StatCounter is cool

StatCounter really is a cool tool. Whoever told me about it, thanks! I just spent the last hour or so reading my own blog because of StatCounter. They recently changed their keyword analysis to show you exactly when the searches were entered into whichever search engine, calling it "Recent Keyword Activity." I was browsing the searches that hit me, and then reading the pages that those people would get. I have pretty much forgotten everything I wrote before the beginning of the year, and some of it is really good stuff! I might hurt my arm patting myself on the back like that, but I really am impressed by some of the stuff. Things like this from a post called I'm not a very good poker player:

How do I make money even though I'm not good? Because being at a poker table is like being in a group of guys being chased by a bear. You don't have to be the fastest guy in the group, you just can't be the slowest.

If it weren't for StatCounter I never would have gone back and read through some of that stuff. Just like in poker, if you want to improve your blogging you have to analyze your history. See what you did right and do more of it, see what you did wrong and try to avoid it. It's easier to be more objective about your writing after so much time has passed.

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I missed the WPBT event last night. I planned on playing, even looked forward to it. But I had to play in a Bar Tourney instead. I know that sounds fishy, but really I had to go, for political reasons.

First, let me explain what a Bar Tourney is. It's free poker for no money. Sounds like shit, right? Yeah, pretty much.

Poker is still illegal outside of Indian Reservations in Oklahoma. So if you want to play Hold Em, all you can do is play in these "Amateur Poker Leagues." Here's the deal. A group of people, I hesitate to call it a "business" but I guess that's technically what it is, organize these free poker tournaments in bars. For the bar, it's like having a band, and they pay these people the same as what they'd pay a band.

You go to the bar and they give you 3000 chips. If you buy a meal at the restaurant, you get another 1000 chips. For every beer you buy, you get another 200 chips. If your table "tips" the organizers of the tournament the most, everyone at the table gets another 1000 chips. If you bring a guest, both you and the guest get an extra 1000 chips.

I was new, so I started with 4000 chips. The guy that brought me started with about 8600, because he brought me, another guest, bought a meal, his table tipped the highest and he bought a few beers. Nothing like starting in a hole.

Then there's the opponents. Here's a direct quote:

I've never played against people before, not even on the internet. I saw it on the TV and played some hands against my husband, so I thought I would come out and give it a try. Why not, it's free!

Ugh. In the first hand I decided I would try to convice the table I was a "crazy player" and I bluffed with ten-high. Of course I got called, which I expected. What I didn't expect was that I bluffed with the BEST HAND. Yes, I bluffed with ten-high and got called by NINE-HIGH. Oh the humanity.

The top two players get points. Those points get you into other tournaments....somewhere down the line there is a prize. A trip to Vegas or something....sorry, I really wasn't paying attention.

So now you know about Bar Tourneys (I have a hard time even calling it "poker") I'll explain why I had to go.

I recently lost by boss and my best friend in Oklahoma. The bastard moved back to Kansas City. When I lived in KC I worked with him there. He moved to OKC and offered me a job at his new place. I accepted and moved down here to work for him. Then he got another job back in KC! So HIS boss is now MY boss until they fill his position, which isn't clear if they will do that or not. His boss knows I am sorta (!) into poker, so he said I HAD to be his guest at the Bar Tourney last night. It would have been a bad career move for me to say no, so there I was swimming with the fishes for two hours on a Wednesday night.

So all this is one big excuse on why I missed the Blogger Tourney last night. I did watch Iggy's table for the last two hours though. I stayed up nearly to midnight when my alarm goes off at 4:30am...shouldn't that be worth something. Naw, probably not.

Like I told Felicia when I got there, I didn't play. I suck.

Poker Comic #15

God Bless the UAW

God Bless the UAW. They may be ruining the company and thereby ruining the country, but I damn sure enjoyed the four day weekend they just forced me to take with pay. I did nearly nothing on the weekend, I needed time to decompress from all the weekend trips and goings on around here.

I really only played poker yesterday. I think I played a lot on Thursday and maybe some more on Friday, but it's all a blur now anyway. Yesterday was a joke. I started the day with a $5+1 MTT on Absolute. I was cruising along fine until I made two bad, bad, BAD plays in a row that I know better than to make. My excuse is that I was on the phone and got distracted, but that's bullshit. I made a fish mistake, and paid for it.

Yesterday was poker on the cheap day. I figured I could play nothing but freerolls and tournaments that used player points. Huge mistake. I played in these things for hours and didn't see a scrap of poker played all day. Assholes playing any two cards and catching lightning, all the while criticizing others for being bad players. People who wouldn't know poker if it crawled up their rectum and spawned, being table coaches to even worse players.

