Plotting a Getaway

Was sincerely contemplating making a run over to Cherokee early next month to play in one of the World Series of Poker Circuit preliminary events, but I’m not sure it’s going to work out schedule-wise. Even if it doesn’t, the WSOP-C now comes to Harrah’s Cherokee multiple times a year, and so I’m sure there will be another chance before long to go.

The World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship is running there from August 4-16. Here is the schedule.

The idea of making the trip got me thinking about how infrequently I’ve played live poker of late, never mind tournaments. That would necessarily put me into a certain category of player, say, in a WSOP-C event or one of the lower buy-in events in other tournament series (including the WSOP) -- the player for whom the tournament is a relatively unique occurrence, not part of a longer “grind” or more involved commitment to the game.

In fact, that category is a fairly big one -- probably the biggest by a decent margin, as far as the lowest buy-in tournaments go. In other words, at any given table in (say) a $365 event at Cherokee next week, there will be several seats occupied by folks for whom the buy-in level and status (for want of a better word) of the event is about as high as they’ll ever play.

Such players necessarily approach such tournaments much differently than do those occupying the other seats for whom it’s small change, or just one of dozens (or even hundreds) of events they’ll play over the course of a year. From a strategic standpoint, then, dividing everyone into one of the two major camps -- regs and recs (you could call them) -- would be an important first step to make when it comes to player profiling and reads.

We’ll see -- I may be able to get off the farm for a day or two yet. Would be fun to try to shovel some chips instead of stalls, even if only for a short while.

Photo: Visit Cherokee, NC.

Travel Report: EPT12 Grand Final, Day 8 -- Stepping Up Our Game

That to the left is a picture of the stairs leading up to the media room at the Sporting Club where the European Poker Tour Grand Final Main Event is taking place here in Monaco.

There are 20 steps. Every time we get something on the tournament floor in the main tournament room, we have about a two-minute walk back to share what we’ve learned with the rest of the world, and this climb represents the last part of that journey.

During the first minute-and-a-half of the walk, your humble scribbler is usually thinking back over the hand or hands just seen, doing a mental shorthand of the report I’m about to transcribe from the literal scribbles written down in the notebook I’m carrying.

But by the last part of the walk -- by the time I reach these stairs -- such thoughts tend to vanish. Sometimes they are replaced by a rapid inventory of aches and pains, an inevitable byproduct of a week-and-a-half of constant movement. Mostly it’s the ankles and knees demanding to be noticed, but other muscles and joints occasionally cry out as well along with the squeaks of the wooden steps.

Monaco is all about walking, and often climbing. Everyone seems to face these flights of stairs, no matter where they’re heading within the principality.

I think during my visit here last year the metaphor of Grand Prix racing was foremost in my mind, probably because I was walking in everyday from a hotel located about a half-hour south (by foot) of the Sporting Club. But this time it is the staircase. And indeed, what I’ve discovered is how during that last part of the walk back to my laptop, I keep going back to the symbolic value of the stairs I climb.

No matter what they’re doing here, everyone at the festival -- players, media, staff -- looks at it as a kind of challenge that necessarily requires multiple steps to be completed. Whether it’s trying to survive the levels and days of a tournament without being eliminated, or simply to get through each hour and each day accomplishing whatever job they do. And of course everyone wants to do well and succeed, however that is defined, there are steps to climb before the thought becomes action, the plan becomes realized.

Gonna go rest up so as to be able to rise and climb some more tomorrow. Check over at the PokerStars blog to see what we all are carrying back up to the media room each of those trips to share.

Travel Report: EPT12 Grand Final, Day 7 -- Runner-Up

The year is only about a third over, but I feel like I’ve endured enough runner-ups for the rest of 2016 already. My Carolina Panthers lost the Super Bowl in February, then my UNC Tar Heels lost the championship game last month. Heck, even the Charlotte Hornets teased me into thinking we might win that first round series versus the Miami Heat before coming up short in the end.

Now I have my own second-place finish to add to the list, after playing deep into the night in the media tournament here in Monaco at the European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Prior to my own poker-playing fun came Day 2 of the Main Event, a relatively shorter day that went from noon to around 8:30 p.m. without a dinner break. Got a sandwich and a cup of tea after that, then headed over to the media tourney that started around 10 p.m.

I’m not playing a heck of a lot these days, so these media tournaments are kind of a treat. Like others on the EPT, this one was €20 to play. Unlike others, they made this one a “knockout” event with a €5 bounty on each player, too, making the entry €25.

We got going on time, and were seated in the main tournament room along with the other side events still going on all around us. About 40 or so participated, I think, or perhaps a few more.

Footballer legend Ronaldo (i.e., Ronaldo Nazário) played -- you can see him pictured at left -- as did Friend of Team PokerStars and Global Poker League player Felipe “Mojave” Ramos (against whom I played an interesting hand in the media tournament at EPT Dublin). I didn’t end up playing against either of them, but had a ton of fun nonetheless competing versus my media friends and colleagues.

Enjoyed greatly hands during the first hour-plus when the blinds weren’t yet too big to prevent postflop shenanigans, giving me a chance to play position a lot and also occasionally pressure shorter stacks. Soon, though, that became harder to pull off as the levels were only 10 minutes long, forcing the all-ins all around fairly frequently.

Got in on a five-euro last longer organized by Frank Op de Woerd that ended up being worth more than third-place prize money as so many participated. That became interesting once we got to the nine-handed final table when I had an above average stack and the only other two still in the last longer -- Victor (who writes for the PokerStarsLive French site) and Stephen (of the PS blog) -- came in short.

While I started the final table well by adding chips in the first hand, those two went all in a couple of times against each other after with Stephen coming out the worse of it, then shortly after getting eliminated. Soon after that Victor and I decided to chop the last longer, guaranteeing each of us a profit on the night.

Made it through the cash bubble (the top six finishers got paid), then with five left got short myself. A hand then arose in which Victor had raised all in and after posting the big blind I had only a couple of BBs left. Looked down at 5-2-offsuit, decided my range included any two cards, and called. Despite being up against two bigger cards I ended up making two pair by the turn, which beat the pair of jacks Victor made on the river, and a little after that chipped up enough to take the lead (winning a big one with pocket kings once along the way).

Actually had something like half the chips with four left, though things got even again when we were down to three. Victor then finally went out in third, and one of the TV guys Farhan and myself were heads-up. I joked that if we were still playing at 5:30 a.m. they’d make us stop as had happened with Ole Schemion and Fabian Quoss the night before in the €50K Single-Day High Roller, although we knew it wasn’t going to last much longer given the relative depth of the stacks.

I had a small advantage when we had our first all-in situation, with me calling his shove with K-10 and feeling pretty good about things when he tabled K-2. But a deuce appeared in the window, and suddenly I was down to four BBs and outchipped something like 6-to-1.

I’d double once with 5-3 versus his J-6 after he flopped a six, then I hit runner-runner two pair (I was around 6% to win on that flop). But then Farhan got me with 5-4 versus my A-3 (see left), meaning every heads-up all-in was won by the player with the worst hand when the chips went in the middle.

