Party Poker Blog

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.

Party Poker update: I'm nearly done with my 550 hand requirement for my deposit bonus and i'm up $86. Best of all, I received an email for yet ANOTHER Empire deposit bonus. I'm trying to ascertain if this is valid or not. More on this later...

Link time. Enjoy.

Fine article about poker's continued growth.
Poker phenomenon grows as game become popular spectator sport.
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"What I'm finding is, yeah they're green and they're inexperienced," said Lederer, a two-time WPT champion, "but they're playing like no other brand-new players I've ever played with."
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I admire Daniel Negreanu for posting a new column on PokerPages on Christmas Eve.
Look Within Yourself for Answers
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Bad decisions are born from a lack of focus combined with a lack of confidence. In order to be at your best, you have to separate the past from the present, and devote 100 percent of your attention to the here and now.
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Many great poker blog posts out there. And some of these guys are digging into the guts of theory and probability. Please stop, you're making TheFatGuy's head hurt.

So here's a link relating to Game theory as applied to women
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Comments:

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May I suggest the "Namath approach"? Women love that.

The reason that game theory generally falls apart when applied to something like the stock market is that it requires rational, fully informed participants.

So, yeah, I'm sure it'll work just great with women.
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Hope Felicia Lee isn't reading this right now. :)

OK, I debated even addressing this, but I feel it's best to point to the post and let you decide. I'll try and be nice.

Evil or just stupid?
From today's vegan poker blog, go read it yourself:

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YES! I'm so happy to see an official "first case" of Mad Cow has been found in the US.
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Wow, he's HAPPY. What did he do on 9/11, throw a party? Dance a jig?

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I really hope the fallout from this news shakes the beef economy. A major market shift and a monetary blow to the industry may actually lead to some changes.

YAY VEGANS!

Go VEGAN today!
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He's rooting for another blow to our economy? Rooting for more jobs to be lost? I don't care what your political affiliation, that's just on the cutting edge of stupidity.

Seriously, the Poker Vegan needs to keep his fucked inane opinions to himself. I guarantee this guy is a freaking horrific poker player, unlike intelligent vegan, Howard Lederer, whom I admire from afar.

He's probably a modest little person, with much to be modest about. I can't believe this guy lives in the US.

I wonder, if a massive hurricane wiped out most of our commercial fishing fleet, would Poker Vegan jump for joy?

After only playing for two years (he was a blackjack card-counter prior to playing poker - I lived in Vegas for several years, I know the type):

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In September of 2002, I still had no job and I felt my poker was going well. I packed up my stuff and moved to Las Vegas to see what going "pro" would be like. I played in the 15/30 at the Bellagio almost every day. I also played a lot of tournaments. By the summer of 2003 I was in bad shape. I had been taking some risks and playing outside my bankroll. I used a lot of my bankroll on tournaments, especially with everything happening at the Bellagio and at Binion's during the spring.
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This was after losing $800 in 50.1 in online poker:

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I always enjoy finding new ways to capitalize on our nation's greatest resources: stupidity and ignorance. Poker looked like the perfect tool to do this. Knowing that the only way I was going to use poker to make money was to learn the game, I started reading. I purchased books on strategy. I read Internet discussion boards. I practiced! I created an account on Paradise Poker. I deposited $100 and played in the $0.50/$1 hold'em games. I lost it all. I repeated this 7 more times and lost a total of $800. This wasn't making me money, but I felt I was getting better.
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Stupidity and ignorance, indeed. $800 in 50.1?

I'm refraining from calling him a freaking elitist idiot only because he PRACTICED and PURCHASED books.

Oh the humanity. Can you say flat-earth society?

And this is me being nice.
On Christmas, nonetheless.

I will support and pimp any poker blog out there except for the overweight vegan who is estatic that mad cow disease has hit the United States. I live on a farm, fer Gods sakes. I love both veggies and animals. And eat them both.

Mind-boggling. Truly.

/end rant

MeneGene had a great post regarding my link to the Andy Bloch Project and the theme of poker in life for the overeducated. I would recommend the book, Poker Faces, by David Hayano, for deeper sociological study on this matter.

