Children and Poker: Preface

I can tell you that this is a series I have avoided writing nor wanted to write, the topic of poker and our children. I've avoided it because I'd prefer not to explore the topic, would rather stay focused on myself rather than my boys, would rather stay in the dark to any facts that may change my pursuits. Having said that, I'm going to tackle this as straightforwardly as I can and with as much research and thought as I have time to put forward.



I think it's important to give you a bit more background about me and my own childhood as it will undoubtedly shape some of the series. I was born at a very young age...OK, scratch that. I was born to a very young mother and a recently graduated college father. My parents were fairly normal and typical for the time, I would assume. They were casual drinkers (most of my childhood was in a dry county in Mississippi, meaning hard liquor had to be obtained from outside county lines). My mother was a smoker until I graduated college. There were few other vices available, at least in my own cocoon. I was very religious and had a strong faith, and this led me to make certain life choices. I have had maybe three sips of wine and a couple sips of champagne in my life at toasting occasions but didn't inhale. That made me unusual but not abnormal in our town and a certified freak at Tulane. Growing up it was a religious thing (Southern Baptists don't drink), but during college and afterwards I just decided that I didn't drink. I've never really come up with an explanation that I'm comfortable with, I just didn't. I may have inhaled pot in the second-hand air of a Rick James concert, but that was about as close to drugs as I've come as well. And my parents did host a casino night with my mother's sorority chapter (this really weird sorority for grown women who either weren't in sororities or didn't go to college, I'm not sure which), but that was play money literally.



Why all this rhetoric about me? It somewhat shapes my belief system when it comes to my own theories on raising children. I'll state this through the series, but let me be blunt that I believe I am not an authority on this subject. I've never raised a child. I've never seen a child happily married, graduate college, become homeless, tell me he's gay, die, have a child, lose a job, be convicted of a crime--none of this stuff, so I won't tell you any great truths. I'll just try and lay out facts that I can find, put forward my own questions, and hopefully help me figure this out. As always, the better minds and experiences belong to others who happen to stop by here, those with children or yet to have them.



Why tackle this? A few recent events have spurred this. First, we have JJProdigy (Josh Field), the multi-accounter who lost his $140k Party accounts (and happened to be too young to vote at age 17). Next, we have the short list of players in their late teens who have either scored huge wins or play online at the highest levels, winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, pounds, and euros from the best the web has to offer. All of this is hint enough (if I didn't need it) that I'm sitting with high school kids regularly when I'm at these virtual tables.



Fine. Now let's switch things to me. As I discussed my Relationship and Poker series with my wife, her first comment surprised me: her greatest concern about me and poker was that my poker play could be having or might have a negative influence on the boys. We've played poker with my ten and eight year olds for over a year (or should I say I have). We play just with chips or tourneys where you get prizes depending on where you finish. They've railbirded me at times watching me with my laptop, cheering on my big pots and commiserating with me over my aces getting cracked. The middle son has the same name as a leading pro with the exact spelling even, and his All-In nickname (rarely used) surfaces only occasionally, although it is appropriate. In our games, the blinds are never anything easy, always complex like 12/24 or 17/34, something that makes them have to figure out how to call a 138 re-raise when they have 42 in the pot. Responsible parenting or potential endangerment? No different than golf or leading one of my boys astray? Creating the next Phil Ivey, Stuey Ungar, or Case Williams (or some other guy who's name has been long forgotten)?



The new series, children and poker. We'll explore emerging facts and trends, look to experts to help us understand our options and risks, and hopefully this will be helpful to all of us. Thanks for being here, and here's to our journey with this topic.



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The Rake - Taking The Pulse Of Poker For
4/17/2006

Poker zombie irritation? Treat your problem at the source. (Photo courtesy MST3KTemple.com) · According to one columnist a generation of "poker zombies" were spawned around 2003 "after Bravo began airing table footage of highly admired celebrities like, um, Ben...

