Birthday Bash

Random pics from Saturday night?s birthday bash tournament:



Otis fixes up some martinis, courtesy of some Grey Goose. Awesome stuff!







A mrsBlood classic birthday cake. She doesn?t often cook, but she can bake.





TheMark with his pre-game drink. Juicy Juice.





The Wolverine, who would go on to take the entire tournament down and collect the bounties on my head.





Shep Tiltstein. With a beer. Duh.





Random101 in happier times, before his QQ loses to Wolverine?s JJ on the turn.





Otis learns Badugi, drawing 1 card.





Mr. and Mrs. Axeman. It?s not a G-Vegas tournament without the Axe.





UncleTed giving thumbs up to the food situation.





Post news cast cash game with G-Rob. Note, there is hair out of place, albeit not much.





The cash game heats up with more players.





BadBlood?s short-lived chip lead with 3 players left.





I forget who, maybe it?s the Axeman, but someone survives a shortstacked all-in with TQB?s.



Read The Full Article:
http://badbloodonpoker.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_badbloodonpoker_archive.html#11459
2324355700717

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Monday stuff

I want to get to know this guy:





























-----------

So, yesterday, I see the ex-inlaws. Today, I'm at the grocery store, turn the corner, and there is the ex-Mrs. Big.



Of course, I knew her in the pre-Big days, back when I was a L'il Slick Nut. So, I guess I shouldn't call her that.



I did not approach her. It's been 11 yrs, and I know I don't want that first conversation to be about how much weight I've put on and how I'm unemployed. I have my pride, after all. Not that she was looking her best, either, not like when she was 23. None of us do.



I wasn't sure at first, but saw her again in the parking lot. It's weird, the thing that confirmed it for me. Her walk. She has a very distinctive walk. Almost like a toe-first shuffle, with a little hitch in the hips.



Guess you have to see it.



--------



ObligatoryPokerContent: Ugly is as ugly does.



Actually, I had one good session. A $55+5 SNG, where I got AK 4 times and won every race. The heads-up battle was epic, starting when blinds were only 100/200 and ending deep into 300/600. We each came back from being down to less than 1K at different points. I took it home, though.



Then, bounced out early on a $114 after losing two races back-to-back. Ick.



---------



The diet's going well. I'm blogging about it regularly over at RunFatAssRun. I might actually start exercising tonight. I've been breaking into it by spending an inordinate number of hours doing carpentry work around this place. A walk should feel like a break compared to the deck I've been rebuilding this weekend.

Read The Full Article:
http://bigslicknuts.blogspot.com/2006/04/monday-stuff.html

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Google PageRank and What It Means to You

I've mulled the pros and cons of babbling about this, as both exist, but in the end I think it's something bloggers should know about, if they currently don't.

We've seen a trend towards more paid advertising deals for bloggers of late, as well as more freerolls with decent prizes set up solely for poker bloggers. Both of these trends are a good thing and I'm the last person to stare a gift horse in the mouth. I've taken part in both phenomenons, aside from the fact that I've shilled all sorts of sites here on the blog, for financial gain.

While it's hard for those of us personally involved to see it sometimes, poker blogs are increasingly building up a decent amount of clout. No, really. Not in the traditional sense, but in the eyes of Google and other search engines.

One of the key drivers of Google's success has been something it calls PageRank, which is basically the way that Google incorporates popularity of a site into other factors that its algorithm uses when ranking results for a certain search query. If lots of sites link to a page, that page (and the site as a whole that it is part of) will have a high PageRank. If no external sites link to a page, that page will have a low PageRank. The more links, the better.

(To see PageRank in action, download the Google Toolbar, and once installed, go to toolbar Options and tick the box to display PageRank. You'll see "PageRank" on your toolbar now, and it'll show a green bar when you visit sites. Mouse over the green bar and it'll pop-up text that tells you the actual PageRank number of a site, which is on a scale of 0-10, with ten being the best.)

PageRank is also a measure of not only how many other sites link to a certain page, but how popular those other sites are, too. So a link from a really popular site with a high PageRank is better than a link from an unknown site with a low PageRank. By "better" I simply mean that it gives the page it links to more of a boost, PageRank-wise.

When Google tries to decide which to list first between two pages on different sites that have the phrase "drunk midget porn" on each of them, one of the primary factors as to which gets the #1 spot is which page has a higher PageRank. Everything else being equal, the #1 spot in search results goes to the page with the higher PageRank.

That's where all of the above comes into play. If you want your pages and site to show up in Google results, you want as high a PageRank as possible. The best way to boost your PageRank is to get other sites that focus on a similar topic with high PageRank to link to you.

