If there is anything better than pirates playing poker, I don't know what it is. Eastern Michigan University just put themselves on the map.

ARRRR Matey! Pirate Poker Night was held in the Utility Gym at the Rec/IM Tuesday night as part of Pirate Week, sponsored by Student Government and Campus Life. No Limit Texas Hold 'Em is the game and two pirates were present, along with 95 other pirate connoisseurs.

Link

Next Saturday, September 17 2005, the San Antonio Poker Club, BarPoker, and the Scottish Rite of San Antonio are hosting a $50 buy-in tournament to raise funds for the Red Cross Katrina relief. All monies raised will be donated and there is no prize other than recognition, which makes it legal under Texas law.

To reserve your seat, e-mail Pete "Primo" Alanis at DonPrimo26@yahoo.com. Include your full name, age, and email address.

Link

How much is there to love about football season? After it seems like 3 years since games have been on TV, we get preseason games, then college games, then fantasy football drafts, then office pools, then Austin's longhorns beating OSU in a nailbiter, then this great exchange from Mike Ditka and Michael Irvin on Sunday NFL Countdown talking about the Raiders defeat from the Patriots Thursday night:

Ditka: "You're talking about a 30-20 win!"
Irvin: "They're playing the most undisciplined team in the world the Raiders... they should have tore the Raiders a new you know."
Ditka: "They did, 30 points that's good."
Irvin: "No they only beat them by ten!"
Ditka: "They covered the spread in case you bet." (Hits Irvin on the arm)

Pure gold.

stranger70127 posted the following questions in response to an old article I wrote on 7-10 split probabilities:

Is there anyone who can help me compute the answer to the following questions?

What is the probability of a PBA bowler bowling a 300? What is the probability of an amateur bowler bowling a 300 on regular lanes? What is the probability of a person sitting at home bowling a 300 in the Yahoo featured game '10-pin bowling'? What is the probability of it happening to each of them (individually) more than once? What is the probability of it happening to each of them (individually) more than once within a month?

What is the the significance and probability of me bowling 7 '300' games in Yahoo '10 pin bowling' over a period of 3210 games within the time frame of ~ a few times before 7/15/2005 to 8/19/2005?

I don't have any good data handy on these questions, but hopefully someone here does!

Cool new product that "gives the user the sensation of playing at a live table while sitting comfortably in their own homes". I think it's a great idea, although it's a terrible oversight that you can't order it with your favorite poker room's logo on it. I'd love a Bellagio or Bicycle Club version, but one that says "Poker Padz" on it is less than attractive. Link

What does he think of golf?

On his HBO show, he said, "I hold in my hand the New York Times, and in the sports section, their new regular column on poker. ... Now at the risk of alienating degenerates from coast to coast, I must say I find it hard to get worked up over a sport that boasts all the pageantry and magic of Saturday night at my Uncle Murray's basement. ...

Link

Full Tilt Poker continues their PR blitz with a sponsorship of the "2005 Collegiate Open Championship". It does not appear to be a requirement that you actually attend college.

The US Collegiate Poker League is producing this school vs. school battle that begins November 12th. Full Tilt Poker will host the first two elimination rounds online. The National Nine finalists will then be whisked away for a final showdown live in Las Vegas! The event will be taped for national television for broadcast in the spring.

Link

This one, The Card Player, has a plot only slightly more ridiculous than some of the episodes of Tilt

The film follows the story of a serial killer in Rome who challenges city police to games of online video poker, games that will ultimately decide the fate of each of the killer's female abductees. For each game police lose, the killer severs a part of the victim's body. Going according to a sort of "three strikes, you're out"� rule, after police have lost three times, the girl dies.

Link

CardPlayer.com reports that the "Small Town Poker Tour" has been announced, and is in the progress of putting together their tour dates for the to-be-televised tournament.

The STPT will travel across the United States, putting on a series of charity tournaments, in an attempt to find America's number one amateur poker player. Tournament Director Matt Savage will oversee, and the tournaments will be filmed for T.V. Only the finals will be filmed in a casino. The rest of the action will offer a peak into the world of amateur and charity poker outside of the casino environment.

