1st Rule Of Poker

Does anyone out there live near Foxwoods? Anyone ever been to Foxwoods? A while back I took a trip up there and I was talking to one of the dealers, he happened to be a blogger as well. The funny thing was that neither of us wanted to say what our blogs were. I like the anonymous factor of my blog. But, lately I was thinking about coming out of the closet, by letting some people know who I was in the real world. Has this caused any large problems for any of you bloggers? That’s it, another short post.

I was just wondering what everyone in the blogging community thought about taking an article idea from one blogger and using it as your own? If you rewrite the article, maybe even better its not really plagiarism. But do you feel obligated to give credit where credit is due? Sometimes coming up with new article ideas is the hardest thing to do after a year of blogging. Personally when I get an idea from one blogger I like to put a link back to them just to show my appreciation for their inspiration. Maybe that is going to far, maybe not far enough. I was just wondering what everyone else thought.

First off I would like to declare that I am a white man, but have never thought of myself as racist, nor been called racist by anyone. I grew up with friends of all different colors. Now with that being said, I think I might be very racist when it comes to playing poker. When someone first sits at the table, all I have to go on is what they look like and the stereotypes that go along with that. Just as I judge someone for the way they dress I also judge their skin color, sex, orientation, age, weight and wealth.

I don’t know, maybe I am the only one who does this. After a while you train your self to look for differences instead of ignoring them like you should in the real world. If I see an Asian player sit down to the table with his wife or family near by I see dollar signs. The first thing I think of is that he is a rich guy on vacation who loves to gamble. If I see a white guy in his 60’s sit down at the table I usually think, he is a stiff blue color rock. Now if he is in his 80’s, I might think he is just gambling away his money before he dies. Black guys never really seem comfortable at the table and can usually be either bullied or slow played into monster pots. Women can go either way, but they are usually an extreme. They can be really tight or oblivious to what others might have, but the way they dress usually gives it away. Notice how I stayed away from young people in every category. That’s because everyone above is smart enough to have gone out and read a few books before they came to the tables. But the younger you are the more ready you are to learn from a book. So I am always ready to re-adjust my stereotypes. These are just some of the examples of how my past experiences at a poker table have influenced my future opinion of all players in that category.

I think it makes me a better player to constantly look for differences and try to fit them into a previously created category. I also think that makes me racist at the table. Some people might say why don’t you view everyone the same when they sit down. Well my answer is because they are not the same, but we are also not that different. I have not taken the time to count they number of different type of people that play, but there cant be more then 10. Some people can switch back and forth between some of them, which makes them better players. Over all, the millions of players out there can be put into one of maybe 10 groups.

Now after I have played with any player for an hour I might have a totally different opinion. I let their actual play determine how I will judge them. But, I find it less shocking when an Asian player plays crazy then when a middle aged white guy plays crazy. Even that is racist. Confirming previous stereotypes with selected individuals is how people become racist.

When I say racist I don’t mean only toward Blacks, Whites or Asians. What I mean, is that you treat people different based solely on their appearances. We all practice this over and over for hours a day. That has to have some kind of effect when it comes to the real world. I know I use poker terms when I talk to friends at a bar so why would that be any different then using poker logic in the real world? When you see a news report on TV and the only “read” you have on the victim or suspect is one picture. It wouldn’t be that far off to go from he did that because he was on tilt. To; he did that because he is a stupid gangster. Or they deserved it because they are all like that.

In wrapping up my little article I would just like to point out that, all racism is bad for man kind. What I want to know is, is it good for poker players?

Ok well that’s about all for my random thought driving home from the casino. I don’t like to bash poker but I do like to write about all my thoughts about poker. This happened to be one of them so I present it to you. There may be some flaws in the logic which I invite you to point out. After all, I love to play poker so this could be a black eye for the game. I would welcome everyone to disagreed with me and show me why this is not true. If you think this is a worthy debate I invite/ask that you to link to this article from your blog so that more people can read it and comment.

257 days since Bush signed the bill that changed my life. I really hope in another 257 days someone signs a bill that says poker is a skill game that should be 100% legal to play online.

