Poker Comic #122

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Unfair!

I think picking Barbaro in the dead pool is unfair and it shouldn't be allowed, for the simple fact that they don't euthanize people, unless you count the death penalty, which is specifically not allowed by the rules. While everyone was rooting for Barbaro, that horse basically had the death sentence since last year. Weasel pick, I protest, (although half-heartedly. You can't deny the cleverness of the pick.)

I had a lot of fun in the WPBT kickoff event for 2007 on Sunday, sneaking into the money at 6th place and picking up some highly coveted WPBT POY points. Great to see GCox nail down second place for some nice cash. I felt pretty Fuelish when I overplayed my 55 vs Wonkas QQ (nicely trapped) to cripple myself after holding the lead earlier for all of 15 seconds. Willy was playing pretty Wonky, and even though I think my double-up gave him the lead with five left he aparently didn't get very far. I didn't watch the rest, so maybe he got bad beat up.

Sometimes I think the worst thing that can happen late in tournaments is a burst of cold cards then something marginal like 55 coming along. Your stack is fine, you should play carefully and be able to get away when it's obvious you are beat, but you've got this artificial feeling that you need to make a move because you've been dropping blinds. Patience is a much better play, but the panic of trying to keep up clouds your judgment. I think I still had 20 or so big blinds when I made my big play with 55 after a favorable nine-high flop and a bet from my opponent. Maybe I didn't butcher it too badly and it was just a well played hand by him. Still something I should work on.

Anyway, my tables were mostly fun with characters like Mean Gene, Miami Don, and Carmen San Diego...er...College Park? Towson? (I know she's from the Baltimore area somewhere...) handing out the jabs and pokes. Those folks can dish it out when they really want to.

I don't think I laid a horrendous beat on anyone for the entire tournament, unless you count the hand where someone (Weak Player maybe?) went all in with AT and I called with KK. He flopped an A but I rivered a K for the resuck.

This was definitely not the case in the $8.80 token race I played to get into the tournament, I played like a huge donkey and got lucky on every hand. I rivered a deuce after an A high flop all-in vs. AQ with my A2, cracked AQ with JQ with runner-runner straight (Q-high flop all-in,) and I rivered a straight to crack AA with my own AQ...it was ugly. You cannot beat donkey luck. At least I parlayed that token into some money for once.

Absolute Poker Info

My biggest concern lately with all the Neteller business is that it's starting to seem impossible to withdraw your money from a poker site without a fee, if at all. There's always ways to deposit, pre-paid credit cards and ePassporte both cost about the same, but you cannot withdraw via those methods.

Absolute Poker used to charge a fee for paper checks (like just about all other sites) but recently sent out this:

AbsolutePoker is pleased to offer free check withdrawals using regular mail for a limited time. Due to new policies from certain processors, no other withdrawal methods are currently available, unless you have an account with Click2Pay (not allowing new U.S. signups), InstaDebit (only available to U.S. customers until Feb.1, 2007 for withdrawals) or ePassporte. Currently, the best way for players to withdrawal is via paper check or by opening up an account with ePassporte.

If you haven't signed up at Absolute Poker you can try the $100 Free Cash promotion from Poker Source Online and give them a try.

Poker Boycott?

This guy and This guy have both posted about an Online Poker Boycott. I'm not sure how I feel about the idea. It would be great if we could send a message to the poker rooms that they need to do some more work standing up for the players in the US, but I just don't think poker players are that organized.

Michael Craig noted in his book that while many poker players don't consider what they do "gambling" per se, poker players are almost always taken from the pool of gamblers, in other words poker players are a subset of gamblers. Basically we are all degenerates. We don't just play poker because we want to. Somewhere in us there is a NEED to play. Why there is a need is different for every player, usually a combination of the need for action, stimulation or the lure of easy money. It might be a very subtle need, but you can ask just about any poker player who hasn't played in a few days if he feels the occasional tug towards the online felt. Most of us will say yes.

But I might have to boycott poker involuntarily. With the untimely freeze of Neteller, I have a bunch of money trapped in there. There are other ways to get money into your poker accounts, like Prepaid Credit Cards or Credit Cards via ePassport, but there are more fees involved and withdrawls are much more of an ordeal, if possible at all.

It's kind of ironic that I recently advocated withdrawing your money from poker sites and not keeping it online because it wasn't safe there. Now that scheme is out the window as depositing and withdrawing are MAJOR hassles.

