First, let me get the rather strange items off the table from the weekend:

• There are hotties that I am smitten with (Shakira, Michelle Pfeiffer). Melissa Gilbert is not one of them. Melissa Gilbert, for those of you under whatever age, was Laura in Little House on the Prairie, which is a childhood favorite of my wife’s. So Friday night I have this intricate, long dream about getting it on with an adult Melissa Gilbert (more of the Screen Actors Guild President Melissa Gilbert, not the six year-old). Then the two of us find my wife, and from there it gets kind of blurry what happened in the dream. I can’t really refer to her in any other way except for Melissa Gilbert. Now, I did ask my wife if we could have a Little House DVD on when we went to bed Saturday night, but she refused for some reason…
  
• The same evening, I pulled a hamstring in my sleep (more like a strain, but go with me here). In case you needed any more evidence of the sedentary physical spiral of the online poker player, pulling a hamstring in your sleep has to be a fairly good data point. Carpal tunnel is for sissies–real men pull hammies in their sleep after a night at the tables…
  
• In case you ever wondered: how long can you microwave a frozen bottle of Coke? Well, our eight year old now knows that the answer is at least less than three minutes. And the explosion is quite loud.
  
• From pastor’s sermon Sunday: Moses and the plagues (with Moses trying to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt). The Pharaoh’s sorcerers could replicate the first signs of God (turning a staff into a snake, plague of frogs), but could not produce a plague of gnats. Pastor’s thought: “I never got that. These guys were like, ‘Pharaoh, anyone can do frogs, but gnats? It must be a sign of God.’” Coolest plague to see: frogs. Worst plague (besides first born): boils. I had a boil on the outside of my left knee when I was maybe five or six. My mother mashed it like a zit for about a week, then took me to the doctor. He yelled at her for maybe fifteen minutes (she would have been arrested by Social Services today probably), then got his scalpel out, made one slice, had one push one way, then a second squeeze perpendicular to the first. Out came a 1 1/2″ green core with the puss, then finally blood. Parents: never mash the same bump on your kid for more than four consecutive days.
  

Home game Friday night was great. We played $1/2 limit, and we had three winners. Rich who had come last time was up $53 or so, I was up $52, and my wife was the big winner at +$68. I had a couple of bad pots (neighbor to my right calls then calls my raise, flop comes J2x for my set of 2’s but he has JJ; I play one hand blind then finally look on the river when it’s Rich and myself. 6 on river gives me two pair with my T6, only to lose to Rich’s T7 two-pair). My wife isn’t aggressive enough, and I talked her into check-raising once. I absolutely believe that pound for pound a woman at the table will be better than the average guy as most guys understimate the ladies. This has nothing to do with my wife: she just has game, always calling down with the marginal best hand, mucking when she’s beat. She’s the only one I bankroll on a regular basis.

Had a very nice weekend playing in a limited period. Won a second $30+3 SNG in a row Saturday with a couple of suckouts heads up vs. short-stacks (I had raised, short stack comes over the top with another 20% of the pot, so I have to call). I used my brother’s advice to get more aggressive vs. the tight table, and it really worked well. Got down last night $200 playing $5/10 at Party, table degraded to heads-up and I made back $150 of that only to be down closer to $100, then I moved to a full table (all at Party). A magical session is an understatement. Here are the stats: 51 hands (didn’t play the last 13), VP$IP: 31.37%, won 11/16 pots I was in. Key hands were

• A9 with four limpers, continuation bet on flop and turn (everyone out with nothing for me but the ace high)–this hand was key for reversing my psyche and keeping me from getting fraidy-scared
• QdJd: I call raise, flop comes As5sTd and I call raiser with one caller, Ks I raise and am called, 4s four flushes the board, but he calls with AcKc
• JJ: I raise and call re-raise with four in the pot, Jd7sQc, there is a check/bet/I raise/re-raise and two of us call, 4c I bet/raised/I three-bet and am called, 8h I bet/called by AA
• 56o: I ‘m on a roll and call from the bb, only for UTG to re-raise (so four of us in the pot with three bets); flop comes 48Q, we check to the re-raiser and I call the gutshot with one other caller, A lets me get a free card with check/check/check, and the 7 comes on the river, which I bet and am called by KK.
  
