IGGY at PokerWorks

“I’d say always play at limits that will allow you to survive a losing streak. Losing streaks are the barometers for me. Show me a player on a winning streak and I won’t be able to rate him. Show me a player who is in a losing streak and I’ll be able to tell you if he can play.”
Jennifer Harmon

Man, when is this losing streak gonna end? And I’m talking about poker in general, of course, not necessarily just at the tables. I actually want to apologize for my lack of posting lately, but good God, I’m beaten down.

And I’m not falling for the oldest blogging trick in the world - blogging about how damn depressed I am. But I’m also not comfortable coming on here and ripping out ubers and pretending everything is ok when clearly it’s a potential poker apocalypse right now.

My poker reading isn’t helping. Trying to get thru all the nimrods and fucktards polluting poker forums and newsgroups is a daunting task, even in the best of times, not to mention these surreal days.

And then today, fuck me sideways. If I read one more forum thread about Doyle getting arrested I was going to puke. But rather than work myself into a lather about this, go read a much more adult perspective at UpforPoker.

Neteller hijack aside, I probably am far better off than a lot of people. I wonder how many kids out there are flipping out because they didn’t pay taxes on their winnings. Prolly a bunch. There’s been a ton of smarmy posters over the past few years writing about how they are impervious to Uncle Sam thanks to the Neteller debit card, dubious means, and most of all, sheer ignorance.

But now the worm has turned.

And because all the books are laid bare, with the DOJ and IRS perusing bank records, it seems all the more likely that the Fix Was In from the very beginning. This wasn’t a perfect storm of events or a cosmic fluke conspiring against poker. This was a well executed blitzkrieg.

And now we wait, just like we’ve been doing since September. Waiting and watching.

Oh yes, poker shall return. But I fear the Golden Goose has been killed. At best, it’s been maimed.

From my vantage point of 3.5 years of poker blogging, it almost feels like the poker juggernaut that became a cultural explosion was a fluke. A fad.

Poker is the new pet rock.

OK, I’m not really buying into that last part. Yet.

I guess I should slow down here. I’m getting dangerously close to rant territory and we don’t want that, do we? But hell, it’s a Monday and it’s cold as hell and snow is coming and I ain’t seen the sun in six days and people are posting that Doyle Brunson got arrested and my fucking money is still locked up at Neteller.

Weeeeeeeeeeee.

For my part, I’m still playing. I still love the game too much to give in. But that’s me - your mileage may vary. I would hope that most USA players won’t capitulate, tho.

And I’m gonna keep blogging my ass off.

So I’m gonna keep getting Guinness-fueled here & give you some fine snippets from the interweb. Because that’s what I do, damnit.

This sums up what many people are thinking. Sadly.

Attn: Poker “Pros”

Any brilliant youngsters out there who gave up on school n’ shit to play a card game currently living off mommy and daddy’s dimes? COME ON - regale me with your foresight and wisdom!

He got no takers.

Some of the older posters, including one of my favorites still left at RGP, Howard Beale, let loose with some crotchety perspective on the golden age of poker and what has passed us by. For one, Howard is happy it’s all over.

What ‘Poker Boom’? A rant.

This is something I’ve wanted to get off my chest for a while now. I see many people refer to the ‘Poker Boom’ and wonder what ‘Poker Boom’ are they talking about and what good whatever it is has really done for poker?

I first started playing poker in casinos when the Taj Mahal and Resorts International opened their rooms in AC. That led me to the underground clubs in NYC, circa 1992 IIRC. In those days the poker rooms were filled up with players. When I moved out to Arizona, Fort McDowell and then Gila River and later Casino Arizona were filled up with players. There was never a shortage of players or games. When I visited California all the poker rooms there were packed with players and games.

Then along came the online rooms and, especially, the WPT on the TEE-VEE and the next thing I know there is a ‘Poker Boom’. But what is it really? From what I can see all it’s done is increase the size of tournaments and give birth to a bastardized form of NL. The most populated games of NL are $1/$2 blind games mostly with buy-ins of $200 or $100 or even (so I’ve read at some LA rooms) of $40! A ‘NL’ game w/ a buy-in of $40! What the heck is that?

The poker rooms are still filled up (just as they always were) but now there are a horde of people who want to play NL like they see on the TEE-VEE but it’s not really what they see on television. What they see on television are huge field tourneys that cost a half-million/yr to play that have a huge luck factor and that have long term winners that you can count on one hand. I think that that is really what the ‘poker boom’ is. Sure, there are more rooms opening up in LV but most of them are low-limit rooms and are under populated. The parts of the country that became legal for gambling in the past few years would likely have had poker rooms anyway. To some extent those new tourney players and online players spill over into b&m cash games but I don’t think they matter much.

The poker rooms were filled up anyway and the game was always attracting new players. I was not concerned with the future of poker. I’ll bet that players like TJ and Amir Vahedi (whose names you used to see winning regularly) wish there had never been a poker boom.

Meanwhile, the cash game limit player’s games have been hurt. At Casino Arizona there used to be 3 15-30 stud games/day every day. Those have been gone ever since the poker boom because it’s not the game played on television. Nowadays it HE or nothing all the time, almost everywhere. CAZ has 6 games of 5-150 going because it’s the closest thing to what is played on television. I don’t bother learning it because it’s of limited value. Even if I become expert it’s hardly spread anywhere else so I can’t ‘take it on the road’. In that sense it’s not worth the time to
learn.