Saturday was the Poker Forum Challenge hosted by Royal Vegas poker. There were a dozen or two of us representing PokerSourceOnline and about a dozen who spent the tournament in the PSO chat area. I swear, the chat was more fun than the tourney. Out of nearly 1400 contestants, all the PSOers in chat finished in the top 100, but none of us made the money that started at 30. If you were in the chat, thanks for making an otherwise routine tournament more fun.

Oh yeah! I remember what I did on Thursday now...I played in a WSOP qualifier where the top 9 players get a chance to win a trip to the WSOP. Not an entry, mind you, just the trip. Gotta love Absolute Poker. We won't give away "The Ultimate Prize" we'll give away something that looks sorta like it. A trip to go WATCH the WSOP. Not even the whole thing, just a few days worth. Absolute Poker is the Chinese Knock-Off of the poker world. They kinda look a little like Paradise Poker, but can't pull it off without being a total resource hog. They wanna be Pardise so bad, they can taste it.

This ridiculous joke of a tourney took six and a half hours, and that was just to get down to the final table. Since all nine got the same prize, everybody (except for one asshole, there's always one) went all in on the next hand.

Anyway, I finished in the top 9 out of 1500 players to get a shot at the trip. That tourney is Thursday. There's a blogger tournament on Wednesday (see Iggy's for details) and a $5000 freeroll sponsored by PokerSourceOnline on Friday.

Two of those tournaments are worth more than $1000 for first place, yet if I were forced to choose, I'd rather win the one on Wednesday.

Poker on TV turns a corner

I just watched the WPT event that I recorded from Wednesday night, and I have heard a lot of comments about the new graphics and the changes that the WPT made this season. I haven't seen anybody mention the most impressive change.

They don't explain the rules of hold em anymore.

That's right. They assume if you're watching, you've seen the game before and know how it works. The ESPECIALLY don't explain what hand beats what anymore. MAYBE there were people seeing that and going "WOW, a full house beats a flush?" But I doubt it.

It always bugged me. I would be watching the 18th broadcast of the WSOP and here comes the little video presentation teaching us how the betting works in Texas Hold Em. Or a WPT event with Mike Sexton calling it "The Caddilac of Poker" for the umpteenth time.

No more. When you watch a baseball game, they don't take time out in the beginning to tell you that four balls make a walk. They don't start hockey games early to explain what icing is, even though I think more people understand hold em than understand offsides in a hockey or soccer game.

The game is growing up. This is a HUGE step for the ligitimacy of televised poker.

Now back to watching college basketball. I have Louisville in my pool, so I'm looking good for at least a profit. What does that arc on the court mean again?

Yankee Fans

If you are a Yankee fan, and maybe even if you're not, you should be reading this guy:

The Pinstripe Bible

Sometimes you will read a history of World War II that argues there was a racial component to the American decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. It was never strongly suggested, this argument goes, that the bomb should be used on Germany. This may be true, but it is equally true that the A-bomb was not ready to be dropped until after the Germans had surrendered. For Harry Truman to drop the big one on the Rhine in August of 1945, three months after V-E Day, would have been, at the very least, impolite. Bringing a closer in to protect a three-run lead in the ninth is the same thing. It’s like nuking the enemy after the war is over.

The writer is Steve Goldman, and he knows his shit about baseball, and is entertaining as hell.

Search Engine Abuse - Shanna Hiatt Nude

I'm starting to feel bad about all the search engine abuse I've been doing by posting titles like Naked Pictures of Shanna Hiatt, or Shanna Hiatt nude. Maybe even misspellings, like Shana Hyatt or something.

So, as a reward for all you perverts who found my page looking for Shanna Hiatt's naked body, here you go.

Shanna Hiatt Nude Pictures

Pics provided by Poker Source Online, remember to use referral ID "dugglebogey" when you sign up after you are.......done.

Thanks for all of your kind emails.....

Thanks for all of your kind emails.....

I had a great weekend that started on Friday night Online and continued through the weekend in Kansas City.

But first, I gotta mention stupid coozebag stripper's latest "insult disguised as a compliment." Apparently she heard about Felicia's diagnosis, but instead of just being nice decent HUMAN, she takes a shot at her. If anything like that happened to you, you'd be throwing the biggest pity party seen by mankind.

I realize that being a stripper doesn't require any advanced degrees, but LOOK DUMBASS, Felicia never referred to you as a hooker. She hasn't referred to you AT ALL lately, you self-centered moron. She was playing a tournament and making a joke about the winner getting a free hooker. NOT YOU, DIPSHIT. If someone told you she did, you're a fucking fool for believing it.