• 88: I re-raise the UTG and he caps it, flop comes 5c7h8c he bets/I raise/he raises/I re-raise/he calls; Jc he bets/I raise/he calls; 3h he bets/I raise/he re-raises/I re-raise/he’s all-in. My set beats his QTo nothing (very bizarre hand for sure, but I’ll take it)
• First hand is actually a critical hand for me as it kept my confidence up and set up the aggressiveness played into me, I think. The 56o bb call that cracked KK I blame him (he checked the turned A, and I caught the gutshot on the river). The QdJd hand obviously was fortunate to not only not have the flush but then to pay me off with AK with his two pair was nice.

Couple of quick final notes. IGGY has a great, must read post on the state of online gaming in America, including an overview of pending legislation, etc. Brilliant stuff. Bill Rini has a great analysis of ZeeJustin’s defense of mulitple accounts at Party. Thanks to BadBlood for directing me there. I’ll end this with my weekly Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon blogger trail:

• I’ll start with BadBlood. BB is from G-Vegas and regularly mixes local home game stories with solid analytics. Always a nice mix.
• MaudieB: I haven’t read her before, but looks like she’s part of the blogging elite, lots of Pauly references etc. Forgive me for not knowing much more than that.
• A Chick and a Chair. I’ve stumbled here before. A nice post on finding a poker mentor, and always nice to find stuff about poker ladies.
• HellaHoldem. More girls. OK, I’m now ashamed of my blog’s appearance after seeing this. Great archive organization, lots of good content from a male/female duo (although the lady looks like she does all of the posting). Definitely worth consideration as part of the regular blogs to hit.
• FactGirl. Might have just called this the Ladies of PokerBlogging.
  
• GoFugYourself. Written up in NY Times and WSJ among others, Heather and Jessica make Tony G and Mike the Mouth seem like choir boys when they review celebrity wardrobe sightings. If you like looking at girls and listening to cat fights, then Fug You!
  

“…but I have to admit that sitting across a table from Phil Ivey for three days was MIND BLOWING.” Michael Craig

Andy Beal’s result after Phil Ivey: -$16MM after a $10MM loss yesterday. See Michael Craig’s recap after yesterday. He’ll be writing this up for Bluff Magazine in their April and May issues.

Does this result mean Phil is the best? Look Phil is just the best. If you had to put someone at a table to play a heads-up challenge over three days for your life, is there anyone else you would choose? Can you imagine the DVD of the Andy Beal sessions, from his time up early last week to Ivey to being up early yesterday to going down to calling it quits? Forget about my thoughts regarding whatever on poker and just smell the sweet aroma of Mr. Phil Ivey. It must be something to be the absolute best at something, and Mr. Ivey is it.

ADDENDUM: Great recap on CardPlayer.

ADDENDUM TO THE ADDENDUM: OK, I’ve just been introduced to a great new analytical tool: the poker partner. I emailed my SNG hand history from last night to my brother, who took the time to review, pull his comments together, work the analysis of key hands (the 99 all-in), and give an overall review. Really excellent stuff, so I think a new tool I’ll move forward with is the PokerPartner. Find one, invest the time to become better and better at both reviewing and being reviewed. Really valuable stuff, scott.

A 30+3 SNG on Party results in a 1st while watching American Idol TiVo inventory and some ladies figure skating. Again, these figure skating announcers are absolutely the worst television event or sports commentators in existence. Forget that many of these girls could get us arrested if we hooked up with them (as in underage). Sasha Cohen is in first, she falls twice, and they are all pumped up about her choreography and never giving up? The higher chip counts to start on Party’s SNG’s definitely create a more patient environment. When we were down to six and blinds were 100/200, significant difference than all the all-in fests. I was getting picked on by the big stack to my right, raising my bb from the sb. I don’t play these enough to probably feel comfortable coming over the top more than I did. +EV for him to min raise me for sure. Down to four, I was dealt 99 in bb, button had been coming over the top or going all-in on blinds more than occasionally (blinds were I think 200/400). I had 3826, big stack had 6238, button had another 4900 and went all-in. Big stack waited forever and went all-in, so I cold called (covered by both). I didn’t have the button on anything stron, maybe a small pocket pair or KQs/AJ. I liked the big stack deliberating, as I put him on a marginal ace. One from the money, shouldn’t I just fold? Heck, we’re in these things to win, not to cash. Button has 77, big stack has AQ, and I have 99. Bad flop of 8Q4 rainbow, J comes on the turn giving me some more outs, then the random number generator finds another 9 to give me the set and the sweet triple up for the chip lead. A bad play? I would say probably yes except that I had some logic to everything that happened, all the action (a blind squirrel and all that…).

