Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

More comments and my responses. Thanks for reading this little No limit Texas Hold'em blog. Much apprecitated that it's finding some people who find it ineresting. I'll continue my break from Online Sit and go poker tournaments to respond some more. What did you think about the big Cheong-Duhamel hand? Congrats! I hadn't checked the blog in a while and it was nice to come back for a win. Definitely post more details. I might be heading down to New Orleans for New Year's, so we should definitely hang. Hi Keenan, I think I'll be in town New Years so I'm down with meeting up with you in the Harrahs poker room. Don't felt me too often. Sorry, I was light on the details of the that tournament I never really got back to. It was another event where nothing got going until it really mattered and then I really started to chip up, and had the luxury of exploiting the tightest guy in the field image I had built up by being dreadfully card dead. The Cheong-Duhamel ...

First off, thank you to those of you who commented recently on this Texas Holdem blog. Sorry, I didn't "authorize" the comments sooner. I've gotten so disenchanted by the spam this blog receives recently that I've been neglectful in getting the comments on the site. So, of course I get a handful of really good ones and they just sat there. I promise to do better next time no matter if I'm off trying to play poker tournaments or not.. So I thought I'd post most of them here and respond where necessary. kinda like the Gold, Silver, Bronze idea for Main Event Bracelets, that would be kinda cool. I was hoping you might be willing to swap blog links with me. I've already added you to mine @ http://atkinator.net Cheers, James Will do James as soon as I get this post up (or sooner). By the way I could relate with your post about being a dad and its effect on poker. Seems like you can get back to the grind a little better than I have. And nice friggin' ...

I once lost a mustachio bet . They weren't nearly as hip or cool as they are these days with James Franco rocking one without any irony. So, I had to grow one and go out with my friends sporting a stash. I went handlebars and tried to pull off bad ass. I didn't grow the perm or side-burns but I should have. This time I grew the hair to match, but of course I forgot to take any photos with my hair comically coiffed. Oh well, that makes as much sense as Formula 1 betting because you drive a car. Anyway, I'm submitting some photos for the competition and I will have some mustache photos of me on here too, soon. So, there I was with this gross third eyebrow over my mouth and I was stuck going to seeing Grand-mother. She's 95 so to say she's a little conservative, considering she predates the parents of hippies is to put it mildly. I don't think she approves of any facial foilage, especially a shaggy stache that looked as ridiculus as the one on my face. Before we g...

So we were in the middle of the letter from my cousin that got me Mo-tivated to do something Mus-tastic. Which by the way is my new adjective that I will wear out. I used to like delicious or turgid but now it's Mus-tastic. I will use it liberally where it totally doesn't apply. Btw, Mus-stastic is a very postive thing. Like I hit a two outer at the upcoming Harrahs Poker Texas Hold em tournament, you'll hear me murmur "Mus-tastic" and nod my head in happy celebration. Actually, you'll see me mumble and imperceptibly move my head as I don't talk much when playing poker, but if you can lip read a mumbler I'll be saying Mus-stashtic. You'll notice I haven't settled on a spelling yet, but that's besides the point. Next time I'm trying to learn Omaha poker online it will certainly be in the chat box. Okay, back to the letter from my cousin. Where were we… rule 5? 5. I will match the entire pot and donate it to prostate cancer ...

So, the wife, the kid, and not the dogs, and I are headed over to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, my sister, and my 94 year old grandmother. There is part of me that wanted to jet off to the Kennel Club and play some No limit Texas Hold'em in Pensacola and see how things are and get a taste of that live action. I believe the offer cash games and maybe Sit'n go tournaments . But every time I hear about the "sit 'n go" tournaments they are never spreading them. I think this is an antique from the old Florida laws to get around buy-in caps, but I'm not sure. Only problem time is extremely compressed, and because of obligations we were already cutting our trip short. First off, with little fanfare I did the mustache Mo-vemeber thing. Yes. I know what you are thinking, and yes, I will provide photo-evidence. Here's why, I got this email from my cousin: "MEN, Almost three years ago, I made a promise to my father, who carries a diagnos...

Okay, my last post kind of just listed some of what ails the November Nine without really offering some improvements. I guess I could have also mentioned the World Series invested about 21 million, that the winners would receive for the No limit Texas Hold'em tournament, that was sitting around for 3 and half months with Goldman Sachs. That's supposedly the best of the best when it comes to investing and they made a whopping $459. Yes, in three and a half months 21 million returned $459. I'm not joking. For the year, that rate is 0.008%. I've heard of safe but that's ridiculous. Granted people may be quick to say at least they didn't lose money so I'll say it for you... at least they didn't lose money... BUT wait they did. Had they put it almost any other safe investment they would have earned more, hell if they used it to online poker tournaments they would have made a ton more. So the winner, Duhamel pocketed an extra $170 bucks or something, Racener...