Scroll down for veteran poker blogger, Pauly, Tuesday's trip-report on Tao of Poker - go read it now.
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He confided in me that he had been detained at the border a month earlier because of a sexual assult charge (which was dismissed) had gotten him flagged at immigration, and we wouldn't let him into the country. I was so relieved when he got off at New Haven.
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Cards Speak with yet another fine post, this time about John Feeny and rushes or "hot seats."

Allrighty then. I still have a buncha links but I'm tired and I gotta get up with the kids tomorrow morning.

Thanks for reading and my humble apologies if you are a dignified, quiet vegan.

Link of the Day:
Your Mommy Kills Animals
PETA advises children to "ask your mommy how many dead animals she killed to make her fur clothes."

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 dreamt it.

Oh the humanity. But I found it amusing that in a poker nightmare, I was only playing 3.6.

Let's start off the daily poker news and links, shall we?

I wish I was the damn poker comic.
His attitude on 'luck' is perfect. It's funny cause it's true.
Top-tier blog #1.
Poker Comic - Tales from the felt & stage
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People that believe in superstitions and say "I hope it's my lucky day" before sitting down at a table are never going to become good poker players until they release these false notions of fate. The vague state of being "lucky" can only exist on one single event at a time. Will I hit my flush draw on the river this hand? Mathematics say it will happen once every 4.5 times, but in this lone situation, it is pure chance that it will occur just this time. This is the only version of luck I believe in.
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MeneGene continues his hilarious postings.
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I'm sure some card rooms have rules against you coming to the table in a Halloween costume, but I thought of a way around that. When I finally get my seat in the World Series, I'm having my entire face Botoxed.
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He also asks a WSOP question I really want to know the answer to:
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My question is this--can you come to the table wearing, say, a welder's mask?
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I'm sure you've all been to the World Poker Tour Fan site. Thanks to Andy Bloch for sharing his experiences at the final table, but mostly for the Andy Bloch Project, a fascinating web page I had bookmarked four years ago. Go read it when you are thinking about playing in the WSOP.

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Jim Albrecht, the WSOP Tournament Director, approved my plan to sweat and record for posterity all of the hole cards and play of a "To Be Found" entrant in the 1997 WSOP $10,000 Final Event.

During the early days of the WSOP, I asked several entrants to be my "Volunteer" but was unable to find an acceptor until about 30 minutes before Day 1's play began.

I ran into my good friend and fellow rec.gambler, Andy Bloch, and we ate an early lunch together at the Buffet. Andy needed to get back to Boston to study for some exams at Harvard Law School, and he had a plane reservation for that evening. However, he was still on the fence about staying and playing the WSOP final event. He said that he would be my "Volunteer" if he decided to stay and play. He did and he was.
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Serious brain food for any of you no limit tourney players. All of these new poker fellas don't *understand* that a 1/2 hour WSOP segment on ESPN is condensing 12-14 hours of poker. As someone once said, it's like learning about a football game by only watching a brief highlight reel.

Anisotropy is a new poker blog by yet another smart mo-fo. He gets props by pimping the poker blog community. And he's right - poker is hard, even if you are a winning player.
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I just wanted to say something about the Poker blogging community-at-large, some of whom I have already linked to and who I read regularly with great pleasure. It's always great to read something about other people's take on the game and about the swings they go through. It's even better to have those same people supporting you when you are trying to do the same frustrating things they are. Smart people, smart writing and great support.
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Phil Helmuth bashing alert:

Top-tier blog #2.
Lion Tales.
Richard Brodie chronicles his World Poker Tour experiences

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Phil and I didn't play too many pots together but he went back to referring to me in the third person as he criticized the way I looked at my hole cards.
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It's a long, but great read, so allow me another excerpt for those of you that want the abridged version:

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Playing with Phil Hellmuth, Jr., had taught me a good way to get chips: wait until one of the loose-aggressive players such as Phil tried to steal my blind and then reraise him. Kathy wasn't quite as loose as Phil but she did raise more often that she was likely to get good hands so when I found myself with any decent hand I reraised her and she folded. She didn't seem too happy that I had discovered this tactic and she tried several Hellmuth-style conversational ploys in an effort, I supposed, to throw me off my game. Little did she know that I hadn't much of a game to throw off.
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Relating to my prior shill post about game selection (sign up on Party Poker with bonus code IGGY, damnit) -- here is one attitude about moving up in limits that I kinda agree with. From RGP.