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Obsessive to Excessive

I might be getting a reputation. It's oddly something that I am simulatneously proud and ashamed of (but slightly more proud). Degenerate gambler might be the best name to go with, but its mostly for flair. Gambler will do just fine.



What's it all about? I guess what it boils down to is action. I love it. And when I'm in a situation with the right people, well, I'm game for any sort of action.



On Wednesday, I had a 2 1/2 hour drive from NYC to Long Island, a trip that should take about 40 minutes. Halfway through I was bored, and bro-in-law Marc was in the car with wifey Kim and I. What's a bored pair of guys to do? Gamble! On just about anything. For instance, how many times will the car in front of us break (affirmed by break lights) before the next overpass? OR, how many SUVs will pass us by Exit 31. Then there was the bet where we both chose 3 bands each and bet on whose band would play next on the classic rock station. Overall, I was a loser, but I had a good time losing.



This past weekend, it was Marc, wifey Kim, and mother-in-law Sharon in the car with me. Marc and I are fairly competitive, so we got to gambling again. Even Sharon was getting into it, not so much for the money, but just for bragging rights.



Fast-forward to Saturday night, and I find myself at a table with 12 other people having a birthday dinner for Robbie Hole. Surely, David Roose, Randy Hole, and Ilan the G-lan were there. It only took a matter of time before we bet on the bill. The winner was Ilan, who bet the highest and then proceded to order dessert and drinks. As it turned out, we were all under by about $200, so his drinks ploy didn't play much of a factor. Sure enough though, the rest of the table simultaneously thought it was a hoot and abhorrent. Non-gamblers just don't understand.



And here's the thing. All of the aforementioned bets were for $1. That's it! I tried to explain it to those dinnermates tsking in my direction. "It's not about the money," I tried to explain, "but the action. It's just a goof to make things more interesting like how big our bill will be." They just didn't get it. Wifey Kim got it, but she was off by about $400 on the bill and you know I was covering her buy-in. In the end, it was just a joy to see her happy and betting with the best of them.



Now, take all of these prop bets and mix it with the poker. I felt like I couldn't stop talking (and thinking) about poker all weekend. Friday night was all poker, with wifey Kim out to the movies with the girls. Saturday was a day of obligations, but while I couldn't play, my thoughts were on returning to my Rio conquest. Sunday was much the same, with me rushing to the comp (but in a non-chalant manner, lest wifey Kim see the full degeneracy) to play once I had returned from an afternoon of hanging with friends around the city.



Atlantic City is coming up at the end of next week if all goes well at work, and there is always more action just around the corner. You've heard it from me before, but I'm going to say it again: I'm damn serious about this game. I want to beat it. I want to grow my game and my bankroll and move up the ladder. I don't think I have ever been as focused on anything ever before in my life. This is it.



So, yeah. I used to be a bit obsessive about poker, and I've officially moved up to excessive obsessive. But I'm loving every minute of it.

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Table Selection Revisited

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



Overall, I ended up with a nice profit for the weekend of $104 over 985 hands:



Paradise Poker $2/4 LHE: 482 hands, $75 loss

Poker Syndicate $2/4 LHE: 353 hands, $44 profit

Poker Stars $2/4 LHE: 150 hands, $135 profit



Strangely, the Paradise and Stars sessions were complete opposites. At Paradise on Saturday afternoon, I had a ton of great hands cracked. I followed that session up later that night with a session at Stars and everything went right. It's always kind of funny how that works.



Table Selection Revisited

I did find that playing at Stars late in the evenings is a good way to find good games going. Most of the time the games are tight at Stars, but possibly later at night things loosen up. Especially on a weekend.



That discovery made me realize that I have become very lax in the past couple of months when it comes to table selection. If you have been a long time reader of my blog, you know that I spent a lot of talking about this in this past and practicing what I preach. Unfortunately, I have fallen into the habit of just sitting down at a table and playing instead of looking for the right table and the right table at that seat or scouting out certain weak opponents.



