Introducing the BG Manifesto

We'd like to introduce BG from Random Thoughts and Thoroughbred Selections to the Las Vegas Blog family. We'll give him a bit of room here to stretch out and let you know what to expect from him from here on...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002647.php

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Gratuitous Rat Photo, Avert Thine Eyes

Apparently ScurvyRat has been running micro limit home games while ScurvyWife and I are at work...



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http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/04/gratuitous-rat-photo-avert-thine-eyes.html

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Mix it up...

AP started their VIP program this month, and I was grandfathered in based on my points from past play. They sent a decent reload bonus offer, good for today only - 50% up to $500. Tomorrow, I can pick up an additional 20% for $200, but I may pass. AP bonuses take a while to clear for the single-tabler - it works out to about 1pt for every $.10 of bonus. So, I have to clear 2500 raked hands with rake greater than $.50.



Yeah, teh suck.



But, I'm running so bad right now I need a change. Not losing big money on a daily basis, but I am losing small amounts consistently. I won't reprise last night's temper tantrum, but I continue to get my money in good, yadda, yadda, yadda...



So, I'm going to play some ring games at AP. I had a small profit in a 2/4 LHE hit-and-run session right after making the deposit, then picked up another $100 in a .5/1 NL game this afternoon. AP allows a buy-in of 200BBs, so it allows for alot of play. I'm not really taking a 'break' from the SNGs, just de-emphasizing them for a little while. I want to set myself a goal for ring games (yeah, yeah, don't be results-driven, I know...). I don't chase bonuses much because I struggle to break even in ring games. But, I thought it might be interesting to see if I can triple my $500 deposit to $1500 by the time I clear the final $10 of the $250. Perhaps some time spent focused on ring games will do me, and my game, some good.

Read The Full Article:
http://bigslicknuts.blogspot.com/2006/04/mix-it-up.html

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Children and Poker: Findings

I'm normally a post daily kind of guy, but I got really busy the last couple days hopping to Raleigh. Didn't get to play Raymer heads-up (never heard from him, which I can understand his reluctance). Knocked out in third in a SNG when I had the chip lead, getting all our money in with the same villain on successive hands (he came over the top pre-flop with 5s6s to my QTo, catching his flush with trips kicker to my three pair; then I come over the top pre-flop with A3o to his Jd8d, which he flushes out on the flop). I had one of these stakes fraidy-scared sessions in the hotel where I didn't want to put too much at risk, just trying to eak out at least up $100 and get my Party bankroll over $4k. Got it to $3,985.31 playing PLHE $0.1/0.25 after getting up a bit in NLHE. I'm not sure why I didn't want to play at any significant stakes, but I feel fine dropping significantly down on occasion. I had everything I could have wanted as well: hotel room, TV, great internet connection, but for some reason I just didn't feel like jumping into a 10/20 table. Who knows.



This series is more difficult for me, maybe because I'm doing more legwork, I don't know. Some great comments on the initial post, so I really appreciate all of the perspective and experience. Please continue to chime in, as it really adds value for me as well as others.



First, some anecdotal information. Poker has taken the place of laser tag and dj's for many a young man's birthday party entertainment. For many teenagers, poker has become the Friday night alternative destination of choice rather than cruising or hitting some parking lot. As Lloyd Dobler said, "If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at like the Gas 'n' Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?" Today, he might find these guys in someone's basement.

Just as ESPN and the Travel Channel originally sucked many of us in, it has provided a seductive invitation to America's youth. Tons of articles in popular press about youth and poker.

