ez game imo

Stop SOPA!

2012-01-17T20:31:00.001-05:00

Update: Here's a fair translation of the MPAA's railing against the Stop SOPA blackout:

Sam Seder -- Our Media Blackout on SOPA is Cool. Your Internet Blackout in Protest of It is NOT!

Merry Xmas!

2011-12-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

And a Happy New Year, imo!

Virginaki -- Christman Pacman

Via deviantart

Massachusetts Suffolk County subpoena's Twitter over Occupy Boston

2011-12-23T19:50:00.002-05:00

What the heck? Is this my taxpayer money at work? You've won, you've evicted us. Get over it!

In Soviet Russia, joke tells you!

2011-12-11T02:52:00.005-05:00

The current Republican Presidential field reminds me of this classic joke, which was often retold by President Reagan.

So, sometime, in the mid- to late-1980s, a dutiful Soviet husband is sent out by his wife to stand all day in the breadline so he can provide for his family. He gets there early but already the line stretches down two Russian blocks. The line moves slowly, person by person. For four hours he stands waiting in line. Finally, our hero reaches the front of the line, only to have the bakers perfunctorily slam down the metal shielding of their kiosk, upon which is painted the explanation that the bread is all gone for the day.

Our hero, having had a rough day of it, not to mention a rough enough life under the regime, can not help himself but to begin to spout off.

"This is it!" he declares. "I don't care of the consequences! I can no longer live under this corrupt Communist regime which can no longer feed its own people. Fellow Russians, we must rise up, and end our enslavement..." and so on.

Soon enough, a trio of suited undercovers appear. Together they pull him by his shirt collar out from the head of the now dismayed and dispersing line, and into a nearby alley.

"Comrade," begins their obvious leader, "You must please watch what you say. You are putting us, the police, in a very awkward position with all your loose talk!"

Our hero, having accepted his fate, stays mute.

The officer sighs and finally continues. "But, as you know, the Politburo has now implemented this new policy of perestroika (restructuring), so in this spirit we are only going to send you home with a warning."

The still somewhat shaken man is met at the apartment door by his wife. "What is wrong?" she asks. "Why do you look so distraught?"

"My love," he replies, "I had not realized until today how bad things had gotten for our country's leaders. Not only have they run out of bread, but now they have run out of bullets!"

And this is likewise how I feel about the GOP: not only have they run out of ideas, but now they have run out of candidates!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T13:32:00.020-05:00

From here on Saltonstall Plantation, a note from the great-grandson of our city's founder (transcript follows):

By the Honourable,
Gurdon Saltonstall, Esq;
GOVERNOUR of His Majesty's Colony of Connnecticut in New-England
A PROCLAMATION
For a Publick Thanksgiving

ALTHOUGH Considering the Judgments of GOD, which are on the Earth, in the great Distress & Desolation brought upon many Nations, both by WAR and PESTILENCE.

AND Considering also particularly, the awful Tokens of GOD's Righteous Anger against us, Especially, in the Contagious SICKNESS which has been in divers Places of the Land, and in the continued RAINS, by which great Losses have been sustained, It becomes Us to be deeply Humbled before the LORD.

IT is Nevertheless our Duty to Acknowledge the many Instances of Divine Goodness, which the LORD whose Ways, are not as Ours, has Gratiously vouchsafed Us and which are never to be fogotten. Namely,

The Smiles of Providence on the BRITISH Empire, and particularly, On Our Sovereign Lord the KING, in the Prosperity of His Life and Reign; On Their Royal Highnesses the PRINCE and PRINCESS of Wales, and and on all the Branches of the ROYAL FAMIY, not only in Their Happy Increase, by the BIRTH of the Royal Prince WILLIAM AUGUSTUS but also in the Lives of Others of Them when in Hazard by Sickness, have been Mercifully Spared.

THE PEACE which has been Continued, and Confirmed to Our Nation, after so many Endeavours to interrupt it.

The Preservation of the Britsh Dominions from the raging PESTILENCE, which has laid so many Places waste, within their View, and Neighborhood.

THE General HEALTH that has been Enjoyed in the Land, notwithstanding The SMALLPOX has prevailed so much, in the Principal Place of our Neighboring Province.

THE Preservation of Our COLONY, in so great a Measure from that Contagious Sickness, when We have been in great Danger of It ; The Continuance of Our Priveleges both Civil and Sacred ; The Peace which we have Enjoyed ; And the good Supply of the Fruits of the Earth, which the present Year has been Crowned with.

WHICH are, ( All of them ) Blessings from the LORD, whose Mercy therein We ought to Celebrate with great THANKFULNESS.

I have therefore thought fit, with the Advice and Consent of the Council, and at the Desire of the Representatives, to Appoint, and do hereby Appoint Wednesday, the Eighth Day of November next, to be Observed as a Day of Publick THANKSGIVING throughout the Colony. Exhorting all both Ministers & People, with Unfeigned Devotion, to Bless the Name of the LORD, and Praise Him for all the Wonders of His Goodness ; And, to Beg that the Mercy Which We Adore, may in all the needful Instances thereof be manifested to Us.

And all Servile Labours on the said Day is hereby strickly Prohibited.

Given in New-Haven, the Fourteenth Day of October, Anno Domini 1721, in the Eighth Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord GEORGE, by the Grace of GOD of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c.

G. SALTONSTALL.

GOD Save the KING.

via my[confined]space

(We are now completely kicking SMALLPOX's behind. So let's be thankful for that!)

I'm just going to leave this here

2011-10-24T13:30:00.004-04:00

Full size

Also this

Update 10/27: Here's the always keen Dahlia Lithwick with her take:

I confess to being driven insane this past month by the spectacle of television pundits professing to be baffled by the meaning of Occupy Wall Street. Good grief. Isn’t the ability to read still a job requirement for a career in journalism?

Read the rest via Slate.com.

Getting the time of day

2011-10-17T19:55:00.004-04:00

There has been no small amount of criticism of the Occupation Movement that it's not anti-consumerist enough. Because so many people have cell phones, etc. I understand the sentiment, having been an anti-consumerist in my youth. I spent six months hitchhiking from Austin, up to Idaho, went to Haight-Ashbury, down to East L.A., through Phoenix and El Paso before ending up back home. During which time I spent less than ten American dollars. Of course, that was in 1990's dollars and no one minded giving a free ride when gas was cheap. When I was done I could count my ribs, but it didn't kill me.

But anti-consumerism doesn't work as a movement. Once you take yourself that far out of society, an envelope forms around you. You might as well be a monk in the desert.

I remember early on in Austin, I woke up to find the kill-spreeingly famous UT clock tower had broken during the night. Not having any money, I needed to know the time to make it to the east of downtown to Fishes and Loaves. Sitting on the sidewalk, passersby, this should be easy.

"Excuse me, do you know what time it is?"
"I don't have any."
"Say, ma'am do you have the time?"
"I don't have any."

Not only was I not "sparing change" (people are strange, when you're a sp'anger), but passersby couldn't even get the concept that I wasn't! Any lilting from a man on the sidewalk couldn't be anything but begging.

Finally a hipster/dealer walks by and I ask him the time. Without looking he just points at the broken clock tower, like I'm the idiot, and keeps moving.

That's why it doesn't work.

Beastie Boys - Something's Got To Give

The Boston Police Riot

2011-10-14T02:24:00.001-04:00

Or as I like to call it, my Monday night, witnessing the largest mass arrest in the Cradle of Liberty in 43 years. Luckily, I was holding the line along the primary camp that the police wisely chose not to attack.

I finally found a video which captures the spirit of that evening. Sorry, ladies, I'm just off camera for most of the pre-attack part of this vid ;)

"What Democracy Looks Like: The View From Occupy Boston" from Michael Gill on Vimeo.

Fult Tilt Ponzi

2011-09-26T22:30:00.013-04:00

1910 police mugshot of Charles Ponzi.

As much as I hate to speak ill of the dead, the statement from the ghost of Full Tilt Poker, or perhaps, less superstitiously, the executor of FTP's last will and testament, is just LOL.

As you might have heard, last Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department accused FTP board members Howard "The Professor" Lederer, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, and Rafe "Third Bastard Hardly Anyone Ever Heard Of Before" Furst of running a global Ponzi scheme that defrauded poker players out of $300 million.

My partner in dirtying up Slate's comments section (also an online poker player), Nic Nookular, cracked, that it goes to show you should "Never trust anyone who calls himself Jesus unless he's Mexican." Two plus Two's own BBV phenom Troll Cat suggested Mr. Furst should worry, tweeting: "I think we both know that the Prison Gangs are gonna Rafe Furst and ask questions later."

Jesus Ferguson's lawyer last week came out swinging insisting it wasn't a Ponzi scheme, and today FTP's executor (same person, one presumes) regurgitated (h/t to compncards, my cliffs after the break):

Full Tilt Poker is not a Ponzi Scheme

On September 19, 2011, the Department of Justice issued a release stating that Full Tilt Poker was “A Global Ponzi Scheme.”

While the government has taken issue with the underlying activities of FTP, under any reasonable interpretation, there is no way to characterize the operation of Full Tilt Poker’s virtual online card room as a global Ponzi scheme.

A “Ponzi” scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi schemes do not involve any legitimate investment, but rather use the new investor funds to pay “dividends” to the initial investors.

Despite recent events, FTP remains committed to identifying a suitable investor and paying back its players in full.

Cliffs: "We're *not* a Ponzi scheme using new investors to pay old investors. Also: we'll pay everyone back as soon as we get a new investor."

Wat?

At this point would any investor go along with someone like Full Tilt?

And, hey, wait a dang minute! Chris Ferguson's lawyer is saying online poker isn't an investment opportunity? Has he never heard of his client's famous challenge? The Chris Ferguson Bankroll Challenge? Where he turned $0 into $10K playing online poker? C'mon! I don't think there's any other poker player more associated with portraying online poker as an investment opportunity.

Ah, but don't mind me. As someone who played 99% on PokerStars, I'm just whistling past the graveyard.

