Woo hoo

So remember that project I had that was due on May 5th that I spent close to 150 hours on? Well, my group got first place in it! That's awesome in itself... but what is even better is that first...

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http://mckim.texaspokerproject.com/archives/2006/05/woo_hoo.html

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Las Vegas Vegas Rates Your Home Game

If we were cops, we'd pull over every car with dancing bear stickers and test them for pot. Seriously, is there anything dumber than advertising that you're a hemp-addled patchouli-stinking jam-band-loving hippie to an officer of the law? Wait,...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002714.php

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Keeping On Keeping On...

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



Life is still keeping me pretty busy here of late, so I only logged 215 hands of $2/4 LHE action (Paradise and Poker Plex) since my last post and had a profit of $44. I would like to report something interesting from the play, but it was uneventful...



I have been doing most of my playing the last few days in the late morning and early afternoon hours, so I haven't been logging any time at the $3/6 LHE tables. For whatever reason, there can be up to 10 tables of $2/4 going at Paradise during that time of day, but no tables going at $3/6. Looks like I'm going to have start logging some time in the evening hours to play $3/6 if I want to play it at Paradise.



I Have A Monster In My Pocket

In yesterday's hand (below), I would agree with the responders that checking the turn makes the most sense here. I have now shown fear of the possibility of a big hand and can possibly get some action from my opponent if he does make a hand.



In the hand, I checked the turn and the river was a brick. I checked again, my opponent bet, I check-raised and he folded.



Oh well, the best laid plans...





In the hand below, I have flopped a monster hand and turned an even bigger hand. My opponent is a tricky, thinking player that I have played against several times at Paradise.



Because he is a thinking player, I decided to go ahead and bet my flopped full house. At the time, I felt that a check on the flop would look like I was slowplaying a monster and I would have little chance of gaining any bets from him.



I turned the mortal nuts and made quad Jacks, but it is a kind of a good news/bad news situation in regards to extracting any further bets from my opponent.



Would you bet the turn again or check and slowplay?



Paradise Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed)



Preflop: Hero is MP2 with [Jc, Js]

2 folds, MP1 calls, Michael raises, 5 folds, MP1 calls.



Flop: (5.50 SB) [Th, Tc, Jd] (2 players)

MP1 checks, Michael bets, MP1 calls.



Turn: (3.75 BB) [Jh] (2 players)

MP1 checks, Michael ???









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http://countingmyouts.blogspot.com/2006/05/keeping-on-keeping-on.html

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I am Emotionally Dead

Psychology of Poker (Part V)



(If you have not read parts I, II, III and IV in this series, please feel free to read them before you start this post.)

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

I just had sex today. About fifty times. I stopped counting after maybe the first ten. I mean, if one is going to have sex fifty times straight, why bother counting, it is the same ol' thing over and over again! Oddly enough, I was both the male and the female.



Bees are scarce in these here parts. I was pollinating my garden. Worse, I didn't even orgasm once! So strangely unfulfilling, yet I'm sure I will enjoy the fruits and veggies when they are ready :)



Okay, so this is something I've wanted to talk about for a long time. Because it is both a help and a hindrance to my game.



I am emotionally dead. I could not care less if I win or lose. Naturally I WANT to win, but I don't suffer any ill consequences when I lose. I just don't care.



I thought this was a big neon sign in my favor within the poker world. Until I read Barry's book, that is. And I found out that if I have no emotional investment, I can never really be a world class player.



I had often wondered why I stopped winning tournaments. I had worked my way up from freerolls in 2002.



Here is how it came about, and how it almost destroyed me in the poker world.



I was playing a lot at Sahara in Vegas. Glenn and I had been spending winters in Vegas off and on for many years. AOL was really cool about Glenn, because he was one of those demented programming geniuses. He could fix just about anything. He was one of those guys who is like an idiot savant, when it comes to programming. He didn't need to know the language, didn't need "lessons." He could be seated at an old mainframe or a PC. If someone just let him have a few hours alone in front of a monitor, he could figure out just about anything.



