Poker and gambling

It’s her birthday today, she’s building an amazing new resource about tuberculosis, and last night she won third place in a large 800 person poker tournament, netting her $6,900.  She didn’t even hold it against me that my coaching resulted in her being put out in third place.  (I’m an impulsive no limit player)

Ever see a cashier receive a hundred dollar bill, and check it with a swipe of a marker to see if it was real?  Well, some clever counterfeiters have figured out how to fool the magic counterfeit detector marker.

I’m a great believer in gambling according to odds.  I don’t play blackjack, though I would if I knew how to count cards well enough to tip the odds in my favor.  I don’t play roulette, or any of the other hosue edge games.  I play poker for the challenge of playing against other players, hopefully, weaker players, where my edge is largest.

And I don’t play the lottery.  Unless it’s statistically an advantage.  Allow me to explain.

Sarah insists that my previous post about my Friday night poker triumph isn’t the whole story, and that the story isn’t complete with telling of my Saturday poker exploits. 

I got a hall pass to go play poker on Friday and cleaned up at a $1/$2 S.H.O.E. game.  SHOE is a mixed game, where we played one round of 7 card stud, one round of Texas Hold’em, one round of Omaha hi-lo, and one round of 7 Card Stud hi-lo.

During this past Labor Day weekend I began to resemble Dagwood Bumstead.  I stole every chance to lay on the couch, sit in the hammock, and generally not do anything.  I even got hungry at midnight on Saturday and wandered into the kitchen to make myself a midnight sandwich.  I also played a lot of poker.

Antigua won a judgement in the WTO that prohibits the US from unfairly denying Americans the right to gamble online with Antigua’s net-based casinos.  Sometime around April 2006 the US will have to either change domestic laws for gambling to be fair across the board to both American and Antiguan operators, or stop harassing companies that facilitate business with gambling sites in Antigua.

I sat down at the President Casino’s $4/$8 game with only a little trepidation.  I more or less broke even in this game the last time I was here, with no awful swings.  I was avoiding the tourney this time since I fared so poorly in it last time.  As I took my seat, I noticed a young kid (who plays like a maniac) on my left who couldn’t stop talking to me.  I wished I’d brought an iPod.

Holy crap!  Doyle Brunson attempting to buy the World Poker Tour!

The only living man left who is the grand daddy of poker, and the tv show that created the poker boom, might possibly just merge.  Doyle Brunson has made a cash offer to buy outstanding shares of the publicly traded World Poker Tour for 100% premium over the current stock price.