You know how to whistle, don't you?

Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks

If i told you things I did before
Told you how I used to be
Would you go along with someone like me?
If you knew my story word for word
Had all of my history
Would you go along with someone like me?

Google Plus's war on shrinks

2011-08-19T22:04:00.019-04:00

Reblogging this for all those who have lost or do not have access to Google+ (updated below). Via Sheila Marie, the author:

I posted this just a bit ago on +Kee Hinckley 's thread: https://plus.google.com/117903011098040166012/posts/2bmeTvoQ52i

+Robert Scoble - you said "Everyone has consequences for what they say. Anyone who says they don't is a damn fool." \

So earlier in this thread, you remarked that anyone with privacy concerns shouldn't be using this service. Now you seem to be saying above that everyone has potential privacy concerns. Which I would agree with. You have been strongly asserting that even you, who has a pretty fair degree of privilege from what I can tell, could fall prey to the consequences of having their privacy violated in some way.

So, given your statement that I quoted, can you see a value for being able to manage our own naming conventions in order to try to actively mitigate potential consequences for the kinds of speech we choose to participate in? I have lived the problem with contemporary privacy: I was fired when someone stalked me online and crossed the streams of my work and my personal life, despite measures I'd taken to keep them separate.

I currently work in two fields (mental health and education) where clients/students increasingly Google their therapists/professors, with a variety of positive and negative results (see Dr. Keely Kolmes' research on client/therapist interactions on the Internet). I would like to be able to connect with friends and colleagues, choose Circles, make public and Circled posts, and comment on the posts of others without everything I say becoming immediately searchable by a client or a student with a single click.

If everything I say has to be connected to my full name, my only option is non-participation. In my profession, one of the touchstone moments was when "Dr. Anonymous" appeared at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association convention in a full mask and wig to say, from the podium "I am a psychiatrist. I am a homosexual." The year before, an APA member had called for police to come and shoot members protesting a workshop on using aversion therapy to "treat" homosexuality - that's how hostile the atmosphere in the APA was. But Dr. Anonymous' masked speech, along with the work of other psychiatrists (many of whom met in secret because of the fear of being "outed" as supporting homosexuals), set the stage for the removal of homosexuality from its classification as a mental disorder in the DSM in 1973. Without the ability to manage his public face, John E. Fryer could not have made that statement at the APA, could not have participated in a public conversation that was critical to both his public profession and his private life, and could not have helped change the course of history. [See below -- Ed.]

If the APA could tolerate a man in a Nixon mask addressing their professional convention, because it was important that he be able to control his public presentation while participating in discourse, why can't G+ tolerate people choosing what name they are known by so we can participate in conversations that matter to us? I would gladly accept an option where I could choose multiple naming options - a name for public/searchable interactions, a name for my colleagues who know me in the professional world, a name for my friends who have known me under a handle I first established on a dial-up BBS in 1990 and continue to use today (most of whom do not know my first/last name and never have), a name for people who know me through my hobby. This would allow different groups of people who know me under different (but established) names to connect and converse (because I answer to different names in different circles!), but would also allow me to know that a student or client is not going to form impressions of me based on a G+ comment I made on someone else's post that popped up in their search for my professional designation.

I am no fool. I am as keenly aware of the consequences of speech as anyone on this thread - I lived one of the more harsh ones. So, is your position really "well don't speak then"? Instead, why not let me make rational decisions about how to thoughtfully manage my own privacy, my own public face, my own brand, while also letting me "connect and have conversations" which is what you want me to be doing?

This American Life -- 81 Words

Barbara Gittings, Franklin Kameny and John E. Fryer as "Dr. H. Anonymous"

Update 8/20: Mr. Scoble, to whom this post was openly addressed, has now asked the head of Google+ to renounce the "real names" policy:

Dear +Vic Gundotra (I just sent it to him via email as well) ,

It is time to open the doors.

The real-name policy you've put in place aren't workable.

I agree with them and have defended your policy quite a bit all over the place here on Google+. I agree with you that "being real" is the best aesthetic, but they simply aren't being enforced fairly, or properly, and it's causing too much distraction.

Your team needs to freaking get to work fixing the many bugs and issues on Google+ and doesn't need to spend its time chasing around people who are trying to use fake names.

I now have a list of people who are using real names. It's very easy to pick those who are using fake names out and not follow them.

We need a different answer to the real name problem and we need it now. ...

Fun with government propaganda, London riots edition

2011-08-10T12:08:00.001-04:00

Fun time kids! Match the 2011 statement with the correct government

1) "These are pure and simple criminals running wild tonight"
2) "They are criminals ... is it logical that you let this phenomenon continue in any city?"
3) "Those who are doing all that burning and looting are convicted criminals."

A) Egypt under Mubarak
B) Libya under Qaddafi
C) United Kingdom under Cameron

(photo via @iRevolt)

Happy 30th Anniversary Music Television

2011-08-01T02:43:00.003-04:00

Dang I has an old!

I don't usually repost vids, but since this is a special occasion, and this was the first video ever played on MTV, I'll make an exception. Hit it boys!

The Buggles -- Video Killed the Radio Star

Update 8/4: Talk of the Nation has a great interview with Matt Pinfield (of 120 Minutes fame) on the anniversary which you can find here.

The Massachusetts Lottery is rigged!

2011-07-31T14:14:00.002-04:00

Well, one game counting for just 1% of the Commonwealth's take. Via Boston.com:

Mark Kon, a professor of math and statistics at Boston University, calculated that a bettor buying even $10,000 worth of tickets would run a significant risk of losing more than they won during the July rolldown week. But someone who invested $100,000 in Cash WinFall tickets had a 72 percent chance of winning. Bettors like the Selbees, who spent at least $500,000 on the game, had almost no risk of losing money, Kon said.

Only once in the history of Cash WinFall did Kon’s calculations not apply. During a rolldown in 2008, Wenxu Tong, who earned a doctorate at Northeastern and now works in California, won the nearly $2.5 million jackpot, leaving no jackpot to spread among the lesser prizes.

So if you have half a milly lying around, get in there!

Update 8/2: It looks like they've decided to crack down a bit on the high rollers:

Under the new rules, no store will be allowed to sell more than $5,000 worth of Cash WinFall tickets in a single day, making it much harder for the gamblers to continue their high-volume purchases.

Grossman also said that Cash WinFall, which has seen declining sales since it was introduced in 2004, will be phased out next spring as part of the normal rotation of games.

Banned from Google+

2011-07-25T21:29:00.014-04:00

(99% of my life I've been lied to)
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poor Ozymandias (merely Ozzy to his friends)! Let us pity him. Not only for being a failure who, as a great and egotistical King of a forgotten Kingdom, had assumed it would survive forever, But because, having only a singular title and lacking I.D. he'd get insta-banned from Google+.

Oh, I mean suspended. Indefinitely. Google isn't evil. It doesn't do banishment.

Were you expecting me to immediately tie Shelley's poem in to Google's failures in social media? Hey, I'm not that crass; I waited a whole three paragraphs.

By the way, that person who wrote that blog post isn't a real entity online, did you know? He has numbers in his name (one presumes Conan776 is a "he" and I happen to know) and, with some measure of wisdom, Google has decided anyone who, ten years ago, picked an online identity involving numbers isn't fully human. And that's not evil, is it?

YES IT IS. Hey, guess what, THE REST OF US DON''T WORK IN HIPPIE DIPPY CALIFORNIA FOR HIPPIE DIPPY GOOGLE. WE WANT TO KEEP OUR JOBS WHILE BEING ABLE TO HAVE A LIFE ONLINE!

I'm a pretty political cat. My employer knows my "real" name. How often do you see high profile people fired for something they said online? Once every few months, for a while, although the chilling effect has come. For us low profile people, don't you think that's a 1000x fold?

But, Google+ has decided to sell everyone else down the Corporatism river. Just like on FaceBook, we all should watch what we say and look over our shoulder lest we disrupt the Corporate status quo, Wow, that's realllly Evil. And it is really sad that our One Hope, the corporation who swore their policy was not to do "Evil," has shown its true colors, imo.

Signed,Conan776
(although Conan Seven-Seven-Six has a nice ring to it)

the following videos are not safe for work!

Eminem -- My Name Is

2 Live Crew -- Banned in the USA

What is this?? Is this not America?
This is not China!
This is not Russia!
This is not the place where they brought down the wall
This is America!
We have the right to say what we want to say,
We have the right
To do what we want to do,
And what I do in my house,
You might not do in your house!
So what I do in my house is my business! And the simple fact
Of it all is that we are BONDED by the First Amendment!
We have the Freedom of EXPRESSION!
We have the freedom of CHOICE!
And you, Chinese, black, green, purple, Jew,
YOU have the right to listen to whoever
You want to, and even the 2 Live Crew!
So all you right-wingers, left-wingers, bigots, Communists,
There IS a place for you in this world!
Because this is the land of the FREE,
The home of the BRAVE!
And 2 Live is what we are!

(Oh sorry 2 Live Crew, you have a number in your name, so Google Plus says: Go F*** Yourselves!)

Amazing Spider-man trailer looks like ad for a video game

2011-07-20T21:26:00.002-04:00

One I think I've already played! Fast forward to ~1:42 (roughly 2/3s in) to see these cheesy effects.

Sony -- Amazing Spider-man Trailer

Doesn't that look a tad familiar?

DICE -- Mirrors Edge - Leap of Faith TV ad

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T13:31:00.000-04:00

Travelling, so no new content, but here's last years post.

(I keep hearing on Twitter that Progressives like me don't celebrate the holiday. Just a reminder: utter tripe!)

RIP FTP

2011-06-30T18:31:00.010-04:00

So that's the end of that. Most amazing thing to me is the FTP insider Deuc3s, who tried to warn everyone on 2+2 weeks ago that Full Tilt Poker was getting shut down yesterday. Thread locked and deleted and the guy got banned, like, duh obviously. Oops.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Leonard Cohen -- Everybody Knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

(LOL meetings NSFW!)