Glenn was a Cobol programmer for many years. Maybe working on dinosaurs all the way until 1996 helped him become so well rounded. Beats me, but at any rate, AOL was very accommodating. What they wouldn't give him in raises and excellent reviews (AOL had a policy about the word "excellent." They figured NO ONE was "excellent." So why did they even have that category? The retards), they gave him in permission to telecommute.



We loved the desert, so we spent a lot of time wintering and playing poker.



I had no aspirations to be anything but a low-limit Stud player (there is something telling in this). I had no interest in tournaments or Hold'em. I thought Omaha was a moronic game, although sometimes I would become hooked on the action of high only.



So then someone at Sahara talked us into signing up for freerolls. After all, we were putting in the hours there, why not take a free shot (plus free rebuy or add-on)? Oy, vey, the world was never the same again.



I played in a tourney that barely got two tables. I think maybe we had 13 participants altogether, and half had gotten in via freeroll, lol. I was hooked, even though it was NLHE.



Over the next few years, I spent a lot of time and money on tourneys, and it was a losing proposition.



While I could kill small tourneys, big ones were unattainable, especially once the poker boom hit and the structure was sped up, while the starting chips were often cut in half.



I worked my way up from the freerolls to $100 buy-in tourneys with relative ease. In fact, it was probably too easy for me. Number one, it had me thinking I had what it takes to win tournaments. While I wasn't thinking of the series at this time, I definitely thought I had something special.



Two, which was a revelation I've never experienced before or since, I was accused of cheating.



This is a long, stupid story for another day, but suffice it to say, the senior citizen losers at the Colorado Belle were just certain that poker is "all luck," since they lose. They are quite sure it is a house game, where only the house wins in the long run. Zero sum.



So when I began running over the cardroom, they noticed that I was winning "more than my fair share." They went to elaborate lengths to "prove" that I must be cheating. Although Glenn and I didn't play at the same table, and tried to always avoid playing at the same table in the tourneys, it did occasionally happen. We played fair against each other, although we were the only couple in the cardroom which actually played AGAINST each other instead of softplaying. He knocked me out of several tourneys.



But that still didn't stop the rumors, and eventually he just quit tourneys there altogether and concentrated on cash games.



Even then, the rumors persisted. If he came to watch me during the final table, the seniors would rush to the CRM and complain that Glenn must be using his Walkman to relay signals to me. They claimed he would be standing behind some opponent of mine, looking at his holecards, and using the Walkman to relay what those cards were. After all, I won way, way, WAY too many tourneys at the Belle.



Eventually that problem got solved, but I learned a lesson in how mean and spiteful losing players can be.



So back to my biggest problem. Which is being so emotionally dead.



I have never really thrown a fit when eliminated during a tournament. I take my lumps and walk away. I'm not "kind and generous," on the other hand. I don't congratulate a dude who calls all-in with 83o against my aces and flops a pair while rivering another pair. He didn't "play well," he's a moron.



But unlike Barry, I don't "have" to win. And with no will to win, I cannot win.



I noticed the less I cared about winning an event, the worse I played. I played to "get into the money," or to "pass the time." I didn't play to win. I thought about how horrible it would be to play 18 hours straight. I thought about how little I wanted to be on TV, or at the TV table. All of these things kept me from winning.



In cash games I can compete. I don't get emotionally invested in individual hands or sessions, so I tend to win. I don't have huge sessions though, because of that very lack of interest and emotion.



Barry MUST win. He will sit for 24 hours until he is winner. He has the physical and mental fortitude for it. I, however, think that my worst nightmare would be sitting and playing poker for 24 hours straight, especially stuck! I have so little need to get even or winner, that I never push myself to become a world class player. It just ain't gonna happen.



How does being emotionally dead help in poker? It helps in many ways. It is a key attribute to being a world class player, if one also has the eye of the tiger along with it.



Not many of us can be Barry Greenstein's or Phil Ivey's, but we can attain that type of attitude in a smaller way, if we have both of those keys to success.