It was around 2 a.m. by then. Like in Barcelona earlier this EPT season (where I finished third in the media tournament), my only real disappointment was missing out on getting a winner’s photo, although the €275 I ended up taking away was a decent consolation prize. That total came from second-place prize money, chopping the last-longer, and the half-dozen or so bounties I collected. Just missed out again on being the first to win two of these media tournaments on the EPT (I think), after winning that one way back at EPT Kyiv many years ago.

Grabbing some sleep now. The tournament most people want to read about is still going on today, of course, with just under 200 making it to today’s Main Event Day 3. Check in again at the PokerStars blog to see who wins the all-ins over there and continues to have a chance to make their final table on Friday.

Photo (nine-handed final table): courtesy Jules Pochy/PokerStars blog.

Here Comes HoldemX

I played a few games of this new HoldemX today. There’s a site up and running now where you can create an account and play. I think the site actually just launched, with this being called the “alpha version” of the game meant to introduce it and get feedback from players.

This article on PokerNews gives a bit of background about the game and a little on how it fits into this larger vision of Alex Dreyfus and the Global Poker League. The article points out how the game combines hold’em and other card-based games like Magic: The Gathering, Hearthstone (about which I was writing a little here a while back), and Uno.

It also explains how the game involves both the regular 52-card deck used in hold’em and (in this version) a 15-card “Discovery Deck.” If you go over to the site and mess around as I did, you’ll see these are listed as “Xcards.” They’re essentially game-changing cards, letting players do things like change or add to their hole cards, change community cards in various ways (including adding sixth street), and so on.

Here’s a picture of the 15 “Xcards” to give you an idea (click to enlarge):

Hands are played like hold’em, with extra rounds inserted along the way where players are able to employ those “Xcards” to change how the hand is going. It’s a bit like playing hold’em with wild cards, but with a lot more variables greatly affecting strategy. The games are timed as well meaning you can get through one in just a few minutes.

Dreyfus is quoted in the article explaining how this is in fact a rudimentary version of the game using “only” 15 of these “Xcards” or “Discovery Deck” cards. The idea, he says, is to provide “an educational experience to give players a chance to play around with the fundamental mechanisms of the game before flooding the platform with multiple deck options, special cards, and other features.”

The article also emphasizes that the game is not intended to be played for money -- only chips. “Hearthstone is not about money: it is about fun, special effects, and skills,” explains Dreyfus, who envisions HoldemX to function similarly (and not to compete with poker).

The tagline is “Poker Enhanced,” but I’m not sure what poker players are going to think of the game. It seems like you’d have to have an interest in poker to want to try it out, but the differences from regular hold’em -- or even from most forms of poker -- are so great even in this “simple” early version, you’d have to have a more substantial interest in games and problem-solving to want to play.

A decent percentage of poker players do like these sort of challenges, but they also like playing cards for money, so that, too, seems like another hurdle HoldemX will have to clear.

I may get back on there at some point just to mess around some more. If you do, let me know what you think.

Images: HoldemX.com.

Joining Team Moneymaker

Had great fun last night playing a poker tournament. Feel like I haven’t been able to say that much lately.

If you happen to follow Chris Moneymaker on Twitter, you might have seen him yesterday inviting people to join his new PokerStars Home Game. He has a new website -- Team Moneymaker -- which is part of a few new projects he’s developing, among them the PS Home Game. And the good news for those of us in the U.S. who aren’t able to play real money games, his Home Game is for play chips.

I signed up during the afternoon and then participated in the first of a few tournaments Moneymaker scheduled during the evening. Eventually he got his Twitch channel up and running as well, and provided commentary and feedback as we played.

I have to say I got a big kick out of Moneymaker’s stream, especially one time when I mistyped an opening raise with pocket jacks from UTG -- making it nearly 5x the big blind when I had been aiming for just under 3x -- and a couple of minutes later Moneymaker was commenting and making a note on me about my oversized open.

There were only 17 in this first tournament (including “Money800”). I stumbled early on, with none of my steal attempts or c-bets seeming to accomplish anything other than my dribbling away chips. But then I managed to pick up some decent hands and get paid for them, and eventually made it all of the way to having a chip lead with three players left.

Ran into some hard luck at that point -- if I were tweeting my progress, my followers would’ve gotten an “Out. QQ < AQ, then AJ < A8” note like those we’re all always seeing in our timelines -- and went out in third. The buy-in was exactly 1 play chip, my prize for finishing third was exactly 3, but the entertainment derived from those two hours was considerable.

So was the instruction, as I found myself genuinely challenged by certain decisions along the way and appreciating Moneymaker’s advice to players as he talked about bet-sizing and other decisions made by others (and himself) on Twitch.

I believe his plan will be to host Home Games each Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of hundred at least taking part -- maybe more -- by the time word gets around and some momentum is built up. If you’re curious, you can join Team Moneymaker here, then join his Home Game using the Club ID 1954662 and Invitation Code TeamMoneymaker2015.

Spinning and Going

I continue to be an intermittent play money player on PokerStars.

That’s where I started with online poker over a decade ago -- playing the play money games on PokerStars -- and these days that’s pretty much all the online poker I’m playing as I don’t live in Nevada, New Jersey, or Delaware and I’m not currently interested in the giving up the time or money or accepting the inherent risk that’s involved with playing on any of the “rogue” sites.

I still very much like the PokerStars client, and I’m always glad when any of the innovations they introduce for real money players like new games or formats are trickled down to the play money side, too, just so I can try them out.

One new game just introduced on PokerStars is this “Spin & Go” variation on the traditional sit-n-go. You choose a buy-in and soon afterwards are sat down at a three-handed, winner-take-all, turbo-structured SNG. The prize, however, isn’t calculated by adding up the three players’ buy-ins.

No, instead before the game begins you watch numbers spin on a slot machine-like display that ultimately land on a number representing the payout. For example, in the 1,000 play-chip Spin & Go, prizes range from 2,000 (in fact less than the 3,000 the players have paid) all of the way up to 1,000,000.

I believe for all of the buy-ins the largest possible prize is 1,000 times the buy-in while the smallest is 2 times the buy-in. Of course, the likelihood of getting to play for 1,000 times the buy-in is quite small. Below is a chart reflecting the probabilities for a $1 Spin & Go tournament.

I did a little math to see how the distribution of prizes ensures PokerStars comes out ahead (natch) -- I think to the tune of about 8 cents for every dollar.

Playing a bunch of play money Spin & Gos I noticed right away how for most of them I’d only be playing for 2x my buy-in, as the probabilities would suggest should happen. I also noticed how there was something slightly addicting about registering for another one -- or several at once, as the client makes it easy to do -- and giving the sucker another spin in the hopes of getting lucky and hitting a bigger first prize (and then winning the thing).

(I know Full Tilt Poker has a similar offering -- the Jackpot Sit-n-Gos -- with different probabilities, but I haven’t logged on over there for a while.)

The format is kind of fun and does satisfy what for me has become the primary way I play on the site -- usually just jumping into quick heads-up matches or short-handed sit-n-gos, often of the turbo variety. It does introduce another layer of luck onto poker, and I’m sure there are reasons to point out why it’s not such a great format for players’ bankrolls (or for encouraging more serious, studied poker).

But it’s still fun taking it for a spin, even just for play.

Finally, Full Tilt Funds

Did a double-take earlier today while making a cursory check of my banking account online. Wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but rather needed to conduct a little business when I noticed something new coming through -- one of those “Pending Transactions” indicating that a credit was coming through.

