Happy New Year

I was going to do major pimpage this evening, but Blogger ate my post. After I get up this morning I will try posting it again. Along with actual poker content.

Happy 2006!

Dear Abby

Just thought I would mention this blog I found the other week. The name of the blog is "Poker Abby Teaches Poker". I like the concept. I hope this blog stays current and gets a few readers. My only concern is there may not be enough questions to fuel it. Go over and help out.

More to follow.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness!

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays from our _ones to your _ones!

Christmas Pimping and my latest endeavors at playing online will be here in the next couple of days.

I hope Santa brings me a nice big bankroll. - Christmas wish of all.

Enjoy the Christmas Pokery Goodness!

Gypsy

I hope everyone that went to Vegas came back and retained the ability to write. I am sorry there is no poker content here tonight. Something important happened last night and I had to write about it. Don't worry, there will be poker content later in the week.


My wife has a thing for strays. Growing up, her father saw a stray in the neighborhood and told her mother not to let my wife out of the house. He looked out the window to see my wife feeding the stray. They had a new dog.

After my wife graduated college and went to teach, she and a friend were out for a drive and were passing a farm. Near the road was a piece of farm equipment and under the it my wife saw a pile of brown, blonde and white fur. They pulled over and investigated. They discovered it was a dog - thin, abused, and covered in ticks and fleas. My wife coaxed the fragile creature out and into the car.

At her apartment, my wife fed and watered the stray. Then she slowly and carefully picked almost two hundred ticks off of the dog's head. A trip to the vet's was next. The vet advised that as abused, neglected and starved as the animal was, the best thing to do would be to put her to sleep. My wife did not agree. And during the following weeks, she nursed her "Gypsy Dog" back to health.

During the next couple of years Gypsy was my wife's best companion, became a momma dog, and growled at any man who came too close or threatened my wife. The only man Gypsy would not growl at was my Father-in-Law.

The first time I showed up at my not-yet-wife's apartment when we were dating, I met Gypsy. I was warned that she would not like me and that she would probably be put in the bedroom for the evening. I rang the doorbell and heard some of the most ferocious barking I have ever heard coming down the steps to the apartment door. My wife opened the door and Gyspy saw me. Gypsy barked, came out, smelled my pants leg and decided I was OK. I think I got a lot of brownie points that day.


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Gypsy once ate a three pound stick of Summer Sausage in less that 4 minutes.

When my wife and I got married, Gypsy used to hop up on a chair and up into bed with us during cold winter nights.

Gypsy loved "tummy rubs" and would playfully beg and pretend to nip at your hand if you stopped.

She "allowed" numerous cats to share her house.

Gypsy loved to chase anyone wearing my wife's cat slippers - but only outside, never inside.

She allowed our two little _ones to pull fur and ears and tail. She never snapped at them.

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Every year Gypsy would shed twice, once in the spring and once in the fall. Each year her coat would get more patches of white. In the last year she had trouble walking on cold days, she had cataracts and she went deaf and did not bark again. This summer Gypsy developed a tumor. She was too old to go through an operation. We tried to make her as comfortable as we could. She still insisted on coming upstairs every night, even though it took her longer and longer to accomplish as time when on. She never missed a night until last night.

My wife and I came home after dropping off the little _ones to visit with Grandma for the week. I came in through the back door and went through the house to the front door to let my wife in. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gypsy lying on the blanket next to the door. I went out to see where my wife went (she had gone to the mail box) and as I came back in, I noticed that Gypsy was not breathing. She had curled up to sleep next to the door to wait for us to come back and never woke up.



I really missed her not coming up the stairs last night.

Playing the Player

I think at this point one of my strongest abilities while playing online is to remember betting patterns of other players. I don't always start with the right cards. I don't always bet the way I should. But if one of the players at the table makes a bet, raise, or check in situations where they normally don't, I know exactly what to do. I just know, when I can bluff someone off the pot, when I need to fold to a higher set, when I have the nuts and can make the other player pay off.

I am not saying that I can do this all the time. I can do it enough at this point to continue winning sessions (with play money) so I can learn how to play correctly. And playing correctly given each situation presented you is the only (supposed) guarantee to becoming a long-term winning player.

