Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in luag's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
5:48 pm	New Las Vegas Pictures I have posted some pictures from my recent Las Vegas visit on my main blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/checkraise/ (3 Comments |Comment on this)
5:48 pm	Good Poker Book I just finished Phil Gordon's new book, "Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em." I was pleasantly surprised to discover that is is a pretty good book. Taking a page from Harvey Pennick, Gordon provides bite sized piece of No Limit Hold'em wisdom. Well written and clear, it is easily one of the best books written about No Limit Hold'em, behind only Dan Harrington's books. Gordon focuses mostly on tournament strategy and tactics but has some good material on live games as well. If you like poker, it is a must buy. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
1:52 am	Left Searching for Something to Say It is funny how I have little to say these days about poker or gambling. Especially in light of the fact that I make my living playing poker and betting on sporting events. Life is full of irony I suppose. I seem to have quite a bit to say about other things, so if you are interested in my musings you can find them on my regular blog http://spaces.msn.com/members/checkraise/ Hopefully, the muse will hit me soon and I will have something to say about poker sometime in the near future. I have been playing a lot of pot limit omaha about which perhaps I might have something worthwhile to contribute some time soon. After reading whipartist's pledge, I am committing 1/3 of this month's poker earnings to Second Harvest, the Nation's food bank. Hopefully I will win a lot of money this month. (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 17th, 2005
4:00 am	Barry Greenstein's Book I read Barry Greenstein's book last weekend in one sitting. I took a week to reflect upon it and I have to say, on the whole, that I enjoyed it. It is really a treatise on surviving and thriving in the poker world. This is interesting because most poker books are cookbooks while this is more of a"philosophy of cooking type book. Marc Cramer has written a literate and similar kind of book about playing the horses professionally to which one can draw some parallels. There are several short but very interesting and thoughtfully hand analysis sections. Overall I enjoyed the book and I think it is worth reading, but not for beginners. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 16th, 2005
6:02 am	Thought of the Day "The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent. " David Mamet (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 13th, 2005
7:40 am	Ironic Combination? I was reading a novel about card counting and playing blackjack the other day called, "The Counter" by Kevin Blackwood. This is not a very good novel but I enjoyed it nonetheless because it deals with gambling which is something I never seem to tire of. One strange feature of the novel is the fact that the main character is a "born again" gambling card counter. Now I am not sure why I found such a combination peculiar. I guess the image of gambling for Jesus was just to incongruous. (Comment on this)
Friday, July 8th, 2005
2:36 am	Here's A Film I Could Have Starred In! I came across this film this morning while browsing through the television listings: Smart Money (1931) – Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Evalyn Knapp – A small town barber turns big city gambler, undone by luck and a weakness for blondes! It’s nice to see that they were making movies I could have starred in if I had been born around 1900 or so! (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 7th, 2005
11:46 pm	Ace on the River I received Barry Greenstein's new book, "Ace on the River" in the mail today. It can best be described as a paperback coffee table book. There are many pictures and it remains to be seen how much valuable content there will be. I hope to post a review by the end of the weekend. (Comment on this)
8:44 am	Horrible News From London Our thoughts and good wishes are with our friends in London, a place that I once lived and still feel close to. We can only hope the casualties are less severe than they seem. "We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival. " Winston Churchill (Comment on this)
Monday, July 4th, 2005
4:51 pm	Two Hold'em Books I spent last night re-reading King Yao’s “Weighing the Odds in Hold’em”. There are a lot of interesting nuggets of information in this book. It is not written in a lyrical style but using the power of expectation analysis, he occasionally comes to a conclusion about proper play that is “against the common wisdom.” It is hard to know how much such insights are worth in the long run, but this well worth reading if you are interested in trying to improve your limit hold’em game. Over the weekend, I also read “How Good is Your Limit Hold’em,” by Byron Jacobs and Jim Brier. I was not expecting too much from this book, as I had read Brier’s Middle Limit Hold’em and thought it was too weak tight and timid to succeed in the more aggressive games I find myself in these days. I was pleasantly surprised, however, and actually believe this is too brief but solid (in a quiz format)book is quite good. You can debate a play here or there but overall this is a very solid offering and worth picking up if you see it in the bookstore. (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 3rd, 2005
