker
Nicole Sullivan Bravo Celebrity Poker
Nicole Sullivan" "poker" "poker"
"Nicole Sullivan" poker

"There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about it. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of the game, but the

Thursday 18 December 2003

Party Poker Blog

If you're no longer a novice, but not a professional player, game selection may be the key to winning money. Without using any selection, you'll probably lose dramatically. By using selection moderately, you'll probably lose a little or break even. But by using game selection prudently and consistently, you probably will be a winner from now on.
Mike Caro

/PartyPoker rant

Can

Wednesday 17 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Diary

Life can only be understood backward but it must be lived forward.
Kierkegaard

Won big early last night in 3.6 on the strength of limp-reraising twice with KK and hitting a set once and having them stand up in the other. God knows it's easy to win when the deck hits you in the face, especially on a loose, aggressive Party Poker table.

Let's crank through some poker

Tuesday 16 December 2003

Evelyn Ng Poker Diary

Raising to Thin the Field:

There is a popular misconception that a primary purpose of raising before the flop is to drive other players out of the pot - to limit the field. It's an idea that keeps getting repeated over and over again in poker books - a mantra to soothe the soul. It's an idea that's just wrong.

So far I haven't found a single texas hold em book that
Phil Ivey Poker Journal

"Is it a reasonable thing, I ask you, for a grown man to run about and hit a ball? Poker's the only game fit for a grown man. Then, your hand is against every man's, and every man's is against yours. Teamwork? Who ever made a fortune by teamwork? There's only one way to make a fortune, and that's to down the fellow who's up against you."
Somerset Maugham

Great news -

Sunday 14 December 2003

Poker Journal

"Money effects emotions, and emotions control most players. Poker involves the winning and losing of money. Common emotions of anger, excitement, greed, masochism, sadism and self-pity will often take control of players during the action. Most players fail to recognize or are unable to suppress these emotional influences that decrease their objectivity and poker ability. The good

Saturday 13 December 2003

Pokerbrat Poker Journal

"Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow."
Proverbs 13:11

My wife taped this to my monitor when I woke up this morning, stating she thought of me when she read it. And she's right, that's exactly how I feel about growing my poker bankroll. Let's call the above a 'prayer for grinders' shall we? Poker has taught me many things

Thursday 11 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Journal

"The whole problem with most players is that they want success without work. Their mental picture of a successful gambler is like the Hollywood image - some guy betting big money and doing nothing but win. Well, gambling is a profession that takes hard work to learn and skill to stay on top. You can't buy an education and say, "Stick it in my head." You can't become an

Wednesday 10 December 2003

Poker Blog

"Poker is the game closest to the western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents and where - at least in the short run - the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens."
John Luckacs

I discovered today that I have a

Monday 8 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Party Poker Blog

"Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life."
Anthony Holden

Blogger went down again tonight. Lost my original post. VERY

Sunday 7 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Journal

"I think that we are all in the right place at the right time almost every day. It's the people who are prepared to be lucky who can take advantage of being there. How do these people position themselves to be lucky? It was Goethe who said, 'Anytime that you take the first step toward trying to achieve something in life, all manner of good things will mysteriously fall

Saturday 6 December 2003

Poker Diary

"See, in my world - the world of high-stakes gin and poker - we play for cold, hard cash. It's all business, pure and simple. Anyone who thinks cardplaying is a 'game' - I'll show you a loser. Money... M-O-N-E-Y. That's how you measure success. One dollar at a time. One chip at a time. That's how you keep score."
Stu Ungar

Poker blogs kick ass.
Create your own - it's free and easy

Friday 5 December 2003

Poker Blog

"The overlay is of paramount importance."
Stuart Reuben

TGIF. Even though I'm sick again.

Been playing $50 NL this evening. Still wearing my grinder hat and slowly re-adjusting to the no-limit mentality, but playing well enough to be up about $30. I suppose I'm better off erring on the side of caution rather than pushing any perceived small edges.