Doyle has one that Howard Lederer either has or will get when he dies. Raymer’s is famous, giving him his name. Danneman had his little globe. Should you have a card protector in live play? I think you have to protect your hand for sure, so that isn’t up for debate. I prefer the one chip method. I’ve thought about supergluing a few half dollars together, but I prefer going without. Are they gay? Are they the same as sunglasses? I prefer not to wear sunglasses for sure; I think for the most part it’s a bit too much hollywood. I don’t have a problem if you have a card protector, I don’t know. My favorite is probably the frog guy that I’ve played with at the Bellagio. He wears the Raise the Mutha suspenders, old timer that can be putting in his time or can be a real character. Maybe I’m being too hard on the card protector, I don’t know. My other favorite is the guy in the bar tourney who has the $1 Tunica chip.

Which brings me to a peripheral topic. Should we collect chips from different poker rooms? I assume some people do this, like golf balls where they play.

I’ve got my home game scheduled for tomorrow night. Still a struggle finding anyone to play here in suburbia. It looks like we have at least six and hopefully more. I expanded the network of invitees and didn’t invite some of the people I’ve invited several times who either haven’t come (the guy down the street who’s boys host games all the time supposedly and the next door neighbor that I don’t like). We’re keeping it hopefully fairly simple and non-threatening, $1/2 limit. I just might have to loosen up my play a bit…

Have taken a fairly long break from playing, except for a short session at FullTilt in Memphis and pulling an all-nighter Monday night. AK vs. AA was a nice way to flush a little cash…

Looks like Phil Ivey has had a productive two days at the Wynn. With stakes dropped to $30/60k, Ivey is either up $4.8MM or $7.0MM in two days vs. Andy Beal. See posts from Michael Craig.

If you’ve been following the action, JJProdigy won a Party MTT for $140k while using two accounts to play the tourney (ABlackCar, which was the account for his grandmother, was the account he used to win). Party ends up confiscating not only the $140k, but also his $40k in the JJProdigy account. And the current rumor mill is that he may actually be 16. Jump to this 2+2 link if you have a couple of hours to wade through it all. My take: a fundamental horrible component of online poker is the ability to have multiple accounts.

I’ll play some tonight and will give you a quick recap tomorrow.

ADDENDUM: Playing $5/10 Limit on Party full table. First session was able to claw back including AA cracked by TT (river straight), KK by AJ (A on river) was down $27, then $27 on a quick stint at a bad table. Got down $100 when two-tabling, but let me put a hand forward and ask if anyone resonates. I’m UTG+4 with 98o, there is one limp before me, I then have that feeling that I should limp or maybe raise, but I muck and go to the next table. There ends up three other limpers plus the bb, so five in the pot when the flop comes 567 rainbow. Well, this elicits a bet, two calls, a raise, another raise, a cap, and one final caller. Kc brings a bet/raise/raise/call, and river is 2c (no flush possibility). There is a bet/call, with 84 beating 67. So the question is do you get these gut, visceral feelings, where you feel compelled to play a bad hand for no good reason? And how do you address this? Ignore, or act? This isn’t meant as a woe-is-me, but I do have these types of feelings from time to time. They are different than deciding to raise with T9s or the calling with K3s from sb with a raise and three callers, I mean the feeling compelled to play a hand for no good reason. One of my favorite hands to fold is Q7, because I had a similar feeling once playing live in Phoenix, folded instead, flopped a boat, only to have the ultimate winner have 88 for two pair after outrageous play.

ADDENDUM TO THE ADDENDUM: Back from the brink, I did my typical stupid thing and decided that maybe $5/10 tight players should be left alone and headed to $15/30 table. Had one totally donkified play to mention, calling a five-way capped pot with 65s, flop comes 789, and I bet like a madman capping and recapping with a raiser and two callers. The $995 pot goes to JTs, who flopped the nuts then caught runner-runner flush. From the brink, I made a nice recovery, flopping bottom pair of a raised pot from bb with 54s then catching runner-runner flush (KK), betting out board with AKo and having a fold on river, and winning a nice pot with KK vs JJ on board of 99558 (probably missed a reraise, but I’m fraidy scared). ATs limp was raised on turn 7AK4 (raiser had called initial pre-flop raise) and river 4 chopped the pot with A9 (crap). I think it’s important to stay with juicy games, when you’ve got every pot with a raiser and often three-way three-bet pots, a couple of tight players with some loose ones (one guy played 45% of hands and burned through $1063 in 115 hands). I’m sitting at 21%VPIP. Have to hate five-way pot with KcJc, flopping J with two spades only to lose to runner-runner spades by As8c.

