BPT discussed

I'm going to start off with a disclaimer... I do not know anything, nor do I have any special insight about any of what I'm talking about (unless noted). That being said, I'd like to discuss the recent speculation on the state of the Blogger Poker Tour.

As we all surely know, I'd been a quite active member of the BPT since it's first season. During that first season, the BPT sent one blogger to the WSOP. There was a bit of down time, then the tour was back for a season 2, where they sent two bloggers to Australia for the Aussie Millions. Your's truly was one of such bloggers. I strongly suspect there was an expectation from the BPT community that there'd be a quick turn-around and there'd be a season three starting right away. Based on a few things, I'm not sure that expectation is/was realistic.

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As I may or may not have discussed before, there were some technical... "issues" in Australia for the Millions. Among said "issues," the poker.com logo was not permitted on the formal featured table. It should be noted that the logo met all of the stated specifications in terms of size and what not. However, apparantly Fox Sports took issue to the fact that the logo pointed directly to a website that one could download, deposit, and play poker. This is not to be confused with poker rooms such as Pokerstars, who advertise their "dotnet," which does in fact point to their poker room, however, the cash table and cashiering functions are disabled. This, and other unmentioned "politics" led to the poker.com logo to not be allowed on the televised featured table.

That being said, when everyone got back to the "office," there was a scramble of sorts to resolve the logo issues. After all, what good is a banner if you cannot fly it, right? My strong suspician is that the Carbon Poker brand was created as a result.

How does this tie into the BPT?

Even if there were intentions to immediately turn around and hit up a season 3 in time for the WSOP, I'd guess that this rebranding of sorts takes time, energy, and focus. As a result, it is not now, nor has it been my belief or expectation that the BPT would have yet been underway.

That being said, I remain confident there will be a season 3 in the near future. My guess is that the great staff at poker.com/carbon poker are working out the details, top to bottom so that everything from logoware, to the affiliate program, to defining what "total access" means, and other important stuff - details, redtape, etc are taken care of with respect to the brand. Until that, projects such as the BPT naturally have to take a backseat.

Rest assured, poker.com gave their best effort to make the Aussie Millions something special. It was... Additionally, it served as a learning experience for all involved. My best guess is that they're breaking down the "hand history" from the Millions, and working it out from the business end first, before proceeding with a business venture of this sort (the BPT).

My guess is that season three starts mid-summer.

Until then...?

That being said, what shall we do in the interim? Lately, I feel like the busiest person in the world. Between raising my children, this new job, CheckRayz, trying to launch a few businesses, and running my weekly charity game I barely have time to breath.

However, Sunday is my designated poker day, it seems. I'd be willing to host an unoffical blogger poker tour reunion game, league or series at poker.com - if there's an interest and we have Shane's blessing to do so.

Some logistical problems, however, do occur with this. Of course, if I were hypothetically hosting, while I'd hope to accomidate the masses with respect to day and start time, the fact remains that I'm going to first accomidate my own needs regarding timeslot. Said another way, I check my availability and bounce it off of that which would seemingly best suit the masses.

If something like this was put together, Sunday at 9am EDT would be the timeslot. Realistically, that is the only time slot I have where I am free start to finish. This timeslot would seem to be UK friendly, meaning most likely a favorable time for "Hot Laura," but would be bad for those living on the West Coast of the US such as Joey.

On that note, perhaps I'll talk to Shane and discuss as to whether or not he'd give this his blessing. As I said, the blessing of the commish is important to me, and I'll not proceed forward if I do not have it, and/or are stepping on anyone's toes.

Also, drop me a line, either via the comments or email, letting me know if you'd be interested in a game of this nature. The tourneys would be a low level buy-in. We can play around with pricing. I may or may not be successful in securing an overlay.

I'll keep everyone posted... As for those of us who are members of CheckRayz. Tune in tomorrow, as I'll have some news regarding what's in store for the CheckRayz games (and yes, there will be regular weekly games in April).

Mike

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Housekeeping items, cuz it's been a while...

It's been a while since I've strung back to back to back posts here at the Poker Pub. Since I'm now doing so, I'll take the opportunity to get some housekeeping items out of the way.

First, I'm currently entertaining offers for the Freeroll Poker Blog of mine.

---

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Blogger Poker Tour Season 3 Starting soon and only at Poker.com!.

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Some quick facts on the Freeroll Poker Blog:

Google PR-3.
Alexa Ranking of approximately 35,000.
Blog is just about one year old.

Drop me a line via my advertising address if you're interested.

CheckRayz News

The newly created CheckRayz-News blog will be the official way that I communicate anything CheckRayz related to our members. I anticipate posting on that blog no more than once a week, in that I do not wish to over news anyone. Ideally speaking, I will post there exactly once per week to keep everyone in the loop as to what is going on in the world of CheckRayz.

Syndicated column

I'm playing around with the idea of providing an article of sorts once weekly to anyone who is interested. This can be for blogs, websites or whatever and will be poker related. Currently, all I am asking to use this article is to not change the content in any way, shape or form, which also mean the links. I will want credit for my work, as always.

I also will need to approve who is using this service, as I have copyrights to everything I do --- thus, I'll need to issue each user a seperate license. Again, please email me through the advertising link so that anyone interested can get set up.

