"To check-raise with a hand with which you want to thin out the field, you want the probable bettor to your right so that people will have to call a double bet to stay in. With a very strong hand and most come hands, you want the probable bettor to your left so the other players in the hand might call that bettor's single bet and then be invited to call the raise."
David Sklansky, Theory of Poker

Sex is good, but poker lasts longer.
Unknown.

Listening to Bach, drinking Guinness and playing online poker. Damn, does life get any better than this?

Thanks to anyone who has linked to me - I finally had some time today to peruse my traffic and saw a link from a porn blog. Too funny. Whoever you are, God Bless you.

I've been playing no-limit ring games. Insane. Can anyone tell me the phrase

"The exhilaration of this form of economic existence is beyond my power to describe."
Nick the Greek Dandalos, who died broke on Christmas Day of 1966.

Nick the Greek is the same guy who said, "The next best thing to gambling and winning is gambling and losing," a sentiment I personally do not concur with.

Allrighty then, I'm back and as verbose as ever. A full week sabbatical with not one

"Here is the terrible truth: I got more pure happiness winning 20 grand at the casino craps table than I did from a check many times that amount as the result of honest hard work on my book."
Mario Puzo, author of the Godfather

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to come and read this poker blog. That makes it worthwhile to come on here and ramble every night. Also, it's too freaking cool to

Poker Blog
Mike Caro's Law of Least Tilt: Among similarly skilled opponents, the player with the most discipline is the favorite.

The deck hit yours truly in the face from the moment I sat 2.4 tonight. Hit a straight and two sets and BAM - up a hundred in twenty minutes flat. As a grinder, I truly relish small rushes like that. It doesn't happen very often when you're only seeing 20% of the

Poker Blog

There is much to post but sadly, I endured a late afternoon dentist appointment and I've been loopy ever since.

I'm not too out of it to notice that Party Poker is down again, however. It's difficult to believe this has become acceptable, but it has. God knows I won't leave Party, though.

What do you picture in your mind when Party Poker goes down for hours at a time? Network

Poker Journal rant
"For the the talented, Las Vegas is the land of milk and honey. For the rest, it is a burial ground."
Jack Binion

Because I don't live there anymore, the closest place to play poker (legally) around here is Caeser's Palace in Indiana, across the river from Louisville. It's dank and dirty and I've just now read that they raised their rake to a max of $6 per hand. The reasons to

Poker Blog - How to make $800 in a few months playing 50.1 HoldEm.

I'm waking up from a 12 year coma!!

What's that feeling that is the opposite of shame? It's been sooo long. Could I possibly be feeling pride in the Cincinnati Bengals? Marvin Lewis is doing the unthinkable here - beating the best team in the NFL and placing the Bengals in first place for the first time since 1990. I can't wait

Poker Journal

TGIF. Rough day today in the non-poker world so I'm gonna make this quick.

Party Poker update. Won about $91 last nite in 2.4 and 3.6. Played VERY tight and hardly ever called a preflop raise. Funny, but I caught some big cards that got cracked, yet I caught a few big blind specials that more than made up for it.

From the latest column by Lee Jones:

-
My friend, Tommy Angelo,

Poker Journal Ramblings
We needed money real bad at home and my daddy told me I had to stop work or stop gamblin'. And I said, "Daddy, if I don't work how can I get money to gamble?" And Daddy, he said, "Son, that's what gamblers got to figure out." So I quit work.
--Johnny Moss

To celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary, I took da wife out to the Maisonette last evening. This fine French

"Patience, and shuffle the cards"
Don Quixote

From this week's Business Week in the UpFront Section:
Poker is back in the chips.

Since poker players can't bet against the house, the card game has long been a low-margin biz for casinos. But this year, poker revenues at Connecticut's Foxwoods Casino and Las Vegas' Bellagio are up about 25%. The Bellagio expects to take in about $12 million this

Home poker game

Only a few of the guys in my home game read this blog so I could insult with impunity. :) But nope, I love my home game group - we've been playing for, hell, almost six years now? Our hosts, (FilmGeek and Meaux!) are incredibly gracious to let us play in their abode. Read my prior post to discover how far we have come.

Our home game is only a 1.2 game, full of booze, good music

Phil Helmuth Poker Blog

Phil Helmuth is my hero. I wish there was a Phil Helmuth reality show on TV.

Yet another Phil Helmuth related nugget. I had no idea that the WSOP used a rebuy format for their Omaha hi-lo tournament. That's asinine, imho. But here was a post regarding said tourney and Phil Helmuth:

--
The risk of going broke is high in PLO. Phil Helmuth had 14 rebuys (a WSOP

Phil Helmuth Poker Book Rant & Poker Blogs
Poker is life, the rest is just details

TGIF.

Poker link of the Day: A behind the scenes view of the World Poker Tour in Aruba. It will be on TV next year and Linda was dealing. Great stuff.
PokerWorks.

Flash Links 'o the Day!
End of the World
BoohBah

Thankfully, Mister Decker made me feel much better by admitting that he, too, has the fireworks

Celebrity Strip Poker

Best blog on the web. Actually, the blog is here.

Down early on 2.4 last night but managed to end up even. I have to admit, my table selection has become uber-lazy as of late. I've been doing the first table available, and that's just sad.

This is a terrible thing to confess, but on Party Poker, I still have the fireworks and Congratulations animation turned on. Yes, I

Poker Blogs, SuperSystem and This American Life

I'm a little disconcerted about all this talk of Microsoft acquiring or partnering with Google. The problem with a Microsoft search engine is, much like JFK once said in private about Richard Nixon, "The trouble with being such a well known liar is, no one believes you when you tell the truth."

Didn't play last nite (gasp!). I was reading

Poker Blogs

I hate Barbra Streisand, truly I do.

Random and unrelated poker notes: 2.4 on Party Poker has been treating me well. Barely broke even overall last nite but won enough in 2.4 to cover the costs of two $30 unsuccessful no-limit sit and go's.

Related to prior posts about bashing the fish: I'll be damned if the minute I sit down last evening that some buttmunch is screaming about

Poker Blogs - Positively 5th Street

BlogDaddy at work was checking out an ad we did for a client in the latest Forbes FYI magazine and lo' and behold, there's a feature article about Jim McManus, the author of the best selling book, Positively 5th Street, ("It's selling like frozen margaritas in Hell," said Jim in the article) titled The Gamblers Edge.

I wanted to see if it was online and got

Poker Haiku

hai·ku

A Japanese lyric | verse | poem form, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

I oughta save this for the next rgp contest but the majesty of fall (and Guinness) is inspiring me.

--

"If I could use cards
Like falling leaves,
What a bonfire
My cards would make."

--

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David Sklansky > Mason Malmuth
Theory of Poker is still the Torah

OK, so folding kings pre-flop is rarely correct in no-limit poker. Did I really need to reassure myself of that fact? After yesterday, yes. Thanks to all who provided feedback.

I really enjoy tournament play. It's fun to play poker under the pressure and immediacy instead of my normal reality of "life is one long ring game."

Bluegrass Poker Series.
Phil Helmuth nor Russ Georgiev played.

Should I have played the poker hand below differently? Preflop?

Wow, I've been posting for a month now. How do I know? Because today was Bluegrass Poker Series time. Please see my prior post and read about Dan's magnificent comeback (down to $4) and subsequent final table finish.

To recap, it's a 125 person No Limit tournament.