$10,000 Freeroll

Date: Mon, Jul 20, 2009

In honor of the Poker Players Alliance's National Poker Week, FullTilt Poker is having a $10,000 freeroll on Sunday August 2nd. To qualify all you have to do is send a letter to your congressman using the PPA form, asking them to support legalizing online poker. Make sure you use the same email address as the one on your FullTilt Account.

1. Register for a FullTilt Account (and get up to a $600 bonus)
2. Send a letter to your representative
3. Wait for an email with instructions to register for the freeroll.

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Bears Trip

Date: Sat, Apr 18, 2009

Last year my friends and I started what I hope will become our annual Bears trip. This is where we all meet in the city of Bears away game for a weekend of heavy drinking, and watching of football. And drinking. Did I mention the drinking?

Last year we went to Atlanta and if not for the last 11 seconds of the Bears game it was an awesome weekend. The stadium, as well as a number of other bars and restaurants were all within walking distance of our hotel, which was really convenient.

The NFL schedule came out yesterday so we have to figure out where to go. I'll be traveling from Chicago. Two of my friends are coming from the East coast, so games out there work better for them. The fourth member of our group is working in Japan for a year, so I'm fairly certain that he's out no matter what, but if there was any chance of him making it to one of the games I think it would have to be on the West Coast.

Here's our options. I don't know very much about most of these cities, so I'm open to suggestions.

9/13 - Green Bay Packers - Opening week. I doubt we can get affordable tickets, and I don't particularly want to go to Green Bay, even if it is one of the more convenient options on the list.

9/27 - Seattle Seahawks - This is one of my top choices. I'd like to visit Seattle at some point. Why not see a football game too? I'm concerned that it would be tough to get tickets though since their fans are pretty hard core.


10/18 - Atlanta Falcons - We already went to Atlanta, but I thought it worked out well. I'd go again. It might be more difficult to get tickets this time around since they might actually be expected to be decent this year, but I think its a good bet.

10/25 - Cincinnati Bengals - I don't know why by I think Cinci is a ghetto town. I've never been, but if I was to pick the most likely place on this list to get stabbed walking down the street it would be Cinci. Actually it would be Detroit, but Cinci would be a close second. It does look like there is some stuff to do near the stadium, so this might work out.

11/12 - San Fransisco 49ers - Another one of my top choices. This has the added benefit of the Niners being terrible so the chances of a Bear win and us getting good seats significantly improve.


11/29 - Minnesota Vikings - meh. Walking around Minnesota in November doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Plus I'd have to listen to that asshole blow his Viking horn for three hours.

12/20 - Baltimore Ravens - Might be good, except for the cold and the fact that I can't go anywhere that weekend because of my wife's cousin's Wedding.


1/3 - Detroit Lions - Walking around Detroit, while probably not fun at any time of the year would be even less fun in January. Plus I don't know about the New Years travel chaos.


So there's the options. I think its probably going to come down to Seattle, San Fran, Atlanta and Cinci. Anyone know of a reason why I should or should not take one of those?

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Home Run Derby

Date: Sun, Mar 29, 2009

For the past few years I've participated in a Home Run Derby competion. It is sort of like fantasy baseball without all the work. You basically pick 15 major league players and count up the homeruns that they accumulate during the year. Whoever's team hits the most wins. There were about 10,000 entries last year, with the top prize being about $10K. Of coarse I came no where near the top prize, or any prize for that matter. But I'm going to play again anyways. Here's a list of the players, and their homerun totals from last year.

Group A - Pick 1

• Adam Dunn, 40
• Ryan Howard, 48
• Alex Rodriguez, 35

Group B - Pick 1

• Carlos Delgado, 38
• Albert Pujols, 37
• Carlos Quentin, 36
• Alfonso Soriano, 29

Group C - Pick 3

• Ryan Braun, 37
• Miguel Cabrera, 37
• Jack Cust, 33
• Jermaine Dye, 34
• Prince Fielder, 34
• Adrian Gonzalez, 36
• Carlos Lee, 28
• Ryan Ludwick, 37
• Carlos Pena, 31
• Manny Ramirez, 37
• Jim Thome, 34

Group D - Select 3

• Pat Burrell, 33
• Jason Giambi, 32
• Mike Jacobs, 32
• Evan Longoria, 27
• David Ortiz, 23
• Hanley Ramirez, 33
• Grady Sizemore, 33
• Mark Teixeira, 33
• Dan Uggla, 32
• Chase Utley, 33
• David Wright, 33