When playing at Poker Syndicate, table selection is not a a concern, because the competition is just so weak. But at a site like Paradise, even as good as the games are, it is important. There are enough good players at Paradise that you can end up at a table that isn't the most profitable. In the past, I would just get up from the table and find greener pastures. But here of late, I stay and slug it out.



Time to get back to practicing what I preach...



What's Your Plan On The Turn? - Part 2

The hand that I posed last week:



Here's a hand I played recently that comes up a lot, or at least a lot more than you would think:



World Poker Exchange

Limit Holdem Ring game

Limit: $2/$4

8 players



Pre-flop: (8 players) Michael is EP1 with [A? Q?]

2 folds, Michael raises, MP1 calls, Button reraises, 2 folds, MP1 calls, Michael calls.



Flop: [A? J? 8?] (7.5SB, 3 players)

Michael bets, MP1 raises, Button folds, Michael reraises, MP1 caps, Michael calls.



I have spent little time playing against MP1, so I don't have a real good read on him.



Two questions for you:



(1) Would you have reraised the flop and what is your reasoning?

(2) What is your plan on the turn and what is your thinking?



I think we all agreed that reraising the flop was the right thing to do.



On the turn, I think that heads-up that betting again is the right move. If a third spade falls and I bet and I am raised, I think folding is correct. He either has made a flush or has a set and his capping the flop would certainly be consistent with him having either hand and raising again on the turn if that third spade falls. There just can't be very many hands that I would be ahead of here.



If a non-spade falls on the turn and I bet and I am raised, again I just can't see many hands that I am ahead of. There are very few players that would semi-bluff a 4-flush again on the turn. A raise here is either two pair, a set or even AK.



No matter what falls on the turn, if I bet and am raised, I can fold. I think this is better than check-calling the turn and river because I am more often that not going to be way behind here based on the flop action. This saves me a river bet. And if I am ahead, he isn't going to raise the turn (likely), so I am betting for value.



A non-spade brick did fall on the turn. I bet and was raised, thought about it and folded. My opponent was kind enough to show me his pocket 88 and he in fact did have a set.



Thoughts?





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A Good Weekend of Poker

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Overall, I ended up with a nice profit for the weekend of $104 over 985 hands:



Paradise $2/4 LHE: 482 hands, $75 loss

Imperial $2/4 LHE: 353 hands, $44 profit

Stars $2/4 LHE: 150 hands, $135 profit



Strangely, the Paradise and Stars sessions were complete opposites. At Paradise on Saturday afternoon, I had a ton of great hands cracked. I followed that session up later that night with a session at Stars and everything went right. It's always kind of funny how that works.



I did find that playing at Stars late in the evenings is a good way to find good games going. Most of the time the games are tight, but possibly later at night things loosen up. Especially on a weekend.



What's Your Plan On The Turn? - Part 2

The hand tha I posed last week:



Here's a hand I played recently that comes up a lot, or at least a lot more than you would think:



World Poker Exchange

Limit Holdem Ring game

Limit: $2/$4

8 players



Pre-flop: (8 players) Michael is EP1 with [A? Q?]

2 folds, Michael raises, MP1 calls, Button reraises, 2 folds, MP1 calls, Michael calls.



Flop: [A? J? 8?] (7.5SB, 3 players)

Michael bets, MP1 raises, Button folds, Michael reraises, MP1 caps, Michael calls.



I have spent little time playing against MP1, so I don't have a real good read on him.



Two questions for you:



(1) Would you have reraised the flop and what is your reasoning?

(2) What is your plan on the turn and what is your thinking?



I think we all agreed that reraising the flop was the right thing to do.



On the turn, I think that heads-up that betting again is the right move. If a third spade falls and I bet and I am raised, I think folding is correct. He either has made a flush or has a set and his capping the flop would certainly be consistent with him having either hand and raising again on the turn if that third spade falls. There just can't be very many hands that I would be ahead of here.



