Broad spectrum of topics

So I started this long, in-depth analysis of the "Final Rule" submitted by the Federal Reserve System and the Department of the Treasury providing policy and regs related to the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.) I was up to page 30-ish of the document which appears to be like 121 pages long and I've already created my own commentary that's just scrolling off the page, and suddenly it hits me. WTF!?! Why are you bothering!? The Act was crap, it was enacted in a shady fashion, it's been argued, beaten, commented upon, ignored, revised, and now this "final rule" gives us the regs for how to get it done. In short, this is just furtherance of crap. I immediately deleted my diatribe on the finer points of the most recent document. Look folks, we're beatin' this dead horse... and keep giving it new life, somehow. I'm not suggesting ignore it, but it seems the regs are here to stay at least for a while, until someone or something else comes along which renders it impotent or we just find a loophole to work around. I read Shamus comment in which he says he's sorry for the mushroom cloud picture and inciting a panic, but honestly I think we all know he wasn't suggesting that the end is nigh. He went on to cover I. Nelson Rose's comments which I think are spot on. Life will go on for poker and we who play her. However, the economy of the thing will suffer. What I mean to say is that the harder it becomes to "move" money about online for poker purposes, some folks simply won't bother. And a lot of those folks are fish and so you are going to continue to find yourself engaged in tougher and tougher games online. I'm not looking to deposit any time soon, if ever, since I have a comfortable sum online that I play with now. (I'd like it to get bigger, but I don't want it to rely on me depositing money to get there.) But with less new money flowing into the poker community, the skillset of those you will encounter is only going to improve. Only the strong will survive and the weak will not bother with a redeposit if they have to put too much work into it. So, I think Shamus has it right in this respect. The poker boom online owes much of its success to the ease with which you could get money online. There will be an impact, I'm certain, but I have no idea to what degree.

Anyway, I'd like to tell you I've been playing lotsa poker, but that'd be a lie. I did excavate and pour a concrete driveway extension to accommodate a third vehicle in the cheer_dad clan. Recall the yellow volkswagen now sitting out front in the belong of my daughter, Whitney. Two days of back-breaking work and chilly weather now behind me. The muscle aches and pains still bear witness to the feat though.

I'm tired, and now reviewing the log file from my phone it looks like I may have been called by the school (shudder.) Very likely in response to an email that I sent to my daughter's Geometry teacher, telling her that I think some changes are in order in her teaching approach. Okay, maybe I was a little more diplomatic than that. I can do that when I write. Not so much when cornered on the phone or in person. Diplomacy can then take the backseat... an argument will shortly ensue. But we shall see... and I shall blog.

Oh and don't forget... tonight we travel to Bridgeport, WV where the South Patriot Football Juggernaut faces off against Bridgeport High School in the first of our playoff games. Keep those fingers crossed! Let's GOOOOOOO Patriots!!!

Later all, it's just that kinda day.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Shamus' Interview of Dennis Phillips

I urge you all to head over to http://hardboiledpoker.blogspot.com/2008/10/hard-boiled-poker-interview-dennis.html immediately! If you can't tell from the link, Shamus interviews Dennis Phillips who is the chip leader of the November Nine of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. Once again Shamus delivers top notch reporting of the poker kind. Actually I'm plugging it because he included a couple of my questions in his interview of Phillips! How cool is that!?! "It's Shake 'n Bake... and I helped."

But seriously, the interview is great and further solidifies why I'll be rooting for Phillips to walk away with the WSOP bracelet, $9+ million, and the admiration (and a tinge of jealousy) of the poker world. I wish him continued success!

And as always Shamus, thanks for the fantastic job that you do!

Regards,

cheer_dad

Oh yeah... it's a lot like that.

Here I am, fresh back from vacation, once again working for "the man." I've been quickly refitted with the requisite chains and bindings. I can already feel my jaw slacking, and my back beginning to hunch over from the labor of it all. And for Pete's sake, I have a damned office job. How can so much shit get piled back on in a single morning. Not to mention I'm still trying to catch up on the emails from while I was away that were upwards of 400 total. Admittedly, that's low compared to what normally greets me on a return.

