Poker problem? Me? Nah...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I ordered my very own poker chip set last week, and it came on Thursday. We broke it in at yesterday’s tournament. I got 500 11.5 gram clay chips, and I’m still way too happy about them.

I bought a used poker tabletop from a friend a few weeks ago, one of the octagonal ones that will seat up to 8 players and has built-in chip and drink holders on the corners. I plan to start holding cheap, friendly tournaments at my house on Wednesday evenings … I only have 5 chairs, though, so I’ll have to find some cheap folding jobbies at Target first.

I can count on one hand the number of weekly games I’ve missed since I started playing poker 7 months ago*. (I didn’t keep stats in 2005, but so far this year I’ve finished in the money 4 times and am up $30. It’s a $20 buy-in, so this time next week I expect to be up $10. ;))

I tape WSOP reruns, and faithfully watch High Stakes Poker on Monday nights. Tomorrow night I’ll have to choose between taping West Wing/Desperate Housewives and taping the 2004 US Poker Championship marathon on ESPN2. And it will be a tough decision.

The only podcasts I subscribe to are poker related: “All In” on My Sports Radio (MSR), and “Get Paid, Not Played” by NetBettor.com.

When the semester is over, I will start playing online. I look forward to participating in the SDMB Pokertropolis tourneys, and I will also start playing at PokerRoom with the rest of my regular poker group.

The last step will be for me to play in a casino. Right now I still can’t imagine being able/willing to lose more than $20 on a tournament (ok, maybe $50), but I’m sure the day will come soon enough…

I love poker. :smiley:

*Boy, so much has changed since that thread I posted in September: I’m happily watching poker on TV and waiting to borrow a friend’s copy of Harrington on Hold 'Em (both things that I arrogantly said I wouldn’t ever do), and I actually understand everything that everyone recommended! At the time, it was information overload and way more than I thought I’d ever want to know. Can yerba buena, Otto, John F, and anyrose ever forgive me?

2

I forgive you.

Desperate Housewives is a clip show, so you can skip that. ESPN2 will run the championship again, probably within a month, otherwise it’ll turn up on ESPN Classic on a Saturday night.

But you’re missing Wild Card Poker on Fox Sports Net Saturdays at 11PM CDT, The National Heads-Up Poker Championships on NBC Sunday mornings at 11AM CDT, Speed Poker on FSN Sunday nights at 11PM CDT, Poker Superstars III on FSN Sunday nights (repeated throughout the week) and Learn From The Poker Pros on FSN at various times during the week. Not to mention the repeats of the 2003, 2004 and 2005 WSOPs on ESPN2 and ESPN Classic that pop up regularly and the older WSOPs dating back to 1993 on ESPN Classic.

I have to encourage you to play Hollywood Poker instead. It’s a skin on the same network as PR so you can play with your PR friends, but HP isn’t evil like PR is and their support people are not only responsive but they actually support their customers.

3

A lot of little quote boxes with replies would look annoying (I think), so I’m gonna try something a little different since there’s only one other person in the thread right now…

I forgive you.
Thank you. :slight_smile:

Desperate Housewives is a clip show, so you can skip that.
Good point, thanks!

ESPN2 will run the championship again, probably within a month, otherwise it’ll turn up on ESPN Classic on a Saturday night.
I don’t get ESPN Classic (I only have expanded basic cable). I believe you that the championship will rerun, but I’ll probably still watch as much of it tomorrow night as I can. :slight_smile:

Wild Card Poker on Fox Sports Net Saturdays at 11PM CDT
Speed Poker on FSN Sunday nights at 11PM CDT
Poker Superstars III on FSN Sunday nights (repeated throughout the week)
Learn From The Poker Pros on FSN at various times during the week
I don’t get Fox Sports Net, but I do get Comcast Sports Net (though I didn’t realize it until just now, when I checked to see whether I get FSN): the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament is on tomorrow night. Sweet!

Poker Superstars and the 2004 Poker Championship overlap for a couple of hours tomorrow night … in your opinion, which is more worth watching?

The National Heads-Up Poker Championships on NBC Sunday mornings at 11AM CDT
I’ll be watching that from now on, thanks. :slight_smile:

Not to mention the repeats of the 2003, 2004 and 2005 WSOPs on ESPN2 and ESPN Classic that pop up regularly and the older WSOPs dating back to 1993 on ESPN Classic.
Finally something that I already watch: when I said that I tape WSOP reruns, I meant as many of them as I can (on ESPN2, anyway). :smiley:

I have to encourage you to play Hollywood Poker instead. It’s a skin on the same network as PR so you can play with your PR friends, but HP isn’t evil like PR is and their support people are not only responsive but they actually support their customers.
I’ve already promised a friend that I’ll sign up with PR through his website link. But out of curiosity, what makes it evil?

4

Oddly enough, locals in Las Vegas are mostly hooked on video poker…it is considered the crack cocaine for locals.

However, a huge percentage of tourists to Las Vegas have suddenly turned into Texas Hold 'em junkies and every casino in town - even the local casinos - have started to build bigger and bigger poker rooms. My cousin, whom I had not seen in over 45 years, came into town recently. He quit his job, has set aside $45,000 and is trying to be a profi poker player throughout the US casino circuit.

5

SUperstars is repeated on FSN multiple times through the week. If it’s the same on Comcast, watch/tape the 2004 event. The 2004 event contains one of the sickest beats I’ve ever seen. I’m getting slightly ill just thinking about it now.

Oh, for some reason I read WSOP in your post as WPT. You are watching the World Poker Tour on Travel Channel, yes?

