Seventy Five Dollars To Try This Crappy Poker Room
READ MORE: Free Money, Online Poker, Poker
Is there any such thing as a free ride? At the online casinos there is. While nearly every site offers some sort of deposit bonus, is there anyone out there that will just give you cash without a deposit? Duggle Bogey has a line on a good deal called “Instant Bankroll”:
Go check out the details at Duggle’s spot, but don’t count on anything more than nickel and diming it at Titan Poker. Small player base and nothing but cheap tournaments over there.
$500,000 Freeroll Poker Tournament with $100,000,000 Jackpot Hand
Badugi Bitch!
READ MORE: Badugi, Poker
Badugi, in the words of Scurvy Dog, is like “Razz on steroids. Or crack. Or steroid crack.” Scurvy’s been all up in the Badugi shit lately, and he’s got the mechanics of the game down:
“As far as the action, every player is dealt four cards to begin with, followed by a betting round. Remaining players then choose to draw, up to four cards. There’s a second betting round, followed by a second drawing round. Third betting round, third drawing round. Then the final betting round and showdown.”
Badugi is a lowball game where suits matter. Aces are low, and the “nut” hand is A234 four-suited. But TJQK four-suited would beat A234 three-suited. Doyle’s Room is spreading it, so if you want to go blow your hard earned dough, Badugi your ass on over and give it a try. Badugi!
Badugi Rules [Sound of a Suckout]
Picking Up Pots With Absolutely Nothing
READ MORE: Poker
There are plenty of “moves” you can make in tournaments that are effectively bluffs or semi-bluffs that can help add to your chip stack. Poker Player Newspaper features an article about a technique the author dubs “The Fourth Street Thief:”
“A player made his standard raise of three times the big blind. I was the lone caller from the big blind with an absolute trash hand-8-4 suited. The flop came down 10-2-6 rainbow. Unless he held an over pair, the likelihood that this flop helped my opponent was pretty slim.
Against a decent player, a check raise will pick up this pot right on the flop. However, in small stakes tournaments, you will find that many players will call your raise with overcards like AK or even KQ, leaving you with a much tougher decision on the turn. You do not want to get them pot-committed on the flop.
I checked and he made what I sensed to be a continuation bet. I called and the turn actually gave me a gutshot draw with a 3. I led out the betting with slightly more than he bet on the flop (which was actually a small amount in relationship to the pot size). The other player thought about it for a moment then exclaimed, “I hate this hand,” showing A-K as he folded.”
The cards need to come just right for this to work, and it’s certainly a risky play, as you might come close to feeling pot committed with nearly nothing. But another arrow for your quiver couldn’t hurt, right?
The Fourth Street Thief [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
WWJD With Pocket Jacks?
READ MORE: Jesus, Poker
We talked to God last night, like we always do. He calls us on the Bat-Phone. Anyway, God says you should leave us the hell alone and let us manage our habits in private. We’re going to continue to smoke cigarettes, drink whiskey, and play online poker despite your tacit disapproval. Maybe, just maybe, God’s talking to the rest of you too. From The Daily Bulletin:
“Poker’s newfound social acceptance has, for some, justified the morality of playing. Christians bet in home games and in Las Vegas casinos, for pennies and for Benjamins. Long the arcane club of some churches, poker night now happens openly a few times a week. “On a good night, it’s a good way to make money and kill some time. In a worst-case scenario, it doesn’t cost too much and you spend some good time with friends,” said Brian Richards, a 25-year-old home-loan officer and Rancho Cucamonga resident.”
Now if we can just bring the Baptists around on the virtues of Hustler Magazine, we’ll be in great shape.
Religious opposition to poker in steady decline [Daily Bulletin]
|
|
The Rake: One More Time
READ MORE: Poker, The Rake
· Chops finds an article which breaks the record for most poker metaphors ever used in one paragraph. The author, apparently, did not know when to fold ‘em. [WickedChops]
· April suggests you should see your unimproved hands to the river, raises be damned, just in case you catch something good at the end. Oh, was she being sarcastic? [This Is Not A Poker Blog]
· Dear Abby, I fell in love playing online poker. Dear dumbass, that’s probably not a woman behind that avatar. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
· PokerStars will be kicking off their Caribbean Adventure tourney at Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas in January. We went last year, and if you want to get close to the pros, this is a great place to do it. [Yahoo! Biz]
· Need poker advice? Looks like Survivor’s “Boston Rob” is willing to make house calls. [CBS News]
Home Game Hell
READ MORE: Poker
If you live in the greater Washington DC area and host a home poker game, The Washington Post wants to put the fear of god into you:
“On Sunday, a pair of masked men — one wielding a shotgun and the other, a pistol — forced their way into a house in the Fair Oaks area where a tournament was being held, police said. Police said they have not had any other reports of Hold ‘Em holdups.”
So how did the robbers find the game they burgled? The idiot host passed word of his game beyond his inner circle using the Internet. Always a good idea to advertise the thousands of dollars you’ll be passing around the room with no security present.
