I thought the Democratic National Convention was a big success for Democrats. I think we picked the right candidate and given the circumstances of the Republican's main attacking point (national security), I think we picked the right Vice-President in Biden. I don't really have that much to say on the convention other than the speeches were moving and watching this convention made me feel closer to the United States of America. We do all get bogged down in our daily lives to realize there is more out there than we are accustomed to in our everyday lives. Being a professional poker player probably distances me further from that reality in a lot of ways because working from home online limits contact with people other than friends or family. Going to tournaments and playing gives some contact to people, but not that often to people that struggle in the world. Not that often are there that many people that are even pleasant to be around. In fact, most of the people I enjoy being around in the poker world play online most of the time. Stories of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan serving the country and coming back to poor treatment is flat out wrong on so many moral and human levels its disturbing. I know that I am truly lucky after hearing a lot of this. I'm lucky enough to play a game and make good money doing it. Only professional athletes and people on stock exchanges can usually say the same thing. Either way, I'm looking forward to the election.
One more big mention is that if you care at all about online poker, the Democratic ticket is really the only way to go. McCain is a staunch opponent of online gambling most likely to please the conservative base. Several members of the PPA, democrats and republicans alike, demanded that the Republicans strike language from the RNC platform regarding the prohibition of online gambling. When the RNC agreed and removed it, it was put back up shortly after by the McCain train. The only sound argument that can be put forth by Republicans is that gambling is bad, immoral and ruins society. While we only hear about the extreme cases related to gambling, Republicans often forget that they support gambling on horse racing and state lotteries. You can't have it both ways. Please write your Senators and Congressmen. If you are too lazy, go to this website http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/home/. They have a letter all set for you and will even tell you all the representatives that matter. It takes two seconds, but politicians do eventually listen. The PPA has made good progress. They haven't made great progress until online poker is legalized and regulated.
As for me and poker, I came back to Vegas and have been pretty happy with how I'm doing so far. Since being back, I've had some good results including a $3000 win on Ultimate Bet in their 30 rebuy. I got 2nd in the Absolute Sunday tournament for $10k. I had another small second on Absolute. I also got ninth in the Pokerstars daily with a disappointing finish. To be honest, I've actually probably ran a little below average at these final tables as well. I've had consistent deep runs in tournaments, but I feel like my tournament game continues to improve. I know I have a long way to go until I become the best, but with hard work and more dedication, I believe I can get there. On a negative note, I had one poor high stakes cash session at $50/$100 HORSE. I played this game because of my success at lower limits in the past month. After playing for a while, I believed that I had a little edge over my opponents. Whether that was the case or not, the results didn't show for it. It will be a while before I try another experiment like that. Playing consistent multi-table tournament schedules with a lot of focus has been paying off this year, and I want to keep that going.
Showing posts with label obama speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obama speech. Show all posts
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Obama Speech and Questions
Sorry for the lack of updates, but there hasn't been much to write about. Nothing has been even semi-interesting on the poker front as I failed in my attempt to satellite to the main event at the Wynn by getting impatient in the satellite and making a terrible move. The cards don't even matter really or the hand. It was more a matter of impatience clouding my poker judgment. This is something I think every player accustomed to the online game has to fight.
I want to take some questions from readers and lead into some of the topics I wanted to talk about today.
Dave writes "my question for you is would you vote for John Mccain and if not why, even if that why is because you want to punish the republicans?"
I would be open to voting for any candidate Dave and usually try to base my decision on what the candidate says during debates and speeches as opposed to endorsements and attack ads. I know a lot of Americans respond to attack ads and this is why Bush beat Kerry in '04. I think any dumb material that comes up in the news is also unrelated including the current Obama pastor controversy. Before I talk about that though, I just wanted to make it clear that I could possibly vote for McCain, but I do feel Republicans in some sense need to be held accountable for the war decision.
This speech from Obama though is going to solidify my vote for the Presidency hands down. One of my biggest problems with politicians today is that they never make a solid stand on something that is a political hotbed. Obama shattered that yesterday with his speech. He tackled the issue of race in America head on to bring the conversation to a higher level. This kind of speech is something that never happens in the USA anymore. Politicians are too worried about their own popularity to ever take a stand on something. Obama gave a thoughtful, eloquent, reflective speech yesterday that I think challenged every single American. That's what I want in a President and any politician. This speech alone is on a whole different level from anything McCain, Hillary or anyone else can do. Whether it gets a great response or not, it was representative of the type of politician he is. He's different and someone not afraid of people perceiving him as different. Unfortunately, and this is being realistic, the majority of people in America just don't care and around half of people won't vote.
Dave, I also like your poker tip of the week idea. So I'll do something simple every once in a while. For people that play often, this will be extremely watered down and simple and you probably already know it.
Poker Tip of the Week: The Value Bet. In No Limit Hold 'em, we are often faced with situations where we aren't sure how much we want to bet. Let's say for example, you are playing a No Limit cash game with $200 and all the other players have $200. The blinds are $1/$2. When you have a strong hand, you always want to maximize the amount of money you get from the opponents while always making them pay an appropriate price to continue in the hand. You basically want to make a bet that is not too small or too big, but just right. So let's say you have AK and the board runs out AK3 7 2. Let's say that hypothetically, you raised to $10 preflop and were called by your opponent, then after the AK3 flop you bet $10 and were called. Then you bet $20 on the turn card and were called. Now you are at the river. With the $3+$10+$10+$10+$10+20+20 bet amounts between you and your opponent in the pot = $83.
