Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

My header on GCP .net mentions I'd blog about issues facing the Gulf Coast. In the wake of Katrina, I felt that I wanted to touch on some things like that. In fact it used to say "politics" rather than issues facing the gulf coast and today, I warily will broach that subject. Politics and poker are hardly strange bedfellows. Most politicos, Obama included, are avid poker players. It is said Nixon ultimately jump started his life and later funded his campaign based off of money grown from poker winnings. Currently poker is a political issue, perhaps things are in such a sad state of affairs poker players may not have the latitude to vote on candidates supporting issues important to us such as legalizing online poker, bar-room poker, or home games, but it's important we be aware where our candidates from President to representative sit on these issues. Therefore, I'm going to get political for a second, and not really feel bad about doing it. More than anything I...

Not playing the Harrahs weekly today. Couple of interesting moments from Monday night. I was playing next to the Tiltin' Texan with two great football pool numbers 4 and 7. Course not so great with a field goal fest waiting to happen with the Steelers/Ravens. Pretty early on needing to factor a safety into the football math to win, I was focused only on the table. Still, I had a brain fart. I usually keep a stack of 6 to 8 chips in my hand to occupy myself when out of the action. I play with it away from my larger chip stacks and sometimes leave it out there on its own. Suddenly, I was down to just a couple of chips in my hand and the little stack had disappeared. I was dumbfounded. It was like it just disappeared from the table. I asked the Texan if when he had scooped a pot, maybe I had left it out there and he pulled it in. Yet, in my mind I felt he hadn't scooped a pot since it "disappeared." In fact, he had gotten resucked out on just before that in a bi...

It was Russ. Russ Hamilton. He bares all responsibility. He acted independently and defrauded the company he was merely an advisor too. He cheated your friends out of millions of dollars. He was a rogue employee. Yes. Just like Absolute Poker could not possibly have a cheating scandal. Nor could Ultimate Bet, remember, their security was airtight. The Absolute guy, he too, was working by himself. This smells like rotten fish. Surely, a ton of evidence was presented to the investigators showing all things leading to Hamilton. Surely, everyone interviewed pointed fingers Hamilton's way. And in all likelihood the guy was complicit, but acting alone? Come on. He's the latest sheep thrown to the wolves. He's the latest fall guy, and just maybe, him being a Main Event champion makes him a big enough name and a compelling enough figure to appease the masses. Right now, you'd think the best thing to happen would be Russ Hamilton coming out and naming names and all those other c...

In the Harrahs weekly, MP bets. Guy two seats later raises significantly. I look down at KK. The blinds and antes were, I believe, 50-200-400. First guy made it 1000. Next guy made it 2300. I had about 7k in front of me. I shove. First guy calls. Second guy calls (both have me outchipped. First guy substantially and the second guy moderately). Flop bricks out. First guy reaches for his chips. Second guy says, I call if you push. He induces the check, and then shoves, and first guy feels obligated and looks almost ashamed to call probably because of the goading. First guy AK. Second guy JJ. Turn blank. River A. JJ is incensed. "He should have known we had monsters." Maybe preflop he can get away from that when I'm indicating Kings or Aces, but probably 3 or 4 people in that tournament can fold AK preflop. Also, with AK in your hand less likely you are against bullets or cowboys... but with this type of action almost always. However, I had just shoved t...

Wow. The 2+2 pages are alight with accusations about Monkey. My gut tells me he's in a pretty bad spot. He could be the ultimate con man and I'm his next victim or dupe, but I think he's the one that got scammed. Right now, I'm near a 100% he's not involved. While I won't be wiring anybody any money any time soon, I believe the guy. He's told me he's willing to work with Jonathan Little about this and go to the authorities. Or work separately with the police to get this righted. I've advised him not to play this out in the forums at 2+2. The people that are involved in this doubt him, and he needs to regain their trust and show due diligence in getting the guys. If he's forthcoming in doing this, he should clear his name. And if Jonathan Little is swayed, the rest of 2+2 will follow. Really, they are the only folks that should be involved. 2+2 needs to be aware of what's going on, so nobody else gets duped but Monkey doesn't need to get b...

Gearing up for the weekly again. Had an alright night Monday night but once again didn't even come close to a sweat for the football squares. Though at least this time I had football mathmatical chances to win (TD and FG vs. FG, FG). Normally I need some sort of saftey and missed extra point madness to get to my number. Will cover, a couple of quick hands. Trying to overload on my suckouts as I've hit a few recently. Not to mention this past weekend I ran like Jesse Owens at my friends wedding for tiny stakes (cab fare money). Three handed flopping straights and nutting full houses on the river. Why can't I get that in a real tournament? Yes, I'm bitching because I'm running good. I'm a bitcher. On Monday night, I flop two pair, A9, bet and the tourist calls it. He's chasing and the magic flush card turns and he does the microtell stare at his chips. Suh-weet. He checks his temporary nuts, I'm certainly not going to bet his hand for him-chec...

Got some feedback on my new logo from two of ya'll. 1. Looks cool. 2. Looks like your first day experimenting with Photoshop. Maybe you'll get better. Kind of right down the middle there. Here's a picture of something a little bit sacrilegious. Expect radio silence from me the next couple of days. www.gulfcoastpoker.net