Live, Laugh, Love: The Life of Amir Vahedi

Woke up yesterday to a collection of messages coming over Twitter from folks sharing the sad news that the amiable, cigar-chomping poker pro Amir Vahedi had died. There are discrepancies online regarding Vahedi’s exact birth date; in any event, his death, stemming from complications related to diabetes, comes much too soon.

Some of those sending the messages knew Vahedi personally. All spoke well of the Iranian pro most of us probably became aware of thanks to his final table finish at the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event (the year Moneymaker won it). All told, Vahedi earned over $3 million in tourney winnings, including one WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event, also in 2003.

As was the case with the untimely passing of Hans “Tuna” Lund a couple of months ago -- another well-liked pro who left us too early (at age 59) -- many were quick to share stories and good words regarding Vahedi.

John Juanda referred to Vahedi as “one of the great personalities & funniest guys in poker.” Matt Savage noted how his “laugh will always be missed.” Over on the Bluff site, Kenna James commented on Lance Bradley’s article reporting the news, noting how Vahedi’s “broad smile and love for people and the game was infectious.”

James also shares an anecdote there about how he and Vahedi had dinner the night after Vahedi finished sixth in the 2003 WSOP ME (in which James finished 38th), and how that was when he’d first heard Vahedi say “You must be willing to die in order to live.”

That will no doubt be the most remembered line Vahedi left us. It has often been quoted over the last few years in the context of the need to play poker fearlessly. Of course, the line has broader application as well, suggesting the need to live one’s life without regret, and to develop the fortitude not to allow adversity to hold one back.

Was easy to think of such broader applications of the line when one considered Vahedi’s own background, having served in the Iranian army during the Iran-Iraq war that began in September 1980. Vahedi would flee Iran as a political refugee as a young man, eventually finding his way to America.

Hearing the news of Vahedi’s death made me think of that documentary No Limit: A Search for the American Dream on the Poker Tournament Trail, filmed by Susan Genard and Tim Rhys during 2004 (though not released until 2006). The movie features interviews with numerous poker pros, including James and Vahedi.

Although the story of the film largely centers around Genard’s efforts to make it on the pro circuit, the many interviews helped provide a decent view of the pro poker circuit as a whole, right there as things were really starting to “boom.” (Some poker people were critical of the film for various reasons, but I liked it.)

As No Limit progresses, the idea of the “American dream” gradually emerges as a theme of sorts, and I remembered Vahedi speaking in the film about the idea, coming at it from a perspective somewhat distinct from most of the others who were interviewed thanks to his experiences as a young man in Iran and his flight to America. (That is a still from No Limit pictured above.) In the film, Vahedi talks about the importance of freedom, emphasizing how valuable it is not to have to “censor your own mind” -- to be able to think and say what one feels and believes.

Again, it is easy to connect what Vahedi is saying there to that idea that “You must be willing to die in order to live,” as well as to connect it to poker and the need to play a “free” game -- without “censoring” oneself with various ideas or fears.

While I covered Vahedi in a few WSOP events, I never got the chance to meet him and enjoy his wit and personality first-hand. Still, I’m glad it happened that his career coincided with the poker “boom” in such a way that those of us who didn’t know him were nonetheless introduced to that “broad smile” and love for the game James mentions via the WSOP telecasts, “High Stakes Poker,” and other shows. And to that important message Vahedi has left us about living one’s life to the fullest.

A Few Fragments

Happy Friday, peoples. I don’t usually post photos of myself on the blog, but since I was feeling a little scattered I thought I’d share this one taken of me last week during a visit to a modern art museum. Look toward the top there -- you can see my hat.

I am still following with interest that PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Day 3 of which begins just a few minutes from now. PokerNews’ live reporting and the PokerStars blog are the places to go to keep up with the happenings down in Nassau. Additionally, for some behind-the-scenes shenanigans I see notre ami Benjo is submitting trip reports from the Bahamas over at Tao of Poker, the first of which appears here.

Looks like somewhere around 280 of the original field of 1,529 are still alive. The top 224 spots pay, so the money bubble should be bursting sometime early this afternoon.

Among those still alive is Victoria Coren who returns to a below average stack today. Sought out Coren’s name in the list of remaining players because I just posted a review of Coren’s excellent memoir For Richer, For Poorer over at Betfair, if you’re interested. Also, am going to be posting an interview with Coren over there soon as well, to which I’ll alert you here once it is ready.

Praz Bansi -- like Coren a Brit -- sits atop the leaderboard at present, followed by the Canadian Marc Etienne McLaughlin. I remember McLaughlin from his deep run at the 2009 WSOP Main Event where he finished 30th.

Other notables near the top of the leaderboard include Nasr El Nasr, Eric Froehlich, Matt Graham, Dario Minieri, Amnon Filippi, and Joe Cassidy. Ton of other familiar names still with significant chips, too. Looks like this here inaugural North American Poker Tour event is getting off to a good start.

While we’re feeling all fragmenty and whatnot, today seems like as good a day as any to say I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 298411

Okay, I’m gonna sign off now to go follow the action. And to try to pull myself together.

If you’re wanting to read more you might check out the comments on my post about Poker Table Ratings from Wednesday, “Keeping Track of Those Keeping Track.” Definitely an interesting debate, I think, over what should be allowed in online poker as far as “data mining” or hand tracking is concerned and what should not.

The North American Poker Tour Debuts (The Return of PokerStars-vs.-PartyPoker?)

Am following with interest the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure play out down in Nassau. Checking in on PokerNews’ live reporting as well as the PokerStars blog for all the latest.

Sounds like over 1,500 runners sat down for the two Day Ones, a new record for the PCA. Of course, yesterday the big news coming out of the Bahamas was how the PCA is in fact the first event of the new North American Poker Tour (NAPT). The tour’s next stop will be in Las Vegas in February at the Venetian, then over to the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut in April. Oh, and it sounds like ESPN might be shooting these NAPT final tables for broadcast, a not-insignificant part of the story.

Our buddy B.J. Nemeth has written some about the new NAPT and its challenge to the World Poker Tour (for which Nemeth does live reporting). Check out Nemeth’s post “NAPT vs. WPT: The Battle for North America” for some of his thoughts on the subject. As Nemeth notes, that next NAPT event at the Venetian will compete with the WPT’s L.A. Poker Classic in February, so we’ll see right away how the first round of this here fight will go.

Nemeth also alludes in his post to the purchase of World Poker Tour Enterprises by PartyGaming from last year, which reminds me that I had wanted to write a little something on that story again here.

