PokerStars.com

At least PokerStars is still working with U.S. based bettors!

review for DRAWING DEAD TO A GUTSHOT on PokerNews.com

Visit
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/10/lingo-poker-drawing-dead.htm
to read a review of DRAWING DEAD TO A GUTSHOT: How to Talk Poker.

flop lag

flop lag is when you get the flop you need one hand too late.
for example, you raise pre-flop with JJ. An ace and a king hit the flop and the action is capped before it gets to you.
on the next hand, a jack hits the flop.

great poker song

Mr. Gold & Mr. Mudd by Townes Van Zandt -- amazing poker song. I heard it the first time on BootLiquor Radio

http://www.bootliquor.com/

aces are fun

10/20 limit game; with pocket rockets in the big blind, I 3-bet after an early position player raised and another cold-called. The raiser capped the action and we took the flop 3 handed.
J, 3, 2 and I fired into the pot; the early position pre-flop raiser called, the other player folded. The turn was an ace, I fired again and he called. The river was a blank, I fired, he raised, I re-raised, and he re-raised all-in.
my opponent showed pocket jacks -- he was aggressive pre-flop, hit his hand and lost when I caught up on the turn. lucky for me to win set over set. aces are fun.

NYTimes Sports loves poker

Karen Crouse, in her column on Sept 10, writes, "Mangini, who won three Super Bowl rings as an assistant under Bill Belichick in New England, brings a poker face to the table. He may like his hand, but his enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that he cannot control the cards that others are holding."

NYTimes loves to talk poker...

NYTimes loves poker

When you agree to split the money, you split the money. A gambler's word is his bond.
See the story below about Gold... not good news.




