December 21, 2008
Hey everybody - my good friends in Agua Trip can use a little bit of help tonight, and it won’t take much of your time. They’re trying to stay in London Garcia’s Music Boxx for the next quarter. Here’s how you can help them:
Dear Friends,
We still need a few more votes before midnight pacific time tonight (5 hours left!). If you haven’t already voted, please do so now. Thanks to all of those who already voted! PLEASE DO NOT VOTE MORE THAN ONCE.
HOW TO VOTE: Send an email to this email: hollaback@londongarcia.com with the following in the subject line: MUSIC BOXX Q12009 vote for AGUA TRIP. This MUST be in the SUBJECT line, NOT in the content in the email (the content can be empty).
This will ensure that we stay in the Music boxx for another quarter. For more info about the Music Boxx, go to: http://www.londongarcia.com/musicboxx/
Thanks again for supporting us and Happy holidays
Sincerely,
-Agua Trip
Any help that you can give would be greatly appreciated. And remember - don’t vote more than once!
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December 21, 2008
There’s been a lot going on lately so I haven’t had time to write on the blog. I have been writing an awful lot for PokerListings, though - you should check out the Year in Review series I’ve been writing for the news section. Here is the July article, and you can link to the rest from there. I have to write up the rest of the year, too, so keep a watch for the last five installments if that’s your kind of thing.
I bought a Blackberry Storm to replace my old 8703e of two and a half years. It’s a little buggy here and there but I like it, and I think they’ll work out the kinks by next summer. I also added the tethering option to my account so I could get internet access and then ditched the WildBlue/DISH Network satellite internet scam package. We had 3 months left on our initial contract, and I happily agreed to pay the early cancellation fee just to be rid of them. We cancelled the TV service as well. If you’re thinking about doing business with these people, keep in mind that you do so at your own risk. Despite the occasional drop requiring a reconnect, my tethered cell phone internet access is already 100% more reliable than the satellite connection ever was.
Rachel and I went to Vegas for the blogger gathering and got to see so many old friends…it was great. We even got to meet some new ones. There was dinner at Tom Collichio’s CraftSteak, three meals with Mean Gene, late night heads-up mixed games with the Rooster, music talk with Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot and G-Money, playing the Run Good Challenge Super Happy Grand Final on the party bus heading to Gracie and Sweet Sweet Pablo’s wedding (I bubbled on the right side of a coinflip against Change100), the actual wedding with about 40 of our friends in attendance, bluffing Maigrey out of two pots in limit badugi, drinks with AlCantHang, teaching SSP and friends a few things about craps, catching up with Human Head, blackjack in the IP Champagne Pit with Iggy, a bit of quality time with Derek, a fantastic deep stack blogger tourney, and lots of Twitter updates. I’m sure I’m missing out on something. It all runs together. But we had a blast.
My 32nd birthday came and went last week. I spent it at home with Rachel. Quiet = good. :-) I also got way more happy birthday wishes than I’m used to, thanks to the wonder that is Facebook. For a military brat like me to be able to keep in touch with old friends - and newer friends who live around the world - is a dream I never thought I’d see realized. Yes, I love technology.
I bought myself a black Jasmine by Takamine acoustic/electric guitar for my birthday. It looks gorgeous and sounds just as good. After years of not having a functioning guitar in the house, my fingers hurt like hell the first two weeks I played it. Now I’m basically back to where I can play for hours at a time. Surprisingly, I remember a lot of the stuff I used to enjoy playing. I’m going back now and learning all the music I love that’s come out in the intervening years. Rachel broke out the keyboard last night and we played together for about an hour. I think there will be a lot more nights like that in our future. She had no idea that I knew how to play. The things you learn about your partner!
This week I played in most of the PokerStars blogger freerolls. I managed to win a seat in the final in the Pot Limit Omaha/8 event by finishing 37th. Then, just a few minutes ago, I finished in 126th place in that final when my QQ couldn’t hold up against AQ. Only 100 got prizes, so I’m on the outside looking in again. Still, I had great fun playing with some old friends along the way, and I got a Step 2 ticket for my PLO8 finish. Hooray for freerolls.