For anyone who is still reading Strippers useless site, I'll wrap up every post she has done in the last couple of months, and likely every post she will do for the rest of her pointless blogs.

"Thanks for all the nice emails"---This is where she lies and tries to convince anyone still reading her crap that someone out there still likes her, and that they aren't just your standard internet geeks who kiss her ass because she claims to be "hot."

"I made enough money to maintain the country of Bulgaria for a week."----Here's where she tries to convince readers that she's a FANTASTIC poker PROFESSIONAL, although she has never posted one IOTA of poker advice that would suggest that it's true.

"My military boyfriend is dreamy, although every other woman he has ever met is inferior to me."----the only thing I can imagine she is trying to do here is make people VOMIT. Her contribution to fighting the obesity problem, maybe?

"Here's something I saw on TV or on the Internet that made me stop and think for a second, and came to a COMPLETELY STUPID CONCLUSION."----This is actually almost entertaining, because she is so daft her conclusions are hilarious.

And that's pretty much all you are going to get from reading that site. Aren't you happy I could save you all that time?

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Anyway, Friday night was just one of those nights where you can do no wrong. I played through my bonus at Absolute Poker and doubled my buy-in. It makes a lousy $100 in bonus money look like crap when you win $500 just trying to clear it. Not that I will ever turn down free money. How do I add that $100 into Poker Tracker? I wish there was a guide or something for that program.

It was one of those nights where every pre-flop hand held up, and every beat was held to a reasonable level. I'd say the best example is when I called a pre-flop raise with 99 in position, and flopped A95. Turn was a 5 and I raised, got called by the initial pre-flop raiser. I bet the blank on the river and got check-raised by the pre-flop raiser, and JUST CALLED his wired Aces. Ordinarily that hand is a big loser for me, but I only dropped one extra bet when he raised me on the river. Second nut is usually a hand I'll push, but I smelled a rat.

So while all this bonus clearing was going on, my friend KingLucky calls me from Kansas City and tells me he is playing a tournament and he wants to go to a movie with his son and would I take it over? I said no problem since I was playing anyways. I logged on as him and he had a pretty nice stack of 11,000 or so with about 200 left of the original 450 players. I made a few plays, trying not to get fancy and got to the lead fairly quickly. The final table was achieved with ease and I pushed them all around and eventually won it. KingLucky and I split the first place prize when I got to his house Saturday for his monthly home game. After killing the home game for like the third time in a row we took our stake to the Ameristar and KingLucky taught me his super secret Video Poker Strategy.

Okay, so there's no secret, we just play that when we can't handle the card-catchers up in the poker room anymore. But he did walk me through a lot of plays that I wasn't making optimally, and I won a LOT of money I wouldn't have. If you mix that in with the comps you get at a ridiculous rate when playing 100 play, it's really a very good system.

Poker went like hell at Ameristar when this indian dude across the table caught cards on me EVERY FRICKING HAND. Well, he played every fricking hand, so whenever I was in, he was in. I held AT and the flop was T88? He held T8. I held JJ, re-raised and the flop was T22? He held K2. There he was, betting the wrong amount on every street, with his wife, dot on her forehead and everything, planted on his shoulder like a parrot. Driving me and everyone else at the table crazy, and catching cards like a motherfucker.

I left before the damage got too bad, and the Video Poker winnings made up for it and then some. I think the real house edge in 100 Play Video Poker is in the mistakes the players make. Since VP is all about playing for the big hand, and you get 100 times as many shots at the big hand, the game seems very beatable. I have limited experience, but so far so good.

After the home game that started at 6pm on Saturday, we played from 2am to about 7pm on Sunday, which was nice because of all the basketball on TV, and the comped meals at the restaurants. I didn't like seing the UAB loss to Arizona on the bottom of the screen about 10,000 times, but that's a cross I will have to bear.

Slept Sunday night and drove 5 hours back to OKC on Monday. Getting up for work at 5am after skipping a night of sleep is always difficult, but I'll probably recover by tomorrow.

Poker Comic #14

Full Tilt Poker

Iggy needs a HUMONGOUS kickback from Full Tilt Poker. Apparently nobody amongst bloggers was playing there until they all bought in for the HORSE tourney on Sunday. Now they are ALL playing there FULL TIME, and blogging about it. It seems like every blog I've read since Sunday has been about the ring games at Full Tilt, the SNGs at Full Tilt or the NL games at Full Tilt. Or a full site review of Full Tilt.

That's more press than Nixon got when he opened relations with China. All because of a $5 HORSE tourney that most people were afraid to play in the first place.