I had an interesting discussion

Thursday 4 December 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Blog

"Poker is America's most favorite game. Seventy million adults play cards and about 47 million Americans prefer poker. Poker is as American as baseball and hot dogs. Many of our most famous presidents were poker enthusiasts. Poker contains a greater amount of skill than bridge, or any other card game, according to authority John Scarne."
From a 1970's Gardena cardroom

Wednesday 3 December 2003

Poker Blog

"When we play, we must realize, before anything else, that we are out to make money."
David Sklansky, Theory of Poker

The bold text above is actually Sklansky's and not of my doing.

Thanks for reading my daily updates.

Because I am a cableless loser, I didn't get to watch the big Celebrity Death Match Poker show on Bravo last evening. I truly enjoyed reading all the disparaging and

Tuesday 2 December 2003

Poker Blog
I've got your poker links per usual

Article About Doyle Brunson & the World Poker Tour in Slate Magazine.
Crash and Bluff

Also, a poker link from MediaWeek. The online article is shorter than the one in the actual magazine (page 8!), but is still interesting, nonetheless.
Doubling Down on Cards

CNN says poker is a cultural phenomena, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The hottest game on

Monday 1 December 2003

Poker Blog

"There can be no self-deception for a poker player. You have to be a realist to be successful. You can't think you've played well if you lose consistently. Unless you can judge how well you play relative to the others, you have no chance."
Mickey Appleman

God, ain't that the terrible truth. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Again, thanks to everyone reading. It's nice to see

Sunday 30 November 2003

"To check-raise with a hand with which you want to thin out the field, you want the probable bettor to your right so that people will have to call a double bet to stay in. With a very strong hand and most come hands, you want the probable bettor to your left so the other players in the hand might call that bettor's single bet and then be invited to call the raise."
David Sklansky, Theory of Poker
Sex is good, but poker lasts longer.
Unknown.

Listening to Bach, drinking Guinness and playing online poker. Damn, does life get any better than this?

Thanks to anyone who has linked to me - I finally had some time today to peruse my traffic and saw a link from a porn blog. Too funny. Whoever you are, God Bless you.

I've been playing no-limit ring games. Insane. Can anyone tell me the phrase

Friday 28 November 2003

"The exhilaration of this form of economic existence is beyond my power to describe."
Nick the Greek Dandalos, who died broke on Christmas Day of 1966.

Nick the Greek is the same guy who said, "The next best thing to gambling and winning is gambling and losing," a sentiment I personally do not concur with.

Allrighty then, I'm back and as verbose as ever. A full week sabbatical with not one

Thursday 20 November 2003

"Here is the terrible truth: I got more pure happiness winning 20 grand at the casino craps table than I did from a check many times that amount as the result of honest hard work on my book."
Mario Puzo, author of the Godfather

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to come and read this poker blog. That makes it worthwhile to come on here and ramble every night. Also, it's too freaking cool to

Wednesday 19 November 2003

Poker Blog
Mike Caro's Law of Least Tilt: Among similarly skilled opponents, the player with the most discipline is the favorite.

The deck hit yours truly in the face from the moment I sat 2.4 tonight. Hit a straight and two sets and BAM - up a hundred in twenty minutes flat. As a grinder, I truly relish small rushes like that. It doesn't happen very often when you're only seeing 20% of the

Tuesday 18 November 2003

Poker Blog

There is much to post but sadly, I endured a late afternoon dentist appointment and I've been loopy ever since.

I'm not too out of it to notice that Party Poker is down again, however. It's difficult to believe this has become acceptable, but it has. God knows I won't leave Party, though.

What do you picture in your mind when Party Poker goes down for hours at a time? Network

Monday 17 November 2003

Poker Journal rant
"For the the talented, Las Vegas is the land of milk and honey. For the rest, it is a burial ground."
Jack Binion

Because I don't live there anymore, the closest place to play poker (legally) around here is Caeser's Palace in Indiana, across the river from Louisville. It's dank and dirty and I've just now read that they raised their rake to a max of $6 per hand. The reasons to

Sunday 16 November 2003

Poker Blog - How to make $800 in a few months playing 50.1 HoldEm.

