They're like crack for the poker player

by BSN

I "took a shot" (well within my bankroll) over the weekend and ran insanely hot. No, I didn't get a ton of great hands, but I won the races I had to win and didn't make many mistakes. 3 shots and 3 wins at the poker-crack $22 Turbo SNG tables at Full Tilt.

Note to self: Refresh yourself with your Harrington books more often.

No, I'm not worried about writing about it jinxing me. I have no plans to play again until next weekend due to workload, except for a Blogger Tournament or two if I'm still conscious when they start. And we all know I'm dead money in those, so it isn't going to hurt.

Iggy and Portia and Ellen and Cheryl

by BSN

Inquiring minds want to know:

Why was Iggy given to Portia DeRossi and Ellen Degeneres, who then decided to pass him around to their friends?

If he was highly-trainable, smart, and enthusiastic, did he get too smart and too enthusiastic for Portia and Ellen?

Was it because he didn't respond well to neutering? That's bound to happen, you know, nature of the surgery and all...

What kind of sick people are these, treating the Blogfather like some dog they can just turn out when they tire?

At least Cheryl loves him...

Big Announcement

by BSN

The videos I've posted have always been the most popular posts here at BigSlickNuts. By a mile, really.

About 6 months ago, I bought the domain name bigslicknutspokerblog.com, just to keep someone from grabbing it and playing like they were me, but I never did anything with it. I didn't want to migrate from this cozy spot and deal with the headaches, so I was fine with letting it sit parked.

A month or so ago, I got the bright idea to take this non-performing url and put it together with what I know is fairly popular poker content, great poker videos, and Big Slick Nuts Best of the Poker Videos was born. I've been posting videos in the following categories:

• How To
• Humor
• Poker Cheats
• Poker Strategy
• TV Poker
• UIGEA

Hope you'll drop by and check it out. Don't worry, this is still my primary poker blog, where I'll be doing all of my poker-related writing, but I thought it might be cool to have a specialty poker blog also. If your employer blocks video, I've found I'm usually able to access them through Google Reader, so you may want to subscribe. I'm just saying... ;-)

Feel free to drop me a comment here or over there and let me know what you think. Although, if you comment over there, I use a wordpress plugin that makes your website links 'dofollow' once you've posted 3 comments. Just a way to reward regulars, at the same time as keeping spammers at bay.

A poker player's Wordpress theme

by BSN

For those poker bloggers with Wordpress blogs, I found the perfect theme: 72 Class

IRS requiring tournaments to report winnings

by BSN

The AP, through Yahoo News is reporting that the IRS is now requiring poker tournaments to report winnings in excess of $5,000 beginning March 4, 2008. Maybe this is old news, I seem to recall hearing whispers about this already.

They're giving tournament sponsors the choice between withholding 25% and sending it to the IRS, with no reporting requirement, or report the winnings but don't withhold.

I think if I'm a player, I prefer the second option. Let me hang on to my money as long as I can before allowing the IRS to confiscate it.

I wonder if offshore online poker sites plan to comply? Methinks this pill would go down a lot easier without the UIGEA in effect...

That Al must be a silver-tongued devil

by BSN
Cheers to Al for cheating convincing Full Tilt Poker that Poker Bloggers are a good investment. Click through the banner to check out his announcement, them check out the second post clarifying a few housekeeping items. This is a great opportunity for bloggers AND readers to compete for a trip to Australia to play in the Aussie Millions:

$18,000 Prize Package for you and a friend

The 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event begins Monday, January 14th and promises to be bigger than ever. Play for your $18K prize package, including:

* Aussie Millions Main Event entry worth AUD $10,500
* 10 nights stay at the luxurious Crown Casino Resort
* Round-trip airfare for the winner and a guest from Los Angeles to Melbourne
* $3,000 in spending money
* Winner & Pro golf outings, dinners, winery tours, seminars and a bounty tournament

I may have to step out of my intermittent Mookie cubbyhole and try one or two other tourneys. The list of qualifying tourneys for the Tournament of Champions is at Al's site.

Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Freeroll

by BSN

Pokerstars is running a series of freerolls to win an entry to the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure poker tournament held at Atlantis in the Bahamas in January. You can play in one freeroll each week, held daily at 6:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.. The grand prize is, of course, the trip and entry to the tournament and the opportunity to meet Daniel Negreanu. There are also more than 125,000 cash prizes, even if you don't win your way to the tournament.

Details can be found at: Play for Millions with Daniel Negreanu in the Bahamas!

Bodog Poker Tournament Tonight

by BSN

Details of Tournament:

* Dates: October 16th through November 6, 2007
* Tournament Name: “Online Poker Blogger Tournament” at Bodog
* Entry Password: bodogblogger
* Buy-in + fee: $10 + $1
* Starting Chips: 3000 (Double Stack)
* Payout: Standard Bodog payout structure
* Bonuses:
o T$109 bonus paid to the top 5 finishers.
o T$11 bonus paid to the 5 players that are eliminated prior to payouts.
+ These bonuses will be awarded within 24hrs of the tournament completion.
+ T$ = Tournament Credits. These can be used as a buy in to almost all scheduled tournaments at Bodog and have a ratio to cash of 1:1.
+ T$ can also be combined with cash to buy in to tournaments.
* Day of week: Tuesdays
* Start time: 8:35pm ET

The bright light of morn...

by BSN

So, everything looks better in the morning, I suppose. I'll post the hand history of my bust-out hand tonight. It will be interesting to describe what I was thinking, where I made my mistake, and why I thought I could get away with it.