Group E - Select 3

• Jason Bay, 31
• Carlos Beltran, 27
• Lance Berkman, 29
• Jorge Cantu, 29
• Troy Glaus, 27
• Vladimir Guerrero, 27
• Josh Hamilton, 32
• Aubrey Huff, 32
• Aramis Ramirez, 27
• Mark Reynolds, 28
• Kevin Youkillis, 29

Group F - Select 4

• Rick Ankiel, 24
• Adiran Beltre, 25
• Mike Cameron, 25
• Edwin Encarnacion, 26
• JJ Hardy, 24
• Brad Hawpe, 25
• Matt Holiday, 25
• Raul Ibanez, 23
• Kevin Kouzmanoff, 23
• Adam LaRoche, 25
• Brian McCann, 23
• Nate McLouth, 26
• Justin Morneau, 23
• Xavier Nady, 25
• Hunter Pence, 25
• Jhonny Peralta, 23
• Luke Scott, 23
• Geovany Soto, 23
• Nick Swisher, 24
• Marcus Thames, 25
• Joey Votto, 24
• Jayson Werth, 24
• Ty Wigginton, 23

And here are my entries. I'm trying to avoid Cubs players so as not to jinx them, but also because most of the people participating are from Chicago so Cubs and White Sox players get picked a lot more than they probably should. I'm also staying away from Manny, even though I have a feeling he is going to have a huge year. I don't like him, and there's also a good chance that he phones it in for half the season. Ohter that that, I tend to pick guys in the national league more than the American because I'm more familiar with them. The rest is just gut feeling. I tried to analyse everything last year and find people who were due for breakout years, or who had deciptivly bad years the year before. It didn't work out so well, so I just went for gut feelings this time.

Team 1

• Ryan Howard
• Albert Pujols
• Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez
• Evan Longoria, Pat Burrell, Dan Uggla
• Jason Bay, Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero
• JJ Hady, Brad Hawpe, Hunter Pence, Joe Votto

Team 2

• Adam Dunn
• Carlos Quentin
• Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Carlos Lee
• Pat Burrell, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Teixeira
• Josh Hamilton, Carols Beltran, Troy Glaus Aramis Ramirez (Lucky for me I'm a procrastinator and didn't send in the form yet since Glaus got hurt)
• Matt Holiday, JJ Hardy, Mike Cameron, Adam LaRoche

Team 3

• Ryan Howard
• Albert Pujols
• Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun
• Evan Longoria, Mark Teixeira, Chase Utley
• Jason Bay, Josh Hamilton, Carlos Beltran
• Hunter Pence, Joey Votto, Justin Morneau, Xavier Nady

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Midweek Poker

Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2009

My friend Aaron's wife is out of town this week and with his newfound freedom to do whatever the hell he wants he decided to host a small poker game at his house. We've done this sort of thing a number of times recently, where recent is sometime in the last year, and "a number of times" is three or four. It was still a school night so we couldn't play for too long, but we were able to get in a few 6 handed tourneys.

We started off with holdem because that is what we all know and love. I must be rusty because I couldn't find a hand I felt like playing for the first three or four blind levels in a shorthanded friendly, low-buy in game. Finally my cards got better, or I just loosened up and started playing, and things went pretty well.

Nothing really stands out until the hand I got busted on. I had AK on the button, and made a big raise, which Jason called. Jason isn't a very good player by any stretch of the imagination. He plays with us not for the enjoyment of the actual card game, but for the drinking and social aspects. He knows the rules, but not any strategy. He also takes great pleasure is his completely random betting and card selection habits because he knows it frustrates everyone to have no idea what he might be holding. And because of that he's probably a much better player than any of us give him credit for. He has built the perfect loose aggressive random image that I think he actually does a pretty good job of exploiting when he wants to. We all make a big deal out of his willingness to call almost any bet, and the nonchalant smirkiness of his raises but lately he's been laying hands down when appropriate, and only calling/raising when he has a hand. I just don't think we've really noticed, or given him credit.

Of coarse I'm telling you all this to explain why I bet into the nuts when I'd like to think I would have folded to anyone else in the same situation. Back to the hand, The flop is A45 and Jason quickly turns to his neighbor, who was out of the game and asks him a question. I'm fairly certain he asked if aces count as one. At this point anyone with half a brain would have put him on the wheel and gotten out, or at least tread carefully. I didn't do that. I either thought he didn't actually have that hand, or that he didn't realize that it was any good, and bet into him. Again and again, until we went all in on the river. He did in fact have the wheel, and he also had me covered by a couple chips. He went on to win the tourney.