I have some small amounts of monies on a few poker sites, but not enough to warrant a big "cash out and quit" event, but not so little that you can just play a couple of MTTs and go for the big score or blow it. I'm not sure what I will do with it. I've used some of it to stake another player, but that doesn't solve my problem. If he wins, he'll just transfer my half of it to me and I'll be in the same boat.

I think it's the whole demotivational factor of not being able to easily cash out. If I'm just winning money that lets me play more and there's no light at the end of the tunnel of a big cash out for a trip to vegas or a wasteful purchase, I have trouble getting excited about playing.

Another Lucky Mookie

I donked my way to 5th place and $44 in the Mookie last night, which attracted a Fuelish 55 players... As usual I caught some lucky cards at some lucky times, and when I had a big stack I was able to brute force my way to the final table.

I got the lead on a very fishy play that I'm still on the fence about. I'm not looking at the hand history so I'm doing this from memory.

Blinds were 100/200 and I was second in chips for the tournament with around 20 or so players left. I raised to 600 in middle position with TJ sooooted. A later player (I think it was TripJax, who kindly welcomed me to the table and I repaid him by taking pretty much every last chip he had) went all in for about 1700 and the player immediately after him insta-called for his whole stack, in the neighborhood of 1200. The blinds folded to me.

I think I had around 6-7K in chips, the pot was around 3900 and I had to call another 1100 chips. When the first player went all in I was leaning towards folding the hand, but the extra money in the pot made me stop and think. Both players were short enough to be on the desperate side. Is it worth it to call 1100 chips for a chance at 5K and a pretty substantial chip lead?

I think the deciding factor was that losing 1100 chips, while representing about 15% of my stack, would not have hurt too much.

If it were Waffles in the situation, the players would have had AA and KK. But my donkey luck in blogger tourneys held and both players had AK. A jack flopped and I was helped by the fact that they held each others outs.

Maybe I had odds to call, maybe I made the right reads based on their previous play and stack sizes. Or maybe I'm just a lucky donkey.

------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes plays that look like donkey plays are actually plays at a level that are so far above me that they look like poor plays to me. Sometimes when I think a player is a donk, the donk is actually me.

But I know for SURE that it's a donkey play to call someone a donk at the table.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Update: You might be thinking 5th place isn't too bad out of 55 players....that's what I was thinking until I read the live blog:

11:05 … Second break and the chips counts of the survivors look like this:

1. DubbleBogey - 18,048
2. Lightening36 - 8,775
3. mclarich - 7,496
4. NumbBono - 7,320
5. BrainMc - 6,456
6. GCox25 - 6,140
7. Maudie - 6,058
8. photojenn - 6,040
9. dnasty13 - 3,860
10. Otisdart - 3,606
11. HighOnPoker - 3,148
12. weak_player - 2,778
13. Don Morris - 2,775

All of a sudden 5th place doesn't seem so good. Seems like a retard blew a big lead with 13 to go.

Poker Source Online

If you play a decent amount of poker (and since you are reading a poker blog, you probably do), you know that you pay the poker room to play in the form of rake. There is nothing wrong with that; the poker rooms have to make money to stay in operation. But if you could play at a discount, you certainly would, wouldn’t you?

That is where Poker Source Online comes in. Poker Source Online, also known in the online poker community as “PSO,” has partnered with four of the top online poker rooms to offer rakeback to new customers. Anyone who has never had an account at Sun Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, or Absolute Poker can have anywhere from 27% to 32% of their rake returned to them, depending on the poker room.

Sure, some rakeback providers work with more rooms than PSO does, but PSO limits the rooms it deals with in order to ensure the highest quality customer service, both from the room and from PSO. If you ever have a question about your rakeback, PSO will be there to help you. Some of the poker room representatives even stop by PSO’s message forum to assist from time to time.

Three of the rooms deposit the rakeback directly into your poker account as cash. There is no need to request a payout from PSO to get your money. One room, Ultimate Bet, pays out in PSO “Points,” which can be accumulated and spent in PSO’s online store. There, you can purchase all sorts of poker goodies, books, DVD’s, electronics, and gift cards (some gift cards are even for poker rooms, so they are as good as cash).

So, if you want to essentially get paid to play poker, it only makes sense to sign up for rakeback at Poker Source Online. You are going to play poker anyway, so reward yourself for it! Visit http://www.pokersourceonline.com for more details.

