Monday, June 28, 2004

Finally, a poker blog from me...

Everyone else is doing it, and since I just won my first NLHE MTT I figured it was time for me to join the masses...and create my own poker blog.

There are some good ones out there, and since I can't play at work I spend some time most days reading poker blogs. Some decent writing, and even better poker.

I play poker mostly at Intertopspoker.com, which is a shell for Party Poker. The infamous fish factory. You think you can beat chasers? Try beating nine of them at once. Good luck.

I have also played at Poker Stars, Paradise Poker, Aztec Riches and Party Poker itself.

The last two are due to a promotion from PokerSourceOnline.com. I picked up some cash and some free poker chipsets. I kept one of the chipsets for myself, and gave one to a friend as a gift. They are very nice 300 chip sets with 11.5g clay chips and a nice aluminum case. Not bad for playing poker, which I would have done anyway. I highly reccomend PSO, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you put in DuggleBogey as a referral if you try them out. Their promotions are first rate, for many poker sites and even an online casino now.

I also play poker live at Ameristar Casino in Kansas City. I used to live in Kansas City, but moved to Oklahoma City permanently last August. I try to get back to KC once every couple of months to visit friends and play live poker. I really enjoyed the Tuesday night poker tourney they had there. It was the first tournament poker I ever played. I was BAD then. Really bad. Dead Money and a half.

I play with a few friends online, KingLucky from KC at Party Poker, and rz6629 from Oklahoma on Party as well. They are good players, and getting better every day. Rz keeps talking about quitting from the frustration, but then he wins $500 in one weekend and changes his mind. He's a very competitive guy, and bad beats knock him around pretty badly.

I really enjoy online poker. It's a totally different animal than live poker, especially for me because I play pot-limit or no-limit online, and limit poker live. $3/$6 limit with a kill is the only table I've ever played. Their tourney is limit too, although I think it goes no limit at the final table. I never made it so I'm not sure. KingLucky has though, in his first attempt.

Rz and I organize a home tourney about once a month here in Oklahoma. I've never won the main event, just the side games. Everyone says I'm a favorite at every tourney, but I never win it. I don't remember ever going in with a worse hand, except once when I went against Rz with 22 against AA. I don't really play my game against friends and coworkers. I think a lot of them would be mad at me if I really played my best against me, and it's not worth it for a lousy $20 buy in home game. Rz pulls out all the stops. He's too competitive not to.

One reason I like online poker vs. casinos is something I never see anyone mention. No tipping. I hate tipping in Casinos. I don't want to go into a whole "Mr. Pink" rant here, but I hate tipping in general, but mostly in Casinos. I don't mind tipping if I win, but with poker I don't know if I've won until the round is over, and they expect tips every hand you win.

I recall a hand where everyone folded to me and I won the lousy small blind ($1), gave that to the dealer and had to pay $6 because the kill was on. I know a tip wasn't in order for the $1 win, but I got a laugh from the whole table when I did it.

Tourneys are better because you are using tourney chips, so no tipping, but the winners always pay tokes at the end. Casinos make so much damn money, why can't they just pay the dealers enough to make tipping unnecessary? If I opened a casino, I'd have a no tipping policy. I bet that would bring in the riff-raff.

If they legalize poker in Oklahoma, I'm opening a poker room, no question. No tipping allowed. Tourneys every day, even a HORSE tourney once in a while. I'll put Bingo out of business, I swear.

If you are wondering why my blog is called GoBeRude, there's a good reason. Everyone says it is the perfect nickname for me, because I am quick with the insult jab. For example, at a home tourney my boss' boss won a pot off me and made some kind of remark about how good a player he was. I responded with "Hey Chuck, make sure you tell us the score of the game a lot when you are watching it while we are all still playing." To which Rz looked at a coworker of mine and said "Go Be Rude strikes again."

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