I had to look again, just because I wasn’t quite sure what I was reading the first time. I slowly eyed the line of all caps to the right of the figure.

“DOJ POKER STARS POKERPAY01 ******* 061214.”

No. Really? I guess it’s true. At long last, I have cashed out from Full Tilt Poker.

My first thought was to compare the three years and almost two months it took to recover those funds to the couple of weeks it took to get what I had over at PokerStars. (I had jumped ship from both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet way, way, way before in late 2007 when the first insider cheating scandal at AP broke.)

That wasn’t too revealing of a comparison, though. One event was more or less a pleasant surprise. The other was delayed to such unreasonable lengths and buried under so many inconsequential subplots, false leads, long-smoldering outrage, and abject resignation that it hardly seemed like they belonged to the same category. Besides, it took too much mental work even to remember the earlier one, let alone view it in terms of the latter one.

So I thought further about it. Was it more like getting some kind of surprise discount after having already paid for something? Receiving unexpected tax refund for overpayment? Winning a raffle when I hadn’t realized someone else had dropped my name in the hat?

Or how about being pushed a pot unexpectedly after getting my river bluff called, then finding out I had the best hand after all?

Nah, I thought. More like the faintest of echoes, like a letter reminding you of something you used to do -- a camp you once visited, a vacation from long ago -- something meaningful once upon a time, but that you haven’t thought about for a long, long time.

Then I just stopped thinking about it altogether. Just like I’d gradually stopped thinking about the old Full Tilt Poker, too.

Good luck to everyone else getting theirs.

Play PlaySCOOP?

The Spring Championship of Online Poker is underway currently at PokerStars, the huge online series that is really positioned perfectly relative to the major tours’ ending and the World Series of Poker still a few weeks away.

That scheduling ensures tourney regulars are able to get on the SCOOP train and populate those “high” buy-in events, which in turn gives the series a lot of publicity and encourages others to play in the “low” and “medium” ones (which the regs play, too). And of course there are a large number of U.S.-based pros who find it worthwhile to relocate elsewhere for the two weeks, just as many do in the fall for the World Championship of Online Poker.

All of which keeps SCOOP and PokerStars fairly central on the poker landscape, generally speaking, even here in the U.S. despite the fact that we’re stuck on the rail.

That said, there are SCOOP events Americans can play this time around -- “PlaySCOOP” ones in which the buy-ins and prizes are play money. No shinola!

Like the regular SCOOPs, there are different levels of buy-ins (with play chips) for these -- in this case just “low” and “high” levels. There are 45 sets of tourneys, just like in the real money SCOOPs, with “low” ones featuring buy-ins of 20,000 or thereabouts and the “high” ones costing 2 million or so, meaning most who play the latter will have bought their play chips. If you’re curious, here is the full PlaySCOOP schedule.

I still play sit-n-gos now and then on Stars with my play money chips, having amassed a few million prior to getting involved in real money games on the site long ago. So I’m actually thinking about playing a few PlaySCOOPs. I’ve even thought about jumping into the “Sunday Billion” one week, too -- the play money version of the Sunday Million -- although part of me can’t really imagine actually sitting through many hours of a tourney for which the prize is just more play chips.

Maybe I’ll try either the “Ante Up” one tomorrow or the “Big Antes” event on Friday. Will have to stick to the “low” buy-in version, though, as entering the “high” would represent a treacherous lack of play bankroll management. Unless of course I can play sell some of my play action.

Wondering... do winners get play watches?

Wanna Buy Some Play Chips?

During the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games on PokerStars last Sunday, I drew attention to a new text link appearing up in the left-hand corner of the play money games on Stars. As pictured to the left, one can now actually purchase play chips -- for real money -- directly from Stars.

Being stuck here in the U.S. and still a great fan of the PokerStars client, I will jump on the site and join play money sit-n-gos every now and then, even apart from the HBP HGs. Playing for play chips is how I first got started with online poker, and indeed for many months played nothing but play chip games until finally making a first deposit and moving over to the micros.

Play money cash games are mostly tedious -- to me, anyway -- mainly because players are so understandably erratic and there isn’t a lot of genuine competitiveness on display. Sit-n-gos and multi-table tournaments also feature a healthy helping of goofiness, but they tend to be played more straightforwardly (even if not that skillfully) which thus makes them mildly interesting and even worthwhile to some extent (I’d argue) for new players.

When I first started with the play chips I managed to build up a “roll” (as it were) and in fact had a couple of million in there by the time I started playing the real money games. I remember at some point shortly afterwards becoming aware of the existence of a real-money-for-play-chips market and even looked into trying to sell my play chips for cash.

This was an actual phenomenon at the time -- I’m talking pre-UIGEA, say 2005 or so -- with play-chip purchasing websites and everything. No shinola. If you go back and search forums of the day, you’ll see a plenty of talk about such deals actually being made. You’ll also find people discussing getting scammed out of play money chips, which seems like a meaningless ploy unless the scammers were then able to turn the play chips into cash by some other means.

I never did look into it deeply enough to try to sell any play chips, although I kind of remember rates of something like $11 for 500k or a million (or thereabouts). I also recall stories of some folks starting their real money rolls this way. Microstakes master Nathan “Blackrain79” Williams -- whom I interviewed for Betfair Poker some time back -- is an example. Nathan tells the story on his blog about selling 5 million play chips for $60 back in ’05.

Clicking on the “PURCHASE PLAY MONEY CHIPS” link in the Stars client carries you to a “Play Money Cashier” page. There you’ll find options to buy 350,000 play chips (for $1.99) on up to 165 million play chips (for $199.99!). Again, no shinola!

Like I say, I brought the topic up during the Home Games on Sunday. Someone asked in response “Can you sell them?” Good question, I thought... it doesn’t appear you can. Not back to Stars, anyhow. (Not that we Yanks are part of any real-money-anything on the site, anyway.)

I guess stepping back this is one of those “nothing to lose” ventures from PokerStars’ perspective. Kind of an interesting experiment, I guess, which recalls other “conversion” strategies with free-to-play games (e.g., on Facebook) that have ended up becoming significant revenue-makers.

Meanwhile, I am noticing these days some 1 million play-chip buy-in SNGs -- something I don’t remember there being back in the day -- for which I guess one really should have 100-plus million play chips in the ol’ play money account to join.

You know, if one is practicing sound play bankroll management.

Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games Return for Season 5

Just a quick post tonight to announce that I’m planning to fire back up the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games this Sunday, October 6 on PokerStars.

The HBPHGs have been on a hiatus of sorts over the last three months. For those who’ve played in them before, you know that the PokerStars Home Games are set up on a quarterly system, meaning each “season” lasts for three months. We’ve had four such seasons thus far, with the season champions being thejim2020 (Season 1), Kevmath (Season 2), RiVeRrAtaCe (Season 3), and linglemungo (Season 4).

When July rolled around and it was time to start a new season, I was in Las Vegas for the last few weeks of the WSOP. Had a few trips since then, too, and so I ended up deciding it better just to wait until October than to have a half-season.

Each of the last four seasons I’ve awarded prizes to the top three finishers, usually poker books, but sometimes DVDs as well. I’ll do so again this time, too. There will be three items to choose from, from which the top finisher in the league standings gets first choice, then the runner-up gets a pick, then the third item goes to the third-place finisher.