At last a winning week

2011-06-26T18:14:00.000-04:00

I've definitely had my ups and down since taking my business to the Merge network, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of things. I had one disastrous -3BI session Wednesday but I recovered. I also earned ~$97 in rackback and cleared $30 worth of my signup bonus, for a +$320 week.

I maybe ran a little above EV though....

Happy 40th Anniversary Drug War

2011-06-17T21:45:00.003-04:00

Dead eyes are you just like me?
(Her eyes were as vacant as the seas)

The Smashing Pumpkins -- By Starlight

Nothing but Net

2011-05-29T23:42:00.004-04:00

winnings that is!

A good day on RPM/Merge. Yesterday not so much -- I've never seen so many villains show up with AA over so few hands -- but that was at 10NL. I reloaded last night just before the server crashed, and 25NL went much better, and I was on the right side of a couple of heads up coolers for an extra boost.

I hope everyone who I didn't just stack is having a good holiday weekend! (And, unlike that messy business last time, as my tweep Jefoss reminds me, it's also a bank holiday in Britain.)

Röyksopp -- Remind Me

Lemon rant cross-stitch

2011-05-19T17:00:00.004-04:00

So, Portal 2 finally dropped. It's a pretty entertaining game, and I haven't even gotten around to the co-op portion.

Among the crazy cast of characters featured in Valve's Portal 2 is Cave Johnson, the larger than life and currently deceased founder and CEO of Aperture Science (voiced by J. K. Simmons). I stumbled upon this and had to share: blogger morganskye has turned Johnson's amazing rant about what to do "when life gives you lemons" into a cross-stitch, which she's in the process of framing. Go check it out!

Basix -- Still Alive (a cappella, cover)

Black like a murder of crows

2011-04-16T13:58:00.014-04:00

They lived and they died

They prayed to their gods
But their stone gods did not make a sound
And their Empire crumbled Until all that was left
Were the stones our workmen found
And all this time, the River flowed

The UStream wake for online poker continues here [Monday update].
Black Friday is over but it hasn't ended. It might be a long, long time before poker comes back. It could be decades, who knows? But after the mourning, life goes on. Good luck and best wishes to everyone out there.

Sting -- All This Time

Men go crazy in congregations
We only get better
One by one

False rumors: Feds can't shut down poker sites for non-U.S. players

2011-04-15T23:07:00.007-04:00

Non-U.S. players will be unaffected by the FBI/DOJ shenanigans.

Unfortunately, and partly due to Twitter shorthand, people have gotten a false impression that, while the dot-com websites are going offline, that this could mean the clients will stop working as well. People saying the "sites" are going down in 48 hours just mean it will taking that long for the .com webpages to go completely offline.

It's true that the clients are just an Internet application, just like your browser is an Internet application. All the feds have done is broken the ability to view the .com sites on your browser, because they control a small part of the infrastructure the browser uses.The clients are a totally different type of thing and completely beyond U.S. government control. PokerStars has already set up a .eu site, I'm sure FTP will set up a .eu site too soon enough beyond the DOJ's reach. That the U.S. controls the .com domain at all is a historical accident.

In short, the Internet isn't just the World Wide Web that you look at through your browser, in the same way the mall isn't just the J.C. Penny's. The client and the poker site servers -- which, again, are outside of the U.S. -- are like the music store by the food court. Nothing that's changed about what Penny's can sell has any effect on what albums your can get.

So Don't #PokerPanic people!

Update: Via Kevmath:

PokerStar's Statement

Full Tilt Poker's Statement #1

Full Tilt Poker's Statement #2 [Broken since the site went down, screenshot here ]

More via 2+2

SDNY indictment of PokerStars/AP/UB/FTP and payment processors

2011-04-15T17:34:00.004-04:00

Is here

And here is the civil complaint

Via Chris Krafcik on Twitter

What a day, huh?

Update: Oh well. At least there's a new episode of the Micros out.

The Micros -- Episode 5

Feds seize major poker domains

2011-04-15T13:41:00.013-04:00

***BREAKING***

Oh sh-- [5pm EST: 2+2 forums currently down]

FullTiltPoker.com and UB.com confirmed gone!

Update: http://www.absolutepoker.com/ gone!

Update2: CNBC and Reuters reporting:

"Three Largest Internet Poker Companies Charged With Fraud, Illegal Gambling - Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, & Absolute Poker - Charged"

Update3: Fuller story via MarketWatch

Update4: DOJ Press Release (PDF) Begins:

"PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JANICE FEDARCYK, the Assistant-Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced the unsealing of an Indictment today charging eleven defendants, including the founders of the three largest Internet poker companies doing business in the United States - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker (the "Poker Companies")- with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses. The United States also filed a civil money laundering and in rem forfeiture complaint (the "Civil Complaint") against the Poker Companies, their assets, and the assets of several payment processors for the Poker Companies. In addition, restraining orders were issued against more than 75 bank accounts utilized by the Poker Companies and their payment processors, and five Internet domain names used by the Poker Companies to host their illegal poker games were seized."

Update5: Well, this all looks pretty bad for U.S. players not to mention the 11 people indicted by the Feds, imo. Good game, poker. Game over?

Update6: Reports via Twitter that U.S. players are blocked from playing on PokerStars:

"We are sorry but, due to government regulations, playing real money tournaments is not allowed in your area."

It looks like PokerStars has withdrawn from the U.S. market.

[x] Game over :(

Good run in an MTT

2011-04-12T02:14:00.003-04:00

Well, 31st out of 1207 runners. 27th would have been ok money, but I was happy with how I played. Got lucky in one spot where I called a maniac's shove with AQo, SB woke up with AA, but I got a Q in the window and another one on the turn (the maniac, whose screen-name was actually Maniack79 had 55). Still, it was during a period where, for a half hour or more, not a single hand that was ahead when the chips went in held up, so I'll chalk it up to it not being my turn for the doom-switch. And likewise if behind's in front...

I saw some really weird play even when we were down to 100 players. What was the deal here?

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1000/t2000 Blinds + t250 - 9 players - View hand 1274724
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: t56470 M = 10.76
BB: t53538 M = 10.20
Hero (UTG): t63042 M = 12.01
UTG+1: t27793 M = 5.29
UTG+2: t56365 M = 10.74
MP1: t65177 M = 12.41
MP2: t19180 M = 3.65
CO: t9720 M = 1.85
BTN: t58652 M = 11.17

Pre Flop: (t5250) Hero is UTG with K K
Hero raises to t5000, 7 folds, BB calls t3000

Flop: (t13250) 2 Q 3 (2 players)
BB bets t6000, Hero calls t6000

Turn: (t25250) 4 (2 players)
BB bets t2000, Hero raises to t8000, BB raises to t20000, Hero calls t12000

River: (t65250) 6 (2 players)
BB bets t12000, Hero calls t12000

Final Pot: t89250
BB shows 9 A (high card Ace)
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
Hero wins t89250

It was a long 4 1/2 hour slog, so thanks to my tweeps for keeping me entertained in the meanwhile!

Procol Harum -- A Whiter Shade Of Pale

If music be the food of life
Then laughter is its queen
And likewise if behind's in front
Then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
Seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
And attacked the ocean bed

Hey Listen

2011-03-26T22:25:00.002-04:00

I'm just going to leave this here.

Meekakitty (Navi) -- Hey, Listen

Supermoon rises over Boston

2011-03-24T18:10:00.006-04:00

Via Boston.com / NASA; taken from Prospect Hill in Waltham by Dennis di Cicco

Pretty cool pic. In foreshortened perspective, you've got serveral famous Harvard buildings, the tall buildings in Cambridge beyond them, and behind Logan's air traffic control tower. On the right half is the rest of the fairly new Zakim bridge, the tall building with the red floors is Cambridge Courthouse and jail, and after that the TD BankNorth Garden where the Celtics and Bruins play.

And somewhere in the sleepy foreground, there is me :)

Tommy James & the Shondells -- Crystal BluePersuasion

The Sunday Lotto is hereafter The Sunday Storm

2011-03-22T00:40:00.003-04:00

More info from PokerStars

And now we meet in an abandoned studio

2011-03-17T22:55:00.009-04:00

An apologetic shout out to SplitSuit. I freerolled him for a cut of my winnings for having gotten an advanced copy of his book, a deal which expires at midnight.

It would probably have helped if I had actually read his book, instead of merely acting like some reality show rock star about the whole deal.

Needless to say, I'd need to flip like a god to even break his cut even in the next hour. My bad!

Still, just this week I spent a ~$100 for the final edition of his book so as to make up for my retardedness. I plan to actually read it this time!

The Buggles Video Killed The Radio Star

I heard you on the wireless back in '52
Lying awake intently tuning in on you
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through

Oh, oh

They took the credit for your second symphony
Re-written by machine on new technology
and now I understand the problems you could see

PokerStars software quirk

2011-03-09T21:10:00.007-05:00

Normally when you play in a satellite, every one who gets an entry ties for first. But not me!

I can just imagine the convo at Stars HQ...

Lenny: Hey, it looks like Conan776 is going to earn a ticket to the Sunday Lotto
Murray: What? That's impossible. His doomswitch is still on.
Lenny: See for yourself.
Murray: Ridiculous! OK, well... I guess we're going to have to give him a ticket, but let's make sure he doesn't feel too good about it.

Lush -- De-Luxe

When I'm up you're coming down

Michael Moore: America is not Broke

2011-03-07T10:02:00.004-05:00

Video of Michael Moore's rousing speech on the capital steps in Wisconsin, March 5th 2011

Michael Moore -- America is Not Broke

No money in Sunday $5 million, everyone is solid

2011-03-06T23:00:00.013-05:00

No cash for me.

My first table went well, 'twas all a good back and forth until I doubled up set over set. Soon after, I called a blind 3b on the button into a 3 way flop with 87s. Flopped a pair and the flush draw, and turned trips, and got it all in way ahead to double up again. Berate-aments were had, though I thought I played it fine. I was 130th at that point with 50K players left.