Hint: Gap Concept.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, come back later for the second-most-important lesson in poker after pot odds. If you do know what I'm talking about, you know why I'm still a little frustrated.

I'm pleased with MOST of my play last night. I wasn't forcing anything, just let the cards, position, and situation dictate my play. ABC poker. To be honest, and maybe a little arrogant, the only player I sat with that I felt the need to avoid was Maudie, who I sat with early in the tournament for a short time. She stole a couple of my blinds. Harumph. ;-)

I didn't recognize anyone else. I saw Blood, Surflexus and a couple others on the leaderboard late, but thankfully never sat with them. The people I sat with seemed to mostly be on first-level thinking. No disrespect intended, it's just that any 75-person Mookie is more intimidating than what I faced at my tables. If anyone that sat with me is offended, the Mookie is every Wednesday at 10 pm Eastern on Full Tilt, sign up and see for yourself.

So, retail pricing on the xBox Elite is $479, a little lower on Amazon. Wonder why the eBay-ers think they can get more? I dunno, but Mrs. Big is going to research past sales there and we'll figure out what we're going to do. I think I'll use the money to take my kids to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas. They love that stuff.

6.5 hours of goodness, 3 seconds of donkness

by BSN

To say I'm tired is to understate my condition. I'm exhausted, mentally and physically.

And my cat just threw up a hairball, the little bastard. I can has cheezburger my ass.

Anyway, here it is:



I had a serious dilemma: I really wanted the iPod. I already have a Wii that barely gets used, won that in a contest, too. I need an xBox like I need a hole in my head. When we got to 19, I started pushing since I had a below-avg stack and was sitting in 11th. I really wanted that iPod. Then I stopped. I just couldn't make myself play bad with so much on the line, not the least of which is the bragging rights.

Then I go out with 44 in a three-way pot, like the donkey I am.

So, I'm exhausted and disappointed. Disappointed about not getting what I want, disappointed about the way I went out.

If I couldn't get the iPod, I wanted the camera and then nothing until places 1-3.

I shoulda just kept pushing with any two cards when 19 were left.

Seriously, am I seeing the xBox Elite going for $800+ on eBay? Really? Anyone tell me what a fair price is for these things, new and unopened? Should I be so disappointed?

16 out of 1300+. I've had better results, but never against a field like this. Damn.

Thanks to the few that dropped by to wish me luck. Wish I could have taken it down. My wife is going to be pissed about not going to the Bahamas, and I think my in-laws really would have liked for me to win the TV. We'll all just have to learn to live with the disappointment, eh? ;-)

PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

by BSN

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 4490675

----------------------------------

It's back, and I'm really excited!

For my non-poker-playing blogger-friends, Blogger tournaments are a blast. This one usually has several thousand people signed up, but this year they're going to try to limit the number of people that register and wind up not playing by waiting to open the tournament registration until the day of the tournament.

BUT, you still need to pop over to PokerStars and sign up through the web form, then download the software. It's perfectly safe, and perfectly legal since you aren't required to make any deposits.

Yep, totally free. I'll vouch for 'Stars. They were the first to do this, and the prizes have gotten better each year.

The only requirement is that you have to post one of three banners like you see above somewhere in your blog - sidebar, header, or post. You can take it down right after the tournament, if you want.

So, what are we playing for?

For $40,000 in prizes, that's what:

• 1st place -- $12,000 Prize Package to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
• 2nd place -- Pioneer 50-inch Plasma TV
• 3rd place – Blogger’s Prize Package (Widescreen 24” computer monitor, a Canon Rebel digital SLR camera, and a Sony Camcorder)
• 4th place – Player’s Prize Package (Brand new poker table and a deluxe 500-piece clay chip set, and a ticket to the weekly PokerStars $215 Sunday Million.
• 5th place – Sunday Million Marathon Package (Eight $215 Sunday Million tickets to be used whenever you want)
• 6th place – The Big Ones Package (A $530 Sunday Million ticket and a $1,050 Sunday Million ticket)
• 7th place – Sunday Million Quarterly $1,050 Ticket
• 8th place – Canon Rebel Digital SLR Camera
• 9th place – Luxury Poker Chip Set
• 10th place – Bubbler’s Book Bonanza (Every book in the PokerStars FPP store library)
• 11th – 18th place – XBox 360 Elite
• 19th-27th place – 160gb iPod
• 28th-36th place – 80gb iPod
• 37th-45th place – 8gb iPod nano
  
• 46th-81st – Traveler’s package (PokerStars duffle bag and a set-up of plastic PokerStars cards)
  

It's a lot of fun, no one is losing any money, the table-chat is priceless, and you'll see some moves at the tables you won't see anyplace else! Poker bloggers are great people, and I encourage you to join in. PokerStars has "Play Money" tables available 24/7, so you can practice and learn ahead of the tournment. If I know you, feel free to shoot me any questions and I'll coach you.

The poker bloggers are licking their chops right now. They know I'm not very good. Those whispers you hear in the background are from a chorus of poker bloggers chanting "BSN is dead money"...