AND THEN: Five folded sets of blinds and 7 lost pots with TT, 55, 66, 44, 99, QhJh (top pair vs. all-in set pre-flop). Pick up AQo in bb, three-bet and UTG caps, board comes AK657 (I check/call flop and turn, check/check river–sissified play on my part).

I was hoping to make it without seeing any of the Winter Olympics, but after putting the boys down to sleep, my Dad had wrestled the remote from my Mom and switched from Legally Blonde to Men’s Figure Skating. I got to watch the Snowboard Motocross thing as well, which had a feature on the eventual Gold Medalist, Seth Wescott, jumping out of helicopters in Alaska snowboarding down virgin slopes. I normally don’t get into these X-game-type of pseudo sports, but this guy was more of a man than I’ll ever be for sure.

Having said, that, here are my top reasons that Watching Poker is better than Men’s Figure Skating:

• Ted Forrest, Scotty Nguyen, and Johnny Chan, on their worst clothes days, could never look as ridiculous as these guys look on the ice. Seinfeld looked better in his puffy shirt. OK, strike that.
  
• There are no commentators in sport who are such homers as Dick Button et al. Every American was wonderful, well done, all this stuff, yet all these commies were robotic, etc. Where is Gabb Kaplan when we need him?
  
• No one in poker ever misuses the word courage. This one guy kept saying it was all about courage, his getting out there on the ice after he was falling all over the place. Courage is running into bullets and all that stuff. It isn’t courageous to choke then skate and do well. This is the Olympics, you’ve got like two things to skate. If you screw up one, you’re done.
• You always understand why you won or lost a hand (unless you’re playing PL Omaha H/L, where you can’t be sure if you actually won or lost a pot). In skating, these guys can’t know how in the world they got 125 points instead of 140 points.
  
• Free stuff. OK, this is something I like better about skating. In poker, we don’t get much free stuff. Even comps are really rakebacks, giving our money back to us in the form of bad buffet vouchers. In skating, you get all of these stuffed animals and flowers thrown on the ice, and little kids bring them to you. I like stuffed animals and flowers, so I’m all for that. It would be a nice touch after someone busts out if you could throw stuffed donkeys to Hellmuth.
• Our terms are just better than theirs. The nuts. Drawing dead. Flopping a set. Triple lutz/double toe? Salchow? I know nothing about skating, but I could say these terms.
  
• Poker players are just plain tougher. I think even Jen Harman could take every one of these guys (except for the Russian guy maybe). These guys fall once, then they just fold like babies, turning triples into singles. I eat at Wendy’s. I’ve had a triple. Why would you ever want a single? Just fall every time, you know, rather than wuss out at the end.
• Math. I was good in math, I like that being smart helps you in poker. You don’t have to understand implied pot odds to skate.
• Poker blogs are gay, but cmon…

Tried to talk my wife into going to Tunica since an ice storm in coming into Memphis, (”Look if we’re going to be stuck somewhere, wouldn’t it be great to be stuck in Tunica?). This was after we passed a PowerBall billboard that had the jackpot at $365MM. I pointed it out and told her I should buy some tickets. She then said, “No, because if we won it would be bad. You’d just play poker all the time, and I would divorce you.” I would play golf a bunch, and I would play all the tourneys, so I wouldn’t play all the time. But that’s probably not a good sign, if your wife would rather that you not receive $240MM (probably the take home) so that you can stay together.

Current treatment of my illness:

• 1 liter of Gatorade three times a day (lemon lime, using a straw)
• Two Advil Cold and Sinus tablets every 3-4 hours
• 1 sleeve/package of crackers twice a day

I tried to find the symptoms for Avian bird flu to see if maybe that’s what I have, but it doesn’t seem that they put anything in this flu that could let you know that you have it. Fever, coughing, sore throat, muscle aches. I don’t have a fever, but it doesn’t sound too different than being sick in general. I majored in Biology in college and had a Virology professor who said that flu vaccines in general were worthless, that they were a government plot to let people think the government was doing something to help us. He said that the influenza virus mutates so much and there are so many strains, that the vaccine protects you from last year’s flu when this year’s is different. My parents will probably make me suck zinc, with my Dad making a run at forcing me to snort baking soda. I did have Mexican last night to try and spice this out of my body but to no avail.