Poker Comic #121

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

ZAP!

Playing along a SNG on PokerStars (I agree with Hoy, the first five people went out with the best hand, some of them incredibly unlikely) when ZAP! my laptop suddenly shut off.

I have been having really bad luck with my laptop recently. I left it sitting on an end table the other day when the dogs came running by and knocked it off. The new puppy gets the other two dogs riled up and they will occasionally come through the house like a herd of cattle. The laptop survived, but the wireless PC card was history. I always hated the flimsy little antenna that hangs off the side of those things. It was quickly replaced by a USB wireless adapter and I was back in business.

I raced upstairs to complete my SNG. After bubbling out (My AA vs AQ, all in Pre-flop -- KJT flop, [THANKS POKERSTARS!] and I'm down to 1.5 big blinds) I ran back downstairs to investigate my laptop. Nothing would make it budge, but the green light was flashing on the front. I removed the battery and tried just the power cord. Still nothing. I pulled the power cord and put in the battery, and the machine booted up. So I plugged in the power and ZAP! it shuts back down.

Closer inspection revealed that the power cord had been worn through, presumably from being closed into the recliner, which I recall doing once or twice. A pair of wire cutters, a pocket knife and a half a roll of electrical tape and my power supply is just like new, except that it looks like a snake that's had a recent meal.

I didn't finish the operation in time to make Mondays at the Hoy, but seeing as how it's on Poker Stars, maybe I'm glad I missed it? Maybe I'll use my handy dandy electronic repair skills to make myself a tinfoil hat.

Nice

Poker Comic #120

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

Update: The Sky Is Still Up There

"The only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment." Mark Maron

Try to be just disappointed, not depressed people. Despite what you might be reading on the intertubes, the sky is not falling for online poker players in the US. Yes, Neteller, the most popular online payment processor for gambling sites has gone away, but that was fairly inevitable. Citadel is gone too, but I don't know of a single person that used them anyway.

Click2Pay is still in business and does a great job. I've never used ePassporte, but I've also heard good things about them.

It is certainly not a good sign, but your oppressive government has been doing this to you for the entire decade, so this can't exactly come as a shock. We are going to have to make a lot of adjustments now and in the future, but there's no reason to panic yet. (Unless you are a Neteller shareholder, then open the window and jump.)

Update Update: Click2Pay no longer accepts new US customers. If you were lucky enough to already have a Click2Pay account or opened it immediately when you found out about the Neteller arrests, you are fine. But if you don't have one now, you're not going to get one. There is a potential solution pending, but I haven't heard anything concrete, I'll post if I hear about it.

Poker Comic #119

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

How to win the WWdN

First, you get lucky vs Transfish and crack his AA with your KK with a King on the turn. Then you throw your big stack around for the whole tourney until you suck out a few times and have five times as many chips as the player in second and you have the entire final table covered. Don't tilt after taking brutal bad beats twice while heads up, and finish him off with the Waffle! (24h)

If a (Mean Gene) offers a chop at any point, decline!

Thanks to everyone who played, and sorry to everyone I put a horrid beat on, which includes basically everyone.

How to Make Banners

Here's a simple guide to making a banner for your blog.

First you need to find a picture that you like. Get your camera, capture images from your favorite movie, search google images, whatever.

Once you have a pic you like, you need to get it into a photo editor. Everyone has MS Paint, and that works. There are much better applications out there, but Paint gets the job done, quick and dirty.



Once you have your picture in Paint, you have to format it so that it fits as your banner. You don't have to make it any specific dimensions, but I like to keep them between 650 and 750 pixels wide, and between 150 and 200 pixels tall.



Then just lay in some text. There are an infinite number of fonts available for free, but I find if you have too many to choose from, you'll never be able to make a decision. Select a complimentary color, I like to pick one using the "eyedropper" to take one from within the pic so you have a nice match. Sometimes you need to outline the text with a darker or lighter color so you can see it against the background. This one looked good with no outline.



Save it, upload it to an image host (I use Flickr) and add the link to your template and BOOM, you are done. No Fuss, No Muss.

All My Banners

A look back over all the banners that have graced the top of GoBeRude over the last 30 or so months.

Have I mentioned...?

Have I mentioned that I'm the worst multi-tabler ever?

I joined the Riverchasers tournament and a FTP Forum Freeroll at the same time last night.