You still have around $150 in your stack. If you assume that your opponent is calling you with an A and another card and you have them beat, you want to bet the amount that they are going to call that is just right. This is the value bet. The best kind of value bet maximizes the amount of money we can make from our opponent. You don't know what your opponent has here, but you want to bet the amount that a hand you think he has will pay you. If you think he has a hand like AQ AJ A10 A9 A8, then make the bet he will call. With $83 in the pot, bet around $50-$70. Too many players just push all $150 in the middle and someone with AQ AJ A10 A9 A8 won't pay them off.
I would love to have some feedback from this tip, so let me know if it makes sense or if you want something simpler out there.
Final Four
Memphis, UNC, Duke, Wisconsin.
This is my final four and I won't reveal my champion until after all you donkeys have your polls in. I really have slacked in college basketball this year, but did catch a few of the big games near the end of the season.
What I do know is that UNC is the clear favorite as they should be. This team plays gritty, tough defense and solid basketball. They have a solid all around game, but the defense is impressive.
Memphis is probably the most underrated of the favorites. This was the team that almost went undefeated, but now everyone seems to have forgotten.
Duke got a favorable match up in the brackets in my opinion. I think UCLA is the weakest 1 seed and Xavier is arguably the 3rd or 4th 3 seed.
Wisconsin is in the toughest bracket of them all. This bracket is not fair period.
USC, Kansas St, Wisconsin, Kansas, Georgetown, Davidson, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Clemson.
I just have things all shaken up in this bracket, but what I do know is that to beat all these great teams, you need a tough defensive team that I think Wisconsin possesses. Picking a winner out of this bracket is seriously impossible and it's most likely going to be the bracket that determines the winner of any bracket.
Enjoy the madness and I can't wait to talk about LOST this week.
I want to take some questions from readers and lead into some of the topics I wanted to talk about today.
Dave writes "my question for you is would you vote for John Mccain and if not why, even if that why is because you want to punish the republicans?"
I would be open to voting for any candidate Dave and usually try to base my decision on what the candidate says during debates and speeches as opposed to endorsements and attack ads. I know a lot of Americans respond to attack ads and this is why Bush beat Kerry in '04. I think any dumb material that comes up in the news is also unrelated including the current Obama pastor controversy. Before I talk about that though, I just wanted to make it clear that I could possibly vote for McCain, but I do feel Republicans in some sense need to be held accountable for the war decision.
This speech from Obama though is going to solidify my vote for the Presidency hands down. One of my biggest problems with politicians today is that they never make a solid stand on something that is a political hotbed. Obama shattered that yesterday with his speech. He tackled the issue of race in America head on to bring the conversation to a higher level. This kind of speech is something that never happens in the USA anymore. Politicians are too worried about their own popularity to ever take a stand on something. Obama gave a thoughtful, eloquent, reflective speech yesterday that I think challenged every single American. That's what I want in a President and any politician. This speech alone is on a whole different level from anything McCain, Hillary or anyone else can do. Whether it gets a great response or not, it was representative of the type of politician he is. He's different and someone not afraid of people perceiving him as different. Unfortunately, and this is being realistic, the majority of people in America just don't care and around half of people won't vote.
Dave, I also like your poker tip of the week idea. So I'll do something simple every once in a while. For people that play often, this will be extremely watered down and simple and you probably already know it.
Poker Tip of the Week: The Value Bet. In No Limit Hold 'em, we are often faced with situations where we aren't sure how much we want to bet. Let's say for example, you are playing a No Limit cash game with $200 and all the other players have $200. The blinds are $1/$2. When you have a strong hand, you always want to maximize the amount of money you get from the opponents while always making them pay an appropriate price to continue in the hand. You basically want to make a bet that is not too small or too big, but just right. So let's say you have AK and the board runs out AK3 7 2. Let's say that hypothetically, you raised to $10 preflop and were called by your opponent, then after the AK3 flop you bet $10 and were called. Then you bet $20 on the turn card and were called. Now you are at the river. With the $3+$10+$10+$10+$10+20+20 bet amounts between you and your opponent in the pot = $83.
You still have around $150 in your stack. If you assume that your opponent is calling you with an A and another card and you have them beat, you want to bet the amount that they are going to call that is just right. This is the value bet. The best kind of value bet maximizes the amount of money we can make from our opponent. You don't know what your opponent has here, but you want to bet the amount that a hand you think he has will pay you. If you think he has a hand like AQ AJ A10 A9 A8, then make the bet he will call. With $83 in the pot, bet around $50-$70. Too many players just push all $150 in the middle and someone with AQ AJ A10 A9 A8 won't pay them off.
I would love to have some feedback from this tip, so let me know if it makes sense or if you want something simpler out there.
Final Four
Memphis, UNC, Duke, Wisconsin.
This is my final four and I won't reveal my champion until after all you donkeys have your polls in. I really have slacked in college basketball this year, but did catch a few of the big games near the end of the season.
What I do know is that UNC is the clear favorite as they should be. This team plays gritty, tough defense and solid basketball. They have a solid all around game, but the defense is impressive.
Memphis is probably the most underrated of the favorites. This was the team that almost went undefeated, but now everyone seems to have forgotten.
Duke got a favorable match up in the brackets in my opinion. I think UCLA is the weakest 1 seed and Xavier is arguably the 3rd or 4th 3 seed.
Wisconsin is in the toughest bracket of them all. This bracket is not fair period.
USC, Kansas St, Wisconsin, Kansas, Georgetown, Davidson, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Clemson.
I just have things all shaken up in this bracket, but what I do know is that to beat all these great teams, you need a tough defensive team that I think Wisconsin possesses. Picking a winner out of this bracket is seriously impossible and it's most likely going to be the bracket that determines the winner of any bracket.
Enjoy the madness and I can't wait to talk about LOST this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)