• Today's youth are swept up by the glamorization of the game. Barry Shulman says poker offers teens five things: social interaction, especially for the socially awkward; help with math and other number-related skills, an understanding of risk/reward scenarios, lessons on how to read looks and gestures, and insights into your own limits of self-control. (USA Today)
• "This is Cabbage Patch territory," says Scott Kling, VP of Sales and Marketing for US Playing Card Co. " Supermarkets are calling us, which they never did before." (USA Today)
• The number of high school and college students calling gambling helplines in America has doubled in the past two years. "I have been in this field for 30 years, and I've never seen anything as crazy as this," said Ed Looney, who runs the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling. (The Observer)
• Research by Professor Jeff Derevensky of McGill University's International Centre for Yough Gambling in Montreal found that teenage gamblers were almost three times as likely as adults to become addicted. "Adolescents tend to be impulsive and think of themselves as risk-takers. The adrenaline rush is there whether they are winning or losing." (The Observer)
• The question is "Do young adults have the maturity to know if it's simply a hobby or an addiction?" University of Chicago child psychologist Dr. Bennett Leventhal has an opinion. "There are a great many concerns because of their tender age. First of all, they don't have the judgement. Second, in most cases it's not their money. But most importantly, they can be influenced by other people in wayst that adults usually cannot be influenced because of their maturity." (ABC7Chicago.com)

Some quick facts regarding children and gambling/poker.



The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

• Estimate of 2.9 mil young people gamble on cards weekly.
• 37% of high school males play poker at least once per month, this jumps to 50% after high school
  
  
• 14.0% of high school males play poker (vs. 1.6% of high school girls)
• About 2.5% of males between 14-20 play online poker weekly
• Four symptoms of problem gambling: preoccupation, over-spending, tolerance, and withdrawal (meaning pulling back from society, not cashing out). In 2004, 44.9% of young people who gambled weekly reported at least one of the problem symptoms. In 2005, this increased to 54.5%.

National Council on Problem Gambling

• This is the first generation of kids to grow up with
• Unprecedented levels of gambling (in 1976, less than a dozen states allowed gambling including lotteries; today, 48 states plus more than 250 tribes)
• Pervasive promotion and marketing
• High rates of implicit parental endorsement and social acceptance

Most everyone here shares an in-depth knowledge of poker, have seen the seductiveness and obsession risk up close and personal. For many of us, we are fathers and mothers or even aunts and uncles, trying to do the best we can at something few of us probably feel qualified to be doing: raising children. Sorry that this series is not nearly as elegant and fluid, but I've really had a difficult time putting my thoughts together on the matter. We'll see if I do a better job tomorrow. Again, please give your thoughts and opinions on the subject as alot of very valuable stuff.

Read The Full Article:
http://ccexplore.blogspot.com/2006/04/children-and-poker-findings.html

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Pulling Out

Attendance has been sporadic in this space lately and if there's one thing worse than a blank blog it's a post on why the blog is blank. Last time I did that, I became Ground Zero for the Lovelorn, which is a tag with which I am increasingly uncomfortable. I've been getting in some writing. I've been getting in some fun. I've been getting in some poker. And, finally, after three arduous months, I'm starting to get my shit back together.



Something I promised myself in the immediate aftermath of The Troubles was that I would use this life-altering episode to make some important changes in my life. The range of these changes is pretty wide, like G-Rob's starting hands wide, and I right away identified and jumped into trying to rectify some problems with the way I was conducting my life. As an individuial. As a father. I bought books....



(Quick literary aside to facty and whomever else--April?--recommended "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." I enjoyed it. Finished it in a day. But maybe we could recommend a book that DOESN'T have a wife cheating on a husband in it? Why don't you send me a DVD of "Unfaithful" for my birthday?)



Boy, did I buy books and I am SO not a self-help book guy. But I had to "Survive Infidelity" and "Get Healthy in Middle Age" and "Date Chicks That Are Way Hotter Than You" and "Find Peace Through Meditation" and "Learn to Speak the Five Love Languages" and "Parent Effectively With Your Ex" and "Get Laid in Los Angeles on Pennies a Day" and "Resist the Urge to Maim Douchebags."



Hyperbole alert.