Second table draw was LOL bad -- I was still like 900th in chips with 45K left, but third in chips on my table (big stacks on my left and right) which had a Pokerstars Pro on it as well.

Guy on my left minraised UTG 44% of the time, and another guy open shoved or shoved over the top once per orbit. Playing back at either of them went horribad. Called the open shoving guy with QJs, he turns over KK. I check raised mister min-raise on an A-high flop with A8 and turned an open ender and he three bets my semi-bluff. Board paired on the river and I gave it up. I did finally take the Pro's last 1.5BBs though!

Then I went thu roughly 8 table moves in 20 hands. I came back from the fourth break to an UTG open shove from a fairly short stack, and I called off a third of my chips with QQ. Villain turned over KJ and, boom, K in the window.

I somehow doubled back up with ace magnets in the big blind, but I was getting ground down again. I'm pretty sure the guy second in chips was three spots to my left when we were down to 10K players left; I saw about 4 players try to take a stand against him and he had the goods every time.

I drew a new table, and there the chips were still flying. I was pretty card dead but maybe I could have pushed a few spots harder.

Finally, 1000 spots from the bubble with just 10BB left, I opened QJo on the button for 1/3 of my stack. BB puts me all in, I puke/call since I figure to be 50/50 versus most of his re-steal range. He has AKo. I flopped an open ender and turned a possible board flush chop. But, alas, I bricked the river.

Out 8554th place out of 59K runners -- good game me!

It was fun -- would have been more fun if I was better rolled. I will try again on the 6th anniversary, God willing.

Paradise, is exactly like
Where you are right now
Only much, much better

(The following video goes out to Charlie Sheen, my new hero.)

Laurie Anderson -- Language Is a Virus (from Outer Space)

Well I dreamt there was an island
That rose up from the sea.
And everybody on the island
Was somebody from TV.
And there was a beautiful view
But nobody could see.
Cause everybody on the island
Was screaming: Look at me! Look at me!Look at me! Look at me!

Sunday Million 5th Anniversary Tournament

2011-03-03T05:34:00.003-05:00

Will be a $5,000,000 guarantee, with first place getting $1,000,000!

You gotta get in on this!

When you are thinking about giving yourself an 8 hour time out

2011-02-25T05:42:00.002-05:00

Follow through you idiot

Happy 10th Anniversay AYBABTU!

2011-02-25T02:07:00.004-05:00

Wow, has it been 10 years? Life goes by pretty fast! (I've done a lousy job of making my time....)

The Laziest Men on Mars -- Invasion of the Grabber Robots (orginal music)

Bad_CRC et al. -- All Your Base Are Belong To Us (remix/video)

You have no chance to survive make your time

(flash version)

[x] Still up for the month

2011-02-23T21:32:00.003-05:00

About $75...

OK, I took a peek at this week's results overall and it's not that bad. Right?

Amazing hand to wind up the week -- is this even ethical? A railbird starts berating this guy on the table I just joined for being an idiot who open shoves any Ax. A few rounds later, I make my standard raise with 44. Sure enough, the guy open shoves with T3s. Thank you Mr. Railbird!

INXS -- Never Tear Us Apart

Wild eyed and crazy

2011-02-20T20:15:00.005-05:00

What a day. OK, Friday was worse because I ended up giving back all my 100NL winnings and then some; but, well, it was my birthday. It didn't help that a player who chatted "in b4 conan goes broke" woke up 3 hands later with AA which I naturally shoved TT into for 160BB on a low flop. Not to mention spending Saturday ending up with the idiot end of more flopped straights than I can count!

And then today, I got stacked by a maniac for most of what was left of my roll (3 way all in AK = AK << the maniac's 65 FTL!). At one point I was down to my case $43 but no way in heck I was leaving my seat three to the right of a crazy person sitting on 4 1/2 buy ins!

I slowly chipped up and restacked the maniac with QQ versus an overplayed JJ where we both had an over pair to the board. Was back up $140 at that point, but couldn't leave out of shear etiquette despite having my roll (then back to $490 or so) on the table -- and then, naturally, ran AQ into AK on an A high flop.

Maniac eventually went busto, natch. I came back for one more crush.

I ended up $200 today, but, to paraphrase President Eisenhower, that happened, but, by God, it didn't just happen.

Nobody knows.

Victoria Williams - Crazy Mary

Down a long dirt road
Past the parson's place
In the old blue car
We used to race
A little country store with a sign tacked to its side
Said: NO L-O-I-T-E-R-I-N-G-A llowed
(Underneath that sign always congregated quite a crowd)

Not sure why this guys was berating me

2011-02-17T21:50:00.012-05:00

But it was a nice pot.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP2: $106.50
CO: $128.10
BTN: $50
SB: $122.90
BB: $104.55
UTG: $123.05
Hero (UTG+1): $100
MP1: $108.50

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG calls $1, Hero raises to $4, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $4, CO calls $4, BTN folds, SB raises to $20, BB folds, UTG calls $19, Hero decides he's got pot odds and calls $16, MP2 calls $16, CO folds

Flop: ($85) (4 Players)
SB bets $102.90 and is All-In, UTG raises to $103.05 and is All-In, Hero sobs a bit, says a quick prayer and calls $80 and is All-In, MP2 folds

Turn: ($370.80) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($370.80) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $370.80 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed and LOST (-$122.40 NET)
UTG showed and WON $45.80 (-$77.10 NET)
Hero showed and WON $322 (+$222 NET)

Not a bad result. Turns out my read of SB's hand was dead on: an overpair with no spade. UTG was a mystery, but against these exact hands I needed to call 80 to win 320, which means I needed 24% equity, but I was 28% percent to win. I don't love it but I've made worse calls.

SB: GO FUYCK YOIRU ****ING SELF YOU ****ING DUMB PIECE OF ****
Oh, here we go
SB: JESUS ****ING CHRIST
But I just won a huge pot and my inner Antonio comes out
Conan776: weeeeeeeeee
SB: shut the **** up you ****ign **** licker
SB: jesus christ you ****in suck so bad

LOL. Does he even realize he put his money dead to a running full house? Does he understand that I sucked out on the other guy and not him?

Ah well, since I'm no longer stuck, and I'm a little tipsy, and the blinds are coming back around, it occurs to me to make my farewells
Conan776: oh oh my mom is calling
Conan776: gg tho
SB: shut the **** up
SB: use moms credit card to keep reloading to when yo ugo bust you ****ing broke *** ***

Hah, hah, I think he believed me!

SB: run and hide ***got
SB: do whta youre good at
SB: sucking ***
SB: and getting lucky
SB: and then going broke and re loading
SB: ****in degen
Conan776: this all is going in my blog
SB: blog? lmao
SB: your 3 tabling pro blog?
I didn't have the heart to tell him I usually 2 table. Maybe if he didn't 20 table he wouldn't be berating the wrong guy!
SB llllllolllllllll

Eric Clapton -- I Shot the Sheriff

Cause I'm a working on a set mine

2011-02-16T23:27:00.006-05:00

Lee Dorsey, 1966

Another sixteen hours of two-tabling 100NL this week, but not quite as much richer as last time. I definitely tilted off ~$200 at the end of a losing session early on, which isn't normally like me. I'll have to try not to do that next week.

Out of all the hands I played this week, this one is my favorite, not because I binked a 2-outer on the river, but because I feel like I figured out how to get max value when that happened given my opponent's range. Or maybe I'm being result orientated, but I still love it when a plan comes together.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $79.70
SB: $162.95
BB: $118.65
Hero (UTG): $95
UTG+1: $110.75
MP1: $46.90
MP2: $92.80
CO: $23.55

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $3, 4 folds, BTN calls $3, 2 folds

Hmmm. Button is a fairly fishy player, I've got him at a VPIP/PFR of 29/0 over 14 hands. If he's got a HUD he sees me as 42/17 over 12 hands so I've got some image problems. Still UTG is the new UTG, right?

Flop: ($7.50) (2 Players)

Eh, that's ugly, but I really want to win this pot. Let's see how ye olde Reverse Scandinavian Min-Raise Bluff works here...

Hero checks, BTN bets $5, Hero raises to $10, BTN calls $5

Eh, I don't like that, but I've got to follow through on the turn. I should be able to fold out everything except TPTK (i.e. AQ).

Turn: ($27.50) (2 Players)
Hero bets $16, BTN calls $16

This really sucks, he has exactly AQ. I know, I know, ranges, blah blah, but I know he's got AQ.

River: ($59.50) (2 Players)

Yes! I mean... oh no! Ugh. So I've got the best hand, but I can't decide what to bet for value now because he might somehow put me on a flush. I know he doesn't have a flush because is already on the board.

And then... I had a good idea. There's still a 25% chance that he is holding the !!

Which would mean he would know I don't have the nut flush. So if I check, he might decide there's enough of a chance that I flopped a set or rivered a week flush to turn his hand into a bluff.

Hero checks, BTN bets $50.70 and is All-In, Hero calls $50.70

Results: $160.90 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed and LOST (-$79.70 NET)
Hero showed and WON $157.90 (+$78.20 NET)

Hah! That's how we do!!

Lee Dorsey - Working In The Coal Mine

'Cause I make a little money
Hauling coal by the ton
But when Saturday rolls around
I'm too tired for havin' fun

Some sessions make me want to cry

2011-02-15T17:24:00.004-05:00

Somehow I only lost 5BI yesterday, despite these lousy situations:

*8x on a 567x9 board (c/r'd by villain who had T8)
*AA << JJ, as I called down villain who flopped quads
*I turn two pair, 50% VPIP villain leads into me when an Ace hit the river, I shouldn't even need to tell you what he had.
*Villain calls down my top set with TT on a low dry board, he rivers a Ten.
*KK << AA AIPF ~130BB deep (standard, but when it rains it pours)

Often I'll wake up the next day after a long session, and there's one hand from the previous night stuck in my craw -- rarely two, let alone five!

