The Rake: One More Time
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· 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]
The Rake: Look Mom, More Poker
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· 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]
The Rake: Still Not Mailing It In
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· 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]
The Rake: Danny’s Not Embarrassed To Have A Short Stack
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· The WPT needs your money, they’re hemorrhaging badly. Got $10M to spare for the future of TV poker? [PokerPages]
· Shit, even the Swedes get to play legal online poker now. Thanks America! [LaunchPoker]
· Poker Counselor is back with a theory about faking it. Come on, everyone’s doing it. [PokerNews]
· David Williams is profiled here. David Williams cut his teeth playing Magic: The Gathering. David Williams loves his mama. [CardPlayer]
· You know, if anyone would know how to handle a short stack, it’s Daniel Negreanu. Yeah, you heard us. [Home News Tribune]
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The Rake: Hachem’s Out, But Ivey’s Rolling
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· Phil Ivey is leading at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament at the moment, and we wonder if those old white people that follow him around hopped the pond to support him. [WickedChops]
· Joe Hachem, however, got bounced from the WSOP Circuit Event in Vegas. He called an all-in with KK, found himself up against J9, and watched Kido Pham bring two Jacks to fruition on the flop. Nice run to fifth place though. [PokerStars Blog]
· Full Tilt Poker’s Allen Cunningham finished fourth for a payday of $483,000 and… wait, this press release is from Foxwoods. Didn’t this happen last week? [eMediaWire]
· PokerNews reports that the recent raid in Baltimore netted an off-duty policewoman in the sting. She claims she was just looking for A-Rod. [PokerNews]
· Where does your quarter go when you buy a gumball from a machine with alleged charity ties? We’ll tell you, tonight at six. [KVBC]
The Rake: Hachem Watch, Grand Theft: Poker, and Harvard Men Make Good
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· Another final table for Joe Hachem? Does this mean it’s time to change his nickname from “Effing Aussie Fluke?” [PokerStars Blog]
· It was only a matter of time before a poker video game stole a page from Grand Theft: Auto. Might be fun if you could throw your white chips like ninja stars at the guy who just hit his three-outer. [IGN]
· WPT partners with Chipleaders.com to create a poker playing “social networking” site. Isn’t that just marketing-speak for “message board?” [PR Newswire]
· A California convention center called off a poker industry convention scheduled for December because a vendor at the show was going to deal Hold ‘Em at his booth using Monopoly money. We’d expect this bullshit from Florida, but California? [Press-Telegram]
· Harvard beat Yale in their first heads-up poker tournament this past weekend, will defend title against MIT Blackjack Team at Caesars’ in early January. [CardPlayer]
· Bodog is improving their tournament structure with bigger stacks and longer blind intervals. Anything to take the luckbox factor down a notch is good in our book. [Online Casino News]
The Rake: Final Round Betting, Bluffing, and Hachem Gets Represented
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· Poker blogger -EV dissects final round betting - not that we read strategy, we just play anything with a face or soooted. [Fool and His Money]
· Empire wants to sue Party for suggesting the company ain’t worth shit since losing access to Party’s tables. All we know is that if you’re still playing at Empire, you’re missing out on the giant aquarium at Party. [Register]
· How’s this for a weekend - win the $5,500 guaranteed multi at UltimateBet, place seventh in the $50K guarantee at Full Tilt, win a $10 multi, and take $3,450 for winning the $15K guarantee at Pacific. No, unfortunately that wasn’t us. [UpForPoker]
· Pacific Poker goes Mac-compatible, which ups the percentage of graphic artists playing there immediately by 23%. [PRWeb]
· People think poker is all about bluffing, and we welcome you to our cash games. If you’re looking for a bluffing primer, this will get you started. [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
· And lastly, WSOP Champ Joe Hachem has signed with the William Morris Talent Agency. He hopes to land a simple fish-out-of-water tale of an Australian coming to the big city who falls in love with a lanky American journalist who won’t get any better looking for the sequel. G’day. [PokerNews]
The Rake: Poker Is Rigged, The Doom Switch, and Tark Would Be Proud
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· Pocket Queens flop a full house, turn a better full house, and lose on the river. Online poker is so rigged. [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
· Online poker and Internet gambling will be exposed this weekend in a 60 Minutes piece. Wonder who Mike Wallace is going to badger into admitting there is an online “doom switch.” [Guinness and Poker]
· Sportsbook.tv is apparently offering a free DVD from Ken Warren if you sign up through them. Feel free to trade two years of email spam for not having to buy one more Christmas present off your list. [PR Web]