A story that revolves around Phil is that during the 2003 Series, when he was busted in 9th place, is that he was kind and cordial. It has been said that he shook hands with everyone, went to get his check with a good attitude and eventually left the building. Supposedly he was upbeat and generous to the valet at Binion's, giving a good tip and a smile. Tomorrow is another day.



That is something we all love about Phil. Barry and Ted (Forrest), two players I'm friends with, are the same. Barry, however, has the drive and emotional necessity to force a win. He HAS to win in order to be complete. Ted is a gambler and is very good. He loves to gamble on anything, and also has the drive to force himself to win. No one can beat the luck factor at poker, or Hellmuth would win every tournament...



HA....









But...we can make luck work FOR us, instead of AGAINST us. Ted does just that. He sets up situations where he can weather the bad luck, by creating good luck. "Creating" good luck is by building up our chips in advantageous situations. For example, Ted is playing against a player who is timid and not as willing to show his balls as Ted is. So this player makes some kind of standard 3.5x BB raise with a premium hand. Ted decides he can create his own luck, so he smooth calls, heads-up as the closer. The flop comes with an ace, and Ted knows this guy doesn't have an ace, or is certain of it when this guy makes some kind of timid bet or checks. So Ted decides to let his 97o represent the ace, and bluff this guy off of the pot.



Those kind of moves help us build chips and create our own luck. That way, when OUR aces get cracked, we still have some bullets, we aren't DOA.



This is not an advanced concept, btw, but it is important for me to illustrate why people who have good control of their emotions, while at the same time having the drive to succeed, often make the top players in the poker world.



I had the emotional control. I did NOT, however, have the drive, the emotional drive and investment in the game. I had too much apathy. And apathy is a losing strategy in the bigger games and tournaments.



Although emulating my style of emotional control will help you succeed at playing cash games, while keeping you from having a massive stroke during a huge smack of variance, you must also have some kind of WILL to win. You must be emotionally invested in the game to some degree.



You cannot have too much emotional investment. You don't want to be the guy with B.O. sitting at the table for five days straight, barely able to keep his eyes open because he is forcing a win. You cannot have THAT much investment in your drive to win. You must be mature and levelheaded when it comes to these situations. There has to be a balance. Sure, Barry, Ted, Chip and Doyle will play for 24 hours, when there is a fish in the game and they stand to come out winner. But these same players will NOT stick around when the fresh, well rested players step up to the plate. They won't play against fresh players who are also winning players at their game. If Phil, Jennifer and Todd (Brunson) come into the game looking well rested and ready to rumble, the above WCPs know that suddenly they are the dogs in the game, if they are fatigued and not playing their A game due to stress of being stuck and inability to concentrate fully due to lack of sleep. They get the heck out of Dodge, winner or no. They live to fight another day.



So there is a balance that must be had. This is true whether you are playing for play money, low stakes, middle stakes or tournaments. There must be both attributes to win: a lack of steaming (good emotional control), and a will to win.



If you can balance both, you are in a very small minority of players. You have the personality to be a world class player at whatever limits or games you play.



Don't be a whiner or abuser when you catch a beat to knock you out of a tournament. Be mature and professional. Shake hands with those commiserating with you, pick up your check, and be kind to the valet. Be the guy that everyone wants to be. Have that Phil Ivey quality whenever you play, no matter what stakes.



And then, rise to the top and be the best!



Felicia :)

Read The Full Article:
http://felicialee.blogspot.com/2006/05/i-am-emotionally-dead.html

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Investing and Poker: Entry and Exit Points

Bless you, Cryptologic. I take back all the mean things I said about you.



I'm still playing little poker, but I'd by lying if I said it was completely out of my head. At the same time, I've been spending much more time researching stocks and generally immersing myself in the world of investing. And I can't help but see lots of parallels between the two endeavors.





Buy Low, Sell High



Everyone has heard the trusty investing saw: buy low and sell high. Oversimplified, sure, but it's hard to argue with. When we invest in something, we're taking a position with a belief that it will appreciate in value in the future. Usually we take that position based on research, knowledge, experience, and/or the general belief that we're more skillful than the average person in evaluating and recognizing value.