Light at the end of the tunnel

PokerSourceOnline has decided in the wake of this PokerNow disaster to alter their rules for signing up for the PartyPoker rakeback program.

You can cancel your PartyPoker account via telephone (you can even tell them you are canceling because of an affilliate program being obsoleted) and wait 72 hours, reopen via PokerSourceOnline's frequent flopper program (still 27.5%) and keep your rake rebate going.

It has been cleared with PP, and the only limitation is that you have not done another promotion from PSO through Party Poker (Skins do NOT count.) If you did a promotion from someone other than PSO, you can still do this deal. Alas, I did a different promotion at PSO for Party Poker a long time ago, so I am not eligible, but a lot of you guys might be.

I feel bad because I got so many people going on this PokerNow deal, which I thought was a good thing that would last a while. Unfortunately I guess it was too good to be true. If some of you are willing to give up your Party Poker screen names (it might be a good thing to get some of you away from your existing PokerTracker stats on a lot of computers out there) you can get back on the train.

Well Shit

PokerNow has cancelled all Rake Rebate programs from all affiliates, including PokerSourceOnline.com.

So as of yesterday, I will not get any more rake rebate for my play at PokerNow. Guess what that means? I'm not playing anymore at PokerNow. The email said something about Party not paying PokerNow something, so there is a lot of fear of PokerNow going under. I withdrew all my money, and I sure hope I get it. Apparently rumors are running rampant on 2+2.

I got a good signup bonus at PokerNow and got about a month and a half worth of rake rebate, so my total profit other than poker winnings is around $200, which isn't bad for a month and a half.

But as of right now I am not playing for any kind of bonus or comp at all, and I hate that. It feels like I am losing money when I play just for the money on the table. Talk about spoiled.

I did have a feeling that the Rake Rebate program from PokerNow via FrequentFlopper.com was too good to be true. It's unusual when the absolutely perfect situation comes along, and that's what PokerNow was for me. I guess it didn't take much stretch of imagination to realize they were going to fuck it up.

I was going to post yesterday about Rake Rebates vs. Bonus Whoring, and I still plan on doing so, espeically since I will probably end up going back to bonus whoring until I work out another rake rebate site that plays as fishy as Party Poker.

I hope PokerNow pays everyone the money they owe them, and then goes down in FLAMES. You can't fuck with people like that and get away with it. If Party is actually behind it, Fuck them too. No company is untouchable in this business. Even the big dog can be caught and eaten.

South Park Duggle

I wasn't gonna post one of these, until I saw this T-Shirt:

Poker Police

I received my Rake Rebate from PokerNow for the month. On top of all the winnings, I got an extra $44.11, which equates to about 1.7 cents per hand. There was still some bonus clearing going on, so my calcualtions are kind of guessed at. I really like the idea of getting $44 for doing something I would have done anyway, without bonus whoring. And best of all, it was at "The Aquarium" (Party Poker) so I was taking cash off all the fishies chasing their flushies the whole time. After one day when I lost $100 in about 10 minutes, I finished up for the month $337, so $44 is a significant addition to that total, BB/Hr wise.

Tomorrow I'll try to post on Rake Rebate via Freqent Flopper vs Bonus Whoring. It's an interesting subject I started with Chris Halverson in comments a couple of days ago.

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KingLucky was playing in my Intertops account in a freeroll yesterday. I know I have paid glowing praises for the often held freerolls at Intertops, but since they reduced the prize pool for the dailies to $100 paying out to 40 people, it's just not worth it. KL works from home so playing poker occupies his time while working, and the more free games the better. He calls me when I get home and tells me to take over the game because he has a bunch of conference calls coming up. He has built up a nice stack of T4400 with about 200 people left.

I still think these things are a waste of time, and there's just three live players at the table including me, the rest being no-shows. I notice the guy immediately in front of me is limping every hand. Since I am "THE POKER POLICE" I put a stop to that right away. I raise every time he limps. He usually folds, probably because King Lucky was playing TIGHTER than TIGHT, which is his usual style. Eventually he catches on to what he must think is a HUGE GEAR SHIFT and starts calling. But by that time I have a huge stack and knock him and his opponent out on lucky draws. So I find myself in second chip position in the tournament with 13,000 chips and just 30 or 40 players left to make the money, which starts at a heart stopping SIXTY FIVE CENTS.

I continue the wild play loosening up my starting hand requirements due to the shorthandedness and lack of caring. Soon enough, I am at the final table in second chip position. 10th place pays a whopping $1. I raise from UTG with AKs and flop both and A and a K. I NEVER slow play two pair, but for some dumbass reason I did and let a guy catch his flush cheap and knock me down to 2K. I'm partially thankful because this pointless freeroll exercise will be over. My big blind is 45s and I figure I have to call when the ENTIRE TABLE limped. I raise all-in and get called in every position. Magical flop of 449 and I am almost exactly where I was before I screwed up big slick the hand before. It's like a big do-over for me, and I'm not screwing up again.