What has it really accomplished? People still play online. If I was Full Tilt I think I would mark that day October 13th as a holiday. It made what was a medium site with all the potential in the world, explode with players. Poker Stars, who was the second largest site, is now the largest with more then double the number of players. If I was the CEO of Party Poker I would feel like the red headed step child of poker. They have to sit outside and watch everyone eat while they wait for leftover scraps. Instead on one online banking site (neteller) people use a number of different methods to get money online and some are even easier then before. The only thing I can think of is that it scared the average guy away from the online tables. Honestly I think it only did that for about 2-4 months. I cant see it stopping the underage college player from playing. They knew it was illegal for them anyway and ( they / I ) still found a way around it. What else did it do? Well it did point out another fine example of how hypocritical our government can be when it comes to padding their pockets. I mean seriously, do you know of any professional lottery players? Let me know when you find one because I want to know where the positive EV is.

One more thought. Has anyone had any updates on the status of Neteller accounts for US players. I have basically given up on the money but it wouldn’t be a bad bonus to get in the mail one day. I seriously think my readership has taken a dive. Its all my fault but it is kind of sad. Its tough to talk about poker when I don’t get a chance to play that much. Once I make some money in the real estate biz ill be back at the tables. Right now I have a 1.5m restaurant to sell and a 700k house, so either one would be a fat paycheck.

One more added note. I would like to give a shout out to the four bloggers who keep up with the crap I have to say. They are all good blogs with far more interesting things to say about poker then what I have. Please check them out. Short-Stacked Shamus Mike Wolverine Fan Jordan from High On Poker

I finally got around to playing a little online poker today. Was not a lot only about 2 hours of two tables 6 handed. I did alright. Didn’t win a lot, but it got the blood rushing for a bit. I wanted to go up to the casino but I didn’t have the time to commit 7 hours to play. I got to tell you this job of mine is really hurting my poker time. On top of that I am getting jealous of some of my friends that are all out in Vegas right now and I have responsibilities to take care of. Man this sux. They really need to legalize online poker so that everyone can go back to playing. I don’t want to have to worry about “will I have a job next week” It would be quite a shock to more then a few people if tomorrow it was just turned off.

On another note. I just saw that Full Contact Poker is combining with stars? The way I got the emails it seemed like a scam. Well I hope its true. I have a bunch of money in FCP that I couldn’t get out. If they send it all to stars I can have them send me a check or something. Well that’s about all I have for today. Good luck everyone.

Yea real work really has taken over most of my free time. Especially because I have not made any money yet. It takes so long to go from getting a client to a paycheck that it really sucks. That’s why I have not played too much. I would be on a short bank roll and don’t want to play like that.

I did go once the other day and ended with such a bad beat that I didn’t want to go back. I was not going to write about it because I try to stay away from bad beat blogs. But considering it was about a week and a half ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday, ill share.

Now the beat its self was just like any other bad beat. That’s not what cost me so much money. It was the fact that this person played her hand the worst way possible on every street except the river. Ok it was 5 limpers preflop, The button is the only person who called behind me and I have pocket 7’s. The flop is 7,5,2, with two diamonds. Bb checks utg bets, one person folds and I smooth call. Button raises. BB calls two bets cold. Utg calls so do I. As I am calling, a read flashed in my head that the button has a flush draw. I could have three bet but I didn’t want to give away the strength of my hand. The turn was a 3. Bb checks utg checks, now because it wasn’t a diamond I bet into the button. Everyone just calls. The river is the money card for me, the 3 of diamonds. Everyone checks to me and I already know the button has the diamonds so I check. He bets, BB raises, I 3 bet. Button gets all pissed and folds. BB raises, I raise, they raise, I raise, they raise, now at this point I want to raise again. I think to myself that there is no way that they would have called two bets cold on the flop with 3’s. Then if they did why didn’t they raise on the turn? They already had everyone in the pot, so we would have called the second bet. At this point I really want to raise again. But I tell myself that she wouldn’t raise that many times with out quads. So I just call. Yup, four threes. I still won money for that day, but to make sure I did I left shortly after that hand.

Well thanks again for everyone keeping up with my blog. Ill try to do a better job, but itll be slow until I get some cash flow.

Well it has been a while since I posted a comment. Mostly because I have not played any poker. I have been trying to get started in the real estate business but I have to say its tougher then I thought it would be. I am not the type that likes to bug people over and over again for something they don’t want, but that’s kind of what you need to do. Mostly because people don’t understand the advantages of having a real estate agent. I really cant understand why a person looking to buy a house wouldn’t have an agent. They are almost always free for the buyer because the seller usually pays for the commission.