The games are all free -- that is, they only cost play money chips to play. If you aren’t a member of the HBPHGs, the ClubID is 530631 and the Invitation code is noshinola.

Right now I’m almost at the upper maximum for members. I’ve written PokerStars and unfortunately they won’t raise the maximum for me because we’re just a play money group.

However, if you try to join and receive a message saying the club is full, just send me a tweet @hardboiledpoker and I’ll make a space for you (there are members whom I know aren’t currently playing).

Here’s the schedule for Sunday:

Event No. 1, 20:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Event No. 2, 21:00 ET -- 8-game

The tourneys usually both will wind up by around 22:00 ET (the earlier tourney has 5-minute levels and the later one 3-minute levels).

I would be choosing Courchevel or 5-card Omaha, if they were listed among the Home Game tourneys. Still, there’s a lot to choose from and rest assured there will be a Badugi event among other exotic variants along the way. All seasons so far have lasted 20 tourneys, and I expect we’ll probably have the same number for Season 5.

The games are fun -- and competitive -- so come on out and join us!

2013 WSOP, Day 28: The Old Timers’ Game

I said yesterday how I was hoping to gather some color to report, having found myself with a day off after a week’s worth of 15-hour days reporting from the World Series of Poker.

Part of the plan also was to catch up on sleep, as I’d probably been averaging around 3-4 hours most nights during that first week. Unfortunately after finally hitting the sack around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, the hotel phone was ringing promptly at 8 a.m. with some applesauce about the bill going forward not being paid.

“No, this room isn’t paid for,” insisted the person the other end, soon forcing me into full consciousness. Soon I was dressed and talking in person with my accuser, and while eventually all was settled (they were mistaken) I’d lost my chance to sleep away the morning.

Ended up doing some work in the room, then by early afternoon had enough energy to do some errands, including on a whim deciding to visit the Palms just to see what the poker room looked like now that they’ve moved it to a new location.

The room remains quite modest with only a few tables, although the ambience is better than it was previously. Instead of a closed in, smallish space, it now sits on the edge of the sportsbook which now features an amazing wrap-around screen that extends nearly 180 degrees left to right, positioned high on the wall overlooking the bettors (see above). Rather than being a series of connected screens, it’s one continuous one with all the games, races, and wagering opportunities on display.

It being the early afternoon, there were just a couple of $2-$4 low limit tables going, and I decided to sit down for a short while. The new screen was the initial topic of conversation, with a dealer opining that it would be fun to show the Super Bowl on it with a long, continuous, wide shot of the entire field end-to-end. I agreed it would be an interesting way to see a game.

The old timers were at the table, and I soon realized I was about to pick up some of that color I was looking for. Most played there frequently, perhaps every day, with many referring to each other and the dealers by their first names. One gregarious fellow kept starting conversations with people by asking them how old they were, which brought the whole idea of aging to the foreground as a kind of theme.

He’d bet and raise a lot, too, regardless of his hand, and the first couple of times I’d three-bet him he referred to me as “big shot” as he called my reraise. It was only after I saw him betting into a fellow on the river who’d already tabled his better hand that I realized he’d entered into the still-functioning-but-no-longer-comprehending stage of drunkenness.

At one point he was quizzing the fellow to my left about his age. “What year were you born?” he asked. “1953,” came the reply. “What month were you born in?” “September... I’ll be 60 in a couple of months.”

The interviewer was interrupted as he had to be reminded the action was on him. He folded, then continued. “September you say?! What day?” “September 21st,” was the answer.

“Ah, okay okay.” He leaned back, suddenly looking tired. “I ask because my father was born in September, too... September 8, 1932.” He’d pronounced the year like it had much more significance than anyone realized, enunciating carefully so as not to slur. Nine.. teen.. thirty... TWO!

It was evolving into the most trivial conversation ever had until my neighbor said something about wanting 20 more years to live. At that the drunken questioner perked up.

“Why?” he asked. There was a pause suggesting my neighbor hadn’t expected the question. “Twenty more years to play poker,” he said, the inflection of his voice making it sound like he was shrugging even if he weren’t.

“Ah well that’s all right then,” was the verbalized judgment, although the questioner didn’t sound too convinced. He’d already established that he, too, was 60, and he added something that sounded like he thought that was enough life to live, although I didn’t quite catch what he’d said precisely.

It wasn’t a competitive game, and without even picking up too many hands I managed to win a dozen big bets’ worth without much trouble. One of the ladies at the other end of the table said something like “I have a rule... no set, no bet,” indicating the general passivity of all. There were various promotions -- “aces cracked,” “high hand,” etc. -- occupying everyone’s attentions at least as much as the hands being played. One Asian woman made a straight flush and got a bonus for that, putting a lasting smile on her face and faint ones on the others, too.

At another point I found myself sitting between two other elderly Asian men. The one on my left was asking the one on my right the name of a female dealer sitting at another table. He knew her, but couldn’t remember her name. The fellow on my right was the oldest of the bunch, and the most feeble, too, and had difficulty understanding what exactly he was being asked.

Finally he figured out what the question was, and eventually the pair got a floorperson to supply the missing name. A moment later, the older man on my right leaned forward to ask a question of his own.

“What... do you wanna f*ck with her?”

The one on my left acted like he didn’t hear the question. As did I, although if anyone were watching me my widened eyes might’ve given away that I had.

I thought about the dealers a little, all of whom were fine at managing the game and amiable custodians of the little social club of retirees. They knew several of these players, too, and I suppose some of these people have become somewhat significant supporting cast in their lives as well.

On the one hand, the game exhibited a desperate seeming pointlessness that’s hard to ignore, the kind of thing that made the idea of “twenty more years to play poker” a decidedly less than attractive fate to consider. But there’s also something meaningful going on, too, in the time these people share together sitting around a table hoping to pick up aces and lose with them.

In any event, was interesting to sit in on the old timers’ game for a short while. I’d like to play more serious poker while I’m here, especially after having had some success early in the trip, but as the old guys kind of helped point out, time is limited.

I left after an hour, stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items, then headed back to the home-away-from-home with an intention to do more work. But I was too tired to do much of anything. Got a decent night’s sleep this time, and am extra energized as Vera Valmore arrives for her visit today.

I’d like to take her over to Red Rock Canyon to see what I got to see last summer when F-Train and I visited there. But the temps appear unfavorable for hiking, so we may just drive through and enjoy the sights from within the comfort of an air-conditioned automobile. We might try to got to Penn & Teller tonight, too, one of those shows we’ve thought about seeing every summer but never have.

Whatever we do, I’ll be greatly valuing our time we get to spend together. ’Cos that’s where the meaning comes from in this life, I think -- the getting together -- as we each otherwise individually play our hands.

2013 WSOP, Day 21: Min Cash, Max Fun

It was a day of poker playing yesterday for your humble scribbler, not necessarily what I’d expected to do during my one-day respite before joining the PokerNews live reporting team later today. But after arriving Monday night, Rich told me that several guys happened to be off yesterday and were planning a trip downtown to play in a cheap tourney at the Golden Nugget, and I snap-called, glad to have the excuse both to play as well as to hang out with some of the fellas.

