Darvin Moon FTW!

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints for your ultimate achievements. - Napoleon Hill

Go Darvin! While I have nothing against Joe Cada and also wish him well, I am pulling for the Moon Man.

While we hear a lot about the recent influx of young talent, and there is certainly no disputing the volume of young players we are currently experiencing nor many of their recent accomplishments, poker is an old guys game. Poker is about outsmarting/outlasting/outthinking/outplaying your opponents while sitting across a table - and that is what old guys do. It is what old guys have been doing for a long time. When knowledge, experience, wisdom, and cunning are what's needed, you need an old guy. Old guys are no match for young guys in football, baseball, basketball, etc. Those games are about physical strength and stamina first, and mental strength and stamina second. Poker is the other way around. Old guys are supposed to beat young guys at poker.

Besides, if Joe Cada does not win, it isn't going to slow down the onslaught of young guns at all. They will continue to pour in by the thousands and that is fine. Nothing is likely to deter that and we wouldn't want anything to do so. However, what is going to keep the older amateurs rolling in? Thousands of regular guys buy in every year and are often considered "dead money". However, year after year, one of them rises to the top despite the prevailing notion that they never had a chance. That is good for poker in general and also good for the World Series of Poker. A win by Moon perpetuates the rags to riches dream of an everyman. A regular guy that plays poker with buddies rather than for a living who goes to the WSOP and wins it all or at least comes close. Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Steve Dannenman, Jerry Yang, Dennis Phillips, and Darvin Moon are all great for the game in the sense that they truly keep the dream alive.

Using Both Hands - the SuperChop BBQ Sandwich

Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage. - Woody Allen

I love poker but my first love is food and I like to share my experiences (about really good stuff) with my readers. I know there are a lot of pulled pork sandwich lovers out there but here’s the scoop on the ultimate BBQ sandwich. We're in Texas, therefore you know we are talking beef. Grand Prize BBQ, a little sole proprietor spot in Texas City serves two thick slices of made in house jalapeno cheese bread loaded with their delicious smoked beef brisket and smoked sausage chopped up right in front of you. The meat is piled high and no sauce is added until the sandwich is assembled. I don’t know if they invented the thing but I have never encountered one anywhere else. To devour this colossal sammy, you must use two hands and most people can’t finish one by themselves. I love taking associates from work to this place and watching them wear a portion of their sandwich back to the office after an “accident” while eating. There is a secret to eating a huge messy sandwich like this and not wearing it but I never reveal it until the 2nd visit. If you are in the local vicinity, stop in for one of these and you will not be disappointed.

Broadway

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. – D. Elton Trueblood

Broadway – the primary entrance route to the city of Galveston – not the straight of the same name – has been forever changed. It was formerly lined with huge majestic century-plus old oak trees throughout the esplanade and also at curbside of the many stately old Victorian homes. The foliage of these massive trees - at some sections of Broadway – met in the middle forming a beautiful canopy of green above the roadway. This is no longer the case. Most of the big trees have been cut down to the ground. The massive influx of salt water that covered much of the city post Hurricane Ike, killed most of the oaks. A sparse few trees remain. The once proud entrance to the old city appears bare - wide open to the sun and sky like at no other time in my life. Although many small (approx. 10 ft) oaks are being planted to replace the old ones, I will be long gone before the street looks anything like it did before. The huge palms fared well and remain but without the oaks, it just doesn’t look the same.

I Still Blame Frist

Men become more civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt. - Ambrose Bierce.

I have been playing a bit of online poker again lately.

So, I ran the auto rate feature on PokerTracker last night.

A full 33% of the players in the database had their icon changed.

75% of them changed to indicate a better player rating than before.

This means that, yes - the online games are getting tougher.

There are still fish out there, but the ratio of fish to decent/good players is dwindling.

Although I have done well lately, I have also found myself in a rather “Jordan-esque” mood regarding online poker.

I still enjoy it but I don’t have the same drive to play online I once had.

My desire to play live, however, is stronger than ever.

Now, if I could just find more opportunities.

Sadly, I doubt the online environment will ever be like it was pre-UIGEA. The peak of the “boom” has passed and it seems unlikely, no matter what happens in Washington, that we will experience the massive influx of new players that we enjoyed during that glorious period.