I might be lucky to end up break even this week. Oh well, there probably is no use in crying about it.

Godley and Creme - Cry

You don't know how to play the game
And you cheat
And you lie
You don't even know how to say good-bye
You make me wanna cry

The state of modern AI

2011-02-15T00:43:00.002-05:00

At least Watson doesn't play poker! (yet)

Andrew Bouvé -- Would You Like To Buy a Vowel, Watson?

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T04:32:00.001-05:00

A little Irish music to hold us all over until Saint Patrick's.

My Bloody Valentine -- Soon

Wake up
Raoul
I want my money

(Oh like you understand the words? Yeah, don't go there... I let you get to me. Yeah, yeah.)

O versus O (extended interview parts I II and III)

2011-02-13T20:24:00.001-05:00

Updating my earlier post, here is the rest of the O'Reilly/Obama interview after the live cameras stopped rolling.

Bill O'Reilly -- Extended Obama 2011 interview part 1

Bill O'Reilly -- Extended Obama 2011 interview part 2

Bill O'Reilly -- Extended Obama 2011 interview part 3

[x] $1 a hand

2011-02-13T06:01:00.004-05:00

Kind of a good weekend so far.

In honor of which, I think it's time for me to post what I think is the greatest alternative rock anthem evah.

Funny story: Billy Corgan wrote it for a girl he met just once, and he eventually ran back into her after it came out. He asked her if she liked the song he wrote for her, but she didn't know what he was talking about. He said, you know, "Starla?" "Oh no," she replied, "My name is Darla."

The Smashing Pumpkins -- Starla

No more words
Just you and I
High
In the sky

Name something that gets passed around

2011-02-10T23:55:00.000-05:00

A fish's chips?
Paris Hilton?
Um....

Family Feud -- Devils & Angels

Not bad results for 16 hours work

2011-02-09T22:03:00.002-05:00

... during an otherwise quiet New England winter week. That sinking yellow EV line can't possibly be right, but I did play a hand or two at 200NL and won a flip QQ >> AKo. Maybe rivered a 4 outer 2 pair vs higher 2 pair all in on a turn. Nothing all that crazy, imo!

Let's do this again next week!

And even aside from poker, I binked one of my 3 five dollar SuperBowl Squares with the final score for half that prize pool. EZ game, imo!

The Beatles -- We All Live In a Yellow Submarine

As we live
A life of ease
Everyone of us
Has all we need
Sky of blue
And sea of green

O versus O

2011-02-06T22:41:00.004-05:00

Obama being interviewed by O'Reilly just before Superbowl XLV.

Sorry for more political content, but I'm a sucker for this stuff. And without the third O (Olbermann) around anymore to satiate my tastes, I'm perhaps projecting my famine upon y'all.

Update: you might also enjoy Obama Said To Be 'Playing The Media Like A Fiddle'
Update #2: I've posted the extended interviews here.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;brand=foxsports&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:853c4fb4-42fc-4b41-a618-b7da0923bf4f&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_videosearch&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;fg=RAMP" target="_new" title="NFL on FOX: O&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;Reilly interviews Obama"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Video: NFL on FOX: O&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;Reilly interviews Obama&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Happy 100th Birthday Ronnie!

2011-02-06T00:14:00.002-05:00

Oh, Superman, where are you now,
When everything's gone wrong somehow?

Good old Ronald Wilson "Ray-gun" Reagan would have turned 100 years old today.

Ah, the memories. In his first week in public office, he signed the largest tax increase of any governor before or since in all of American history ($6 billion in today's dollars) to balance California's budget.

Not a mistake he'd repeat as President, where he racked up record deficits, increased government spending by 25%, and America's tax burden by 20% in real terms (except for the rich, of course).

And following the economic advice of a brain-damaged former NFL quarterback (with a penchant for reactionary anti-Communist science fiction), Congressman Jack Kemp, he (re)popularized the idea of trickle-down economics (a.k.a. Reaganomics). ~~Which is why, a quarter century later, everyone in Detroit owns a yacht.~~ Oops... or, maybe what's really happened since then is the near total destruction of the American middle-class (@~15:00+)? Shrug: who can say?

Still, Reagan is a high demigod in the Republican Pantheon, and we all know what the new Congress would like to do in light of the outcomes of Reaganomics so far: double down!

Another 30 years of the Reagan Revolution and I'm sure it'll all sort out.

Genesis -- Land of Confusion

I remember
Long ago
.
.
when the sun was shining
.
And then the stars were bright
All through the night
And the sounds of your laughter
As I held you tight
So long ago

My uNL Superbowl squares

2011-02-05T21:26:00.000-05:00

Via 2+2 (h/t to hockeyav). First is $1, second is the $5 pool. (I leave figuring out which are mine to the astute reader)

My first time at a casino

2011-02-04T00:51:00.013-05:00

Was awesome. A few years before the poker boom, mind you.

I had learned basic strategy for Mohegan Sun's Blackjack game. Dealer stands soft, double any 2, late surrender.

Having very little understanding of variance, I sat down at a $25 min post game, and ran 200 to 600 in about 15 hands.

And then I got up, and made the four hour drive back home (nearest casino is where?? ... in my dreams!).

I was reminded of that tonight: I made nearly a Buy In in as many hands as that 9 hour tour so many years ago. Note that this is not really a hit and run since the guy I stacked left the table -- still, I'm calling it a night.

R.E.M. (The Clique cover) -- I am Superman

You don't really love
that guy you make it
with now do you?
Trust me when I say
I know the pathway
to your heart

Pretty good for a snow day

2011-02-02T23:32:00.005-05:00

Except that I lost 2 1/4 Buy Ins at 50NL. God, that level is a hellhole.

But, looking at just 100NL I did alright.

You can see where AA << KK @ hand ~200, but I faded a few combo draws all-in on the flop along the way to actually get back above EV.

I need to get snowed in more often!

Rob Zombie -- Dragula

Dead I am the life, dig into the skin
Knuckle crack the bone, 21 to win
Dead I am the dog, hound of hell you cry
Devil on your back, I can never die

The Mighty Deuce-Four

2011-02-02T13:20:00.001-05:00

nypokerkid: 2 4 offniceplayuing idiot

Thanks, as always, to Poker Grump -- I'm still a believer!

100NL shot still going well

2011-01-31T22:37:00.007-05:00

I feel like I'm playing against villains who are at least sort of capable of leveling, even if they continue to do it ridic badly against me.

It's a little degen for me to be playing this high but I don't care. I'm having fun playing cash for the first time in a long time.

This looks a little bad pre, but button was xxNostromo9366xx, who as previously noted, I run like a god against.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $125.50
Hero (SB): $100
BB: $79
UTG: $58.45
MP: $105.95
CO: $60.30

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, BTN raises to $2, Hero calls $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($6) (3 Players)
Hero bets $3.40, BB calls $3.40, BTN folds

Turn: ($12.80) (2 Players)
Hero bets $7, BB calls $7

River: ($26.80) (2 Players)
Hero bets $19, BB calls $19

Results: $64.80 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed and WON $61.80 (+$30.90 NET)
BB mucked and LOST (-$30.40 NET)

Radiohead -- Like Spinning Plates (Piano, Live)

I'm living in cloud cuckoo land
(all piano version)

Update: Pretty happy with today's graph :) (Biggest hand for a long while)

So this is what 3% to chop feels like

2011-01-30T00:32:00.001-05:00

Wow I butchered this hand.

Villain was a total nit, I should have folded pre, and definitely on the flop.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $224.30
UTG: $100
UTG+1: $100
UTG+2: $97.50
Hero (MP1): $100.30
MP2: $100
CO: $104.35
BTN: $112.90
SB: $97.50

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (MP1)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to $4, UTG+2 folds, Hero calls $4, 2 folds, BTN calls $4, 2 folds

Flop: ($13.50) (3 Players)
UTG+1 bets $11, Hero raises to $24, BTN folds, UTG+1 raises to $96 and is All-In, Hero calls $72

UTG+1 shows

%#^&Q#&%I*Q#^

Turn: ($205.50) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($205.50) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $205.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
UTG+1 showed and WON $101.25 (+$1.25 NET)
Hero showed and WON $101.25 (+$1.25 NET)

Whew. Some rungood for once! I'll take it

Gloria Jones -- Tainted Love

So much for the 2011 WBCOOP

2011-01-29T15:54:00.000-05:00

I got a little crazy, Blind versus Blind, with top pair. Big Blind flopped a Royal Flush draw and wasn't going anywhere. Oh well, next year.

Good luck to those of you who qualify for the main event!

The Four Lads -- Istanbul

Max value

2011-01-28T23:57:00.002-05:00

I admit, I'm a maniac, and I expect to be looked up light once in a while.

But this guy -- who stacked me (flopped flush over flopped flush in a 3bet hand on the turn) last night -- is my kind of customer!

NO RESPECT!

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $100
SB: $64
BB: $101.35
UTG: $52.45
UTG+1: $100
MP1: $79.80
Hero (MP2): $113.90
CO: $110.65

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (MP2)
2 folds, MP1 raises to $2, Hero calls $2, CO folds, BTN raises to $9, 3 folds, Hero calls $7

Flop: ($21.50) (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $14, Hero calls $14

Turn: ($49.50) (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($49.50) (2 Players)
Hero bets $36, BTN calls $36

Results: $121.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN mucked and LOST (-$59 NET)
Hero showed and WON $118.50 (+$59.50 NET)

Otis Redding -- Respect (original)

Out of WBCOOP NLHE event one

2011-01-25T21:04:00.001-05:00

264th place. Nursed a short stack for a long time, then AA << QQ AIPF. gg

Move up, chase losses

2011-01-25T00:55:00.003-05:00

I should have thought of this sooner!

Put ~my whole roll down at 100NL

In the words of the Magician: "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee"

Update: Yeah, I lost it all back, but it felt kinda good.