Six of us made the trip -- Rich, Chad, Josh, the two Matts (Whitefield and Yorky Pud), and myself. Was a $125 buy-in no-limit hold’em tourney, part of the Golden Nugget’s month-long Grand Poker Series 2013 that features a ton of different games, including mixed games, a Chinese poker event, a Badugi/BadAcey/BadDeucey event, and other off-the-beaten-path fare.

Someone suggested a last longer between us at $20 per, and I agreed while insisting I was dead money among the group. I hadn’t played a live tourney in many months, while all of these guys play regularly. Hell, one of them had even won a WSOP bracelet this summer. (No shinola.)

I had played at the Golden Nugget once before, back in 2009 in a charity tourney hosted by Howard and Suzie Lederer that also involved their old “World Series of BBQ.” (Talk about a blast from the past.) That was the tournament in which I found myself in the embarrassing situation of having Dan Harrington come to my table while I sat with an “M” of 2.

We joked at one point about the sign advertising the Grand series and the non-specific “Big Chip Stacks” item listed as one of the tourneys’ selling points. The list also included “Great Structures,” and even though we were having some fun inserting those phrases into various absurd declarations (“Me? I only play events with Big Chip Stacks”), the tourney did in fact have a lot of play. Levels were 40 minutes, and with the $10 bonus buy -- “optional,” though everyone took it -- we started with 12,000 chips and blinds of 25/50.

After not playing for so long, I enjoyed getting reacquainted with the rhythms of tourney play. Was sort of like getting back in front of a class to teach after taking off for the summer. I knew what to do, but at the very start there was that tiny bit of anxiousness about it all that often characterizes such situations.

I settled in quickly, though, and enjoyed having Josh at my table a couple of seats to my left to chat with here and there. I chipped up a bit during the first three levels to get over 15,000 by the first two-hour break. Then in the fifth level I earned a boost when I came along from the button with a few others following a middle-position player’s raise after being dealt . The flop came , giving me Broadway and a nut-flush draw to boot. The original raiser -- an aggressive player against whom I’d already won a couple of small pots -- continued with a bet and only I called, then I called another bet from him after an offsuit four fell on the turn.

The river brought another king to pair the board, and my opponent shoved for 6,700 (about two-thirds the pot, I think). I thought a while before calling, he showed , and I had just about doubled my starting stack.

I continued to win a few small pots while mostly sitting tight, the next highlight coming in a hand in which I opened with from late position and got a caller from the blinds from another aggressive, more skillful, hoodie-wearing player. Three overcards and two hearts came on the flop, which we both checked, then I turned my flush and ultimately got two streets’ worth of value from him and a surprised look when he saw my hand at showdown.

Meanwhile Rich busted early, re-entered, then busted again before heading off to play cash. Chad went out as well, with the two Matts also hitting the rail to leave just myself and Josh. I mostly just treaded water during the latter part of the afternoon, making it to dinner break with just over 27,000 which at the time was only around 16 big blinds. Out of the 166 entries about 55 other players made it that far, too, with the top 18 scheduled to get paid.

Josh was still in, too, with an above average stack, and the two of us met up with others for a dinner at the Hash House a Go Go located across the street at the Plaza. I had a reasonably sized (and tasty) portabello mushroom sandwich and fries, watching in wonder at the other mountainous dishes around the table including multiple orders of Andy’s Sage Fried Chicken and Bacon Waffle Tower. The meal resembled the tourney, with me short-stacked relative to others’ intimidating “towers.”

After dinner I managed to add chips without putting myself at risk, and with 30 players or so left was sitting at around 40,000 (by then only 12-14 BBs or so). Across the room the Spurs-Heat game was on and it was just about the time Ray Allen hit that game-tying three that I was four-bet jamming, watching the original raiser tank and then fold, then getting a call from the reraiser.

We both had ace-king and would chop the pot, kind of mirroring the game being tied and heading to overtime, and afterwards the original raiser noted he’d folded a pair and would have won the hand. Not long after we were down to about 25 players when I was all in again with A-K and this time was up against A-9. The board ran out a weird 4-4-4-K-K, and suddenly I was up over 80,000 and well out of the danger zone with an average stack.

Somewhere in there a highly unfortunate situation arose for one of my opponents. I was in the big blind, and the player to my left open-shoved all in from UTG for about 17,000. It folded around to an elderly gentleman in Seat 5 (the cutoff) with about 12,000 or so, and he declared he was calling.

He pushed his small stack of chips forward, his small, circular metal card protector sitting on top. It appeared he might have set his cards forward slightly, too, and unfortunately the dealer reached out and slid them into the muck. The player quickly noted what had happened, but it was already too late. The floor was called, and after some discussion it was determined the man’s hand was dead.

That inspired a torrent of what I imagine to be uncharacteristic language from the senior citizen before he departed, then lots of predictable table talk afterwards especially once the chagrined dealer had left. A few noted they’d seen such occur involving players in the 1 or 10 seats before, but never the 5. All agreed it was a crummy way to bust, but several also pointed out that if he’d used the card protector to protect his cards rather than as a chip stack ornament, it wouldn’t have happened.

A total of 23 of us made the next break. I had 82,300 while Josh had just taken a hit to fall to around 77,000. Then he had the bad fortune of running A-K into A-A following an ace-high flop to bust in 22nd, earning me the last longer in a fashion not unlike what Josh had endured in the Casino Employee’s Event when he’d finished 12th and Chad won.

It took a while, but the super-shorties finally ran out of chips and we hit the money around 10 p.m. I had about 15 BBs then, but lost a chunk after doubling up a short-stacked player. He’d pushed with and I called from the big blind with pocket fives, and the flop came 8-2-2. Another player said he’d folded eight-deuce.

I endured a bit longer, then down to around 8 BBs I watched the table fold to a player in the small blind who limped, the same hoodie-wearing one from my first table, in fact. I then jammed from the big blind with A-J, he instacalled, flipping over A-K, and five cards later I was out in 16th for a $258 min-cash, my profit padded a little more by the hundy I’d won for the last longer.

I came away pleased and with a renewed appreciation for those who do this stuff more than just once in a while. I’d made a few small mistakes, and of course left with the inevitable second thoughts about my exit hand. But I was glad to have played reasonably well and most of all to have kept focused throughout, which is a lot easier said than done.

I cabbed it back to the home-away-from-home, the others having all long gone. I thought about how tourneys gradually evolve into these elaborate, fascinating puzzles to solve, with players’ approaches toward the task perhaps overlapping in several ways, but all ultimately being unique.

I probably only had two or three genuinely difficult decisions to make during the entire day and night. In the end, I was only all in and at risk those couple of times with Big Slick on the money bubble prior to my final hand. Of course, my ability to avoid too many crises along the way spoke more to my willingness to fold and patiently await less troubling situations than anything else.

Like a decent percentage of the field yesterday -- perhaps a third or so -- I have gray hair. And I’ll admit I play like gray-haired guys play a lot of the time. Ultimately it didn’t add up to a winning strategy, although I’d like to think I’d have been able to adapt had I gotten any further along.

Best of all, though, was I had a lot of fun playing a great game. Had been awhile.

Now I get to watch others try to figure out these things. I’ll be on the second day of Event No. 32, the $5,000 NLHE 6-max. with lots of big names among the 128 returning. Check over on the PN live blog today to read how the pros do it.

tim00 Triumphs, Earns Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games Player of the Season (Season 3)

Yesterday the final events of Season 3 of the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games played out, and when the dust settled it was tim00 managing to hold off a late rush to keep the top spot in the Season 3 standings. By winning tim00 joins thejim2020 and Kevmath as HBP Season winners.