Link

Go over to the Nominate Your Town page and get Austin on the tour!

Poker-playing babies are all the rage these days...

This kid is already 150:1 to win the 2025 WSOP.

There's a good thread over at 2+2 about the mouse alternatives hard-core multi-table tournament players use to avoid arm strain. It can sure take its toll, playing 6 tables at a time for 12 hours a day :) It includes some pretty hard-core keyboard macro codes and all kinds of ergonomic poker advice. Link (via PokerFilter)

If you are a typical "post-beginner" no-limit player and trying to get better, I have one piece of advice that should improve your game: stop playing Ax. Literally. Don't play ace-ten or lower, under any circumstances. In a typical loose-aggressive home game, you will have difficulty making money with this hand and you are much better off tossing Ax every time and waiting for better hands. The most consistent losing play I see from players who are still climbing the NLH learning curve is playing Ax incorrectly, typically calling with top pair against a better kicker or bluffing at raggedy boards with it. At the least, I'd recommend you really analyze your Ax hands and figure out why you are losing with them.

Lone Star Poker, a group who apparently runs various well-publicized poker games in Dallas, is running a charity tournament this weekend.

TEXAS HOLD �EM TOURNAMENT & CASINO NIGHT

Come Join us on Saturday, August 20th at 6 p.m. at the Dallas Marriott Hotel Las Colinas.

223 West Las Colinas Blvd. Irving, Texas (972) 831-0000

Contact: David Scoggins (972) 270-5448, david_scoggins@sbcglobal.net or Dawna Kim (972) 381-2775, dawnakim@aol.com.

TEXAS HOLD �EM DINNER & POKER TOURNAMENT

PRIZES:

$10,000 worth of prizes including a plasma TV

Trip to Vegas

Golf rounds

Spa paks

Top 20 finishers win prizes!

Link (thanks, Georgina!)

Google Australia is under investigation for breaking Australian law by allowing online casino advertising.

Although Google Australia does not directly list links to poker and gambling advertising when someone uses common terms such as poker, or gambling during a search, it has not cracked down on listings that appear if a user misspells the search term.

Link to a story, and long Slashdot thread here.

At the same time, both Canada and the US are starting to pay attention to the ads by the free-money sites run by Party Poker and others in media where online gambling advertising is not allowed.

The media hype around stories like this always exceeds the legislature's ability to act quickly and decisively, but it does seem as if anti-gambling sentiments are more prevalent among lawmakers lately than any concerted moves to legalize and regulate.

A couple recent reader questions and comments. SHSPOKERKING writes:

HOW DO I PLAY IN THE DALLAS POKER FREEROLL ON ABSOLUTE POKER?

I have no idea, can anyone help him out with the answer? (And if not, can anyone help him find the caps lock key?)

Over two years ago I posted about Jeffrey Trauman, the professional online sports gambler who got busted after reporting his winnings to the IRS, thus becoming the first person in the US to be charged and convicted of online gambling. Daren posted this interesting comment on that post this week:

I know Jeff personally, although I haven't spoken with him for 4 years. He actually didn't know that online gambling was illegal in ND. In addition to that, he reasoned that what he was doing was not immoral since he was playing the middles and therefore he was guaranteed of winning. This assurance of return, to him, meant that he was not taking a chance on losing him money. Jeff is a good guy, but I caution anyone who gambles because of the addictive power involved.

Thanks for the post Daren, interesting follow-up.

But probably not in the way you think -- Kinky Friedman is definitely exploring alternative means of funding in his bid for Texas governor.

Friedman responded, "You have no idea how lucky I am."

The candidate was at Harrah's in New Orleans last weekend and hit a progressive jackpot on a slot machine. For the uninitiated, that's three rows of double stars.

Friedman won $45,612.

According to our source, Friedman's quote was, "It's a sign from the Lord."

Friedman reportedly deposited $40,000 into his campaign account today.

Via Harvey Kronberg's The Quorum Report (Thanks, Mark!)

