Hi folks,

I’ve very limited time here but wanted to get a post or two up since I have this new fancy wordpress install.

Recently I discovered a very cool poker themed podcast hosted by Phil Gordon.
It’s ESPN Radio’s Poker Edge if you’re curious.

They were talking about the new legislation regarding online poker that has all the online poker players in the country panicked.
It’s being referred to as a ban on online poker.

Phil Gordon’s Podcast (two episodes in particular) did a pretty good job of summing up the situation.
The show is pretty good in general so you should check it out… but anyway here’s a run down and my take on the new law:

• Nothing is being made illegal that wasn’t already.
• On a federal level online poker has never been declared illegal
• This bill only affects the banks that process payments being sent to illegal online gaming companies.

A couple things to think about.

• Most people playing online poker either know how legal/illegal online poker is in their STATE… or don’t care
• This is a federal bill… so not a great deal is changing in their legal situation. (remember on a federal level online poker has never been declared illegal)

• Getting money in-and-out of a poker account MAY become more difficult, but…
• most people playing online poker seriously are using financial middle-men like netteller and firepay. These are services not unlike “paypal” but they are NOT US companies - and thus not subject to the new legislation.
  • Granted… I believe that Net teller will be towing the line on this new US law .. but I’m not sure why - and there are certainly other options out there.
  • Perhaps the biggest threat to those playing SERIOUS online poker is that inexperienced / weak players that lack the knowledge or motivation to use such methods may not be as abundant as they were before.

• This “law” is complete B.S.
• This was snuck into an anti-terrorism bill at the last second. It obviously has NOTHING to do with the larger bill - and is merely someone’s attempt to gain a political talking point in an election year.
  • This was not studied … just written in at the last second. However there ARE studies showing that upwards of 60% of American citizens DON’T want online poker to be illegal. THEY WANT THE RIGHT TO PLAY!
  • Clearly there’s a decent chance that the guy looking for a quick election year talking point will end up with a quick political spanking.

• This “law” is all but unenforceable.
• Putting the X on the bank’s back to check into EVERY transaction made in the country is NOT something they want to do. Hell it could bankrupt some of them!
  • i.e. the banks are likely lobbying on “OUR” side on this.

• Speaking of lobbying…
• The poker players of the country are lobbying too! “The Poker Player’s Alliance“, a lobbying group in DC, is working hard to get an exemption for online poker.
  • If the US Govt. REGULATES instead of eliminates the game it stands to gain 3.3T in taxable dollars. It only makes sense I mean consider this…

This country lets people BET on Fantasy Football. The rationale is that Fantasy Football can be considered a “game of skill” because players CHOOSE the football stars they have on their “teams” … poker is a game of chance because you can’t pick your cards. That’s completely the WRONG way to think about it.

In fantasy football you pick your teams… and then you’re done.
You have NO control over how they play - or if they get injured.
It’s like picking your dice in craps… you can choose the instruments… but you can’t make them DO anything.

In poker you are given your cards…
But YOU decide if you play them.
If you play - YOU Decide how to play them.
And YOU can stop playing them whenever you decide to do so.

Seems the common sense of the situation escapes those with the power to do anything about it.

all for now…

Played some poker this weekend.
(Big surprise huh?)

Friday and Saturday I played live, and Sunday online.
Saturday was rough.

They had a good turn out.
There were 70+ people at this game.
(A $50 buy-in tourney)

Seven tables PLUS several people had to wait for someone to go out before they could even start. I didn’t do real well, but it was maddening because I really felt like I was playing my best poker. I was reading everyone at the table pretty much dead on.

(So nobody was intimidating me.)

I was noticing everything at the table.
My focus was much better than usual.
But the cards just would not come.
I got squat all night.

I hung around and made it down to the 4 table mark when I FINALLY got a pair.
A pair of 7s

I was on the high end of short stacked.
Blinds were set to go up soon.
I was in late position and there was one limper in the pot.
If I played the sevens I’d rather not get a caller.
I’d rather just steal the blinds.
So I pushed ALL-IN.

