Its a Token Frenzy

Time for a longer post... Many of my posts are short, to the point and devoid of comic flare. Ironic for an ex-comic, eh? But poker is no jpoking matter!

First off, let me state my opinion of the Token Frenzy. Yum. You start with $1500 in chips, and getting to about $4000 allows you to click "Sit out" and walk away. Yet, on NUMEROUS occasions, I saw stacks bigger than that getting involved with hands. This is great for you, the informed reader and donkey puncher, as you could conceivably make it simply by getting to $3000 in chips. Why? because bigger stacks actually ATTEMPT to eliminate players. Yum. They do all the work for you. Just get to twice your starting stack and wait. Pure gold.

Next, on the non-poker subject of Camping. My family LOVES camping. Freaking loves it. Because of this, I have made every attempt to enjoy camping. We bought a new trailer and it actually has a bed! What a HUGE difference this makes. Huge. I have a laptop that actually stays in the camper with its own set of campfire friendly software. The wife tries to only camp where they have wireless, although its often spotty. Its still better than being offline. Her mother has an awesome campsite in Claire, but we can never stay there since I cant even get cell coverage without driving 2 miles. I have really learned to enjoy these little trips and even played the Hoy Monday night from the campfire. All that being said, I think camping would be better in a multi-family situation. My goal for next year is to coordinate camping with other friends.

My work situation is very much in flux right now. I was a high-level person with a mid-sized company. That company being acquired, has placed me back in "middle mgt", which means "not a VP". This MAY be a setback, then again, maybe not. A re-alignment may create a situation where I am reporting to a VP, but have 6 times the reports I had at the mid-sized company. Where opportunity meets preparation... I will be ready for a promotion in 2 years at a company 20 times the size of the previous one. I can choose to be pessimistic or optimistic. I always assume I will succeed. Is that optimism, ego, or a little of both.

That being said, I have decided to break my own rule and commit now to playing in a 2008 WSOP event. I have always said that if I don't satellite in, I wont play. Well, I can afford the $1500 event, and if I don't satellite into a single event, I will plunk it down and play just for the experience and donk it up with the rest of the field. So be it. I am playing in two "leagues" this fall (second wed and second Saturday of the month) in the hopes of working the home-game satellite option also.

I look forward to the WPBT winter fest and decided to put together a flyer for 2008. Sort of a marketing flyer (tongue firmly in cheek), but I would luv to see us represent in the 2008 WSOP. There were some huge cheers during 2007 as we learned of fellow bloggers cashing. In 2008, I will once again take orders for the WPBT hats if you want one to use for the events or the WSOP itself. (I hope I can still get them at the same place. They were very cost-friendly.) I would also like to put together a Thursday night Beer-Fest at the Hoffbrau House Beer-hall across the street from Hard Rock. (Home of the 1/2 liter pilsner) Anyone?

Hoyoza and Chad (KOD) recently wrote the book on stealing and playing in big field donk-fests. There two articles are better than the Full Tilt Tournament book itself. Read them and save $22 bucks.

I myself have not written a strategy post in quite some time. I think this is because I have no major epiphanies over the recent months. Just using what I learn to improve my finishes. If you would have told me in January, that I would be $7 from the money lead in the Hoy in August, I would have laughed at you. My goals for the second half of 2007? Cash in a big field tournament and learn how to win in cash games instead of playing for hours to break even. (This happens to me OFTEN.) Every trip to California now, I will play cash games after dinner until I have to go to bed. (And my heads up game needs work.)

I put a link to the poker Google calendar (which I keep updated) on the blog...
Sunday is the big-game and the occasional WPBT event
Monday is the Hoy
Tuesday is an off-night
Wednesday is the Mookie
Thursday are Ante-up games and the pokersluts tour.
Friday is the donkament.

All that in addition to FTOPS, token frenzys, the DONKEY CHALLENGE sit n Go tables, the 50/50, etc.

Big Brother comment: The "America's player" ended exactly as expected. The chaotic choices made week to week without a long range plan, results in the player being singled out as suspicious. Duh. of course, his complete lack of a subtle bone in his body certainly contributed. Even more disconcerting is that COMPLETE lack of strategy of ANY of the "houseguests". Do any of them plan more than a single move in advance?! Most are REACTIVE, and that's you lose a chip stack.

The Ante-Up podcast recently did a great episode on the WSOP bootcamps. The big take-away for the emphasis on AGGRESSION. I, for one, am SICK of hearing this tired sound byte. Can anyone even tell me what it means anymore? What does aggression mean to YOU?

Despite my words about camping, the family took their most recent trip WAY up north and I was only able to get up there 1 weekend. The rest of the time, I went on my annual fix-about, where I fix every little thing wrong with the house. I am exhausted, and I know the minute the family returns, the house will start its downward spiral again. Life is maintenance. I also wanted to go to the casino one night, but there was a 90 minute wait for a table at Motor City?! On a Tuesday night at 7pm? Ugh. I hope MGM opens on time!

I read recently, that the government asked Second Life to shut down gambling on the VIRTUAL world due to proof of real money laundering. I am not even sure how that works. (Apparently there is a $270-$1 fake to real exchange rate?!) Now, there has been an old fashioned circa 1929 bank run in Second Life. When your entire economy is gambling and virtual sex, shutting off gambling completely cripples 1/2 the economy. Ok, more like 10% since Second Life is 90% virtual night clubs, virtual sex, and the sale of advanced genitals. (yeah, really).

Good News Everyone! A distribution decision has FINALLY been made on the future Futurama episodes. One movie to be released in November of 2007, followed by 3 "movies" split up into 1/2 hour episodes with added material. Someone made a decision.

That's it for now... Thanks for visiting!