Xmas is around the corner and we’ve bought some really cool gifts for friends and family. I’m looking forward to seeing their faces when they open them up. Rachel already got her gift - Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3. She loves it. I couldn’t move like that if I tried.
I think that just about catches you up on what’s been going on in my life the last few weeks, dear reader. What’s been going on in yours?
Posted in Not Poker, Poker 1 Comment »
December 10, 2008
Only three spots in the RGC II final are open, so I need a good finish today to lock one of them up. I’d prefer to take it outright, but if I tie again at least I know I’ll have a shot at breaking it to score a seat.
– me, before the third event of RGC2
Well, I didn’t end up locking up a seat outright on Sunday. Once again I proved that one thing I haven’t learned how to do in five years of playing poker is win coin flips, busting out in 5th place with A-T against Kid Dynamite’s 8-8. That earned me five points to go with the four I got in Event 1, leaving me in the running for the Final with a total of nine points.
I would have my way into the Super Happy Grand Final without a playoff if KD hadn’t gone on to win the whole thing, since he had 0 points in two events. But his nine-point score for winning Event 3 tied him with me and Pauly, so for the second straight time the Run Good Challenge had a sudden death match for the last seat at in the final - and for the second straight time, I had to play it.
Read the rest of this entry »
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December 6, 2008
In just a few hours I’ll be playing the third and final tournament of the PokerListings Run Good Challenge II. I’ll need to run good for the first time in either installment of the RGC in order to get into the final, as I failed to earn any points last week.
Last Saturday I got the worst seat at the table. I then lost an early coin flip with Dan Skolovy - on my first hand, in fact - when I raised on the button with 8-8 and he moved all-in from the small blind. Dan’s a very skilled player, and I could see him reraising me with a higher pair, but his all-in move suggested I was ahead. Needing a big result to secure my spot in the final, I decided to make the call and he showed A-K. All was good until the ace on the turn. I was bummed, but made up for it by cashing in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly (in my first time playing the venerable PLO series, no less).
Only three spots in the RGC II final are open, so I need a good finish today to lock one of them up. I’d prefer to take it outright, but if I tie again at least I know I’ll have a shot at breaking it to score a seat.
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December 4, 2008
I didn’t play in the last one for some reason or another. But this time around PokerStars is offering all kinds of excellent prizes. The structure is different than in the past, too, and looks promising. Hooray for freerolls!
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November 24, 2008
The first event of Pokerlistings Run Good Challenge II took place yesterday afternoon at PokerStars. We’ve got a bunch of tournament reporters in the field once again, so I’ll let you read their cogent analysis of the event instead of rambling on to you about how I got lots of big hands but no action.
The good news for me is that I picked up 4 points on the leaderboard for finishing in 6th place. I’m sure that was in large part thanks to a significant portion of the field, including some of the most fearsome potential opponents, not showing up. After we got started and I saw there were only 14 people playing, I sent Matt Stout a message and told him he missed the tournament. At about 2 am today I got this message back from him:
Omg I fkn suck =((((( I totally 4got
Now I just hope that things work out as well for me when he doesn’t forget this coming Saturday; two final tables would be awfully helpful in qualifying for the final that I missed last time around.
Congrats to Poker Shrink, Amy Calistri, and Michele Lewis for taking the top three spots respectively this week and leaving PL.com’s resident ringer Dan Skolovy out in the cold in 4th place. I’m looking forward to displacing at least one of them - hopefully not Skolovy - in the round two leaderboard this Saturday.
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November 19, 2008
After seeing it played on television, I started playing poker online in early 2004 and found the game immediately fascinating. The mix of psychology, strategy, and analysis required to play well, along with the fact that I could quickly improve my game through study and practice, made it much more appealing than the other competitive outlets I had available to me. Nearly five years down the line, after seeing some of the world’s biggest tournaments and playing in home games and casinos all around the United States, I’m still learning and improving and enjoying this fascinating game.