My hope was that the two blinds would fold, and so would the limper.
If he didn’t fold I figured he had AJ or something and I’d be in the lead of a very close race.

As it turns out…

One of the blinds called my ALL-IN and the limper did too.
I thought “Two? Two callers? I’m am so screwed!”

When we turned the cards over one guy had AQ the other AK.
Not as bad as I had feared, and I was pretty darn close when I put the limper on a hand.

So here I am statistically ahead at this point … and my callers are sharing aces so they don’t have as many outs.

Suddenly I’m thinking I may triple up here!

Nope.

An Ace hits on the turn and I’m out.

Jana was still in and did pretty well.
She ended up two away from the final table.
She played really well but got a couple tough beats and fought back to hang in there for quite a while.

Sunday night I played an online tourney and did ok.

There were 596 players.
The buy in was 18 bucks.
I made a dumb move at the end.
Had I sat back and passed on that hand I could have made it to the final table.

I was above average on the chip stack.
But I decided to play to win Vs. play not to lose… and tried to bully with a semi bluff.
Didn’t work.
In the end I got 15th place and turned 18 bucks into 100.

Not the 1st place I was hoping for…
But an “In The Money” finish with a decent sized crowd almost makes up for Saturday.

… Almost

Hello everyone.

Sorry for the stale stagnant site.

It’s been ridiculously busy here in the world of Doug.

I just wish it had been busy with things that were worth reporting.

Things are likely to get even busier in the coming weeks.

But I’ll honestly try to get some posts made.

In the meantime check out all the new quotes!

Jeroen

Kevin

Dave

In the world of Baby…

We’re eagerly awaiting the 20wk ultrasound.

No real news.

Jana is doing fine, and we’re marching along.

In the world of Poker…

Made the final table at a recent tourney.

Made the very bottom of the “In the Money” group.

Though after all the re-buys and add-ons I basically broke even.

In the world of 24…

I’m starting to wonder how the heck they are gonna drag this out another… what 6 hours?

I also hear that they signed on for another three seasons AND a movie version.

Sweet…

Once this season is over I am SOOOOooo gonna go get the video game to hold me over until the next season.

So a few nights ago I was playing poker online.

(no big news there…)

I was determined to NOT make the same mistakes I always make.

(learn more here)

And I didn’t.

I sat down at a low stake No Limit table (.50/$1) and pretty quickly doubled my money.

The next night I did almost as well.

So LAST night I think…

I’m gonna try two tables at once.

What’s the worst that could happen? Even if I only do half as well… that’s still pretty good.

Meanwhile I’ll be adjusting to multi-tables and in the long run that’s where the money is at!

So I opened up TWO low stake No Limit tables (.50/$1).

Bought in with $60 on the first and $50 on the second.

I have to admit the first thirty minutes were rough.

It was a real challenge adjusting to that. Even though I played pretty tight pre-flop and folded a lot of hands… it was still a much faster pace than I was used to.

I was down a bit on each table for that first half hour.

Then things started to turn around.

.. well at least at ONE of the tables.

I Played for an hour or two, and after I had settled in and adjusted to the pace was actually enjoying the multi table experiment.

The end results though weren’t as glorious as I had hoped.

Table one was up 54 bucks!

Table two was down 50.

For those of you drawing math problems in the air that boils down to four dollars positive.

After an hour or two… not so hot.

But it WAS positive.

If I can at least stay ITM (in the money) while I learn to handle multiple tables I’ll consider it a big win.

I have a live game tonight so I must go.

I’ll report the results soon.

So … it’ s been a while. Sorry.

I’m still lacking a good recorder to do Audio Blogs.

And I’m still much to fat to continue to do Video Blogs.

So put on your reading glasses.