Finally played another hand of poker

2011-01-24T21:27:00.013-05:00

Excepting a few online home game tourneys, I basically haven't played a hand of poker for real $ since the 9th of the month, when I played a bunch of $11 SNGs and cash in, ugh, one for the minimum.

But, I decided to shake off my sense of doom, and fire up a $4.40 entry, 3K guarantee. I gotta get in practice the WBCOOP, right? I'm ~10 minutes late to the start.

First hand:

Poker Stars $4.00+$0.40 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 9 players - View hand 1140282

DinDinFtw (SB): t2535 84.50 BBs
YourPalBrian (BB): t3180 106 BBs
pokerXample (UTG): t2970 99 BBs
#1chrissii (UTG+1): t2940 98 BBs
1973-jack (UTG+2): t3111 103.70 BBs
Angelsgrl (MP1): t3825 127.50 BBs
VOotka (MP2): t3005 100.17 BBs
Hero (CO): t3000 100 BBs
chando78 (BTN): t2749 91.63 BBs

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is CO with K K
3 folds, Angelsgrl calls t30, VOotka raises to t90, Hero calls t90,

KK on the CO, decide to slowplay, maybe set up a nice little backraise trap.

chando78 raises to t390, 3 folds, VOotka calls t300,

Trap worked. I know we're deep here, but I might as well stick it in

Hero raises to t3000 all in, chando78 calls t2359 all in, VOotka calls t2610

Didn't really want calls in 2 spots, but, OK.

VOotka shows A K
chando78 shows J J

Nice, I'm way ahead here for a 3-way all-in.

Flop: (t8824) 3 5 T (3 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: (t8824) 8 (3 players - 2 are all in)

Yes, yes! I'm one card away from tripling up. My doomswitch curse is over!!

River: (t8824) A (3 players - 2 are all in)

Q#%&Q$WE%#$^OdbhW$%E*U%q3

Final Pot: t8824
VOotka shows A K (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
chando78 shows J J (a pair of Jacks)
VOotka wins t502
VOotka wins t8322

God, I hate this game.

But, oh well, like Doyle says, "Courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

So, let's once again forget how bad I run, and focus on something else. The new episode of The Micros. Yaaayyy!!!!

The Micros -- Play Poker Like The Rose

(I feel like I deserved a credit though, quoting my twitter post from last month, followed by the Pac-Man dying noise? C'mon!)

It's that WBCOOP time of year again

2011-01-21T22:45:00.003-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

(My) Registration code: XXXXXX 490070

The Ladder Principle

2010-12-30T00:13:00.005-05:00

Solid advice, imo.

So upon googling, the concept is briefly mentioned in Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed which you can preview for free on Google Books. Of course, I bought the book when it came out, immediately mis-applied its concepts to cash games, and have been stuck ever since.

As best I can tell, the Ladder Principle is a double edged sword. On the one hand, if you are out-classed, you should play meekly, and fold your way into a higher part of the tourney cash-out, hence climbing up the ladder. On the other hand, if you have any sort of edge, then aggressively pursuing marginal edges should bring you towards making a deeper run.

Or as someone on 2+2 put it: Great postflop play easily makes up for being too loose preflop.

Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler is immediately right about my game lately. I've been happy to make a decent stack early on, but then shutting down later and limping into the money.

So, I took this to heart last night, followed my bliss, and played as my complete maniacal self, with the usual results!

Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 9 players - View hand 1096918
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: t1170 23.40 BBs
SB: t3575 71.50 BBs
BB: t2565 51.30 BBs
UTG: t3140 62.80 BBs
Hero (UTG+1): t3135 62.70 BBs
UTG+2: t4280 85.60 BBs
MP1: t3940 78.80 BBs
MP2: t3120 62.40 BBs
CO: t2760 55.20 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is UTG+1 with Q A
1 fold, Hero raises to t175, 3 folds, CO calls t175, 3 folds

Flop: (t425) J Q 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t255, CO raises to t510, Hero calls t255

Turn: (t1445) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets t850, CO raises to t2075 all in,

Hah hah! I have a monster compared to my maniacal image, It's close, but per the Ladder Principle, I should make this call. If villain has a set, oh well, good game me!

Hero calls t1225

CO shows 5 A

FIST PUMP. I've played this hand perfectly! Deep run, here I come. Thank you Chainsaw!! I mean, hah, unless villain binks his two outer....

River: (t5595) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

#$#!$^&&$%R@F@#^%^@#$R^

Final Pot: t5595
Hero shows Q A (two pair, Queens and Fives)
CO shows 5 A (three of a kind, Fives)
CO wins t5595

The B-52's -- Follow Your Bliss

Yeah, good thing I'm not results orientated. Deep run here I come!

Sonic Marathon for Child's Play

2010-12-28T22:29:00.000-05:00

Tis the season for another marathon for Child's Play.

Spread the word!

Happy Snowloko!

2010-12-28T02:47:00.009-05:00

It's Christmas In Kenmore Square by The Swirlies

Meanwhile, in New York

IgnitionCinema -- NY sanitation crushes car

How does he call there? How does he get there?

2010-12-26T21:29:00.002-05:00

Poker Stars $8.00+$0.80 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t625/t1250 Blinds + t150 - 9 playersHand History Converter

Toni1279 (MP1): t21903 M = 6.79
HondaMygas (MP2): t24691 M = 7.66
Hero (CO): t10451 M = 3.24
Uncirculated (BTN): t55491 M = 17.21
KPACOTKA+EV (SB): t37920 M = 11.76
hampton cat (BB): t48903 M = 15.16
muruntau (UTG): t21358 M = 6.62
BBware (UTG+1): t20250 M = 6.28
blondie465 (UTG+2): t16025 M = 4.97

Pre Flop: (t3225) Hero is CO with 6 A
muruntau raises to t2575, 4 folds, Hero calls t2575, 2 folds, hampton cat calls t1325

Flop: (t9700) 5 T 7 (3 players)
hampton cat checks, muruntau checks, Hero bets t7726 all in, hampton cat folds, muruntau calls t7726

muruntau shows J K

FIST PUMP! All I have to do is dodge 5 outs and I'm back in this thing! Hah hah. I mean, unless with that ten he makes runner runner....

Turn: (t25152) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t25152) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

#$^%#@!^&$@$##$

Final Pot: t25152
Hero shows 6 A (a straight, Six to Ten)
muruntau shows J K (a straight, Seven to Jack)
muruntau wins t25152

Sigh, another min-cash

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T17:03:00.002-05:00

The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas

Hatsune Miku -- Christmas Still Night

Harry Reid poker bill cliffs (updated for version 3.0)

2010-12-15T15:40:00.015-05:00

[?] Harry Reid is still pushing for his poker bill to pass (as a rider) in the current congress, ending January 3rd.
[x] The third version has new concessions to gambling opponents and state lottery interests and could still be pushed later in 2011.
[x] Should it be passed, U.S. players will then only be able to continue playing online poker for the next 60 days.
[x] Major sites, e.g. PokerStars and Full Tilt, are expected to then withdraw from the market.
[x] A nation-wide moratorium then goes into effect, which will last either 15 months or until whenever the Secretary of Commerce finishes drafting regulations, whichever is longer.
[x] Drafting the original and simpler UIGEA regs took 4 years, with help from Barney Frank; the new Republican congress may also be able to force delays here.
[x] The bill gives the Justice Department more power to stop rogue operators who try to ignore the moratorium via new "UIGEA Deluxe" provisions, including fines and criminal charges against site operators, which will help streamline money seizures and extraditions.
[x] The 14 states who already have explicitly legalized poker rooms are opted-in to the Federal inter-state program automatically.
[x] If you live in one of the remaining 36 states which are automatically opted-out, then the moratorium period is not just a minimum of 15 months, it's potentially forever.
[x] Depending on the whim of its current governor, any state will be able to change its opt-out status with 90 days notice, meaning even if your state opts-in, that status could change with each election cycle.
[x] However, as a sop to concerned state Lottery officials, after the moratorium ends, opt-out states will be permitted to run their own online intra-state poker sites, charge whatever level of vig they'd like to their citizens, and keep all the profits for themselves.
[x] Once the Federal regulations are finalized, the only sites which will be granted inter-state licenses will be U.S. based sites run by existing casino operators who are licensed by existing major state gaming authorities.
[x] It'll be 3 years before PokerStars or FullTilt are even considered an opportunity to return to the remaining US inter-state market
[?] ... but will only be able to if one of the license-granting state gaming authorities or perhaps Congress let them; I'm still sorting this detail out.
[x] It would be 4 1/4 years from now before the remaining inter-state US player pool is again allowed to play with non-Americans on the virtual felt
[x] However, it's not clear what motivation non-Americans would have to rejoin us; and if other countries have followed the French model by then, as Reid's bill does at first, it might not even be legal from their end to play on U.S. sites.
[x] The Poker Players Alliance has yet to withdraw their support for the bill

Robot Chicken -- This Deal's Getting Worse All the Time!

Las Vegas at night from orbit

2010-12-13T21:40:00.000-05:00

Via MSNBC, by way of cosmic blog, NASA's pic of Las Vegas from the International Space Station, taken November 10th, 2010.

NASA's Earth Observatory blog adds:

The surrounding darkness of the desert presents a stark contrast to the brightly lit street grid of the developed area. The Vegas Strip is reputed to be the brightest spot on Earth due to the concentration of lights on its hotels and casinos.

Pretty neat!