You may see where I'm heading with this. Because poker bloggers are good about pimping other blogs (and because there are so damn many poker blogs), we've built up a nice network of links, that give lots of blogs pretty juicy PageRank in the eyes of Google. This means that not only do random phrases on blogs rank surprisingly in search results, but that links from blogs to other sites carry a decent amount of heft and weight.

So if you're noticing an upswing in interest from advertisers, that's really what's in play. They see the juicy PageRank attached to many blogs and want some for themselves, as links from lots of sites with high PageRank will boost their site higher in search engine results.

It's not really about the visibility of the ads, in a traditional sense, as much as it is about buying PageRank. The real value is in the link itself, and the text of the link, not in whether or not it's an appealing ad that will tempt a certain percentage of people to click through.

It seems odd but you really can view PageRank as currency, in every sense of the word. An incoming, on-topic text link from a site with a PageRank of 8 is worth more than the same link from a site with a PageRank of 7, and so on. And people do indeed pay cold, hard cash for such links, based solely on PageRank. It's not really an efficient, guaranteed market and you can't go to the PageRank bank and ask for money because you have a high PageRank, but it does have value.

Which is something you should keep in mind, when offered an advertising deal or the chance to participate in a blogger freeroll. Those offers do have strings attached, and they're being offered to you because you have a blog with good PageRank, not because the sponsors are great, generous people. The links and ads that you post for those sponsors are valuable, not really because of the message or the brand-awareness or marketing aspect of them, but because they're links from a site with high PageRank. That's what the sponsors are really buying, when it's all said and done.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, either on your end or on their end. I just think it's important that everyone understand the situation, as I'm not sure sponsors are always really clear about their motivations.

Yes, indeed, I have the Full Tilt ad up there in the right. I like Full Tilt, and I like the fact that they showed initiative by buying PageRank from poker bloggers. More importantly, I like the fact that they were democratic about it, offering all sorts of bloggers the chance to sell them PageRank, and not cherry-picking only the bloggers who had a certain minimum amount of PageRank.

That's the reason I opted out of the PokerSourceOnline offer. They cherry-picked blogs that had a PageRank of 4 or better, yet didn't disclose that fact in their offer. Don't get me wrong, that's perfectly reasonable, and is a smart way of doing business. There's nothing wrong with that, or with accepting their offer. I just personally chose not to support it, as the reason poker blogs carry PageRank clout at all is because of the sense of community and interlinking and pimping, so it seems wrong to me to profit personally from that while not everyone is offered a chance to profit equally. (And, lest I sound too high and mighty, if you're going to discriminate based on PageRank, fine, but you should also pay more for blogs with a higher PageRank, and not just offer one flat deal to everyone who makes the initial cut.)

I was happy to do the original Stars freeroll for bloggers, as they were offering a pretty huge overlay far in excess of what they would have normally paid for all those incoming links and resulting PageRank boost, but I've opted out of the other smaller "freerolls" that have been offered. Again, there's nothing wrong with taking part in those, and it's very smart business to offer a $1,000 freeroll for bloggers if you would normally have to pay well in excess of $1,000 for the resulting PageRank boost you get.

In the end, it's entirely up to you, and there's no right or wrong answer. Money is nice and freerolls are nice so it'd be perfectly reasonable to take any deal and offer you can find. The odds of negotiating or finding a better deal are pretty slim, so you're really not sacrificing anything by taking assorted sponsors up on their offers. I just think it's important to understand what's really going on, and to know that the myriad gay poker blogs of the world actually have a decent amount of sway in the eyes of assorted search engines.

Read The Full Article:
http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/04/google-pagerank-and-what-it-means-to.html

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Children and Poker: Joe Sebok

Joe Sebok



A busy weekend of work with a little bit of poker. I had to work all day Saturday and most of Sunday on stuff for my meeting Tuesday, ending up leaving the office last night around 10:30. Went to church and lunch yesterday at Zaxby's, and had a great date with Sweetie Saturday, our standard of Qdoba and a movie. I'm not sure why Lucky Number Sleven hasn't gotten more positive vibes as it was really good, in the vein of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.