If a non-spade falls on the turn and I bet and I am raised, again I just can't see many hands that I am ahead of. There are very few players that would semi-bluff a 4-flush again on the turn. A raise here is either two pair, a set or even AK.



No matter what falls on the turn, if I bet and am raised, I can fold. I think this is better than check-calling the turn and river because I am more often that not going to be way behind if I am raised. This saves me a river bet. If I am ahead, he isn't going to raise the turn (likely), so I am betting for value.



A non-spade brick did fall on the turn. I bet and was raised, thought about it and folded. My opponent was kind enough to show me his pocket 88 and he in fact did have a set.



Thoughts?





I am registered to play in the

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Win your share of $25,000 and a set

of Nevada Jacks poker chips.

Hosted By: Absolute Poker

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Showing Up

Ah, nothing like starting the Work Week on an exceptionally annoying note. I missed my train this morning, in part because I got held up by a train. Oh irony, you motherfucker. And I didn't only miss my train, I JUST missed my train, as in pulling into the lot, seeing it sitting there, doors open wide and inviting. I leapt from my car and closed the 40 yards of asphalt in Reggie Bush-ian time, only to see the doors close in my face.



Unleash tirade of F-words. Loud, maniacal, repeating F-words.



The particular line I ride has no train after that one until 90 minutes later, so waiting there is not an option. I had to drive to another station, which has trains running every half hour. In fact, that particular station is about 15 blocks closer to AJ's day care. But I don't have a monthly pass for that line. I would have made their 7 a.m. train easily, but it costs me $15 to ride there. But I ended up having to pay and ride there nonetheless and still got to be a half hour late for work.



Unleash tirade of F-words. Again. Internally, though, since I'm at work.



**************************



Thankfully, poker did not inspire similar feelings this weekend. In fact, she was downright cuddly, after starting out in her typical-of-late nastiness.



Friday night saw me in the $8K Guaranteed on Full Tilt where I doubled up early with 43o because I love calling min. raises in the BB. The Q33 flop ensured KQ was gonna give me all his chips. Soon after, I raised another min. raise (and call) to 4x with pocket 10s. The min. raiser called and checked the A98 flop. Sensing weakness, I bet 3/4 of the pot and he took a long time to call. That made me sad, since my 3/4 bet pot committed him. I was certain he didn't have an ace, but I was also fairly certain he had me beat with at least JJ. He dutifully (and correctly) check-called my turn bet and showed his KK.



I wasn't hurting too badly though, with 1200 still at Level 3 and with JJ in the SB, I pushed over the top of a 5x raise and call. Only the button called and showed AJ. Sweet.



When you're a 70-30 favorite pre-flop, you feel pretty good. Of course, when you're drawing dead to a split by the turn, those numbers don't look so attractive. AKQA board? Yup. Thanks for that. I did exchange 5% with Absinthe who made the final table, so I got a 40% rebate on my buy-in. Nice goin' dude.



The thing is, since I was out in the first hour and still had some money riding on the thing, I figured I had better play some more. I no longer have the bankroll at FT to play the SnG levels I like, so I dropped into a $5+.50 MTT with 150 other douchebags. Three-and-a-half hours later, I went out in fourth for a nice 15x my buy-in payout. I was pleasantly surprised at the play. It was, well, not exactly solid, a little too passive to be called that, but I've seen much worse play in considerably higher buy-in events. If I had to formulate a theory, I'd say it was a group of fairly beginning players, with some base knowledge of starting hands, etc. that was still in weak-tight poker mode. I was able to take advantage of that somewhat, stealing liberally when the antes kicked in. No big hands really come to mind. It was just a steady stack growth.



**********************



I have identified a leak in my tourney game, which I won't disclose here, partially because every bleeping time I sit down in a blogger tournament I feel like everybody knows exactly what I'm gonna do. Suffice to say, I've been overplaying certain hands and they've been pure death to me with the online company I've been keeping. Too much clever, too much wishful, not enough result.



