Author Archive
Whatcha Listenin’ To Over There?
Had a post over on Hard-Boiled Poker today where I wrote a bit about musical tastes perhaps reflecting personality in some fashion. There are some poker pros who are semi-known for their musical preferences. Barbara Enright, the first woman ever elected to the Poker Hall of Fame (last July), is a huge fan of fifties doo-wop. Doyle Brunson likes country (big surprise). Annie Duke likes the White Stripes.
Then there’s Phil Hellmuth, who likes to drop references to Eminem into his CardPlayer articles. We know better than that, though. I mean look at the last lines of Play Poker Like the Pros, where the Greatest Hold ’em Player on the Planet tells us he really likes to jam out to Hootie and the Blowfish.
The Part-Timer’s Predicament
Was chatting with a friend of mine who was telling me about some exasperating live sessions he’d recently played. In the most recent one, he’d been dealt an especially unfortunate beat that cost him a huge pot — one of those played-it-perfectly-and-got-screwed type of hands with which we’re all familiar.
On the Tourney Journey
Played in the “Saturdays with Pauly” PLO tournament last weekend and had a good time. Saw Poker Kat there, among other familiar names/avatars. I ended up finishing 10th, a few spots shy of the money. (Wrote about it Monday over on Hard-Boiled.) Looking like I might be able to try again this Saturday. Let me invite others to join in the fun (see the ad below for details & password).
Races with Aces
Holding a couple of aces in PLO can be a sketchy situation. They look real purty, of course, but the flop very often turns A-A-x-x into applesauce. Watching how a PLO player handles aces is one of the more obvious ways of distinguishing a player’s relative level of experience. Does the player only raise preflop when holding aces? Does the player fail to bet the flop appropriately when it appears favorable to aces? Does the player stubbornly ride the hand to the river with unimproved aces? Answers to those questions often tell you pretty quickly what kind of player yr dealing with.
H.O.R.S.E. Play
Ended January a small winner — no great shakes, but better than being in the red. Was kind of a goofy month, really. Started with one super-crummy session of PLO on New Year’s Day, then had a lot of non-poker stuff gettin’ in the way of playing, prolonging my efforts to get “back to quits” (as they say). So I was in a hole for most of the month, finally climbing out of it here during the last week.
Q. UB or Not UB? A. Not UB.
Yesterday I posted something over on Hard-Boiled Poker regarding recent troubles at Ultimate Bet. I used to have accounts on both Absolute Poker & UB, but following the “superuser” cheating scandal at AP, I hastily pulled my moneys off both sites back in October.
In the post, I mentioned a few Two Plus Two threads I’d been following regarding various complaints with UB. (I didn’t even really get into those recent rumors about another superuser-type scandal perhaps brewing on Ultimate Bet — if yr interested in that, here’s where that thread begins.) I talked about a few issues, including the “wait list freeze” problem the software has, as well as the rampant abuse of unlimited all-in protections (something that folks have complained about for years on UB).
There’s a Party Goin’ On Right Here
Some of you may have heard about this new Poker Players Social Network, a new MySpace/Facebook-type site for poker people. Wanted to invite both writers & readers of Poker Sift over there if you happen to be interested in that sort of thing. There’s all the bells & whistles over there you’d expect from such a site. You can make friends, create/join groups, forums, discussions, etc. You can upload vids & music & photos & other whatnot to distinguish yrself from the crowd. You can even carry on yet another blog over there, too, if you feel the urge.
Poker Players & Poker Authors
“Do you prefer to be known as a great author or to be known as a great player?”
That was one of the questions Mike Johnson posed to David Sklansky on this week’s Two Plus Two Pokercast.
“Well, it depends on how you partition it out,” Sklansky replied. “I would rather be considered the best author and possibly the 30th best player than the other way around, assuming the money was equal. But I wouldn’t want to be considered a great author and merely a mediocre player.”
Poker & Popcorn
Had a chance not too long ago to see A Big Hand for the Little Lady (dir. Fielder Cook, 1966), a poker-themed western/comedy starring Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, and Burgess Meredith. Was pleasantly surprised by this funny, clever film for which poker is a meaningful part of the story-telling and not just incidental to other purposes.
If yr interested, I posted a review of the film today over on Hard-Boiled. Don’t worry — I give no spoilers over there. Although if yr like me, you tend not to care too much about reviews of films you haven’t seen.
Existential Interlude
Bill Rini — always a thoughtful commentator on the poker world — has a brief post up today about poker blogging. (You might need to scroll down to see it — I think he has some formatting funny-business happening at the moment.) Actually Bill’s post is itself a reflection on another post (to which he refers) that editorializes about affiliate programs and how difficult it is — especially now — for poker blogs to generate much income from affiliate programs.