Yes, I know the World Series of Poker Main Event is perfect, the November Nine has been a dream, and there is no need for improvement. Or not. Television ratings were down for the second year running. In fact, they were barely bigger than they were three years ago before they moved to the November Nine format. Also the odds on favorite Johnathan Duhamel won but he wasn't the guy the suits wanted to win. The first year of the November Nine ratings took off and a lot of excitement was drummed up and the final table had the feel of an event. It looked like poker was going to carve a little spot into the crowded sports (okay sports/entertainment) television market place. Watching live poker is a bit like watching a pack of caterpillars change into a butterfly. It’s pretty much only interesting when the players have to expose the cards. That would be the moment, a cocoon opens up and out crawls the butterfly. Okay, I should have just said like watching grass grow or paint dry. Sorry. ...

Uh oh. Yes, I'm an Auburn fan. But what I'm about to write will probably have me getting hate mail from War Eagle nation. I thought the media would slam Cam, and when I saw noted contrarian Gregg Doyel (why two gs for Gregg I'll never figure it out) take up his side I thought popular thought would go the other way but it hasn't. I thought I'd be taking up for the kid but instead I almost feel like Auburn is getting it too easy. Cam Newton is an unsafe bet in more than one way. Sure on messageboards they are getting fried but the mainstream media, the voters, and everybody seems to be taking a wait and see approach. Maybe it's because everybody secretly knows Auburn got shafted in one of the Reggie Bush years, they don't care if Auburn also cheats to get to the top of the mountain. I'm a big SEC fan, but big time college sports pay their players. Want some easy betting tips at the beginning of the season, just figure out who has the biggest payrol...

If the purpose of women’s events is to sell the game to new audiences, this type of lightheartedness should have been embraced not turned away. It’s scary when you think it through, that the reasons it didn’t happen were most likely because of personal ones and not for noble reasons. I compared notes with another writer on another Texas Hold em poker site once and we talked about the tone of “correction” emails. Usually, it’s when a player tells us we misspelled their name. Generally, especially for GCP which is really still more a service to the local community who play poker than a business, they are very respectful and appreciative. Though, I’ve gotten a few that have been downright rude and accusatory. Oddly, they have always been from women and women only. These offending few have a chip on their shoulder it seems. And by the way, generally the warmest emails are also from women, so I’m not talking about ALL women or making any blanket statements. Also, I’ve never had...

Continued from previous posts on men not being allowed to play the women's Texas Hold em poker tournament at the IP ... It’s framed in a way that I look like an ass by turning it down, and some people donate just for that reason. So some might not have spoke up to join the minority of women who did because they didn ’t want to look like they wanted to turn down the charity. And had they played and won, in a way they are kind of forcing people to donate to that charity of their choice. Granted you can do with your winnings whatever you want in any poker tournament or Sit'n go , and nobody's complained about Barry Greenstein donating a chunk of his earnings to charity. Still simply playing for charity doesn ’t grant you entrée into any event. -Slippery slope There are a variety of reasons that women’s tournaments are good for poker. I have argued they make poker more lucrative for men in the long run, and I think there is some truth to that (even if overstated and reall...

Part three of five... You'd never have this problem with internet poker . Because on the internet every person that says they are a chick is usually a dude. Or maybe I just hang out at the wrong sites. Okay, back on track... say a drunk bachelor party stumbled into the poker tournament room and had never played Texas Holdem poker before and made the same offer, I’d be willing to bet they’d be welcome with open arms. Please come donate and enrich our prize pool. Don’t even worry about dressing in drag. Course welcoming Kai and Monkey meant that there was less of a chance any decent female player was going to win the big prize. Though, this rationale is more about the female pros than the novice women giving poker a whirl. I get that some female pros may need that score for their bankroll, some women may COUNT on that score for their bankroll, so why would they want to make it tougher to win. Here it’s not the timid little lilies that are scared of a big, bad man it’s the b...

Part two of Five... However, if there were all these newcomers in the Texas Holdem poker , those “scared” little lilies weren’t the ones clamoring for the ouster of Kai and Monkey. The new players that the TDs don’t want to scare off because they are there to learn poker were actually in favor of the antics, I’m told, but it was other females that weren’t. Here are some of their possible rationales (ladies, this is just silly male speculation please have a sense of humor when necessary and forgive me my handicap of being male): -They don’t like Monkey and/or Kai. How can you not like Kai? … … … Just kidding Monk. Poker players are people and people are petty. Get on the bad side of one and they’ll look to make your life uncomfortable and unbearable. They’ll scream about banning you and all the important people they know… and sometimes they do know somebody. The little spats at even a 3-6 limit game can be over mindnumbingly meaningless things. In Atlantic City people will get stabbed ...