------

Round two was Omaha. Omaha still makes my brain hurt, but I think I might be starting to get it. Either that or the cards finally started coming my way. I was drawing to the nuts rather than hoping my two pair would hold up. I was taking advantage of other people's inability to remember they only get to use two cards from their hand, and I was actually getting good cards. I was rolling. And then, I don't even remember what happened, but before I knew it I had a few busted draws, and I fell into another one of Jason's traps, and I was out. Failing to money yet again.

------

In the past few meetings such as this, round three was Razz, but our resident Razz expert/enthusiast wasn't there, and I didn't want to have to explain it/remember how to play, so we stuck with a holdem varient and went with pineapple. Or crazy pineapple. I don't remember which one is which and I don't feel like looking it up.

For those of you unfamiliar with pineapple, it is just like holdem, except you are dealt three hole cards. You must discard one of the hole cards either before or after the flop, depending on if you are playing crazy pineapple or just the regular sane variety. We played the version where you discard after the betting on the flop.

I never thought the decision on which card to discard would be so difficult, or have such a significant affect on the game, but it did. There were a number of times when people discarded made average hands to chase something better because they didn't think it would stand up.

On the very first hand I had KK9. The flop was KQJ, which looks pretty good for me, although I'm a little worried about a strait. I obviously discard the 9, and then cringe when a ten comes on the turn. Although, I don't know how confident I would have been having the low end of a strait, it would have been better than no end of a strait. The river was inconsequential and someone with T9 took the pot.

It was quite surprising how often the discarded card could have won the pot for someone else.

I didn't fare any better in pineapple than I in any of the other games. This time I was undone by overbluffing with my 722 which completely missed the flop.

Despite nothing to show for it, it was certainly good to play a game for the first time in quite a while. My wife is out of town next week, so I'll be the one hosting the games. Depending on how many people we have, I think I want to make it a cash game dealer calls it for an orbit. I've never run a cash game though so we'll have to see how it works out.

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Tourney Time

Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2009

Its the most wonderful time of year. NCAA tourney time. As I've said before, I'm not much of a basketball fan. I really only follow the Illini, and maybe the Big 10 conference. I know next to nothing about college basketball. Never the less, I can't wait for the tourney to start. I will sit and watch as much basketball in the next four days as my wife will allow obsessively checking and rechecking my brackets to see if I have a chance of winning. Which I don't.

I'm not going to actually post my brackets. Not that I'm afraid of sharing my picks. I've had no problem doing that in the past. This year I filled out many different brackets at a number of different sites, and I don't really have one bracket that I consider "The" bracket.

For the most part I went with chalk this year. My typical final four consists of UNC, Louisville, Uconn and Pitt, with an occasional Memphis instead of Uconn. UNC beats Louisville in almost all my brackets.

My beloved Illini drew the dreaded 5-12 pairing, and are the perfect team to get upset given their injuries and tendency to go 5-10 minutes at a time without a scoring a single point, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and picked Wisconsin as my 12 team moving on. And Arizona most of the time.

I have very few upsets this year compared to previous years. I thought about it from a "Wanting to win the pool" angle rather than a "Wanting to fill out a perfect bracket" angle this time.

There are two different strategies for filling out your bracket. If you are in a relatively small pool, as mine are, then chances are the people in the money are going to be the ones who pick the winner, and the final four correctly, especially if later rounds are weighted heavier. Picking that 3-14 upset in round one is great, but its a long shot, and not only do you probably get the round one pick wrong, you also probably eliminated a sweet sixteen team. The costs of missing an upset pick are much greater than just missing the round one matchup. Thus picking mostly chalk, is the safer path to victory. On the other hand, if you are in a huge pool, like one of the national online pools, to win you are going to have to get almost every game right. Unless another George Mason happens, there are going to be thousands of people picking perfect elite eight through championship brackets, so not only do you have to do that, but you have to get a number of early round upsets correct.

Only a few hour till game time. I really should have taken some vacation days this week. I think spending all day at a sports bar would have been a good plan.

Go Illini

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Worst. Movie. Ever.

Date: Sat, Feb 28, 2009

I have done it. I have found the worst movie in the history of bad movies. This is a movie that was bad that I think the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew would have been at a loss for words as to the proper way to mock it. The movie was Street Fighter, Legend of Chun-li.

Don't get me wrong, I expected this movie to be terrible, but it was considerably worse than I ever could have imagined. I went to watch it at the local brew and view type theater which is perfect for taking in bad movies. You go there have a few beers to enjoy some cheesiness. Its where Snakes on a Plane and every Will Ferrell was meant to be watched. I was expecting some good old lame plot as an excuse for crazy fight scenes type movie, and what I got was an incredibly lame and ofter random plot, while very few fight scenes, none of which were worthy of a movie based off of a fighting video game.

