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Three of a Kind Beats a Flush, Right

post from Sound of a Suckout on 12 April 2006 02:58:00 PM. © Sound of a Suckout

One of the reasons I've been absent from the tables of late is that I've been writing a lot of freelance poker content for Ongame, which offers a variety of fine poker sites, the most prominent of which is PokerRoom.

It's been pretty simply stuff so far, mainly geared towards beginners and for publication in assorted mainstream media outlets like magazines and newspapers. Short, sweet, and to the point. (Stop snickering. Seriously. I can be short and sweet, if need be, and am not always bloviating endlessly, ad nauseam.)

Aside from the extra cash, it's been a nice change of pace. It also feels good to write about something I know, something that I'm relatively good at. Everything I write for the day job is completely and utterly uninteresting, closely akin to pulling teeth, so it's been cool to write something that doesn't immediately make my eyes glaze over from boredom, even as I type.

At the same time, I've been feeling strangely conflicted, as I've been putting together assorted articles designed to not only introduce people to poker, but to prep them for the sweet, sweet rush when the poker crack hits their bloodstream.

The interesting thing is that much of what I've written so far originates from a cautionary sort of place. An article about good bankroll management is spawned by so many stories of people going bust, playing over their roll. Advice to not play angry stems from my own poor play when the monkey rage overcomes me and I want to throw feces around. Cautioning people to moderate their playing time and to not ignore family and friends comes very naturally, having done that myself.

Or, more simply, if a good friend came to me and said that they needed a new hobby, I'm not sure I'd necessarily recommend poker. As far as advising complete strangers, sure, knock yourself out, it's a great game. But if a good friend asked me, hanging on my answer, I'm not sure that it would be yes, take up poker. Blasphemy, I know, but there you go.

From a sheer numbers perspective, only 10-15% of the people who play are net winning players. So your friend is likely doomed to lose money if they take up poker. Likely not tons of money, but the odds are not good that they'll be a winning player.

If they're married or in a serious relationship, odds are that at some point or other, to greater or lesser degrees, their poker playing time will be an issue with their husband or wife. So by encouraging them to play poker, you're basically tucking a time-delayed relationship explosive in their pocket. Not guaranteed to be a lethal or even dangerous explosion, but it'll go off, at some point in time.

Playing poker well consumes a massive amount of time. It just does. Most people don't have enough excess free time to take up playing poker without sacrificing in other areas. Most people who catch the poker bug end up spending inordinate amounts of time indoors, hunched over the computer, instead of any number of activities they used to pursue.

On the bright side, poker is an awesome, awesome game, which can be tons of fun if you can manage all the pitfalls. So you could very well be introducing them to a hobby that will bring joy and satisfaction for many years to come.

More and more, my hesitation stems from the fact that it's a rare, rare monkey that can balance all of the above issues and emerge happy and unscathed. Not impossible, by any stretch of the imagination, but a longer shot than I'd like to bet on, if I were put on the spot and forced to encourage or discourage someone to play poker.

Does that mean I have to turn in my poker blogger card now? Doh...

Read The Full Article:
http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/04/three-of-kind-beats-flush-right.html

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Poker Champion Offers Lotus Elise on eBay

post from Poker Profs Las Vegas Poker Blog on 12 April 2006 01:36:00 PM. © Poker Profs Las Vegas Poker Blog

The same view fellow drivers will see of your shiney new yellow Lotus Elise. Want a Lotus Elise exotic sports car just like the one the Venetian Resort offered as the prize in the winner-take-all inaugural poker tournament held...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002629.php

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Personality & Poker (From 2+2)

post from FeliciaLee on 12 April 2006 12:03:00 PM. © FeliciaLee

Recently someone else took up the Jungian & Poker gauntlet on Two Plus Two.

Once again, INTJ came out on top, even though it is the most rare personality type. Once again, I'm not sure how much of it is fudged results (everyone wanting to jump on the INTJ bandwagon), and how much of it is truly that we INTJ's are more prevalent online and in poker circles.