As with the first two seasons of the HBP Home Games, there were 20 events total in Season 3, and tim00 collected the most points by winning three events, taking second a couple of times, and finishing third twice as well.

I say he withstood a “late rush”... in fact, I somehow managed to win the last event (the 8-game) to creep up close to Tim in the standings, but he took second in that final tournament and thus earned a few more points in Event No. 20 to maintain the lead. (I know my challenging for the title sounds like an April Fools’ Day gag, but it’s all true!)

FBees89 finished third in the final event last night and also ended up third in the Season 3 standings thanks to four cashes and two event wins. And SmBoatDrinks ended up in the fourth spot after winning one event and finishing runner-up three other times. Like tim00, those two are due to receive prizes for their Season 3 finishes.

Meanwhile, psx120 just missed out on the prizes this time with a fifth-place finish in Season 3, although I expect he’s not feeling too badly. Just take a look at his avatar!

Michigan indeed surprised many by making the Final Four this weekend, the first time the Wolverines have made it that far since 1993. I’ve actually been spending some time over the last couple of weeks thinking about that 1993 finale to the NCAA season in which my Tar Heels won it all following a dramatic championship game with the “Fab Five.” Gonna be posting something over on Ocelot Sports this Friday (the 20th anniversary of that game), so stay tuned.

There were more than 60 entrants in my pool this year, and out of all of those brackets only one had Michigan in the Final Four. Just two had Syracuse making it that far, while unsurprisingly no one picked ninth-seeded Wichita State to make it.

Meanwhile, about two-thirds of us picked Louisville to win their region, and like just about all of the others who did that was my only correct Final Four pick, too. I was delighted to see the Cardinals crush Duke yesterday, although like everyone else I was fairly horrified by the bizarre and gruesome Kevin Ware injury. I was mentioning last week how basketball has become a much more physical game than it was even just a couple of decades ago, but Ware’s fall was kind of unrelated to that trend, just a flukey, unfortunate occurrence.

No longer in the running pool-wise and with no dog in the fight anymore, I suppose I’ll hop on the Wichita State Shockers bandwagon going forward, although I kind of doubt anyone left can match Louisville. I’ll be distracted this weekend, though, as the current plan is for me to be up at Foxwoods helping cover the next WSOP Circuit Main Event. (More on that to come.)

In fact, I’ll be busy the next couple of weekends, so I’ll probably delay starting Season 4 of the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games until the middle of the month, from which point the season will run through the end of June. Am thinking I’ll strike the Sunday afternoon events as they aren’t really attracting many players. And it seems like the 20:00 ET and 21:00 ET events on Sunday nights work fairly well for most of the regulars, so I’ll probably keep with that same schedule going forward.

Below are the final standings for Season 3. Thanks to everyone for playing! And as I have said before, if anyone has any suggestions for Season 4 -- or prizes to donate -- let me know.

Season 3 Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games Update (Season Ends Sunday)

I wanted to give a quick update today on the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games Season 3 series that will be coming to an end this Sunday, March 31st.

Like the first two HBP HG series, this third one is featuring 20 tournaments total, with the last three events playing out Sunday (3/31) as follows:

Event 18: 16:00 ET -- Triple Stud

Event 19: 20:00 ET -- No-Limit Hold’em

Event 20: 21:00 ET -- 8-Game

All of my tournaments feature buy-ins of 530 play money chips. All also feature starting stacks of 3,000 chips, with the 16:00 and 21:00 tourneys using three-minute levels and the 20:00 one having levels lasting five minutes each. Most tourneys tend to last a little over an hour, with that 20:00 one sometimes extending a little longer.

I had originally only had tournaments on Sunday evenings, which usually works out well for me and also seems to suit the schedules of a lot of my American buddies who have been playing. However, those events don’t really work for the Europeans, and I know there are a few who’d like to play occasionally. Thus did I add the Sunday afternoon events, although the turnouts for those have been on the small side so I might not continue that going forward.

So far tournaments have had as many as 16 players participating, with the usual field size being around a dozen. While there are play money prizes for top finishers, what everyone is really playing for are points for the season standings. Those are awarded to the top third of the field for each event (e.g., for a 12-player tourney, the top four get points).

Here’s a look at the Season 3 leader board through 17 events:

RiVeRrAtAcE has won three events so far, thus helping him secure first position with three tourneys left to go. Somehow I’ve lucked into second place in these standings, although when it comes to awarding prizes to the top three finishers, I’m not part of that equation. Thus if the season were to end today, SmBoatDrinks and Psx120 would be eligible for prizes with FBees89 being the Season 3 bubble boy.

Points are calculated according to the number of entrants, and for most events the winner has picked up more than four points. That means RiVeRrAtAcE does not have Season 3 locked up just yet, as a couple of good finishes by those in the chase pack can push them ahead of him in the standings.

This time I have two books and one DVD I plan to give as prizes. One book is Reading Poker Tells by Zach Elwood, which I reviewed for Betfair Poker last year. Another is a copy of Paul “Dr. Pauly” McGuire’s Lost Vegas, which I also reviewed for Betfair Poker when it first came out in 2010. Finally I have DVD copies of Rounders, one of which is a regular DVD and the other Blu-Ray; whoever wins the DVD will get to choose among the formats (i.e., I’m only giving away one of the two DVDs this time).

The first-place finisher will get to choose between three prizes -- either of the two books or a Rounders DVD (in whichever format the winner prefers). Then the second-place finisher gets to choose between whatever two prizes are left, and the third-place finisher gets the last item. I’ll be mailing the prizes.

I will probably start a Season 4 in April, which again will last for three months through the end of June. Once again I’ll be mixing up the offerings, including a lot of non-hold’em events and perhaps even those new 5-Card Omaha games PokerStars has started to offer if they become options (they haven’t yet).

If you haven’t played and want to join my Home Games club, see the info on the right-hand column for doing so. Right now I only have a few spots left before the club reaches 100 players, which I’ve been told is the maximum PokerStars will allow for these play money-only clubs. But if I reach 100, I’ll start removing some players who haven’t been participating so as to open up spots.

Meanwhile, let me ask those who have been playing to send along any suggestions regarding times, types of games, or anything else regarding the HBP HGs.

Having Fun with the Home Games

Spent part of yesterday idly watching PokerStars’ big 7th anniversary Sunday Million tournament play out while also noting the mix of tweets from participating players and angst-ridden Americans unable to play. A total of 49,287 entered the event, thus creating a prize pool of $9,857,400 (well over the special $7 million guarantee).

Later on came the other “Sunday majors,” the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games, that is. Last night we had a H.O.S.E. event (won by Bruckner_7th) and a Razz one (won by SmBoatDrinks). I somehow managed to luckbox my way into winning the Badugi tournament the week before.

I’m noticing this morning that the results of last night’s tourneys might not have been recorded in our Season 3 standings, which I’ll look into today. (EDIT [added 3/7/13]: The problem -- whatever it was -- has been resolved and the standings are now up-to-date.)