I've already heard Laura comment that she's ready to go back to Myrtle Beach and grab a bottle of Jack Daniels for the trip to drown the sorrows. In the picture above, I think she's one of the shadowy figures in the back. I feel like the 3rd in line. The guy in the front bears a striking resemblance to online moniker "Short Stacked Shamus." Hmmmm, go figure. Thankfully Shamus is generally a little more upbeat.

Anyway, work is here and about what I expected. I'm hoping to catch up with JR and Frank today to see how their trips to Tri-State Racetrack and Casino turned out. I'm hoping if nothing else that I can get in a couple of SNG's at some point in the next coupla days to quench the poker thirst.

Over vacation I read quite a bit. I want to recommend the author Christopher Moore to each of you. I devoured two of his books You Suck: A Love Story and Practical Demonkeeping over vacation. I even dropped him an email as appreciation and admiration of his writing, to which I got a response. How cool was that! Anyway, if you haven't done so before, check him out. His twisted wit and story telling were just right up my alley, hope you find him that way too. Right now, I'm indulging in a Jimmy Buffett novel trying to get my "island chill" on with A Salty Piece of Land trying to combat the drudgery of the workweek.

OHHH, and as a side note. I want to thank the nameless faceless person who found my wallet last night outside the restaurant and took it to the manager. Yup, I lost my wallet and didn't even know it, when I get a call from the Eagles Lodge of all things. Turns out the manager found my Eagles membership card and called them to have them get in touch with me to inform me that they had my wallet!?! Whatever, I was glad of it. To top it off, all the cash, id's, credit cards, and dust bunnies were all still present and accounted for. So whoever you were, thanks a lot pal! There are still a few good people out there in the world. My faith in humanity is renewed again.

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Main Event 2b or not 2b from way far away...

We had a short practice session tonight for baseball, so I was back in time to start my catch-up session on the WSOP Main Event Day 2b.

Somewhere along the line I realized my girlfriend Clonie Gowen was still in the Series albeit sitting on a short stack! BUT in bigger news she opted to leave the hallowed halls of the RIO and wander over to the Bellagio Cup IV, and play in the $5,000 NLHE event. According to the boys over at http://pokerati.com/2008/07/09/clonies-big-score-second-chance/ she bested the field of 235 players to take down a $437,775 payday!!! http://pokerati.com/author/danm/ posts that they should start hanging out all the time like best friends... but honestly Clonie, remember I was offerin' up a shoulder to cry on when times were tough over in another corner of Las Vegas. I'm here, don't forget me!?! But congratulations on the victory! I'm only just now sitting down to see where things stand in Day 2b, and I'm crossing my fingers for you!

Sorry gang a rotten work week required and demanded a trip to the Eagles for a minor skirmish with the accursed Jack Daniels. He and his evil horde will eventually be defeated. I for one will not rest... No, really sleep is optional!

Anyway, here's the random observations of your drunken (yet happy) servant. : P

Wait... did I mention Clonie... oops yes I did, moving on... (call me)

We rejoin our program already in progress.

The first article I see is by MeanGene a favored Pittsburgh blogger! He made mention of a hand involving Emanuel Seal and some other unknown player in which the unknown got it all in with QQ preflop, wherein the flop came 555, then an Ace fell on the turn for Mr. Seal but was invalidated by the rivered case 5!!! Joe Hachem, good guy that he is, had to call the "unknown" back to the table for the chop!!! : ) Honestly, how many times have you wished that happened for you?

Ahhhh hell, as I catch up, MeanGene also announces the fate of my beloved... Clonie has been eliminated, when her 8's were bested by 10's. Sorry. : ( No, really I'm not a stalker, honest.

Jerry Yang, defending champion, has also been eliminated, but as reported, he exited with class, shaking the hands of ALL those at his table and wishing "good luck to everyone." ( I know Allman, 'it's something you say, not something you mean.'

The agile, pretty Tiffany Michelle crossed the 100K chip mark just over 6 hours ago. I say agile based on pictures of her "perched" in her chair while at the tables. Okay, I'll stop.

