StudioGlyphic

I ordered an HP notebook. Here’s how it got here:

Woah.

In case you missed it, Felicia had this to say about Waffles:

You look like a serial killer, btw. Charles Manson has nothing on your.

I would cultivate that image, btw, and start playing more B&M poker.

Heh.

The electric sports car is finally here, and it looks pretty damn hot:

Tesla Motors is a brand new car company whose first product is a roadster designed by a Lotus designer, engineered by a bunch of Lotus engineers, and manufactured in the Lotus factory. The configuration is that of a mid-engined, real-wheel drive two-seater with a bunch of batteries in place of where the engine would be. My kind of car.

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One thing I watch out for at the medium stakes limit tables are the all-in limit players. On the surface, the all-in limit player appears to be a suitably tight aggressive player, but if you observe how he plays his hands, you realize he’s actually playing some form of donkey no limit. He makes a single decision with a hand like AK: play it strongly all the way to the showdown. When confronted with a raise on the flop, he is likely to 3-bet to take back the initiative. When confronted with a raise on the turn, he may give up the initiative, but still goes to showdown for another two big bets. He’s decided this hand is going to cost him 4-5BB, and damn it, he’s gonna pay to see your “garbage” hand. These are the players that make hands like top pair weak kicker or middle pair somewhat profitable. Their raising range makes it relatively easy to put them on hands, and in the absence of any scare cards, you can bet the river for value against his high card hand.

Party released a new client yesterday featuring the Party Monster, a new series of weekly and monthly freeroll tournaments seeded with $5 million from Party, and funded by a percentage of the prize pool from qualifiers and the Bad Beat Jackpot. Part of this upgrade adds new no limit and pot limit jackpot tables to the mix and lists jackpot tables alongside normal tables. The effect on the jackpot has been huge. It went from $90k Monday night to $200k Tuesday night to $275k this morning. This can only be good news. Large jackpot pools bring out the gamble, and that means more money for solid players. Check it out.

By now, you’ve heard about the House bill that passed this month that seeks to restrict online poker. While the practical implications of the bill are still unclear, this is a potential threat to a pursuit that millions of Americans enjoy responsibly with no harm to others.

The Poker Players Alliance is a non-profit organization that helps promote poker and protect the rights of players to play. Maybe you’re not convinced that paying the $20 member fee is worth it. In that case, you might want to consider reloading or depositing at Party Poker. I made a deposit after the July WPBT event and was offered a free membership–Party paid the fee. It was quick, cheap, and easy, the way I like my poker wins. If you like to chase bonuses from site to site and play on third-tier sites for 25% rake-back deals, this is one reload bonus that will let you keep doing so.

What else can we do?

The PPA is great, but nothing gets the attention of politicians like constituents’ emails, letters, and phone calls:

Contact your Senators and House Rep, expressing your support for poker players’ rights and your opposition to the House bill. Advocate for legalization and regulation, which brings piece of mind to players, more fish to the tables, and tax revenues to the government. Allowing sites to operate within the federal government’s jurisdiction under a regulatory regime also helps address concerns about money laundering and other illegal activities taking place via the onling gaming world’s secondary money system.

You can also help shape public opinion:

Blog about the issue. Keep it alive and in people’s minds.

Write letters to the editor. Subscribe to Google News Alerts (keywords “gambling legislation“) and fire off a volley of letters whenever the issue comes up.

Update: California Card Rooms

California players might be interested in a piece of state legislation that would allow localities to lift limits on bet amounts for their card rooms. For instance, the Four Oaks card room in Emeryville only spreads limit hold’em (which is fine by me!) due to an insane ordinance that restricts wagers to no more than $200. Of course, Emeryville’s in the process of gentrifying, so the city council might not necessarily want to help the card club that brought them much needed tax revenues during the industrial slum years.

In limit hold’em games online, 5/10 seems to be the line that divides the low stakes games from the medium stakes games.

I was discussing my own experiences playing 5/10 with all-around big brain HDouble several weeks ago, and he referred me back to his archives from a few years back where he lamented the mindlessness of four-tabling 3/6 versus moving up to the tougher 5/10 games. Then he added, “But all the good players must have moved up by now….” The implication there is obvious. Thanks, buddy.