Armed with that, and the $5 tourney score, I thought I'd play a few more events at below my usual level. I don't think it's going to improve my play, but my game could certainly use some tightening and I also wanted to try to stem this leak. First up was an MPS token SnG, which I've not played before. Color me one for one, even if I did run QQ into KK on the bubble, a move which left me an M of less than 1. But I doubled on the next two hands, which were thankfully QQ and AK (I owe fhwrdh some whiskey for that one) to put myself back into it. From there, it was just superior skill that snagged the token. Or maybe it was two idiots going to war on a ten-high board. I don't remember which.



***********************



I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon/early evening dying Easter eggs with AJ. I managed not to smear the countertops with myriad fluorescent colors, as I did in the Great Pasta Necklace Making Debacle of '05. I think I'm really coming into my own as a Dad. Of course, there's that whole, "keeping an eye on AJ at all times" thing that I sometimes struggle with, and this time it resulted in him getting the wire egg dipper caught between two of his front teeth. How he managed that, I just don't know, but it was wedged in there pretty good. Because of the shape of the dipper and its positioning, it was a delicate operation to remove it. I couldn't just yank it back up. I had to thread it back out, a process made more difficult by a) the screaming b) the crying c) the snot running down his face and d) his inability to keep his tongue from my sight line. This last approximated a horse trying to rid his mouth of peanut butter. Kid could NOT keep it still, let alone out of my way.



I did finally extract it and my calmness during the operation gave way to a stern talking to about "putting things in your mouth," a conversation and admonition that is not foreign in our house. Methinks perhaps he learned the lesson this time.



********************



We woke from our nap (followed by dinner and bath) a little too late for the $19K Guaranteed on FT, so I jumped into the $10 Special Re-Buy on Paradise. I'm gonna write about this event more (again!) because it's just such a beautiful thing. I picked up my fourth cash in five attempts, finishing 30th for another solid payday. I was on the precipice of going deeper, with a possible double in my hands, which would have given me a par stack for the first time in two hours. I guess it was pretty obvious I was protecting my top pair-no kicker when I pushed my 55K stack into a 40K pot from the BB. The SB, who had checked, called with an over and the OESD for 11 outs twice and mathematically, he's okay by calling there. Calling off 3/4 of his stack? Maybe not so much. But he hit his straight on the turn and IGHN.



*********************



Sunday brought the standard Easter fare: Egg hunt in the morning, church, egg hunt at grandma's, Easter dinner and enough ham to feed a small village, the A's blowing a game, a nap and...what?...a poker tournament? On Easter?



I played at my Mom's, who surprisingly, when pressed, said that gambling wasn't a sin. Interesting. But it was for charity (and POY points), so either way, I don't think Christ is gonna be an Indian giver about that whole "dying for my sins" thing. I didn't play particularly well, making at least one bad call (though my memory persists there was another one) and totally lacking the ability to suckout with my ATs v. JJ. I finished 19th and am apparently one of those guys who gets rewarded for being consistently mediocre as I rose 9 places in the POY standings to 13th.



What did Woody Allen say about "showing up?"

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Happy Monday to You

Many thanks to EasyCure for setting up the Hammer out Cancer tournament on Full Tilt last night.  I went out in an unceremonious 42nd spot, garnering zero WPBT PoY points for my efforts.  The problem with last night?s play was that I had to pee.

You see, 15 minutes prior to the first break, my back teeth were floating.  Since I was the big blind and SirWaffleHouse was currently all-in, I figured I?d just make a break for it right then.  As soon as I got back, I had the button and it was folded around to me.  Hell, gotta raise the button, right?  The Q5o I was holding was immaterial, until my raise and continuation bet was called by the small blind.  I got a free card on the turn, needing a K for an inside straight draw, but missed.  It was embarrassing that I had to fold to a min bet with over 1k in the pot.  It was all downhill from there.