I guess my problem is that I am not good at cold calling people and I am not good at convincing people to buy something they don’t want. So although I think that will make me a good agent, it may make it hard for me to acquire new customers.

I was thinking of going to play again in the near future, but I think I will need to make an adjustment in limits. I have a bankroll just large enough to live off of for the next four months, but if I don’t sell a house in that time I could go broke. Its quite the gamble. I think it would be good to play some of the smallest limits just to meet new people. You know network a little and maybe strike up some business.

I think I have reached a hump in my blog. I have been writing it for about 8 months now and I really got to keep up with it.

Oh… one more question for anyone who might know the answer. I have been trying to cash out from Hollywood poker and Poker Room ( I live in the states) I cant play for real money but I still have money in the account. They sent me checks but my bank wont cash them. Anyone else having this problem? Well until next time, good luck at the tables.

I am in the bb with K6 off-suit. UTG limps and so does the next person. 3 other people limp making it a total of 7 people in the hand. The flop comes KK6. I check and everyone checks. The turn is a 7. Not a great card because it wont give much action but there is a good chance someone has a king out there. I bet hoping that someone thinks I just have a 7. Utg folds and the next person calls, so does the button. Mid position guy is kind of tight but I have only been playing with him for half an hour. Button is quite loose. The river is a 9. I bet mid position raises, button folds. I Reraise he four bets. What does he have and what do I do now?

Don’t read the next part until you have thought it out and make a comment.

Here was everything I thought of. On the turn there was a flush draw. If the Mid pos guy had K9 he would have raised the turn. If he had 66, 77, or 99 he could have either smooth called or raised the turn. He could have had K7 or K6 but I didn’t think he would limp in that early with those hands. So I came to the conclusion that there were more hands that I could beat then that I lost to. Since he almost def didn’t have K9 he couldn’t reraise me again. So I reraised him. He got a little angry and just called. I with out a lot of confidence said K6, and he turned over K7. Now looking back I think all my logic was correct, I just forgot to add one other thing. If I think he is kind of a tight player what hand would he 4-bet me with. I really thought that the 7 helped him so I thought he had 77. But would he have 4 bet me with 77, looking back I really don’t think so. Especially because I was in the blind and could have had a number of hands that beat him. I wish I thought of that a little earlier. Its one of those hands that I could have saved a few bets on the river but I was going to lose a lot any way you look at it. Let me know what you guys think about my thought process.

I played yesterday and it was almost a waste of time. I played for almost 14 hours which ended at 4am and really didn’t make much money at all. There was this one fish who couldn’t do anything right. Unfortunately what ever he did against me, the turn or river would make his stupid play good for him. This guy just turned 21 (ID’d for drinking vodka straight up) his hands were constantly shaking when he was in a hand. He always open limped and he didn’t put other people on hands. He would reraise people with hands that I wouldn’t even call with. So put simply this guy was testing my resistance to tilt. Eventually he won and I had to leave.

At one point the entire table tried to teach him how to handle chips. Every time it would come to him it would slow the game down watching him count out his chips into little stacks. He would then try to push in 4 little stacks at once with one hand. Then it was really painful to see him try and shuffle chips. He didn’t use his fingers. He would try to do it all with the palm of his hand and they kept falling over.

I am obviously still on tilt from all the rivers he would hit on me. Then he would just give all his chips to other people. Soooo frustrating.

Well this last week I caught a really bad cold and cough, so to spare the other players at the table, I took the week off. I really needed a break anyway. I was starting to get that feeling that I was going to work again. So I don’t really have any direct poker stories to talk about, but I did remember another tell. Now I really don’t know how well this will translate onto other players. It is very specific to one player, but learning what others do is always helpful.

This was an older woman (60’s) who played every day. So she knew a lot of other players in the game. What she liked to do is show her “friends” her cards if they were not in the game. If she only showed one card it was almost always an Ace. If she showed two cards it was usually either two big cards that I would have raised, or any pair. On the big hands she would usually make some kind of comment to the player next to her about how she was going to lose to some bad player. I don’t really think that you can get a lot of useful information out of when she shows two cards, but the showing one card could be very helpful. Now unless people have been talking about any particular card, usually the only card a player will show preflop is an Ace. Remember this is all preflop. This was also when I was playing in a smaller game. It was just another tell I thought of sitting around.