Pimping Glenn

I'm often trying to pimp Glenn. I've advertised many times for a hooker to do some pinch hitting for me. Unfortunately there are no takers ;)

Today I'll pimp him in another way. He has a new post. I know, shocking and unexpected, but true nevertheless.

I think it's a goodie, a keeper. He's my hero.

Felicia :)

I am Retarded

I have some things to say today, and I think, in the end, I'm probably going to just keep posting. Check back often if you are interested.

One of my weaknesses as a child and young adult was that I had a hard time apologizing. I didn't really do it correctly when I had done nothing wrong, yet was obligated to offer condolences (death in the family, mistake by a co-worker, etc), nor did I apologize correctly when I was completely wrong. I was very socially awkward in those situations.

I had a life change when I was about 23 or 24. I won't go into it, but my life completely turned around from being an unhappy codependent, to a peaceful, healthy, adjusted person. I learned to apologize.

When I apologize, I am sincere. Yes, I am one of those people who will apologize to someone if I drew out on him in some kind of miracle hand. And I mean it. If he is a good natured player, I will stand up and shake his hand, murmur some words of comfort, whatever. I like to see the best hand and/or the best play stand up.

Today I want to apologize about some of the words I use. Regardless of what others may say, words can truly harm, and be a weapon if used to hurt others. They can also be a shield, a defense, and a way to diffuse the vehemence of their meaning.

A blogger who works with mentally handicapped adults was, and probably still is, offended and hurt by my use of retarded or retard. I don't blame him. For fifteen years, I was offended by inappropriate use of that word myself! I apologize for my constant non-politically correct use of that word. I am not PC in the slightest, nor will I ever be, but I truly do not want to hurt others with words.

Now I will explain why I use certain words, and why over usage of them diffuses the penetration of the harm they can cause.

When I was in grade school, I volunteered to help and spend time with the mentally and physically handicapped children in our school. Our school was the grade school designated for handicapped children. I spent my free periods and lunches with the kids, and said that I wanted to go into that field when I got older (along with several other career choices I thought I wanted to go into).

Once I got to middle school, we weren't the designated school anymore, but then in high school, I was able to go back to my same grade school and continue volunteering.

When I turned 18, I was able to work for the state, and immediately got a job at the Emmaus Home, due to my past experiences. The Emmaus home is a great place for mentally handicapped adults. It is a full-time home, and is divided along IQ lines up to about a 65 IQ. I loved this line of work, but as many of you know, it paid nothing.

In my early twenties, I worked for a little over a year at Blue Cross. BC offered many continuing education courses, and I jumped at the opportunity to take all of them. My job was a dead end job and very boring. I was eager to move out of my department.

One of the courses offered was Medical Terminology. The words may look long and scary, but taken apart, they are usually pretty easy to figure out. During this two week course, I believe we were taught 300 medical terms.

On the first day of the course, our instructor explained that the government, military and many medical schools had found out that if something is shocking, scary or completely non-PC, it cements itself in the mind more than traditional learning methods. It can be memorized more easily, and for much longer. Some medical schools had found that the way of teaching students most effectively, and in such a short period of time, was to shock them, basically. So BC decided to use this method with us.

For the 300 medical terms we were taught, we were shown slides of each one. They were gory, scary, completely non-PC and sometimes even funny, in a shocking way.

But it worked. Almost everyone got a perfect 300 out of 300 on the final.

This is when I learned that doing something repetitively and shockingly helps diffuse a horrible situation. For instance, when I talked about having cancer in the most blunt, shocking and disgusting manner, it took some of the sting out of the situation. Laughing at myself helped even more. The parodies and pictures posted by other bloggers that were completely over the top proved a great method of coping. Laughter is really great medicine, and it worked for me.

After years of being offended by the misuse of the word "retard" and "retarded" by others, I learned to diffuse the weapon of the word by using it inappropriately myself! Shocking, disgusting, horrible misuse of the word rendered it meaningless and painless. TO ME, that is.

The same can be said about my misuse of other words like God, Christ, Hell, WFT, STFU, Eff and a slew of other politically incorrect and/or abusive words. I used them over and over again, in terrible situations, and they did not offend me anymore.

But, they DO offend others, and for that, I apologize sincerely.