September 10, 2006
After the Winning Hand
By MIREYA NAVARRO
LOS ANGELES
JAMIE GOLD should have returned to Hollywood basking in his cool celebrity.
A former talent agent and manager with a respectable list of clients to his credit, he had just embarked on a career as a television producer and was about to start casting for a reality show called “Hottest Mom in America.”
Then four weeks ago, he scored a victory that took him from behind the scenes to center stage: he beat more than 8,700 competitors in Las Vegas to win $12 million in the hottest gambling extravaganza in the country, the World Series of Poker.
But Mr. Gold, 37, did not come home strutting. In fact, he hasn’t come home at all, but has been lying low while struggling with a jackpot-size dose of scandal and the security worries that accompany such a windfall.
It all started in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, when he took the chip lead on Day 3 of the main event in the poker World Series. Mr. Gold said he was told there had been threats made against him, though neither he nor tournament officials were able to provide much detail.
“People wanted to hurt me or put something in my food because I seemed to be the only thing in the way of other people winning,” he said.
Mr. Gold asked his sponsor, Bodog.com, a Costa Rican-based online gambling company that paid his $10,000 entry fee, to provide security, which it did, in the form of two burly 24-hour bodyguards.
And that was just the beginning of his headaches.
A British television producer, Crispin Leyser, who lives in Los Angeles and trains poker players with his wife, has filed a lawsuit claiming Mr. Gold reneged on a deal to split his winnings, leading a judge in Las Vegas temporarily to freeze half of his $12 million purse.
Then, Mr. Gold’s instant stardom made him a target of gossip blogs, where anonymous postings accused him of exaggerating his Hollywood credentials, much to his chagrin. “Why would I make up my previous life?” he fumed in a recent interview.
UPON his return to Los Angeles, Mr. Gold felt it necessary to hop from hotel to hotel under assumed names, tailed by security guards, still concerned about the murky threats. He hasn’t gone back to his Malibu home (he’s currently visiting his parents in Paramus, N.J.) because neighbors and friends alerted him to “shady characters” lurking around. Paparazzi, perhaps, but Mr. Gold isn’t taking chances.
Mr. Gold, who brought to No-Limit Texas Hold’em his aggressive, talkative style — and his befitting name — chalked it up to his new status as a poker celebrity, which is bound to grow as ESPN broadcasts replays of the tournament through Sept. 26.
“It’s sad what’s happened around me, but I still look at this as a huge accomplishment,” he said last month from his suite at the Raffles L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills, one of his temporary luxury homes. But even in the world of bluffs, high stakes and stare-downs — poker, not Hollywood — Mr. Gold’s travails, and some of his behavior, have left many scratching their heads.
“People were perplexed, and that is still the reaction with the lawsuit and all the other things,” said Gary Thompson, the spokesman for the 37-year-old World Series of Poker, a property of Harrah’s Entertainment.
The security detail, for one thing, certainly raised eyebrows.
Poker players under guard are unusual. “It’s not rock-star land,” said Phil Gordon, a pro player and television analyst who did commentary for ESPN during the World Series. “We don’t travel with our posses.”
After Mr. Gold crushed the competition in the World Series’ main event, he did something even more out of character for a poker winner: he left the money at the cage. World Series officials said that among 873 players who shared in the $82.5 million overall prize, Mr. Gold was the only one to walk away without his money. Mr. Gold, who is single, said he was waiting on tax advisers to recommend the best way to handle the money, the bulk of which he says will go to the care of his father, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
As late as last week, he was cagey about revealing that he later collected the money, claiming in an interview he had not touched it, though officials at the Rio hotel said he had been wired the uncontested amount of $5,945,000 on Aug. 24.
(Mr. Gold later explained that it has been put in a trust while he deals with the tax issues.)
While marching to his own drummer, Mr. Gold easily fits in today’s poker scene, say some who follow the game. Amateurs now vastly outnumber the pros at tournaments, said Matthew Parvis, managing editor of the poker magazine Bluff, and the new breed of poker player tends to be young, brash and ego-driven.
Mr. Gold, who grew up in New York and New Jersey, said he played cards all his life. His grandfather was a gin rummy champion, but he didn’t think of becoming a serious player until seeing the 1998 movie “Rounders,” in which Matt Damon plays a reformed gambler who returns to high-stakes poker to help a friend pay off a debt.
Up to then, Mr. Gold had worked as a talent agent and manager. In the early 1990’s, he counted James Gandolfini and Jimmy Fallon among his clients, and at one point led his own talent management firms. A year ago he folded his latest firm into Buzznation, a television production company of branded entertainment, and is about to start auditions for “Hottest Mom in America,” a yet-to-be-sold reality show.
Over the last two and a half years, Mr. Gold said, he honed his poker skills at card clubs around Los Angeles, at Las Vegas hotels and in tournaments. He started devoting 30 hours a week to playing and had backers with whom he would split winnings. And he befriended Johnny Chan, who won two World Series tournaments back to back in the late 1980’s and became a mentor.
“He’s an extremely smart person,” said Mr. Chan, 49, who coached Mr. Gold in the latest World Series. “He plays more hands than normal people. He knows his opponents.”
For the World Series of Poker’s main event, Mr. Gold gobbled bowls of blueberries, which he calls his brain food, and took the chip lead early. He held on to it, sitting down at the final table with more than $26 million in chips.
“That’s a testament to his big-stack strategy,” Mr. Gordon, the pro player, said. “Jamie was very proficient on pressuring his opponents to make life-or-death decisions.”
Mr. Gold, who calls himself “an action player,” attributed his victory to the best poker he had ever played, and luck. “I was in this unbelievable zone.”
About 30 friends and family members, including his mother, Jane, 63, watched him win. From the table, Mr. Gold, an only child, made a tearful call to his immobilized father, Robert Gold, 70, a retired dentist.
But soon joy turned into mortification. After spending three days relaxing, Mr. Gold decided to forgo heading home after hearing the reports of strangers in his neighborhood.
Then some newspapers and cable shows picked up the Internet gossip accusing him of padding his résumé. He may have embellished some — for example, he lists as former clients Lucy Liu and Kristin Davis, but the women’s representatives said he was not their point agent even if he worked for their agency. But former colleagues vouch for him.
“He had a great eye for talent and he was really aggressive about developing talent,” said Mark Armstrong of Sanders Armstrong Management, who said he had worked with Mr. Gold when he represented artists like Brandy, Mr. Fallon and Mr. Gandolfini. (Mr. Armstrong now represents Mr. Gandolfini.)
The far more serious allegations, though, came in the lawsuit filed by Mr. Leyser. In his suit, he claims to have met Mr. Gold in Las Vegas in July and that Mr. Gold told him Bodog would give him a seat in the World Series main event if he secured some celebrities to wear Bodog clothing at the tournament. (Mr. Gold wore the logo for Bodog.net, Bodog’s instructional site.)
The suit said the two then agreed that Mr. Leyser would bring in the celebrities — he produced Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the Scooby-Doo movies, and Dax Shepard, a comedian who appeared on MTV’s Punk’d — and that Mr. Gold and Mr. Leyser would split any winnings equally. In a statement, Bodog.com said Mr. Gold was helpful in bringing along poker-playing celebrities and that the company was unaware of any side deal he may have made in obtaining them.
ON Aug. 10, the day Mr. Gold made it to the final table, the suit alleges, Mr. Gold left a telephone message for Mr. Leyser promising “there’s no way anybody will go anywhere with your money.”
Mr. Gold, who has acknowledged that he and Mr. Leyser had been in “discussions” to resolve the dispute before the suit was filed, referred questions about it to his lawyer, Patrick Byrne. Mr. Byrne said he planned to file an answer denying “a majority of the allegations.”
“We don’t believe Mr. Leyser is entitled to any money as a matter of law,” he said.
But if Mr. Leyser prevails, Mr. Gold would be shunned by other players, the poker cognoscenti said. Deals are common among players, many of whom swap percentages of their winnings to guarantee equity even during a losing streak, and verbal agreements are considered ironclad. “It’d be unprecedented not to pay,” Mr. Gordon said of such deals.
Mr. Gold is working on his television show and plans to attend Mr. Chan’s celebrity poker tournament in the Turks and Caicos this week. Under a two-year endorsement deal with Bodog.com, he’ll participate in tournaments, make promotional appearances and work on a $1 million television production deal.
Mr. Gold, who stands to make even more money in endorsements, says he wants to share his good fortune with friends. But his focus, he said, remains in ensuring that his parents are well taken care of and starting a foundation for research on Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“At the end of this I won’t have much more money than when I started,” he said. “I may buy a car or something.”
Of course, he may be bluffing.