So recently two GCPers Monkey and Kai Landry and two other male players (who backed out on the day of) were going to play in the ladies Texas Hold'em poker event at IP World Series of Poker Circuit Satellite. They struck up a deal before hand with the tournament director and thought of a way to play and to make a charitable contribution at the same time. All their winnings would go to breast cancer research and they agreed to dress as women. All parties thought that it would be a fun, memorable and essentially altruistic endeavor. As the story goes, Monkey and Kai showed up just after the start of things in the first or second level and they were barred from playing because at the Tournament Director’s discretion registration had closed before late registration was overall. Considering the TD had never used that discretion in any other event in the IPs poker tournament history in the past five years something was rotten in Steinmart. Several women that arrived after them were als...

Okay wrapping up the final installment of the baseball debate (that won't end) today. As it's my blog I gave myself the last word. Anyway, still on break from talking about Texas Holdem poker but I'll get back to it in my next post. If you can't wait til then check out www.bwinpokerblog.com for some poker rich content in a blog form. Tasty. Him (continued): If you don't want to call yourself a baseball fan, that's fine. But you have to concede the original statement that there is no sport more iconic than baseball. That isn't just here and now. That is throughout time. If you said Babe Ruth to anyone, they would know who he is. If you said YA Tittle to someone, I would give the average person on the street a 10% chance of knowing who he was. Red Grange maybe a 50%. Joe Montana I'll go as high as 75%. Lou Gehrig would be around 70% (they named a disease after him!). Ted Williams 70%. Jackie Robinson would be close to 100%. I would be surprised if 50%...

Despite all the No limit Texas Hold'em games going on on the coast, this is another part of a "Baseball will remain America's Iconic sport" debate. You know you are headed for trouble when the very thing you are debating is nebulous itself. Easier to learn poker and all it's nuances than to settle this question? Mabye. Him: You've know me for almost 20 years. Have I ever not cared about baseball during that time? Even during the strike, I wanted to see baseball. And if I remember correctly, I recall you being a huge Phillies fan in 93 . So what changed? Is it because you are now in an area that doesn't embrace baseball as much? Baseball is still alive and well on the west coast, the east coast, the Midwest, all places where teams are located. If there was a team in New Orleans, would you be more interested in baseball? If you want to watch a meaningless NHL, NBA, MLS game, that is fine. That is your prerogative. All I know is tonight, I will be watch...

This is mostly a poker blog. And 90% of the content is about that, but taking a little break from Texas Hold em poker and some other issues I've decided to reprint this lengthy debate. If it holds any interest good, if not, I'll see you in few posts. Then I'll be talking about poker tournaments at the IP. The fact GCP's bloggers are on a bit of heater headlined by the recent successes of Monkey, Jonathan Little, Shannon Shorr and Kai Landry. Me: Look, I loved the Phillies in October, and it was exciting to see the Red Sox get over the hump a couple of years back but you can keep the rest of the season. I'd rather watch a meaningless NBA or NHL game--at least something happens. Live baseball can be fun... but only because you don't have to pay attention, but as sports are now a TV game, baseball will go the way of cricket, and pretty soon that's all you'll hear in a broadcast... crickets, well, also the snores of your children. Him: Then why does ...

As I said, while I was over at the IP playing some quality Texas Hold'em poker I’ve also been engaged is some trivial debate about baseball. Guy has some quality points, I like mine better but I can see his side of things. It’s not like we are arguing the right and wrong way on how to play poker or something like that. In about 20 years one of us will be proven right and the other one wrong. Him (continuing): It's the debate over who was the best hitter of all time, who was the most dominant at their position, what would Ruth or Cobb do in today's game. It's baseball that draws together generations because the game hasn't changed in any great way in over 100 years. Grandfathers and grandchildren can talk the same sport. Baseball stars are remembered throughout generations, and stories are passed down. Baseball is exciting because most of the players are not physical freaks of nature. You don't have to be 6'5", 260 to play the game at a comp...

So, I have a ton of live Texas Hold'em poker poker to discuss. Ran through a mega to win 2k in tournament chips at the IP. That was fun. Finished about 15 or so from the money in a $350 tournament ring tournament and that wasn't so fun considering I played for 11 or so hours for nothing. Had some mistakes and some postive things to move on with, and a couple of hands I will discuss. Also congrats to Monkey for his success in hold'em and omaha at the IP. I keep telling myself I am going to use my Omaha poker online experience to good use but never do. Before I get into the poker, somehow I've also been busy having a pointless debate that I wanted to share with the world. I'm sure I'll turn off a lot of you with my "anti-american" opinion. This is from a baseball debate me and a friend have been having on facebook. He's probably more right than I am, as my dislike for the sport colors my opinion too much, although I could argue it's pro...