Will I stop using them? No. I have to cope, and that is my way of coping, to laugh at the idiots I run into who are a billion times stupider than the so-called "retarded" adult. Mentally handicapped people are by far superior to these morons. I love the mentally handicapped greatly. They are the most loving, kind human beings I have ever known. The idiots that I call "retards" are NOT.

We all need methods of coping. I cope by ranting, misusing words that are shocking and non-PC and by laughing. Even my most serious posts have tons of hidden humor in them, although my readers don't always see it that way, or laugh along with me. I hide humor inside of the rants, and some either think it is completely unintentional, or don't see it at all. It's because I'm warped, dangit! I'm completely ready for the nuthouse. Oops, another non-PC word there, methinks.

Sounding this mentally unstable (is that a better word for "nuts?" LOL) is not an easy job for me. Okay, I lied, it is. But seriously, with all of my flaws, I have my head screwed on pretty tight. I keep waiting for some professional to say I don't. I keep thinking I'm going to run into a psychologist, psychiatrist or mental health professional who can diagnose that I don't have it together, but I'm always disappointed. It would be easy to rant and rave while claiming I have "mental problems" (another PC term for crazy?). Unfortunately, however, no matter how many docs I talk to, they all seem to think that being so blunt, honest and abrupt might make public life awkward for me, but I have my shite together more than the average bear. They seem to think the venting and releasing of anger is actually very healthy. Go figure!

Now the part about me that shoulda-been-a-guy, that is a whole different matter. The docs can't figure that one out. Is it male or female? It is a shaved down Bigfoot, methinks.

Felicia :)

PS: to be continued...

Can't You Read, You Moron?

After a day of relative peace, the hate mail is starting to roll in again.

A funny one I just received is from a guy on the east coast. One of the bleeding hearts who thinks I shouldn't say anything negative, ever, true or not. I should attempt to sugar-coat my journal, my life and the poker world. Kumbaya, buddy.

After he curses me out (pot.kettle.black.), he starts ranting about things that either have nothing to do with me at all, or things that he thinks I place myself "above." Obviously reading comprehension is missing a little bit with this genius, since some of the very things he thinks I'm putting others down for are the things I admit to doing myself, all the time. Oh, will they ever learn?

Not the brightest tool in the shed, after all of that, he is still reading my journal! Um, okay.

I think I have the Howard Stern effect on people. They hate me, but they just can't stand to look away for a minute, thinking they might miss something.

The more people I tell to leave, the more people COME. Rubberneckers. I guess having a double digit IQ somehow attracts people to trainwrecks.

Since the guy was so vehement in his attack, I went to look at his blog, which I'd never been to before. Um, no wonder.

Broken links, misspelled words, incorrect grammar. Horrible, horrible boring stories, hand histories and bad beat tales. Ugh, no mystery why he has no visitors. I practically heard the crickets chirping in there, it's so dead. No wonder I never stumbled upon his site, no one has him linked! Even the lemmings can't bring themselves to stoop that low.

Can't write, can't play. Oy, what a life. I actually feel somewhat sorry for him.

With all of his threats, I wonder if he'll approach me at some get together. He'll know what I look like, but I'll have no clue. I'd bet a billion to one that he doesn't have the balls to say in person what he said in his hate rant.

And people wonder why I distanced myself so much from the so-called "poker blogging community."

Matt, you'd better do something, quick! I think we're running a photo finish here in the hate department.

Watch, next I'll be getting death threats again.

Omaha 8 in Vegas

Ah, I feel better today! I'm one of those people who immediately gets angry and vents, and then it's all over. My Dad is like that, too, and I used to think he had MPD or something. He would be ranting and raving one minute, then asking us if we wanted Dunkin' Donuts the next.

Unfortunately I had to get rid of a few people, but I suppose that is to be expected. They didn't want to unsubscribe themselves, but they wanted to waste my time arguing about how I STILL wasn't posting in the manner THEY insisted I post. Because the Internet has gotten so polluted with losers, it's fortunate that almost every chat, mail or journal software has an "ignore" feature today. In the olden days (LOL) it was almost impossible to ignore someone. We literally had to change our nicknames/e-mail addresses, etc.