If you don’t have ESPN Classic, then get it. I TiVo’d the 1997 WSOP Main Event. I’ve seen it before, but it was just incredible to watch. Hellmuth, Gabe Kaplan, and Jim Earhardt (probably not the right name, the tournament director) watch the mastery that is Stu Ungar. Someone has the brilliant idea that the final table should be played outdoors on Fremont Street, so everyone has been brutalized by the heat the whole time. One of the great reads by Kaplan is when he puts Stuey on one of four hands, with QTs being one of the four, on a straight draw that doesn’t hit. Ungar bets $200,000 at a sizable pot, gets Ron Stanley to lay down middle pair (I think the board was J9XXX), and Ungar then flips over the QT. Ungar plays great, then gets heads-up with John Strezmp, the owner of Treasure Island. Strezmp was headed for the rail early on with TT vs. Stanley’s AA (and Mel Judah announcing that he folded a ten). Strezmp spiked the case ten to double through. When they get heads up, Stuey ends up making the wrong read with A4 on a board of A35, and he comes over the top only for both of them to get their chips in with Strezmp having A8. A 3 comes on the turn, but then the magical deuce hits on the river for Stuey to take his third main event bracelet. It’s surreal to watch him talk with Kaplan afterwards about his life and hoping to put it all together, only for him to be found dead in an Oasis Hotel room a year later. Gabe Kaplan, in my opinion, is far and away the best commentator out there. You can see it during these WSOP broadcasts, and you can see it on High Stakes Poker.

So here is the question for the day: what is the difference between poker blogs and 2+2 Forums? For the uniniated, 2+2 is the grandaddy of poker, publisher of David Sklansky’s books as well as Harrington’s. Greg Raymer notes that he wouldn’t have won without the 2+2 Forums, where players have posted and debated everything from hands to strategies for many years. The hard core 2+2′ers will come off as quite arrogant, that if you haven’t read everything ever posted then you haven’t really done any work. The poker blog? There are hand histories, bad beat stories, peripheral noise, and lifestories about all aspects of poker. 2+2 can be dangerous as you can simply read forever all of these great posts from everyone under the sun. Here is a link to recent great posts, which may be a good introduction.

I’ve started a challenge on Poker Academy with my brother to play 100 SNG’s in the simulator and see who wins. I don’t think it will be very close, as I find I have no interest in watching the players play, he knows every player and their tendency whereas I could care less. I’ve gotten brutalized starting, but maybe it is an initial transition and I’ll get the hang of it. I haven’t played either of my simulators too much lately, but I may do more of that soon.

We had a real scare last night after supper. Our 7-year old was playing with our 21-month old, and I was watching on the couch (still a bit out of it from my illness/throat/sinus thing). The 7-year old is playing with a ball, and the little guy is hopping around. Well, he suddenly lurches forward and falls toward the fireplace step (I don’t know if it’s a hearth–it is a granite step up which surrounds the fireplace on three sides). We have foam bumpers on this, but he falls forward with no hands down and pops his head right on the edge. Our ten-year old cut his head when he was 2 on a coffee table, but I knew that this wasn’t good. I rushed over, and he had a small gash above his eye. We decide I’m taking him, decide to bypass the minor med and take him to the Children’s Hospital ER (where they normally have a plastic surgeon). This happened at 7:30, and we got back home at 11:30 or so. I took him, and my wife stayed home with the boys. He was a real trooper, but he was pretty upset after we left (doing the shark that just got harpooned spine bend when trying to put him into the car seat). We held it together for nine Baby Booga’s (Baby Beluga), then he melted down at home, screaming non-stop for about 45 minutes. He’ll have a little beauty mark, but he should be fine.

I’ve got alot of work before my family trip tomorrow. I have to transcribe all the Singapore interviews before I leave or end up taking the transcription machine with me.

