Party Poker Blog

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 big weekend poker tourneys that award $60,000 first place payoffs. Thanks to a little encouragement from HDouble, after finishing 20th outta 550 players last time, I ponied up $9 for another one last nite. And played very well again, damnit.

I'm looking at my notes and with 85 players left, I was 5th biggest chip stack at 80k (average stack size 28k). Sadly, I was also drunk as a skunk by that point. Damnit, five hours of playing poker and drinking extra stout will do that to you. I just wanted to go to bed - I did have to work the next day, after all.

Anyway, down to 27 players, costing 15k an orbit in blinds/antes, I see AA in the SB and move in after a button raise by a pretty large, loose stack. He makes a terrible call with A9s and my aces hold up. I'm at 260k now and essentially shut down, coasting into the final table, WOOHOO.

So hell, now I get a shot at the big money for my $9 investment. Can you say overlay?

All of you Chris Moneymaker wanna-be's better brush up on your no-limit game because online WSOP qualifiers are gonna be fast and furious this year. I hope my ten eleven readers will keep us appraised of the different qualifiers at different sites when the time comes.

Of course, my readers are smart and play at Party Poker (sign up with Bonus Code IGGY damnit!) but I'm sure we all do our share of random poker message board surfing and information gathering. Please do your part and share.

Speaking of WSOP satellites, I told a good friend today that I would possibly sell my WSOP seat if I ever won one. He threatened me with bodily harm if I did so. I'm pretty sure he was serious.

Let's do some linkage:

Binion's Horseshoe may be shopping World Series of Poker
Three likely potential buyers for tourney say they have not received solicitations
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Meanwhile, Nevada gaming regulators are looking into television commercials and a Web site operated by an Internet casino that refer to Binion's Horseshoe and the World Series of Poker.

The www.truepoker.com ads feature the 2004 World Series of Poker logo, promoting a contest offering a chance to win a seat in a "super satellite" tournament at Binion's at the World Series.
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The ESPN 100 list of the top stories of 2003, Poker on TV ranks 98th. We
rank right ahead of Lewis University Volleyball and right behind Hip-Hop
and Sneakers.

Are you ready to peruse some brutal threads on Russ Boyd and Pokerspot? Head to RGP where Russ foolishly attempts to rationalize his actions once again. Hit the archives for plenty more than this long, vicious thread. Russ Boyd needs to STFU.
Info on Russ Boyd

On a lighter note, I discovered this info about professional poker players user names on Ultimate Bet:

Joe Buttons is Phil Ivey
Howard Lederer is Jack Walsh
Phil Gordon is Tall Phil
Rafe Furst is Tiltboy
David "The Devilfish" Ulliot is Devilfish
Others like Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth and Lane Flack use their own name
(Duke and Hellmuth are paid contract UB players)

Damnit, Phil Helmuth, your book sucked ass.
Is it any wonder he is mocked by Sklansky and the ilk?
Oh the humanity.

Poker blogs - Whoa, Mister Decker came back with a vengeance. I've got his back.

My inspiration for honest, intelligent, no-bullshit poker blogging. he was prolly my only reader for my first month of blogging. Now he's one of ten eleven readers, but that's still an improvement, right? Anyway, he hasn't posted the last few days, but today he weighed in with a doozy. go read today's post. Now! And yes, I concur 110% both with falling in love with my starting hand too often and his thoughts on poker vegan.

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Falling in love with my starting hand has been a problem for me in the past, and seems to have resurfaced. KK is only a good hand until an A shows on the board. Right? I need to remember that and dump them. My own stats have proven that to me.

Ok, those easily offended read no further.. you've been warned.
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Hdouble pontificates about John Feeny and the "strategic moment" in a hand. I'd love to see more posting about this because Feeny has in some small way captured the essence of poker with that concept. And that's why it's so difficult to grasp.

Tao of Poker is in Miami, beating the hell out of the recently legalized Florida low-limit hold em games. Phish fans should read his phish reposts and poker players should read his poker reports. Pauly's life is a fantasy camp. People should PAY to live as Pauly.

The Fat Guy rules. Trust me, it's worth a daily visit.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Poker Odyssey - Sophomore Project. Excellent idea, but it doesn't interest me. Focus on playing correctly - the results will take care of themselves. Playing poker is a marathon, not a sprint. Small sample sizes mean nothing.

Thanks for reading.

Link of the Day:
Jesus Saves ... Your Business
For a reasonable fee, ISeeJesus.com will make an image of the Son of God visible at any "business, house of worship, building, farm, restaurant, car lot, or retail outlet of any type."