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Some of my favorite sites

  • RecPoker.com -- a web access to the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup
  • Lou Kreiger's website Lou is the author of a bunch of poker books
  • Cardplayer.com -- The website for Cardplayer magazine. Nice place to read the current issue, but I find the site hard to navigate.
  • twoplustwo.com -- Site, with discussion forum, of 2+2 publishing -- Sometimes has interesting discussion threads. The main problem is the heavy handed censoring by Malmuth. He's a little prickly about perceived personal insults.
  • Danny Negreanu's site I really get a kick out of Danny's adventures.
  • Poker Magazine.com I write for them, and they pay on time. They have some good stuff from other writers also, a connection to rec.gambling.poker, and other stuff.
  • Andrew Prock's website. He's the author of pokerstove, a freeware poker hand analyzer. If you're a student of poker you should have a copy of pokerstove.
  • KillTheRake.com, a site I've been making contributions to

Gonzo Report from the Tunica WSOP Circuit Event

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

I left the Tunica event early because I had a doctors appointment in Gulfport. Then I took off to Oklahoma to check out the poker rooms there, intending to pick up my coverage of the WSOP events back in Gulfport. Well, that's not going to happen, so I'm not sure when I'll resume these reports.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

I havn't been spending much time at the Grand since the start of the WSOP circuit event. There doesn't seem to have been a need to, the games at the Gold Strike have really gotten good with the influx of players.

Normally the Grand offers $25 rooms to poker players. During this WSOP event however they're giving poker players a $49 a night deal. But, other hotels, like the Gold Strike and the Horseshoe, are still giving poker players good deals on rooms, and they're also freely comping food for players. In contrast the the Grand has closed off the room in the poker room that provided free hot dogs, sodas, coffee, and popcorn to players. Players at the Grand are pretty much paying directly for whatever they get.

As a consequence, many players who are playing in some of the tournament events are staying at the Gold Strike, and playing at the Gold Strike when not in a tournament. The 2/5 blind NL games have gotten real good, and they are spreading 2/5 PLO and 10/20 O/8 on a regular basis right now, something they usually don't do.

I'll probably get over to the Grand Monday though, and give a shot to a satellite for the $300 buy in event on Tuesday.

Even the 1/2 blind NL games on weekends at Hollywood have gotten good this weekend. They have a $200 maximum buy in, but the game Saturday morning was pretty weak. I'm staying at the RV park over there, paying $12 a night. The poker room does provide free RV space for 6 hours of play, but weekdays all they have going are tight, passive 3/6 games and I can find better things to do with 6 hours. It might be tolarable if they allowed you to read a paper, but they have a strict no reading at the table rule, even if you aren't in the hand.

The ongoing circus of the 2006 World Series of Poker got off to a start a the Tunica Grand yesterday,with the first of many planned circuit events. Yesterday started the official satelittes, and the first event got off today. I think it started at noon, I never did see an actual printed schedule that had a start time listed.

I was going to play in the first event, it's a $300 buyin event, I guess they thought they needed some small buyin events for all us lowrent Mississippi gamblers. But, they filled up.

Yesterday I played a couple of satelittes and noticed a long line for registration in today's event. I thought about registering yesterday, but wasn't feeling real well and decided to wait until this morning to make sure I was felling well enough to play all day.

I showed up to register about 10 am and discovered that they had a limit of 700 registrants and they were at 110 alternates, with a cap of 150 alternates. I'd never seen anything in any of the printed schedules about a limit on the number of players. They did have extra tables in the adjacent poker room that could have been used, but weren't.

Some suit with a nametag Jack claimed that they would promise that all alternates would get to play. I wasn't sure what the hell that meant, so I asked and discovered that it meant they had no cut off for when the alternates would get seated. To me that meant there was a good chance I'd get seated when the blinds where big enough to make me short stacked from the gitgo. I didn't know what the blind schedule was, so rather than risk it I just passed.

There is a little problem with information. I ran across a flyer on the tournament floor yesterday announcing $65 satelittes. They flyer says those one table events start with 500 chips. I played two of them. They start with 800 chips. I lose confidence when the tournament management can't get the easy things right.

The $65 satelittes give out $500 entry chips which the flyer claims can be used to buyin to any official events. But, they have two $300 events. Do they give change? I don't know, I didn't ask. But, they didn't give change at the 2005 WSOP at the Rio (entry chips could be used to buy in to satelittes there) and they have $45 satelittes where winners don't get entry chips but get a certificate for a $300 entry. So, I don't know. I didn't ask because I wasn't sure I'd be confident in whatever answer I got.

To close off my first report, they asked for a driver's liscence and Grand Player's Card when I got to the head of the line to register this morning. I asked if I couldn't register for someone else. They said yes. So, I asked if that meant that if I register for someone else I don't need ID, but if I register for myself I do? The answer to that is yes. Don't you just love corporate logic?