04.29.2008 | 12:29 pm | Police State, Poker, Nanny Nation
North Carolina police staged a military style raid to protect the pubic from….a poker game.
After wasting taxpayers’ money with a ten month investigation, they burst into a home poker game and arrested 27 people, including an assistant prosecutor. They confiscated all the money they could find, including, according to one report, cash that people had in their purses and wallets. Then they went after people who weren’t at the game, but had played on other occasions.
Doesn’t that make you feel safer?
The police were enforcing a law from 1802 that prohibits laying any time of game, in your home, that uses dice or cards. Better find a good hiding place for your Monopoly, Sorry! and Cranium.
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11.15.2007 | 1:25 pm | Poker, Pop Culture, Nanny Nation, Politics
Yesterday, Annie Duke testified to the House Committee on the Judiciary about playing poker on line: Why it should be legal, why the whining nannies lament about compulsive gambling is ridiculous, why the “for the chillllllllllldreeeeen” bleat is sensless, how poker is a game of skill, not luck, and quite a few other related issues. Here are a few excerpts:
“Of course, opponents of gaming will cite the incidence of compulsive gambling and the possible exposure of minors as reasons to prohibit it. With respect to compulsive gambling, this committee has received expert testimony confirming what most academic studies on compulsive gambling have found: that the incidence of problem gambling in the population of adults who engage in gambling activity is less than 1%. From a similar study in the United Kingdom, we know that the availability of betting over the Internet does not increase it over time. Furthermore, even if one’s primary concern were the very small incidence of compulsive gambling, then licensing and regulation offer more effective and less intrusive means to combat it.”
“Of course, prohibitionists point to the possibility of children betting online as the other justification for prohibiting it. In fact, most people who seek to restrict individual freedom invoke protection of children as their motivation. I suspect they find that that argument has more resonance than what is often their real motivation — to treat adults like children, and manage their choices for them.”
“To reiterate: if your concern in this matter is about children, there are solutions available. If, instead your interest is in treating adults like children, then there are not.”
“The vast majority of Internet poker players are doing so for recreation and entertainment. On average, a person spends $10 a week playing online poker. 10 dollars! You can’t even get a movie ticket for that price where I live!”
“In the proposed rule issued by the Department of the Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the regulators come right out and say that they cannot and will not tell the regulated community what constitutes an unlawful Internet wager. Let me emphasize — the posture of the Federal government is, “We are going to create a new federal crime, but we will not tell you what it is.” In the proposed rule, the regulators explain their refusal to resolve this by saying that to do so would require them to examine the laws of the federal government and all 50 states with respect to every gaming modality, and that this would be unduly burdensome. Yet that is exactly what they are requiring the general counsel of every bank in the country to do.”
Read the entire transcript here.
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10.21.2007 | 7:00 pm | Poker
When you’ve won the pot without going to the showdown, how often should you show your hand? Approximately never.
Poker is a game of incomplete information. The less people know about your playing style the better off you are. Every time you reveal a hand you didn’t have to you’re giving your opponents free information on how you play.
I used to show kings and aces when I won a tournament hand without a showdown, to implant the idea that I only played solid hands. I thought this would make it easier for me to pull off a bluff later on. Then I saw other players doing it, realized it was a transparent and useless move, and stopped.
Last weekend, fairly early in a multi-table table home tournament, I folded a garbage hand that several people called. A king came up on the flop, and everyone checked to M, who went all in. The next to bet was his wife, who had a hard time deciding what to do. “I know him,” she said, “He’s got something.” She showed me her hand, a pair of queens. After thinking about it some more she folded. So did everyone else. He smiled and flashed his cards to the guy sitting on the other side of him. I caught a glimpse of them - garbage. It was a stone cold bluff.
About twenty minutes later I was in the big blind with a 9,7 off suit. Several people limped in, letting me see the flop for free. It came up K, 9, 5. Everyone checked to M, who said “I’m all in.”
I had just a few more chips than he did. If I lost this hand I’d be crippled and effectively out of the tournament. He smiled. I didn’t pick up on any tells, but his demeanor was the same as when he had bluffed his wife out of the pot. I said “You’re full of it. You ain’t got it. Call.”
Everyone else folded and we flipped our cards. He had a five in his hand. My pair of nines held up. I nearly doubled my stack and knocked him out of the game. It turned out that was a pivotal hand for me, giving me a chip lead to exploit. I finished third, in the money.
Someone at the table said “Wow, that was a great read.” I just smiled. I wasn’t going to tell him how I did it, how M had inadvertently given me the information I needed to beat him by revealing his hand to someone else. After all, poker is a game of incomplete information.
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09.23.2007 | 12:05 pm | Poker
Poker - Finding Your Game
Poker players are always trying to improve their game. We’ll pay thirty bucks for a book and read it from cover to cover trying to find just one idea that will give us an incremental improvement. But I’ve recently discovered the best way to grow your bankroll - finding your game.
I’ve read dozens of books, studied tricky hands and experimented with different playing styles. But my bankroll always crept down, usually slowly. I’d book a few big wins and lots of little losses and the bottom line was that, over time, loses exceeded winnings. Not by a huge amount, but little by little, chipping away at my bankroll. It didn’t matter what kind of ring game I played, and tournaments were just an exercise in frustration.
In an attempt to improve my no limit game I started playing single table sit-n-gos. And I started winning. A lot. Not a lot of money, because I started out playing two dollar games, but finishing in the money most of the time. After a month I moved up to the five dollar games, and found they were just as easy to win. I moved on to the ten dollar tables, found my winning percentage dropped dramatically, so I’m back to the five dollar games for now.
The best way I’ve found to win is to avoid playing during the early rounds. Until the table is down to six players don’t play anything but super-premium hands, and be quick to lay them down if the flop looks scary. Let the hotshots and loose cannons take each other out. Save your chips for the middle round.
Once you’re down to six players it’s time to loosen up your starting hand requirements, although you should stick to good staring hands in late position. If the flop doesn’t hit you, fold. You’ll need to accumulate some chips to have a shot at the money, but avoid all in situations unless you’ve got the near nuts. And whatever you do, don’t chase flushes or straights unless you can do it for very few chips. Once the blinds hit 50/100 it’s time to start stealing them; until then it’s not worth the risk.
When you get down to four players the real fight starts. Most players will tighten up to avoid busting out on the bubble. If you’ve got a huge chip lead it makes sense to sit back and let the other players take each other out, but if you’re in the middle of the pack (or the bottom of the barrel) this is the time get aggressive. Steal blinds every chance you get. Use pot size raises to grab pots before the turn.
If you’re finding your bankroll is creeping down slowly, maybe you’re just not playing the right game. Experimenting with other games just might get your bankroll moving in the right direction.
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