So far we’ve played eight events in Season 3, and I think I’ll actually schedule three events on each of the next four Sundays. One will be at 16:00 ET on Sunday afternoons, and the other two at 20:00 ET and 21:00 ET (as usual). I’m hoping perhaps with those earlier events to enable some of my European buddies to play a few tourneys. Adding the extra tourneys will also help us get to a total of 20 events before Season 3 concludes at the end of March.

As was the case with Season 1 and Season 2, the top three finishers in the season’s standings will win prizes. Again one of the prizes will be a copy of Zach Elwood’s Reading Poker Tells, a very helpful book regarding tells in live poker that I reviewed for Betfair Poker here. I also have picked up a Rounders DVD that I’ll throw in as a prize, too, if perhaps someone doesn’t have it already.

I’ve yet to settle on what the third prize will be this time. If anyone has books or DVDs they’d like to donate, let me know. Meanwhile, these remaining events in Season 3 will be covering a variety of games (as usual). For those who have been playing, feel free to suggest games/variants in the comments below.

Sure, it ain’t quite playing for millions of dollars. But I know I’ve enjoyed the Home Games a lot, and I think they’ve provided a lot of fun for others, too.

Merge Move and Super Stretchy Screaming Monkeys

Had a great Christmas day watching the NBA marathon of games, eating off and on all day, exchanging more gifts, and hanging out with family. I especially enjoyed goofing around with my three-year-old nephew. We split time racing toy cars and tossing around Amazing Super Stretchy Screaming Monkeys that release hilarious-sounding howls when they land.

Around dinner time yesterday I noticed I’d received an email from Merge Gaming regarding my request to transfer the balance from my Hero Poker account over to Carbon Poker. I’d made the request five days ago, shortly after Hero went dark and instructed its players they’d have to choose from one of three different Merge skins as a destination for their funds.

The email was entirely generic (addressed to “Valued player”). It was also a little ambiguous (and grammatically suspect) when it stated that the “Accounting Department will credit the funds to your account at anytime [sic].



” I logged in over at Carbon to find no funds had been transferred as yet, but a little scouting around on relevant forum threads suggested that if I waited a few hours the money would soon appear. Sure enough, this morning I see my balance has indeed been shipped over to Carbon, and thus I’m able once more to play.

Traffic on Merge remains meager. In fact according to the current numbers over at PokerScout, Merge has dropped well behind both Revolution Gaming (where Lock Poker now highlights a list of about 70 skins) and Bodog among other online poker choices still available to U.S. players. Over the last few months (when playing via Hero), almost anything other than no-limit hold’em has been pretty much a wasteland, with only one or two tables going here and there for my preferred stakes/games, if that.

The forum threads suggest that players are still successfully cashing out from Carbon (with a few weeks’ wait), although as always the situation appears highly tenuous. Of course, that won’t be a concern for me unless I somehow manage to run up my modest roll.

A more likely future for me on Merge will be a few more months of low-limit, break-even nickel-and-diming, probably destined to end with some sort of mildly frustrating, faint echo of Black Friday when Carbon and/or the network as a whole suddenly becomes unavailable.

In other words, I’ll just be passing a few chips back and forth with a small group of others. Pretty much the equivalent of tossing the amazing super stretchy monkeys with my nephew, really. Only I have to make my own screaming sounds.

Kevmath Adds Up Points to Become Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games Player of the Season (Season 2)

Was a fun Sunday, filled with football and poker.

The football went well, as I managed to have my best week of the year with my picks, going 14-2 to gain three full games on the leaders. Still leaves me four out with just one week to go, but I’m close enough to keep caring about how things turn out. Was most proud to see my two “hero picks” both come through yesterday (Minnesota and Baltimore). Also took Seattle in the late game, and so enjoyed watching their dominating romp over the 49ers.

Meanwhile, the last two events of Season 2 of the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games series on PokerStars played out last night. The first one, Event No. 19, was a “deep-stacked” no-limit hold’em event that Mickey won and I took second. I joked with Mickey once we reached heads-up, asking him if we could just split the play money and stop there (as we saw happen earlier in the week at Sands Bethlehem).

Mickey managed to win the second event last night as well, Event No. 20, a H.O.R.S.E. one. Despite that late surge, he didn’t quite crack the top three in the Season 2 standings to win a book.

In the end, Kevmath ended up taking the top spot, winning two of the 20 events along the way while finishing in the top three seven times. (Points were earned by finishing in the top third of a given event, which generally meant making the top 3-5 as the fields ranged from 10-15 players.)

Nasal_Drip took runner-up in Season 2, having won three events out of the 20, tying with Mickey for the most wins of anyone in Season 2. And Season 1 winner thejim2020 finished third, having won a couple of the tournaments this time around, too. (Click the pic to enlarge and see the full standings.)

I’ll be sending each of those three books for their finishes. (See this post for details.) ’Tis the season, after all. Thanks again to Mike Fasso and Zach Elwood for donating books for me to award as prizes. And thanks as well to everyone for playing in the HBP Home Games. Big fun all around.

Meanwhile, we’ll run a Season 3 starting in January. I’ll probably stick to a similar schedule (Sunday nights), which I know makes it hard for our European friends to play but I suppose I’m mainly trying to offer something for us poor Yanks to do while we wait for online poker to return for us. By the way, I mentioned on Friday how I’m trying to move my funds from the now-dormant Hero Poker over to Carbon, but I still await a response to my request. Have a feeling it’s going to take a while.

Finally, if anyone has any poker and/or gambling books (or DVDs or anything else) that might work as prizes and you’re willing to donate them, let me know. Anyone wanting to join up, the info for doing so is over in the right-hand sidebar.

A Hero-ic Effort (Hero Poker Steps Aside)

Yesterday evening I was relaxing at home with Vera, watching basketball while she wrapped presents. I say relaxing, although by night’s end I was making it difficult for myself to relax.

It was getting late when I had a cup of hot tea, and too eagerly drinking from it I managed to burn my tongue well enough that I can still taste a little tingle this morning.

Then later when getting in bed I was trying to pull the covers up over me and when my hand slipped I basically punched myself right above my left eye. It was a good, solid smack, and pretty comical, really. Lucky I didn’t give myself a black eye.

But I survived all of that to have a restful night of sleep. Then this morning I goofed around a little playing on Hero Poker, the usual fixed limit hold’em games (0.25/0.50 & 0.50/1). Made a couple of dumb plays on one table that put me in a hole early, but climbed back out of it to break even for the session.

By dumb plays I’m referring to the usual LHE mistakes -- cold-calling raises, chasing draws without proper odds, overplaying likely second-best hands, etc. Kind of reminded me of my slapsticky misadventures from the night before a little, and how a lot of times at the poker table our losses can usually be traced back to our own errors or lapses. It’s not always as dramatic or obvious as punching yourself in the face, but it often doesn’t require a lot of study to discover it probably wasn’t so much the cards as how you played them that affected your success or failure.

I checked my modest Hero balance -- still right around a hundy, where it’s essentially been for months as I piddle around in the micros -- and went to log off, but before doing so noticed an “alert” informing me that it sounds like I may not be playing on Hero much any longer.

“Dear Players,” read the alert. “Hero Poker will be transferring all players tonight to a new client on the Merge network.” There followed a promise that our funds were “completely secure” and we'll be getting info later about the new client.