An argument breaks out between the two players immediately after me. One is tired of the pansy raises coming from the other. I go on and on about how arguing over a $25 first prize is stupid and how big boys don't use that kind of language. Utilizing my position as "THE POKER POLICE" I knock them both out. I'm getting cocky now and suggest that the table knock some other folks out because I don't want to do all the work myself. Seriously tight table, stacks of 50K and 60K are folding to 1000 bets.

When we are down to three, I have 80K, most obnoxious player on earth(JON) has 150K after bad beating the guy in 4th place to knock him out, and SOONERS has 20K. JON is obnoxious because he goes to the clock on every single play. That's a minimum of 20 seconds for every call, raise or fold. Utilizing my position as "THE POKER POLICE" I announce to the table and the watchers that I am going to knock JON out second just so SOONERS gets the second place money. Three hands later I get 23o on the small blind. Flop is A59 and JON checks to me. I check and SOONERS checks. Turn is a beautiful 4. JON bets in the neighborhood of 10,000. I raise that to 20,000, SOONERS folds and JON raises me back. I get all in and JON flips his slow played A5. River 4 makes me the chip leader at 160K and JON is down to 70K.

Very next hand I get KT on the button and I raise 20K. JON re-raises from the big blind after SOONERS folds, and I go all in. JON insta-calls with AQ. I spike a 10 on the flop and JON doesn't improve. Knocked out third, just as "THE POKER POLICE" intended. SOONERS put up a good fight but couldn't climb the 230K mountain with his 20K stack.

$25 for hours of work. At least I had fun doing it. Maybe I work too hard at other tournaments? I'm probably just on a roll after my final table at the Absolute $5+1 MTT I made the night before.

Poker Comic #13

Maudie Wins!

Maudie from Poker Perspectives-Maudie's Poker Blog guessed correctly!

Maudie wins the book, authored by the 2005 Heads Up Poker Championship winner. Maudie, I can ship it to you, or I can give it to in person you at the first meeting of the SW Blogger Fest. The choice is yours!

The Chinese Thing

So far there are a lot of guesses as to what the Chinese Word is, but nobody is guessing WHY it is over there. It's kind of a trick question, because I know that having BEER over there might not need a reason for a lot of people.

Trust me, there's a very good reason I know the Chinese word for BEER and why I have it up in the corner of my blog.

I learned the word when I spent a year in Taiwan a few years ago. It's pronounced something like pee-joe with a soft "j"or actually more like pee-zhoe.

And Tom, you aren't allowed to guess.

Linkage

I think I'll take a break today and write up a little bit about all the folks you see who I've linked up on the right side, under the curious Chinese word. I've been thinking of offering a prize to the first person who can tell me what that word is, and WHY I have it posted there. I think I will make the prize a copy of Phil Hellmuth's "Play Poker Like the Pros." First correct commenter gets my used copy.

The Blogfather

Everyone knows Iggy, so there's not much to say about him. He pimped me when I was first starting, and referred to me during the whole stripper fiasco. Wanna know how to get hits for your poker blog? Get Iggy to mention you. He has been kind of lax lately, well, not counting Poker Tracker Guide but it seems like weeks since he's made an uber-post.

Poker on Film

Heafy really presents a refreshing view of poker, mostly because it's coming from Australia. He's funny and really into movies. It's great watching him make the move from a fish into a steady and solid player.

Poker Perspectives

Maudie is great and very genuine. I guess she got posted early on because she's a fellow Oklahoman. She's been kind of dejected lately, but I suspect she just misses her theater happenings and exhaustion from having done them. I expect a rebound shortly.

Double As

I listed him after knocking him out on a freak hand at the first Blogger tourney I played. The guy is an NL monster. If I could be anyone on my blog list, I'd be DA. The part of his blog I have enjoyed most are the parts about trying to separate money from chips, and how poker has changed his perspective on the worth of money. It's really fascinating stuff.

SirFWALGMan

I started reading SirF because he was incredibly prolific. He would post three or four times per day, and it was pretty entertaining stuff. He has slowed down since he busted out in DAZZLING fashion. I still read his stuff and enjoy playing with him at the Party Poker tables, because he's a great guy who loves to talk about poker. He's one of the good guys.