Here are some numbers if you are into that:

INTJ: 25 total of 82 (30.5%)
INTP: 10 of 82 (12.2%)
ENTP: 8 of 82 (9.8%)
ISTJ: 6 of 82 (7.3%)
ENTJ: 5 of 82 (6.1%)
ENFJ: 5 of 82 (6.1%)
ISTP: 4 of 82 (4.9%)
ENFP: 4 of 82 (4.9%)
INFJ: 3 of 82 (3.7%)
INFP: 3 of 82 (3.7%)
ISFP: 3 of 82 (3.7%)
ESFJ: 3 of 82 (3.7%)
ESTP: 2 of 82 (2.4%)
ISFJ: 1 of 82 (1.2%)
ESTJ: 1 of 82 (1.2%)
ESFP: 0 of 82 (0%)

FWIW, this time the original poll and post by a Two Plus Two psychologist stating that INT- personalities are more likely to be winning poker players was not mentioned, nor alluded to. His study was not cited in any of the original posts, and it has been about two years since his first interest in the subject.

Read The Full Article:
http://felicialee.blogspot.com/2006/04/personality-poker-from-22.html

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Not Much of an Update

post from FeliciaLee on 12 April 2006 11:52:00 AM. © FeliciaLee

I have absolutely no desire to write lately. It's not writers block. I'm not desperately trying to write, yet can't. I'm not stuck on a subject. I'm not losing at the tables. I just have no desire.

Of late, these are the things happening in my world:

1) Gardening (I like it more than I thought I would; I'm turning my black thumb green)

2) Online O8 (still grinding out those nutpeddler, paltry wins)

3) Two Plus Two (a little shake-up last week, but it's ironing itself out)

My friend Max Pescatori is tearing it up at Bellagio. He has been MIA in Italy for most of a month, but he is back now, and with a vengeance.

I could go on and on and on about why I love this guy so much, but you've read it all before (and if you are new, you can read from the beginning to catch up).

I don't throw around the word "love" very much (I really should have been a guy), but if there was ever a great person on this earth, he is Max. No matter how much tragedy he sees in his life, he just keeps bouncing back like a cork.

If you haven't been to his website, and haven't contacted him to congratulate him on his 7th place finish in Bellagio's 5k event, go do it. He would love to hear from you. Go Max!

So since I can't seem to think of any adequate thing to write about, maybe I'll do the cop-out and paste some of my Two Plus Two posts here for your reading pleasure.

Enjoy!

Felicia :)

Read The Full Article:
http://felicialee.blogspot.com/2006/04/not-much-of-update.html

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Savvy Freeroll...and Contest!

post from BadBlood on Poker on 12 April 2006 10:28:00 AM. © BadBlood on Poker

I played in the Poker Savvy freeroll last night.  We had 47 bloggers sign up, but I have to confess to not recognizing a large number of them.  I attribute that to the fact that when most of us signed up at Titan poker, I believe it was somehow connected to Noble poker?s player database.  It refused to let my use my previous nickname, so I was forced to choose ?TherealBadBlood? since both BadBlood and BadBlood44 were taken.  At first I thought some imposter had stolen my alter-ego, but the aforementioned scenario made more sense.

Poker Savvy ponied up $1000 in prize money to be split among the top 15 places.  Spots 6 through 15 paid $25 while the rest of the places jumped up in payouts towards the $250 first place prize.

At the final table, I was 2nd with 8 remaining.  And?..I finished 8th.  D?oh!  I ran my 99 into TripJax?s KK when he limp re-raised from what I recall as mid-position, not early position.  Nicely done.  Then I bluffed off my chips on a Q-high, paired board with middle pair and someone (I forgot who) made a kick-ass call with pocket Jacks.  Again, nicely done.  I was out soon after, but it was fun.

Now, I await to determine if Titan processes my cash out quickly.

****

OK, it?s contest time.

Some of you may have seen Bobby Bracelet?s request for help.  I have yet to make a donation, but I plan to.  Now, if you win this contest, you can too.

Whoever wins the following contest, I will make a $25 donation to that cause on their behalf.

Here are the rules:

Guess as many songs in my iPod?s ?Top 25 Most Played? playlist as you can.  You may submit 10 choices and whoever gets the most correct will win.  Ties will be broken by each song?s ranking on the list.  For example, if two people guess 5 songs correctly, then the songs with the most times played will determine the tie-breaker.

Now, I have doubts that anyone will get more than two correct, so as a bonus, I?ll double the donation in your name if you get 5 or more correct.

Deadline is Sunday, April 16th at midnight.  You can email them or leave the guesses in the comments.

Good luck.

Read The Full Article:
http://badbloodonpoker.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_badbloodonpoker_archive.html#11448
5213652512524

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PT-Free Poker Sites

post from Counting My Outs on 12 April 2006 09:04:00 AM. © Counting My Outs

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Still recovering from last Friday's root canals, there wasn't a whole lot to do but sit with my laptop and play some poker. Well, either do that or be bored by cable TV. Easy choice.