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Game selection is critical at $5-$10. In general I agree with your
assessment but do not expect every table to at this level to play the same.
If you run into some players waiting to get into a Bigger Game, you will
find the same No-Foldem Holdem mentality at any level.

Remember this:
In Low Limit = Play the Cards
In Mid Limits = Play the Players.
In High Limit = Play the Money.
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Simple but true.

Hrm, I still have questions on the bonus whoring situation at Empire and Party. Anyone heard anything? How is something like this enforced? Are folks with existing accounts "grandfathered" or have all the rules changed? What about other Party skins? And so on.

I've said it before and I've said it again. Vegans are evil. The vehement ones, anyway. But still, this poker playing vegan keeps posting so . . .
Vegan Poker

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DAMN IT!
I was all happy with the new 7-11 Diet Pepsi slurpees. I have had a couple of them and they were a nice 0-cal treat. It was my impression that is was just diet pepsi, slurpee-ized. But evidently they created some odd new formula just for the slurpees that uses a new sweetener called tagatose from Spherix. Tagatose is derived from dairy products. So basically it's a big slushy cup of cow squeezin's. BAH!

I wish people would stop trying to find new ways to use animals.
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Elitist moron. Come to my home game so I can light a bacon scented candle.

This is the third time I've posted this:
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So I have a protuberant piece of paper hanging above my monitor that provides three little rules for online poker play.

1) Other players bad play will make me far more money than my fancy or brilliant plays.
2) The guy that leads with a bet on the turn after not betting out previously, has a big hand.
3) Folding costs me nothing pre-flop. If it's a close decision, I can't go far wrong by folding.
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Yet another Guinness-fueled post. Thanks if you read this far.

Link of the Day (NSFW):
NakedLoftParty
I'd rather be this guy over the PokerComic.

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, devotes 200 pages to hold em -- three or four times the space allowed for any other form of poker.

Nuff said.

Sigh, my Bengals were outclassed today by a superior team. My folks live in St. Louis so I lost an expensive restaurant bet, even though I knew I was doomed before kickoff. Speaking for all Cincinnatians, it's enough to enjoy a meaningful game this late in the year.

In Marvin We Trust. I'm still kinda bummed the Mikebrownsucks.com site went dormant. Some hilarious flame-wars. But anyway, Mike Brown STILL sucks. He only finally did what he should have done 12 years ago. Let a football guy have control.

Sad news to anyone who didn't follow my advice on Party - Empire bonus whoring. It appears as if the gravy train ended. Chris Halverson was the first to alert me to this. Go read the 2+2 Internet forums for the details.

Damn, that was easy money. :(

Party Poker rake: plenty of blustering noise about Party raising their rake on RGP. I personally don't blame them but I'm not sure it affects me a whole lot. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but here's the supposed details:

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It was 5%
$1 per $20 and was increased to 5% on each $10 at least on 3/6,
5/10 and 10/20 tables.

So a hand with $30 used to have $1 rake it now has $1.50. A hand with a $50 pot used to have a $2 rake it is now $2.50.
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A Poker Odyssey mentions a rake war. Don't hold your breath.

Had to dig deep, but I finally found one of the first poker "blogs" I ever read. Simon Diamond's Poker Page is a fine fellow from across the pond who documented his attempts at online poker. It wasn't nearly as interesting as Table Tango, but it was still fun to read.

Hopefully, even more players will start a poker blog. If only to help form your own thoughts about poker or hone your writing chops. Hell, it's free on Blogger.

I screwed up my deposit bonus on Party, only getting $80, instead of $100. Damn Guinness. But since buying back in last evening, I've played 264 of the 550 required hands and am up +$42. I LOVE PARTY POKER!

Link of the Day:
Delicious Aroma of Death
Hot Trails is the Acme Novelty Company for wily hunters, offering candles that trick animals on the last day of their lives. One good item for bears (or vegan houseguests who have overstayed their welcome): "Bacon Scent Candles."