I'm waking up from a 12 year coma!!

What's that feeling that is the opposite of shame? It's been sooo long. Could I possibly be feeling pride in the Cincinnati Bengals? Marvin Lewis is doing the unthinkable here - beating the best team in the NFL and placing the Bengals in first place for the first time since 1990. I can't wait

Friday 14 November 2003

Poker Journal

TGIF. Rough day today in the non-poker world so I'm gonna make this quick.

Party Poker update. Won about $91 last nite in 2.4 and 3.6. Played VERY tight and hardly ever called a preflop raise. Funny, but I caught some big cards that got cracked, yet I caught a few big blind specials that more than made up for it.

From the latest column by Lee Jones:

-
My friend, Tommy Angelo,

Thursday 13 November 2003

Poker Journal Ramblings
We needed money real bad at home and my daddy told me I had to stop work or stop gamblin'. And I said, "Daddy, if I don't work how can I get money to gamble?" And Daddy, he said, "Son, that's what gamblers got to figure out." So I quit work.
--Johnny Moss

To celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary, I took da wife out to the Maisonette last evening. This fine French

Tuesday 11 November 2003

"Patience, and shuffle the cards"
Don Quixote

From this week's Business Week in the UpFront Section:
Poker is back in the chips.

Since poker players can't bet against the house, the card game has long been a low-margin biz for casinos. But this year, poker revenues at Connecticut's Foxwoods Casino and Las Vegas' Bellagio are up about 25%. The Bellagio expects to take in about $12 million this

Sunday 9 November 2003

Home poker game

Only a few of the guys in my home game read this blog so I could insult with impunity. :) But nope, I love my home game group - we've been playing for, hell, almost six years now? Our hosts, (FilmGeek and Meaux!) are incredibly gracious to let us play in their abode. Read my prior post to discover how far we have come.

Our home game is only a 1.2 game, full of booze, good music

Saturday 8 November 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Blog

Phil Helmuth is my hero. I wish there was a Phil Helmuth reality show on TV.

Yet another Phil Helmuth related nugget. I had no idea that the WSOP used a rebuy format for their Omaha hi-lo tournament. That's asinine, imho. But here was a post regarding said tourney and Phil Helmuth:

--
The risk of going broke is high in PLO. Phil Helmuth had 14 rebuys (a WSOP

Friday 7 November 2003

Phil Helmuth Poker Book Rant & Poker Blogs
Poker is life, the rest is just details

TGIF.

Poker link of the Day: A behind the scenes view of the World Poker Tour in Aruba. It will be on TV next year and Linda was dealing. Great stuff.
PokerWorks.

Flash Links 'o the Day!
End of the World
BoohBah

Thankfully, Mister Decker made me feel much better by admitting that he, too, has the fireworks

Thursday 6 November 2003

Celebrity Strip Poker

Best blog on the web. Actually, the blog is here.

Down early on 2.4 last night but managed to end up even. I have to admit, my table selection has become uber-lazy as of late. I've been doing the first table available, and that's just sad.

This is a terrible thing to confess, but on Party Poker, I still have the fireworks and Congratulations animation turned on. Yes, I

Wednesday 5 November 2003

Poker Blogs, SuperSystem and This American Life

I'm a little disconcerted about all this talk of Microsoft acquiring or partnering with Google. The problem with a Microsoft search engine is, much like JFK once said in private about Richard Nixon, "The trouble with being such a well known liar is, no one believes you when you tell the truth."

Didn't play last nite (gasp!). I was reading

Tuesday 4 November 2003

Poker Blogs

I hate Barbra Streisand, truly I do.

Random and unrelated poker notes: 2.4 on Party Poker has been treating me well. Barely broke even overall last nite but won enough in 2.4 to cover the costs of two $30 unsuccessful no-limit sit and go's.