FeliciaLee

Felicia is the patron saint of poker bloggers. It's like she watches over us and makes sure we are all okay. Even though it's pretty evident that she's not usually okay. Felicia takes a lot of criticism for her uncompromising attitude, but people who don't realize how good that is deserve what they get when the poker world SHITS ALL OVER THEM. We love you Felicia, don't ever forget that.

Life's A Grind

I met Lifesagrind on the Poker Cruise I won from Poker Source Online. He also won his way on, and he's really a fun guy to play poker with at a live table. He lives very close to one of the home games I play at in Kansas, so I hope to be playing more with him in the future. He doesn't post a lot, but when he does it's very creative and interesting.

Anisotropy

I don't even remember where I got this link to Anisotropy, maybe the name just interested me. I think he's explained it like ten times now, and I still have no idea what it means. What it means to me is an interesting blog. I think it's just going to get better and better as he makes the transition from the IT world to High School teacher. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Al Can't Hang

Everyone knows Al too. He's a talented writer who never fails to entertain. I'm surprised at the recent post where he admitted that he is a losing player, and he called out a lot of folks who also admitted it. I guess I just assumed that if I can win (albeit very small) at poker, everyone else was too. If Al doesn't win money playing poker, there's nobody that gets more value out of it in fun and friendship. I may be a winning player overall, but I still hope to be as succesful as Al.

Mean Gene

Gene is another one of those blogs that is more about the writing than it is about the poker. I love his reviews. He could review an episode of American Idol and I'd probably enjoy it. And that's saying a lot, because I personally believe that American Idol is PURE EVIL.

Grubby

PokerGrub = Crack Cocaine. I crave new posts from this blog. I started reading it because he posted a lot about the Washington DC area, which is where I grew up. But since he moved to Vegas I thirst for every tidbit of detail in his experience, so that I can live vicariously through him.

Helixx

Helixx I met at a blogger table and I appreciate his technology based insight into the poker world. His recent trip to vegas was enthralling, but he's been taking some time off since then. I assume he's decompressing and will come back soon with more interesting stuff.

Pauly

Pauly falls into the category of great writer too, but there is no lack in the Poker area either. Actually Pauly is a FANTASTIC writer, and I feel like I am STEALING when I get to read his stuff for free. Someday he will get all his stuff published in book form, and I will be able to say (along with the other THRONGS of readers he has) that I read all that stuff as it happened.

Chris Halverson

Halverson knows how to spin a tale too, and his poker content also never fails to please. I took a shot at him in comments recently and he handled himself very well.

BadBlood

It's great reading about Badblood and all the little bloods. It's more of a family guy perspective of the poker world, with interesting poker content.

Drop The Hammer!

I just started reading the hammer, and it's pretty fun irreverent stuff. I aspire to be as cynical as hammer.

StudioGlyphic

I met Studio at the blogger table, and waited WAY TOO LONG before adding him to my links. When he used my referral ID at PokerSourceOnline.com, I woke up and realized it wasn't there. The live game stuff from California is great, but it makes me very jealous.

Shelly

Last and certainly not least is Shelly, who only got added a few days ago. She's incredibly genuine, which is something I admire a lot. You really get a sense of her from her writing, and that's a lot bigger deal than people generally think. Maybe blogging about how you really FEEL is more acceptable when it comes from a female blogger, but I think it is very difficult to pull off. Shelly does a great job.

And those are my links. I put them there so I can click them easily and read them every day. Except for Felicia's link, which reminds me to click on her LiveJournal link. Don't forget to make your guess at the Chinese Word. You might win the greatest poker book ever written in the opinion of the author.

100xBB Buy-in

I don't like the smaller blinds for the $25 in PL. Well, that's not exactly true.

I do like them for Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. I'm almost ashamed to post this, because it's such a bad play, but all my good plays went into the shitter.