I’ve been a front-row witness to poker’s boom, and despite the poorly researched doom and gloom pieces that some people are publishing, the fact is that poker’s popularity around the world has never been higher. More people play the game today than ever before, especially outside the United States, and thousands more think about picking up the game every day. If you’re one of those curious newcomers who wonders what it would be like to play the game that everyone else is learning, your best bet is to download free online poker software and start playing. When you’ve got a handle on the basics, pick up a strategy book or check out a poker website and learn a few concepts, then try to implement them in the games you play online. It’s a process filled with trial and error, but if you enjoy a good challenge you’ll probably find yourself coming back for more.
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November 18, 2008
You might remember that back in September I got invited to play in the inaugural PokerListings Run Good Challenge, a three-tournament series of freerolls hosted by the fine folks at PokerListings that culminated with a big Grand Final tournament among the highest-placed finishers. You might also remember that I narrowly missed the Grand Final, falling short in an epic heads-up match with Change100 to determine who got the final seat at the table. The former child star turned poker reporter ended up winning the whole thing for the big bucks, while I settled for the no bucks but plenty of friendly competition and hilarious table banter. The first RGC was a lot of fun and I’ve been looking forward to any future installments, so an email from Matt Showell the other day was a bright note for pokery goodness in my future.
RGC guru Matt Showell
The second edition of the Run Good Challenge will get underway at this Sunday, November 23rd, at PokerStars, and its structure will be identical to the first series: three tournaments with a Grand Final for the highest-placing players over the course of the initial games. Things will be a little tougher this time around, however, as there will be at least 21 players in the field each week as opposed to 12 in September. The original cast of players from RGC I is back, including Dr. Pauly, Dan Michalski, Amy Calistri, Poker Shrink, Michele Lewis, Shortstacked Shamus, Chops, and Kid Dynamite. The returning champ (and my playoff vanquisher), Change100, will be there to remind me that I didn’t make any money last time around.
Can she run good?
Unfortunately for me, the new additions won’t help me get any closer to cashing. I’ll have to play my A-est of A-games with top flight cash game and tournament pro Liz Lieu, 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Jason Young, tournament pro and WSOP Circuit winner Matt Stout, noted UNLV gaming historian David G. Schwartz, and Playboy/Maxim hottie and Bluff cover girl Christina Lindley all be coming along for the ride. And another contingent of fine poker media folks - including Craig Cunningham, oldskool poker blogger Luckbox, freelance superstar California Jen, and my favorite Frenchman Benjo - will be taking their shot at (and trying to keep me from) free money, too.
Benjo will defend the French poker tradition
And of course, PokerListings will field its own representatives. They can’t win any money, but Dan Skolovy and the aformentioned Mr. Showell can keep the rest of us from getting our hands on it.
The deadly Liz Lieu
It looks like RGC II should be bigger and better in every way than the first installment; I just have to dodge a bigger, more powerful minefield than before for a chance at the money. At least the table banter will be entertaining if I come up short again!
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November 3, 2008
Rachel and I will be in Las Vegas this December for blogger festivities with whomever happens to be there. We’re flying in on Thursday 12/11, leaving Sunday 12/14, and staying the whole time at the Imperial Palace. So, who else is going to be there?
Posted in Not Poker 3 Comments »
October 29, 2008
Although online poker has already been around for ten years, new players are discovering the game all the time and visit the best US poker sites. If you’re ready to get started in online poker, it’s not too late. You won’t be able to match poker player Evelyn Ng or other pros right away, but the following tips will give you a good start in poker:
Step One — Learn Poker
Poker is not like online casino games that are easy to learn and simple to master. While the basic rules are not that complicated, playing well requires a great deal of skill and the use of a number of tools including psychology, math and discipline. Grab a book or get a friend with some knowledge and learn the basics of the game before jumping in.
Step Two — Pick a Site
There are a number of online poker sites out there and to get started you should probably pick just one. If you play in the United States, you have limited options. Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars are your two most likely destinations. Outside of the U.S., PartyPoker, EverestPoker and ParadisePoker are among the popular possibilities.
Step Three — Sign Up
Before signing up with any poker site, look for an online poker bonus. The right bonus code can double your initial deposit, which will be a big help to your bankroll while you are getting the hang of playing the online game.