12:47 am	Weariness in the City I spent the day at the racetrack, wagering furiously, and eating and drinking things that are bad for me. Sadly when one becomes old, this is tiring rather than exhilarating. The racetrack gods were kind and allowed me to win some money, so now there is nothing left to do but soak in a steaming hot tub and wait for the undertaker to arrive. Perhaps a few aspirin will be helpful as well. Tomorrow I will go to the store and buy a cane, some Geritol, and some sensible shoes. I'll see you at the old folks home. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 18th, 2005
6:10 am	Interesting Article About AK Facing a Raise in NL Hold'em Matt Matros has an interesting article in this month's Cardplayer Magazine about the benefits of going all in in NL Hold'em when faced with a standard raise. He argues that you equity is much higher when you go all in in this situation, rather than calling, because of the likelihood that the other player will fold all but his best hands. Here is a link to the article: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14805&m_id=65565 (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 16th, 2005
7:16 pm	A Cool Breeze, A Fat Cat, and a Tasmanian Poker Player Feeling depressed about having seriously injured my foot for the second time in a year, I hobbled out to my porch with Julian the fat but happy cat. It is very temperate today, with a quiet breeze passing by every few moments. I took my laptop with me so I could work while engaged in the important activity of petting the cat. I soon found myself playing poker on a table with a man from Tasmania. He called himself "The_Father_of_God" and literally raised on every hand and every card. This soon set the table on tilt as the players struggled to deal with his mindless aggression. Sadly for him, the "Father_of_God" was not very lucky today, and managed to lose about $ 1,800.00 in an hour. I was pleased to take my portion, but of course felt somewhat guilty for beating God's Dad like a drumstick. I then noticed that a squirrel had crept near us on the railing of the porch, essentially taunting Julian, the fat but happy cat. Now this seems like strange behavior to me. I mean, what does the squirrel get from taunting the cat? If the squirrel should slip, Julian, the fat but happy cat, may well attack and kill it. What are they teaching the squirrel young these days in school? I could hear behind me, in the window, O'Malley the Alley cat, howling. He was saying essentially, "Release me, I will catch the squirrel interloper and we can all eat him." O'Malley has no sense, and as such, can not be let out on the porch. O'Malley has never agreed with my assessment of his character, and continues to beg for parole. Julian finally looked up at the squirrel who was chattering. She considered the squirrel for a moment and closed her eyes and went back to her favorite activity, napping. The squirrel eventually became bored and trotted off, no doubt looking for an early happy hour. (Comment on this)
4:47 pm	Thought for the Day - Limit Hold'em Success in limit hold'em is about two things: 1) making good decisions and; 2) relentless value betting. (Comment on this)
3:39 am	Only on Party Poker I am playing in a tournament at about 3:30 a.m. when a problem occurs. I click on the main window and see this message: "Due to unexpected difficulties in our support structure, we will be unable to take your calls. Please e-mail us and we will get ..." I guess when you are literally making millions of dollars a day you can't hire a few people to take phone calls. Unreal! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
3:07 am	Harrington on Hold'em Part II I received my copy yesterday and I am plowing my way through it Will provide a review once I have completed the book. Phil Gordon is doing podcasts from the World Series of Poker. He is engaging and they are not bad to listen to. Here is the link http://www.expertinsight.com/_Podcast.html (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 14th, 2005
7:10 am	Interesting Posts on NL Hold'em http://doubleas.blogspot.com/ Some interesting and subtle thinking can be found in some of these posts. Well worth looking at. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 12th, 2005
3:37 am	Interesting Article About Poker Bots http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pokerbots12jun12,0,5490147.story?coll=la-home-headlines (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 9th, 2005
4:19 am	Chinese Poker I was waiting to play Pot Limit Omaha at a pretty juicy home game I have stumbled into. I was early and the host asked me if I wanted to play Chinese Poker while we waited. Chinese poker seems to be played with 13 cards and similarly to Pai Gow, you make, in this case, 3 rows of poker hands. 2 rows of 5 card hands and 1 row of a 3 card hand. The top row hand must beat the second row hand and the second row hand must beat the third row hand. I won't bore you with the scoring but it seems to be mostly a contest of luck. That being said, since their is some skill in how you arrange the hands, and since I don't wish to give my money away, does any one know of a book about how to arrange your hands optimally? Sanford Wong wrote a book for Pai Gow but I haven't run across anything for Chinese Poker, excpet an e-book by Don Smolen. Does anyone out there have any ideas? (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 8th, 2005
5:53 pm	Party 20/40 Tables I played some on Party's new 20/40 tables today. I found them to be aggressive but manageable. The big difference I see is in the kind of bad players you are likely to run up against. At this level the bad players are raising a lot of with weak draws and bluffing too much. Many of them seem to crave action, and against them a check and call strategy can be boring but effective. After a four hour session I finished ahead about $ 1,200.00 earning me a well deserved night off. (Comment on this)