Party Poker Blog

"A bad workman always blames his tools."
Proverb

Damnit, I was all set to give a State of the Union poker address tonight, but Real Life has once again gotten in the way. My uncle had been diagnosed with cancer many months ago and his daughter had planned to get married in the summer of 05. Once this diagnosis was known, however, they moved the date up to January 22nd, in hopes that her Dad would live long enough to attend. Alas, he didn't, passing away this weekend. So I'm flying into Minneapolis tomorrow to attend his funeral on Tuesday.

Fucking cancer.
Sigh.

I'm not trying to be maudlin, I'm just explaining today's lack of uberpost poker goodness for my faithful readers. Lord knows I try to deliver fresh content for ya'll on Mondays while you're stifling in your cubes. I'm here for you, damnit.

So humour this post. It's all I can do with not much time to do it.

Warning: Obligatory Shilling Ahead: But it's not *truly* shilling if I'm quoting venerable poker blogger, Ftrain, who says in his excellent blog:

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All these months, I thought Iggy was engaging in a bit of hyperbole by making wild claims like "If you aren't playing on Party Poker, you are deeply and profoundly retarded." I never realized just how right he is, and how blessed we all are to be playing at Party Poker. If you're not already playing on Party Poker, behold the power of bonus code: IGGY and witness it for yourself.
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Truer words were never spoken, thanks FTrain. Party Poker is clearly where it's at. We can't ALL be wrong, for cripes sakes.

So this will allow me a nice segue about my opening quote. For some strange reason (full moon?) - the crazies and loons are out in force on the message boards, with incessant "online poker is rigged" posts.

Nobody is even bothering to reply, but here's an actual post-for-post thread from RGP yesterday, talking about rigged online poker, mostly attacking Poker Stars, for some inexplicable reason.

Enjoy:

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Poker Stars can defintely get you...

I got on a list. I dont know how, I dont know what I did. But I have never
ever faced the type of stuff I am facing now on this site.

Have you had AA dealt too you 3 times in one hour and go head to head with
someone and get them all busted three times.

Once VS KJ off suit, Once againt 8-7 offsuit, and once againg 9-7 offsuit.
All these people called preflop.

If I have a coin flip its 100% loss. Without a doubt, I dont win them. If
I have a face card pair, JJ QQ KK, they are defintely beat by anyone with
A-2 offsuit. Head to Head preflop.

Again, not sure what I did, I have berated bad plays before and I dont
know if some smack talk touched someone the wrong way and I got on a
"list". But PS can be and defintely is rigged if you did something that
they dont like. Prewarning to all. Stars is TROUBLE.


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I agree 100%, and yeah i just went out 4th place in a 16 turbo on stars. I
had ak all in pre, vs aq , flop 6 7 3, turn 10, and do i even need to say
what came on the river, like i didnt know? well yeah he hit his 4% chance
on the queen, damn how does it constantly happen? Fuck pstars, and their
rigged system.


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It happens to everyone, not only on stars but on party as well. Do what I
do, close your account and reopen a new account a few days later. All the
bad beats mysteriously disappear. Good Luck.


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I believe him, happens to me and my buddies. I swear coinflips are close
to 90% losses for me. My buddy is on the list at PP. We call it the red
flag list, it happens. I'm over it now but I have seen some crazy insane
beats happen in a matter of a few hands online.

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Oh. The. Humanity.

It was a wonderful thing to read, all right in a row like that.

Here is a classic response to those who say online poker is rigged and that anyone who says they win is a shill.

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I find it amusing when people imply that anyone who claims to have made a nice chunk online must be lying (one word there: projection).

It's really not rocket science, people. You don't have to be world-class to do it. You just have to be better than most you play against, and that's not hard to do. There are a stunning number of really bad players in the online poker world. With patience and good decision-making, a lot of their money will find its way to you. It's a different game than B&M. There are more weak players. That can lead to some bad beats, but in the long run, you WANT those fish chasing after everything. The percentages work in your favor.

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Not to mention it's far easier to play poorly online. There's no embarassment, no shame, no furrowed eyebrows, muttering under breath, no chips.....the lack of spatial relationships has a large impact, imho. Not to mention the speed of online play. The tiltability of it all.

I was stumbling through Hank's archives and found this excellent tip:


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Any time you play a hand without firmly believing that you have a positive expectation, you are on subtle tilt.
--


This is a concept that John Feeny first articulated in his fine book, Inside The Poker Mind. It's exactly what I needed to hear right now.

I think there must be a distinct correlation between poker players who desire to improve, to study and become winning players and the poker blogging scene. It's difficult sometimes to be brutally honest with our play, to dissect it and try to understand the "why and how" of what we are potentially doing wrong. It seems like many losing players have a propensity to blame losing on outside forces like bad luck or cheating. Winning poker players believe that winning is a direct result of their own studying, ability and preparation.

And allow me to state for the record that I've been getting my teeth kicked in at the tables lately. Variance and poor play.

Poker sure has a way of humbling you.

Let's get today's random odd picture out of the way, shall we?



I truly enjoyed Jackpot Jay's latest toxic mailbag from last week, in which he gets scorched for both his playing and writing. To his credit, he sounds as if he's ready to take an honest inventory of his poker play.