I wrote a couple of those “top ten” lists at the end of 2009 -- one compiling the top stories of the year and another listing the top moments of the decade. Such lists are more difficult to pull together than they appear, especially if one is trying to rank the items against one another in some fashion. They’re certainly fun, though, as debate starters. Hell, I immediately felt like challenging my own choices as soon as I made them.

There were at least a couple of stories from 2009 I had considered including in my “Top Poker Stories of 2009” list but ended up leaving out. One was Daniel Negreanu having passed Jamie Gold as the all-time tournament money winner, thanks to the Canadian’s runner-up finish at the 2009 WSOPE Main Event. (Phil Ivey would pass Gold as well following his seventh-place finish at the WSOP.)

Another story I had in the list for a while but then ultimately dropped was the one regarding the purchase of World Poker Tour Enterprises by PartyGaming back in late August 2009. I know several others kept this one in their top ten stories lists for 2009, but I ended up deciding that for the average poker player or fan it hadn’t really registered all that much. I could certainly see, though, how some might view this “insider”-type story as having real some importance down the road.

The news of Party’s purchase of WPTE came not long after we’d heard a story that WPTE had been sold to a group called Gamynia Limited (for $9.075 million). Then Peerless Media Ltd., a division of PartyGaming, came along with a better offer and was able to buy the WPTE for $12.3 million. Steve Lipscomb, WPTE’s President and CEO, noted at the time how he looked forward to PartyGaming being able “to provide a strong vehicle for the WPT brand to continue its global expansion and return to online gaming.”

I did write a little something about the purchase here at the time, noting both the relatively small price tag and how it seemed kind of interesting how the fate of poker no longer seemed all that closely tied to the livelihood of the WPT. Such wouldn’t have been the case just a couple of years before, but in 2009, with the European Poker Tour and a host of other tours thriving all over the globe, the fortunes of the fading WPT just didn’t seem as crucial, big picture-wise.

The reason why the purchase -- which includes Party getting the WPT branding rights -- is viewed by some as a potentially big story is tied to the possibility that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 could get either overturned or pushed out by new legislation to license and regulate online gambling in the United States. It is thought that by purchasing the WPT brand, PartyPoker will have themselves a handy “vehicle” with which to reenter the U.S. market.

Seems like a lot has to happen, though, for that sequence ever to play out in quite that way. Someone who knows a lot more about these things than I do, Bill Rini, offered some thoughts on the story as well back in August. Rini outlines some of the difficulties Party might face when it comes to returning to the U.S., with or without the WPT brand as a kind of protective shield. Not at all a sure thing, it seems, but perhaps we’ll see.

Going back to Nemeth’s post, the new NAPT -- sponsored by PokerStars -- now means we have kind of a “PartyPoker-vs.-PokerStars” thing happening again here in the U.S. in the form of these competing tours. Kind of recalls what our little world of online poker was like when I first started this blog in the spring of 2006, back when Party & Stars were the big dogs in the U.S. (with Full Tilt just starting to yap at their heels). Will be very interesting to watch how it all plays out, and, of course, what effect the UIGEA getting overturned and/or bumped by new legislation could have on the competition.

If you’re interested in more on this “insider”-type stuff, I’d suggest listening to some of our fave industry insiders over on The Poker Beat, who return this afternoon (I believe) with a new episode.

Keeping Track of Those Keeping Track

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? Used to be just the paranoid few who were afflicted by this malady. But hey, it’s 2010. We may not have hover cars, but we do have Google Earth. And a ton of other ways to leave our footprints -- actual, virtual, etc. -- thus helping others track our every move.

There’s been a lot of talk lately in online poker about the various tools available with which one can track one’s opponents. The big blow-up regarding that Brian Hastings-Isildur1 session from 12/8/09 -- the one in which Hastings took around $4.2 million off the mystery man in less than 3,000 hands of $500/$1,000 heads-up pot-limit Omaha -- had to do with Hastings’ having perhaps benefited from some “data mining” of Isildur1 performed by his CardRunners buddy Brian Townsend (see “Digging for Gold (Mining Isildur1)” for more.)

In a subsequent interview with PokerNews, Isildur1 made known his intention to make a “formal complaint” to the site, Full Tilt Poker, perhaps in an effort to recover his losses, although Tony G’s recent blog post in which he states he might stake Isildur1 seems to suggest the player probably won’t be pursuing the matter. (Tony G also implies there Isildur1 is not, in fact, Viktor Blom.)

If such a grievance were to be pursued, it would be because of the apparent violation of Full Tilt Poker’s “Site Terms” that might have occurred when Townsend shared his findings regarding Isildur1 with Hastings. Such an action perhaps fell under the site’s definition of “an unfair advantage,” namely, “a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play.”

Anyhow, it was from following some of the articles and forum threads regarding that incident that I recently became reacquainted with the website Poker Table Ratings. You ever visit this sucker? Wild stuff.

I remember I’d actually visited PTR at least once previously -- for example, to watch a replay of that limit hold’em hand on UltimateBet between Phil Hellmuth and DOUBLEBALLER ($400/$800 stakes) in which Hellmuth was strangely shipped the pot despite having the worst hand. The site had gone online back in the spring of 2008, I believe, but I hadn’t really paid much attention to what exactly it offered. Like I say, the recent debates over Hastings and Isildur1 recently led me back to the site in order to explore it more fully.

I started out doing what I imagine most who visit PTR do when they first open the site -- I looked up myself. Although PTR prevents full access without having signed up for a free account, one can poke around some without registering. Checked out what they had for me from the two sites where I’ve played just about all of my hands here of late, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Whoa. Looks like just about everything.

According to the site’s FAQs, they’ve only been tracking PLO since October 2009, meaning they’d only had the last three months or so of my play in their database, since that’s been my only game. I have Poker Tracker and so I have my own, fairly thorough record of what I’ve been doing over the last three months against which to match what PTR was saying.

The site correctly shows how I’ve been doing okay at Stars, but not so well at Full Tilt Poker (particularly lately). Some of the FTP losses were mitigated by that bonus I’d been working off over the last month, but that isn’t reflected in the stats. In addition to wins/losses, you can check my relative looseness/aggressiveness, my showdown frequency/winrate, and look at specific hands with my biggest pots won or lost. You can even replay some of my recent sessions in their entirety.

Ooh, whether I’m winning or losing, can’t say I like that too much.

There’s also a way to see my top ten “enemies” and “friends” -- that is, the players against whom I’ve won the most and lost the most since October. Checking PTR’s figures against what I have in Poker, it looks like their list is pretty close to mine. The amounts aren’t exactly the same, and there are a couple of guys in my records that don’t show up in theirs, but on the whole the lists match up pretty closely.

PTR goes so far as to offer to sell you hand histories, too. For example, if I wanted to, I could buy 5 million hands of PLO played on PokerStars, 0.10/0.25 blinds, 3-6 players for $204.75. Pretty sure doing so would mean gaining “an unfair advantage,” wouldn’t you say?