First hand, I get KT and some donk ass in the freeroll goes all in from middle position to open the pot. I figure "screw it, it's a crummy freeroll, I have no idea what the prize is, and I'm not staying up long enough to beat 700 players anyway" and call.

Well, just as I call I look up at the top of the screen and see the word "Riverchasers" in the title.

Fuck me. I just assumed that it was the freeroll because you'd have to be retarded to go all in like that. With AA. Gigli!

Worst multi-tabler ever!

Ironically, I got busted from the freeroll when my AA got cracked.

At least I get to bed on time tonight!

Mookie Fun

I signed up for the Mookie at the last minute yesterday evening. I've been getting up for work at 4:30am lately and playing some of these blogger tourneys can make it very difficult to pry my ass out of bed that early.

But the lure of the Mookie is just too great, so I signed in and decided to go headlong into the weak/tight bloggers out there. I figured I would sling a lot of chips, make a lot of plays, and eventually bust out to the guy who caught some cards against me.

Of course that's not how it worked out as I held on for fourth place and didn't get to bed until after midnight.

The aggro style really does pay off in blogger tourneys. It didn't hurt that when I raised in position I caught a lot of cards, but I doubled my chipstack in the first half hour to get into second place without getting to A SINGLE SHOWDOWN. I figure I got lucky that my table was missing everything and they were a pretty weak/tight group.

Of course that didn't last as I ran into JJ who wasn't going to put up with my shenanigans. I tried playing 69 sooooted into him two hands in a row (hey if it doesn't work the first time it HAS to work the second time, right?) but both times he played back at my whiffs. The first flop was a VERY scary AKT and he called my 3/4 continuation bet. If you're calling a raiser and a flop bet with that kind of scary board, you must have something pretty substantial. Or you think I'm totally full of shit, which I was. The second 69s landed a very non-threatening Ten-high flop, but he still wouldn't lay down his hand, and I didn't have the chips to make him fold, because of his ever increasing (thanks to me) stack.

Those plays crippled me but I did not despair, because that just meant I would get to bed at a reasonable hour. I pushed my Q4o into the BB who called with a pair but a four on the flop and a queen on the turn kept me alive and thrust me back into the middle of the pack. I finally exacted my revenge on JJ when we got moved to another table right next to each other, and he pushed his SB with TJ and I woke up with TT and he didn't hit one of his three outs. It really was fun mixing it up with Jacks all night.

Some chips to work with again and I resumed the barely-checked aggression that worked for me earlier. It didn't work again, but the roller-coaster ride was fun. Eventually I found myself at the final table with the chip lead on the second break. Jordan had just paid the big blind, putting me ahead of him by 19 chips.

KrazyBangs went out on the bubble with a brutal suckout, his set on the flop vs. an overpair that four flushed. Brootal. Jordan somehow went from first to worst to get knocked out in seventh place, and the ever-retarded DontKnow finally called with ace-high no draw like he often does, but this time he didn't catch and got knocked out sixth.

I felt like I was letting my blinds go too easy and wasn't taking enough of them myself. Feeling like a target I took a stand with A6s but got insta-called by ATo from the UTG player, Zeem. The first card I saw on the flop was a six, but unfortunately the last one was a ten. No more miracles for me and I went out fourth.

Poker Comic #118

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

Screwed

I'm sure a lot of folks think that the Ohio State Buckeyes got screwed by a 51 day layoff last night, but I think Ron Zook is the real recipient of the screw job.

I figured Florida for a chance in last night's game based purely on conference strength. The teams of the SEC absolutely ate each other out of national contention this season, distancing themselves from the other conferences in quality. This was enough for some light action on the Gator side of the line last night, but nothing to brag about. All the hype scared me from putting any significant action down.

I think we're seeing the same thing in the NFL, but with a playoff the teams might actually beat each other up and the NFC representative, whoever it is, and it could be ANYONE of the teams still in contention, might have a shot. I doubt it as any current team from the AFC right now would be a heavy favorite vs any of the possible NFC contenders.

Living with Bitch

Last night I caught "Living With Ed," a reality show on HGTV about Ed Begley Jr. and his wife as they live an environmentally friendly life totally at his whim.

I can see what Ed's ditzy wife was thinking when she envisioned this show. "People will see how tough it is for me to live with this nutball environmentalist. He's such a burden on me."