I've only played around 1,500 hands in April with probably 450 of that being low limit, and I'm up $1397.68 for the month. I started a $10/20 table at Party last night while printing the stuff for Tuesday (starting a table means that you go to a table with no one and have the patience for others to join). There was a 20 person waiting list for tables, which I think is a flaw in the system (they should force a table open with that many players as most people have Waiting List/9 or 8 players indicated). 190 hands, down around $250 at one point after set under set, several bad things, then topped off with me capping with 44 and three others, betting into a board of AQ8 and two spades with everyone calling, then checking down KhTd only to find everyone with these hands: Th9s (takes the pot), 8c7c, and 66. I assumed I was destined for the scrap heap, but I fought back to even. The big winner at the table was two to my left with 48.95/8.45 stats (ending up $761), but the following hand had to be one of the more bizarre hands I've played. I'm on the button with KK, UTG+1 raises, wacko calls, I 3-bet, call, wacko caps, and we call. Flop comes 464 rainbow, check/wacko bets/I raise/fold/wacko raises/I cap/call. Kh makes the complete rainbow, wacko checks/I bet/wacko raises/I raise/wacko calls. 5d on the river: wacko bets/I raise/wacko raises/I cap/wacko calls with 8c7c for the made gutshot straight. Well, that's some faith for sure, and believe me I was cringing thinking I was about to see 44 and hoping for 66, but c'mon.



You may or may not know Joe Sebok, but you know his dad (Barry Greenstein). Joe and I started corresponding probably a year ago (OK, what that really means is that he replies to my emails). Joe had a great WSOP, cashing three times last year, but has struggled in tourneys this year. I posed a few questions to him regarding children and poker, and his thoughts are interesting.



cc: Tell us about poker growing up for you.

Joe: Poker for me was nonexistent when I was a child. It was what my father did for a living, but of course it wasn't as accepted as it is now, so I felt very strange telling anyone about it. He really kept me completely out of it, though. We never even had a conversation about the game until I was 27 and decided to go into it myself. He couldn't have made a better decision regarding this as I was able to go out and have so many amazing life experiences that I wouldn't have had I been pursuing poker that early. There is a certain kind of obsession that accomanies one's delving into the game. I understand that now and am glad that I didn't have to contend with it when I was young.



cc: I know you don't have kids, but what are your thoughts about young people playing poker?

Joe: I certainly tell all young people that email me for advice to make sure that they are pursuing other interests as well as poker, and that it is very likely that they will never play poker professionally, and that it can really damage their lives. I often use the analogy of professional sports. For every athlete theys ee on TV, there are usually more than a thousand that failed on that path.



cc: You're exposed to the latest hot shot kids coming up. What do you see regarding young poker players?

Joe: Younger players are just more aggressive than their predecessors. They often rely more on being able to pressure their opponents rather than actually playing the mathematical component of the game. As well, they often don't understand the etiquette of the game and have learned their own from watching tournaments on TV. This is usually not a good thing.



Tomorrow, we'll hear from a current high school player, Wolverine. You may have read of his exploits from Otis or BadBlood in G-Vegas. Some interesting perspectives from a teen who turns out right. I'll have some final comments later in the week.



And with that, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

• Whitney: Whitney likes his poker and the ladies for sure. This younger whipper-snapper has some stuff on the David Williams porn foot fetish escapade. I found the same link from someone's blog early last week but didn't feel too comfortable pimping it in the middle of the Children and Poker series. Pauly had stuff on it this weekend, and it was supposedly the talk of the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. You might have to dig a bit for poker on Whitney's site, though.
• A Letter Never Sent: This collaborative blog includes some very interesting cats: a sportswriter/poker player covering the dreadful Orioles (FJ Delgado). OK, I was going to list stuff about the different folks (ten in all), but I can't really figure out who they are. A variety of different topics, including music, sports, and some poker. Worth a look.
• Anna Benson: I realize I'll have to backtrack a bit to find another link. This is former Mets pitcher Kris Benson's wife's poker site. I think they may be back together. I think she lives in the ATL. I don't have the energy to figure it all out, but there you go.
• Mars Needs Guitars: I'm only venturing into this link under Music Blogs that Rock Hard for the benefit of BadBlood. Groups they talk about that I've never heard (all actually): The Sky Drops, Alcian Blue, Languis. I'm not into most of it, but what an exciting time in music, where virtually anyone can create an audience.
• An Aquarium Drunkard: Alot of album covers, highlighted songs downloadable stuff.
• Come Pick Me Up: Four somehow related people (lady from Minnesota, guys from Brooklyn, San Fran, and Edinburgh). Lizzy from the land of the Twins seems to bear the burden of posting. Music and other stuff.
• Cable and Tweed: A blogger from the ATL, some good photos from his weekend trip to Chicago, more music. Highlights include U2 demo's while they were trolling for a record contract.

You never know where you'll end up from here. Thanks for stopping by. Big post from IGGY as well, so hop there.



ADDENDUM: I'm sure everyone's experienced this, but it looks like we've had a major Blogger meltdown today. Kept trying to post this throughout the morning to no avail, so sorry for any inconvenience (including the double post currently up).