The movie was so bad that halfway through two of the guys in our group stopped drinking. Very little in the movie made any sense and they thought they had it was because they had had one too many.

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Poker Legalization

Date: Thu, Feb 26, 2009

Here's some potential good news. I saw this article today about a recent study that says the US government could net over $50 Billion in tax revenue over the next decade by legalizing online gambling.

There were couple other interesting items in the article. First of all the study found that online gambling had actually increased in the last three years despite the UIGEA. Also it says Barney Frank intends to introduce legislation this year to repeal that law. Now that Republicans are no longer in control it may actually have a chance of passing. Its funny that now that they aren't in control they are suddenly worried about fiscal responsibility. Perhaps a $50 billion revenue increase will make them feel better.

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Too Much Fallout

Date: Sat, Feb 21, 2009

You know you've been playing too much Fallout 3 when you go shopping for groceries, and out of the corner of your eye you see one of those red DVD rental boxes, and think "OOohh Nuka-Cola Machine, I wonder if there's any Quantum in there".

That is all.

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Free Games

Date: Sat, Feb 7, 2009

In effort to sell everything on the planet, Amazon is now selling downloadable games. Stuff like jewel quest and those other cheap games you see everywhere that you find yourself addicted to for no good reason. They have some for free and give you a half hour trial before you buy anything, which is probably all the time you need before you move on to the next one. I like games, I like free stuff, and I especially like it when you buy the games through the banner above because I get a commission.

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Whirly Ball and One Hand of Poker

Date: Mon, Jan 26, 2009

One of the regulars in our poker group is getting married in a few days and his bachelor party was this weekend. While I'm not a liberty to discuss most of what happened, I would like to comment on a few things.

First of all, if you have a Whirly Ball facility near you, and you've never played you need to try it as soon as humanly possible. It is entirely too much fun.

What is Whirly Ball? Its kind of like hockey, except instead of a stick you use a Hi Li scoop racket thing, and instead of net there's a basketball backboard with a basketball sized hole in the center. And instead of skates, you use bumper cars. Oh, and its a barlike atmosphere. Here's a video.

We also played some poker, during which I lasted a full hand. I had wired nines, and raised 3x BB preflop, two callers. The flop was JJ2 and I lead out, chasing one guy out of the pot. The turn was a third jack, giving be a full house and a lead on almost anything he has. I make a large bet and he comes over the top all-in. Now, unless he has me on a complete bluff, and is pretty ballzy I don't think there many hands that he would do that with that I can beat. I was hoping he had a two. He had the case jack and I went home. Well not home, but away from cards. Good times.

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Small Blind Call and Bet

Date: Sat, Jan 17, 2009

While my SNG poker game has been nothing to brag about lately, there is one particular move that I've been using with much success. Its nothing new or mind blowingly clever, but it works well.

The situation is this. I'm in the small blind and it has been folded to me. I hate being in this spot. I feel obligated to raise, yet anytime someone raises in this situation it looks like a steal, and it seems like I get called/raised way more than I should. And I never get a good feel for where I am in the hand because I can't tell if my opponent has a hand or is just putting me on a steal attempt. And yet I can't fold. I'm getting 3:1 on my money by calling and he's not going to even challenge me with most hands.

So if you haven't guessed, I've started just calling and then min-betting no matter what on the flop. The min bet actually ends up being a half-pot sized bet. Sometimes I'll make it a full pot sized bet, but usually not.

I've found that my opponents are more likely to fold in this scenario than if I were to raise pre-flop.

Since I only call pre-flop, they are most likely just happy to see a free flop. If I raise they see it as a steal attempt and try to defend, but by calling they see more cards with no risk. Sure sometimes I get raised in this case, but then I've only lost a half bet, and if that happens five times I've still lost the same amount as if I had raised to 3x blinds and got reraised. So I get to see a cheap flop and they get to see a free one.

The automatic bet on the flop is just hoping that they didn't hit anything. Even if they suspect a steal here, they are less likely to try to call my bluff if they've missed the flop as well. And since I just called they have no idea what I have. If the flop is garbage, its possible I called with garbage and hit. If the flop has scare cards, and they don't, then maybe I was setting them up. Either way I've found that more often than not they fold. And if they do call, or raise, and I have nothing, I've risked very little chips and I can get out relatively cheaply.

Nothing too fancy, but I find that it helps me win more than my fair share of blind battles, in a situation where I'm normally not very confident in my hand.

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