In lieu of this, Iggy has what he’s termed the longest poker blog post in history. I can’t get sucked into it just now, but it has some incredible stuff, including a 2+2 post with the question how many five-year olds could you take at one time, a post with about forty 2+2 posts on MTT strategy, and a ton more stuff. Definitely check it out.

ADDENDUM: My brother sent me this post by Gigabet, a top internet pro who has done well in live tourneys (hunted up Darrell Dicken). Absolutely terrific post on the difference between winning and losing, probably speaking outside of poker as much as to poker.

Congratulations to WillWonka, winner of the Junior’s Cheesecake. Will, in my opinion, has emerged as one of the emerging poker blog talents out there. His audience increasingly grows, and he is always providing thoughts and ideas. Well done, Will (but share with MrsWonka as well).

I watched the 2002 WSOP Main Event, won by Robert Varkonyi but remembered for Phil Hellmuth having his head shaved. Phil is chatting it up early with Gabe Kaplan during the final table, and Phil mentions that he doesn’t see any of the amateurs winning. In fact, if Robert V wins, he says, he’ll shave his head. Phil gets his head shaved, but it was fascinating to watch. ESPN still provided minimal coverage, although they were just launching showing the cards players were playing with when it was heads-up in a hand (I’m not sure how they did this; they just had the cards as a graphic). I’ve always liked Kaplan as he is a long-time poker guy. He’s not only seen it all, he’s sat at the table (I read some article that he took $200k from Amarillo Slim heads-up in the ’70’s). Russell Rosenblum and Harley Hall, who have both made subsequent final tables at the WPT, are the other American amateurs. It was the emerging of online poker, with UltimateBet caps. It wasn’t polished, and Varkonyi rode his QT to a dominant run. I don’t know enough of his history since, as he is often cited as the worst Main Event winner (or at least I posed the question on a 2+2 forum and he seemed to be the popular choice).

Not much poker right now. I’ve got some sort of throat deal going on, drinking GatorAde and eating crackers. I played just a bit on FullTilt last night at the $1/2 table. It is an interesting experiment to do that. I bought in with what was left of my FullTilt bankroll ($89), and moved it up to $125 or so. I may just leave it there and do that, see what I can get it to at the lower limits. The lower limits have more tables for sure going, so jumping into a casual multi-tasking game seems to be easier than to get back to the normal stakes online.

I’ll be flying to Memphis Thursday with the family, but I won’t be able to sneak to Tunica. Woe is me! Wish I could be out in LA. Looks like the tourneys are really heating up, with Kenna James and David Plastik winning last weekend (the Grinder was runner-up to James).

This is the final day for the Free Junior’s Cheesecake (delivery included). Junior’s in Brooklyn is one of the best cheesecakes in all of America. I know there’s no free lunch, but maybe a free dessert (or a free gift for your significant other…). To be elibigle, just leave a comment on any post. We’ll run this from 8-13 February, and I’ll use my trusty random number generator to select from all those who leave a post.

This will be a quickie post as I have a dentist appointment this morning and a very busy day. A very bad FullTilt session on Saturday, $8/16 getting AA cracked, KK beaten twice, AK vs AQ, AJs catching my J vs. QQ. I overplayed the losers every time, which is a problem that I need to fix. It is difficult for me, as it seems even money that the other raiser in a pot doesn’t have me beat most of the time.

Oh, and for those of you who love to read about the Big Game with Andy Beal, here is a great post from Linda, one of my favorite bloggers who deals at the Bellagio. Also a new thread on Bluff about the game resuming. I don’t have time to read, so just click and go. From my quick read, it looks like Jennifer was beaten pretty soundly yesterday.

ADDENDUM: Just made a quick dash to the dentist, and the news wasn’t very good. I had a cavity and was there for the filling. When he’s done, he says that there is 90-95% decay, and he’s putting medicine and a temporary filling in. Wait eight weeks, then go back and see if the body put in scar tissue and if the nerve pulled back. If yes, then finish drilling and put in filling. If no, then root canal and crown. I sure hope this is +EV as I’ve never had a root canal and hope I never will.