***** Hand History for Game 1679834572 *****
$25 PL Omaha Hi/Lo - Thursday, March 03, 18:50:56 EDT 2005
Table Table 37027 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: chillieu ( $45.99 )
Seat 3: Touchas ( $20.66 )
Seat 5: JUKINGJONNY ( $157.23 )
Seat 10: GoBeRude ( $21.65 )
Seat 2: Adamatic22 ( $46.99 )
Seat 6: Dephnot ( $22.37 )
Seat 7: avogadno ( $29.9 )
Seat 4: rshjr1963 ( $24.75 )
Seat 9: AGC91 ( $24.75 )
Seat 8: paw333 ( $25 )
avogadno posts small blind [$0.1].
paw333 posts big blind [$0.25].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to GoBeRude [ 2c 3s Qc 6c ]
AGC91 folds.
GoBeRude calls [$0.25].
chillieu folds.
Adamatic22 raises [$1.1].
Touchas calls [$1.1].
rshjr1963 folds.
JUKINGJONNY folds.
Dephnot calls [$1.1].
avogadno folds.
paw333 folds.
GoBeRude calls [$0.85].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 2s, Jc ]
GoBeRude checks.
Adamatic22 bets [$4.55].
Touchas folds.
Dephnot calls [$4.55].
GoBeRude calls [$4.55].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ad ]
GoBeRude checks.
Adamatic22 bets [$17.5].
Dephnot is all-In [$16.72]
GoBeRude is all-In [$16]
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
Adamatic22 shows [ Qh, Ks, Ts, Js ] a pair of jacks.
Dephnot shows [ 2d, Kh, 2h, Th ] three of a kind, twos.
GoBeRude shows [ 2c, 3s, Qc, 6c ] a flush, queen high.
GoBeRude shows 6,4,3,2,A for low.
Adamatic22 wins $0.78 from side pot #2 with a pair of jacks.
Dephnot wins $1.44 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, twos.
GoBeRude wins $31.7 from the main pot with a flush, queen high.
GoBeRude wins Lo ($31.7) from the main pot with 6,4,3,2,A.

This is a game of absolute psychos, where you can limp almost every hand, and count on the max bet every post-flop round. Just play all three way hands, and count your outs carefully. With so many callers, the pot odds are always there.

NL vs PL revisited

I need to clear up a misconception about my last post.

I am unhappy because they ruined the $25PL game. Chris Halverson is happy because in his opinion they improved the NL game. Chris isn't a PL player so he isn't commenting on the PL changes.

I'm really just upset about having to adjust to a change. I had a cash cow at Party Poker, and now they've killed it to make hamburger, when the milk is what was really desirable. I will whine and bitch all I want, but I will adjust.

I still insist that making the game at Party the same as everywhere else isn't a good thing, because having fewer options is never an improvement. But Party Poker is "The Aquarium" and I can understand people like Halverson who think that improving the odds at a game that has that many morons in it HAS to be good.

I have always stayed away from the $25NL game at Party because the Psycho level has always been intolerable. How many times do you have to seen someone go in for $25 to win $.75 in blinds and get called by someone with CRAP to realize that you're not playing "poker", you're playing some kind of weird bingo variation.

I even blogged a few days ago about actually going to a $25NL game because the avg pot was so high I just couldn't resist it. The combination of sociopaths at this table could keep a psychiatrists convention busy for months.

This is probably where I will take my game. I don't really cotton to the idea of buying in for $25 at the $50PL tables, because I am looking for idiots and they tend to clot up at the minimum buy-in tables. Whoever suggested that didn't understand my issues.

I didn't mean to stir up shit here. I am sad that my cash cow is now being served at McDonalds, but I don't intend to ruin anyone's day.

PokerNow Changes

Party Poker changed yesterday, and I'm not sure I like the changes.

They changed the blinds on all the NL/PL games, and added much higher buy-in games, up to $1000 buy-in. While the NL game probably isn't changed much by the blinds going DOWN in $25NL, the PL game is changed drastically. Instead of blinds being $.50/$.25, they are now $.25/$.10. The max raise pre-flop in an unraised hand in $25PL was $1.75. Enough to scare out crappy hands, but not enough to keep a decent starting hand from playing. Add a few limpers and the raise was around $3, the perfect amount. Now the max raise pre-flop in an unraised hand is $.85. Eighty-Five cents. That doesn't scare away shit. If you are in early position with a big pair, you are fucked. You can raise the lousy eighty-five cents and get 8 limpers, or you can just call and PRAY for a raiser that you can re-raise.

Or you can move up to the $50PL tables, which is what I did. What sucks about this is that the maniacs that I profit mostly on will stay at the $25 game, or switch to NL. Another thing that sucks is that while the blinds are the same as the old $25PL game, the risk is much higher. I dropped two buy-ins in about 20 minutes in that game. The day before it would have cost me $50 and I wouldn't have batted an eye. Now I am down $100 and walking away for the day.

I'm still not sure what I will do. I can either switch to $25NL and deal with the psychos, or I can keep plugging at $50PL and look harder for the idiots.

Edit: More on this.

Chris Halverson posted the following in SirFWALman's comments:

You're crazy if you don't like the new structure. It also shows that you never played at any other site as EVERY other site has 100BB buyins.

Deep stacks favor good people. It actually means you have to play and not just push. I about jumped for joy when I saw that they upped it.

My response...

Why would you "jump for joy" when they made the place just like everywhere else? Who the fuck likes the same thing everywhere? If you liked the blind structure somewhere else, GO PLAY THERE. Some of us liked having a choice.