Wall Street Journal - Sept 9, 2006 front page casino lingo

Tipping 'The Weekend Interview' which this week is with George W. Bush, the eyebrow on the front page of The Wall Street Journal reads "George Bush Doubles Down: Paul A. Gigot meets a president who's playing his strongest hand."
The article -- on page A 8, and only available to subscribers online -- says in part:
"Mr. Bush isn't changing his policy or hunkering down in the Oval Office. Instead, he's doubling down, investing whatever scarce political capital he has to frame the November contest as a choice over the economy and taxes and especially over his prosecution of the war on terror...
Mr. Bush will be blamed if Republicans lose [in the November mid-term elections] in any case, so he might as well play his strongest hand to prevent such a result."

Is Mr. Gigot trying to say that Mr. Bush holds a strong hand and is foolishly doubling down? Or that Mr. Bush has been losing but now he's increasing his bets, figuring to get even or get broke? Smart gamblers don't chase losses, so the latter scenario would mean that Mr. Bush isn't a smart gambler. And basic blackjack strategy dictates that a player double down when dealt a relatively weak hand -- one that totals 9, 10 or 11, particularly when the dealer is showing a 6 or lower. A strong hand is when the player is dealt 21, 20 or even 19, especially when the dealer is not showing a face card or an ace; players don't double down on those hands.

So, I'm not sure what Mr. Gigot is trying to say.