I did want to turn this into something positive for myself. I did want it to knock me out of the mundane path I'd trod lately. The problem, I found, was generating the motivation to get on with it. Not only could I not locate that spurring gene, I spent many nights simply doing nothing, going to bed feeling sorry for myself, waking up feeling guilty for wasting this free time I should be filling with positive tasks.



Inch by inch, I'm starting to pull out of it. In retrospect, I made too big a list. You should see this thing. Tolstoy would be proud of its length and breadth. So I just began with one thing. So far, so good. And some of the other stuff is starting to come back.



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



The writing is sporadic. It's too personal right now and what I have in mind for my next project, while personal, is not so goddamn heavy-handed. I'm sick of talking about feelings. I want people to laugh.



In November, I undertook National Novel Writing Month for the first time. And while I finished, I didn't exactly partake in the spirit of the competition. I didn't write every day. I didn't block out X hours a day for the journey, didn't tighten up the discipline, my lack of which I see as my biggest failing as a "writer." And so it has been the last two months. I've been unable (unwilling?) to write, even as I KNOW I need to, even as I believe it is the key to my future. Furthermore, I spend too much time in self-flaggelation mode over that fact. But the truth remains: I'm stuck.



That novel I began for NaNo is somewhere close to the end of the second act. There are a good 30,000 words left to finish the story. I never will, though. Not because I lack discipline, but because the book was about X. Not literally, but definitely metaphorically. It was a journey that ended in redemption and X was that redemption. In my mind, in my head. And I just got to the tipping point in the story where "she" would appear and save our protagonist.



So, you see, the project is dead. There's an irony here in that one of the things X said to me on her way out the door, one of the assaults on my abilitiy as a husband, was "You never write to me any more." Which is the furthest thing from the truth. In Stephen King's "On Writing," he talks about the Imaginary Reader, that person for whom you write. For me, since the day I met her acquaintance, that person has been X.



Even though I will never finish that particular project, there's some good shit there and in the last week, I've been reading through it, pulling out sections that I particularly like and re-working them, possibly to fit in the new story.



Last night, as I lay in bed, I ran a scene in my head. Unlike usual, I didn't stop there. I got up, wrote it down, and looked at it this morning. It sucks. But it has potential. The idea is there. Just like it is with what I want to write next. Time to execute.



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



I moneyed again in the Paradise $10 Special Re-Buy last night. That's 5 of 7. And you're still not playing? Okay, more for me.

Read The Full Article:
http://obituarium.blogspot.com/2006/04/pulling-out.html

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More Table Coaching

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Get your arse kicked one day, so what do you do? Get right back on the horse and give it another go:

Poker Syndicate $2/4 LHE: 75 hands, $71 profit
Poker Stars $2/4 LHE: 43 hands, $31 profit
Paradise Poker $2/4 LHE: 119 hands, $8 profit

Overall a $109 profit for 241 hands since my last post. Sure makes yesterday's bloodletting at Poker Syndicate a distant memory.

The most recent Poker Syndicate session was "this close" to being near a $260 profit. I got involved in a massive pot with AdKd where preflop, the flop and the turn all got capped 5-way. Unfortunately, my attempt at a nut flush came up short on a board of Qd-8d-6s-Jh-As. A set of Eights won a pot of $184. Yes, a $184 pot at $2/4 LHE!

If you aren't playing at Poker Syndicate, you should be (see a link to the right for why you should play there and a link to sign up). It is truly mind-boggling how soft the games are there.

More Table Coaching
During my latest sit at Paradise, I had yet another run-in with a table coach. This time a poor player took down a huge pot from the coach and it started up case number 1,356 of a table coach running off a fish.

The big pot wasn't what ran the table coach off. I was sitting in the BB with pocket 88 when two players, including the coach, limped in. I completed from the SB and the fish raised from the SB. On a flop of 9h-8c-2d, the fish bet, the coach called, the fourth player folded, I check-raised, the fish and the coach called. The turn was the Kd, I bet, the fish raised, the coach folded, I 3-bet and the fish called. The river was the 3d, I bet, the fish called and I took down a nice pot against his AK. Then the coach started up the all to familiar line:

Coach: You damn idiot, betting his hand for him. If it wasn't for you, I would have been able to take a free card on the turn.

