Hugo's Blogspotting: 20 March

Duke vs Leach

Annie Duke doesn’t really seem to play poker anymore. Instead she spends her time promoting and teaching at WPT Boot Camps and appearing in horrible poker-based TV shows with the likes of Phil Hellmuth.

I can’t imagine anything worse than one of these boot camps. What goes on at these things anyway? Somebody like Duke tells you that you must go all in with AK when the blinds are x/x and your stack is y. Some of us learnt those ancient secrets the hard way.

I would rather learn how to parlay my vast arsenal of poker skills into earning bucket-loads of money by “teaching” at a poker boot camp thingy…

One thing Annie does do these days, however, is testify in Washington on behalf of the poker industry and community which we should all be grateful for. Recently she appeared on some radio show with Jim Leach discussing the moral maze that is online poker. Who is Jim Leach I hear you all ask? Well, he’s the congressman who authored the UIGEA, aka the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.

From Annie’s blog here are some of the “points” that Mr. Leach made:

“There are a lot of people addicted to gambling and internet gambling just makes it worse. Internet gambling makes it so easy to gamble and then everyone just gambles their homes away.”

Annie supplies the now ex-congressman with some useful statistics proving that he hasn’t much of a leg to stand on. He counters with:

“Well, but, internet gambling is a hot bed of money laundering. Criminals are laundering money through these sites.”

To which Duke replies:

“Money could be laundered in any place where money changes hands. Are you going to ban the stock market?”

Well, I think she’s got you there Jim, what do you say to that?

“Well I know a guy who's family really got messed up by internet gambling. This kid got bankrupt and tried to rob a bank because of it.”

Oh so were at that point in the debate are we? “A friend of mine’s second cousin’s mother’s best friend got hooked on the play money at PokerStars and the next thing you know she was trying to knock off Fort Knox – and don’t forget those dang terrorists are all short-stacking the plo games and then funding the Taliban and Al Quaeda”. At least this guy isn’t in Congress anymore.

Annie Duke has her knockers (calm down at the front there) and has a reputation for being argumentative, but she seems to be the perfect choice to take on the UIGEA. Over/under on how many months before the UIGEA is overturned anyone?

Jump!

A quick look at some of the other blogs out there makes you realize that Jim Leach might have a point sometimes. Beanie at Always Bluff relates a tragic tale about a couple of young hotshots who built their shared account at Full Tilt to the mighty sum of $200k.

They show up at the Borgata in Atlantic City and lose the entire lot playing 300/600 limit poker.

“It was pretty clear that was all these kids had to the world. At one point the bigger kid starts getting real angry and upset, his face turned a color of red (this is what I was told) faces shouldn’t turn. At that point there was no reason in his mind. If you have never been to the Borgata it is all glass, in his rage he ran at the glass as hard as he could trying to jump out… …As he hit the glass his head hit first and since he was not the first destitute gambler to think of this particular way to die he bounced off of the glass knocking himself out cold.”

Now that’s what I call tilt.

Doyle vs Patrik

Meanwhile it seems that a misunderstanding has led to a gauntlet being thrown down and Doyle Brunson and Patrik Antonius are planning to play a heads up match. This may be the most anticipated match since Ali v Foreman or something like that.

Antonius has said that Doyle can choose the game which sounds like it will suit the Big Poppa fine:

“I think he made a mistake when he said, “I’ll play him any game for any amount.” I’ve got 7-10 different games, all of which I’ve played in Las Vegas casinos for high stakes, that I’m willing to commit to for at least a seven figure match. There will be no animosity between us; we are both pros who love a good gamble. It will be interesting if he accepts and I’m sure we will both have a great time playing.”

Aside from this dick swinging contest Brunson is in Ireland attending the historic Irish Open. Seeing as this tournament has been around for a while Doyle must have some good memories of it:

“I can still remember playing for 36 hours, going home and sleeping for 10 hours, coming back and the same people were still playing. I sat down and when another player tried to join us a jeweler named Melvin said “oh, no fresh players can join us, we are too tired.” They didn’t even notice I had slept and come back. Great spot, huh? Don’t worry, they broke me.”

The Prince

TJ Cloutier has been in Vegas playing at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. He witnessed a hand between Jean “The Prince” Gaspard and another player. For those of you who have never been to Vegas, Gaspard is a regular ducker and diver on the poker scene there and like TJ has a fondness for the dice. In other words, he’s a gambler.

“In this particular hand, everybody passed to the small blind before the flop, who raised with a 5-4. Prince called him with a J-10. The flop came 8-7-7. The small blind needed a 6 to make an inside straight, and Prince needed a 9. The SB bet $5,000 on the flop, and Prince called him with no pair, only an inside-straight draw. Sure enough, here came a 6 on fourth street. The SB led out with $11,000 with his made straight. And Prince called him! Guess what happened on the river: Off came a 9 and he doubled up on the end.”

TJ describes Prince as,

“a very good player and a nice guy.”

Is That a Threat or are You Just Happy to See Me?

So it’s very likely that the Prince took down the pot quietly and there was no drama unlike this story from exsnowman’s blog. It appears that our hero, exsnowman, was playing at a live tournament at the Empire Casino in London. After losing a hand he mucks his cards without showing. Nothing unsual there. Apart from another player at the table thought that his cards must be shown and went into the muck to turn them over.

This is well out of order and I can’t really blame exsnowman for slapping this curious player’s hands as he dug into the discards. Of course, all hell broke loose.

“You fucking fuck!” he shouts at and then proceeds to garble some other nonsense along the lines of “I will fuck your face”.

Well I must say I have heard some strange things at the poker table in my time, but I’ve never had anyone threaten to fuck my face.

Exsnowman gets a ruling and the player is told he is in the wrong. Although it doesn’t sound like a proper telling off:

“I was so annoyed at the staff because instead of being firm with this guy, who was clearly in the wrong, all the guy could say to him was ‘chill out’ and ‘it’s only a game’

Hmmm, remind me not to play at the Empire. Don’t they realize that poker is not “just a game”, it’s life and death for fuck’s sake….

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

Check out Poker Verdict's Blog Directory here