Card-dead

(**note: not a heckuva lot of poker talk here - no strategy stuff or anything, so there - you've been warned!)

Alright, not really card-dead, just cardLESS. I have not played a hand of poker since flying out here 2 weeks ago today. I've, of course, played a little "play money" online games, but, besides being completely bored out of my skull and just dealing out a bunch of hands (mostly o/8) for a couple hours, I haven't played any cards. My life has been consumed mostly by two things: 1) work, and 2) the ongoing hunt for a place to live. And though the hunt has (kind of) come to an end, I still can't play any cards - I don't even get my first paycheck until the end of the month, and that whole check will be going to pay for the first/last/deposit for my new appartment.

AND - now that I've said all that, I remembered that there is that freeroll "league" (sic) out here. Checking out their website again, I will be quite curious to play their tournaments - the two that I will be able to get to are different formats: one is 6 tables of sit n' go's: 1,000 starting chips, 15 minutes blinds - top 3 of 8 at each table make the points, and they just keep on going! Bust out of one, sit at another empty seat and when the table's full start on up again! The other one uses their extended format which basically means a deeper stack and longer blinds (3,000 starting chips + 20 minute blinds vs. the 'regular' format which is 1,500 starting chips + 15 minute blinds). They typcailly run about 4-5 hours. How's the "bounty" part fit in? Well, if someone goes all-in, and you call them and beat them - you also get their 'bounty chip' - which is good for 5 points. Knock 10 people out, and you've got 50 points right there... if you make the final table, the bounty-chips are collected and redeemed, so you'd have 55 points right there (including yours)....so if you koncked 10 people out, then someone knocks you out on the final-table bubble, you only get 50 points. Pretty cool idea - like it!!

I'll be quite interested to see the level of play: each week, the point leader for that week is given a buy-in for a NLHE tournament at one of the local casinos. One of the players won one of these tournaments, which qualified him for another tournament, which he won and won a $10,000 buy-in for a WPT event. The guy cashed that out and walked home with $10,000+ instead.

*sigh* even where I'm staying right now - I have very cheap internet access, very very fast internet connection, but the stupid computers are set up as a kiosk - which basically means almost everything besides internet explorer is disabled. Downloading is disabled, so I can't even get onto fulltilt for some play-money fun. At least, if I can't play poker, I can write about it (or read about it - just got through my second reading of Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book. Makes me realize that I really need to read Little Green Book again: there's stuff like pot odds vs break-even percentage that I really want to get down to a "no-brainer" in my head, so it won't take much time to figure out. I have to say, though, that some of the calls Phil has made because "in the long run" it's a positive equity call I believe are a little questionable. Yes, in a cash game, absolutely. The thing is, though, I really don't believe that that's always the "right" move when it comes to a tournament situation. All in all, though, a great book.

Alright, I'm a little out of it due to some odd stuff going on lately, as well as the totally "unsettled" feeling I've had for a while - and I'm sure will continue to have until I move into my new place and everything slows down a touch. I bet, honestly, that won't happen until January. I mean the slowing-down part. Eh, whatever.... time to move on, though - and hopefully next time I'll actually have something meaningful to say about poker.

- thePokerDegen