Texas Hold ‘Em Players Held Up in Va. Home [Washington Post]
The Rake: Look Mom, More Poker
READ MORE: Poker, The Rake
· Dan from Pokerati finds an article about a British poker bot currently in play. It’s just like any other bot, except that it’s unflappably polite and mildly self-deprecating. [Pokerati]
· LiveStraddle launches, and reviews online poker rooms across a variety of categories. Always always take any advice about online poker rooms you find with a grain of salt. Advertising has influence. [PRWeb]
· There’s a new product called “PokerAdvantage” that supposedly will calculate odds in real time, and give you an interface where you can see what the players around you have done over the last 20 hands. For the last time, all you need are PokerTracker, GameTime+, and PokerTrackerGuide. Period. Ignore the bullshit. [Online-Casinos]
· Christmas gifts for the poker player in your life can be found here. If you’re buying chips for someone, don’t skimp. The 11.5g weight are cheap enough now to be worth the money. [Delco Times]
· BetCRIS runs a poll, finds that their users would most want to check-raise GWB in a big pot. In second? Fidel Castro. Didn’t your mama tell you never to trust a Commie? [Covers]
Pokering Again Around Flori-duh
READ MORE: Florida, Poker
So poker tournaments are allowed again in Florida? Well, kinda. We’ll let Online Poker News explain:
“Currently, Derby Lane offers almost the same tournament rules, as he did before. The track has reportedly invented a rather original way to bypass the law. Currently, racetrack management produces tournament chips that are worth a fraction of a penny. This move creates the illusion of playing in a high stakes game, without exceeding the state’s betting limit.”
We like illusions, particularly if they involve grown men in sequins with white tigers. This is just ridiculous though. It’s purely semantics to say “I raise five-sixteenths of a cent” versus “I raise five dollars.” They’re tournament chips, they have no value you can walk away with. Score another circumvention around idiocy for the good guys.
Florida Racetracks Allowed to Host Poker Tournaments Once Again [Online Poker News]
Over-Emotional? Play Tournament Poker
READ MORE: Poker
If you’re anything like we are, your dog takes a severe beating every time yet another three-outer spikes to take your hard-earned dough off the table. But does emotion have any place at all in poker? Suspected android Hank from Cards Speak examines:
“In answer to the question, “Do emotional poker players have an advantage in tournament poker?” I think the jury is still out. Plenty of players who don’t outwardly display emotion (Lederer, Greenstein, Ivey) have had better results than anyone, but “emotional players” have had their share of victories as well. My gut tells me that emotion might give a player a little edge somewhere, but I can’t quite work it out. The emotional player has more at stake in a way, and higher stakes may result in better play.
Or maybe they’re just goofballs who catch cards. “
Okay, so he doesn’t answer the question, but getting there is half the fun. Trust us, we’re on perma-tilt this week, and are on at least level three coping with the loss of Oddjack. That, we think, puts us square in “denial,” then next comes “egging our boss’ house,” followed by “sobbing into the bottom of a deep glass of Canadian Club.” Or something like that.
Poker and Emotion [Cards Speak]
Slow Rollers
READ MORE: Poker
When you win a hand, do like our dad always told us: Act like you’ve been there before. The WSOP on ESPN has shown us the worst tap-dancing ninnies on the planet, and if you try pulling that shit on us, we’re likely to sit there and take it while fuming in silence cap you one. Fist-pumping is one thing, slow-rolling is entirely another. F-Train managed to find out you can be slow-rolled online, and shares his pain:
“Me: 46s in the SB. Half-price flop of 8-8-5 checks through 4-handed. Turn 4 puts two hearts out, I bet pot to see where things are, two folds, one call. River is an offsuit queen and my opponent has a touch less than the pot left in his stack because he is one of the aforementioned short buyers (bought in for 20 BBs, has 12 left). The alarm bells were ringing in my head that such a player wouldn’t call the turn on a draw without the 8, but I was bored so I put him in. He then took his time to ponder the call, typed “hmmmmmmm” into the chat, waited a few more seconds then called and showed 88 for flopped quads, ending with a “lol” in the chat. I typed back “slowrolling is bush league” and he answered with “blah blah blah”.”
Playing For A Chip
READ MORE: Poker
Good weekend at the tables for us. We placed third in a fairly tough multi, and took $60 off the suckers our friends in our Friday night home game. Still, we got our ass kicked in the Full Tilt Poker Tournament Chip Sit-and-Gos. Jason Kirk has some idea as to how those tourneys should be played:
“There are essentially only two gears in these tournaments: 1st and 5th. Either they crawl along for an hour and a half, with 4 players deadlocked and nobody wanting to make a move, or they’re over in 30 minutes with one player eliminating everyone else at the table. If you get into one of the slow ones and pick your spots well, you can pilfer the other players’ stacks almost at will. If you get into one of the turbo-fests, pray to the poker gods for a hand that holds up.”
He’s got more to say, but that point resonates here. We lost QQ vs. 66 on the river in one, and AQ to AT in another to cripple us to short stack hell. We did win one of these chips, and are praying for an overlay this weekend to try to make a score. God knows we aren’t suckling at the teats we’re used to after Friday.
$4+.40 Token Satellites at Full Tilt [Jason Kirk]
The Rake: Still Not Mailing It In
READ MORE: Poker, The Rake
· North Dakota is exploring opening their borders to host online casino companies in the state. Just as long as we don’t have to go there to collect, we’re cool. [GrandForksHerald]
· A tuxedoed Phil Ivey ran over the seven-player live tournament on Fox Sports this Thursday. Hope you Tivo’d it, and hope you got all nine hours. [PokerNews]
· Taking a trip to Montana soon? Why? Well, feel free to play some low stakes bar room poker while you’re there. [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
· CryptoLogic is offering a Greek-language poker site soon. First time we see a Theta in the chat box we’re gonna be all “Cheeburgah, cheeburgah, cheeburgah.” [PressRelease]
· Did you know that a major stakeholder in PartyPoker used to be a consultant in the phone porn industry? Now, if they could only find a way to merge the two… [Charlotte Observer]
One day, everything will be a wager, from a hand of poker to the likelihood you'll be struck down by a bioterror attack before the next brain backup. One day. For now, there's Oddjack. It's a sneak peek at the future of gambling.