Don’t Mess with Texas Poker Players

Poker is not a game in which the meek inherit the Earth. – David Hayano

This just in from the Houston Chronicle – Texans are well armed and not afraid to open fire. In fact, I suspect we lead the nation in the number of citizens licensed to lawfully carry a concealed handgun. I thought it was common knowledge but perhaps not. I regularly peruse the local news and frequently read about would be burglars/robbers being fatally shot by armed citizens lawfully defending their property. Each time I read this sort of news, I think justice has been served and we, the tax paying citizens of the state, have saved money by not having to pay to incarcerate the perpetrator. Let the news go far and wide, we Texans are more than capable of defending ourselves and no jury in the Lone Star State is going to convict one of us for shooting a criminal in the act of perpetrating a crime. Kinda makes one want to go to the shooting range over the weekend, doesn’t it?

Good Luck, Mr. Ivey

Logic: the art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. – Ambrose Bierce

All of the poker community, much of Las Vegas, and plenty of other folks are “a twitter” over Phil Ivey making the Nov 9. He is popular, photogenic, well known, highly marketable, etc., etc.
I admire Ivey, too. He is actually good at poker and he is not an ace-hole when on camera.
I would love to see him win and I sincerely wish him the best of luck. Perhaps he could usher in the next poker boom.
However, I don’t think he is likely to win. We have all witnessed plenty of well known players make the final table and fall short of winning. At the risk of stating the obvious, he is one of the short stacks. For him to win, he will likely need to either get really good cards or play very carefully until he can get it heads up or three way with one or two remaining amateurs. Think of when Joe Hachem won. With seven players left, he was the short stack at one point but he never went crazy. He played very patiently for approximately 12 hours and it served him well. The bigger stacks kept pummeling one another and he mostly avoided getting involved. He picked up a pot here or there but basically seemed to stay out of the way until all of a sudden, about 4:30am, he was the chip leader with four players left. He continued to let the other players self implode and when the smoke cleared, he was heads up against the lone remaining amateur.
He then (not surprisingly) went on to win the world championship. IMHO, this is the strategy that would give Ivey the best chance of winning.

However, I have seen him reach numerous final tables on the WPT and he is always one of the most aggressive players at the table. That worked well for Jerry Yang but that style of play has caused Ivey to be knocked out relatively early at most of the final tables I have seen him at. If he plays like that in November, I think it will be exceptionally challenging for him to win. He has said in the past that he is out to win the event and is not worried about the money. That is why he “goes for it” at those final tables. I hope he will mix up his playing style and remember that no one can win when there is still a table full of players. Even if he doesn’t win, I think it will greatly enhance the entertainment value of watching the WSOP Main Event if Phil Ivey is one of the last players to be eliminated.

Liquid Assets - Iced Tea

American-style iced tea is the perfect drink for a hot, sunny day. It's never really caught on in the UK, probably because the last time we had a hot, sunny day was back in 1957. - Tom Holt

Down here in Texas, we just recorded the hottest June on record for the Galveston/Houston area. Due to that excessive heat, it seems like I have been drinking iced tea by the gallon. A refreshing glass of iced tea is such a simple thing to make, yet so many people and restaurants get it wrong. The tea must be brewed to be strong and should be robust tasting since it will be diluted when poured over ice. It should smell like tea and it should have a distinct tea flavor without any odd tastes from an unclean urn or poorly maintained equipment. If a customer orders iced tea, kindly warn them before serving them any sort of flavored tea (e.g. mango tea, peach tea, plum tea, etc.) since many of us eschew those sorts of teas. The tea should not be cloudy or murky looking as this usually indicates the tea was not freshly made. The tea should be tasted regularly by the management to ensure none of these undesirable elements have crept in. A weak color means too much water is being added to the brew and this must be avoided. Anyone may dilute the tea further, if they wish, but no one may undo this damage once done. This is important. Many of us are choosing tea over soda or flavored water for not only reasons of taste but for caloric and anti oxidant content. Another great thing about iced tea is that, at least down here in the South, refills are customarily provided free (once when I was in Michigan they had the audacity to charge me for a refill and I remember looking at them as if they were crazy). Although, the tradition in the South is for sugary sweet tea, many of us actually prefer it unsweetened. It really is a simple but positively refreshing beverage (if prepared well) on the hot and humid days we frequently enjoy down here in Texas.

Do You Have the Will to Win?