When we take an investment position, we're evaluating the existing data and making what we believe to be is a +EV investment. Does that mean we'll make money off of every investment, even if we're the most knowledgable, skillful investor in the history of investing? Of course not. The biggest obstacle is that the market is never static, and conditions always change. A great investment in the morning could be decimated in the afternoon when management is indicted for an accounting scandal, or a company might announce they'd just lost a major customer.



You also simply may not be as skilled as you think you are at determining the expected value of an investment. You might overlook things that savvier investors would see, causing them to pass on the investment. You might choose to blindly follow the advice of others, taking positions based on what prominent analysts and investing gurus tell you to do.



In many ways, pre-flop play in poker is exactly the same as investing. When we decide to call or raise, we're taking a position in the hand, one that we believe has a good likelihood of producing a profit. We believe that the two cards we hold (plus our ability to play them well) will allow us to show a net profit in excess of what we invest to participate in the hand.



Does that always happen? Of course not. We might wisely and happily invest out entire stack with AA, only to see it lose to 72o when conditions change drastically on the hammerlicious flop of 777. Every session we'll play we will make very smart investments that cost us money, when conditions change.



The converse is true as well. We'll also make poor decisions, like calling a huge raise pre-flop with 97h, and will show a very large profit when the flop is 6h 8h 10h. Poor investment decisions can ultimately be very profitable, just as wise, informed decisions can be costly.



Our goal over time, of course, is to avoid poor decisions, and to continually make wise investments, to put ourselves in the best possible situation to profit, again and again and again. To do that we have to ignore the results and focus on making the best pre-flop decisions that we can, over and over and over. If we do that on a continuous basis, we'll be buying low and selling high more often than we'll be selling at a loss.



The key thing to remember is that until the last card is dealt and the hands are shown, nothing is set in stone. No matter how strong your hand was pre-flop or how far ahead you were on the turn, until your position is liquidated and you're stacking the profits, you've only got a paper gain. You're not "owed" anything until it's finalized, until you've closed out the position. Don't start counting your money until the hand is over (or buy that new Porsche based on the value of your unexercised stock options at work), or fall in love with an investment when the conditions have changed dramatically, and every signal is screaming that your hand is no longer good.





Stop Losses



In the world of equities, stop losses (whether mental or actually keyed in) are tools to keep you from losing your shirt on any one invetsment. You do all of the necessary research and decide to take a position that you believe will appreciate in value. You're aware, though, that not every investment goes up. You're also aware of the fact that from a psychological standpoint, it's easy to get married to an invetsment and to chase losses, remaining invested as the value drops lower and lower, hoping and praying that it'll recover and you'll erase the losses.



To counter that tendency, many investors set a stop loss order. This is a pre-determined point at which your position is automatically sold, at a loss. Its sole purpose is to protect you from losing too much in any one investment, limiting your losses to 10%, 15%, or whatever stop loss you set. It's designed to combat the tendency to hold onto poor investments for too long and to preserve your capital. As long as you preserve the bulk of your capital, you're able to continue to make wise, informed investments which will allow you to not only recoup the 10% you lost, but much more.



The parallels to poker are pretty obvious, and don't need much elaborating. It's very tempting to chase losses after a bad session, to jump up to higher stakes, to play more aggressively than you know you should. We've all seen advice to avoid the above behavior yet we've likely all done it, at some point or another.



It's hard to argue that stop-losses are valuable in poker, though. Granted, you need to give yourself enough room to account for normal variance in a session, but preservation of capital (your bankroll) should trump everything else. Tilting and losing a huge chunk of your bankroll is actually more destructive even than it appears on the surface, as the erosion of your working capital will continue to cost you money, each and every day, long after the disastrous tilt session, as it continues to depress your future earnings potential.



In short, love thy bankroll, treat it well, pet it and hug it and call it George, and do everything you can to preserve the bulk of it, even if it means setting arbitrary stop-losses.





Diversify Your Portfolio



Successful investors never put all their money in one stock, and most avoid even putting all of their money in one sector or investment vehicle. The variance can be brutal and your risk is ruin is far too high if you don't diversify.