Hmmm, Hevad Khan is keeping his mouth shut, and is just under the 100K mark.

According to http://my.pokernews.com/MarcC/ when Johnny Chan's not happy "nearly" no one's happy. Johnny's complained about the chairs in the Brasilia room as being "the worst in poker history!" Meanwhile behind him another player hit a royal in the same friggin' chair. Go figure...

Not long after, Mr Chan chips up to the 130K level, according to yet another of my fave bloggers Shamus... http://my.pokernews.com/Shamus/

Oh super, in Shamus' same breath, he announces the demise of one Shannon Elizabeth!

Jean-Robert Bellande has eliminated Howard Lederer. JRB's pocket 9's held up against Howard's AKos.

Back to back picture posts on the PokerNews.com live reporting confirm to me that two lovely ladies still remain, Evelyn Ng and Jennifer Harman. Okay, they've both got much more than their looks on their side!

And yet again, round and round up and down Gus Hansen is still in there, now, back up to 102K.

Argh... someone has eliminated Ms. Isabelle Mercier!

About 3 hours ago, Evelyn Ng chipped up to 116K on AKos!!! (Honestly NDPT'ers quit bitchin' about that hand!)

Just under 2 hours ago, Antonio Esfandiari was eliminated when his pocket cowboys met pocket ladies and then it all went south on a "turned" queen. His opponent Paul Andrzejewski apologized... to which Antonio replied, "Never say sorry, it's poker."

And just like that... I'm all caught up! Hmmm, this bloggin' thing ain't so hard! Okay, sorry folks (guys and gals alike) I envy you the gig, but appreciate the job that you're ALL doing!!!

According to http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/day2b/ the field is down to 1744 out of 6844.

I'll update tomorrow... I promise. The sandman demands it... as does my employer tomorrow morning.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Interesting to note WSOP Event #11

Head on over to Shamus' blog for a very interesting post about WSOP Event #11, regarding a deal that was reached by the final 3 players! I guess I'd never really thought about this aspect in the Series, but I guess it makes sense. Go read all about it.
http://hardboiledpoker.blogspot.com/2008/06/2008-wsop-day-10-lets-make-deal.html

Regards,

cheer_dad

Erick Lindgren takes the bracelet, and other WSOP goings on

Erick Lindgren (E-Dog) wins his FIRST ever WSOP bracelet!!! A little after 1AM Erick finally bested the field of 332 players to lay claim to $374,505 and the elusive WSOP bracelet in Event #4 $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No Limit.) He and Justin Bonomo went heads up for approximately 40 hands before Erick was able to get Justin all-in. Justin had unfortunately made 2-pair (5's and 4's) but the same 4h on the turn had given Erick the straight. I started to post a "Go E-Dog!" earlier in the evening to the ShoutBox out on Pokernews.com while watching Shamus and shorton work their fingers to the bone, but then I thought better of it. No sense in jinxing it for him! But in the end congratulations E-Dog! It's been a long time coming, relish the victory! But why stop there...so many events yet to come.

Others easily recognized in the payout 36, included Roland (Hungry Like) de Wolfe, Howard Lederer, David Williams, Andy Bloch, Phil Laak, Michael Craig, and oh look honey that god-like Patrik Antonius made money in another one!

Event #3 $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em wrapped up last night at about the same time, with David Singer pocketing the $214,131 and laying claim to his first WSOP bracelet as well. In the final heads-up play Singer railed Jacobo Fernandez when he rivered the straight with his Q-4s to Jacobo's flopped 2-pair 7's and 3's. Congratulations David!

Event #5 $1,000 NLHE w/Re-buys finished up Day 2 last night and only the final table remains to be played out today, picking back up at a slightly delayed 3pm PDT. The final table of this event lacks the star-power of the other events in my mind. Not to diminish their standing or the win yet to come for one of the lucky nine, but the most recognizable names have already (again in my mind) been taken out, although they did cash in the event: the lovely and talented Clonie Gowen claimed 15th place and $28,940 for her trouble, and prior to that Daniel Negreanu, Nenad Medic (Event #1 winner), and John Juanda to name just a few. Rest assured when the bracelet is awarded though I'll congratulate them just the same. After all winning one of these events is a feat worthy of respect.

