PokerNews article #84

This one is about the problem of being too stubborn, in science and in poker.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/in-poker-being-stubborn-as-a-mule-can-make-you-a-donkey-22886.htm

King Ball

The biggest hand of my poker session yesterday:

From early position, I raised to $7 or $8 with A-K. Guy three seats to my left, who had overdosed on the scented body wash and/or cologne, called. The man with the love bird moved all in for about $70 from the big blind.

I was willing to call him for that much, on the assumption that he did not have aces or kings, and we would most likely be flipping. But I wanted to shut out Fragrant Man, so I moved all in myself, which was something like $400. After tanking for a while, Fragrant Man said, "Oh, what the hell," and called for about $170. Yikes. I just hoped that he didn't have any of my outs.

Cards revealed: 8-8 for Bird Man, 7-7 for Fragrant Man.

The flop was all bricks. No pairs for me, no draws for anybody.

Turn: More of the same. It was looking grim for me. I was set to lose about $70 to Bird Man, and about $100 on top of that to Fragrant Man.

But the Poker Pro circuitry took mercy on me, and delivered a king ball, corner pocket.

It's nice to get a little run-good at the perfect moment.

PokerNews article #83

This one is all about bar poker, a venue that poses unique challenges.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/seven-tips-for-success-at-tavern-poker-22829.htm

What's the strangest thing a player has ever brought to a poker room?

I have a new answer to that question as of today, thanks to a guy who was playing at Harrah's Cherokee this afternoon with Nina and me.

A pet bird.

Not in a cage.

Inside his shirt.

My awareness of this oddity began when I heard a brief, high-pitched "tweep," which Nina later correctly compared to the chirp a smoke detector makes when its battery is running low. I figured it was some sort of notification on somebody's smart phone, and didn't think much more of it.

But a few minutes later I heard it again, and was better able to localize the direction it was coming from. I looked at the guy, and there is a BIRD POPPING ITS HEAD OUT OF HIS SHIRT COLLAR.

Mind you, this was not a stuffed bird. It was not a toy bird. It was a real, living, honest-to-goodness pet bird--a peach-faced lovebird, to be exact.

It would pop in and out of his shirt. It was out for quite a long time, sitting on his lap, as he fed it some birdseed from a little tray that he had brought along. When it chirped for attention, he would stroke and kiss it gently and talk to it softly. The bird's name is Smokey. It bit him once, and got a mild scolding, but otherwise was very well behaved. It never tried to fly away.

I know what you're thinking: "Pics or it didn't happen."

Well, OK then:

He gave me permission to take this picture, but for some reason wanted to partially hide his face.

Here's a super-cropped close-up of the bird from another shot I took a few seconds later:

I wonder how many bird poops there are inside his shirt.

PokerNews article #82

This one is about the basic steps in identifying and correcting our poker mistakes.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/three-sure-fire-steps-to-improving-your-poker-skills-22769.htm

PokerNews article #81

Four things not to get upset over while playing poker.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/four-things-not-to-get-upset-about-at-the-poker-table-22710.htm

Historical trivia quiz

Everybody knows that the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was the Enola Gay, named for the mother of its pilot, Paul Tibbets. But flying ahead of the Enola Gay was another B-29, a weather reconnaissance plane. It found that the weather was perfect, and OK'ed the attack on the primary target. Had it been too cloudy for accurate targeting, they would have diverted to a secondary target.

What was the name of that aircraft?

First correct answer in the comments wins the internets for today.

Hint: This is a poker blog.

PokerNews article #80

Long piece on all the new poker tournament rules announced last week.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/new-poker-tournament-rules-you-need-to-know-22655.htm

Quotation of the day

"Poker has the feeling of a sport, but you don't have to do push-ups."

--Penn Jillette

PokerNews article #79

The right and wrong ways to play a splash-pot promotion.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/the-right-and-wrong-ways-to-play-a-splash-pot-promotion-22587.htm

PokerNews article #78

What skills give you your edge at the poker table? Do you even know?

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/very-particular-set-of-poker-skills-22528.htm

The poker of politics

Clever, interesting, and original look at the presidential race as a poker tournament:

http://www.pokerupdate.com/articles/lifestyle/08122-presidential-poker-tournament-field-grows-beyond-expectations/

PokerNews article #77

Some musings on the newest word in the poker lexicon, "upstuck."

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/are-you-winning-or-losing-it-doesn-t-matter-22478.htm

Sexism

I'm about a week late getting around to reading it, but this essay by Cate Hall (whom I had never heard of before) is perhaps the most thoughtful, articulate statement I've read on the problem of sexism in poker.

http://www.pokerwomennews.com/opinion-cate-hall-on-pokers-woman-problem/

I noticed how women are treated at poker tables as soon as I moved to Vegas and started playing regularly. Though I never attempted a formal tally, my impression was that often a majority of things said by men to women during a poker game (excluding those immediately necessitated by game play) were things that could not and/or would not have been said if she were male. That is, they either were explicitly about her sex, alluded to her sex, or were dependent for meaning on the fact that the person being addressed was female.

