This is not a man with a blog.

Betting in the dark

By Shabbir | September 2, 2006 | Comments Off on Betting in the dark

Chris hosted our regular $1/$2 limit hold’em with a full kill tonight at his house in the pouring rain of Hurricane Ernesto’s wake.  Everyone at this game is comfortable at higher limits, but everyone plays really hard against each other regardless of the stakes, and it’s a very friendly bunch.  Chris has a tight image,…

Bad play makes money, worsens bad habits

By Shabbir | August 31, 2006 | Comments Off on Bad play makes money, worsens bad habits

I was talking to Katie last night when she convinced me to join the Party Poker 10:20pm no limit hold’em tourney.  "It’s only $22 and it’s $40,000 guaranteed!" "I don’t think I have any money in Party", I said. "I’ll transfer it to you, no sweat," she promised. So I got logged on, got the…

New blog

By Shabbir | August 30, 2006 | Comments Off on New blog

So I’m in the process of segregating my personal life and my professional life (or at least the online versions).  I’m starting a CTO blog which is the more appropriate forum for my opinions on technology, technology management, and innovation.  I’ll still maintain a personal blog which will be full of baby photos and poker.…

7 card stud analysis, 1,000 hands

By Shabbir | August 30, 2006 | Comments Off on 7 card stud analysis, 1,000 hands

So, 14 hours into this experiment, what have I learned? I lose money with one pair, and I seem to show it down more often than I probably should.  I appear to pay a river bet almost half the time, which is absurd once you see my stats. I have previously played high pairs against…

Weird.

By Shabbir | August 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Weird.

After spending the whole weekend with Moishe, I went to work on Monday and caught myself missing him all day.  Didn’t see that coming.  I’ve uploaded a video of him playing in the sink, but I haven’t been able to get it to play.  Let me know if you can.

7 card stud tricks and new game in Baltimore

By Shabbir | August 27, 2006 | Comments Off on 7 card stud tricks and new game in Baltimore

I’ve gotten an unsolicted e-mail about a new 1/2 and 2/5 No limit hold’em game in Baltimore, run professionally with dealers and referral bonuses.  If you’re going to be in Baltimore and would like to check it out for me, let me know and I’ll send you the details. I’ve got about 1,300 hands worth…

Life as a single father (for a week)

By Shabbir | August 26, 2006 | Comments Off on Life as a single father (for a week)

So my hardest challenge as a parent has started.  Sarah is off to Burning Man, leaving me with Moishe and the life of a single parent for a week.  She lobbied hard to get me to go to, but I really couldn’t leave for a lot of reasons, including: I just got back from a…

Gambling books and 7 card stud.

By Shabbir | August 21, 2006 |

Just in time for this year’s World Series Of Poker, James Swain has a couple of new gambling pulp books out. deadman’s poker and deadman’s bluff are another pair of books about casino cheating consultant Tony Valentine’s attempts to catch criminals cheating the World Poker Showdown, a thinly veiled reference to the World Series of…

Various replies to blog comments people have made.

By Shabbir | August 18, 2006 | Comments Off on Various replies to blog comments people have made.

Katie is a really excellent poker colleague of mine.  She profitably plays 10/20 Limit hold’em online, and she and I have developed a good rapport that allows us to discuss hands without one of us having to be right.  I’ve known poker players that would have made excellent poker colleagues except for their ego problems. …

Holding your users captive is not a business model

By Shabbir | August 17, 2006 |

I live and breathe innovation.  Now that the company’s grown and better technical folks than me make the trains run on time, I mostly focus on looking for the next thing our clients need.  Just as often I’m spending my time chasing down the subtle reason why a particular company’s offering isn’t going to take…