Alex Jones

The Hold’em House, has put together a series of free Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments in the Austin area at local pubs. Sounds like a fun time. Hopefully I’ll find some time to head on down to one in the near future.

The skill with which you manipulate your poker chips can affect your table rep in a short time. Long time players have spent a lot of time playing with their chips as they wait for other players, or conversely, use them as part of their own thinking process. So, most people will give a bit more respect to the person who is able to casually pull off some chip tricks than those who don’t. It isn’t much of an edge – hell, it may not translate into an advantage at all, but you never know. At the very least, it gives your hands something to do during those long stretches. Enter Poker Chip Tricks, a new site that provides instructions on how to perform many tricks. Even more importantly, the site provides photos and video of the entire process, often from multiple angles, ensuring the explanation is as straight forward as possible.

Now I just need to get my hands on some good clay chips!

Jeff Croft provides some great Hold ‘Em Tips for Beginners, which for the most part mesh quite well with what I have learned from the book Doyle Brunson’s Super System. Check out Jeff’s post if, like me, you are picking up the game and trying to move beyond the stupid mistakes.

One day, I will build a Hold ‘Em table, just like he did.

A very interesting project found via Slashdot: U of A Computer Poker Research Group. An excerpt from their FAQ:

Q: What are you doing, and why?

A: The goal of the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group is to create a computer program that plays poker better than any human being. We will have to solve many interesting computer science problems along the way.

A very nice, and relatively short description of the program is available in an excerpt of a reply to a science writer for the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.

Andy Bloch happened upon my previous post titled World Poker Tour and was kind enough to point out that my statement that the show did not follow a set schedule was wrong. I had picked up on this a while back, but hadn’t noted it on the site. I hope I didn’t lead anyone astray! If so, I am truly sorry.

Andy provided a link to The World Poker Tour Fan site in his signature for the comment. Man, is that site packed chock full of information and commentary! I have much to read in my copious (heh, yeah right) free time. I will find a way.

A couple of weeks back I saw a commercial for the World Poker Tour and scribbled a little note inside my cranium that I should watch it when the season started.

Apparently I need to use better markers when noting something in my head because I completely forgot about the show until I sat down one weekend afternoon and stumbled across it. Fate smiled upon me that day.

As you may know I really don’t give a damn about sports, with the exception of World Cup Soccer which is only available every other year anyway (the tournaments for the men and women alternate, each only occurring once every four years. While I may watch part of a football game on Sunday while gnawing on some ribs or pizza, I don’t follow a team, nor do I schedule anything around a game.

Now though, I have something worth watching: poker. Unlike football, baseball or basketball this game comes down purely to individuals. Players can catapult to the top or get knocked out at any point in the game – due to luck in some cases, but all the more often strategy.

You see, the game requires a mixture of poker strategy and reading your opponents. You may be an amazing player technically, but if you can’t tell when someone is bluffing, or holding a monster hand you are at risk every round.

The show itself is set up very well, providing a view of everyone’s cards and running commentary by people who understand the game exceedingly well. Thankfully, the Travel Channel didn’t try to pare the show down to an hour or less. The two hour time slot provided for each show is ideal.

The only downfall is the fact that the schedule does not follow a set schedule as is the case with football. Rather it bounces from day to day like baseball or basketball. So, I’ve printed out the schedule from the Web site and plan on setting up reminders in the ol’ Palm Pilot.

And the next time someone asks me “hey didja see that amazing Hail Mary play by Johnson on Sunday?” I’ll reply “Could you believe Nguyen lucked out when the river turned out to be a third nine? Talk about a bad beat.”

I love No Limit Texas Hold ‘em.