(Comment: Huh, free card?)

Fish: I'm new here and learning how to play.

Coach: You are an idiot and you cost me money.

Me: C'mon, let him play his game.

Coach: I don't like idiots.

Me: Do you think whining is going to get your money back for you?

Coach: No.

Me: Do you want him to play better?

Coach: No.

Me: Then shut up.

Coach: #*&% you, idiot fish.

Fish: I'm leaving, this isn't worth it.

(Comment: Yes, the fish did get up and leave)

Nice work, Coach. Chase away an easy mark.

It really amazes me how many poker players need to have their egos soothed or puffed up by berating a fish or just flat out telling a fish that he/she played a hand badly. Isn't winning their money the ultimate revenge (if that's what you need)?

For some poker players, I guess not.



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Read The Full Article:
http://countingmyouts.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-table-coaching.html

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Danger, Danger, Ramble Alert, Code Red!

Many thanks for the comments and advice regarding limit/NL musings. One that I forgot that Badblood describes much more thoroughly is the willingess to be caught with your hand in the cookie jar, and the fact that you're not playing correctly if you don't occasionally look stupid from time to time, bluffing with J high into the stone cold nuts. While that's somewhat true of LHE, too, it's a

Read The Full Article:
http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/04/danger-danger-ramble-alert-code-red.html

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Donkey Hunting

After losing $60 Monday night, I was glad to end up $15 yesterday. The difference in my play seems to have come down to that topic I mentioned about a week ago: feelings.

Rather than go to my Rios, as I have been prone to do, I decided to play what felt right. This led me to the .25/.50 NL full table at Noble Poker. I hadn't played a NLHE ring game in a while, so I settled down, eyeing my competition, and got ready for some folding action.

And fold I did, for about an orbit. If I had something playable, I played it, but that wasn't happening, at least not that I could recall. The max buy-in at .25/.50 NL is $50. I noticed that there were more than a few shortstacked players. My assumption is that they bought in for the minimum ($10) or neat to it. Some players don't like to see this. To me, it is gold. I know that players like that are more likely to push with marginal hands. They lack confidence and only have so much to lose (and to manuever with). In addition, they can only hurt me so bad.

With this in mind, I kept an eye on my competition, noticing that one player, who I shall dub the Fugitive, was shortstack and ready to push. He was across the virtual felt from me, and open minimum raised from .50 to $1 in MP. The table folded around to me, and I decided to call his minimum raise with T5o. I knew that if I hit, and if there were no Aces on the flop, I was probably in good shape. I also knew that he only have about $5.50 left, so I could take that gamble anyway.

The flop, KT6. I decided to check, hoping that my opponent would push all-in. The pot was $2.25, and a push meant fear. I had him pegged for two high-cards, but not necessarily the King. If he had it, I would expect a bet from him of about $1 - 2. A push meant he missed.

Push, he did and call I did. The result: My T5 hit two pair on the turn...against his AJo. When he was busted, I immediately thought, "rebuy, rebuy, rebuy." But instead the Fugitive fled for greener pastures, and I went on a donkey hunt.

The first stop was to the Find a Player function. I typed in the Fugitive's name, and found him, surprisingly, at two .25/.50 PLO8 tables. Well, I can do that, so I kept the NL table opened and found one of the Fugitive's PLO8, which was shorthanded with about 4 players. I sat down and decided to see if he was a poor player or just had made a poor play. To make sure the Fugitive didn't escape, I tagged him as a buddy (in the future, I plan to Search for Buddies at Noble, and when I see Fugitive and my notes, I'll know what I have to do.

