This is not a man with a blog.

“Danny Boy”, from the Muppet Show

By Shabbir | September 6, 2007 | Comments Off on “Danny Boy”, from the Muppet Show

The Internet is useful in ways you don’t understand.  I don’t say this because I have some unique insight into it’s inner workings, but simply because the sum total of information out there has different value to people in different situations. Take YouTube, for example.  For you it’s a source of funny distraction.  For me…

Rapid response skills online

By Shabbir | September 6, 2007 | Comments Off on Rapid response skills online

If you follow the Google zeitgeist you know that major news events follow a familiar pattern online: The news event breaks; People rush to their computers to search for news about the event; People start buying domain names related to the event to attract quick ad traffic revenue; and The funny tshirts start coming out.…

Burning Man 2007: “You’re doing it wrong”

By Shabbir | September 3, 2007 |

This was my first year at Burning Man as a San Franciscan.  I had great visions of how much better my art project would be due to my not having to haul crap across the country.  I also had developed a larger set of friends here and was excited to spend some time out on…

The completion of my difficult hand: Red Queens in early position

By Shabbir | August 26, 2007 | Comments Off on The completion of my difficult hand: Red Queens in early position

[This is the final stage of my analysis hand.  I’ll restate the action.] I wake up with red queens in early position and I raise it immediately to $7.  For this table that’s a notable raise.  $11 is the high end.  Seats 4 and 5 fold.  Seat 6 makes it $15 to go with about…

WSJ: “A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy”

By Shabbir | August 24, 2007 | Comments Off on WSJ: “A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy”

The must-read article this week was in the Wall Street Journal.  "A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy"  talked about how the use of social networking is introducing people under 35 to non-profits, both through innovative giving tools like Kiva.org, as well as innovative tools like Facebook being utilized by very traditional brands. "Joe Alamo didn’t set…

A hand at Harrah’s $1/$2 NL: Answer and question #2

By Shabbir | August 22, 2007 | Comments Off on A hand at Harrah’s $1/$2 NL: Answer and question #2

Here’s the continuation of the previous hand analysis, "How should he play his 44?" Pushing or re-raising is completely out.  With two raisers in the pot his fours are almost certainly dominated by a big pair or a slight underdog in a coin flip to unpaired overcards.  So the applicable question seems to be fold…

Comcast: Caught faking it in the Big 10

By Shabbir | August 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Comcast: Caught faking it in the Big 10

One of the big stories this week is that Comcast was accused of hiring an advocacy firm to fake public outrage over their object to the Big 10 moving games to their own channel from free tv.  Helping to organize a coalition as a large corporate funder is certainly nothing new, and if done transparently,…

Analyze a hand through my eyes: Question 1

By Shabbir | August 20, 2007 | Comments Off on Analyze a hand through my eyes: Question 1

[Unrelated poker thought: I use Poker Academy to practice cash game play when I’m not on a net connection.  It’s AWESOME, but I’m good enough at reading my table now to tell that it doesn’t model the mood of the table at all.  When 9 or 10 people first sit down to play, they’re on…

Why I’m playing nickel/dime Pot Limit Omaha Hi

By Shabbir | August 19, 2007 | Comments Off on Why I’m playing nickel/dime Pot Limit Omaha Hi

This weekend I’ve been spending at home with my mom.  She doesn’t have a lot of energy and in the evening when she falls asleep, I head over to the largest local poker room in St. Louis and play $1/$2 No Limit Texas Hold’em.  I’ve done well there, mostly due to the poor quality of…

Kubler-Ross haiku

By Shabbir | August 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Kubler-Ross haiku

Stupid eulogyWhy must I deal with this now?Waste of precious time.