All I know is it made the $25PL game completely pointless, and that was my favorite game there.

PL vs NL

Iggy et al have a new guide up for Poker Tracker, appropriately called Poker Tracker Guide.

I'm really happy about this. Not really because I am going to read it, because I (like many others) have spent hours and hours pouring over the data in PT and don't feel like I need a guide to tell me how to use it. I don't find PT difficult at all to use, but I can understand how it could be confusing to someone who isn't involved in statistical analysis at all.

What I am happy about is when people ask me for help with PT, and A LOT of people ask me for help with PT, I can refer them there. Everybody wins.

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I'm still getting a lot of email about the 27.5% Rake Rebate and PSOs Frequent Flopper program. If you email me I will reply eventually. I want to thank everyone that signed up at PSO and used me as a referral. I can still be reached at dugglebogey@casinomail.com, but I just opened up a gmail account at dugglebogey@gmail.com and I am considering moving everything over to that address.

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I am glad to see that SirF has finally realized that there is money to be made by specializing in NL at Party Poker. I don't think I am even a profitable player at lower limits on Party. I played limit exclusively at Pacific and Absolute at low limits and hauled in the money. But I can't seem to catch the chasers at Party Poker. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe there's just too many of them and I can't make the adjustment. Or there's a couple of sharks mixed in with the fish and I can't identify them. I've done well at higher limits, but I am not in bankroll shape to take the swings at those games right now. Withdrawing more than $2500 late last year really took away that option for me.

I make my money now at Party by finding loose idiots and taking their money. I guess they are a lot easier to find in NL and PL games. And they are easier to catch in PL than they are in NL.

The reason I play PL is because PL helps to contain the action pre-flop and the first post-flop bet. Once you have identified your loose maniac, all you have to do is lay in wait to catch him. They are easy to spot. They raise pre-flop more than half the time. They raise the max with any two suited cards. They bet the pot when they catch ANY part of the flop, or they think that nobody else will call. They tend to have huge stacks, but the money moves to and from them on every hand. You don't need a monster to catch these guys, you just need a decent hand. You can never beat them with Ace high, but top pair is usually good, two pair is the nuts.

So you only play big cards against them and hope to catch. In NL this is impossible, because you will call off your whole stack just trying to hit a flop. You need big pairs to call in NL, and they won't call you if you fold 40 straight hands and then raise your Aces. They're not THAT dumb. Well, some are, but not all of them.

In PL they can only bet the pot pre flop, which is usually less than $2 or $3 in $25PL. If you have any kind of position and you have a big pair or just big cards you can usually raise him and all the callers $12 or $13. All the limpers will fold, and you will be heads up with this moron, because he ALWAYS calls. Then all you have to do is avoid the flush that this moron was hoping for with his deuce-five of hearts. Yes he catches it, or two pair, or the miracle straight more than he should, but you are just a re-buy away from getting your money back.

No Limit Poker is all about aggression. Most of these morons think that they can out-aggression everyone in the pot. The worst part about this scheme is it works about 85% of the time. I live on the 15% side of the fence.

Yesterday I won ONE pot in 40 hands at PokerNow, and still made money. Because I folded about 30 hands, limped and folded with 5 more, folded 4 more after the flop, and won $32 on the other.

In Pot Limit you can make their over aggressiveness work against them. The worst thing about Pot Limit is when you make the nuts and nobody bets, you can only bet $3-4 on the river. But all you have to do is show a TINY bit of weakness and your maniac buddy will bet the pot, allowing you to go all-in (or nearly) over the top.

The only drawback to this technique is that everyone at the table is usually after the same maniac, and sometimes they will bust him before you've had your shot. But more often they will just be feeding him. They will call him down with very weak hands, trying to catch him bluffing. He's not really a "bluffer" per se. He will not go crazy with nothing after the flop unless you check to the river.

There's also a lot of trash talk going on at the table. So it can be entertaining at the same time. I try to keep it to a minimum by saying "Stop tapping the glass," but the idiots that keep losing big stacks to the maniac inevitably respond with "STFU. You can't tell me what to do." It's really just one sentence removed from "You're not my REAL mom."

Go on Party, find the PL tables with the HIGHEST average hands, and you will usually find one person that is driving the average so high. Then take a big chunk from his stack while building your rake rebate higher and higher. You'd be amazed how fast you accrue frequent flopper points when the pot gets raked the max nearly every hand, and all you've done is fold, fold, fold. That's a side benefit to playing PL over NL. Since the pre-flop raises are controlled, a lot more hands are called pre-flop, so there's a lot more rake rebate to be had.

I love my rake rebate, and I love my Pot Limit Hold Em games at Party Poker.