I'm not sure if it's a weakness in my game or not, but I often find that when I'm heavily in the zone at a no-limit game, and have a very good feel for where my opponents are on most hands I'm in, I sometimes get in a hand where I have a very good hand, but underplay it because I don't have a good feel for where my opponents are in that hand. It's hard to describe why, but sometimes I'll have a very solid hand, but if I don't have a good read one way or the other on an opponent I'm otherwise reading well, I'll be very reluctant to bet it. I don't consider it a huge weakness in my game because generally when this happens my opponent is weak and would be unlikely to call big bets or raises anyway. Here's my latest real-life example:

I'm in late position with A9 diamonds in a $1-2 game, and raise one limper to $8. Big blind and limper, both players I've got a pretty good read lock on, call. Flop comes A-8-3 rainbow. Both check it to me, and I don't feel weakness in the first player's check -- but it's kind of a dirty read and I don't have him on a set or the like, I just don't really feel good putting him strong or weak. In this situation I should almost certainly bet, but I've already thought too long about player 1 and so I terminate my tell by checking. Turn comes a 9, giving me two pair, and both players check to me again, but again something about player 1's check again has me confused and so again I think for a little too long, and then check a second time. River comes a Q, first player bets $15, a much lower bet than he would bet under either a steal or a good hand against other good hands. Player 2 folds, and I just call, and he flips over just a queen.

I clearly played the hand poorly, yet I don't feel too bad about it, because I probably couldn't have gotten any more money than I did, and I generally play in games where waiting until I do feel a lock is profitably possible.

I guess what I'm describing is getting out of my element in a hand because I feel like I have an absence of a read that I should otherwise have. Can anyone point me to any articles about similar concepts? I can't recall any real analysis of something like this -- is it bad, is it good, how do you treat situations when you have dirty reads in general. I feel like even though on its own I played the hand above sub-optimally, underplaying those hands in a game where I frequently have very good reads is better than overplaying them; if I have a solid read 50% of the time, it probably pays to be even more conservative when I'm not sure where I stand.

Due to the recent relocation of an old poker buddy back to Austin, I've found myself playing a lot more rock paper scissors lately. I'm always somewhat surprised at how little penetration RPS has among the other people I play poker with; I think RPS is a game that has a natural appeal to anyone who enjoys poker.

If you share my interest in RPS you may already know that the 2005 RPS championship date has been announced -- October 22nd, 2005 in Toronto.

It also seems the folks at the World RPS Society have been busy. I'm definitely looking forward to RPS: The Film, which hopefully will be coming out soon. The trailer is a must see if you have not checked it out.

And if you live in Seattle you must check this out.

Terry writes:

Do you see a problem have a poker club coming to a banquet hall in the evenings to play... I realize you can do a cover charge how about selling a buffet of food as part of the poker night???

As with any Texas poker game, there are three tests to prove its legality (see texas poker legality for full details). You meet the equal odds requirement by playing poker. The banquet would need to be classified as a private place which it probably is. The tricky one here is "economic benefit" and that's where a cover charge will get you in trouble. Even a dinner buffet that you charge for is questionable. It's never really been tested in court, but my amateur opinion is that if you required all players to pay any amount of money for anything, you would fail the economic benefit test in a Texas court. Even if the buffet or "door donation" charge was purely voluntary, you're going to be in a grey area, especially with any door charge that is there purely because of the game.

Basically there really is no way to profitably run a poker game in Texas legally, so my general advice is either just bite the bullet and do it illegally and try not to get caught, or run a legal game that you receive no money from.

Mike has posted a solid write-up of the recent Austin poker robbery over at ALL IN from the Porch. I know nothing about the game or the host so can't really comment on his speculation, but he has good details and sound advice on game security.

As a tech guy, this excites me. I'd love to play in a poker room where the dealer didn't need to shout at the top of their lungs every time they need a floorperson for whatever reason.

The article has no details on what the wireless poker shuffler will do, but I assume part of it will be the ability to silently request new setups, brush, floor, and (hopefully!) cocktail service.

Poker and gaming supply company Shuffle Master, Inc. announced that it has inked a strategic partnership deal with Wireless management solutions provider Ameranth Wireless, Inc. As part of the agreement, Ameranth will create a software interface, connecting its poker-room management solutions with Shuffle Master's Deck Mate � poker card shuffler. This will create an all-encompassing poker room management system, boasting a great degree of functionality.

