Words lag behind what they label. Bad beats were around long before the term “bad beat” was invented. And “the universe” was here for billions of years before it got its name. So it’s no surprise, given how fast poker is growing and changing, that we are always running behind. That’s why I have taken
Went camping last weekend. First night was solo. Best one of those yet. Kay appeared the next day. The day after that, friends came. Some stayed for dinner, some for breakfast. It was all quite glorious. One morning I was up ahead of the rest. I made a fire and put the kettle over it.
It was a chatty $2/5 game in Vegas. Good vibe. Good action. The waitress came by and several players ordered adult beverages. She was standing behind seat six, and I was in seat one, so when it came my turn to order, everybody heard it. “I’d like a glass of milk please.” The player next
Dear reader: I wrote this in 2002. He really got me good on this one. I was playing $40-80 limit hold’em at Lucky Chances. Alex was at the next table, playing no-limit. He spoke to me with a hand gesture and said, “Do you want to take a break on your next big blind?”
Dear reader: I wrote this in 2009. I’m in Vegas right now doing a four-day coaching program with a new client. At the end of day one, after doing coaching stuff all day in my hotel room, we went downstairs to the poker room to play some poker in the same game, for mutual
Here’s a hand I played in the big no-limit game at Lucky Chances. There was a guy in the game I’d never played with before. He was giving lots of action. So far I’d played two pots against him. Both times I was on the button. Both times the river went check-check. Both times I
I was 14 years old in 1972 when astronaut Harrison Schmitt aimed a Hasselblad camera out the window of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the moon and took a photograph of the full earth from 25,000 miles up. NASA dubbed that photo “The Blue Marble.” It showed the world the world, with
Dear reader: I wrote this in 2008. Sometimes an even-money bet can have big consequences, so it still matters which side you pick. Here’s a great example of that, from the $10/10/20 blinds no-limit hold’em game at Lucky Chances. The lineup − what we lovingly call The Breakfast Club because the game starts at
I wanted to be a rock. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, to be called a rock was the highest achievement in poker. I craved that badge of honor, and the promised riches. A rock was a solid player, imperturbable, aggressive, fearless, and above all − tight. The player who mastered tightness also mastered patience. And back