Step Four — Freerolls and Play Money Games
To get your feet wet, start with play money games and freerolls, which cost you nothing. The play money games are good for learning the mechanics, although your skills will probably not improve since few play correctly when no real money is at stake. The freerolls do offer real prizes, so play will be slightly better.
Step Five — Pick Your Game and Stakes and Start Playing
Decide whether you like tournaments, Sit and Gos, cash games or some combination of these. Start at stakes in which you are comfortable, but not too comfortable.
A big loss won’t prevent you from paying household bills, but it might make you put off buying that DVD you wanted for a week. This will help you play your best but still have fun.
Posted in Poker 1 Comment »
October 23, 2008
If you live in a rural area, or just in a geographically isolated area near a major city, you probably don’t have access to broadband internet because cable companies don’t think it’s worthwhile to lay cable and phone companies don’t have DSL-capable switches near you. Chances are that at some point in the last couple of years you’ve received advertising in your mailbox from DISH Network or WildBlue or DirecTV or HughesNet advertising “satellite broadband” internet access. If you’re stuck on dialup, you may think that satellite will bring you into the modern age. Think again.
I’ve had satellite internet access since last September, and what I can tell you is that the service isn’t worth the money you’ll pay for it. First things first, the installation will cost you an arm and a leg if you don’t find a special that knocks that cost off your bill. DO NOT EVER pay out of pocket to install this service. The product you get in the end isn’t worth the monthly fee, let alone $600+ to put in the dish necessary to access it.
Second, if your installation is anything like mine was, you’ll have a barely functional retard doing the job. The “professional” who put the dish in at my house took 12 hours to complete the task, including a stellar job of burying the cable from the dish to my house under about 1/4″ of dirt that was quickly blown away by a light wind, exposing the bright orange cable in the yard. You’ll be told that you’re not allowed to touch any of the equipment in the event of any problems, lest you be charged for messing with the company’s property. That includes the cables going from the satellite dish to your house. Oh, and did I mention that any time one of the company’s “professionals” comes to your house, you’ll be charged for it? So you can’t touch your own equipment, but you have to pay for the approved people to touch it.
Third, get ready to pay far more for your service than any of your friends with regular broadband. We’re talking $60 and up - and that price is just for the lowest tier of service, which gives you the slowest speeds available on the network. If you want faster speeds, get ready to pay more like $70-100 per month. And even if you decide to pay more, don’t count on your speeds being constant. Oftentimes you’ll find yourself pining for the good old days of dialup, when things might have been slow but were at least consistent.
Fourth, you aren’t getting true broadband internet when you pay that much money. The speeds you’ll get are comparable to the lowest-level package of DSL that the phone companies sell to old people who don’t know anything about technology. Even watching a video on YouTube will be a pain in the ass for you because the buffering process won’t be able to keep up with the speed of what you want to watch. I suppose that if you’re really into honing your patience that could be a good thing, but otherwise there’s no upside; besides, a rock garden is a much better outlet for practicing Zen.
Fifth, get ready for a cap on how much you’re able to download each month. I recently saw complaints that Comcast was capping its cable broadband customers at 250 GB of data transfers per month; if you think that sucks, try 8 GB per month on the lowest-tier plan with your satellite service, and no more than 16 GB even if you purchase the highest tier. That means that if you like to do completely legal things like buy and download music from iTunes, or stream music from a service that you pay for like Rhapsody, or watch a lot of videos online (despite having to wait ages for them to buffer), sooner or later you’re going to run afoul of the terms of service and find yourself limited for the next month to speeds comparable to dialup. That’s the company’s way of punishing you for using more bandwidth than you need to “browse the web,” at least by their decade-old standards of what web browsing data transfer numbers look like.
Sixth, you’ll be locked into your contract for two years. If your contract is anything like ours, you’ll be asked to sign it after the installer has put in all the equipment but before he will leave your house. And again, if your installation was like ours, your contract will have a checkbox that say you agree to the terms and conditions of the contract - but the terms and conditions will only be accessible via the service’s website. So if you have no internet service and that’s why you’ve called them up to get the satellite connection, you’ll just have to trust that the company has no intention of screwing you over and put your John Hancock on the line. It’s a pressure sales tactic of the worst sort and no legitimate business would ask you to do such a thing.