It's a bit of a stretch, but poker does share some similarities. Your primary investment is going to be your play at the tables, as it's where you the bulk of your capital is going to be employed. While you might argue that you should diversify there, and play LHE, NLHE, Stud, Omaha, Razz, and Triple Draw equally well, in order to play with the fishiest players, wherever they're sitting, I honestly think that's a stretch, as the vast bulk of games are at NLHE/LHE tables.



You can, though, diversify your poker-related income. Rakeback and poker bonuses are obvious ways to accomplish that, as well as hitting up the +EV casino bonuses. Rakeback can definitely ease the blow when things don't go well at the tables, and many of the juicy casino bonuses are simply free money, being extended to you, for very little initial investment of capital.





Invest with a Target



Successful investors almost always have an entry point and an exit point. They don't simply buy stock in a company with the idea of "Der, I hope it goes up and I make mad cash, der". They invest with a target price in mind, at which point (barring material changes), they'll sell and book a profit. That doesn't mean they follow that plan to the letter, due to changing market conditions, just that part of the investment process is picking both an entry and an exit point.



Poker is pretty similar, on both a micro and macro level. Winning poker players think past the immediate decision in front of them, considering the implied odds they're being offered, the inability of a particular opponent to ever release an overpair, and myriad other details. They examine each hand with an eye to present and future value, and, on the fly, determine what they're willing to pay to continue as well as what their price target might be.



You should strive to not only calculate what a good entry price is, but to think past the present strength of your hand and to cast an eye towards just how much value you can extract, based on the board and your opponents. It's not quite enough to say "I'll limp if it's cheap enough and hope I flop huge hand" if you also haven't considered the odds and likelihood of getting paid off, if you hit your hand, and whether the expected profit is worth the risk of calling.



On a macro level, many successful poker players have goals that go beyond "Win lots of money". The goals take many forms (move up in limits, to win X amount of dollars by Y date, to become proficient at a new game, to win a seat into a major tournament), but their purpose are to serve as targets or exit points, so that they can measure and gauge progress. It doesn't mean that you can't be successful simply playing to win money, as some people are, just that many players are more successful when they analyze the situation and set targets.





Chasing Losses



Investors (especially traders) often make this mistake. They lose money on a particular stock and they can't let it go, believing that it somehow "owes" them money, and they continue to take positions in it, largely acting on emotion and not logic. They ignore much more promising potential investments and instead keep forcing themselves back on whatever stock they feel has wronged them. In its worst form, they'll exacerbate the situation by trading much more speculative and risky vehicles such as options, determined to get back all of the money they're "owed", but more often than not only succeeding in digging a deeper hole.



Poker players fall prey to this, too, each and every day. They play long past the point where they're bringing their A game, trying to get unstuck, often targeting a specific player who has been sucking out on them and "owes" them money. They take more and more risks, letting the desire to get back to even overwhelm the smart, savvy decisions that they'd normally make.



Once you've lost capital and closed out a position (or mucked your losing hand), it's gone. It's no longer yours. You have absolutely no claim to it. All you can do is to move on to the next investment or hand and to put the past behind you, as you have absolutely no claim to the lost capital. Use your remaining capital to recoup your loss, by making wise investment decisions. If you're not in the frame of mind to accomplish that, wait until you are.

Read The Full Article:
http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/05/investing-and-poker-entry-and-exit.html

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Two Ways to Win at Poker

The First Way to Win at Poker:



(1) Buy in to a full ring $100nl table with a bankroll of $1000, therefore placing 10% of your money on the line.



(2) Play conservatively, trying to feel out the table conditions.



(3) Get QQ in your first two orbits in the SB before you had a chance to get a good read on the table. Re-raise to $10, after the button raised from $1 to $3.50.



(4) Call the re-raise to $20 from the BB, after the button calls.



(5) See a 9-high flop with a flush draw and push all-in for your remaining $76 out of position. Get called by the BB and the Button. See that the BB has KK and the button has AK.



(6) River a Queen, one of two outs, and rake a $288 pot.