Another odd thing I find about my ranting is that certain people tend to come out of the woodwork when I'm angry, and no other time. People who don't normally IM me, e-mail me or comment on the journal will say something like, "Oh, awesome! Go get 'em! I love it when you're this mad!" No, they aren't "yes" men or suck-ups, either. Like I said, they only have something to say when I go off the hook. It's like they are addicted to the heat. Maybe they are frustrated at their jobs, their home situation, something. They love it when I completely fly off the handle. Not sure if that is a good thing or not, lol.

So today I'm going to talk about the state of live O8 in Vegas, and review the rooms that I like, and the rooms I don't like. This is a purely subjective thing. For instance, I might walk into a room in Vegas which has three O8 tables going, full out, lots of monkeys swinging around the chandeliers and make lots o' money. Tomorrow, you might walk into that very room, find it deserted, with no O8 to be found. So I can only review what I know, personally.

Cardrooms change all the time, every day. Nothing is static in the casino and/or poker world.

1) Wynn--this is the best room for O8, IMO. Usually one table of 10/20 half kill will get started around noon. The daytime players tend to be too tight and semi-passive, even shorthanded. Just one fish can make the game. A second, must-move game gets started later in the day on busy days and weekends. Usually both are good, which is more than I can say for most must-move games. Wynn has no BBJD, so you are saving yourself a dollar plus every hand you are dealt in (the table collectively). The cocktail waitresses are always in a good mood, and have outstanding outfits on. They are a pleasure to look at, whether you are female or male. The service is fast and usually fantastic. Make sure to get a card, you will be paid $1.50 for every hour you play 10/20 ($2.00 for anything higher, I believe), and don't despair if you don't have enough on your card to get a comp. The poker room is very liberal about giving you a little credit, so that you can enjoy the buffet, french bakery, or tableside service, which is almost always served with a smile, regardless of how small your tip is (I'm a cheapskate and only tip a dollar).

Wynn is pretty much the only poker room which doesn't treat it's players like scumbag degenerates. We are human, and we are real "customers" to them, in general. Even the Omaha players, lol. Floorpeople will smile in return and wave or greet us by name if we extend the first courtesies.

If you aren't playing at Wynn when you are in Vegas, you are missing the best O8 room in town.

2) Bellagio--Sometimes this is the best O8 action in town, other times it is the worst. It tends to lean towards worst except during big festivals, some weekends, late evenings or if you play it in a mixed rotation. The floorpeople can be so foo-foo, so elitist, so bribed, so bitter, so rude that it will put you on tilt before you even sit in the game. The locals will further degrade your session if you sit at the wrong time.

But when it's good? Oh, boy, is it good! You will be playing 20/40 half kill. The monkeys are swinging when it is capped pre-flop most hands. You can just sit, sit, sit, then rake in the chips. They won't slow down, or even consider that you have a lock. Just sit patiently and wait for them to pay you off.

You might want to bring an mp3 player if you are going to attempt this nutfest of a game. The whole vibe of Bellagio could screw up a person's mentality for years.

3) Orleans--I hate Orleans, and recently they have had some kind of sewer problem, which makes most of the poker room smell like someone just took a huge dump, which isn't that much worse than the way it smelled before. It is one of the few poker rooms I wish would go back to smoking, to hide the horrible smell of some of the locals.

It is also a weird place for O8. During the day, there are a ton of regulars. Oddly enough, I tend to make more off of those players than the wild monkey dealers who frequent the night shift. The rocks of daytime are hilarious. I have never heard some of the crazy chat anywhere else but Orleans. For instance, one thing that I have found in almost every Orleans game is some kind of table coach who tells everyone the odds. But the odds are the most screwed up odds I've ever heard. For instance, we are in a 1/2 blind NLHE game. I raise it to $10 before any limpers. Someone behind me who has still to act says something like, "Well, I was going to fold, but now you've given me odds to call. I'm getting 13:1 here."

They never calculate HOW MUCH they have to put in the pot. They just count the pot, then say "13:1." I think to them the "one" means "one player," haha!

The math at Orleans is always like that when I play. There is always one guy who tells everyone the crazy odds he just made up.

At night, I find games with me and ten white shirts. The white shirts seem to know each other and have all just gotten together after dealing their respective shifts. They play like dealers and tend to cap on many betting rounds. Although they are dealers, they still have to look at their cards at least five times per hand, but at least they act fast. The number of hands dealt in this type of game, for how multi-way every pot is, and how many chips fly into every pot, is amazing. If you are looking for action and speed, head out to Orleans past 10pm.