All of my good streaks and all of my bad streaks of every length and depth have had one thing in common. They did not exist in your mind. They only existed in my mind. And this is true for everyone's winning and losing streaks. None of them actually exist. They are all mental fabrications, like past and future. – Tommy Angelo

Despite actually blogging about the extraordinarily good June I have been enjoying, I did not jinx myself (so far) and managed to continue my winning ways over the weekend. I kept thinking about the quote above from Elements of Poker but I also knew I could exploit my current image to my advantage. You see, I am not the only one that has observed and made note of how well I have been doing this month. Most of the regulars at the homegame are also well aware of how good I have been running.
However, what they don’t know is that it hasn’t been about catching good cards. Sure, I have caught some big hands but no more than everyone else. However, by using SPR and other such notions, I have been able to win some huge pots with my big hands. I have also been mercilessly “adopting” as many orphaned pots as possible and making a few more than usual turn and/or river bluffs. But despite all of this, the primary thing I have tried to do differently is bring my A game every time we play. I come with the will to win. What I mean by that is making sure I am well rested and mentally focused. Making sure I have eaten before playing and taking a break to eat during the game if necessary. Not allowing distractions, interruptions, or other player’s actions to cause me to tilt for even a brief period. I know this probably sounds trivial but it works.

Tommy Angelo is the Stephen R. Covey of poker. Reading his book to improve my poker habits reminded me of reading Covey to improve my work habits. His advice is so solid and reasonable that one thinks, “yeah, that’s obvious” but although the concept may seem obvious and clearly make sense, most players aren’t doing what he is recommending. One must have the will to win. A few of the players in our group always seem to allow distractions external to the game to tilt them into losing their chips. A few others always seem to over consume and have such a good time that they also lose their chips. Others are just playing for sheer enjoyment and to spend an evening with the guys while losing their chips. Meanwhile, I am visiting with the other players, watching them closely, enjoying a cold one or six, and quietly amassing a large stack chips.

This Just In...Lucypher Still Lucky...Go Figure

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate. – Bertrand Russell.

I have been reluctant to talk/write about it because doing so always seems to bring it to an abrupt end.

However, this is a poker blog and I am supposed to blog about my poker activities.

Therefore, I will admit it. June has been a very good month for me and I am on a nice hot streak.

Although my online play has really dropped due to the fact that I am just too tired to play after we’ve finished all the family summer activities going on right now, I still play twice a week in a juicy home (cash) game.

In that game, I have been doing well.

I have been very pleased with my play lately and not just because of the results (although that is always a factor).

I am calling people down light if I think I have perceived a tell or a pattern revealing weakness.

I am overbetting (for value – thank you very much Fuel55) and getting paid on my big hands.

I have noticed a tendency for players to want to call preflop value bets with any two cards because as they say, ‘You gotta see the flop”.

I have been exploiting the hell out of this anytime I have a pocket pair or big cards. Then, a pot sized bet on the flop is usually enough to take down the already bloated pot.

Even though I still like to buy in short, I seem to quickly become one of the big stacks at the table.

I think much of this “heater” is a result of my continuing to read, think, and work on my game while most of my opponents are not improving and some have become downright predictable.

Of course, it also might just be a good month. Either way, I am thoroughly enjoying every minute.

And, So It Goes.....

“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” - Mark Twain

Once again, we hapless Texans played the luckless Charlie Brown while the Legislature played the temptress Lucy; luring us in, showing us the ball, encouraging us to kick it only to have it yanked away as we approached with our unbridled enthusiasm. I can almost hear the deadpan voice of Dr. McCoy in my ear saying, “It’s dead, Jim.” And, now, we Texans will sit and wait another two long years for our duly elected representatives in Austin to do their duty and actually serve the folks they are supposed to be representing by passing legislation that will bring legal poker to Texas. The majority of Texans want this to happen but, as usual, the will of the people is not what really motivates the majority of our politicians.

The Honorable Rep. Menendez (D) is to be lauded for his tireless efforts on our behalf. Poker players all over Texas thank him for his staunch support of bringing legal poker to Texas. He is definitely a friend to Texas poker players. Governor Perry (R), on the other hand, should be considered Public Enemy Number One to Texas poker players. By promising to veto HB 222 even if it passed, he effectively killed the bill. I know there are enough poker players in Texas to help unseat him and my vote will go to his opponent no-matter-what for his insistence on blocking this bill. I sincerely hope the vast numbers of Texas poker players will turn out and use their vote to make their voices heard in the next election cycle.