I wish I had something more exciting to report on the poker front, but alas, I do not. I thought I was going to get in a healthy session or two between Friday and Saturday, but it was not to be. I only played about 4 hours total between Stars and Party, making an entire $1 at Stars after about 1.5 hours, and bringing my free money Party roll up to $90 ( a gain of 17BB’s) in approximately 2.5 hours.
For the first time ever on Party, I got myself positioned to the left of a maniac and my cards were actually hitting. After weathering some initial bad juju, where none of my big pocket pairs held up (to the tune of about 13 BB’s), I moved tables and that’s when it happened. My first hand of 77 hit the set, check raise on every street with two other people involved. This was my intro to the printing press. Usually I have a hard time making any significant profits against these types due to lack of cards or suckouts. This guy wasn’t your ordinary maniac, he was mui grande uber. The maniac pairs anything on the board? Bet and raise no matter what. Holding an Ace? Bet and raise no matter what. In the space of about 45 minutes I personally took over 30 BB’s from this guy, and the great thing was the others at the table tilting and chasing him with crap, which allowed him to suck out just enough to keep him afloat, allowing me to get more chips from him with my good hands. My cards started running bad, so I decided to leave with a decent win, but kept the table open for another 45 minutes while I did some schoolwork and watched him lose another 50 BB’s or so. Amazing. I keep thinking that he HAD to be some higher limit player just blowing off steam because no one in their right mind would play THAT BAD…..right? I was so elated just to have a decent win at Party, I completely forgot to add him to my buddy list. Yea, I know, silly mistake…but it definitely won’t happen again.
Here is a 2+2 thread I think some of you may find interesting, if you didn’t see it already. A $20 home game being busted, good lord. I’m sure this sort of thing happens everywhere, but it lead me to some reading on search and seizure abuses, in particular one county Arkansas, where they can (and do) seize property and cash claiming outlandish things relating to drugs. (Someone posted a link on the 2+2 thread but it was edited out, so feel free to send me a link if you know the county name) Innocent until proven guilty? Not on your life. It’s on you to provide proof that the money is yours and is lawful. You have the proof, so do you think your getting your money back? Not a chance. If you do, it certainly won’t be the original amount, you’ll be lucky to get a fraction of it after legal fees and other beauraucratic hassles. Over 2/3 of the police budget in this particular county is financed with seized monies, to the tune of close to 4 million per year.
While this is an extreme example, the fact is that this can be done in nearly any state, by the Feds or Local government. Pretty tricksy of them too, as a favorite technique is to seize any and all cash and valuables because they ‘suspect something’, but fail to file any criminal charges, thereby making it a civil matter. Why is this smart on their part? If it was a criminal matter you would get your day in court much sooner. Being a civil one, you MIGHT get an initial hearing in a year or so.
I’m not in with this group of folks yet, but I hope to one day be one of the folks who can gamble at a level where I deal with larger than normal amounts of cash. Who doesn’t, right? I realize that there are ways to get around having to deal with large wads, especially if the amounts are VERY large. I’m speaking of the folks I think of as ‘little high-rollers’ who might carry anywhere from $4K-$10K. It is you folks who are the targets, as it provides nice padding to law enforcement budgets in many places all over the country. And why wouldn’t we as gamblers be targets? After all, none of the sheep that make up the general public are going to blink at the fact that a degenerate gambler (who by extension MUST also partake in drugs on some level) had their funds seized. After all, if they were really above board they wouldn’t have been in that position to begin with, right?
Why did I go on so long about this subject that doesn’t even really apply to me at the moment? I talk about it on the off chance that some of the ‘little high rollers’ out there may not have considered the subject too seriously. If you are among these, I encourage you to do so, as it is guaranteed that the situation will not get any better, more likely it will become worse. Don’t give anyone an opportunity to shake you down. TSA and Department of Homeland security are the new Gestapo. For those who find the subject interesting, here is a good article titled The Myth of National Defense.
OK, I’ll stop the diatribe for now. Go ahead and take a bathroom break while I go get some fresh tinfoil and give the NSA a chance to flag me since I used TSA and Gestapo in the same sentence.
Iggy has crafted many a blurb on the insanity of Russ Georgiev, and while he is on Guinness and Vicoden hiatus I thought that I would post this not-so-little nugget from Russ. It seems as though one of the running themes this month is that many of the players on the 15/30 level seem to be losing big in January. (See, I told you January was the worst) Anyone who has read 2+2 for any length of time knows who David Ross is. If you don’t, just do a search on the site and you can find a TON of reading where he has documented his life as an online pro. It is common knowledge that this guy is a pretty darn solid player and he has recently taken a 510 BB downswing (holy freaking ouch, Batman). Enter the Russ posting on RGP. I would do what Iggy normally does and lay the whole thing out here on the page, but it is LONG.
It’s funny how a self-proclaimed cheater and scammer can blast someone else for the crime of crookedness. Nonetheless, whether you think online poker is rigged or not, the read is an entertaining glimpse into Russ’s personal insanity.
To wind up, I should take a second to thank Chris Halverson , and for that matter any and all who have linked to me and/or read this little blog. Chris was one of the first folks to link to me, and after doing some looking it seems that a full 25% or so of my hits have his blog as a referring URL, so Thank You. I only average 40-50 hits per day, which I know pales in comparison to many of the other great poker bloggers out there, but for someone who has only been at this for 2 or 3 months, it feels great. Also, many thanks to Iggy, Pauly, Bob, and April for the encouragement. I may have missed a couple, but if you read this with any regularity you already know I’m an idiot, so I expect your forgiveness :)
The current tsunami of awards shows has obviously turned me into a gushing ninny, so that’s it for today. Don’t forget to get your collective butts over to PokerStars for the next WPBT event coming up on Wednesday, Feb. 2. See you all there, where I will be attempting to demonstrate by my play that I am…
Thinking Big, while my head is Much Bigger.
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