One of the reasons I have enjoyed heads up Razz and HORSE Sit-n-Gos so much is that they match my style. My ability to read the board, understand my odds (both pot and drawing), and consider what my opponent is playing allows me to bully passive players and give the lagtards enough rope to hang themselves. Where I run into trouble is against very aggressive players who know what they’re doing.
Ever play in one of those poker tournaments where the dealer gets up and a brick layer sits down every time you get a card? Yeah, yeah, we all have. I played in Cadillac Poker‘s private "Anything But Holdem" (ABH) tourney last night — it was Razz this week — at PokerStars, and I am serious when I say that 97% of my hands were in the bottom 20%. That’s just harsh.
I’ve been really focusing on the mental and player side of poker lately, and am really enjoying doing so. On Friday, I made a great read on a player and then played that read accordingly, and I have to tell you it felt great. The hand: I’m in the BB with the stellar holding of 9d5c. Three people limp, the SB calls, and I check. The flop is Ah 5s 2d I check, two others check, and the hijack bets. The SB folds, and I think about the hand.
Crack shall be a multipurpose word for this post. Really, I should make that cracked. I’ve had aces eight times in the last 14 hours of poker play, and they’ve been cracked like a dried out bone six of those times (I did win the blinds twice, so yippee-fucking-kai-yah-yay for that).
I’ll be the first to jump up and admit that I am a far, far better poker player today than I was a few years ago, but my biggest leak has simply got to be my temper (second biggest leak is calling when I know I’m beaten, and a distant third is not playing back against a pre-flop raiser with a marginal holding when I know I am ahead). I’ve been working on it, to be sure, and I’ve certainly improved this aspect of my game. For instance, I’ve weaned myself off of (almost all) smartass comments when someone pulls Continue Reading →
It’s hot. It’s not Texas hot. Texas hot sucks. But Bay Area hot is almost as bad because so few folks have AC. I don’t have AC. That makes the hot suck. Clearly, BTW, going from unseasonably cool weather to unseasonably blazing-hell hot is proof that our environment is not changing. Or something. I got WTFPWNed today playing poker. Gotta love those days, especially when it’s hot. Still it’s been a good month, and life is generally grand. That I have so little to complain about that whining about the heat is top priority is indicative that things are good.
I joined the Poker Players Alliance today. This is a lobbying group looking to protect our rights as poker players, and to promote poker as a game of skill that should be regulated and taxed, not banned. The PPA has the support of a number of big name players, including Howard Lederer, Jesus Ferguson, Linda Johnson, Greg Raymer, and a host of others. Join the organization today if you want to see this sport continue to grow and thrive, and to combat the forces of big government and the religious right that want take away Internet poker.
The Bush administration has stupefyingly arrested David Carruthers, the British subject who is CEO of BetOnSports.com, a British-based publicly traded online casino. The charges are racketeering, conspiracy and fraud related to doing business with U.S.-based customers. Perhaps it’s a thank you to British Prime Minister Tony Blair for sticking by the U.S. in its disastrous execution of the "War on Terror."
By way of introduction to my brand spanking new (8-month old) blog, I will blast some chuckleheads who fancy themselves “conservatives.” This past weekend, I interviewed with Ricky Spero for The Context Machine portion the TMO Weekly Round up (iTunes Link). The Weekly Roundup is a weekly podcast recapping the week’s Apple and related-tech news. It’s great for you folks looking to catch up on everything in one great-sounding podcast. The Context Machine (a name I LOVE) is an analysis segment where Ricky brings on TMO editors to dissect the news, to give it more context, and to offer our Continue Reading →