Wikileaks: The Movie

2010-12-12T19:33:00.008-05:00

Up to date documentary, via AnonOps:

SVT -- The Wikileaks Movie

Harry Reid poker bill cliffs (for version 2.0)

2010-12-07T23:45:00.015-05:00

***UPDATE: Cliffs for version 3.0 are here***
[x] Harry Reid's bill (PDF) could pass tomorrow; or next week at the latest
[x] U.S. players will then only be able to legally play online poker for the next 30 days
[x] If we're lucky, we'd be able to play 15 months later, but only on U.S. based sites run by existing casino operators who are licensed by existing major state gaming authorities
[x] But generally, unless your home state opts in, the moratorium period is not just 15 months, it's potentially forever.
[x] The bill gives the Justice Department more power to stop rogue operators who try to ignore the moratorium via new "UIGEA Deluxe" provisions
[x] It'll be 3 years before PokerStars or FullTilt are even considered an opportunity to return to the remaining US market, and only if state gaming authorities let them
[x] It would be 4 1/4 years from now before the remaining US player pool is allowed to rub shoulders with EuroDonks again over the virtual felt
[x] The so-called Poker Players Alliance boardroom seems, at best, to be full of defeatist pessimists who insist this deal is the best the players they claim to represent could ever hope for
[x] This deal is also, by remarkable coincidence, Harrah's et al.'s wet dream of how to take over the U.S. market.
[?] Whether Senator "Harrah" Reid can convince Senator Kyl and friends to allow this legislation to pass before Washington politicians fly off to make way for next year's new Congress, is unknown, but for now, seems unlikely

They Might Be Giants -- Ana Ng

When I was
driving once I
saw this painted
on a bridge:
I don't want the world... I just want your half

Operation Avenge: Anonymous enters the Wikileaks fray

2010-12-05T17:39:00.004-05:00

In war there is no prize for runner-up. ~ Seneca

You can vote for Julian Assange for Time Magazine's Person of the Year here.

(Also, Robert Gates says this fuss over leaked cables is no big deal)

Harry Reid's draft online poker bill

2010-12-04T02:10:00.005-05:00

One version, a PDF simply titled as the "Internet Poker Act of 2010"* is here, via the Las Vegas Review Journal. And an fairly thorough early analysis by Stu Hoegner is up at Pokerati.

Update: Another good run down by F-Train here. I'm starting to think this is a terrible bill.

*Short title of the law itself is given as the "Prohibition of Internet Gaming, Internet Poker Regulation and UIGEA Enforcement Act"

Triple cooler across the sky

2010-12-01T22:21:00.004-05:00

You see the damnedest things in the 70fpp games.

Poker Stars 70FPP No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 8 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: t545 10.90 BBs
Hero (UTG+1): t2025 40.50 BBs
MP1: t1515 30.30 BBs
MP2: t3035 60.70 BBs
CO: t1745 34.90 BBs
BTN: t1775 35.50 BBs
SB: t2955 59.10 BBs
BB: t1405 28.10 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is UTG+1 with 7 8
1 fold, Hero raises to t175, 1 fold, MP2 calls t175, 2 folds, SB calls t150, BB raises to t500, Hero calls t325, MP2 calls t325, SB calls t325

Flop: (t2000) 7 8 Q (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t625, MP2 calls t625, SB calls t625, BB raises to t905 all in, Hero calls t280, MP2 calls t280, SB calls t280

Turn: (t5620) T (4 players - 1 is all in)
SB checks, Hero bets t620 all in, MP2 raises to t1630 all in, SB calls t1550 all in

River: (t9340) T (4 players - 4 are all in)

Final Pot: t9340
Hero shows 7 8 (two pair, Tens and Eights)
MP2 shows 7 Q (two pair, Queens and Tens)
SB shows 9 J (a straight, Eight to Queen)
BB shows Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Tens)
SB wins t1860
SB wins t1860
BB wins t5620

But let's all forget all that. This new vid from JimmyLegs and Krantz rulez!!!

Krantz & JimmyLegs -- The Micros - Episode 1: Pilot

But also this, imo. Jungleman v. Durrrr Challenge Breakdown – Update 2 by Phil Galfond

Rigged, imo

2010-11-26T18:28:00.003-05:00

Insider Trading Probe Leads Investors To Wonder: Is The Market Rigged?

NEW YORK — The Wall Street insider trading investigation may lead everyday investors – already rattled by a stock market meltdown, a one-day "flash crash" and the Madoff scandal – to finally conclude that the game is rigged.

...

"Virtually everyone on the Street believes there are significant improprieties, and I think there is an even more important point for the massive number of investors who are not Wall Street players," says former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, once known as the "sheriff of Wall Street" for aggressively prosecuting white-collar crime as state attorney general. "And that is for most of us, you can't beat these guys at their own game."

...

"If you are sitting there in front of a screen, thinking your information is going to be good enough to make smart judgments that will permit you to outperform the hundreds of thousands of people on Wall Street who have access to better information and more timely information than you, you're mistaken," Spitzer says.

Via HuffPo.

Inside Job Trailer 2010 HD

Three from the bubble

2010-11-21T02:28:00.000-05:00

On a rebuy where I spent all of $31.00. Still FML!

Poker Stars, $10 + $1 NL Hold'em Tournament, 600/1,200 Blinds, 125 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP2: 42,286
CO: 482
BTN: 110,829
SB: 65,861
Hero (BB): 8,090
UTG: 17,636
UTG+1: 67,041
UTG+2: 55,285
MP1: 20,352

Pre-Flop: (2,925) dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, UTG+2 raises to 3,600, 3 folds, BTN calls 3,600, SB folds, Hero raises to 7,965 and is All-In, UTG+2 calls 4,365, BTN calls 4,365

Flop: (25,620) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
UTG+2 bets 4,800, BTN calls 4,800

Turn: (35,220) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
UTG+2 bets 7,200, BTN calls 7,200

River: (49,620) (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
UTG+2 bets 7,200, BTN calls 7,200

Results: 64,020 Pot
BTN mucked and LOST (-27,165 NET)
Hero mucked and LOST (-6,765 NET)
UTG+2 showed and WON 64,020 (+36,855 NET)

Meanwhile....

2010-11-18T02:03:00.008-05:00

Ahem, I mean:

Meanwhile, back at cash games. A gentleman doesn't wonder why I'm sitting on his left on 3 tables, while playing 4 tables (he was across from me at the fourth table), but he does suddenly wonder about this....

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $25
SB: $25
BB: $18.03
UTG: $15.17
UTG+1: $25
MP1: $29.26
Hero (MP2): $28.71
CO: $25

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (MP2)
2 folds, MP1 raises to $0.75, Hero calls $0.75, 4 folds

Flop: ($1.85) (2 Players)
MP1 bets $1.32, Hero calls $1.32

Turn: ($4.49) (2 Players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $3, MP1 raises to $11.50, Hero calls $8.50

River: ($27.49) (2 Players)
MP1 bets $15.69 and is All-In, Hero calls $15.14 and is All-In

Results: $57.77 Pot ($2 Rake)
MP1 showed and LOST (-$28.71 NET)
Hero showed and WON $55.77 (+$27.06 NET)

villain said, "what?"
villain said, "im good at reading, but bad at bluffing donks"
Conan776 said, "i agree"
villain said, "give me one good reason why you would call that"
villain said, "you think someone that raises on turn would bluff?"
Conan776 said, "wha was i supposed to put you on?"
villain said, "top pair top kicker or overpair"
Conan776 said, "looked like missed clubs"
villain said, "i raise preflop and you call"
villain said, "fine whatever"
villain said, "play how you like"
Conan776 said, "meh think you polarized yourself there"
villain said, "if you really are a winning player that way, i dont mind your play"

Give me an army of these guys at 25centNL, and I'll be a winning player!

The Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinoceros

open your eyes, to these must I lie?

March on Washington

2010-10-29T18:02:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm off. Follow me on Twitter for pics!

Keep Fear Alive!

Coxey's Army is on the move... poker content: that's also an old nickname for four-of-a-kind Jacks, which from now on I'm nicknaming "March on Washington."

Don't forget to vote Democrat on Tuesday!

2010-10-26T01:18:00.001-04:00

(Next Tuesday!!)

Hey,

I just got this video about you. Seriously, you're in it, so you really need to see it. Basically, the future of the free world is in your hands.

http://cnnbc.moveon.org/?rc=cutpaste

- Conan776

Oh P.S. Olivia Wilde is in it, too.

Filming a final table: behind the scenes

2010-10-15T02:02:00.006-04:00

Via the PokerStars blog, who sorta buried the lede, imo. A behind the scenes look at how PokerStars.tv recorded the 2010 PCA final table, also while webcasting in 7 languages (EFIGS + Dutch and Russian!).

Pokerstars.tv -- PCA 2010: Behind the scenes of a TV table

Vegas introduces Head's Up Limit slot machines

2010-10-13T03:39:00.004-04:00

The future is now, via Gobbo on 2+2:

There are 6 of these nearby the poker room at the Bellagio right now. I'm not sure when they got put in, but someone pointed them out to me and I went over to have a look. You can play .5/1, 1/2 or 2/4 HU LHE against a computer player and from the looks of things there are absolutely no catches about this thing.

From everything I've read about the state of Limit Hold 'Em AI programs these days, this sort of thing was really only a matter of time. Bellagio is obviously wagering that no human opponent would be able to beat "The Brain" at a decent enough clip, according to Sklansky.

Best of all: no rake!

I'll be following this story as it develops.

Update: Here's more info from IGT's newsletter (PDF)

P.S. How in the heck can they trademark "Texas Hold'em Heads Up Poker"? You gotta be kidding me!