Look, I'm not the most sensitive, politically correct of souls. But the cumulative effect was sufficiently sledgehammerish that one would have to be a troglodyte not to notice it. Confronting it directly is problematic for a host of social and poker-strategic reasons. However, I decided early on that I could at least avoid contributing to it.

So I set in place a mental filter on my conversation. When I was thinking of saying something to a female player, I'd stop and consider whether my comment or question was in that category I described above--the sort of thing that I could not or would not say to a male player in the same situation. By lifelong habit, I already heavily filter and pre-censor my speech in public settings anyway, so it was not particularly difficult to add another layer.

Of course there are common-sense exceptions, such as responding to something a woman has herself brought up that falls into that category. And I don't claim to be 100% perfect in following my own rule. But I am pretty good about it, and can recommend the practice to my male readers.

You're not individually obligated to clean up the mess along the highways, but you are individually obligated not to make it worse by throwing your Big Gulp cup out the window as you drive. Similarly, you don't have to be the sexist-speech police at the poker table, but you should take care not to add to it. As Ms. Hall makes clear, any one remark you make to a woman may feel to you innocuous, and may objectively be innocuous, but there is still a cumulative effect on a woman of her gender being the subject or cause for much of what is being said to her. I am not capable of experiencing that as a woman would, but I am capable of imagining it. It's sufficient unpleasant just in imagination that it makes me not want to be even a minor contributor--especially when it's so easy to avoid.

A tangential confession: One of the summers (probably 2009) that I was doing some work for PokerNews on WSOP reporting, I was of necessity following the series much more closely than I typically do, and began noticing that there seemed to be an unusual number of very attractive women having success. I started going through the PokerNews photo archives for the series and picking out pictures to put together into a post on my own blog, titled something awful like "The hot women of the WSOP." I had worked on it for an hour or two when I started to get a sense of general creepiness about what I was doing, and stopped. The next day I opened the draft post again, looked at what I had put together and thought, "What the hell is wrong with you?" I deleted it forthwith. I was sufficiently embarrassed that I had ever thought that to be a good idea that I believe I have never even told anybody I had done it--until now. Well, at least I had the good sense to abort it when I did.

PokerNews article #76

This one is my little tribute to the writings of Mike Caro, from whom I have learned so much over the years.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/what-can-you-learn-from-an-old-school-poker-player-plenty-22423.htm

Knoxville, Tennessee

Nina and I went to Knoxville, TN, yesterday for her early birthday present of tickets to a James Taylor concert. We spent the day doing some sightseeing before the main event.

First we took a long walk through the lovely Ijams Nature Center. A log just a few feet from the Tennessee River was studded with hundreds of mushrooms. I decided this photo of some of them worked best in black and white:

This is a "geologic fold."

Bee on a sunflower:

This magnificent creature is a red-tailed hawk. It has an irreparably damaged wing, and therefore can't be released back into the wild, so the nature center rehabilitated it and uses it for education about raptors. Her name, unofficially, is Tiger.

Next we went up into the Sunsphere, a structure built for the 1982 World's Fair. I have no good photos from that part of the day.

Then it was on to the Knoxville Museum of Art, just a stone's throw from the Sunsphere. One intriguing piece was this one, by Devorah Sperber. It's constructed of spools of thread:

There's a spherical lens on a post in front of the work, and when you look through it, you see this:

This is one of the creepiest sculptures I've ever seen. It's made of silicone, and it's extraordinarily lifelike:

We had dinner at Sunspot, a funky restaurant on the edge of the University of Tennessee campus. Highly recommended if you're in the area.

And then the concert. I didn't try sneaking any videos, like a lot of people were doing. (See here, for example.) But it was great. Even after 45 years or so of performing and thousands of concerts, there was not a single second when I got the impression that he was "phoning it in." He looked and felt fully engaged with the music, his band, and the audience for every song. I'm delighted to have seen him live.

Except for the heat and the humidity--OMG, the humidity!--it was a thoroughly delightful day. I'm lucky to have had such a wonderful companion to share it with.

PokerNews article #75

One weird trick for instantly recovering from a bad beat.

That's right--I used the "one weird trick" thing.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/one-weird-trick-for-instantly-recovering-from-a-bad-beat-22370.htm

Color Run

There was a "Color Run" in my neighborhood this morning. I took some photos, which you can see here.

PokerNews article #74

Should you play poker with maniacs, or find a different table?

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/should-you-play-poker-with-maniacs-or-find-another-game-22318.htm

PokerNews article #73

On how superstition hurts your poker game.

http://www.pokernews.com/strategy/how-your-superstitious-beliefs-are-costing-you-money-22268.htm