Related to prior posts about bashing the fish: I'll be damned if the minute I sit down last evening that some buttmunch is screaming about

Monday 3 November 2003

Poker Blogs - Positively 5th Street

BlogDaddy at work was checking out an ad we did for a client in the latest Forbes FYI magazine and lo' and behold, there's a feature article about Jim McManus, the author of the best selling book, Positively 5th Street, ("It's selling like frozen margaritas in Hell," said Jim in the article) titled The Gamblers Edge.

I wanted to see if it was online and got

Sunday 2 November 2003

Poker Haiku

hai·ku

A Japanese lyric | verse | poem form, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

I oughta save this for the next rgp contest but the majesty of fall (and Guinness) is inspiring me.

--

"If I could use cards
Like falling leaves,
What a bonfire
My cards would make."

--

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David Sklansky > Mason Malmuth
Theory of Poker is still the Torah

OK, so folding kings pre-flop is rarely correct in no-limit poker. Did I really need to reassure myself of that fact? After yesterday, yes. Thanks to all who provided feedback.

I really enjoy tournament play. It's fun to play poker under the pressure and immediacy instead of my normal reality of "life is one long ring game."

Saturday 1 November 2003

Bluegrass Poker Series.
Phil Helmuth nor Russ Georgiev played.

Should I have played the poker hand below differently? Preflop?

Wow, I've been posting for a month now. How do I know? Because today was Bluegrass Poker Series time. Please see my prior post and read about Dan's magnificent comeback (down to $4) and subsequent final table finish.

To recap, it's a 125 person No Limit tournament.

Thursday 30 October 2003

Poker Blogs about Party Poker Bots: Playing strip poker with David Sklansky

I love Tilapia. I recommend trying it with a nice scampi/alfredo sauce.
It's a David Sklansky favorite, but he may deny it.

Sometimes I struggle with the grinding aspect of limit poker from a diminishing returns perspective. It takes so much damn time (Mike Caro: the more you play, the more you win!) that I often feel
Phil Ivey and Phil Helmuth Poker Blogs

Not exactly the way I wanted to return to Party Poker. It's almost as if there was a wrinkle in the space|time continuum. Lost 40 BB. Ouch! No lengthy explanation necessary, but I did have five sets crash and burn. One of my worse nights ever.

Despite my poor showing, two of my poker students (and good friends) are currently excelling, which in a way, more

Wednesday 29 October 2003

Party Poker and Russ Georgiev Need Poker Blogs

Only played for about thirty minutes last nite. Lost a whopping ten bucks. I'm only a couple hundred away from another grand cashout so I really need to focus. I'll probably update PokerTracker tonight.

Russ Georgiev update: Russ has announced his new site will be up tomorrow.

--
GCA is proud to announce the grand opening of our new website, "

Tuesday 28 October 2003

Russ Georgiev - Poker Cheat
God protects Fools and Drunks.

Well, well, well. I received my Poker Mafia t-shirt today from Russ Georgiev. By airmail, nonetheless. Have I previously mentioned that I've chatted with him on the phone once or twice? He was quite affable - you would never, ever guess that he is deeply and profoundly insane.

I imagine his website is getting close to launching. The

Monday 27 October 2003

Party Poker Irony & Phil Helmuth

Cashed out + $244 on UB upon coming home.

Fire up Party Poker after dinner and a movie with the wife.

Negative! Party is down again!

Oh the humanity.

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Russ Georgiev - Poker Mafia

I sure wish GCA - Russ Georgiev would finish his damn web site. I'm curious to see what new things he has to say. I'd love to see a RGP World Poker Tour style tourney with Russ, Wayno and Carson (and all the other nuts) seated around a table. Now THAT I would pay for.

This can only help increase the fish population. A Gambling channel.

For the love of God, I'm

Sunday 26 October 2003

Online poker blog

Marlins > Yankees

Thanks to a link and cool poker thread at Metafilter, I received some traffic. It's been odd, writing this out into the BlogSpace, or perhaps only to myself. Getting my first inbound link was kinda cool.

To me, the poker student, it's fascinating that one of the online pro's I know in real-life (as in: 100% of his income comes from playing online poker) has

Saturday 25 October 2003

Poker Blogs heal the sick.
Turn up the volume on the blind.