Instead she comes off as a whiny, shallow bitch. She constantly moans about not living in Beverly Hills, not living in a mansion, not getting her life served to her on a silver platter.

Wah fricking wah.

In one episode Ed alludes to letting a maid make up the bed and that their doing it together is "faking for the TV cameras." Such maid is never seen, because it would betray the image they are creating of this "primitive" lifestyle.

I expected to see Ed's extreme environmental weirdness, but everything he does seems fairly reasonable. He claims that thirty years ago he bought a book with 50 ideas to improve the environment so he could maybe adopt a few that worked. But they all worked, so he did them all.

Cut to annoying wife bitching about counting on Ed's solar panels being cleaned with a hose and a broom in order for her to run her hair dryer. (It's very plain to see that the most important thing in this woman's world is her hair.) She complains that Ed has to clean the panels FOUR TIMES A YEAR to keep them working at full capacity. Oh the heartbreak she must suffer every three months, watching him hose off the roof for 15 minutes. The later admission that they are on the electrical grid as a backup blows the whole whiny theory out of the water.

There is no limit to her shallowness. She bitches about everything in her home, including the light bulbs, the file cabinets and Ed's Oscar. One moment she's complaining about Ed riding a stationary bike to generate electricity, but why? Because she's in a hurry to get to her posh gym where she can work out in luxury.

Unless you like listening to whiny unreasonable bitching from ultra-rich women, I'd avoid "Living With Ed."

Team DuggleReaper!!

Team DuggleReaper is my entry in F train's Dead Pool. Here's some brief info on why I might have picked them for my team.

1. Sammy Baugh
Slingin' Sammy is the only living charter member of the NFL hall of fame. He was a rookie with the Washington Redskins in 1937 and a legend in DC when I was growing up.
2. Kitty Carlisle
Regular on the TV game show "What's My Line" and "To Tell The Truth." She still sings in venues all over the US, but had to cancel an appearance in December due to her failing health.
3. Kirk Douglas
Born Issur Danielovitch Demsky in 1916, Douglas appeared on Entertainment Tonight in December to celebrate his 90th birthday.
4. Ernest Gallo
Co founder of the Ernest and Julio Gallo winery, and will celebrate his 98th birthday in March. Gallo is the second oldest living billionaire.
5. Billy Graham
America's most famous Evangelist, Rev. Graham was prevented from officiating at the state funeral of former President Gerald R. Ford due to failing health.
6. Paul Harvey
Born in 1918 as Paul Harvey Aurandt in Tulsa Oklahoma, Harvey is the most well known American radio journalist whose broadcast is carried on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations around the world and reprinted in 300 newspapers.
7. Ernie Harwell
Hall of Fame Baseball Broacaster who called one inning of Game 1 of the 2006 World Series for Tigers radio.
8. Kirk Kerkorian
Father of the megaresort, Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Estimated net worth of 9 billion, Kirk sold 14 million shares of his GM stake in December 2006. The sale resulted in GM share prices falling 4.1% from its November price.
9. Karl Malden
Born Mladen George Sekulovich, the Emmy and Oscar winning actor of films like "On the Waterfront" and "Patton" is the oldest living male Hollywood star.
10. Les Paul
Inventor of the solid body electric guitar and multi-track recording techniques.
11. Phil Rizzuto
"The Scooter," Rizzuto is the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
12. Mike Wallace
In 2006, Wallace announced his retirement from 60 Minutes after 37 years with the program.
13. Eli Wallach
Wallach's films include "The Misfits," "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." In 2006, Wallach made a guest appearance on the NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,
14. Richard Widmark
In 2002, Widmark was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
15. Jane Wyman
Born as Sarah Jane Mayfield in 1916, the academy award winning actress was married to Ronald Reagan from 1940 to 1948.

Semper Beer.

Chilly pointed me at this Advertising Slogan Generator that takes well known advertising slogans and applies them to a word of your choosing, and for some reason I put in the word "Beer."

Hilarity ensued.