Event #6 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better is STILL being played down to the final 9 (currently at 15.) That's some die hard poker folks! I'll continue to follow the action on this and let you know there's a winner, but again, this one doesn't have a lot of familiar faces either. Still, there is a top prize of $243,356 to be claimed.

Event #7 $2,000 NLHE will resume today, with the remaining 152 of the original 1,593 battling down to the final table.

Event #8 $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event will as well resume later today where the remaining 94 of 192 will reduce down to an eventual final table. Still among the hopeful for this one are Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Gavin Smith, Mike Sexton, Greg Raymer, Marcel Luske, Doyle Brunson, okay... there's a lot of pros! Okay a couple of the ladies remain too Vanessa Rousso and Katja Thater. : P

Two other events get underway today #9 $1,500 NLHE Six-handed, and #10 $2,500 Omaha/7-Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better. I'll keep you posted. Of course that'll all be dependent upon the fine folks doing the REAL WORK over at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/. Thanks to you all.

Regards,

cheer_dad

The pace continues

The break-neck pace continues in the heart of Vegas, as the WSOP 2008 continues. Events 2-6 are now ALL running so the madness factor ramps up. Shamus continues to cover Event #4, and now another of my favorite bloggers has joined the fracas as well, one Gene Bromberg a.k.a "MeanGene." http://genebromberg.com He is currently covering Event #5 $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em w/ Re-buys Day 1. I'm just now getting sat down for the evening to enjoy catching up on all the goings-on, via the Live Reporting courtesy of the folks over at PokerNews.com, BUT so far here are the things which have caught my attention in the Live Reporting area http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/event-5-1000-nlhe-rebuys/:

"5 hours 14 minutes ago Posted by Pojo Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow. The Mouth Proves Useful. Though many players have been insulted and annoyed with Mike "The Mouth" Matusow's loud voice, there's one player at his table who especially appreciated it today. After seemingly being rivered by another opponent, a player who was all in grabbed his gear and headed away from the table. No one seemed to notice his departure, as he was nearly three tables away when Matusow had to yell, "Hey!" at the top of his lungs. The player turned around and Matusow yelled "It was a ten on the river, not a nine!" The player started walking back towards his seat to find his winnings waiting for him."

"4 hours 5 minutes ago Posted by MeanGene Reinforce the Legs on Table #12. That's the table Sorel Mizzi, Mark Vos, Steve Sung, and Adam Glassman are playing at. The players at that table have made 58 rebuys. Sung personally made 23. Which means that there are A LOT of chips on that table--a table that isn't scheduled to break for rather a long time. Whoever manages to win most of the chips at that table is going to have a monster stack."

"1 hour 30 minutes ago Posted by PojoThe Mouth's Loss. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Ted Forrest became involved in a series of bickerings last year, the result of which being a prop bet that involved Matusow losing a significant amount of weight. The wager? Mike needed to go from 241 pounds to under 181 pounds within a certain amount of time. If he could do it, he would net $100,000. For four days during the bet Mike was on a lemonade and cayenne pepper diet. Mike is here playing in today's event and is a very sleek 179 pounds, two pounds under the prop bet goal. Mike appears to be playing well, looks to be in great shape, and as always, is talking quite a bit."

There's a lot more out there to love, this is just what I came across. MeanGene and Pojo you're doing a great job. Thanks much!!!

On the subject of Mike "The Mouth" Matusow though, WOW! Congratulations Mike not only on winning the prop bet for $100K but on losing the weight as well. This weight loss plan blows Jenny Craig out of the water. All the battle of the bulge really needed all this time was merely big fat wads of CASH! I wish you well in sustaining. I urge you all to check out the coverage (of each event) for yourself, because it includes some great pictures as well.

I also just noticed that Event #6 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better is being covered by some familiar blogger names as well, F-train and TassieDevil. I'll check back on this one in the morning to see all that's happened. I wish these writers and players well, but on this side of country it approaches cheer_dad's beddy-bye time! Good night all.