Perspective to Jay, from a reader:

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As Lucas of Denver put it, "After making the poker-writing faux pas of writing about your bad beats in the previous column, this time you made it even worse by publishing other people's bad beat stories. Please get back to writing a column that is worth reading. I know you can do it, because I used to enjoy reading your column. P.S. Can you think of another poker "writer" who writes about his bad beats? I can -- Phil Hellmuth." (Ouch, Lucas. You really know how to wound a guy.)

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Moving quickly along, I enjoyed Amy's wisdom about bankroll management and expectations for Poker Pages.
Young Guns Need to Think About Growing Old

Here's an interesting snippet from the forums. For what it's worth, David Sklansky once wrote that if he could only play *one* poker game to earn money, it would be stud hi-lo.

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Is Stud High/Low more profitable than Omaha High/Low?

I'm relatively new to Stud 8, but it seems to me like this game offers many more favorable opportunities than O8 does.

The fluctuations are a lot bigger of course, but when the money comes in it REALLY comes in. Especially on scoops. If you hit a rush, wow.

I love it. Lows (and highs) are quartered FAR less often, you have a lot of information on where you stand, good starting hands hold up more often, and
there are just a whole lot more potential mistakes for poor or loose players
to make. Just more happening in general that an observant player can take advantage of.

Plus, the game is fast paced and actually FUN.

O8 is slow and painful. Good starting hands die on the flop way too often.
And even when they get there, it's rare that you'll get paid off as much as
you need to in order to make up for all the times that your hands got
counterfeitted/outdrawn, etc.

What say the wise?
Is Stud8 a better game to make money at than O8?

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Someone replied that the fish last longer, and come back another day, in O8. That sounds about right but I'd acquiesce to someone who actually knows what they're talking about, unlike me.

Alrighty then, time to wrap this up. Thanks to Taylor for reminding me about the Poker Stars Tsunami Relief Effort for the International Federation of the Red Cross. If you have an account there, think about donating some dough....even a little bit goes a long way. Best of all, PokerStars is matching every dollar donated.

Thanks for stopping by this lil humble poker blog. I'll be back in a few days.
My humble apologies for the tepid post. Please go visit all the fine blogs on the right to fufill your poker fix. And for the love of all that is sacred, sign up on Party Poker with Bonus Code IGGY. ;)

Addendum: I just saw that Derek of Poker in the Weeds, brother of Pauly, just posted his latest Vegas Trip Report from the poker blogger convention. I had a blast playing with these guys. Go enjoy!

Let's leave with an interesting post by a female poker player.
Brilliant or evil?

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Is what I did morally wrong?
Author: Michelle

I pulled a dirty move at a recent charity $300 buy in poker tournament, and I would love your thoughts as to whether what I did was genuis or simply shady.

Let me preface this by saying that I have a reputation for exploding at the poker table when things don't go my way. It is a trait I am not proud of, but I sometimes can not stop myself from inappropriate outbursts.

On to the hand. Acting right after me was a very good and very aggresive player, who would call and reraise my steal attempts at every opportunity. Each time, I would throw my typical tantrum and then toss my cards into the muck.

Then this hand came up: With the blinds at 300-600 I raised to 1800 from one off the button with pocket sixes. My nemesis smooth called and both blinds folded. The flop came down 266, and for the first time in my live tourney career I had flopped quads. Knowing my opponent would reraise, I fired out another 1800 rather than slowplay. Sure enough he immediately sprung into action and raised 3600, making it 5400 total. At that point I put him on a high pocket pair. But I also knew that if I reraised him for all 15,000 of my remaining chips, he would most likely make the laydown.
And if I simply called him, he would most likely put the brakes on as well. I should mention that he was among the chip leaders with over 25,000 chips.

So instead I went into full actress mode. I started throwing another tantrum, this time obviously a phony one. Keep in mind that during my previous tantrums, I always made the laydown so at this point there was no reason to suspect I wouldn't do the same. About 30 seconds into my tirade I said this to him: "I know what you want to hear, he wants to hear me say I'M ALL IN." And boom, the trap was laid. The dealer immediately told me that I had just announced that I was all in. I responded by saying that was bullshit, I was clearly being sarcastic. The dealer and everyone at
the table started telling me that when it is my turn to act and I use the words "I'm all in" it means that I am all in.

I started going ballistic, calling everyone a bunch of chauvinist pigs that just want to see the woman eliminated, etc. My opponent in the hand was adamant that when I said "all in" the magic words were spoken. Finally the tournament director was brought in to settle the dispute and it was ruled that I was all in. The context of the words are irrelevant. I responded by saying "this is bullshit" and I started to gather my
belongings.

Obviously my elated opponent called and showed his pocket nines. You can imagine the shock at the table when I revealed my quads! The people at my table thought I just pulled the dirtiest most underhanded trick they had ever seen. My opponent was irate. The whole table was abuzz for the rest of the tourney. I still say I pulled off a brilliant manouver to extract 10,000 extra chips I never would have gotten any other way. What do you all say?

PS: I ended finishing in third out of 140.

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Link of the Day:
Ceciliantas Goes In Deeper
After screen captures of his EverQuest sex with Allannah Hunter of Goblins hit the Internet, Ceciliantas Dragoroth flew into a berserker rage for 10 rounds.