Poker Blogs Poker Blogs Poker Blogs Poker Blogs Poker Blogs Poker Blogs

A feature article about poker in this month's Business 2.0 (subscription needed past page one, but I get this magazine at work, thankfully). Poker's booming, yadda yadda yadda, but they had an interesting take on the new "math/geek" oriented type players versus

Thursday 23 October 2003

Chris Moneymaker = Online Savant?

Helped an online poker pro acquaintance with PokerTracker today.

I felt like I was in NeverNeverLand for two hours. Surreal.

More on this later when I'm (hopefully) sober.

A message board snippet to the online naysayers who say online poker is rigged and that anyone who says they win is a shill:

--
I find it amusing when people imply that anyone who claims

Wednesday 22 October 2003

Russ Georgiev

I admit it. I asked Russ Georgiev of GCA Poker Cheaters infamy to send me a t-shirt. Hopefully, my readership will not hold it against me.

Rooting on the Marlins, of course.

PartyPoker.com finally hit 20,000 total users a few nights ago. Brian and I have been watching and wondering when they'd hit this high water mark. That's from 2,000 online poker players before the World

Tuesday 21 October 2003

Triazolam

This is what my dentist fed me, in addition to about 60 hypodermics today.
http://www.mentalhealth.com/drug/p30-h01.html

Working beats a trip to the dentist, anyday.

On the poker front, Ultimate Bet was rough tonight. I started two tables, played for two hours and the best way I can phrase it is: A swift kick in the nuts. A late run on my 1.2 table with a kill netted me - $9 on
Texas Hold Em in Iraq

From http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

--
It's at times like these that I start worrying and get pessimistic about the future of freedom in this country. I see many people reject it, because 'its an American and zionist plot to spread immorality and degradation in our virtous society'. Then they give me all the holy crap. The problem with their logic is that they are not

Monday 20 October 2003

Throat Pokers & Poker Blogs

I wish I had named this blog the above. I'd get a lot more hits.

Caro's Law of Least Tilt:
Among similarly skilled opponents, the player with the most discipline is the favorite. My addendum: Over the long-term.

With online poker, you can sometimes tell a lot about a player by the way he plays when he first sits down.

But when players first sit down in a live

Sunday 19 October 2003

Poker Blogs

Good Lord - I just noticed the 20th most popular "poker" related search phrase on the web is "throat pokers." Is that some bizarre porn term?

I truly enjoy thinking/reading about poker strategy. The more I learn, the more I question. Learning - improving in poker is a beautiful thing. It's an affirmation. Poker is really nothing but a decision making process over and over.

Saturday 18 October 2003

A Club Of Your Own

--
We all can't be Silvio the glad hander, but every American male should take at least one cue from the mob - find your own clubhouse, your own Bada Bing, and people it with your cronies. The media talks a lot about the "feminization" of America. The only way out? The male bastion. Get one before it's too late.
--

Ahh, truer words were never spoken. Thank God for poker nite

Friday 17 October 2003

Rules of Poker

Amazing but True Story:
Many years ago, after living in Las Vegas for a few years and returning to the Midwest, my friends and I decided to start a home poker game as a way to stay in touch. Many of us had returned from debauchery out West, and now that we were married, Poker Night seemed a respectable way to get out of the house once a month. For our inaugural game, we
Party Poker Journal - Diary

I've posted about this before...

The similarities between poker and business are well-known. But the correlation of intelligence and poker?

Researchers are taking up poker in Artificial Intelligence Labs. Poker as a Testbed for Machine Intelligence Research.

Thursday 16 October 2003

Poker Blogs
Ok, this isn't a link to a poker blog. Just this guy who lives in Iraq and has been blogging about the war there. Fascinating read, highly recommended if you have the time.

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

This is crazy. Decided to take the road less traveled and play a $20 No Limit multi table tournament on Party Poker. 591 players. I decide to play a much more aggressive style
Russ Georgiev - Poker Mafia

Online poker collusion.