Seventh, don’t expect the service to be remotely reliable. If there’s rain in your area, your connection will probably drop - even though your satellite television will still work just fine. And even when it isn’t raining in your area, it’s probably raining somewhere else in the country - including in the area over your gateway, which is where the satellite internet service provider’s land-based connection to the rest of the net resides. If you call the company and ask them for some sort of estimate of roughly how reliable you should expect your service to be and you get a genius on the other end of the line like I did, the company’s response is going to be something along the lines of “we can’t predict the weather.” (Apparently the folks who run these services also can’t understand probability.) Essentially, anytime it rains between you and the rest of the country, there’s a pretty good likelihood that your connection is going to drop.
Eighth, if you call the company and actually get someone useful on the other end, they’re going to tell you to call the company every time your internet service drops. Hopefully you don’t have a job, because you’ll be spending a lot of time on the phone with customer service; so often, in fact, that you’ll probably get to know the representatives well enough to be invited to their houses for birthdays and holidays.
Ninth, even when the connection doesn’t drop, don’t expect to do anything fun online. Your ping times - that is, the length of time it takes data to travel from your computer to the server with which you’re communicating - are going to be so outrageously high that you won’t be able to maintain a server connection for things like online gaming. So, no cool Xbox 360 multiplayer games or World of Warcraft on the PC for you! You won’t even be able to reliably do things like videochat with your family or play online poker, activities which aren’t nearly as stringent in their ping requirements as multiplayer games. Basically, you’ll be limited to surfing the web and checking your email - and even then, your web-browsing habits had better fit the company’s profile or you might run over your download cap.
Don’t be fooled by ads in your mailbox full of promises of blazing-fast internet service just like they have in the big city…or in the suburbs, or even in rural communities with nice, flat geography. Just say no to satellite-based ISPs! They don’t follow through on their claims and they’re more than happy to rake in your money every month without providing the service they promise. You’re better off sticking with your cheap dialup and keeping your fingers crossed that some land-based ISP will offer you a better option sometime in the near future.
Posted in Not Poker 1 Comment »
October 22, 2008
The time until the release of Agua Trip’s Genetics keeps getting shorter. With only 14 days left until the album drops, it’s time for another spotlight on the artists who have contributed to its visual songbook.
The first artist for this week is Raymond Patrick, a photographer originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who is now based in New York City. Patrick studied photography, product, and automotive design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and later assisted the photographer Steven Klein in New York. He has traveled the world in pursuit of the perfect photo, and his work has been featured in Time, Vogue China and Vogue Taiwan, GQ, Travel + Leisure, Food + Wine, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications.
Raymond’s contribution to the Agua Trip project is for the song “Accidental Wilderness.” “I feel honored to contribute and be a part of a positive consciousness and be among good people who are creating and expressing how they feel about the world,” Raymond said of his involvement in this project. You can see more of his work at his official website.
Bungalows by Raymond Patrick
The second artist this week is pretty close to me; so close, in fact, that she married me in 2004. Rachel Hall Kirk is an artist from Ashland City, Tennessee, who works primarily in the fields of painting and drawing and has shown throughout the eastern US. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Austin Peay State University, where she now teaches, as well as a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Tennessee.
Rachel’s contribution to the Genetics visual songbook is for the song “Can’t Help Myself.” “I’m flattered and honored,” Rachel said about working on the project. “This is a talented group of artists and musicians, and to be one of the chosen few is a real treat.” You can see more of Rachel’s work at her official website.
The artist at work.
Check out the band’s interviews with Raymond and Rachel in the Artist Profiles section of the Genetics: A Visual Songbook page. And keep an eye on the Agua Trip website, where next week they will reveal all 20 works of art up for auction at the album release party.