I emailed PTR to ask about blocking my own stats from searches, and they sent a quick reply letting me know “that feature is not available at this time,” although my request “has been sent to our development team as a possible future enhancement.”

Sure.

I also rechecked Full Tilt Poker’s list of prohibited programs and, yes, Poker Table Ratings is one of the ones “Not Permitted During Play.” Then I looked over at PokerStars’ list of “Third Party Tools and Services FAQ” and noticed how they, too, prohibit users from using Poker Table Ratings -- not just during play, but at all times.

Stars actually lists over 50 programs and sites as being out of bounds. The penalty? Well, Stars says if they discover you’re using any of the programs or tools you’ll get a warning. Then, if they find out again, they’ll block Stars from running on your computer. Full Tilt appears to be a little less specific about penalties, but they of course reserve the right to judge each case as they see fit, and “Full Tilt Poker management decisions are final in all matters.”

So I don’t think I’ll be fooling around with Poker Table Ratings anymore, though I imagine some of my opponents will.

Was listening yesterday to the latest episode of the Gambling Tales Podcast (1/2/10) in which Special K and Falstaff finished their interview with Lee Jones, the new poker room manager over at Cake Poker. I haven’t got an account at Cake, but I have to say I’m newly intrigued to get one thanks to the way the site allows one to change one’s Player ID every seven days.

Looks like if you take notes on a player at Cake, those notes remain regardless of the ID change. Still, the feature appears a way to ensure sites like PTR can’t track folks. Not yet, anyway.

What else could sites do to stop the rampant data mining? Seems to me like it wouldn’t be that difficult for sites simply to allow players to “turn off” their names if they wanted to -- that even to have a name could be a choice each user makes much like the choice of avatar or photo. You’d appear at the table as “Seat 1” and appear in hand histories as such, too. Would make it marginally more difficult to track one’s own play, I guess, but virtually impossible for sites like PTR to provide such thorough data. I suppose sites could do a lot of other things, too, such as make it impossible even to observe tables without sitting down -- although there are obvious reasons why they’d prefer not to go to that extreme.

Will have to think about all of this further. As a recreational player, I like to keep close records of my own play and even explore some of the data in Poker Tracker to try to improve. But I can’t say I care much for being watched so closely by PTR -- and not being able to prevent others from having comprehensive access to the same stats whether they’ve played a hand with me or not.

Then again, such is the world in 2010. We’re way beyond 1984. We’re all being watched. Always. Might just have to figure out a way to get used to it.

They Couldn’t Have Been Playing Checkers

Been following this Gilbert Arenas-Javaris Crittenton story over the last few days. You’ve heard about it, I’m sure. Started out as another one of those bizarre-sounding, outside-the-lines incidents in which professional athletes crazily risk their livelihood (or even lives?) thanks to some short-sighted behavior. As it has developed, though, it sounds like it is also turning into one of those not-so-good-for-poker stories. Like we need another one of those.

It was on New Year’s Day that the New York Post excitedly reported “Wizards Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton pull pistols on each other.” Kind of sounds funny reading that back. These guys aren’t real wizards, obviously. Figuratively or literally. They’re members of the Washington Wizards, the NBA team that used to be nicknamed the Bullets. The nickname was changed starting with the 1997-98 season because, as recently deceased owner Abe Pollin then explained, “Bullets” had negative connotations. Indeed, during the early 1990s our nation’s capital was also frequently referred to as the U.S. murder capital, too.

Thus did Peter Vecsey cheekily begin his New York Post article “Guess they’re still the Bullets at heart.”

The story is quite specific in its reporting that Arenas and Crittenton drew guns on one another in the team’s locker room on Christmas Eve. The dispute apparently was over “a gambling debt,” writes Vescey, who even is able to state that Arenas “went for his gun first” then Crittenton “brandished a firearm as well.” The article cites a friend of Crittenton’s as a source for these details.

ESPN picked up the story that day as well. There the story already has over 2,300 comments by readers. Noticed one comment that first day that read “arenas only shoots 40% so crittenton might have survived.”

Arenas also apparently initially adopted a jokey tone when commenting on the incident afterwards, downplaying its seriousness in messages sent on his Twitter page and in interviews. The jokes have stopped, though, and Arenas yesterday issued a seven-paragraph statement through his lawyer explaining his side of the story.

If you are interested in any of this, you are reading further details elsewhere, so I won’t repeat them all here. As you might imagine, Arenas downplays the severity of the conflict.

Oh, and that “gambling debt”? Yesterday’s New York Times states that “news accounts, based on unnamed sources” are reporting that Arenas and Crittenton “were involved in a high-stakes card game during a Dec. 19 flight from Phoenix to Washington.” Today the Post less cautiously clarifies that the debt at issue was for $25,000 and specifically notes Arenas has a “penchant for high-stakes Texas hold ’em poker.”

A-ha! So what we have here is Trouble with a capital “T.” And that rhymes with “P” and that stands for Poker!

We already knew Arenas was a poker player. Some might remember it being reported back in 2006 that the colorful Arenas -- a helluva a scorer when he’s not injured -- liked to play online poker, sometimes at halftime of games! “It’s just a mental challenge,” said Arenas, “to keep my mind going.” That was a few months before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 was signed into law (in October), after which folks stopped talking so openly about playing online poker.

Kind of a bummer, then, the way this story has brought poker into the fray. Like those in The Music Man singing about the inherent dangers of pool, some will instinctively draw a causal relationship here, with poker somehow having started the trouble -- whatever it was -- that subsequently ensued.

We saw something similar happen with that Michael Phelps story from nearly a year ago, with some wanting to suggest his poker playing somehow directly led to a photo of the Olympian with a bong. (In any event, I think it is safer to speculate that the photo with a bong led to a reduction in Phelps’ poker playing.)

Poker will survive the hit. Lousy timing, though, what with lawmakers right there in River City Washington presently considering what to do about that awful UIGEA.

If at First You Do Succeed

Had a hot first day of online play on New Year’s Day, ending a big winner. Then not so good over the weekend. Have to admit there were a couple of reasons why I almost expected to stumble following that quick start to the year.

For one, over the break I had just read an Ed Miller article from a recent Card Player titled “The Pitfalls of Running Good” (in the November 24, 2009 issue). The article discusses how a hot streak can in fact be dangerous insofar as it can create unrealistic expectations and -- perhaps more significantly -- can reinforce bad habits. Say you make a bad call and get lucky. Then, later, when in a similar spot, the memory of the reward and the extra cabbage in your stack might well encourage you again to make a bad call. And, chances are, you won’t keep getting lucky.