How prevalent is it? This is a tough question, one that I'm not fully prepared to tackle without a Guinness in my belly. But after reading some threads this morning, I tend to believe it's much worse than I ever imagined. I used to think that cheating packs mostly sat at mid to high limit poker tables - why would they bother us low-limit

Wednesday 15 October 2003

Online Poker Blogs and Baseball

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure
and the intelligent are full of doubt.
-- Bertrand Russell

The above quote can be attributed to both baseball & poker players. And fans.

A 5.10 texas hold em hand tonite:

A poor loose-aggressive player raises from middle position, one
cold-call (another loose, bad player), I call in BB with ATh.

Tuesday 14 October 2003

Phil Hellmuth, Cubs Fans and Poker Blogs

I am stunned. How long of a drive is it to Chicago?

The Cubs game just made me sick. And here I was, thinking that the Four Horsemen were brushing off their saddles, preparing to ride.

I self-destructed right along with the Cubbies, losing $65 in 2.4.

./poker segue

Phil Hellmuth. The Poker Brat.

In lieu of a normal post, I will instead defer to

Monday 13 October 2003

Poker Blogs - Poker Hiaku

I noticed back in June that I wasn't doing much check-raising, overall.

To clarify: limit play.

Check raising has a two-fold effect. It "trains" people on your left to respect your checks if you have shown down winners after doing so. This is a good thing. It also instills a sense of "is he making a play" upon the better players (rare at Party Poker).

How you

Sunday 12 October 2003

Back to being a Poker Blog

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's not how you win at poker, it's how you lose.

As Steve Badger says:

The problem is: you just can't will yourself to win -- be it a tournament, a single day's play, or even an individual hand. And then, unfortunately for some, not winning is something many players simply can't handle. And being able to not win well is a
If you listen hard, you can hear the pompous, booming voice of Rush:

Look, the Clinton liberals and feminazis won’t tell you, but here’s the problem with this big talk-show host who turns out to be a prescription-drug junkie. You have a guy who finally stops spinning and fesses up for his actions. Fine. He says he won’t play the victim. Good. He’s off to rehab. God bless. But what he and his
Rush Limbaugh the Hypocrite

"By legalizing drugs, all you're going to do is define further deviancy
downward. We have a duty to pass on values to our descendants, values that will maintain the standards of behavior and ensure the survivability of the American way of life. And drugs are no different. You end up destroying more than yourself."
-- Rush Limbaugh Playboy interview, December 1993

"

Saturday 11 October 2003

Phil Helmuth - Sam Grizzle

Wild nite. Saturday nights are *always* wild on Party Poker.

Up $142. 2.4.

I really feel like a loser commenting on the WSOP here in mid-October but what can I say? I don't have cable, damnit. Thank you EBAY!!

That being said, I am LOVING the ESPN WSOP 2003 coverage. I'm through Day Two now. The Sam Grizzle - Phil Helmuth table talking had me in stitches.
Poker Bots < Humans

If there was a perfect way to play poker, then I think we'd see more computers playing and winning as we do in chess. There is too much about this game that is situation dependant.

Why can't computer opponents beat humans in poker?

Playing a rigid style, using a chart or system to play Hold Em would be futile. Transitive math: the example of hands heads up against each

Friday 10 October 2003

Variance Redux

Not sure what to say. I caught cards.

+119 in 1.2.

Won two out of three monster pots.

Held 55 on the button. Three bet to me.

Flop comes: 5JJ with two diamonds.

Seven handed on flop. Flush comes on river.

Massive pot with one guy typing in and folding, "I guess my flush is no good," after a three bet on river. I cap and get called in three places.

It's been that
Who Loves You Baby?

It's too bad I knew nothing about Las Vegas beyond Kojak reruns when I moved there in '92.

Hell, I didn't even know what Texas hold em poker was. Of course, that was probably for the best.

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Variance.

Oh. My. Lord.
Site of the month.

Rush Limbaugh military fact.
http://www.snopes.com/military/limbaugh.htm

VERY loose, aggressive tables on 2.4. Very different from last evening. Lost a massive pot with KK on the button - capped pre-flop, SEVEN freaking handed. A4o cracked me.