PokerRoom has lost itself a customer. I contrast the response I got from PR on support issues with the responses I’ve gotten from HP and the difference is extraordinary.

6

Probably because most locals can’t afford to play at a table any easier than I can. :wink:

The only casinos I’ve been to were in Biloxi, well before the Hold 'Em explosion: I liked watching some of the tables but couldn’t afford to play at any of them, so I got some rolls of quarters and played video blackjack at one of the bars. I didn’t win a dime, but it was still kind of fun. And, yes, quite addictive.

Didn’t the Venitian just open a new one?

Wow, I hope he’s successful!

Nope. :smack: When is that usually on?

I had no idea there was so much poker on TV! Probably because I use customized online TV program guides, and most of the channels that air poker are ones that I used to never watch (the ESPNs, Travel, Sports Net, GSN, etc.).

Hmm, I might just have to mention your thread to the friend with the PR link on his site. See what he says. One of the other poker regulars plays FullTilt in addition to PR, and seems to like it well enough, but he plays on a Mac so his options are somewhat limited.

7

Wednesday nights at 8PM CDT, repeating at 11PM CDT and again Saturdays at 11AM CDT. WPT is in season 4. Repeats from earlier seasons are shown Saturday nights at I think 7PM CDT and repeated at 10PM CDT. Some matches from S1 are available on DVD but for some reason they didn’t just release the entire season, which I don’t really get. The first season of Heads-Up Poker is also available on DVD. Also check GSN for repeats of its various Poker Royale series weeknights at 1AM CDT.

8

Thanks … I think. I never felt the desire for a TiVo until now: how nice it would be to simply tell a machine to record every poker show it can find! :smiley:

So I thought of a question or two while watching the US Poker Championship yesterday: is winning the USPC seen as any more or less of an accomplishment than winning the WSOP? Are those the main Hold 'Em competitions in the US?

9

To the best of my knowledge there’s no particular prestige associated with winning the USPC beyond that which accrues from winning any high buy-in large-field tournament.

10

I would actually say that all the World Poker Tour events trump the US Poker Championship these days.

11

For further reading, I’d recommend Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book on poker and, assuming you make it to a B&M casino, Caro’s book of poker tells.

12

Love the Rude and Grim commentary of the dynamic duo of Sexton and Van Patten. They are my (and Duck’s) heros.

13

Well, I guess Comcast SportsNet is the same as Fox SportsNet: I watched Poker: Learn From the Pros last night, and both the host and the ads I saw repeatedly referred to “FSN.” How weird that Comcast would feel the need to put their own brand on the channel, and even weirder that Fox would let them.

What about the WSOP? Is there any one poker tournament that’s considered the “ultimate” event?

I’ll follow up on the Little Green Book – it was mentioned again on last night’s show, which Phil Gordon was a guest on, and once I saw him I remembered who he is. I’d happily read a book of his. Thanks! I might hold off on the poker tells book until I get closer to playing in a casino. I play in a live tournament every week, and I’m still trying to make sure I don’t have any tells around those wannabe sharks. :wink:

14

The $10,000 buy-in hold 'em event at the WSOP is considered the de facto “world championship.” There is really no reason why it should be, other than that the WSOP was started very early and has been promoted by (formerly) the Binion family and (currently) Harrah’s as such. It is referred to as “The Main Event” and the winner is commonly referred to as the world champion. It also has the highest 1st place payout in the world ($7.5 million US in 2005, expected to go as high as $10 million this year).

The WPT final event is a $25,000 buy-in so the WSOP ME is no longer the highest-priced prestige tournament and hasn’t been for the last four years, but the WPT is still too new for it to be in any sort of position of matching or overtaking the WSOP ME in terms of popularity or prestige.

Harrah’s has added a “Tournament of Champions” to the schedule for the last two WSOPs. The first ToC was a ten-person single table invitational event with a $2 million winner take all payout (won by Annie Duke). In 2005 the format was change to a multi-table and participants qualified based on their performance through the WSOP and its circuit events. Three players (Chan, Hellmuth and D. Brunson) were given byes by the sponsor, a decision that was somewhat controversial (and made more so by Hellmuth’s finish in the money, meaning that someone who actually won his way in didn’t cash). It remains to be seen if winning the ToC will one day rival the prestige of winning the ME.

Speaking of the circuit events, those are all $10,000 buy-in events just like the ME. From a financial standpoint I certainly understand why Harrah’s would want to have them but IMHO having multiple top buy-in events linked with the same WSOP has some dilution effect on the ME.

Harrah’s has added for 2006 a $50,000 HORSE tournament (a rotation of five games: Hold em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Stud Eight or better). I imagine there will be some lively debate as to whether the higher buy-in and the need to be well-rounded in multiple games will cause this new tournament to supplant the 10,000 hold 'em event in determining a “world champion.”

15

Seconded. In fact, read anything you can by Mike Caro, he rocks. His website.

16

BTW, why does Poker hate me? Not to bore folks with bad beat stories, let’s just say two rivers in almost successive hands cost me a good chunk of change yesterday.

Stupid Poker Gods.

I mean…uh…nice, powerful Poker Gods … Please don’t smite…

17

Why should Poker be any different from the rest of us?

18

I could rattle off a few myself, but I don’t think that’s really the point.

I’ve been in the Thrusday night games for a little over six months and I still can’t tell if I’m any good or not.

19

Then it’s still probably worth a read. I read it and used my weekly home game to kind of absord some of the thinking. Worked wonders later in my poker game

20

Sorry, I must have stolen your poker luck yesterday. Rivered two king-high flushes to help me turn £40 into £270. Unfortunately this makes me about even for the year. Could be worse, though :slight_smile:

/smug.