The drinks are terrible, cocktail service is terrible, dealers are terrible, the whole place is disgusting, but I still go there sometimes. It is definitely profitable O8, with tons of tables, tons of games, lots of action, and horrible, horrible players.

4) Stations Casinos--Stations can be the greatest place to play, or the worst, on any given day. Heck, any given hour. It tends to lean most likely to worst. They are the redneck-riviera cardrooms, and mostly reflect as such via the clientele and the staff in the cardroom. The better properties have chosen to leave "station" off of their name altogether, and who can blame them?

Call any given Stations property to find out if they have O8 running. Sometimes it will just be Omaha high, other times they have quite a few O8 tables. It's hit & miss, so CALL FIRST.

Most of the time, you will find rocks during the day, and grouchy dealers, abusive patrons, drunks and degenerates at night. The games can be absolutely wonderful at night, with dealers playing an entire O8 hand blind, capping every round. You can sit and be blinded down for hours, and then be a significant winner for the night after one pot.

If you are looking for an abusive cardroom, hunt out some of the Station properties. Boulder and Palace come to mind first, followed by Texas, Fiesta and Sunset. You can experience both dealer abuse and abuse towards other players. You will get to see fistfights and huge threats, given enough play in any one property.

Be careful at Texas or Fiesta (West). My Stepdad was a security guard at Texas for six years and was shot at many times. That is gang territory, and in the lot behind the parking area, gang members take pot shots at patrons and staff. His security truck was riddled with bullet holes. Just park in the garage and you will be more safe. Nothing is guaranteed, though. You might get robbed, beat up or have a million dollar bullet wound in your butt if you test your luck long enough.

Felicia :)

State of the Union

I should be out in my garden. I should be doing something productive and healthy. Instead I am stuck in here in my lazy-boy, laptop on my legs, typing a post into this journal. Why am I doing that? Because I'm angry, and when I'm angry, nothing is going to be good until I get the anger out of my system.

I suppose that every few months I should have some kind of public address post. I can just copy and paste it from the last time, and save myself a lot of work. It seems like I have gotten a lot of new readers lately on both LJ and blogger. So they somehow assume things about me which absolutely are not true.

I am just me. I am absolutely 100% genuine. There is no "online persona" or shtick that I have. My name really is Felicia, and I really talk and act this way in real life. I'm not bragging about it, believe me, no one more-so than myself would rather be able to "go along to get along" and all of that liberal, PC tree hugging hippy bleeding heart Kumbaya stuff. I make my life more difficult because it's just me, not some fake wannabe.

I'm not cool, I've never been cool, I don't want to be cool and those readers who pander to me and try to make me into some icon sicken me more than the haters.

I write what I believe. Sure, every once in a while I'll do a joke type post, but even those are often laced with lots of truth (a recent example would be the "Will I Like You?" post).

I don't have ads because of me, not because I necessarily think they are evil or selling out. Some people can accept ad offers, and then stay true to themselves and their writing. I can't. I'd feel some kind of pressure to change and be more socially acceptable. That's just me. I'm not trying to be Joan of Arc or some kind of heroine. The only ad I absolutely feel is "evil" and that people should not place on their sites is the poker source one. And that is a long, drawn out history with 2+2 and a lot of scams. I hate to see people get ripped off, but it is not my place to tell them what to do. They puts up the ads, they takes their chances.

People often feel that I am going to be "normal" in person. I am not normal in any way, shape or form. I am not a sheep, I don't have the herd mentality. If you come up to me, approach me, I am going to stay me, not some kind of pansy. If you start talking on your cell phone, you know what, I'm just going to walk away. There is appropriate cell phone usage and inappropriate. If you interrupt my conversation with you to use that frigging thing, you have lost my presence. You have lost my friendship, conversation, advice, help, money or anything else that you ever had with me. If you are a cell phone dumper, I will never speak to you again. That's just the fact, I am rude about it. I will not put up with any inappropriate cell phone usage. Most people don't want to be around me anyway, so really, you aren't missing out on much.

If you start gossiping or acting like your life is more important than mine around me, I will also walk away. I don't care. Your life is no more important than mine or anyone else's in this world, and I simply won't stand for it. I probably won't go off on you, I most likely will not make a spectacle of the situation, I will simply leave. You aren't worth my time. Go find some other idiots to gossip with.

