In the past, the first week of the WSOP had been crazy. There were tons of players with lots of money and the cash games and tournaments were packed. This year seems quiet in comparison. The cash-game area isn’t nearly as busy as I expected. Tournament participation is down 10% or more over last year. As […]
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It’s WSOP Season
In the words of Bruce Buffer, “It’s time!!” Already? The greatest unfairness of aging is that time passes more quickly, or at least it sure seems to. Seems like yesterday I was getting out of my chair for the final time as I got KO’d from the 2016 Main Event, just short of the money. […]
Poker Players and Golf Gambling, Part 2
In my last blog I discussed poker players and golf gambling. In this entry I want to explain why golfers, poker players or not, who are new to the serious golf-gambling world can get in a bad situation because they don’t understand what game they’re playing and how it works. There are at least three […]
Poker Players and Golf Gambling, Part 1
As much as I like poker, my favorite gambling game is golf. The combination of physical skill, the ability to perform under pressure, and understanding of the gambling aspect and negotiating skills, not to mention getting out of the poker room and being outdoors in beautiful settings, playing a fascinating game, make it a natural […]
The Cheating Game
I learned many things about the game of poker from Jim McManus’ excellent history of the game, Cowboys Full. One thing that surprised me was that, in the early days of poker in America, cheating was so rampant that poker was widely known as the “cheating game.” On Mississippi riverboats and throughout the Old West, […]
Mean Streets
I had dinner the other night with some guys who have been around Vegas poker for a long time. Naturally, there were lots of stories. One thing we agree on is that there were a lot more “characters” when the players were from the “road gambler” era than there are now. I’ve always held a […]
Those Damned Books
I started playing poker very young. I remember seeking out books that would help me improve, but back then I was pretty much limited to people like Oswald Jacoby and Herbert O. Yardley. I got to Vegas in 1980 and started playing seriously. In discussions with some of the old timers, one of their criterion […]
In Your Face
I’ve always had a thing about sportsmanship and basic manners. I was raised to respect opponents and was taught that being a good winner is at least as important as being a good loser. When I watch a hard fought game, I watch closely the way both sides behave at the conclusion, and am heartened […]
No, Limit!
I was watching the livestream of the 5k Players Championship from the WSOP (you can watch the archived streams at wsop.com) and the guest announcers, who are high-limit players, were talking about how limit games are making a comeback. Players are finally tiring of no-limit hold’em (NL) and are branching off into the limit and […]
The Story of my WSOP Demise
I went into Day 3 with 167,300, a little above average. I was happy with my stack, as my tables on my first two days were pretty tough, as tough as I can remember in the Main Event (ME). I was pretty tired, as I had played some very long days in the PLO 8 […]
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