Quick Hitts

Watching pros play poker is often confusing. Some of their decisions seem strange, counterintuitive, and just plain wrong. This is especially true of Gus Hanson, who frequently makes plays that would seem clinically insane if it he didn’t consistently wins huge amounts of money. Watching him go all in with nothing in his hand and no draws leaves the viewer wondering “What was he thinking?”

He answers that question in his new book “Every Hand Revealed.” He gives a play by play analysis of what he did, and why he did it, for every hand he played in the Aussie Millions tournament, where he finished first and won a million and a half dollars.

He’s not embarrassed to discuss his mistakes in detail, or to admit that he did something because he just felt like it. He talks about when he was really thinking about his next move, and where he had already decided and was just putting on a show. He details the calculations he uses to make his decisions and talks about when to avoid coin flip hands and when they’re worth the risk. He shows how he increases his chip stack with rotten cards, especially when the antis come into play, and how he uses his stack size to push other players around.

Will it make you a better tournament poker player? Maybe. It’s not going to make you the next Gus Hanson, but it will show you how to use aggression creativity, the importance of stack size (both yours and your opponents) when making decisions, when to be aggressive and when to back off, and how unimportant the right cards can be in some situations. But even if it doesn’t dramatically improve your play, it’s a great read for moderate to advanced players.

I want to put out a newsletter, (The Smartenizer) so I’m looking at various services and sending some of them questions.  This is one of the few times I’ve clicked on the ads that appear next to Gmail messages.

One was for RDH Marketing.  The link showed me a generic 404 page.  (Not even a custom 404?  Even I have one.) So I deleted the long string of code after the domain name to go to their home page.

Here it is.  No description of who they are, what they offer, or why I should give them my name and e-mail.  The privacy policy displays an ugly page.  The other links simply return to a demand for my personal information.

Great marketing guys.  I have no idea what you offer, and I never will.

I like to buy from sites that feature lots of customer reviews.  It’s one of the reasons I buy most of my electronic stuff from NewEgg.  (The other reasons: their selection is great, their pricing is excellent and their shipping is amazing.  Hint: pick the very cheapest shipping, and it still usually arrives the next day.)

Most reviews are good for helping you make buying decisions, but some are just good for a laugh.  Start here, then read the reviews for any version of the bible.  You’ll find them infested with highly entertaining commentary.

Sherry Jones is another victim of Islam’s attack on free speech. Her book, The Jewel of Media, tells the story of Aisha, he child bride of the pedophile profit Mohamed.

The attack didn’t come directly from Muslim terrorists this time, but from a gutless University of Texas professor who saw the proofs declared that it could be a national security issue. Random House agreed and destroyed the already-printed books.

You can not fight terrorist by cowering. Random House needs to grow some balls, or get out of the publishing business.

Here’s a great article on the subject.

And you know it’s true, because it’s from America’s Finest News Source.

This graphic from the New York Times compares the which words and phrases were used most often at the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Interesting, but, of course, it’s all just yammer. We have a choice between a Big Government socialist and a Big Government Fascist. They’re not intentionally socialist or fascist. Both of them are decent people and it would be fun to have a beer with either of them. But the policies they favor are all about socalism and fachism, and as far away from the constution as they can get.

I was sitting in downtown Atlanta, having a smoke and watching the people go by. This was even more interesting than usual, because it was the middle of DragonCon and quite a few people were in costume.

A man and his daughter walked by wearing this t-shirt:

…which looked much better in real life than it does on this web page. I asked where he got them, and he said “I made them.”

Turns out he has a new business selling t-shirts for atheists and agnostics under the rather clever domain name agnostees. My favorite: Atheists Don’t Fly Airplanes Into Buildings.

Correction: The site owner informed me he wasn’t with his daughter, but his wife. I hope she took my mistake as a complement.