· BETonSPORTS claims to have grown their online poker sales by a factor of ten compared to last year. That’s to be expected when your player base goes from forty to four hundred over the course of a year. [Reuters]
· What do you do if you’re in college and just can’t quite scratch that poker itch? Transfer to UNLV, naturally. [Rebel Yell]
· Struggling online poker room CelebPoker.com gets their name in the news today, they’ll be setting up Hold ‘Em at the after-parties for the American Music Awards this weekend. [Launch Poker]
The Rake: TJ’s Swedish Chat, Gold Bracelets, and Wheaton’s Stars Tourney
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· SportingOddsPoker.com aims to turn novice players into experts. Then again, when you’re a low odds player and can replenish your bankroll by bringing back pop cans, you’re unlikely to learn a whole hell of a lot of anything along the way. [BrandRepublic]
· TJ Cloutier did an interview for a Swedish outlet promoting an upcoming visit to the land of whitefish. Hopefully his trip is more productive than ours, last time we went to Sweden we came back with a venereal disease and an extra umlaut. [Aftonbladet]
· Top search on Lycos last week was for “Poker” narrowly edging out #2 “Thanksgiving” and #3 “Christmas.” You heard us, poker is bigger than Baby Jesus. [PR Newswire]
· So why do poker players get gold bracelets when they win big tournaments? No one knows, but damned if we don’t want one too. [The Desert Sun]
· Don’t forget about this Friday’s “HeyKidsItsBG Invitational” at PokerStars. Take your shots at Wil Wheaton for $10, but stay the hell out of BG’s way. He’s due this weekend. [PokerStars]
The Rake: Where We Didn’t Learn Shit From Kenny Effing Rogers
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· Wicked Chops finds some info on cheap-ass poker cruises of the Caribbean, assuming you can find the info amongst all the pics of scantily clad women. [WickedChops]
· The two most overplayed hands at Hold ‘Em tables are Ace-King and Jack-Jack. We found advice on Big Slick, we still don’t have a freaking clue what to do with Jacks. [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
· The PSP version of the WSOP title from Activision is credited as “groundbreaking” for its network capabilities. Or, you could just play for real money on your cell phone’s browser… [CardPlayer]
· Think you know tilt? Otis at Up For Poker breaks it down to the basic elements. [Up For Poker]
· Richard Roeper, the movie review guy, writes an article his editors title “15 Poker Tips You Won’t Learn From Kenny Rogers.” So far as we can tell, Kenny just told us to study up. That fucking song never thoroughly explained the concept of implied odds. [Chicago Sun-Times]
· Is Jesse Ventura breaking the law? This article says he and other celebrity sportsbook shills might be in jeopardy for aiding and abetting the offshore books. [NewYorkTimes]
The Rake: The Doc at Foxwoods, Stud Live, and Paul Phillips Will Not Go Quietly
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· Dr. Pauly is live-blogging at Foxwoods, scroll down a bit to read the asinine floor decision about a pot being “capped” in a big No Limit tournament. [Tao of Poker]
· If you’re playing Stud at the casino, play a solid game. You’ll never see these people again, so there’s no sense mixing it up. Then again, if you’re a local and play there all the time, you can just ignore this bullshit. [PokerPlayerNewspaper]
· ESPN is showing the final table of the 2005 WSOP tonight, we’ll bet you $100 Joe Hachem wins. [ESPN]
· Paul Phillips isn’t taking the 2+2 forum banning thing lying down. Instead, he’s just not letting it go. [Paul Phillips]
· PokerStars won “Best Poker Operator of the Year” from eGaming Review, if you’re in to getting your news from a press release. [PRNewswire]
· Some biddy is complaining on The Sporting News’ website about poker not being a sport. Declaring what is and what isn’t a sport is brave territory if you’re going to put your picture on the page and are at least fifty pounds overweight. [SportingNews]
The Rake: Your College Poker Champ, PartyGaming Rolls, and a Poker Room Of One’s Own
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· Bar room poker is the latest thing to sweep Montana. Popularity falls just under “staying warm” and “dreaming about getting the hell out of here” for state’s residents. [Helena Independent Record]
· Certainly not helping poker’s bad-boy image is AbsolutePoker’s tuition winner Jeremy Olisar. 3.97 GPA in Clarinet Performance? $10 says he’s never kissed a girl. [Suburban Chicago Courier]
· Guess which company is worth more - PartyGaming or British Airways. C’mon, guess. [Guardian]
· Woman Poker Player magazine is running freerolls at Titan Poker to celebrate their publication’s launch. With a $1,000 pot the winner can finally think about picking up the dinner tab for freaking once. [PRWeb]
· Steve Rosenbloom tells us even the pros don’t know what they’re doing in a hand from time-to-time. Still doesn’t erase the sting of dropping over $200 this weekend, trust us on that. [North County Times]
· Want to “fix” the WSOP Main Event? Bump the entry fee up to $50K. That’ll shed a bunch of Internet morons out of the mix. [CardPlayer]
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