Party Poker Blog

"I’d say always play at limits that will allow you to survive a losing streak. Losing streaks are the barometers for me. Show me a player on a winning streak and I won’t be able to rate him. Show me a player who is in a losing streak and I’ll be able to tell you if he can play."
Jennifer Harmon

I nearly choked on my drink at the boat this weekend upon hearing a sunglasses-wearing kid yell at an old man, "How the hell can you call a $60 raise preflop with K9?!"

The old man just laughed at him while scooping up the monster pot. I was appalled - the last time I heard that type of impending tilt comment was from Phil Hellmuth on the WSOP DVD.

And boy, did the kid go on tilt. Downright Tilty. Outplayed by that old man everytime they were in a pot together after that. Twas ugly and his game fell completely apart.

But I liked the kid. So later, over a smoke, I tried to give him a few pointers.
#1 Never, ever tap the glass.
#2 Don't make the mistake of playing directional poker - focusing your action on one guy.
#3 Lose the sunglasses - they smell like fear - save em for the WSOP
#4 Feeling ANY sense of immediacy in poker is a BAD thing. I'm talking cash games, here, obviously.

Let me say that again. Immediacy in poker = bad thing.

From my perspective, bad beats are the sign of a good game, damnit. I want players chasing. I want players calling two bets cold on the flop without proper odds. It's why I don't have to work for the Man anymore. Just accept it when they hit and move on. Don't freaking tilt, damnit.

In my first month of blogging, I posted this:

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 previously, often 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.

Another Big Announcement!

I have picked up a new sponsor!

Thanks to the fine folks at Caribbean Sun Poker.

Here's a pretty cool tourney they're running, which I'm gonna take some shots at:

If you didn't make it to the 2004 Caribbean Poker Classic... We can't even explain the great time you missed, so this year don't wait! Enter any of our satellite tournaments and win your seat to the 2005 Caribbean Poker Classic, hosted in beautiful St. Kitts, where you will have a chance to win your share of the estimated $1,000,000 Prize Pool!

So consider signing up with Caribbean Sun Poker the next time you're looking for a new site. There's a shiny, new garish banner up there for you to click on when you're ready.


Quick story.

For my wife's past birthday, I asked her what she wanted. Not overly romantic, I concede, but with a horse person, you need specifics before buying. Horse thingies are expensive, damnit.

Di was still stinging with the loss of Monty the cat. So she told me her crazy idea - she wanted to build an outdoor area for our other cats, since they were now not allowed to go outside. A crime considering the property we live on.

All she wanted was for me to purchase all of the building material. Which I did.

It's pretty funny - before running this horse farm, my wife was a Purdue grad and industrial engineer at GE. Seems like another lifetime ago, which it actually is.

So I had no doubts that she'd whip up this tribute to Monty in no time. And she did. It measures 16 feet by 16 feet and is 8 feet tall and is attached to the house further to the left - they have a little cat door to come in and out of.



Now she's added shelves for them to climb around on. They love it. In fact, yesterday our little black kitty, Sid, caught a nice-sized snake and brought it into the house. He carried it upstairs and then bit the head off, leaving it as a present for us.

But on the downside of things, our sweetest cat, Eddie, has just been diagnosed with Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - heart disease basically. Hell, he's only a year old, too.

Some cats may develop only mild hypertrophy and suffer little compromise of heart function, while others progress to more severe disease. HCM may worsen quickly over a period of months; it may progress slowly over several years; its severity may not change for some years and then suddenly worsen -- or it may not. Some cats with HCM may die very suddenly even though they seemed healthy only moments before.

Bleh. Of course, the wife is in full research mode. I'm just going to enjoy my time with this fruity little cat, as it is. He's the sweetest damn cat I've ever known, and that's saying alot. I actually think he's a little light in the loafers.

Arg, blogging about pets again. When will I learn?

Couple links for you:

Phil Gordon just put his new poker column up at ESPN.

This is a wonderful video invitation to Bradoween by our cracker southern buddies over at UpForPoker.
Brilliant!

Be back very soon.