deardealer

Is there a game called “Bad Beat Poker”? NO, but it sure seems like it some nights. A bad beat is when a player draws out on a percentage hand. Some players think that if they have pocket Aces, anything that beats them is a bad beat. Many things have changed in Hold-em with tournaments and universal structure and many rulings that are a little different from the original game. One thing is the same BAD BEATS! You are going to get them if you play cards. Certain players that seem to beat you all the time, give you reason to sit back and analyze this situation. Is he playing better kickers than you or does he just seem to be hold over you? Simple, stay out of his way unless you are not gambling on the hand at all. Bad beats will surface during the course of your play, you just have to know this. When it does happen just suck it up and go on with the next hand. If you cannot then take a walk and if that doesn’t cool you off, then take a hike. Come back another day, there really is a such thing as running bad. Recognizing this is one thing acting on it is another. Be mature and show a little class, this is how you will be remembered!

Jumping rope, hide and go seek, red rover, jacks and Old Maid. Did you play these games when you were a kid? The young generation will not or have not played these games because the i-phone and electronic games have filled in the gap. What about go fish and war? These games are ez enough for pre schoolers. Casino’s in Las Vegas now have many gmaes in their pit, one of which is WAR. Yes, right in the middle of the casino next to a Black Jack game is a table with a dealer and a game of War. If that is not enough to entice the younger family members that you bring on your trip, there is always the roller coasters on the tops of tall buildings. This looks like alot of fun to a young person BUT they are traps. The casino’s are preping your own children to become gamblers. Is this what you want when you bring your kids on your vacation with you. Just think about it!

He is a good player because he is very tight”, I’m sure you’ve heard players say this. Is a good player tight & is a tight player good? Yes and no. If a very tight player is just that, then I don’t think he really wins much. Of course he doesn’t lose much either. There are times when you have to get out of your comfort zone. There are times when you MUST gamble, and be aware of your calculated risks. If a tight player only plays basic poker and never mixes it up at all then a smart player will pick him off. Maybe not for much BUT you must not be too predictable. You don’t have to worry about tells if you only play one style day in and out. The drop, the tips and the smart players will eat away at your bankroll. Go ahead and show a bluff or a bad call once in a while and it will keep the wolves from your door and become worth the risk. A very tight player must pick his spots and not stay too long. Of course that is a good rule of thumb for everyone.

There is a human being behind every machine or mechanical device. Electronics are putting the human race out of business. People are fearfull and paranoid of most others who are not just like them. There is nothing you cannot read about or a see in a video through your home computer or laptop. Who needs to interact with people anyway? You can order groceries, buy necssities and accessories and anything else imaginable, from the comfort of your home. You never have to leave your castle, except to get 20 mins of sunshine in your own BACK yard. You can go out once in a while for entertainment and hit a casino, almost anywhere you live. Of course, you can also play on-line at home, with real people that you don’t have to smell, see or actually sit next to. When you go to a LIVE casino you can play poker with a fake dealer. There is a casino in Las Vegas that features ONLY automated poker tables. I really don’t know how well that works but I can tell you about the shuffle machines. I work at a card club that features card shuffling machines for every game. After about 3 years of these things at every table, we have found many problems involving the slowing down of the game. They need to be replaced or given an air shot blast quite often. They increase the speed of the game by about 4 hands an hour more or less. With the problems that they cause and the time that they lose, I wonder if they were really worth the cost? Personnaly I like anything that prolongs my dealing hands and wrists. I really think most people would rather play a live game with a LIVE dealer. Then again, I could have never predicted the overwhelming popularity of on-line poker.

You will not read my stories on any other blog so I felt I should share some intimate facts. Everybody knows, The Mob had much to do with the clubs in Vegas, in the 70’s & before. This is not the reason that things were good or bad but it did help them with the police and elected officials and their long arms that reached where needed.
I can say that Barbara Binion, the daughter of Benny Binion, killed one of my friends in 1973. She was the black sheep of the family, the druggie, the fool. Although Teddy Binion did his share of drugs, he was not the mess that his sister was. In fact if you were a friend of Teddy’s, you’d have known a pretty cool guy.
One evening my girlfriends and I were smoking pot, drinking and having a gabfest at a friends apartment when Barbara and Pam dropped in. We had heard that Barbara had some hot (BAD) drugs and she was tring to sell them. Only one girl at the party was into heroin and even she wouldn’t touch it. Barbara passed out in the bathroom and I thought she was dead. I tried to push the door open and check her. She smelled sooo bad and her feet were so green, I didn’t know how anyone could get near her. Pam was a prostitute from Florida only 19 years old and trying to break into the Las Vegas scene. When they got Barbara up I left with a couple of friends. Early
that moring on my way home I saw Detective Carlise (her personal body guard, when needed) helping her away from the apartment. I lived in the same complex , The Diplomat, and stood in the yard and watched. After Barbara was wisked away, the ambulance came and carried Pam’s small dead body out. She was my second dead girlfriend in my first 3 years.
If you Google Barbara Binion you really won’t find much. The only fact they write except for her drug use is her supposed suicide in 1977.