****

Here are the results from the previous post?s contest:

Top 25 Most-Played Songs on BadBlood?s iPod:

25.  Blood and Thunder ? Mastodon
24.  The Power of I and I ? Shadows Fall
23.  Suburban Me ? In Flames
22.  Pinball Map ? In Flames
21.  Shadow World ? The Haunted
20.  As We Speak ? Soilwork
19.  Devour ? Strapping Young Lad
18.  Mirror Mirror ? Helloween
17.  Rise ? The Cult
16.  The Pursuit of Vikings ? Amon Amarth
15.  Jotun ? In Flames
14.  Episode 666 ? In Flames
13.  Needled 24/7 ? Children of Bodom
12.  Bloodline ? Slayer
11.  Fistful of Hate ? Pro-Pain
10.  Can You Feel It? ? Pro-Pain
9.    The End of Heartache ? Killswitch Engage
8.    Crowned in Terror ? The Crown
7.    I Live For Your Pain ? Helloween
6.    Death Is The Hunter ? The Crown
5.    The Deepest Gray ? All That Remains
4.    Swim ? In Flames
3.    Blood Pigs ? Otep
2.    Sixpouner ? Children of Bodom
1.    Medusa ? Anthrax

So the winner of my contest is StB with a grand total of 1 correct guess.  On a percentage basis, he was infinitely more successful than anyone else.  It will be in his name that I make a donation towards Robert Wristlet?s soccer-a-thon.

Read The Full Article:
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8138217796726

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Whee, April

So far the month of April has been very, very good to me on the degenerate front. To the extent that I'm halfway tempted to just pack it in and wait for May. Which I won't, for all the obvious reasons, but still tempted.



Getting the bad out of the way first, I played like a complete lemur in the Bracelet Race last night and didn't even make the first break. Just bad play. I don't think I won a single hand, donking off most of my chips with AKs in two different hands.



Played in a second-stage qualifier for the WSOP satellite running at Martinspoker, with the top ten or so getting a 400 euro entry into the final satellite. Doubled up early and then proceeded to lose all my chips with 99 on a A 9 3 board, when the BB woke up with AA after just calling my pre-flop 3BB raise.



Which brings us to the happy fun part of the evening. I had something like $22 left in my Party account from the recent reload bonus I cleared there (check your accounts if you haven't already, as most people are getting some sort of bonus from Party at the moment). I was working on some freelance stuff and it was getting on towards bedtime, so I took all 22 bucks of it to a .50/$1 NL table at Party, just for kicks.



I got it up to $70 or so, then couldn't push a guy off his mighty gutshot draw that came in on the river, and got knocked back to $6. Tried to donk that off but kept sucking out, until I was back to $20 or so, and started playing again.



15 minutes or so later I was up over $200. Cashed out $150 of it and went back to the .50/1 NL tables with $50. Ran that up to just north of $300 in the next twenty minutes or so. Cashed out $250 of that and went back with $50. Ran it up to $125 before calling it a night.



Obvious silliness, really, and much good fortune, but man, those games were soft. And not just people who can't get away from TPTK soft, but shove pre-flop with 22 soft, after a sizable raise in front of them. And I wasn't even getting frisky or pushing things, just waiting for big hands, being patient. I'd be curious to see what sort of hourly rate a decent NL player could pull out of the baby limits at Party, playing 6-8 tables at a time.

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Rio or Bust

Can't...stop...playing...Rios! This weekend, Titan Poker was offering extra points toward their bonuses. The idea was to promote their new VIP levels. I don't really get the VIP thing, so maybe someone can inform me. From what I can see, VIP programs in various sites really only offer you some freerolls and bonuses (or faster bonuses). Well, call me crazy, but I usually can't commite to the time needed for the freerolls, and I'm like a bonus bloodhound, so I can always find one worth chasing.