I ended up logging 596 hands since my last post at the $2/4 tables of Imperial (218 hands, +$35) and WPE (378 hands, -$59) and ended up with an overall playing loss of $24. The bright side to the WPE effort is that I earned $33 in rakeback, so I guess for the day I ended up $9 to the good overall. Silver linings, right?

PT-Free Poker Sites

I have been following a lot of the commentary on the 2+2 forums in the past few days regarding the World Poker Exchange's new rakefree poker room. I have done this out of curiosity, just trying to get a temperature on how popular the rakefree poker is. What I have received, in addition to the info I was looking for, was a bonus in the laughable commentary in regards to sites that are not Poker Tracker (PT) compatible.

Currently WPEs hand histories are not compatible with PT and this has caused a great deal of consternation amongst the 2+2 crowd. The laughable part is the great number of 2+2'ers who will readily state that they cannot and will not play at WPE until it is PT-compatible.

Are you kidding me?

PT is a nice tool for taking hand histories and parsing it into data that you can use to look for leaks in your own game or to just compile all kinds of stats to look at. But does that mean you are not able to play a hand of poker at a site just because it's not PT-compatible? No matter how juicy the games are? Please....

And what they are most likely saying is that they really don't want to play at WPE (or other non PT-compatible sites) because no PT means no HUDs (like Poker Ace). Without those crutches, they will have to actually pay attention to how their opponents play. You know, like how the old dinosaurs (Doyle, Johnny Moss, etc.) used to do it back in the Stone Ages.

I guess it's all about what you want out of the online poker experience. For me, part of the fun of playing poker is figuring how my opponents play and trying to use that info to make my decisions. But if you are trying to play at 4+ tables at once, I guess you need it. That just doesn't seem like playing poker to me, but more like playing a video game. Just my opinion.

I am glad that there are sites that are either currently not PT-compatible (Imperial Poker) or not easy to use HUDs with (Paradise, because obtaining hand histories are a pain in the backside). It's no coincidence that those sites have some of the most profitable limit Hold'em games around. Players who play many tables and rely on PT/HUDs aren't clogging up the games and tightening them up.

I hope those sites never change their current PT and HUD compatibilities. It makes it feel a bit more like poker and less like a video game.

Bloggers Championship I am registered to play in the

Online Poker Blogger Freeroll

Win your share of $25,000 and a set

of Nevada Jacks poker chips.

Hosted By: Absolute Poker

Sponsored By: Poker Source Online

Registration Code: 65334548

Read The Full Article:
http://countingmyouts.blogspot.com/2006/04/pt-free-poker-sites.html

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Rest In Peace Poker Champ

post from Poker Profs Las Vegas Poker Blog on 12 April 2006 08:26:00 AM. © Poker Profs Las Vegas Poker Blog

RIP Poker Champ January 2006 - April 2006 "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." - Verbal Kint from The Usual Suspects "Nope, it's true. In the end, it is I who...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002636.php

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How do You Prevent Laser Focus

We watched Nell, which I had somehow TiVo'd, last night. First, I couldn't stop laughing for the first five minutes, with Jodie Foster wailing, "Shamina mena sehhhh," and other nonsense over and over. Liam Neeson and Natash Richardson, who are married, also starred in this movie. Liam's character is a big pervert, basically wanting to jump poor ole Nell if the camera's would stop rolling. He's pretty horrible in this. It's a great movie if you need your wife to bawl continuously so you can play poker later, as Sweetie cried for probably the last hour or so.

I've been yearning for Quisp cereal since my childhood, and I just discovered that it was reintroduced in 1999 via the web. Made by Quaker Oats, Quisp was a competitor to Cap'n Crunch, which has a slightly malty aftertaste that can stay with you after your second bowl. A box of Quisp can easily be eaten in one Saturday morning sitting. I would normally have a Cool Whip bowl filled with Quisp, eat it all, add Quisp to existing milk, then repeat until I had to add milk. Quisp had none of the sturdiness of the Cap'n, with it's flying saucer-like shape turning into mush after five minutes. There could be few things worse for a growing boy to eat than Quisp, and I loved every bite.