If I don't like you online, what makes you think I'm going to like you in person? If we have had any type of problems online, like you flaming me, gossiping about me on your site, others' sites, or to other people, what makes you think I'm going to act PC and polite in person? Don't even approach me, because you are not going to like what you find. I am no more polite in person as I am online, and if you make a point to approach me while I am in public and/or in a social setting, I'm not going to "behave properly." Don't approach the bull unless you are ready to tangle with the horns. I will not be "nice."

If you are so tenderhearted that you cannot take the tone on the LJ site, please leave. I am not writing for you, I'm writing for me. It is an honor and privilege for you to read my private thoughts. Just like it is an honor and privilege for me to read YOUR private thoughts, if you have a journal. There is no way in hell that I would ever attack YOUR private thoughts, regardless of how much I disagree with them. Why? Because honest, candid, private thoughts can never be WRONG. If you are truly letting me into your world, your head, nothing you say can make me angry or upset. It is an honor that you will let me in. I'm not going to look a gifthorse in the mouth.

So I expect the same respect in return. If, for some reason, you find yourself unable to give that type of respect, leave. Leave LJ, leave Blogger. Don't read what I write. Because if you come down on me, on my own, personal journal, you will receive in return 10x what you dished out. I will not tolerate it in any way, shape or form. I will attack, and that is the truth. You want action, you might just get it. Sure, I normally ignore random, idiot, harmless trolls, but if you have escalated way beyond that level, you should expect to take anything you have dished out, in spades. Just don't go there, you don't want to get into it with me. It's not just some random threat, it is a promise. I will not ignore true criminals.

I keep this journal public because I truly try to help people. I don't want credit, I don't want recognition, I don't want stardom or fame. I write for me, privately, and share it with you, publicly. Lots of times I get e-mail asking me to write for a publication. Cover a tourney. Can something be used in Cardplayer? I mostly say no. The articles of mine which have been used for different publications, I have asked to remain anonymous. No, I don't even want my name in CP. Why? Because that is not my goal. If my posts can help others by being published in a magazine, that is great, but I don't need my name to be attached. Heck, I'm not even getting paid, so why bother? I mostly just tell people to copy & paste what I have written, and have at it. No problem. I don't need my name in lights.

And for those who think it's some kind of fear? That I'm "wanted" or scared of having my name published...um, ever notice that I use my REAL name here and on 2+2? If I wanted to remain anonymous, I certainly wouldn't use my real name.

I don't go around to sites trying to be recognized or praised. If someone links to me, I try to thank him or her, but I don't ever ask or begged to be linked. I don't ask people to sign up under my name on poker sites. I don't endorse a single one. If someone says something positive about a post I've written, I try to go to their site and thank them personally. If they flame something I've written, I usually ignore it. If it is more of a constructive type criticism, I usually thank them and try to explain what I was thinking, where I went wrong, etc. I never, ever go to their site and flame them in return or retaliation.

When I rant and rave, it is usually never at a particular person or site. It is usually a build-up of a lot of sites or people in my life, who choose to step on my toes. I don't personally attack an idiot. Idiots are idiots and won't change, so why bother?

If someone starts threatening me, I usually overreact. After all, if I am true and genuine online, I expect they are, too. So if they threaten my life, I take them at face value and start freaking out. Most of them are FOS, and I don't realize it until I have already gone ballistic. Despite the threats on my life, property and person, not one of those wannabe honchos has made good on his scare. I keep waiting, but I'm still here, not buried in the desert somewhere.

I am never going to be popular, liked, loved or even respected. There are too many morons in the world for anything like that to ever happen. I dance to a different drummer and always have. I am not going to go along like a sheep. I won't follow you off of a cliff like a lemming. Any kind of pressure, so called "peer pressure" or other tactics will backfire. You will not threaten or pressure me into conforming. If you try to bring some kind of slander or libel lawsuit against me because of something I've said or written, I will not bow. Bring it on, I'll see you in court. It's pretty hard to prove slander or libel if it's TRUE, you idiot. Don't play with me, I will NOT back down.