The note is from David Jung, the CEO of Hero who has been especially communicative with players over on a dedicated “player relations” thread on Two Plus Two. I’ve actually been in touch with David personally a few times as well, and have appreciated being able to talk to him about various aspects of the site.

I knew from checking in on that thread that Hero might well be shutting down here soon, and another look over there this morning shows Dave providing further details regarding what is happening tonight. It sounds like Hero and the Merge network (of which Hero has been a part) have reached an impasse and that Hero has made a decision to step aside.

Dave’s note reflects the same sort of professionalism and honesty he’s demonstrated throughout the year-and-a-half I’ve been playing on Hero and have been either talking to him or reading his messages in the thread.

My sense from the outside is that Hero did the best they could in what was essentially an impossible environment in which to operate, and now they’re following a course that makes sense for them and hopefully provides for the Hero players adequately, too. That is to say, while they probably made some mistakes here and there, they weren’t punching themselves in the face (so to speak) like some online sites have done in the past.

I’m hoping whatever new client my balance gets forwarded to is functional and allows me to continue my low-limit piddling, although I’m not too optimistic. For more details about Hero’s decision to close (and some further context), Pokerfuse has just posted an article reporting about it.

I’m playing with money won on a freeroll, and since I haven’t been able to run it up significantly I’m not overly concerned about cashing out. Maybe such a relaxed attitude is just setting myself up to get burned or smacked again, but if so it’ll be my own fault.

Fourth-and-29

Over the weekend I played a short session of fixed limit hold’em over on Hero Poker. I’m basically down to just a half-hour here and there, still goofing around with the small roll I won in a freeroll a good while back (just after Black Friday, actually).

A lot of times I’ll just jump in a one- or two-dollar SNG to scratch that itch. Or, as I did on Sunday, just play a little bit of cash for quarters. Or nickels and dimes, even.

I’d won a few bucks and was just about to sign off in this session when I was dealt pocket aces and decided to stick for one more hand. Raised and had a couple of callers, with one check-calling my bet after the flop came jack-high. The turn was a king and my opponent led with a bet, and when I raised he just called. The river brought an ace, giving me a set, my opponent check-called my bet, and I won the pot.

He showed his hand after -- K-J. He’d gotten lucky on the turn, making two pair. But I’d gotten even luckier on the river to make the winning hand.

I signed off, then spent the rest of Sunday watching NFL games while sweating my picks. Had one of those “hero picks” again late in the afternoon in which I’d taken San Diego to beat Baltimore. As I was explaining last week, a “hero pick” is one in which I’ve gone against the entire pool and taken a team no one else has (or almost no one), meaning I’m setting myself up for a two-game swing by either gaining a game on everyone or losing a game to the field. (I’d also consider a “hero pick” one which has a reasonable chance of actually winning; i.e., not just picking a hopeless underdog for the sake of going against the grain.)

Last week I was griping about another “hero pick” I’d previously made in which defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory (the Panthers game). Well, if you follow the NFL, you know how San Diego managed to do something very similar yesterday. Up by 10 with five minutes to go, they’d ultimately allow Baltimore to tie the game, giving up a late first down to the Ravens on an incredible fourth-and-29 play in order to make it happen. The Ravens then managed to convert a few more long third downs in OT on their way to kicking a winning field goal.

When that game ended I thought back to the Carolina game as well as to a couple of other instances this year where my “hero picks” had been improbably thwarted by last-second heroics performed by the teams I’d picked against. As in poker, we remember the losses so much more vividly than we do the wins.

The fact is, last year I won the pool after benefiting repeatedly from hitting games thanks to unlikely last-second heroics. It takes a little effort to remember them, but I do recall a couple of late season examples.

There was one early November game in which I’d taken Baltimore to beat Pittsburgh and the Ravens drove 92 yards at the end for a game-winning score to win 23-20. And I took the Giants to beat the Cowboys in that game near season’s end in which New York had not one but two TD drives in the last four minutes to win 37-34 (remember that one?).

In both cases, a lot of the pool had gone the other way with those picks, thus earning me a two-game swing. And in both I’d gotten very lucky -- kind of like that ace on the river -- to come from behind and prevail.

But like I say, it somehow takes extra effort to remember those wins. Meanwhile, the “hero picks” that almost get there but then crazily don’t remain firmly in mind. Ridiculously, I feel like I’ve been cheated out of something I “deserved,” not unlike what happens to some of us after suffering a bad beat in poker.

Serious sports bettors -- like good poker players -- simply have to grow accustomed to that feeling of getting jobbed. I’ve been reading my buddy Dr. Pauly’s new sports betting blog, Ocelot Sports, where it’s obvious that experience of having had a sure win stolen away happens practically every night.

Thankfully I’m not a serious sports bettor, just like I’m essentially a recreational poker player. The stakes aren’t ever that high for me.

Still hurts, though, to watch a team I’m pulling against gain 30 on a must-have fourth-and-29. Talk about a one-outer.

HBP Home Games Season 2 Continues, Books for Top Three

Them football picks went well yesterday. Was 3-for-3, as I did end up going with the Skins in that toss-up versus Dallas.

A tougher slate of games coming up Sunday, though, with nine of the 12 games currently sporting spreads of three points or less. Then Monday night my poor, pitiful Panthers are playing the equally execrable Eagles in what has to be one of the worst MNF match-ups in recent memory. Not to mention another hard game to pick.

Speaking of looking ahead to Sunday, I wanted to report that Season 2 of the Hard-Boiled Poker Home Games at PokerStars is in full swing, with two more tourneys scheduled for Sunday night. This week will be Event Nos. 13 and 14, a six-handed pot-limit Omaha tournament (at 20:00 ET) followed by a H.O.R.S.E. tourney (at 21:00).

As was the case with Season 1, there will be 20 tourneys altogether this season, with everything wrapping up by the end of December. The top three finishers in the league standings will win books which I will be shipping to them. I have three ready to go for prizes. What I thought I’d do is let the first-place finisher pick one, then the second-place finisher select from the other two, with the third-place finisher getting the remaining one.

One of the books is the great Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling (2006) written by David G. Schwartz who heads the Center for Gaming Research over at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. It’s a nice hardback copy donated to the cause by our friend and occasional HBP HG player Mike Fasso.

Another is Zach Elwood’s Reading Poker Tells which the author himself donated as a prize. I reviewed Elwood’s book for Betfair Poker a while back, and many others have chimed in on the web and on Twitter regarding how useful the book is for identifying and understanding tells at the table.

Finally, I have a copy of Byron Jacobs’s 2011 strategy book Think Like a Poker Pro to give as a prize. I have to admit that I haven’t read all of it, but what I’ve read seems good and the book did get some praise here and there on the forums, in particular for its limit hold’em advice. It comes with a three-hour video CD, too.

(By the way, if anyone out there would like to donate poker and/or gambling books for me to give as prizes in future seasons of the HBP HG, let me know.)

Anyhow, like I say those finishing in the top three will get to choose which titles they’d like according to their order of finish. Through 12 events, linglemungo is leading the points race with Kevmath second, **GMONEY*722 third, and Season 1 winner thejim2020 currently in fourth.

If you haven’t been playing tourneys in Season 2, there’s still time to collect enough points to move up the leaderboard. See the right-hand column for info about upcoming HBP HG tourneys as well as the club ID/invite code to join my PokerStars Home Game.