Regardless, as a result of the offer, I played a bucket load of Rios, which are also available through Noble Poker (same great game, same terrible players). I actually had a streak of 3 first place finishes in a row. Another 3 would've earned me $25,000, but I then placed 2nd. Two more 1st or 2nd place finishes in a row would've netted me $300, but I then placed 5th.

So close, yet so far.

But that's the thing with these Rios. Six 1st place finishes in a row will be damn tough, and six 1st or 2nd place finsihes will be still fairly difficult. I usually get to 4 and then slip up. But while I'm trying to get there, I am earning money the entire way.

I've earned at least $200 on Rios, by my rough estimation, and I plan on sticking to them in the near future. My goal is to finally hit one of those jackpots, but I know that in the meanwhile, I'll continue to build the bankroll. So, basically, I'm on a (mostly) all Rio diet for the near future.

I've started to keep a separate cash bankroll for my poker play. It really is a novel concept for me. I also used to not count online wins in my win/loss ledger for the year. My logic was that any money I deposit online from my wallet is a loss immediately, and any withdrawal from online is a win. This way, I didn't "fool" myself into thinking that credits in some online poker room which I could eventually donk off was "real money".

Turns out, I was fooling myself about fooling myself. At the time when I instituted the rule, I was a net loser online. Then it made sense that any money deposited should be considered a loss. I also thought that the money that I won online had no real-world implications. After all, it did nothing but sit online. It didn't make my life any easier. It didn't pay for my groceries. How could I say, "I won $100," in honesty if I couldn't touch the money or spend it. I wanted to test how poker could make my life easier.

Things are different now, though. Maybe this is part of my evolution as a poker player. I can't stop thinking about my eventual goal, to make significant money in this game. In order to do that, I need to amass a bankroll, and the only way to do that is to win money, and then KEEP that money for future games. Hence, I've taken my $140 in cash game wins from my last visit to the Townehouse and last two visits from Robbie Hole's homegame and put it aside. I've also started a spreadsheet (since Valentine's Day, when I realized I lost my calendar, which was my old win/loss ledger) to keep track of ALL wins or losses, be them online or live. Now, I believe that until Valentine's Day, I was up barely $50 for the year after a slow start. Add that to what I have in my spreadsheet, and I'm at about $450 profit for the year, not including bonuses. My goal was to win $1800 by year end, which is about $150/month. So, basically, I'm doing fairly well in my goal, but need to keep the momentum going.

The Evolution of a Poker Player! Just the thought of it excites me.

I've got more to write, but no time to do it, so have a great Monday (all things considered) and I'll be seeing you at the tables.

Read The Full Article:
http://highonpoker.blogspot.com/2006/04/rio-or-bust.html

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Weekend Recap

What does it mean when you can't pull the trigger after a continuation bet when you aren't playing with money, you can get more chips if you need to, and you aren't playing for anything? It means you (I) are (am) a big wuss. Four players yesterday after Easter lunch: Sweetie, marshman or Marshall-Will-and-Holly (brother-in-law, BadBlood's nickname), the Big Guy (our ten-year old son), and myself. The horrible, horrendous check/check turn and river by me sees marshman's A5 take my raised pot with nothing. It's hard for the Big Guy to play his best when he keeps running to the computer to help All-In with Empire Earth, so he was pretty much a non-factor (that and being card dead). Best pot of the afternoon was when Sweetie bet a scary three-club flop which marshman and I called (something like ATx), Jd on the turn, then Qs on the river. She bets, marshman raises and she goes all-in, which elicits an insta call from Kc. She them beautifully slowrolls Qc3c for the flopped flush. I almost cried. I made one nice all-in after she had bet a rag board and marshman called, she called and marshman laid down an overpair to my TPTK that ended up two-pair on the river. He wanted me to write about the end of the game when I screamed, "I'm going to blog about that!, but frankly I don't remember any of it except that I had to put all of his chips up and I didn't have any.