Miller describes other bad habits that sometimes result from running good (e.g., attacking strong players, trying bad bluffs), but you can read the article yourself. (Miller has a follow up there, too, on “The Pitfalls of Running Bad.”)

There was another reason why I felt a little bit of trepidation about the hot start. Over the New Year’s holiday they were running a “Twilight Zone” marathon on the SyFy channel -- that’s the “SciFi” channel, recently redubbed -- which I believe they do every year. On New Year’s Eve I searched through the list of 80-plus episodes they planned to show and couldn’t find the one I was looking for, called “The Fever.” Finally just went over to YouTube and watched it. You might have seen this one before. If not, as I explain the plot you’ll see how it could reinforce that idea of “the pitfalls of running good” from Miller’s article.

The episode first aired almost 50 years ago on January 29, 1960. It was one penned by Rod Serling, the iconic host and narrator of the show. This one features a couple, Franklin and Flora Gibbs, who have won a short trip to Las Vegas thanks to Flora having won a contest.

However, as Serling ominously intones over an opening montage of Vegas sights and sounds, “there’s a prize in their package neither expected nor bargained for,” namely, “an illness worse than any virus can produce, a most inoperative, deadly, life-shattering affliction known as the fever.”

The episode follows a somewhat predictable trajectory, although there’s some real suspense in there and a couple of especially creepy elements that probably made it memorable for many. Like I say, it’s on YouTube, so if you want to watch rather than read my spoiler-filled discussion head on over there before going any further.

Soon after they arrive, Flora (Viv Janiss) wants to stick a nickel in a slot machine, but Franklin (Everett Sloane) sternly objects, calling gambling a “miserable, terrible waste of time.” She’s already inserted the coin, though, and so pulls the lever and loses. They are leaving the casino when a drunk accosts Franklin, gives him a dollar coin, and forces him to put it in another slot machine. The drunk leaves, Franklin reluctantly pulls the lever, and hits for a small win. He then continues his lecturing to Flora, saying how unlike the other “baboons” in the place who would “compulsively” feed their winnings back into the machines, they are going back to their room immediately.

Before they exit the casino, Franklin thinks he hears his name being called. Then, later, as the couple tries to sleep (in separate beds, natch), Franklin thinks he hears his name being called again, the garbled audio sounding like coins falling -- one of those creepy, memorable elements of the episode I was mentioning. Finally he gets up, and when Flora asks him what he is doing he explains his intention to go put the winnings back in the machine. He tells wife that is it necessary for him to do so, again citing his moral code as guiding his actions.

“If there’s one thing I know, Flora, it’s morality,” he explains. “I will not have this tainted money smelling up our pockets.” Franklin’s argument seems to reduce morality to some sort of weird superstition, but Flora certainly can’t stop him.

Cut to three hours later. Franklin has lost the winnings, plus he’s cashed three checks’ worth and fed all that money into the machine, too. Flora is highly agitated, but he’s not listening to her pleas for him to stop, saying he’s only interested in how the “inhuman” machine “lets you win a little, then takes it all back.”

The losing continues -- he ends up there all night and into the morning. The sequence is in fact a bit upsetting to watch, especially for those us who have been around such behavior (or perhaps experienced it ourselves). Finally he puts in his last dollar, and the lever gets stuck, sending Franklin into a tirade that results in his knocking the machine over and getting forcibly carried out.

Back in the hotel room, he no longer thinks the machine is “inhuman.” Rather, “it's an entity, a thing, a mind with a will of its own... it deliberately broke down, that thing, that monster, that thief!” Strongly recalls the “rigtards” (as Bill Rini calls them) who believe the online poker games are purposely set up for them to lose.

The episode’s sad finale is foreseeable, but still pretty dramatic. Back in the hotel room, Franklin further hallucinates the machine is in the room with them, chillingly calling his name, beckoning him to play. Out the window he goes, plummeting to his death below. A single dollar coin rolls across the pavement and rests next to his corpse, and the machine triumphantly sits in the parking lot, the light on its front resembling a smile.

I remember at least one other gambling-related episode of “The Twilight Zone,” one with Buddy Ebsen (of “Beverly Hillbillies” fame) and involving telekinesis. That one’s called “The Prime Mover” (not seeing it on YouTube). If I recall, that one, too, offers the same sort of overt censure of human greed.

Always curious to see any television show or film depicting the still-relatively-early days of Vegas. In this case the show also gives us an idea what the idea of “Vegas” perhaps represented to the rest of the country -- a kind of “Twilight Zone” in and of itself where seemingly normal people go and, the usual restrictions on their behavior being momentarily lifted, transform into nightmarish, uncontrollable versions of themselves. I guess “Vegas” still means that to a lot of folks, as does the availability of gambling anywhere -- that is, a worrisome temptation to catch “the fever.”

Interesting stuff. I would say more about it, but an online poker site is calling my name.

Optimism

Ooh, I left this here cup of coffee on the burner too long. Bitter. Gotta remember to grab that sucker more quickly next time.

For many, New Year’s Day is all about making resolutions, setting goals, and doing a general rethink of whatever it is about yr existence seems in need of such.

Well, maybe not right off. Could be all that important work of self-analysis comes later -- after the effects of the previous evening’s let’s-party-like-there’s-no-tomorrow activities have sufficiently skedaddled, thereby allowing for relatively clear-headed cogitatin’.

I’ve certainly gone that route on January 1 numerous times. Might even be more tempting to do so here on the first day of the science-fictiony-sounding 2010 -- a new decade. This-is-the-year-I’m-gonna... and then you fill in the blank. Or blanks.

Three years ago I kicked off the year writing about “Getting Off to a Good Start.” Was referring to something Barry Tanenbaum once wrote about beginning new sessions, but applied the idea as well to how one might approach any new stage in life.

Two years ago I began with a post titled “Looking Back & Looking Forward” in which I outlined a bunch of specific goals. Did accomplish some of those that year, but a couple got left behind pretty early on. One goal I set at the start of 2008 and did accomplish was the one of posting here every weekday, which I continued through last year, too. Not planning at the moment to deviate from that one in 2010.

Then I began 2009 writing about the “False Start” -- the most frequently-called penalty in football, actually. There I suggested that false starts frequently happen at the poker tables, too. We’re excited just to be playing, and somehow it takes us a hand or ten to get our heads on straight and find our game.

Am a little too spent this year to do much more than look back at those earlier New Year posts. One reason is all the energy I put into a Betfair post, this one documenting the “Top Moments in Poker, 2000-2009.” Go check it out and let me know if I missed any of the biggies.