(7) Hee Haw HEE HAW!!!



(8) Mock the sore loser BB with the hopes of making more money on his tiltage, but then realize that your table image sucks and leave the room with your profits intact.



I know, folks. It's one hell of a way to make a bucket load of cash. But it worked for me.



The Second Way to Win at Poker:



(1) Sit at a short-handed $50 nl table, which comprises less than 5% of your roll (thanks to your earlier donkey play).



(2) Take your time getting a feel for the table. Sense tightness all around.



(3) Bet. Raise. Re-raise. If you hit two pair on the flop, bet the pot. If you hit bottom pair on the flop, bet the pot. If you hit a flush draw, bet the p0t. If you hit a belly-buster straight draw, be the pot.



(4) Keep betting and raising. Keep the pressure on your opponents. Take down more than 40% of the pots when playing 4-6 handed. Be the consistent bully, and have everyone react to you, rather than the other way around.



(5) Get dealt QQ, and play it like any other decent preflop hand, betting to $2. Get raised to $6. Re-raise to $12. Get flat called. See a flop of all unders. Let your opponent push all-in. Call with QQ and beat JJ.



See the difference? I probably am not doing a good job of explaining the 2nd way of winning. I was catching cards, which is always helpful, but even when I wasn't I was consistently leaning on my opponents. After I psuedo doubled up (he had less than me, but not by much) with QQ v. JJ I kept the pressure on. I can only imagine how annoying it was for the others playing.



It actually reminded me of when I whooped ass at the perfect table in Atlantic City. I was controlling the tables. At that point, barring suckouts, its hard to lose. I get a feel for the action and I just know when a bet will take down a pot. I rarely have to reach a showdown because I no longer care about the money in front of me. They've all just become meaningless chips. So big bets to win a pot without seeing the river is fine with me. My bets are especially powerful on the flop, because with only 4-6 players at any given time, and probably only one or two calling my preflop raise to $2 (with anything from, at times, K9 suited to AA to low suited connectors), more often than not my opponent is not hitting that flop. I check down hands too, don't get me wrong. But overall, I play the aggressor. That is why people slip up and push with JJ v. my QQ (which, of course, I can sometimes do too; See The First Way). But you get the idea, hopefully.



Overall, I won $260-280 last night. I'm not exactly sure looking back. This also included a bubble in a Turbo 5-person $10 SNG at PokerShare (terrible traffic on the site, but the action is good, since that is where I won most of my dough) and a loss at a $5 PLO SNG.



Whatever the case, that was a big night for me, financially, and I look forward to continuing it tonight. Wifey Kim seems to have standing plans on Wednesdays to have dinner and watch America's Next Top Model with her friend, so I'll have poker time until 9:30 at which point we will be watching some DVR'ed Lost. Good times, good times.



In other exciting news, guess who is going to AC again? Me, of course. I had already scheduled a day off at the office for Okie-Vegas. Unfortunately, I can't go because of the price of flights. However, Showboat has been kind enough to send me another free room, and wifey Kim wanted to go. So the plan is to go down Thursday, June 8th, and stay at the Showboat. I don't expect much poker, and, weather permitting, I do expect to spend a good amount of time at the beach with the wife. The second night, however, will be at the Trop, under their poker room rate ($112 instead of $250 or so). To get the rate, I have to play 4 hours of poker. Done and done. It's perfect. A vacation with the wifey where I have no choice but to play poker. NOICE!



Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables.

Read The Full Article:
http://highonpoker.blogspot.com/2006/05/two-ways-to-win-at-poker.html

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Book Giveaway Part I

Just played a little bit yesterday, winning a Steps #1 after following cmitch at OPoker take down a Mini-Steps. I also played a some $0.50/$1 Stud H/L in honor of Felicia. I never really knew what I was doing regarding betting. I tried raising every third time I could bet, I tried raising when I was ahead. Raising when you're ahead seems to cause you to get behind, so I don't know if I advise it. My favorite hand was when I had a pair of 7's and a low of 7632A only to win the high and lose the low to 6532A. I ended up $20 or so although I really don't know how or why. Scooped one A2345 pot, which helps the cause.