Back by popular demand, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (where in blogdom we travel from here):

• Sound of a Suckout: Scurvy is one of the glitterati of poker blogdom. His is one to check out daily, exploring challenges that we’re either confronting or will.
• Twenty-One Outs Twice: Chris Fargis is a poker pro who regularly gives recaps of the tourneys we all railbird or watch on Bravo/ESPN. I don’t get to his blog often, but it is always short and sweet (not sure why I don’t check it out more often).
• You Can’t Miss What You Can’t Measure: Shane Schleger is the name, and he just scored his biggest tourney win at Commerce in the $300 with re-buys (he put in $3900, which I can’t see myself doing for some reason). It looks like he’s buds with the Grinder et al, so we’ll have to keep our eyes open for him.
• Roswell-42: A chemist poker player? Hmm. I don’t know enough about differences between Live Journal and Blogspot. He’s a regular at Commerce, playing $10/20 NLHE. Now I remember why I hate Live Journal: I can never seem to get comments to work.
• The Poker Chronicles: Interesting initial post about tourneys from Matt Maroon. Matt’s written a book and seems connected to Matt Matros, who I like alot.
  
• Law of Poker: A St. Louis poker blogger (as is WillWonka, a great blogger). Mixing live play and online play, which I like alot.
  

Neat way to stumble upon new blogs, so I’ll make that a weekly Monday feature. A couple of things I’m trying to figure out: is it better to spread bankroll around or consolidate it at one site? I’m leaning toward just consolidating to Party as I think it leads me down negative behaviors (playing differnetly because my bankroll gets low at Site B). Do I keep my last $100 at FullTilt and try to build back, or just cash it out back to Party? Also, I need to put my cash bankroll in a bank account. I currently keep it on my person, which obviously isn’t very wise. Any thoughts on online bankroll consolidation and financial poker accounting would be greatly appreciated.

If you need any Valentine’s Day ideas, check out Erin Bode. She’s new to my iPod, my wife likes it alot (I found it on iTunes Jazz home page). Nice sleepy vocals. If you’re into that. Other ideas: Red Door Spas (if you have one nearby, very nice), Tiffany’s (can still sneak by and get something at whatever price range you’re into), Victoria’s Secret, Red Envelope (which is a great place for gifts for sure), and ProFlowers. I’ve used all of these at one time or another.

Fenster: Don’t know anything about no f—-’n? truck.
Cop: Oh, yeah? Well, your friend McManus told us a different story altogether.
Fenster: Oh, is that the one about the hooker with the dysentery?

Free Junior’s Cheesecake (delivery included). Junior’s in Brooklyn is one of the best cheesecakes in all of America. I know there’s no free lunch, but maybe a free dessert (or a free gift for your significant other…). To be elibigle, just leave a comment on any post. We’ll run this from 8-13 February, and I’ll use my trusty random number generator to select from all those who leave a post. 9 entries so far, so about the same odds as playing Js5s (you can now say, “Heck, I won a cheesecake with tougher odds than I had when I called your $30 pre-flop and cracked those aces…).

So I think I was suckered by NoblePoker. I responded to an email about some special bonus, but I’ll listen to your thoughts if I am just stupid or if I’ve been had. Here’s the initial marketing email:

Flop your First deposit bonus + $50 extra

All you need to do is make a first deposit of any amount (min $20), andyou will instantly see your first deposit bonus in your bonus balance.

Then send an email to Bonus@noblepoker.com with the bonus code: DB+50and we will credit you with an extra $50 no questions asked.

This offer is too good to leave open ended, so you have 48 hours tomake the deposit, and receive an extra $50 in your bonus balance.

And here’s the final response (after several emails to them):

Thank you for choosing Noble Poker.

This is Neil from the support team and I am glad to assist you today.

We would like to confirm that we have received your email regardingyour comment regarding the extra $50 promotion. I would like to apologizeif you feel misled on the promotional email that was sent to you butplease note that it was clearly stated on the promotional email that yourextra $50 bonus will be credited on your “Bonus Balance” togetherwith your First Deposit Bonus and not in your Current Balance. In thiscase you need to earn Crowns to redeem the bonus.

We appreciate your cooperation on the matter. Have a pleasant day

So was I jobbed here? Am I simply naive? It really is a two part question: was this misleading/am I just dumb? And what is the result? I searched and searched trying to find out about this prior to signing up, but there was nothing on their website about this promotion. I took “…credit you with an extra $50 no questions asked…” to mean a credit. I’m familiar with a credit, and that means cash to me. It pushed me over the line to go ahead and make a deposit to a site that I knew nothing about. Granted, my deposit was limited, but I wanted to try it especially if I was going to get dollar for dollar. After I saw that I’d been had, any further deposit wouldn’t have been eligible for my sign-up bonus.