No matter what you think, I'm going to continue to post what I want to post. I will rant and rave, I will go off on little, stupid injustices I see in the poker world. I will repeat continually whatever the f*ck I want to repeat, I will go to get togethers if I want to go, when I want to go, if invited. I will also sit home when I'm not digging them or don't feel well. I will talk to you if I want to talk to you and you want to talk to me. I will join tourneys when I want to join them or sit out when I don't. I will not be threatened or pressured.

I will write what I want, when I want. If you don't like it then leave. I am not forcing you to read. I am not chaining you to my site in any way whatsoever. Just GTFO or STFU. Makes no difference to me (although I'd rather see you leave than to stay at a place that you clearly don't enjoy).

I have an excellent life, I have a wonderful husband and three dogs. I am happy and content. I have everything I could ever have wished for in childhood. Sure, I am angry, I don't hold back my feelings. I don't hold anything back. Keeps me from migraines. I vent, vent, vent. I rant and rave, I scream and holler. I repeat poker injustices over and over again until I am blue in the face and everyone is sick of reading them. But that is ME. I won't change for you, I don't expect you to change for me. Get used to it and take it for what it's worth, or leave. It's an open door, the choice is yours.

Felicia

Two Poker Blog Pet Peeves

Since I always seem to get a lot of love, hugs and kisses when I rant, I'll address two of my pet peeves today about blogging and poker.

I cannot even count the number of blogs I've been to over the past three years that attempt these two train wrecks. One of them is posting in metaphors.

The best writers in the world can't make this one interesting, IMO. I have to say that this peeve is more subjective than the other one. I have talked to some readers who love those types of posts. I'm just not one of them. When a blogger takes one of his favorite, non-poker books and tries to make it into a poker game, poker site, poker room, poker experience or poker story, I just skip to the next blog. It is that horrible.

These types of posts usually start out with a subject line like, "Poker is For Whom the Bell Tolls," by Hemmingway. They use metaphors and occasionally one will use similes, but they will go through the book, movie, hobby point-by-point and try to be either humorous, or creatively convince the reader that the subject really is a metaphor for poker. The post inevitably includes used, tired cliches from either the information source or poker sources such as books and quotes from days gone by.

It is boring, it is played out, and it usually doesn't even make sense, at the best of times. I have never read even one of these metaphoric posts that is mildly readable.

Someone asked me to write a post something like, "Why Gardening is Like Poker," or "Gardening is Poker."

Um, no. That would sound just as dry, stupid, humorless, boring and played out as the other poker metaphors.

The second type of post that should not be attempted by anyone other than professionals is the "live blogging" post.

My GOD, do they realize how horrible these posts are?

I'm not sure, but I think maybe this started with Pauly. Just an FYI for all of you copycats out there: YOU'RE NOT PAULY!

Don't do this. For the love of God and man, do NOT attempt this anymore. If you want to turn a mildly boring poker blog into an absolutely unreadable poker blog, you will be on the right track if you decide to hit this one up.

The closest I have ever come to deleting every, single poker blog I have in my favorites and on Bloglines is when there was some, "Hey, he did it so we all have to copy him, because we're mindless, boring sheep and lemmings and if one blogger jumps off the cliff we will all jump" phase when dozens of bloggers decided to "live blog" a poker event.

Lord in heaven, why don't you think for a minute? One, you're not even playing B&M, you're playing an ONLINE FREEROLL or micro buy-in event. Not even Charles Dickens could pull this one off successfully. You sound like the perfect cure for insomnia!

Two, no matter how cute or witty you think you are, you cannot write like Pauly or Joe Speaker. Please don't try. Please, if you have ever had a single, coherent thought in your adult life, think about what you are writing. It is NOT good. It isn't even readable. If someone leaves you a comment about what a great job you did live posting, they will be the first person to ask you for a buy-in soon. Or ask you to link them up. You aren't getting compliments, they are just stroking your ego before they move in for the kill.

I would rather go see you attempt some extreme sport that should not be attempted by amateurs than to read this type of nightmare.

Poor Pauly, when he went around reading blogs and saw that he had been copied all over the blogesphere in some horrible attempt at live blogging he must have puked up a little bit of bile in the back of his throat. "My GOD! What have I created? Zombies, zombies for crissakes!"

So I guess in summary, I would say that my best advice to aspiring poker bloggers is to carefully read over what you write, and ask yourself, "If someone else posted this on his blog, would I like it? Would I be bored or entertained? Would I go back, or shudder in horror and delete the blog from memory?"