Well, Fugitive and I got into a hand not too long into my stay. I held 5h4dKhKs, a decent hi/lo hand shorthanded, but by no means a lock to win. The flop, however, was 567, for bottom two pair. There was one other player in the hand, and I decided that the best move was a modest bet of $1 into the $1.50 pot. The other player folded and Fugitive called.

Now, here is the problem. If Fugitive has any two low cards besides 5,6, or 7, he's made the low. I haven't. So, most likely we are going to chop...unless he also has 89 in his hand, in which case I am dominated for the hi and lo.

The horseshoe in my ass shifted, and another 4 came down, giving me a full house. I felt confident in my high, and decided to bet again. I didn't think that I could push him off of his presumed made low (A2 was one of my predictions for him), but I thought a bet could give me some information. He called me again, and the river came off, K, making me an even better full house.

Here's the thing. The Fugitive bought in short at this table too, so by now, he had about $6 in front of him. I decided to play a little mind game, and bet $1, which was less than my earlier bets. The goal was to look scared. I knew that Fugitive liked bluffing when he sensed weakness, so I induced his all-in (again) by showing weakness. Sure enough, he pushes all-in over the top...and I call, scooping the pot. I don't know what he had because as soon as he left the room, I got up too.

I followed the Fugitive to one last NLHE room, but once I arrived, he busted out. Checking the Search feature, I discovered that he was hovering in the lobby. I had enough hunting for tonight, and turned my attention to the Yahoo IM window.

As usual, I missed the WWdn tournament. I discovered this when I got home from dinner with the High clan at 9pm (start time is an ungodly 8:30). After my donkey hunting exploits, I hunted down some recently-busted bloggers for some SNG action. The SNG's lineup included GCox, Mookie, and Hoyazo. Using my "feeling" technique, we decided on a 18-person SNG on Stars. My compadres all played well. G suffered an early exit, a rare occurrence for the solid player. Mookie and Hoyazo stayed near the top of the leader board until we were combined to one table, and then one player seemed to just spin gold. I mean, luckbox is an understatement, catching three outters like it was his job. As for my play, it was fairly sturdy. I avoided confrontations. Most players folded to my bets/raises, so I didn't get much action on my premium hands. I was able to call one player's hand exactly (JJ), and was happy to see Mookie double up against him with Mook's KK. (Side note: To me, there is nothing better than calling a player's cards and being correct. I consider it my greatest accomplishment and, when working, asset.) Eventually, however, I made some stupid plays once ITM, and went packing with 4th place. In my final hand, the blinds were 100/200 and I had 2,500. I decided to push all-in UTG with AJ. The BB woke up with AQ, and I lose. Stupid stupid stupid. After I pushed (and before I was called), I even said it to my cohorts. "Stupid move. I should have made a smaller raise." Sure enough, the only person calling that raise would have me beat, and in the end, my impulsive act cost me some dough.

But I won last night. And that is pretty sweet.

Now, I can't make Mookie's tournament tonight, even though I had planned to. It's at 10pm EST at Stars. I'll be at Robbie Hole's homegame, trying to increase my live bankroll before Atlantic City.

On Friday, I also have a home game at Casa del High, aka the 5 Diamond poker club. But you'll get more details on that later.

Have a pokerific day!

Read The Full Article:
http://highonpoker.blogspot.com/2006/04/donkey-hunting.html

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Doing the Phil Hellmuth thing

Phil "The Brat" Hellmuth is famous for being the big mouth and the biggest whiner in the poker world. His outbursts are famous as is his saying "I guess if there were no luck, I?d win every one [poker tournament]"....

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http://50outs.blogs.com/poker/2006/04/doing_the_phil_.html

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Red Rock Casino Resort Opens

Moons Rising Over Vegas. J. Santos 2006 Red Rock Casino Resort opened Tuesday evening with all the hoop and hype expected when a billion dollar project welcomes the public. The most ambitious project yet for Station Properties kicked off...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002645.php

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