I've got a stack of books that I'm going to give away. Here's how it will work: you leave a comment with the book that you want, and if it hasn't been taken you get it. If someone has claimed a book, you can take it if by bidding on it through some type of barter: cash, another book, a heads-up match, whatever. I'll judge if I take the deal, if the barter offer is worthy of overtaking the claim. You can barter for something already bartered, whatever. I'll post the winners Friday, then I'll get you to email your contact info. I've got sixteen to give away, so we'll do half today and half next week:

• Positively Fifth Street by James McManus, one of the best books written about poker. McManus writes about the Ted Binion murder, as well as his own qualifying and playing in the WSOP Main Event.
• Moneymaker by Chris Moneymaker with Daniel Paisner gives you a glimpse at the not-so-secret warped world of a compulsive gambler who just so happened to win the WSOP Main Event and launch an industry.
• Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon by Joe Queenan is his journey into the underbelly of Americana. A quick read, and really a classic.
• Internet Texas Hold'em by Matthew Hilger is an introductory book that covers the basics.
• Ben Hogan's Secret by Bob Thomas is a fictionalized biography that I received playing at Grayhawk once in Scottsdale.
  
• Beat the Odds Blackjack by G. Phillip Cline gives you the secret of winning a blackjack without counting cards. I'm +EV at blackjack ever since I quit playing blackjack a while back.
• Bad Beats and Lucky Draws by Phil Hellmuth is a quick read of 222 pages, which seems short if it listed all of Mr. Hellmuth's bad beats. The cover has him holding pocket aces on a board of 2cThJhQsKc, so maybe the other guy flopped a set or had Ah2h, I don't know.
  
• Raw Faith by John Kirvan is a small book highlighting ten different spiritual teachers dating back through the centuries. An important saying, a quick reflection, and a prayer. It's a nice book to pick up in the morning.

Check out my latest Going Pro article on Hernan Salazar from Chile. It continues to be a fascinating series to learn about the diversity of people who play poker for a living.

Some interesting facts from Party's Q1 earnings report and annual report: Party has 42% share with Stars a distant second at 13%. PartyGaming revenue up 54% from 2005 Q1, active poker players days +28% in the quarter, daily poker revenue up to $2.9MM from $2.3MM, yield per active player day up to $18.5 vs. $17.9 (meaning how much rake does a player provide per day), over 263k new cash sign-up's with 39% coming from outside of the US (compared to 16% outside the US in Q1 2005), big increase in non-poker gaming revenue, launch of Party in multi-language formats, will be launching backgammon soon. Party's moving aggressively to grow outside the US as they have huge risk with over 90% of their players coming from the US if any legislation occurs.

IGGY mentions the Annie Duke Takes on the World show on GSN. She's prettied herself up a bit (which is like being a tall midget), but this is really beyond unwatchable. An abomination? I'd rather have them film a G-Vegas home game and show that.

Here's hoping WillWonka can carve out a little time to post again. No need to humor me, but I hit his site daily to see if there is anything new. I'll keep going every day, so no biggie if it stays the same. There is no responsibility for folks to post daily or regularly, and you don't want these things to become a burden rather than a release and a reprieve. So if there's no new stuff, that's OK too.

Finally, if you want a nice treat, take your kids to breakfast before school. All-in, the Big Guy, and I had a nice quiet breakfast at Loren's Cafe. All-in and I played racetrack (where I drew a race track then you flick crayons, alternating flicks until you make it around the track). The Little Guy climbed out of his crib last night, so our life is now officially over. I'm not sure if the Little Guy will keep his own room (I think so for awhile). Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day.


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http://ccexplore.blogspot.com/2006/05/book-giveaway-part-i.html

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Early Exit For Many At WSOP Circuit Poker
Tournament

T.J. Cloutier does early exit from the WSOPC Championship at Caesars. Ask me to name the player I think is least likely to go out of a tournament on the first hand and I would immediately say, "T.J. Cloutier."...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002712.php

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