You've Always Got Time For Beer.
Better Living Through Beer.
You Too Can Have A Beer Like Mine.
Absolut Beer.
Make Room for the Beer.
Beer Is Job 1.
Make Every Beer Count.
The Beer Effect.
Don't Get Mad, Get Beer.
Beer, Take Me Away.
I Want My Beer.
I Can't Believe It's Not Beer.
Moms Like You Choose Beer.
Nothing Comes Between Me And My Beer.
Life's Pretty Straight Without Beer.
Happiness is Beer-Shaped.
Promise Her Anything, But Give Her Beer.
Have You Had Your Beer Today?
Beer Makes Everything Better.
Ding-Dong! Beer Calling!
Beer Keeps Going and Going.
So Easy, No Wonder Beer is #1.
I Bet He Drinks Beer.

Take That, Courtney Friel

It's great to see Shanna Hiatt on TV representing poker again. She's the hostess of the NBC show "Poker After Dark" which is apparently a direct ripoff of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

Shanna has again started arriving in my search engine hits with great frequency, but most of them are misspellings like Shawna Hyatt, Shana Hiatt, etc.

I posted this before, but since the searches seem to be coming in again, I thought I'd do my duty.

Shanna Hiatt Nude Pictures

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

Poker Comic #117

This advertising space available. Please email dugglebogey via his gmail address if you would like to sponsor Poker Tells, the weekly (and sometimes more) poker comic.

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For on_thg

Dude! I figured it out!

Just read some blogs, and when you see something that fucking rules, just post a link.

Bang, you're done!

This fucking rules.

Thanks

Thanks to those who commented, and especially 1st Rule of Poker for the really nice post. Especially coming from a new reader. I discovered his blog a few weeks ago and read several posts. I like the rules thing. Very cool. Also Thanks to JL514 from Drawing Dead for pointing the post out. Sorry about the google login thing. This whole blogger/google conversion thing is screwy for everyone. If anyone wants to contact me for anything, the gmail address over on the right is the best method.

Thanks Ick, I think. I don't specifically blog just to drive Waffles further into madness. That's what comments are for. Plus they enrage his boyfriend Drew. Bonus!

It was funny that someone guessed the black 3000 banner was my 3000th post, when it was actually my 666th. That beast is a bitch to cross.

Anyway, I had intended to take the week between Christmas and New Years off from blogging, but I just can't leave you folks alone. Especially when there are ads you guys desperately need to see. Time off may be just what I need. Writing posts isn't the most time consuming and exhausting part of blogging. Reading all the great and not-so-great blogs out there is the bulk of it. If I'm going to take a break from blogging it's not going to be just a break from writing blog posts, it's going to be a break from reading them too. Now we're talking about breaking an addiction.

A well respected person in the poker business once labeled my blog as "salient." While I appreciated the compliment at the time, lately it seems more like a curse. Once you start having expectations, everything starts going to hell.

Running out of Steam

I'm really running out of steam with this blog.

I just deleted a very long winded post about what I like and dislike about New Year's Resolutions. After re-reading it I decided it was sanctimonious judgmental bullshit. I'm finding myself writing posts and deleting them lately because they're just too lame. I realize that most of my posts are lame, so imagine how bad these had to be to miss the cut!

I'm not sure how to break out of these doldrums. I just know that I'm not posting the kind of entertaining stuff that people are drooling to read. Not that I ever did. But I took a lot more joy in it.

When I started reading blogs I did expect to read about a lot of people going pro. But I thought I would be reading about them going pro with poker, not with blogging. Iggy, Mean Gene, Maudie, Drizz, Speaker, Change100....who's next? I think it's great, although it seems the idea is about 18 months late. Is everyone linking to the new blogs for these people over at PW? They're all keeping their old digs going too, although it seems unlikely to me that those old blogs will maintain the quality we're used to.

Maybe the New Year's Resolution I need to make is to be a better blogger. If I only knew how to do that...

3000

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!

2006 was an interesting year. Very mixed for me. A lot of good things happened and some bad things too. Nothing as bad as some of my friends. I guess it will be remembered as the year of the UIGEA in the poker world. So it probably will not be remembered fondly.

I made some really great friendships in 2006. A whole new set of coworkers and one person who became very good friend. I finally got to meet some really great invisible online friends in person, and I'm really glad that I did.

Highlights are a trip to Western Michigan, a drive to Northern Kentucky, a week long party in Vegas, and finding a dream job and beautiful new home in Tennessee.

2007 has a great deal of potential after the turmoil of the last year. I think things are going to be great for a lot of people. Hopefully things go as well for everyone reading this as things are going for me. Everyone should be at least as much of a luckbox as I am, to have the life I do.

I wish you all success, friendship, and most of all love.