Don’t eat at a place called “MOM’s”, Don’t play cards with a guy named “Doc”, & never trust a poker player at the table. Or out of the table for that matter, if that is where you met. I learned this lesson long, long ago while playing Lo-Ball at The Plaza in Las Vegas. This is where the dealers played when they got off work. It was an action game that went all night. I was new to the city and the game even though I thought I was a good judge of characters. This one particular player who had been dealing to me earlier, at The Mint, was nice and quite friendly. As a matter of fact I thought he was hitting on me, thus trying to make a good impression. All night long and into the morning he told me several times to throw my hand away, after he had bet. i never saw his hand so didn’t really know how he was playing, but for some reason, I trusted him. Into the morning the same senario with him telling me to throw my hand away. i called just because I was tired and curious. After I called he said “What do you have”? I said, “I called you”. He threw his hand in the muck to keep from showing me anything. so i figured he had been bluffing me all night long. Never again! I learned my lesson over 30 years ago and have never forgotten it. Play your hand and the players but just believe in yourself.

It may seemed far fetched BUT gambling takes the place of sex for many. Believe me I know this is TRUE. My own mother who used to be a Lo-Ball player, would say “I would rather play cards then have sex”! The rush and adrenalin flow pulses through your body when you win a big pot, or when you bluff and are waiting to see if you are going to get a call or not. It is the feeling, the HOOK, that gets your addiction started. Anyone that has played for any length of time knows what I mean. My point is: Don’t fall into the trap. Don’t stay too long. Don’t forget where you are and know you are in another state of consciousness. This is why time passes so quickly when you are gambling. Ask yourself if you came for the fun or came to win money. The average person, of course would like to win money BUT really came there for the fun of it. The rush is the reason we play. It can be a very expensive rush that has to be fed often. So sit down and have a heart to heart talk with yourself and find a way to controll the need of the rush. According to The Associated Press, 4-4-08 : Money & Sex trigger the same brain area. Which also shows that sexy pictures make a man gamble even more. Maybe you should just be having more SEX!

Although I may have appeared to be a woman basher in my previous post, I am really not. I like being a woman and truley love many women. I am speaking of the situations that I have been involved with conerning poker. I know that I am frustrated and using this forum to vent. Hopefully even one person will feel me on this one. I believe that women have made and are making the world a better place. I also know that we have been underesimated and left out of the loop for many years. Being a feminist for nearly half a century gives me the right to make these criticisms of my sisters. We are very good at making changes and questioning why things are done in a particular way. When we are in a clutch we are more vocal and forcefull. These very wonderful qualities and intuitions work differently when mixed into a poker game. We inheranly value our money more (in a game) and bring emotions to the table a little more often than necessary. I know that my experience with the game counts for something BUT like they say “I’d rather be lucky than good”. My hat goes off to all the ladies who play poker. The longer you play the better player you will become and it is a really interesting pastime. We have been know to play slot machines with less interaction with table games. Although black jack is a favorite game of many women, poker is quickly becoming our favorite. YOU GO GIRLS!

If you think that it is difficult to play poker with women then you should read this. I have figured out a few things since becoming involved with “women only” poker leagues and tournaments. Being a woman myself, you would think there would be no problem…WRONG. Players have always told me that I play like a man, which means aggressive, I guess! Although playing like a girl doesn’t mean what it used to is because NOTHING means what it used to. I have been playing poker in clubs for so long that I remember when ladies were not admitted without a male escort in northern California clubs. I was usually the only woman in the game, wherever I went. One difference between men and women is that men are easier to predict. I can bluff a male player out with a good play that I wouldn’t even think of doing with a woman. Most women are not even sure what the game plan is, whereas men put a little more foresight into their game, especially a tournament. I started a women’s game at my house and never had so many questioned rulings and problems. For some reason, in the co-ed games the women very often said nothing at all. The rules were not different in fact they are all written down in the begginging and given out to everyone. Of course I am not speaking of every man and every woman player BUT in general it is a lovely bunch of coconuts. I will give you my #2 reason on my next blog.

So you were the kid that was bullied in school and now it is happening at the poker table. Although you might feel like coming in with an oozie and take the guy(s) out, you know that is really not an option. So just how do you handle this situation to keep it from affecting your play or your poker life, as it is? There are different degrees of bullish behavior. One guy picks on everyone at the table, another picks on the newest players in the game and one just picks on you. First of all a bully likes to pick at a weaker person than himself. A victim, if you will. Do not fuel this maniac by answering his comments. This is what he wants, he wants to throw you off your game. If you are a new player who is weak, there is a good chance that the players will interject on your behalf. Not because they like you, but they want you to stay and continue to play bad. Although he is making noises about your play and your style (or lack of) he is only making himself look like and ass and everyone at the table knows this. If he is using foul language or is totaly drunk or slowing the game down then you can report him to the floorman. The house doesn’t want anything to slow the game down. If you just cannot play your game because of him, move to another table before he puts you on tilt. You will remember him the next time you happen to play at his table and when you beat him you can just smile, inside and out!