The crazy, loose play knocked me for a loop tonight. Punished.

Zigging when I should zag. Zagging

Wednesday 8 October 2003

I LOVE PARTY POKER!!

Chat directed at me tonite.....

Joe2010: you are a house player arent you

Classic.

./segue

My mantra: lose early, win late.

Was losing early, won late. Down early perhaps $70 (need to check hand histories) while playing 2.4. AA lost twice and got rivered thrice on top pair hands... Didn't flinch and patience paid off.

+$84. The evening still isn't over and Joe

Tuesday 7 October 2003

Is poker the next CB radio?

A fundamental rule of poker is money flows from the impatient to the patient over time. And this is true in low-limit, mid-limit and high limit, over time. It's much easier to blame the cards (or luck) than to blame your poor play.

Tally for the evening: +$36. Played 2.4 and had a bouncy ride. My tables seemed tighter than usual.

I sat 50.1 Omaha hi.lo tonite
Poker Rebound

The drugs are slowly taking hold (hellish dental appointment in an hour) so I thought I'd get last nights results in before I am a puddle of drool.

Recovered from the drunken lost weekend, winning $115 in 2.4, in roughly two hours of play. Table hopped alot whenever the game went short and threatened to break. I don't mind short-handed play but sometimes I prefer jumping around

Monday 6 October 2003

Poker Truisms

An email to me regarding the Salon article about Rush Limbaugh.

--
Thanks for the Rush L. article ... he sure is caught up in himself and knows a mere fraction of what he carries on about. There is a huge audience, however, of people who don't have the privilege of thinking on their own, and they seem to buy what he says hook, line, and sinker.
--

Pretty much echoes what I've
Big Blue Poker

Sign up on Party Poker for a $100 free deposit bonus.

Whadda weekend. Let's see if I can recap in succinct fashion.

"Royal" came down from Michigan on Friday evening. We ended up hitting Century Inn for some prime rib, beers and baseball. The prime rib and garlic mashed potatoes were the perfect foundation for some heavy drinking.

Back at the farm, we laid waste to over a

Friday 3 October 2003

Poker Blogs

Allrighty, hit the bonus so after three days of play, I ended up + $138. Not too shabby for sitting and folding for a few hours.

I wish I had access to my hand histories right now. Funny hand last nite: I had j7d on the BB. Flop comes with 8d and 9d. Flop and turn are capped but I chase and hit the straight flush on the river. Oh the humanity.

I 3 bet him on the river, typing

Thursday 2 October 2003

First of all - say GOODBYE RUSH! I'm estatic that he lost his job and now Drudge is reporting on his drug use. This is akin to finding out Bill Bennet was a degenerate slot machine player in Vegas. A whale, as it were. I am having immense fun with my right-wing buddies today. :)

In other news, there's a nice write-up in today's Usa Today about the explosion of poker:
http://www.usatoday.com

Wednesday 1 October 2003

Online Poker

Weeee. Played 1.2 for nearly two hours last evening on Party Poker. Was up about $50 or $60 early but slowly gave it back. There isn't much you can do in no-fold em....if you don't hit any flops, you're resigned to cutting your losses. I'm not a chaser and I know better than to attempt any bluffs or muscling at these limits so I just take the swings as they come.

I've got 350

Tuesday 30 September 2003

A little bit of background may be in order. I'm 37, married for nine years now, currently back in the Midwest, after a drunken stint in Las Vegas and assorted cities out West. I've always worked in the wacky world of advertising, currently at a kickass B2B ad agency.

I started playing online poker over five years ago. This was after bolstering my poker library with every tome I could get my
Free Poker Blog

Well, well, well. Figured I might as well start trying to document some of my experiences with God's nectar, Guinness, and the online Phenomena of Poker. I've been playing poker online for about six years. Drinking seriously for about twenty.

I'm trying to discern more about standard deviation.

Case in point--there's a guy who came up with a method of measuring "luck"-