I don’t have anything terribly profound to share but I thought I would tell you two things I’ve come to realize in life.

1) Poker is a metaphor for life.

There are a great many things I’ve “been meaning” to do in life… and just haven’t gotten around to it. There are even a few that I NEED to do… but haven’t despite the obvious and negative impact on my life.

The same is true for my poker game.

Every time I play I make the same three mistakes.

I’m sure there are more … but these three are consistent and crippling. If I could stop them I’d play much better.

Since I’ve identified these mistakes you’d think that would be easy.

But I apparently haven’t gotten around to that either.

Last night I played with 18 guys.. got to the final table, but finished out of the money.

Beaten again… by my own stupid play.

So it is with life.

Dedication to promises I’ve made to myself just isn’t an attribute I’ve been able to muster as of late.

I’m not even sure what to do about it…

I’ve known about these poker problems for awhile… and it hasn’t mattered.

Maybe I need a long vacation to spend some time with monks and find balance or something.

2) Courage on behalf of others is easier than for oneself.

I remember a situation that happened recently.

The dog was kenneled and Jana came home to an empty house.

(a rare treat)

But as we walked inside something odd happened.

ALL The power went out. All of it.

And the house Alarm started screeching and wailing.

It was frightening. Both of us were sure that someone had cut the power and was breaking in.

(one too many episodes of CSI perhaps)

Anyway Jana made an instinctive move to go hit the code on the alarm.

I made an instinctive move too.

I grabbed her arm.

“Don’t move.” I said.

I picked up the deadly MAGlite that was by the door.

“If you hear anything weird get outside and take off.”

Then wielding my flashlight I walked into the house to face the would be intruders.

Of course there were none.

The Alarm stopped soon enough, and the power came back too.

We laughed about it.

But at least I had learned that in a time of crisis I was able/ready to step up and at least attempt to protect my wife and my home.

I learned the other day though…

That the protective instinct is altogether different than blind courage.

The other day I was home alone.

No one to protect. No one to instantly be more concerned for than myself.

I was washing dishes.

The Tivo was paused so I could return to the Olympics when I was done.

Halfway through the dishes though something happened.

A loud sudden screeching boom. And a definite male voice.

Did I spin around with one of the knives I was washing and yell

“Come on out you Son of a Bitch! You Picked the WRONG house this time!!”

No.

I spun around hands dripping, eyes wide, pants soiled, and ready to beg for my life.

Was this horrible sound something so convincing as a power outage and House alarm.

No.

The Tivo was out of pause sapce.

The TV started playing and I wet my pants.

God forbid anyone brake into the house when I’ve got no one to protect.

I’ll be useless.

Available Formats: [mov]

Video from my trip to the Consumer Electonics Show in Vegas.Music:“Two Shots” by Matt Dusk“Viva Las Vegas” by Elvis Presley

Hi everybody.

So I’m back from Vegas and glad to be home.

CES went well, and I hope to have a vlog for you soon, but I wanted to at least say hello.

HELLO!

This year in Vegas I was sure to play more cards than I did last year.

I did ok, though I was too busy with the show to really play as much as I would have liked, or as much as I SHOULD have in order to truly gauge how I was playing.

I played 3-6 Limit Holdem twice and 2-4 once.

The 2-4 game was at Binnions downtown.

Of the three sessions I was up two, and down one.

The down session was a net loss of one dollar so not too bad.

(if I hadn’t tipped the waitress that last time I could have broke even)

Anyway Binnions was awesome.

It was Sunday night and the place was DEAD.

It wasn’t NEARLY as glitzy as the casinos on the strip.

And the wall of champions had the pictures of Brunson, and Puggy Pearson, and Amarillo Slim… a lot of history there.

I only played for about an hour, but made a quick 42 bucks.

Overall it looks like I made about $28 and hour.

Nice, but not enough to quit my Job and hang out with Phil Ivey

(and I doubt very much that I could be consistent at even that level)