I will say this, though, as kind of a general introduction to 2010. I’m optimistic. Lots of reasons not to be, I suppose, if one has been reading any of those other, non-poker related “2000s in Review”-type articles over the last few days.

But I can’t help it. Like I say, I’m sitting here drinking this burnt-tasting cup of coffee, and while I should be grimacing, I can’t seem to get rid of this goofy grin.

Last year was a good one for me in terms of writing and poker, but I have higher expectations for this one. Am also anticipating other big “life stuff”-type changes in the new year, too, some of which I’ll chronicle here for sure.

Meanwhile, I think I’ll go get myself another cup of java. This one will be better.

Hard-Boiled Poker 2009 Year in Review (3 of 3)

We are almost there. The last day of the year. How are things stacking up for you, in terms of your win/loss total for 2009? Don’t do anything silly today to try and manipulate it into something you like better.

Me? I might play a little today, but I have a lot of other writing to do, including finishing this here recap. Following Part 1 (Jan.-Apr.) and Part 2 (May-Aug.), here’s the rest of the story:

September

In UIGEA news, a lawsuit brought by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) that challenged the law’s constitutionality was dismissed. This story was strangely spun by many (in particular, iMEGA) as good news because in rejecting the case the 3rd Circuit District Court made reference to the fact that individual states get to say what is and what is not unlawful internet gambling.

Fact was, this distinction had been noted in the UIGEA all along (i.e., this new case didn’t really change anything on that front), something I pointed out in “iMEGA Suit Claiming Unconstitutionality of UIGEA Dismissed.”

During the first part of September I was occupied with helping cover PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), and so there were a few posts this month reporting various happenings there. In the last one of those posts, I was inspired to comment on the repeat successes of guys like Daniel “djk123” Kelly, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, and Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko in “PokerStars WCOOP Concludes: It’s a Skill Game, Jo.”

Was watching the U.S. Open in there, too, and in “Matching Up Poker and Tennis” I attempt to draw an analogy that addresses the old luck-vs.-skill debate in poker. “The Poker Hall of Fame: Will Anyone Be Worthy?” notes how the new voting procedure appeared to guarantee that either no one or just one person would get in this year. And “When Winners Lose, and Losers Win” relates the story of that wild hand at EPT Barcelona between Tobias Reinkemeier and Roland de Wolfe in which de Wolfe mucked a winner.

As far as my own play was going, I was running good in August and early September, partly evidenced by “Shovels, Clovers, Valentines, and Squares” in which I tell about flopping a straight flush. Then hit a bad patch, some details of which I shared in “I Get Up, I Get Down.” I also see that I began and ended the month with a couple of posts about stack sizes in PLO: “Topping Off” and “Don’t Want No Short People ’Round Here?”

September also saw the Kahnawake Gaming Commission issue its so-called “final decision” on the UB insider cheating scandal, which I talked some about in “Final Decision on UltimateBet: None of My Business.” And, as you’ll recall, soon after came “The Sebok Surprise” in which the well-liked pro signed on with the beleaguered site.

October

The month began with the conclusion of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, in which Barry Shulman enjoyed a couple of fortunate hands against Daniel Negreanu heads up to take it down. Talk about that some in “End of Story: 2009 WSOPE Main Event Concludes.”

Then our attention gradually turned toward Vegas and the upcoming conclusion of the WSOP Main Event. On October 7 I noted there was just “One Month Left to Hype the November Nine.” I think Harrah’s, ESPN, et al. ended up doing okay during those next few weeks to get us all (and others) interested in the sucker come November. Case in point, a week later in “That’s the Way We Do It” I admit how I was starting really to get into the ESPN broadcasts of the Main Event. And near the end of October I was marveling with everyone else at that hand in which Phil Ivey mistakenly mucked his flush, giving Jordan Smith an undeserved pot in “Not Exactly Ivey League.”

These posts from October all have self-explanatory titles, I think: “PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge Debuts,” “The Poker Hall of Fame: Sexton Selected,” and “Kentucky Still Hoping to Be Master of Your Domains.” Well, maybe I should explain that last one. Had to do with the still-ongoing appeal of the appeal, now being considered by Kentucky’s Supreme Court, in that case regarding the commonwealth’s desire to block or seize domains hosting online gambling sites.

Then there are some posts in there with titles that definitely need explainin’. “Playing As If Your Life Depended On It” made references to both Tommy Angelo and The Seventh Seal. “Up, Up, and Away!” concerns our friend “balloon boy” (remember him?). And “Call and Response” does a little theorizin’ about the significance of blogs, Twitter, and how we use this here interweb to relate to each other.

Early in the month I made it to the movies to see a decent comedy called The Invention of Lying. I reviewed that one over on Film Chaw, then wrote about it here, too, in “First, the Invention of Lying; then, the Invention of Poker.” That post caused me to evoke James McManus’ new book (which I was reading at the time), Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker. I’d eventually review it here in “A Good Read: McManus Tells the Story of Poker.” Soon I’d additionally get the chance to review Cowboys Full more formally over on the Betfair site, where I’d also interview McManus.

November

First half of November was all about the WSOP Main Event final table. Exciting stuff, I’d say.

In “Post-Production is 20/20” I talked some more about Ivey’s mistake versus Jordan Smith, including sharing Barry Greenstein’s thoughts on the matter. Then in “Kopp Busted!” I talked about seeing ESPN’s coverage of another crazy hand, the one in which Billy Kopp lost it all to Darvin Moon with just a dozen players left.

Then we finally got there. In “2009 November Nine Just Hours Away... Time for Special Tactics!” I talked a bit about Phil Hellmuth saying he’d coached Jeff Shulman to employ a “special tactic” to “shock the world.” Then I gave an overview of the nine players at the final table in “2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table: Welcome Back, November Nine.”

Discussed that bizarro Hand No. 90 in which Darvin Moon made the big bluff then folded for next-to-nothing to Steve Begleiter in “Moon Begs the Question... WTF?” Wrote about the heads-up match a bit in “Comeback Kid Cada 2009 WSOP Main Event Champ,” then a few days later offered “Kudos to Cada: WSOP Champ on Letterman.” A final November Nine post, “Looking Back: 2009 WSOP November Nine on ESPN,” includes a list of the 32 (of 364) final table hands that made it into the two-and-a-half hour long ESPN broadcast.

You’ll recall it was just a few days later we learned “Pollack Moves On, WSOP Commish Seat Open.” Harrah’s still hasn’t filled that seat, and toward the end of the month I asked “Does the WSOP Need a Commish?”

Let’s see... the weird-ass juxtaposition of the month award goes to the post “The Sklansky Minute and John Cage’s Indeterminacy.” (See that one for yourself, if yr curious.) And “$1,356,946.50” relates how I happened to have been railing Isidur1 and Patrik Antonius when I saw them play the biggest pot in online poker history.