This weekend was a non-poker weekend for me (unlike a sizable portion of the poker blogging community). I attended a wedding, and drove the family to my mother-in-law's house. The kids are going to stay with Grandma for a week. Mrs. _one and I will have our first full week alone in about 5 years. Of course we still both have to work.

Hopefully, I can sneak in a session or two of poker this week, but I am not counting on it.

Enjoy the Pokery Goodness and read the Vegas trip reports this week from most of the bloggers listed on the right!

Full Tilt Poker

Wow! It has been a while since I have played anywhere except Yahoo. I got onto Full Tilt twice in the last two days and I must say I like the interface much better than Party. So far I have been playing with play money and just observing the real money tables to get a good feel for the site. I have a feeling I will be playing here a lot more in the future.

I still have not gotten an invite to the Home Game run by a couple of guys from the office. I tell them that I am interested, but because of the distance and the _ones at home, I need a week to set it up. So of course they set up the game the day before... Oh well, maybe some day.

In case you haven't noticed, I have update my blog links and will continue to do so on a regular basis. I generally link only blogs I read (or have read) on a regular basis. If I am missing your blog, let me know. Either I read your blog and haven't gotten around to linking you, or I haven't seen your blog.

Good luck (should it be good skill) to the bloggers attending the WPBT in Vegas! I wish I was going, but family, work, and financial matters require me to stay here. If you want to set up a Dial-A-Shot, I will be available. Email me.

In the meantime, enjoy the Pokery Goodness!

Texas Freeze Hold'em Freeze DVD Freeze Non-Review

OK, here is the long overdue DVD (non-) review:

In the early part of the year I purchased a How To Poker DVD at my local CVS. I had visions of becoming unbeatable, a monster with the ability to crush my opponents at the table with but a stern glance and a check-raise.

But, alas, that was not to be. I take the DVD home, wait for the kids to get to sleep and pop it into the DVD player. The first 4 chapters play fine. But then the signal starts freezing - both sound and audio. I tried other later chapters and many of them actually froze my DVD player. (Even after several unpluggings and pluggings I got the same results.)

"No problem!", I said to myself. I popped the DVD out of the player and pop it into the DVD drive on my PC. Same problem. At this point I figure I got a defective DVD. Again, "No problem!" I take the DVD back to CVS the next day and exchange it. I take it home and guess what? The same problem. This time I even took it to a friends house and tried it in his DVD player. It still freezes the audio and video.

So now I have a defective DVD (I could only exchange it for the same title), no poker knowledge gained from said DVD, and no review for the two or three readers I have left.

So here is my (non-)rating:

Howard Lederer's Secrets of No Limit Hold'em - Non-rated

If someone would like to send me a copy that actually works (hint, hint) I would be happy to re-review it at a later date.

Consistancy (Ironic Ain't It)

Consistancy - Something that has not been anywhere near this blog in quite some time. It is unfortunate. It is reprehensible. It is ... reality.

My lack of posting has not been because of lack of passion for poker, or lack of passion for blogging. The lack of posting has been because there has been no time to do it. When I started this blog, I made a deal with myself. If the blog starts to get in the way of my time and energy with my family, the blog is the thing that will languish.

The biggest thief of my time lately has been the lengthening commute time. Last year it was about an hour and a half each way. This year it has ballooned to almost two hours each way. This leaves even less time for family, poker, and blogging. (So if any of you know of a computer/web/IT job I could do from home...)

I am currently rereading two of the poker books I purchase a year ago.

I actually have seen a couple of the WSOP events on ESPN this year. (Hopefully it won't make my terrible play even worse.)

I am in the process of upgrading a laptop I recently acquired. Once I get more memory for it, I should be good to go on real poker websites and not Yahoo.

I STILL LOVE POKER!!!

Last year I was not certain I would be saying that this year. Sometimes my interests are short-lived.

My goal in the next twelve months is to improve my play enough to play all hands correctly at least 95% of the time. It would also be nice if my meager bankroll would grow to a semi-respectible level.

For those bloggers still checking this site: Good luck at the WPBT Winter Classic II as I will not be there. I will, however, hoist a few in your honor at the appointed hour(s). I am up for dial-a-shots. Email me if you want to set it up.

Stay tuned (or at least check back soon) for more Pokery Goodness!!