I snuck in a 193 hand, 140 mintue session on Party $10/20 yesterday. I got stuck $400 and ended +$456. I continue to struggle balancing attacking the fish with playing solidly. I had one bizarro guy three to my left, who got my attention with the following hand early in the session. He posted after missing his blinds and I'm dealt AA. UTG had called and I raised it up in middle position. Bizarro calls and the limper calls, so three to the flop. Qh5h7c comes, and the limper bets/I raise and am called by Bizarro, with the limper folding (?). 4s on turn I bet/called, then 8c on the river I bet/called by Th6h. A couple hands later he beats AJ with A3o on a rag board with the 3 on the flop, he then limps with Q9o in my bb, I bet the flop of 67T with Q7, he calls the 9 on the turn then checks behind me with the K on the river. He then takes calls after limping and betting a couple flops. A couple orbits later from the bb I call a raiser and a couple callers with 6s4h, flop comes 5h6h7h and I bet then three-bet the guy to my immediate left, Ad comes on the turn and I bet and am raised, then 4c comes on the river and I check/call his KhJh. KK vs. AA an orbit later and I'm in my stuck position. I tend to just stare constantly at the Bizarro guy, not really tilt/anger but definitely affecting me. I've overcome loosening way up (putting aside the brilliant 46o and I'm folding tons), but I just keep focusing on this guy. To my detriment? It affects me for sure, so that isn't good.

Anyways, I then limp/call the bb with JTo and catch my gutshot on the turn (QQ) to get back going. I then win a monster pot with KK, four are in pre-flop capped 32J with two clubs and four stay with the two bets (I'm the last actor and raise), 5s just gets one guy out, then 3h has one caller with 99. I flop a set later for a nice pot, flop top set with J25 only to have to lay down after 43 come. Monster hand comes when I cold call three bets with AhJh and two others, flop comes Ks9hQh, and there is a check, bet/I raise, checker three-bets/bettor caps and we both call. Th on the turn brings the checks to me, and 5s and they again both check/call with AdKd (first position) and the black AA (second position). I'm then up and down, filling up on the turn with 97o from the bb, getting called down by 88 to my AK and overcards that don't hit me, AK holding up vs. AJo when I bet it out and nothing hit. Then a truly bizarre hand. A fairly straightforward guy raises and I call with KJo with five seeing the flop. TK3 rainbow gets checked to me, which I bet with the initial raiser raising (check/raise), and I slow down HU with a call. 5 and he bets/I call, then 6 same, when he drags the pot with 56s. Then a sprint to the finish line for me, with AA holding up, Ah8h with 6s9h7h from sb with 5h coming on the river (T7o stayed in), then I end with 88 raising from middle position and called two to my left; flop comes 242 and I bet/raised/three-bet/capped (bb folds after checking the flop). 7 and I check/call, then and A leads to check/check for the 66. A big chunk of the upside coming in the last fifteen hands.

It is easy to become enamored with your PokerTracker data and table selection (see Poker Gnome and Poker Cats for recent discussions). I tend not to do too much with table selection when I'm waiting, just clicking on the wait for any table with 8 or 9 players. Putting aside true maniac tables, what I'm starting to believe in full-table limit is that the low-pot tables vs. high-pot tables are just recent variance driven, meaning that there is no waiting list for the low-pot tables who are normally assumed to be a collection of rocks/sharks when often I find they are just a collection of random players. When I was using Poker Edge, I definitely got altered in my play when looking for players with seductive stats. I do less of it now just relying on PokerTracker, but I do agree that it is best in limit to understand who the tight players are, the loose players, then proceed. I'm able to be more aggressive with my solid hands post-flop, three-betting flops and re-raising turns when I have the better hands. I don't use HUD/Gametime+ or whatever it's called (anyone who can help with this would be great), just PokerTracker. I also can't compress PokerTracker due to some bug it has.

So that's it for today: Nell, Quisp, focusing too much on the lucky bizarro wack-job, being stuck then getting unstuck, tools. One final note: go and get Bluff Magazine immediately. I finished the Michael Craig write-up on Andy Beal vs. the Corporation Part I, which ends with Beal taking their bankroll with the final session vs. Ted Forrest. He does just a great job getting us to the felt, but frankly the pot sizes become a blur after a while ($700k, $1.1mil, $1.4mil). Part II next month will introduce our new character, Mr. Phil Ivey. Can't wait for the month to get here...

Read The Full Article:
http://ccexplore.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-do-you-prevent-laser-focus.html

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Boulder Station Hotel and Casino Poker Room...A
review

Boulder Station Hotel-Casino located on the Boulder Strip in Las Vegas. Poker Room Review, Boulder Station Hotel-Casino Boulder Station Hotel-Casino (Map) is one of the Station Casino's families of off-strip Las Vegas casinos. Located on the Boulder Strip at...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002628.php

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