Read The Full Article:
http://ccexplore.blogspot.com/2006/04/children-and-poker-joe-sebok_24.html

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Where Does the Time Go

Even with taking last Friday off, it seemed like the weekend lasted all of 0.9 nanoseconds. My noggin' is just so completely not into the work I do at the day job of late, so I end up clinging more desperately to the weekend these days, which I suppose only accelerates the disappearance of said lovely, lovely weekend when Monday morning rolls around.



Poker has been a bit uneven of late. Dropped a couple of buy-ins at 20/40, which isn't fun, but got a good chunk of it back grinding at the current B2B poker bonus I'm working off. Tournaments were pretty much a complete washout, as I played a few satellites to assorted WSOP events but got no traction. Finished 20th or so in a Razz Bracelet Race, but never really got going, busting out when A24 suddenly turned into a brick magnet and couldn't take down 38J.



A bit of impatience is creeping into my mind of late, which is a bit of a new phenomenon, and probably not a good thing. I find myself suddenly signing up for reasonable expensive tournaments/SnGs on the spur of the moment, and cramming in sessions right before bed, trying to grind out something substantially profitable for the day, instead of being content to not play, or to finish about even. You can pretty much pin this one squarely on the aforementioned job malaise, even though it's a pretty silly connection. I'm not going to quit my job to play poker full-time, and no single days' result is going to make a whit of difference in the long-term necessity for a job, but there I am of late, trying to make something happen, instead of just being content to grind away.



Can't complain at all about April results so far, though, knock on wood, especially on the degenerate challenge side of things. Just gots to keep the eye on the grinding prize, stashing money into other +EV vehicles as I go, focusing not so much on the skull-numbing drudgery of the day job but on the future opportunities it's funding.

Read The Full Article:
http://suckout.blogspot.com/2006/04/where-does-time-go.html

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Bet The River

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



I didn't play a whole lot over the weekend, due to having some nice weather, doing some yard work and having some social commitments. Fortunately, I did end up with some pretty good results at $2/4 LHE and over 432 hands, I ended up with a profit of $144 at Poker Stars and Poker Syndicate.



For the moment, I seemed to have solved the Poker Syndicate problem, where I did book a profit of $75 over 336 hands. Heck, I even was dealt AA three times over the weekend. I didn't win much with them, though. I ended up folding out the field preflop twice and splitting a pot with a wheel on the third. I'm pretty sure that I am the only person alive that can get those loose gooses at Poker Syndicate to not take a flop with me when I am dealt AA. That made three times for the week. (LOL)



Bet The River?

In the hand below, I am playing at Poker Syndicate (full of weak, loose players) and I have never played with my river opponent. Would you bet the river and why (or why not)?



Hand #275985631 at table: Table TH 794

Started: Sun Apr 23 13:32:07 2006



Pray4uself is at seat 1 with 228.50

nairolf88 is at seat 2 with 41.50

Spencer71 is at seat 3 with 155.75

LsLarry is at seat 4 with 117.75

julito yyo is at seat 5 with 114.50

AskEddie29 is at seat 7 with 186.00

prac is at seat 8 with 74.50

PISDETZ is at seat 9 with 123.00

Michael is at seat 10 with 187.00



AskEddie29 posts the large blind 2.00

julito yyo posts the small blind 1.00



Michael: Kd, Kc



Pre-flop:

prac: Call 2.00

PISDETZ: Fold

Michael: Raise 4.00

Pray4uself: Fold

nairolf88: Fold

Spencer71: Fold

LsLarry: Fold

julito yyo: Fold

AskEddie29: Call 4.00

prac: Call 4.00



Flop (Board: 9d, 8s, 9s):

AskEddie29: Bet 2.00

prac: Call 2.00

Michael: Call 2.00



Turn (Board: 9d, 8s, 9s, 2c):

AskEddie29: Bet 4.00

prac: Call 4.00

Michael: Raise 8.00

AskEddie29: Fold

prac: Call 8.00



River (Board: 9d, 8s, 9s, 2c, Js):

prac: Check

Michael: ???













I am registered to play in the

Online Poker Blogger Freeroll

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Read The Full Article:
http://countingmyouts.blogspot.com/2006/04/bet-river_114587713774494972.html

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WPT Championship Day 6: The Final 6

James Van Alystyne with $8,070,000 and the chip lead will be in seat #5 at the final table of the WPT 2006 Championship Dr. Pauly reporting direct from the WPT Five Star Poker Championship at the Bellagio. WPT Championship...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002665.php

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Gavin Smith Grabs 2006 Player of the Year Honors

Gavin Smith and Kat Koral pose for the camera at Sunday evening's WPT Championship at the Bellagio Gavin Smith came wandering into Fontana Room during the final countdown to the 2006 WPT Championship final table. The usually affable Canadian...

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http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/002666.php

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