Link

I actually have a very hazy memory of playing in a poker room about 5 years ago that had instituted buttons on the table for this very purpose (I believe they were wired into a central control panel). From memory, they were not in good repair and so the dealers ended up shouting most of the time anyway. I think maybe one of the AC rooms like Trop or Taj, anyone have an idea where this would have been?

Apparently there was another poker robbery in Austin this week, in an apartment complex in South Austin on Tuesday night. I don't have any confirmed details other than that nobody was hurt.

If you are concerned about the safety of a game, my advice is simply to avoid it. There are enough games around that you can find a good, low-key one that meets your needs. By all means, stay the heck away from games that advertise prominently online or (worse) in bars and restaurants.

In other news, there was a bust of a poker operation in Brownsville, where a poker supply company was running games and taking a rake. The article says police estimated the place took down $5,000-$10,000 a night, yet also claims that the rake was $5 an hour and they only arrested 11 patrons so it doesn't exactly add up. It was the first poker bust in Brownsville history. Link

I *think* this is Swedish for "who wants a beating" or "who wants a beating from me". I'm sure all the Swedish poker players who read this will find it hilarious anyway.

This week, police made raids in what is the biggest gambling bust in Austin history.

More than 700 gambling machines known as 8-liners, a type of slot machine, were confiscated into moving trucks; 76 from one location alone.

Link

It's probably a direct result of the popularity of televised poker and its glorification of the poker elite, but I've noticed people I know and play with talking about playing poker professionally a lot more in the last year. The number of emails I've gotten from people asking for advice has steadily increased since I started this blog too.

My advice, always, is - don't do it. Not really because I think they should not do it, but because I think being a successful professional poker player requires a grit, determination and self-motivation that should not be deterred by asking someone for advice and hearing them tell you not to do it. So if the person takes my advice, they shouldn't have been considering playing poker professionally in the first place, and if they ignore my advice, they probably should have ignored it.

I've never done it, but I do genuinely believe that playing poker professionally is a horrible way to live for 99.999% of the population. From what I've seen of professional poker players - let's call them PPP's, the main personality traits that help you enjoy the life are being highly solitary, not requiring a lot of human interaction in your life, not caring about directly bettering society through work, being highly self-motivated and disciplined. Not ever indulging in alcohol or drugs appears to help too.

I guess this post is sort of a counterpoint to my post yesterday about pokernerd, and was inspired by Josh Hoptay's post in which he describes his six months as a successful PPP, after which he realized it was not for him.

Since I have started, my skin has paled out, I've put on some weight (I don't know how much is bad weight though: I started a workout program a month and a half ago and I'm hoping its all muscle), and I have begun to experience small bouts of depression and loneliness.

Poker offers such a unique oppurtunity to make it big doing little, but it comes at a significant emotional and mental cost. Working a 9-5 job may not be the most magnificient thing to do, but for the most part, no matter what job it is, doing it performs a service or benefits society in some way. Admit it or not, that gives us, or at least me, some sort of satisfaction. I lack that satisfaction with poker. Unless its a live game, I don't have any communication with anybody while I'm "working" and when you boil it down, all my "job" consists of is taking other people's money and giving them an ass whooping in return. There is something very unsatisfing about that.

His post is somewhat depressing, but 100% required reading for anyone who is considering life as a professional poker player. Good luck Josh. Link

Anyway as we go over that, the WSOP main event is down to near 100 players remaining, and Raymer continues to kick butt, including busting someone out on the first hand of the day! Winning the WSOP main event twice also seems like a pretty good justification for becoming a PPP :)

I also need to append my observations on Sam Farha from two years ago... he's not just a cool mutha, he's my new gambling hero. Last night according to Pauly he lost $25k on $1k coin flips. That's quality. He displaces my good friend Hamslice, who was previously my hero for losing $1600 at rock-paper-scissors. Good work. (Mental note: bring stack of $1k chips next time I hang out with Sam Farha.)

(Update: Dan has some extra detail on the $25k coin flip here.)

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