Saturday, November 22, 2008

2009 Poker Bill in Texas Legislature?

You may recall from last year that Texas state representative Jose Menendez introduced a bill to legalize poker in Texas, but the bill died without being discussed or voted on.

It appears that he has revived the bill, now called the "Poker Gaming Act of 2009," with which he hopes to create safeguards for poker players and revenue for the state.

A few articles about the new bill can be found here and here. No doubt, more news will be coming soon. I expect our friends at Pokerati will be keeping a close eye on it as they did the previous bill. Be sure to check in there for updates.

In other news, I played some poker last week myself. I was invited to the Monthly Venue Championship tournament at my local Amateur Poker League venue, since I earned enough points with my second place finish in an October tourney to qualify. Things did not go my way in the MVC, though, and I busted in 15th place. I also played the Bodonkey on Thursday, but only made it to 13th. Not sure how much I will play this week but I'm sure I will get in some time at the virtual tables.

Just three weeks until the Vegas gathering; I'm very much looking forward to that. Don't forget to contact Falstaff if you are going to be there and want to get in on the private tourney.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

2008 WPBT Winter Classic tournament info

Great news for those of us headed for the WPBT Winter Classic gathering in Las Vegas next month: Falstaff has set up another private tournament at the Venetian for poker bloggers and their friends, fans and stalkers. Here is the info, shamelessly copied from his blog post:
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Here's the deal -

Private Blogger Tournament
Venetian Poker Room
Saturday, December 13th
3PM
$135 ($100 buy-in, $25 juice, $10 toke)

Please email me [Falstaff, not me] your real name and blogger name if you want in. I need to let Tim at the Venetian know by a week beforehand. If you have FOBs (friends of bloggers) who want in, let me know how many.

You have to have a Venetian Player's Card to play, so if you don't have one, get there early.

Bring knockout bounties, that's the coolest part of a blogger gathering.
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Hopefully you have Falstaff's e-mail address; if not, I guess you should leave a comment on his blog. I'm not one to post other people's e-mail addresses on my blog without knowing for sure that they are OK with it.

I hope to see you in Vegas and give you a shot at my bounty! Hint: it will be something related to my screen name, yestbay1.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Some small successes, and a short break

Last week was a pretty good one for me on the poker front. I made a 50 BB profit playing some cash NLHE, and finished third in the Thursday night Bodonkey game. The cash game was only $0.01/0.02, so my 50 BB gain only came to a buck. But I play so little NLHE ring game that it feels good to know I can outdonk the other microlimit donkeys once in a while.

The Bodog games have been hit and (mostly) miss so far for me, but I hung tight on Thursday and survived a couple of my own misplays to win $50 cash and T$50, for a nice profit in the series so far. Not to mention some leaderboard points towards the TOC in December.

I will miss both Bodog Blogger games this week due to activities with my son's high school marching band. We are going to Indianapolis this weekend for the Bands of America Grand Nationals championship competition. It should be an exciting trip.

See you next week!

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Coming up short

The Bodog Blogger tourneys last week were not shining moments for me. I played in both, and made the final table on Tuesday, but I was a very short stack and busted out shortly after the final table was set. I missed the T$11 rebate by one spot. Thursday wasn't even that close, with a 16th place finish out of 26. I don't expect to play in every tournament in the series, but I hope to perform well enough to have a shot at the Tournament of Champions in December.

I have also played a few of the Double-or-Nothing SNGs on PokerStars. I "won" the first one I played, i.e. I finished in the top five and won double my buy-in. "These are easy," I thought afterwards. Yeah, right. I played two more and didn't finish in the money in either one. I made a ridiculous play in the second one I lost, when I called all-in with JJ against another short stack who barely had me covered and there were bigger stacks behind me yet to act. When the whole point is to survive to the final five, and not to accumulate all the chips, there is no reason to call all-in with a hand like JJ. I should have let the bigger stack take out the other shortie and waited for someone else to bust, or for a much better hand to play.

I expect to play in at least one of the Bodonkey games this week, possibly both. Other than that, I will try a few very low buy-in tourneys on PokerStars to make up my losses in the Double -or-Nothing games. Falstaff has posted a question for anyone going to the Winter Classic in December, about who would play in a private tourney if one were organized. Head over there to post your response.