If this is not something you would read on someone else's blog, why would you post it on yours???

Felicia :)

Random On-Topic and Off-Topic Thoughts

I'm really good at the potpourri stuff, so this might end up as a disjointed, rambling post.
--------------------------------
One of my pet peeves online (and I guess in RL, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone do this in RL), is when a person refers to themselves as their nickname, and their family with sub-nicknames.

Like if I say I'm "Studdy," and I refer to myself as "Studdy" in my journal. I refer to my husband as "Mr. Studdy" or "SO Studdy" ("Better half Studdy" you get the picture). I refer to my kid as "Little Studdy," "Baby Studdy," "Tiny Studdy."

I wonder if people realize how retarded they sound. WTF is wrong with using your real name, for god's sake, and the name of the people around you? Glenn is Glenn, not one of a million stupid, moronic, idiotic nicknames that I can come up with.

Unless someone is being stalked on the Internet, feels seriously threatened for his life or is worried about his job, I don't think saying, "My name is David, my wife is Alice" is a really big issue. Paranoid people are rampant online. Deleted posts, changed names, worrying that your "family" will stumble upon your site...

While there are some legitimate reasons for maintaining anonymity, I feel most of the world should just be themselves online. All of this posturing is done just to make them feel important because they lack self esteem. Yes, this is only MY opinion. Yes, I truly believe this. Grow some balls, then we can talk.
--------------------------------
I used to tell poker players that in limit, you can't force a win. Anyone claiming to win 90, 80, 75% of their sessions were either very new, or liars.

Today things have changed somewhat. Given enough time at the tables, you really can win a larger percentage of sessions. The variance swings around so greatly during an individual session. If I had Glenn do a graph of winning, limit sessions over the past five years, I'd bet my house that his session winrate has increased.

Obviously this is live poker I'm talking about, since one rarely stays at the same table, same game for hours online.
--------------------------------
I have a challenge for all of the whiners out there. If you are always bellyaching and crying about your "bad beats," I challenge you to write up five "good beat" stories for every bad beat you tell. I'm not talking about when you GIVE someone a bad beat, I'm talking about when you were a significant favorite at the beginning of the hand, and you won the pot.

I think it is odd and warped that so many players remember every bad beat they've ever taken for years, yet can usually not list the hands they won, which should far outweigh the supposed "bad beats." Somehow the pots they won fade in their minds and become insignificant, while the beats they take sear their brains into eternity.

If you can turn this around, I think you will benefit from it both mentally and economically. Don't believe me? Go to the blog of a world class player. What DON'T you see? You don't see a lot of bellyaching about so-called bad beats. You might see him talk about a beat he took, but it is written in order to flesh out the story, or to balance the account of what happened in a session. You will also see that number or lots more of good pots won, or stories about winning tournaments with no real premium hands, or without going all-in once.

That is the difference between a world-class player and whining, mostly losing bloggers. A "bad beat" complaint is usually an indicator of bad play.
--------------------------------
Ray Zee was commenting on some of the O8 posts on 2+2 today. He stays pretty in-touch with 2+2 as a whole, for someone who retired and moved to Montana to get away :)

He is always willing to help people out, and I think that makes the forum that much better.

One point he brought up once again was adjusting. Today's players just don't seem to want to adjust to their surroundings. They want to read a book and receive the magic pill. They want to play the same way, no matter the circumstances, all the time. They do not adjust to the individual game, their table, their image or the times we live in. They think they should be able to read Ray's book, and then just play by some certain rote way which will always maximize their EV.

This is real life, guys.

I'm not sure if they lack of adjustment is because of the boom of poker, or the boom of Internet poker. Switching on a dime seems simply impossible for most players.

I can empathize. I absolutely cannot switch up my tourney game, no matter what. I can switch it up some in low buy-in events, or if my table is folding too much to my image, but I can't seem to play any differently whatsoever in a high buy-in event, no matter the way I got in (paid cash, satellite or freeroll), no matter the game (Razz, Stud, Stud 8, Omaha 8, NLHE), no matter the structure or starting chips. I'm like a deer frozen in headlights. I just won't budge.
--------------------------------
So there you have it. Just some interlude while I work on my Omaha series.

Now it's back to the storm...

Felicia :)