Regards,

cheer_dad

More WSOP, props to Otis, and a little local content too!

My hat's off to all the players who've been thus far enduring the long hours of poker play at the WSOP 2008. And at this point we're only in to Event #4! In addition to the players don't forget the staff and the bloggers and reporters doing the job that allows us all to live vicariously through their words. For a blow-by-blow of the action, head on over to http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/ and pick the event which strikes your fancy and read away. For a quick down and dirty, let me help you out just a bit though. Yeah, I'll take the hit and have management track the fact that I was surfing for poker related content yet again on the company's dime. I'm kinda like the guy who finds the cop for all the other speeders. Anyway, Event #2 $1,500 NLHE is now down to 18 of the original 3,929, and thankfully for all involved is currently on break and will recommence today at 2:00pm PST.
Event #3 $1,500 PLHE as well went into the wee hours of the morning and is down to 63 of the original 713. It would appear that the action continued on until around 4:00am-ish PST, and thankfully they won't get to it again until 2:00pm today as well.
The heart of my post is focused on Event #4 $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No Limit.) I've been following along with the progress courtesy of Shamus and shorton. It would appear, that they loosely alternated adding posts up to the Live Blog as the action unfolded. When play starts back up today at 3:00pm PST there will be 91 of the original 332 player field. But the comments which told the story I've found very informative, but more so entertaining. The post titles as the hour blurred from "it's late" to "omg, it's early" were great! Here are a few of the example title posts and snippets of the action that gave me a chuckle while drinking my morning coffee:

"11 hours 39 minutes ago Posted by Shamus, Chiu Takes Bite from Opponent's Stack"

"Devilfish Attack"

"9 hours 16 minutes ago Posted by shorton, E-Dog Always Lurking...Lindgren wins the pot. "I'm always lurking," Lindgren says. Lindgren turns to the PokerNews reporter. "Don't write that up! That's a boring hand.""

"7 hours 30 minutes ago Posted by shorton Bride of Chucked" ~Recapping of course the demise of Ms. Tilly.

"Lederer Slays the Dragon" ~sounds better than Howard vs David

"Hellmuth on a Rampage" ~which involved the brat "...kicking over his chair."

"3 hours 47 minutes ago Posted by Shamus, No Shooting Stars . . . Yet, the fun continues over at Hellmuth's table. After the verbal sparring between him and another player had gone on for a while longer, Marcel Luske had an idea. Luske got up and went over to ask the security guard if he had a gun with which he could shoot them both. Not sure what the guard responded, but it seems to have quieted down over there." ~My favorite post and best idea of the night.

Oh and how many more puns can you guys come up with along the lines of "Hungry Like de Wolfe." : )

Ultimately, the top spot in this event will pay out a cool $374,505. A quick scan of those remaining brought instant recognition of all of the following names, at least to me:

David Williams, Gavin Griffin, Maria Ho, Barry Shulman, Ted Forrest, Roland de Wolfe, Andy Bloch, Howard Lederer, Josh Arieh, Antonio Esfandiari, Patrik Antonius, Michael Craig, David Grey, Marcel Luske, Jeff Shulman, Hoyt Corkins, David Benyamine, and Erick Lindgren

Thanks all for the coverage. Shamus looks to me as if your doing just fine! The rest of your co-horts as well! Looking forward to all the rest squashing what little bit of work productivity that I generally contribute.

Among other news which caught my eye in Google Reader this morning I submit http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/gambling-holes.html posted up by "Otis" chronicling an adventure by he and "G-Rob" which found them in quite the "drinking establishment." I can't elaborate, you'll just have to read it yourself. But as a "suburban father with mortgage..." myself I feel like I was almost there myself. Thanks for the post Otis!

Here on the local scene, this Friday "Shuman" will be playing host to his all-too-familiar cash game already teaming with all the usual suspects, some of whom with loose play and money to burn, that have me salivating like Pavlov's dog.

I really should get some work done.