At this past weekend’s home game, Bill speculated that the 5/10 games were full of lower-limit players taking a shot at a bigger game, which I think implies that they’re adding more variance to the game. Still, I think there’s a noticeable difference between 3/6 and 5/10. The ratio of solid players to weak or loose players seems much higher.

In my opinion, 5/10 is still a hurdle for many reasonably good players before they launch themselves into the 15/30 and higher games. Let me state the obvious: 15/30 is three times bigger than 5/10. In contrast, the prior two changes in limit have been a fraction of the previous limit: +50% from 2/4 to 3/6, +66% from 3/6 to 5/10, versus +200%. It’s probably safe to assume that decent players lacking the bankroll will not capriciously move up to 15/30, whereas gamblers and affluent players will gladly fling chips with properly bankrolled good players.

Of course, my experience at the 15/30 tables is only a fraction of that at the 5/10 tables (I’m running well, but half-expecting to get hit by the variance train), and it’s based solely on the games at Party, so I’d be curious to hear from other limit players about their thoughts on the games.

Is 15/30 an easier game than 5/10?

Have you run up against the wall in your own game?

Will you be reading a post from me in a couple weeks about how I was playing way beyond my depth?

—

In other poker news:

Grubbette showed up at a short-handed home tournament this past weekend and won when she re-raised all-in with JT vs. my K5. She paired the J on the river. Damn. I played poorly when we were down to four, missing out on some opportunities to chip up. As a result, I entered heads-up play at a severe chip disadvantage to Grubbette, who had managed to bust the 3rd through 5th place finishers. Next time, Grubbette, next time.

Absinthe is off to Vegas for the WSOP, serving as my proxy in Event #37. Send him some mojo. Oh, and I guess he’s also playing in the Main Event, too, but I have no money in that (yet). By the way, if anyone spots any $100 round-trip tickets to Vegas from LAX, let me know. I might pop in this weekend to say “howdy” and collect my money from the bracelet winner.

We hosted a small home game last night, the first since HDouble’s home game ran afoul of the neighbors and got voluntarily shut down. A few of the usual suspects were rounded up to make donkey calls and ill-timed bluffs against each other on the green felt. We started with a single table tournament with starting stacks of 4000 chips, starting blinds of 25-50, and 30 minute levels. Seats were drawn and cards were in the air. The players:

“Any Two” Lance in the SB.

Mrs. Absinthe in the BB for her second live tournament ever.

StudioGlyphic (that’s me) UTG.

The S.O. UTG+1.

Bill Rini in EP.

Shane in MP1 riding high from his second place finish in an FTP $50 MTT.

Fhwrdh in MP2 and still hatless.

Absinthe in the HJ, directly across from me.

Katkin in the CO.

MySpace George on the button.

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In my mind, Vegas is always just four hours away. Compared to LA commute time, four hours never seems that bad. That’s like driving to and from Irvine 1.5 - 2 times. Easy, right?

In reality, everyone in LA and their mother thinks of Vegas in the same way. They might drive up Thursday night, Friday morning, Friday night, or Saturday morning, but they all come back Sunday afternoon.

When you’re waiting out the traffic and heat in Baker, CA in 110 degree weather, an extra night at the MGM Grand for $60 suddenly looks like the deal of the century.

When you realize you’ve spent $100 on fuel and 12 hours of your limited free time crossing the Mojave desert (sober!), two round-trip tickets + cab fares for $500 doesn’t really seem that expensive.

The next time I talk about driving up to Vegas, somebody slap me.

Last weekend I spent a hellish afternoon in 90+ degree heat at the Desert Hills Premium Outlets near Morongo Casino. And no, I didn’t play.

The heat, the drive, and some general life iffiness made me pretty sure I’d miss this WPBT gathering. However, some prodding from Absinthe, the news that the Lone Gunner was coming, and some last minute deal rates at the MGM Grand conspired to convince me and the s.o. that it’d be worth the trek out there. Plus I hear there’s an overlay.

So if you get bad beat by a cute Asian girl at Caesars… well, let’s just say I taught her everything she knows. With any luck, you’ll be able to recognize me based on the photo to the right.