As the month concluded, we American online poker players were all fretting about the upcoming December 1 deadline for enforcement of the UIGEA. I wrote “The Door is Closing: Hoping for UIGEA Delay,” then the next day (Thanksgiving) got to say “Thankful, I Am” as we’d heard that indeed there’d be a six-month postponement of the deadline.

December

Month began with that House hearing on online gambling, discussed in “Talking Online Poker: House Hearing Today.” Then everybody put the subject on hold. ’Cos, you know, there was shopping to do. Oh, and that health care thing.

Read a couple more poker books near year’s end, both autobiographies. I’d review Doyle Brunson’s The Godfather of Poker over at Betfair, but also wrote a piece here -- “Doyle Brunson’s Confessions” -- in which I talked about how the book reminded me more than once of St. Augustine’s autobiography. (Not saying Doyle’s a saint, haha!) I also wrote here a “Poker Book Review: Victoria Coren’s For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker” -- a funny, even “literary” book I’d think should appeal to any poker player who likes good storytelling.

Opined a bit on Scott Huff and Joe Sebok’s new Fox Sports show in “Poker2Nite Brings Poker to the World.” The post “Speaking of Poker: What You Can and Cannot Say, Part II” is also about their show, revisiting an old topic regarding the conflict between online poker sponsorships and television.

Mid-month saw the “2010 WSOP Schedule Announced,” inspiring a bit of photshopping (see below). In much less significant news, I finally got response to my repeated requests to UltimateBet which I related in “The Rest of the Story (UB Hand Histories).”

Of course, the big poker story in December was the ongoing Isildur1 saga, and I wrote about it a few times here.

“Out of This World: The Isildur1 Saga Continues” discusses Patrik Antonius’s interview with Phil Gordon about the mystery man while also pointing to some other stories then swirling about. In “Loving Life, Defying Death” I talked about railing Isildur1 a bit while also referring back to Doyle Brunson’s book (and the weird, repeated joke of some railbirds prematurely announcing Texas Dolly’s death). “Digging for Gold (Mining Isildur1)” took up the new controversy regarding the CardRunners guys’ collecting info about the sneaky Swede. Then came PokerNews’ interview with Isildur1 in which revealed he planned to pursue a “formal complaint.” I suggested “Grab Your Popcorn (Isildur1 v. Full Tilt).”

So that’s what’s been happenin’ here. No telling at the moment what 2010 will be like for yr humble gumshoe, but I imagine continuing to scribble away here will most definitely be part of the plan.

Big thanks again to everyone for coming around here and for all of the nice feedback. Be sure and make contact again in 2010. Have a safe and happy new year, all!

Hard-Boiled Poker 2009 Year in Review (2 of 3)

Continuing what we started yesterday... It was another summer in Las Vegas for yr humble gumshoe helping cover the world’s biggest annual poker circus, and so these middle months are largely taken up with the before, during, and after of the WSOP.

May

The rumble at the start of May was that new legislation was a-comin’ that might affect Americans and their online poker, and anticipating that I wrote a post called “The States of Online Poker” that speculated some about that possibility. Then Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) delivered another bill designed to license and regulate online gambling in the U.S. He proposed a second bill seeking a delay for the UIGEA as well.

I seem to have been in another one of those funks there at the beginning of May, as in “Play the Game” I’m fretting aloud about my commitment to playing poker. By then my mind was becoming increasingly distracted by the upcoming trip to Vegas and the WSOP (as well as other matters), which might partially explain from where those misgivings were coming.

A couple of weeks before the Series began, that “Celebrity Apprentice” finale pitting Annie Duke and Joan Rivers aired, and I opined a bit about the show and its ultimate messages about poker and poker players in “Was It Good For You? (On the Celebrity Apprentice Finale).” Also appearing just before the WSOP was the autobiography of Mike Matusow, Check-Raising the Devil, to which our friends Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli contributed mightily. It’s a terrific read, and I reviewed the book here (and also here).

There was another pre-WSOP event to talk about, the PokerListings’ Run Good Challenge, WSOP edition. I got knocked out of the first one of those early on by my buddy the Poker Grump, who went on to win the darn thing, as I related in “Grump Runs Good in RGC 3 (WSOP Edition).” There was a second tourney in which I did a little better, though still not good enough for a golden ticket into a WSOP prelim.

In the days before leaving, I had a few “state of the WSOP”-type posts. “On the Economy & the 2009 WSOP” talked some about the possible impact of front-loading the thing with that special $40K event. “On ESPN’s Coverage of the WSOP” and its sequel considered this year’s coverage and the decision to eschew nearly every preliminary event.

I arrived in Vegas the last week of May, played some volleyball -- badly -- (“Having a Ball”), then quickly found myself “Back in the Saddle” helping cover the Series for PokerNews. These last few posts in May are all taken up with that “Special 40th Annual No-Limit Hold’em Event,” though my favorite is the Animals-inspired “Wave Upon Wave of Demented Avengers March Cheerfully Out of Obscurity Into the Dream.”

June

By the first week of June the WSOP was in full swing, with four, five, or even six events going on each day. I did catch some breaks here and there from live blogging, including one early in June when I had a chance to visit with Tommy Angelo, the poker coach and author of Elements of Poker. He thought we were just having a friendly meal together, but as the title of my post indicates, something more was going on: “Shamus Swindles Poker Lesson for Price of Cheeseburger.”

In “Isolation” I took up the subject of everyone IM-ing, Twittering, and/or being distracted by their iPhones, Blackberries, or other devices either at the tables or elsewhere. The post “Count On It” contains one of my favorite pictures from the WSOP, one of our star reporter Mickey Doft counting chips in a picture of himself counting chips (see above). FerricRamsium took this picture, and B.J. Nemeth took the one on the screen (for PokerRoad).

In “A Hand Worth Remembering” relates a hand I watched in which a dude tried to check-raise Carter “ckingusc” King after having folded his hand. Pretty hilarious stuff. In “Live from the Rio” I briefly relate having been a guest on the Hardcore Poker Show. Followed that with a post titled “Live from the Rio, Part II” which an overview of sorts of what a WSOP final table is like.

The title of “Does Humor Belong in Tournament Reporting?” is self-explanatory. (My answer is sure, why not? Within reason, of course.) Speaking of grins, “It Was Fun” talks about watching Shannon Elizabeth’s table having a good time during a tourney’s first day. That post got some attention from Elizabeth fans (both in the comments and on a fan site, if I recall) who liked seeing her poker-playing written about in a positive manner.