One thing I do know: I'd prefer not to trust either Mr. Gigot or Mr. Bush to gamble for me, as it seems that at least one of them isn't too sure how the game is played.

Sunday, Sept 10, 2006 NYTimes crossword poker lingo

In the Sunday, September 10, 2006 New York Times crossword puzzle, the clue for 122 across is 'Three of a kind, in poker parlance.'
The three letter answer, SET.

NYTimes Sports using poker to talk football

New York Times writer Karen Crouse equates poker to football in today's column, as she led her Saturday column with the following paragraph:
"While most of the other N.F.L. teams showed their hands, laying down the straights that are their offensive and defensive lines and the face cards that are their receivers and their defensive backs, the Jets approached the final week of the preseason as if they were holding a bad rummy hand."

Ms. Crouse must think the Jets are going to be pretty bad, as it's tough to win at poker when you're playing rummy...

playing the odds heads-up

OUR HERO is the one to watch. Here, OUR HERO is the chip leader and the action is heads-up in a $55 buy-in Sit-n-Go tourny. Blinds are $300/$600, so the action is fast and furious. Comments in CAPS.


OUR HERO is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 6: iUpUrAcei (5474)
Seat 10: OUR HERO (14526)
OUR HERO posts small blind (300)
iUpUrAcei posts big blind (600)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to OUR HERO [ Kh, 8h ]
OUR HERO raises (1500) to 1800 -- HEADS-UP ACTION AND A SUITED KING; GOOD ENOUGH TO RAISE AND TRY TO BUY THE BLINDS, ESPECIALLY WITH POSITION. RAISING TO 1800 FORCES HIM TO CALL 1200 TO PLAY, JUST ENOUGH TO GET HIM TO FOLD MOST HANDS.
iUpUrAcei raises (4874) to 5474
iUpUrAcei is all-In. INTERESTING..... NOW HE'S PUTTING ME TO THE DECISION; IF I CALL AND LOSE, WE'LL BE ABOUT EVEN IN CHIPS; IF I CALL AND WIN, TOURNAMENT'S OVER. HE COULD HAVE ANY PAIR, ANY ACE, ANY KING OR EVEN A HAND LIKE QJ TO MAKE THIS PLAY. I MADE IT 1800, HE RAISED ANOTHER 3600, SO I AM GETTING ABOUT 2 TO 1 POT ODDS TO CALL. IF HE HAS A PAIR OF 7s OR LOWER, HE'S ABOUT A 55 TO 45 FAVORITE; IF HE HAS AN ACE, HE'S THE FAVORITE BUT NOT BY MUCH. I MAY BE AHEAD, TOO. GIVEN THAT I AM GETTING GREAT ODDS AND THAT I CAN'T LOSE THE TOURNAMENT ON THIS HAND, EASY CALL.
OUR HERO calls (3674)
Creating Main Pot with $10948 with iUpUrAcei
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 9h, Kc, 9d ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 4h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 4d ]
** Summary **Main Pot: 10948
Board: [ 9h Kc 9d 4h 4d ]
iUpUrAcei balance 0, lost 5474 [ Jd Ac ] [ two pairs, nines and fours -- Ac,9h,9d,4h,4d ] -- WOW! HE HAD A BIG ACE, AND WAS THE PRE-FLOP FAVORITE. BUT, SINCE I COULD CALL, LOSE THE HAND AND STILL HAVE ABOUT 1/2 THE CHIPS IN PLAY, I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE CALLED EVEN IF I HAD KNOWN HIS CARDS. POTS ODDS WERE PRETTY SOLID. POT ODDS ARE MORE IMPORTANT IN A CASH GAME, BUT SINCE I COULDN'T GET KNOCKED OUT ON THIS HAND, I LOOKED TO THE POT ODDS TO HELP MAKE THIS DECISION.
OUR HERO balance 20000, bet 5474, collected 10948, net +5474 [ Kh 8h ] [ two pairs, kings and nines -- Kh,Kc,9h,9d,8h ]