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Event #1 winner Nenad Medic, and other topics

Congratulations to WSOP Event #1 Nenad Medic! A cool $794,112 for your time and effort. Read all about it over at http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/006561.php courtesy of Dr. Pauly, including as always great pictures from "flipchip."

Oh and Big Red your poker boy-toy Patrik Antonius brought home a lucky 7th place finish for a not-too-shabby $124,080 cashout. Does that move him up in the Top-10 list of guys you'd leave me for? Is he above Kenny Chesney now or what? : )

Event #2 continues on today... and Events #3 and #4 will get under way as well.
Be sure to stay on top of all the action out on PokerNews.com's Live Reporting, and particularly Event #4 that SHAMUS of http://hardboiledpoker.blogspot.com will be covering.

Also, thanks to JR for hosting the NDPT Tournament this past weekend, despite the fact that he helped send me to the rail. He just posted up the point standings which I'll update to the Google Docs page shortly, and I don't mind only being in 2nd place in the points race, but WTF, did it have to be All-In Allman! I mean HONESTLY!!!

Don't forget to mark your calendars for June 14th (and in all likelihood June 28th as well) for the next NDPT gathering. Cards in the air at 7:00pm, the place this time... Casa de cheer_dad. See you then.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Lack of inspiration, but still blogging...

I've been waiting for inspiration to strike now for a couple of days, since my last blog post. Waiting for my writing muse to slip me the tongue or for something to fall out of the sky and give me something blog worthy. Well guess what the muse has left me hanging and apparently apples ain't in season either. So brace yourself my minions, for another rambling twist of the mind of cheer_dad. Here we go.

I won't try to cover the status/progress of the UIGEA hearings, since Shamus over at Hard Boiled Poker just flat gets it RIGHT!!! Thanks for the phenomenal coverage and commentary. If that's still not enough head on over to Lou Krieger's blog for additional ongoing discussion.

I could talk about work a bit and recap the week for you but I'd like really to hang on to the few dedicated readers that I have. Let's just sum it up this way. There have been lots of donks to deal with and I haven't had the good fortune to find them at a poker table. Let me put these words together without spaces and have you decide if it's one word or two... "governmentinaction" It's been my experience here at the "DEBT" this week that the three word variety has begat the two word variety. But in the minds of some movement is progress. Frackin' 'tards. But I digress.

One bright spot in the week will be tonight at the Yanok's game. They're running their April qualifier tonight. I'm already assured a spot in the year end game having scored a small set of points in one game, but I gotta tell you thus far over there I haven't done well this year. My "luck" or at least my good fortune has been in the NDPT games. I've final tabled a lot. I would have to say that I'm doing better than break even, although an exact figure eludes me. For some reason I've become more interested in the ring game action, as opposed to tournaments. Not that I'm playing more of that variety... just preferring it in my mind. There have been times where I thought about logging on and playing at home in the evening when I've had free time and decided to spend my time in some other way, instead. I didn't decide to take a break, but I just kinda did it. Or didn't as the case may be.

Baseball practice will begin to occupy greater amounts of my waking hours, and then after Opening Day on April 26th, well I just won't have any free time at all. But it's for the children. And although I'm not coaching this year, I've already been drafted to help (wink wink) the official coaches. There really is not end to this thing is there.

And Cole and I watched the WWE on Monday night and saw THE NATURE BOY RIC FLAIR give his farewell speech to the world of pro-wrestling. I remember seeing him YEARS ago when I was a younger than Cole! Then they announced that he was retiring after 36 Years!!! Like it or hate it as for the wrestling, but to do something for that many years and to that degree, you gotta give the guy some credit. The send off was very respectful and he was clearly very emotional over the whole thing. And yes I know it's entertainment... not REAL. But there's enough reality out there to deal with. And hey the boy likes watching it, so I guess that'll have to be reason enough. Besides the divas ain't so hard to look at! Anyway RIC, thanks for the memories!

So I'll see some of you tonight at the Yanok's, and hopefully take your money. But I'll try to entertain as I do it, to help soften the blow.

Regards,

cheer_dad