I’m seeing a few posts reflecting on the various challenges of tourney reporting. In “Land of 1000 Reporters” I revisited the issue of everyone broadcasting their progress via handheld devices at the tables. In “The Name Game” I discussed the sometimes absurd-seeming struggle to identify players. And “Seeing Is Believing” talks about the occasional awkwardness of reporting those bizarro hands that probably aren’t going to be believed by readers.

Vera Valmore arrived for her visit the last week of June, and we had a good time, including going to see “Mystère.” I ended the month revealing that a feature film was made about my exciting life back in 1973, titled Shamus and starring Burt Reynolds in the title role. If you somehow missed it, here’s that trailer:



July

I got a chance to play in a charity event that included a number of pros. Eventually Dan Harrington got moved to my table, although unfortunately I was in the embarrassing spot of having an “M” of around 2 when he did, as I reported in “Then Again, With the Name ‘Short-Stacked,’ This Was Bound to Happen Sooner or Later.” A couple of days later I’d get to play in another mainly-media tourney in which I'd sit with both Linda Johnson and Dennis Phillips (see “LOL Freerollaments”).

The Main Event finally got crankin’. The post “Whirlwind” talks a little about the Day 1d fiasco in which hundreds of players had to be turned away. Have another post in there called “Anatomy of a Hand Report” which tells about watching and reporting on a hand involving Terrence “Not Johnny” Chan from Day 2. I kind of dig that post as it gives a good idea what it is like to be a tourney reporter, relating all the various factors that come into play when trying to report even a single hand.

“Theme (In Search Of)” begins with a conversation I’d had with Dr. Pauly. The circus would soon be over, and we were all looking for some way to assign meaning to it all. “Go With the Flow” reports on the chaos of the money bubble bursting (and the PokerNews site crashing). And “Boom, Boom, Boom” reports on the wild finish to produce the November Nine.

There’s a post that provides an annotated list of all the WSOP reports, if yr curious: “2009 WSOP, A Reporter’s Notebook.”

After getting home, I opined a littled “On Shulman’s Spite” -- i.e., Jeff Shulman’s announcement about throwing the WSOP bracelet in the garbage, should he win it. “An Application to Consider” proposes an iPhone app for tourney reporting, an idea I wouldn’t be surprised to see happen at the 2010 WSOP. And “A Sporting Chance for Poker” reports on how that European Poker Tour event that had been scheduled for Moscow had been shipped over to Kyiv, Ukraine.

Had no idea at the time that I’d be shipping myself to Ukraine, too, in just a few weeks!

August

Having settled back home for a while, I was getting a little abstract (perhaps) there at the start of August in posts like “On First Choices, Second Guesses.” Was also reflecting some on the state of journalism circa 2009 in “Time Is Money, So Can I Afford to Pause to Reflect?”

Was back into playing online a lot, and fully committed to pot-limit Omaha again. I read Jeff Hwang’s terrific Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha, Volume I which inspired me to think out loud a bit in “To Pot or Not to Pot, a PLO Predicament.” Speaking of poker books, I wrote “On Poker Books” the next day and discussed how book-reading in general has become a relatively antiquated activity.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) proposed a bill in the senate that offered to license and regulate online poker specifically (and not online gambling in general, as Frank’s bill does). Wrote on that (with some skepticism) in “On the Menendez Bill (S. 1597); or, Be Careful What You Ask For.”

In “The Writer’s Life” I noted that I’d been invited to go to Kyiv, Ukraine to help cover that EPT event later in the month. Wrote a little more about that in the next post, “Destination Kiev... and the Book Is Out!” (As these posts suggest, I wouldn’t learn the preferred spelling of the city’s name until I got there.) I also announced in that post how I’d finally published my hard-boiled detective novel, Same Difference, which you can read more about and even purchase by clicking here.

The last part of August was taken up with my Ukraine trip -- a terrific experience all around, and I remain grateful for having gotten the opportunity to do it. Here are my travel reports from Kyiv: “Arrival,” “Day 1a,” “Day 1b,” “Day 2,” “Day 3,” “Day 4,” “Day 5,” and “Looking Back.” Clearly all of my creative energies were being taken up with reporting from the event, as I had none left for post titles.

Nor have I much energy for more recappin’ today, so come back tomorrow for September through December.

Hard-Boiled Poker 2009 Year in Review (1 of 3)

Wait a minute. You telling me it is almost 2010?! What happened here?

Quite a lot, in fact. Been another busy year at Hard-Boiled Poker.

As far as playing goes, it was mainly a lot of low-stakes pot-limit Omaha online, where I’m ending the year a winner though not as big a winner as in ’08. I did play more live poker this year than ever before, including a lot of limit hold’em during my time in Vegas (a short trip in April, and a summer-long sojourn during the WSOP). Also played in a few live tourneys, including some charity events where I was lucky enough to sit at the table with folks like Dan Harrington, Linda Johnson, and Dennis Phillips. And speaking of lucky, I also managed to win a live tournament -- the media event at EPT Kyiv.

Yeah, that’s right. I’m undefeated outside the United States in poker tourneys.

That trip to Kyiv, Ukraine to cover the EPT event was a big highlight of the year, for sure. So was the opportunity to cover the 2009 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas from late May to mid-July for PokerNews, my second summer out there. In addition to all that live blogging, I was also fortunate to be invited to write various other poker pieces for different outlets as the year went along. And this was the year I managed to publish my first novel, Same Difference, a hard-boiled detective story set in 1970s New York City. Still waiting for that to appear on Amazon (soon, I’m told), but you can check it out (and even buy it) by clicking here.

So a lot of playing, and a lot of writing. 291 posts’ worth here on Hard-Boiled, where I managed to publish a post at least once per weekday, and more often at times, too. As I did at the end of ’08, I thought I’d run through a recap of the year, again splitting it up into three posts. This one covers January-April.

January

Looking back, I’m seeing how I began the year full of uncertainty about my own game and where I wanted to go with it. Posts with titles like “False Start” and “Leaving the PLO Party” make it sound like I was getting tired of PLO and remaining stuck in the same low-stakes groove. Am having those feelings a little bit again this year, with thoughts of different games or higher stakes again creeping in as the new year approaches. Of course, while I played a lot of LHE during the first part of ’09, I’d end up settling back into the PLO groove as the year progressed. Perhaps it’s more groovy for me than I thought.

The slightly-crabby self-analysis continued in a post called “Level Zero Thinking at the Micro Stakes.” That one got a number of hits, actually, probably from folks who found something familiar in the experience of playing against seemingly unthinking opponents. Another post that got some attention was “A Game for All Situations” in which I suggested that while poker certainly provides numerous analogues to certain other aspects of life, simply proclaiming that “poker is like life” usually isn’t saying all that much. Had another one in there called “On Being Results Oriented” which further reflected the influence of Tommy Angelo on my thinking.

