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One of Andy Bloch’s hobbies is collecting poker books. Over the years, he had read and photocopied some very old poker texts, but David Sklansky inadvertently jump-started his interest at the 2005 World Series. David had offered Howard Lederer several first-edition copies of HOLD ‘EM POKER. This was the book I described in the STRATEGY GUIDE as follows:
This skinny book had a goofy cover, a typeface like a ransom note – and most of the concepts I have learned from the fifty to one hundred poker books I have read since (and the one you are reading now).
It was truly a revolutionary book in the history of games and strategy, pre-dating SUPER/SYSTEM and probably more applicable than Doyle’s treatise to the games most players would be playing in the Seventies, Eighties, Nineties, and even now. It went through numerous revisions and most players swear by his (and Mason Malmuth’s) HOLD ‘EM POKER FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS, which is more recent, more recently updated, and the result of more experience in both playing and publishing. (Of course, the Two Plus Two library is filled with other materials to elbow aside David’s first book.) If you read it today, however, I challenge you to tell me it’s still not extremely valuable, especially for newer players.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve got a horse in $120 + $9 NLHE KO FTOPS Event (#8) on Sunday at 14:00 ET. Or a goat.
It’s Julius_Goat, the runner-up in the “Michael Craig is Giving it Away” contest. (And yes, I will be writing about all the other entries, as well as a more complete report of the action in Event #1, but I’m friggin’ busy here.)
Julius (a/k/a Andrew) has a blog, The Goat Speaks, and a great sense of humor. Flimsier qualifications have supported poker-writing careers.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
As I was rushing home to make the start of the event, I received a cell call that appeared to be from Roxana, Ted Forrest’s girlfriend. I said hello and was surprised to hear Ted’s voice.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
I’m writing this as FTOPS VII Event #4 is about to begin. It’s PLHE and, of course, I’ve decided at the last minute to enter. My results so far look depressingly like the prevous FTOPSes, but everything looks a little different and maybe even better.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
By 7:02 PM, two minutes after the start, I was in touch with both contest winners, Theresa (TedForrestFan) and Sammy (sammymorb). Both mentioned their sense of anticipation. Theresa, who regularly plays small-stakes cash games, spent the afternoon playing MTT SnGs, trying to adjust. Sammy confessed to being “nervous, anxious.” “Woke up an hour early this morning, ready to throw up.” He read up on pro tips while he was at work.
I know that most readers of this blog are poker players, though I don’t know your reaction to this. Have you gone through this yourself? Have you played these events and not felt that way? Have you not playing $200+ buy-in events and wondered what it felt like? Do you think it’s silly getting worked up over such a thing?
Me, I understand exactly how they feel. I get that way myself, even now.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
TedForrestFan outlasted me. I outlasted sammymorb. Sammy outlasted AMERICAN IDOL. And we all outlasted David Benyamine, who I busted by luring him into trying a giant bluff. It was a wild night of big hands, tough decisions, camaraderie, and strategy. And it lasted just one hour and fifty-eight minutes.
I’m putting this entry together throughout the day on Thursday, Feb. 7, the day after the event. Because I’m also running errands, picking up kids, watching Event #2 – PLO KO – and playing in Event #3, preparing a comprehensive narrative of the experience of Event #1 and posting it quickly is just impossible. And it’s going to be longer than a single post anyway, so I’d rather ship you as much as I can as fast as I can, compared with crafting the entire spellbinding story but not delivering it until a much later date. Also, I’m getting lots of requests for pictures of Theresa (TedForrestFan) who won one of my contest entries on the claim of a resemblance to the red-headed avatar and a promise to display that resemblance.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
I had not made a provision for a runner-up in the contest. In fact, I decided to give out a second prize only after I saw the quantity and quality of entries (and I won the Sunday HORSE, giving me the dough to shell out, though Uncle Tilty quickly offered to pick up the tab). But the contest ultimately turned out to have an entirely different character than I expected, regardless of quality and quantity. This led to me making an impromptu, unilateral, unannounced decision to award a runner-up prize to …
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
I know I should have been writing up the stories of the “Michael Craig is Giving it Away” contest. I want to announce the runner-up and his prize and tell you about the contenders and the things I’ve learned about you/us by reading all the entries. But there was a poker game going on and it ended with me winning the Turbo Hundo for the FOURTH TIME.
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
Judging this contest was a chore. I loved reading your submissions but hated judging them. There were over 120 entries, from Marines about to be deployed to a guy living in his brother’s shed. Approaches varied from poems to bad beat stories (including stories where I was the culprit) to parodied dialogue from 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY.
The two winners are …
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(0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated) Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized
It’s been a hard day’s night
and I’ve been working like a dog.
It’s almost 2 AM here. I’m still reading entries. I pledge to post the winners by the time the Monday $1K begins. I’d like to be able to post some commentary on the winners and losers – some fascinating threads run through the posts – but we’ll see if I have time to do that. I also want to check with Uncle Tilty on the details of posting entries for Event #1.
Plus it’s HARD to pick the winners. Many good ones to choose from.
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