I wateched a WPT tourney from last year with Phil Ivey, Negreanu (who wins), David Williams, and Josh Arieh. Arieh made what had to be the absolute worst play in the history of poker when the river gives the board a straight to a 6, Negreanu bets his 6, then Arieh comes over the top for another 1/6th of the pot or something. Negreanu says, "That would be pretty sick if you had 86. OK, I call," in this really strange, almost parental tone. Just brutal (I'm pretty sure it was WPT Borgata 2005).

Sunday's NY Times had an article about the state of poker. Some interesting facts (WPT losing 36% of its audience, total buy-in's up significantly last year). Phil Gordon, late of Celebrity Poker Showdown, says he makes more now from speaking engagements and events than from poker. There is definitely a glut of television programming, and WPTE (stock for World Poker Tour) is a fiasco, but as many of you I think we have life still left in this bird.

I'm working on a new series which I hope to have started this week. It is one that is particularly near and dear to me and should be very interesting. More later.

No poker play this weekend. What does that mean? Is that bad? I dunno. This was a weekend for family, and that's what I did. My father-in-law, Marshman, the Big Guy, and I went to see Georgia Tech pound Clemson in baseball Saturday (they then won 22-4 yesterday without us!). We need to do that more as college sports are so accessible. The Big Guy had a great time just hanging. When we got back, Marshman played soccer in the back yard with us (adding All-In), then I backed off when our guys played the Cambridge hooligans (the neighborhood behind our house). We prevaled 6-5 with the Big Guy holding his own against the twelve year olds, Marshman playing solidly (he's a solid player, now 27 or so), and All-In once again standing on his head in goal. The Little Guy assisted by chasing a ball near the Cambridge goal, as well as Angel (our Gordon Setter) and Abby (Marshman's Border Collie) disrupting things. The Cambridge hooligans actually didn't have much of a chance.

Then Easter service yesterday, with Sweetie and I having nursery duty for the main service (the Big Guy joined us). In-law's took the Little Guy and All-In back home. I have some sort of spellbinding way of stopping the crying almost-two year olds as I got seven of the twelve to shut up upon arrival. I had to change Noah's diaper. A couple of things about this. You really don't want to change anyone else's kid's diaper as it is strangely very gross compared to your own child's. Also, I took Noah's sandals off and they were absolutely putrid, just horrible. We were able to hold snacktime off until 45 minutes in. Snacktime kills a good fifteen minutes or so as you just keep shoving Ritz crackers in their mouths until they can't chew anymore.

I was pretty wired and maybe stressed for the week, so not in a very good state last night. We tried to watch the French Connection (winner of Best Picture for 1971), but Sweetie kept going to sleep and it was maybe a bit tedious. I don't know if we'll finish it, but maybe yes.

I have to travel to Raleigh Wednesday and hope to close on China in the next couple days. I hope today can be a great day. Until then, here is Monday's Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, where we leave this blog to see where the links take us.

• Falstaff: Part of the fledgling Charlotte poker scene (really just G-Vegas without the charm and inbreeding from my understanding). Great writer, part of the inner sanctum.
• Klopzi: An overweight lover (like me) trying to lose pounds and increase bankroll. Klopzi leaves good comments here, which I always appreciate, and has good stuff as well. Why no link to his site? I'm just lazy, I think, I don't know why. I should.
• Law School Dropout: I've been here before several times, mostly when I hit from other folks' blogs. He dropped out of law school to play professionally, then went back to finish up while still plugging away. Higher limit play, which is always interesting to read. No links, so I have to search and search comments to find somewhere to head from here.
  
• Poker Fund Investments: Again, another great blog that I don't hit often for some strange reason. fairnbalncd lives in Wyoming and loves his poker and his lady. GL with the new job.
• threebet33: Eric lives in Vegas and plays poker. Look at the 5 April post, just a great post into his journey to Vegas, the atrophying of his life, his struggle when confronted with a downturn, and then a rebirth. Good stuff.
• hempy: Paul Hempseed, British poker dude. Scraping away as the KSOP, twenty pounds at a time.

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