In non-Shamus news, I noted how John Caldwell had stepped down as Editor-in-Chief over at Poker News (“Poker News News”). Caldwell’s spot would be ably filled by Haley Hintze through the late summer, at which point Matthew Parvis took the helm. On the last day of George W. Bush’s presidency (January 19), the finalized regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 went into effect (“The UIGEA Era Begins”), although banks were still not required to implement them. I also wrote a post compiling some of the various applesauce we were witnessing over at UltimateBet, titled “The UltimateBet Follies (Winter 2009 Edition).”

Finally, January saw me sticking with a couple of resolutions. One was to do more running, which I alluded to a bit in “Going the Extra Mile” and “Running in Place.” I was running a couple of miles every day until May this year, then Vegas happened and I never did quite get back on track (so to speak). I also started 2009 with a plan to do more frequent podcasts, and produced three episodes of The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show in January. That, too, slowed down as the year progressed, although I did manage to crank out ten shows by year’s end (making a total of 20 thus far).

February

I mentioned Tommy Angelo, who remained on the brain as February began. A post titled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Poker” commented on the unceremonious closing of a Two Plus Two thread about Tommy Angelo’s book Elements of Poker, ultimately drawing a distinction between what might be called the Angelo Approach and the Malmuth Mindset.

Speaking of Two Plus Two, a link from that forum to the post “The (Unexpected) Return of the Prodigal Son” helped make it the single most clicked-on post of the year on Hard-Boiled. The post wasn’t that special, but it reported on yet another bit of account-compromising on yet another site by Josh “JJprodigy” Field.

Looking at stories from the world of online poker, the post “Milestones (in Cluelessness)” discussed folks at the micro tables incredibly folding their hands and saving their pennies rather than have a shot at the hundreds of dollars being given away by PokerStars as part of its 25 billionth hand promotion. Also, I shared everyone’s enthusiasm when over on Full Tilt Poker we saw Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan finally square off, writing about it in “Watch & Wondurrrr: The Tom Dwan Challenge Has Begun.” Of course, that enthusiasm waned after a while. (Indeed, they still aren’t even two-thirds of the way through the challenge!)

Toward the end of the month came a post called “The Games of Life” in which I reflected a bit on the value of games to the elderly. It was just a coincidence that I would be writing about zombies in the very next post, “Speaking of the Dead: An Afternoon with George Romero.” I had a chance to attend an event with the Night of the Living Dead director and so shared some thoughts from that.

Of course, I always liked Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the tremendous sequel to the original horror classic. Wrote a sequel of my own a few days later titled “Speaking of... Online vs. Live (Part II)” in which I revisited an old theme.

March

I don’t usually try to talk about economics on Hard-Boiled Poker, because it tends to hurt my jingle-brain to do so. Nevertheless, I did start the month trying to consider the matter a bit in a post called “Economics Is Hard.” I reflected some there on how this whole economic downswing we were all talking about in early ’09 was perhaps affecting the game we love. Followed that a few days later with a post titled “The Recreational Poker Player” which got a bit of attention. That post was actually something of a revelation for me, one in which I finally managed to get a handle on what kind of player I am (at least as far as I’m capable of doing so).

The big story in early March was the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Championship, eventually won by Huck Seed. Had a few posts related to that event, culminating with one titled “Huck Lights Out Ahead of the Rest” in which I gave some details of (and a little commentary on) the super-fast structure for the sucker. Further structure geekiness came later in the month with a longish discussion of the WSOP structures, “Whatcha Gonna Do With All Them Chips? (On Changes to the Structures at the 2009 WSOP).”

In other high-stakes news, March was the month we saw Tom “durrrr” Dwan win that wild hand versus Barry Greenstein and Peter Eastgate on “High Stakes Poker.” Seemed like everyone was talking about that one for the next two weeks at least. I wrote about it here: “Tom’s Adventures in Durrrrland.”

Was still at the LHE tables in March, where I found myself one day pondering what might seem an unusual topic, “Stack Sizes in Limit Hold’em.” As anyone who plays LHE knows, certain hands occur in which one is doomed to lose -- perhaps the maximum -- despite one’s best efforts to avoid doing so. It was after one such hand I evoked Kurt Vonnegut and coined a term in a post called “The ‘So It Goes Hand’” (abbreviated S.I.G.H.).

Had another one of those “Moments of Inspiration” a few days later when I thought of a nifty feature for online play for whenever an opponent complains in the chat box that the site is rigged -- a tinfoil hat for the player’s avatar. (See post for silly pic.)

And speaking of inane-slash-paranoid chatbox banter... “I Am Irony Man” is one of probably two dozen posts that have appeared on this blog that attempt to chronicle the peculiar form of madness embodied by Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth. This is one of the funnier examples, relating his especially unselfconscious tirade versus Matt Hawrilenko during a heads-up limit hold’em match on UB.

Ended the month by commemorating the sixth anniversary of the groundbreaking first televised episode of World Poker Tour (March 30, 2003), “Looking Back: The World Poker Tour Debuts.”

April

Had a genuine “shot in the dark” with the appropriately hard-boiled title “When You’ve Begun to Think Like a Gun.” There I make a point about aggression and using one’s chips as a weapon, although the title -- lifted from a John Cale song -- might be the best thing about that post.

During the first part of the month I got to help out covering PokerStars’ SCOOP series (the spring version of WCOOP). It was while covering one of those events I saw Daniel Negreanu complaining a bit in the chatbox about players purposefully delaying as the tourney approached the bubble. Wrote a post about it called “The Waiting Game” which got a ton of hits after Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler linked to it from Two Plus Two. Wrote a follow up a couple of weeks later, “Time Is Money: or, the Return of the Waiting Game.”

Let's see here... “Bonomo Ban No Mo’” talked about PokerStars’ decision to allow Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo back onto the site. And “Follow You, Follow Me” talks some about Twitter (and my having finally gotten an account -- @hardboiledpoker).

“The Ever-Present Existential Struggle With Change” is not about the coins one finds in one’s pocket. Nor is it about Change100, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working both on the PokerStars blog and at PokerNews. No, talkin’ about, well, “life stuff” there, and perhaps first suggesting something in that post about a big change for me that ain’t coming until 2010. (More to come on that.)

Later in the month I made it to Vegas for a short visit with Vera Valmore, chronicled here in a series of posts. Managed to write a few posts while there: “Sleep Is for Suckers,” “Good Eats and Comfortable Seats,” and “I Would Need GPS To Find Memory Lane.” Then got home to do a formal five-episode recap, starting with “Shamus in Vegas: Episode 1 -- Prelude.”

Speaking of recappin’, that’s plenty for today. May through August tomorrow.