So to heck with the ‘poker boom’. I wish it had never shown up, such as it is.

End of rant.

Howard Beale

How many ways do I disagree with thee? Let me count the ways. Oh, never mind.

Tis funny to go back a little bit and read Oliver Tse’s perspectives on the WSOP Main Event this year. Good God, he’s a smart man but I hope he didn’t wager any cold hard cash on his opinions here from a few months ago. He claims we will see little to no difference, but to be fair, he wrote this before Harrah’s said they wouldn’t accept online qualifiers: Per the amount of entries in 2007

9000+ players. Online poker has exploded in Germany and France, and is about to explode in Italy and Spain in 2007. East Asia will be on deck for 2008.

Harrah’s would be incredibly stupid to keep the WSOP in Las Vegas now that it will have operational control of several casinos in the UK via its acquisition of London Clubs International.

It makes much more business sense for Harrah’s to hold the 2007 WSOP in London than in Las Vegas.

Every one of you who predict that WSOP attendance will drop is a myopic U.S. based poker player who has little to no understanding of the entertainment industry on a global scale.

9000 players, my ass. Even my beloved heroes are letting me down with their myopic views.

It’s only a few weeks old, but I’m still sad I never blogged about David Sklansky’s affair with a 16 year old girl. After he confessed on 2+2, the lucky lady actually appeared on the forum to answer any and all questions about the love story. Huge awesome thread.
David’s former 16 yr old answers all

It’s actually a pretty funny thread. Go kill some time - you won’t regret it and you’ll learn more about Mr. Sklansky than you ever wanted. And WAY too much info about her - geezus.

I enjoyed this Full Tilt chat with Mr. Matasow:
Matusow and Dirksen talk financial plans

Mike Matusow: 28003rd re rs with q 10
Dealer: Mike Matusow wins the pot ($100)
Mike Matusow: u are broke u just dont know it yet
Dustin Dirksen: well no
Dealer: Dustin Dirksen wins the pot ($100)
Dustin Dirksen: cuz when i run good i invest
Mike Matusow: trust me u are broke
Dustin Dirksen: so even if i suck
Dustin Dirksen: i have half mil put away
Dealer: Mike Matusow wins the pot ($100)
Dustin Dirksen: maybe that broke to u
Mike Matusow: like i said u broke
Dustin Dirksen: not to me
Dealer: Mike Matusow wins the pot ($200)
Mike Matusow: i had 4million
Mike Matusow: 500k isnt @@@%
Mike Matusow: ilose that a week
Dustin Dirksen: its in real estate cant lose it to poker

-later-

Mike Matusow: dustin i need some money send me some
Dustin Dirksen: can u pay me in chips or cash
Mike Matusow: u read that
Dustin Dirksen: ya
Mike Matusow: y if i lose if not ill send back
Dustin Dirksen: ok
Dustin Dirksen: how much u want
Mike Matusow: 10
Mike Matusow: mayabe 20 but ten for now
Dustin Dirksen: 10 on the way
Mike Matusow: ihavnt won apot in either game in 2hrs
Dealer: Mike Matusow wins the pot ($199.50)

–

My favorite 2+2 thread of the day? Outside of the statutory rape thread per Sklansky?
Reply limit to threads

Damn, I wish poker blogs had as much juice as food blogs.
The Power of Food Blogging

Fuck it. Reading cranky Arlo Payne’s RGP post is making me want to go play some poker so that’s what I’m gonna do. Fight the power.

Face it

It is all but over.
Without the USA funding the sites will be headed towards toes up.

The diehards will hang in there until they are busted. No new money for the rake. Games will turn into a rock mine. Some will get burnt. TV poker will start to die off due to lack of ads. Dirty carpetbaggers will appear out of the blue offering new funding options for the really sick ones. WSOP numbers will be down.

Divorce rates will go up once the couples start spending time together. Burger King will lower its wages due to the pile of college drop-outs that are looking for work. Six people will be arrested during the WSOP this year.

Despite my negativity above, I think we’ll have legal poker here sooner than I originally thought. And don’t nitpick and tell me that playing poker is still legal here.

Damn, how did I go to a glass half-full optimist? Oh wait. Guinness.

So let’s leave on a positive note, shall we? Hell, I fell in love with poker far before I ever played it on a computer.

Subject: Who cares about online poker?

I’ve been in Las Vegas for 3 months now and will stay another 3 or 4 until it starts to get too hot. Then I will head to Southern California or the Pacific Northwest to dodge the heat. I play no-limit hold’em every day in luxurious surrounding against interesting people, who in many cases are just learning poker.

I haven’t played online since I got here and seriously doubt if I will play on the computer again. What kind of dork sits at home staring at his computer screen when he can enjoy a friendly game with interesting people while being served free drinks by (usually) attractive waitresses. I get enough comps to have a nice dinner on the
casino every other day.

Wynn, Venetian, Caesars, and Red Rock are my favorite rooms so far, but nearly every casino has a nice poker room with at least a couple of no limit games. If you play $25-$50 no-limit - $30/$60 limit or higher the Bellagio has the biggest action but it is a crowded, noisy, and unpleasant place to play and they definitely have an attitude.

A $3/$5 or $5/$10 no limit game is a good size for me and so I am averaging more money than I made playing multiple games online. It’s better to see and hear your opponents.

I suggest people quit crying about the new laws and start playing real poker in real games.

Cheers!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 11:29 pm and is filed under .