To me the bigger thing is what is the result? Well, they’ve lost a potential player in quite a competitive marketplace. January rake (from PokerTracker): $1157, and I don’t play what I would consider a bunch. Word of mouth? Significantly higher for negative experiences than positive for most customers. I won’t make any rants about this, just the facts as listed above and a simple truth: I won’t be back there for sure. I won’t move my bankroll from Party to Noble. I won’t move any of my cash bankroll to Noble. I will be eager in any of your thoughts.

From a more systemic perspective, I think this is a hint of the challenge confronting the other online sites. Party is such a dominant force. How can new sites compete? I’m a big believer in segmentation, so I think the more focused a site can be on a target audience, the more traction they can get. Whether that is to focus on college kids, high rollers, MTT, SNG, Europeans. Whatever. Party’s job is to be all things to all people and to grow the online poker pie. Everyone else’s job is to go after specific niches and execute well. But you have to execute well. You most of the time only have one shot with a potential customers, so absolutely don’t do stupid things that may help in the short term but sacrifice long-term loyalty.

I tried Chris Ferguson’s plan for turning a $1 bankroll to $20k on FullTilt, playing $0.10/0.20 Pot Limit Omaha H/L. That probably is the only logical place to plan Omaha H/L, with only 2-4 limpers pre-flop, half of the hands no one bets or you can bet $0.30 and take down the pot. If anyone does bet, then you are probably beat. It is always fascinating to play, as after all betting has stopped, the chips get pushed to one-three people, you then look at the chat window to figure out if you won the high or the low or both or neither. I used to think you had to think too hard to play that game, but I think it’s probably best never to look at your cards in that game, then figure out at the end why you won if any chips come to you. I turned my $4.50 buy-in into $6.00, but I couldn’t tell you any more than that.

Best Picture Oscar Nominations: “Brokeback Mountain”, “Capote”, “Crash”, “Good Night, and Good Luck.”, and “Munich”. I’ve only seen Brokeback Mountain and Crash, but it did get me thinking about the Oscar (one of my favorite nights of the year). In the spirit of getting robbed, what was the worst criminal act in recent years (since I got out of college) with the Best Picture Oscar? Here are the finalists (winner is listed first). You can either go high-brow/intellectual or just movies that you think are great and lasting. I think it is a tough choice, but I’ll give you my thoughts below (my biggest heist is in blue).

1987: The Last Emperor or Fatal Attraction
1989: Driving Miss Daisy (not nominated: Batman; sex, lies and videotape; Say Anything; When Harry Met Sally; Do the Right Thing)
1990: Dancing with Wolves or Good Fellas
1994: Forrest Gump or Pulp Fiction
1995: Braveheart or (not nominated: Se7en, Heat, The Usual Suspects, Casino)
1996: The English Patient or Fargo, Jerry Maguire
1998: Titanic or Good Will Hunting (not nominated: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Rounders)
1999: American Beauty or The Sixth Sense (not nominated: Fight Club, The Matrix)
2001: A Beautiful Mind or Lord of the Rings
2003: LOTR: The Return of the King (not nominated: Kill Bill: Vol. 1)

‘87: Fatal Attraction seems a no-brainer after almost two decades. I mean, this scared a generation of men, basically cutting adultery by probably 50%.
‘89: Pick your poison on what beats Jessica Tandy. Look at the not nominated, then the other nominees (Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot). I’ll go with Say Anything, but you really can go in any direction.
‘90: C’mon, this isn’t even a fair fight.
‘94: I loved the Winston Groom book, and I thought Forrest Gump was great. Pulp Fiction, though was a home run, so I think it’s a toss up.
‘95: I think this is the travesty year. Nominees were Il Postino, Babe, Apollo 13, Sense and Sensibilites. You choose here, but two of my top five favorite movies (Heat and The Usual Suspects) are in this year. Se7en is an absolute brilliant flick.
‘98: Sacrilege. I love Lock Stock, but we wouldn’t be sitting here looking at a poker blog without Mike McDermott, the Knish, and Teddy KGB. The greatest lines in poker until they started televising Hellmuth and Mike the Mouth. I know Leo was the king of the world, but Matt Damon can say he sparked a multi-billion dollar industry.

Chime in. My wife has a friend coming in for the ballet on Saturday, so I’ll get some play in this weekend. Will report later.