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October 16, 2008
Back in April I played in a freeroll hosted by RakeBrain.com, the LeCheese Challenge. I wasn’t able to make any money then but tonight I got the chance to make up for it in a second RakeBrain freeroll, the LeTune Challenge. The game was half pot-limit hold’em, half pot-limit Omaha, so there was no guarantee I’d get anywhere near the money. The players were:
MrSubliminal - MrSubliminal
BadBlood - BadBloodonPoker
ToastOnTilt – GolfandPoker
mookie99 – Mookie99
AlCantHang – AlCantHang
HighOnPoker – HighOnPoker
Gcox25 – Gcox25
StatikKling – Mattahfahtu
Babaghanoush – HardboiledPoker
katitude – PokerKat
VinNay – runner-runner-rebuy
Pokerpeaker – PokingandPeaking
BamBamCan – Bam-baminbedrock
Buddydank – Buddydank
Jaxia – Stealtheblinds
emptyman – PokeryGoodness
huntvegas – HuntVegasPoker
TNSpaceman – JasonKirk
numbbono – DonkeysDraw
Schaubs – Lolaschaubs
ck31 – Bwop
pvanharibo – LawChica
lucko21 – PokerCash
drchako1 – PokerDoctor
Fuel55 – Fuel55
$mokkee - $mokkee
NightRanger - NightRanger
MiamiDon - MiamiDon
PirateLawyer - PirateLawyer
DDionysus - DDionysus
bdidde - Biggestron
LeTune – Rakebrain
gifted08 – Rakebrain member
woodo75 – Rakebrain member
td8507 – Rakebrain member
Vadim331 – Rakebrain staff
I’ve had pretty good results in PLHE games before but I’m a PLO novice at best. Still, my gameplan was to stay consistently aggressive in both games while avoiding putting myself in bad spots through over-aggression. It wasn’t always easy to implement the first part of that strategy because I had to make as few mistakes as possible the whole night because the field was pretty tough. Luckily things went my way all the way until pvanharibo knocked me out in third place with Q-J to my A-3.
I got to play with some people I haven’t seen in a long time, and a freeroll where I win $180 is never a bad thing in my book. Thanks to RakeBrain for the invite! :-)
Posted in Poker 2 Comments »
October 15, 2008
Only 21 days remain until my friends in Agua Trip release their new album, Genetics, along with its companion visual songbook. This week their website spotlights two more artists who contributed to the project, Jon McAuliffe and Chip Boles.
Jon McAuliffe is an artist from Walpole, NH. In addition to working in the US, he has spent time abroad in Italy refining his classical portrait technique. I’ve never met Jon before but I like his portrait of Agua Trip’s own Lindsey Boise with his wife, Ginger:
Lindsey and Ginger by Jon McAuliffe
You can see more of Jon’s work at his official website.
Chip Boles is an artist from Tennessee who currently teaches English in Himeji, Japan. Unlike Jon, I do know Chip; he was a contemporary of Rachel’s in the APSU art department. He was doing some pretty incredible work back then, spanning all sorts of media from canvas and paper to the walls of local elementary schools. Of all my many talented friends in many places around the world, Chip is among the most gifted. Check out his official website to see some of the work he’s gone on to do since leaving Tennessee.
Just a Book by Chip Boles
Be sure to check out the Artist Profiles page at the Agua Trip website for these two artists’ insights into collaborating with the band on the visual songbook.
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October 9, 2008
My friends in Agua Trip release their new album Genetics on November 5. In addition to the album they are also publishing what they’re calling a visual songbook. The gist is that a different artist has created a visual riff on each of the twenty songs on Genetics.
The artists who contributed to the songbook come from all over, and the band is spotlighting two of them on AguaTrip.com each week until the album comes out. This week’s featured artists are Jackson Martin and and Jacob Gossett.
Jackson Martin is a sculptor from Johnson City, Tenn. He’s been an artist in residence at two different programs in Vermont and his work has been on display throughout the eastern United States. You can learn more about him at his official website.
Jacob Gossett is an artist from New York City. His work spans the media of paint, sculpture, and film, including the Agua Trip video for “Little Life.” You can learn more about Gossett and his work at his official website.
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