Slowroller karma

2010-10-04T04:07:00.003-04:00

Some people get what they deserve

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 963792
MP2: $14.86
CO: $28.00
BTN: $25.00
SB: $37.50
BB: $3.37
UTG: $33.72
Hero (UTG+1): $25.00
UTG+2: $33.32
MP1: $25.70

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG+1 with 9 9
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, 1 fold, MP1 raises to $2.40, 5 folds, Hero calls $1.65

Flop: ($5.15) 2 K 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $2.80, Hero raises to $5.75, takes forever, which is OK, and MP1 calls $2.95

Turn: ($16.65) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $8, MP1 calls $8

River: ($32.65) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $8.85 all in, takes forever and a day, and finally MP1 calls $8.85

Final Pot: $50.35
Hero shows 9 9 (a pair of Nines)
MP1 shows K K (three of a kind, Kings)
MP1 wins $48.35 (Rake: $2.00)

Conan776 said, "nice slow roll"

A few hands later I got justice, though

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 963794
SB: $12.50
BB: $28.77
UTG: $25.00
UTG+1: $37.40
MP1: $36.54
Hero (MP2): $41.27
CO: $32.47
BTN: $45.95

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP2 with A 3
3 folds, Hero raises to $1, CO calls $1, BTN raises to $4, 2 folds, Hero calls $3, CO calls $3

Flop: ($12.35) 4 2 5 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, BTN bets $7.10, Hero raises to $14.20, CO folds, BTN raises to $41.95 all in, Hero insta-calls $23.07 all in

Turn: ($86.89) 2 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($86.89) T (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $86.89
Hero shows A 3 (a straight, Ace to Five)
BTN shows Q K (a pair of Deuces)
Hero wins $84.89
(Rake: $2.00)

Conan776 said, "slow roller karma"

xxxxxxx said, "so lucky fish"
xxxxxxx said, "no problem"

Too much temptation, but I bit my tongue.

Rough session. The things you have to do sometimes to squeeze out that extra 75 cents.

Full Tilt Poker Commercial - My chips

Is it can be HUDs tiem now plees ?

2010-09-25T20:07:00.005-04:00

LOL, cat, I said HUDs not HUGS!

So I've been looking for ways to kick my cash game back into gear. I've been particularly unhappy with the staleness of my Heads-Up Display. I thought about buying Hold Em Mangager, but (to borrow the old joke about the Betty Ford Clinic) if I could afford HEM I wouldn't have a problem yet!

So, instead, since I already own PokerTracker3, I poked around to see what custom PT3 stats were out there. Lo and behold, I quickly stumbled upon kraada's Advanced HUD for PT3:

I had to solve a small technical glitch with the new context menus, but after that it's got most of the stats I've been looking for lately. So hats off to kraada!

Have a happy Caturday!

Kitten's Big Jump - watch more funny videos

Civ 5 is out

2010-09-22T22:02:00.006-04:00

I spent way too much of my life playing the games in Sid Meier's Civilization series, and, as a recovering addict (darn you Sid Meier, darn you to heck!), I can't personally envision purchasing the newest rendition.

But if you are a teenage gamer with way too much time on your hands, you should check it out! Here's Gamespot's review.

Obama is a Secret Martian!

2010-09-17T23:07:00.016-04:00

This is the way nightmares begin, or perhaps, end.
Very simple, direct, unadorned.
Incredible, and yet so terribly real
that even while they're happening
we live with them and digest them
and assimilate them.
And if it's 12 o'clock noon
that's what you preoccupy yourself with
You don't think about 12 o'clock noon on the next day,
or the day after that.
But that's what we should have been thinking about:
tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
We were preoccupied with the hands on a clock
when we should have been checking off a calendar.

I have recently learned via a chain email that President Obama is a secret Martian. His plan for us is so insidious I should have seen it sooner! Further more, I don't read "books" but I have it on good authority that Dreams From My Father... is a cookbook!

(spoiler alert!) IT'S A COOKBOOK!!!!

In light of this terrible turn of events I have only just learned of, I am so going to this!

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

March to Keep Fear Alive

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

Fox News

How about you?
You still on Earth, or on the ship with me?
It really doesn't make much difference
because sooner or later
we'll all of us be on the menu
all of us.

The change in my pocket wasn't enough

2010-09-05T21:56:00.003-04:00

(the following video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK unless you work with a whole lot of laid back black people!)

Cee Lo Green - F*** YOU (Official Video)

(h/t to Split)

If at first you don't succeed

2010-09-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

Try and try again! Via the NYT:

This diminutive woman, now known nationwide as “Grandma Cha Sa-soon,” has achieved a record that causes people here to first shake their heads with astonishment and then smile: She failed her driver’s test hundreds of times but never gave up. Finally, she got her license — on her 960th try.
For three years starting in April 2005, she took the test once a day five days a week. After that, her pace slowed, to about twice a week. But she never quit.
Hers is a fame based not only on sheer doggedness, a quality held in high esteem by Koreans, but also on the universal human sympathy for a monumental — and in her case, cheerful — loser.

My new poker role model!

Blink more

2010-09-03T19:49:00.000-04:00

Note to self. Fold pre, fold post, fold more.

When stuck in a staring contest it's better to blink than to go blind.

The Shadow knows!

Have a safe long weekend my fellow Americans. ~~The rest of you can fall out of a window~~ I mean, have a safe short weekend everyone else!

Happy 90210!

2010-09-02T00:01:00.002-04:00

Via the Associated Press:

Thursday Sept. 2, 2010, is being celebrated as "90210 Day." It's the one day this century that the date will line up perfectly with the famous California zip code.
For fans of the 1990s teen drama "Beverly Hills, 90210," this is an occasion for celebration in nostalgia for a show widely regarded as cheesy, but nevertheless beloved.

Like, totally!

Beverly Hills 90210 -- Emmy worthy scene

And it's my favorite fake zip code to give in online surveys. =)

Weezer -- Beverly Hills

When the housemaids scrub the floors
They get the spaces in between

2+2=4, or How I gave up my pride and apologized to TheEngineer

2010-08-31T23:41:00.008-04:00

Gee, that wasn't so bad. I finally gave up my pride a bit and hollered at TheEngineer on Twitter, and after some détente (and my effuse apology) he forgave me for the drunken pissing match with him which got me the sheer majority of my infraction points, and which ultimately and inevitably (as I was hanging out in the politics forum which gets you 5 infraction points a week just on principle) resulted in my banishment from 2+2. So I'm back in as a member of the 2+2 community. Thank you very much Mr. Muny! Huzzah!

It doesn't matter, though, because we're all gonna die like the dinosaurs, any minute!

=(

Scott Manley -- Asteroid Discovery From 1980 - 2010

Song is Trifonic by Transginic (or vice versa)
Update 11/13/10: broken video fixed

Massive losing streak

2010-08-28T14:05:00.003-04:00

Oh geez. I think I've forgotten how to play poker.

Gotta turn this around quick....

Pokerstars closes bot ring case

2010-08-23T18:28:00.002-04:00

Via 2+2:

In total, these twelve bots won $74,439 in ring games. These accounts also won $6,305 in VIP Freerolls that were likely played by human players, not bots. In addition they collected $152,406 in various VIP Club rewards such as VIP Stellar Rewards, Milestone Cash Credits and VIP Reward Bonuses.

Apparently just short-stacking nit-bots (8% VPIP), nothing too exciting. Although the rep on the PokerCast two weeks back said they've detected bots of all sorts at all levels, I'm still staying away from the SS tables as best I can.

This Too Shall Pass

2010-08-22T00:36:00.004-04:00

For my unlucky opponents so far this weekend. I mean, poker is complicated!

OK Go -- This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine version

Better run like hell when you hit the ground

He's gonna step on you again

2010-08-19T00:18:00.022-04:00

I made $5,76 tonight, after being stuck $120 at the low point. Ah, cash, I've missed ya!

And, I've figured out how to embed spike videos. Been on a Happy Mondays kick all day, and no other site has the video from circa 1991. LOL Pandoraments!

I can't quite get the turn off autoplay tag to work right tho....

Update: annoying auto-play removed. I really could go for a Mikes Hard Lemonade though...

video here

He'll never stop until he's taken the lot

So much for raping 25NL

2010-08-17T23:58:00.007-04:00

Ugh, got stuck 3 deep-stacked buy-ins tonight. Oh well, I new it couldn't last. Viva Texas!

We can drive to any place
Day and night, to cross this state
And in the morning
Into Mexico
We will wake up

Toadies -- Tyler

And her Asian breath

Poker is hard

2010-08-16T23:03:00.002-04:00

$!@#%%

Oh wait... let me play a few more hands....

Never mind!

(obviously, I suck at poker!)

Kurzweil says reverse engineered brain by 2020

2010-08-16T18:31:00.004-04:00

Via Wired

The design of the brain is in the genome. The human genome has three billion base pairs or six billion bits, which is about 800 million bytes before compression, he says. Eliminating redundancies and applying loss-less compression, that information can be compressed into about 50 million bytes, according to Kurzweil.
About half of that is the brain, which comes down to 25 million bytes, or a million lines of code.

Doesn't sound too hard....

Happy Friday the 13th!

2010-08-13T18:20:00.000-04:00

Beware the Skull of Regret!

Obviously terrible at poker

2010-08-13T00:39:00.004-04:00

And yet, only one losing session (-$9) since my triumphant return to the cash games. :)

Deepstacked 25NL is being very, very kind to me.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em $0.05 Ante - 8 players - View hand 858191
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $28.94
Hero (MP1): $83.19
MP2: $60.49
CO: $23.25
BTN: $96.12
SB: $27.56
BB: $48.62
UTG: $65.10

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP1 with 7 2
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, 5 folds
Conan776: shows 7 2 (high card Seven)

Conan776 said, "niiiitttsss"

jmrode67 said, "everyone send him 1$"

It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?

Vangelis -- Blade Runner End Theme

The differences between Pro and Amateur golfers

2010-08-12T16:00:00.000-04:00

From Slate's series MoneyGolf:

One of the many ways that golf boggles the mind is how you can be both so bad at it and so good. Golf will allow moments of grace, like the 5-iron that rolls to two feet or the 40-foot putt that finds the cup. For that brief, shining moment, you hit a shot as well as a human being possibly could. You will never wrongfoot an NBA defender, you will never turn on a 95 mph fastball—but on the golf course, you can occasionally equal the best in the game. Right?

Actually, no.

Herringbone Hat poem

2010-08-11T01:33:00.005-04:00

Another interesting Twitter stumble-upon, via DCKrantz.

The Man in the Herringbone Hat
a poem by Rian Johnson

...
I found myself staring a moment too long
at its fine woven pattern of wool.
Mathematic and tight though I knew it to be,
in this light it swarmed, random and cruel.
...