Edit: I've acquired the blogs in which I shall run this syndicated writing service from.

I'm also looking to put together a reputable team poker blog for those who are interested.

For both, topics will be poker related, and anecdotal or news (i.e. - tournament coverage) - as opposed to advice and how-tos. Drop me a line via my advertising email for anyone who is interested in either project.

Have a great weekend everyone. Look for our CheckRayz league to start up again next week.

Mike

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PLO8 stuff and some me stuff...

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For starters, just to let my CheckRayz'rs know, I've not forgotten ya, I promise. In fact, tomorrow right here on the Poker Pub Poker Blog, we will have a special edition of the Friday Mailbag - back by popular demand.

The biggest question in the minds of most of the CheckRayz'rs is... "Mike, where the hell have you been?" That question, I won't make you wait to tune into... I'll answer it right now, after the break...


Right now, the Beer Guy has many an iron in the fire. In fact, it's safe to assume there are too many irons in the fire. In no particular order, here are some of the many things I have going on:

1. Maintaining CheckRayz, which includes setting up tourneys, finding money, answering email and marketing... among other things. Yes, last three tourneys will be put into the leaderboard DB tonight.

2. Writing for the Poker Pub, which includes uncovering a story or figuring out wtf to write about.

3. Playing Online... see below.

4. Supporting the "Aussie or Bust" mindset, where I'll accept myself being no where other than Melbourne, Australia come mid-January.

5. Working on one of the six books I've started but not come close to being finished (and yes, I am talking about writing a book, not reading --- we all know I don't can't bring myself to read any book not poker or philosophy related - sad but true.

6. Reviving my soccer "career."

7. Running my weekly charity tournaments locally.

8. Raising the twins.

9. Maintaining some sort of personal life.

10. The Blogger Poker Tour.

10. Everything else not mentioned (eat, sleep, etc).

So yes, I'm quite busy... or is it unorganized? "Yes" is the correct answer, busy being unorganized. So in any event, something has to give here. And, I think my decision is to make only cameo appearances on the virtual felt until after the Super Bowl. Safely assume I will be playing event seven and the grand final of the BPT. Also safely assume I'll appear in one or two CheckRayz events between now and the end of the year. Otherwise, unless it's moving me towards Aussie in January, I probably will not be playing in it - that includes the cash games. I will be writing here regularly and focusing on some modifications to the CheckRayz site, but otherwise, I'm done til after the SuperBowl, because I need the time in my schedule to persue other interests at the moment.

More tomorrow on the Friday mailbag. Moving on...

Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tipses...

As promised, some PLO8 resources.

1. FeliciaLee - Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better resources --- note: I wish felicia would continue to write. I miss her commentary and blogging.

2. O8poker - strategy site.

3. PLO8 key concepts

4. Skinski talks a bit of PLO8

5. BPT Event 7 thread

6. Lauradm getting ready to either discuss her Phil Hellmuth chapter or putting up another picture of herself - coming soon???? (Read: A request from the BeerGuy).

Mike



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Trained Chimps...

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Last meaningless blog post of the day... I "promise"... I mentioned something about going through my stats to find out who is visiting me, where they come from, and how they've found me. Some people find me in the weirdest of ways...


Apparantly this post is ranked number 11 on google for the keyword trained chimps.

Chalk up another one for SuperDonk!

Mike

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I've been quoted... what 'they' say 2b

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I know I go around and do a "what they say" piece the morning after the blogger poker tour events... Which, this "what they say" has really replaced my "pubside chats" because I wanted to try to get more people exposure and also indirectly encourage early and often posting...



Anyway, I still manage to surf around to other BPT Blogs throughout the week, especially when I check down my blog stats to see who is visiting... And back to the spirit of the "what they say" post... I almost never anticipate quoting myself. Additionally, I know I follow several tables at once, in the spirit of covering the event, but I do not ever expect to be "followed" or "Covered"... and in my travels, to my pleasant surprise, I come across the following post from Dangermouse, who is dubbing my table conversation as the quote of the week.

Additional shoutout to Laura, who finished second in event six and discussed the BPT event, also mentioning me... (so far, it seems beerguy references get you front page coverage)... Moreover, her blog has a lot of great photos, as well as some memories, poems and misc. anecdotes. Great blog, check Laura's Blog out here. --- note to self, add her to the BPT search engine.

Speaking of the Blogger Poker Tour Search engine, drop me a line if you need added to it...

Here's Joey's experience from the BPT where he talks about his play... This gives him the BPT quote that I skipped on the first post (though I did quote him)...

Next up, Ohio Mike... "Well...looks like all my boasting about going to Australia in Jan is for naught..."

Beerguy says, "Fear not, ohiomike..." There may be a way to accumulate enough points to make the grand final... Show up for event seven and play your ass off... you'll do well.

moving along... nothing about the BPT, but I really have to shout out to her. She is, in my opinion, the best writer on the blogger poker tour, bar none. ...Tellin carey I'm your hero. It's the other way around. Very talented writer, she is. Stop in, give her a read and say hello...

And finally,a shout out to Chris over at the Chip In Poker Blog where he discusses how... "(He) was outplayed and outkicked and threw my chips away like confetti at a wedding..." Great read, his blog is, so be sure to stop in and represent.

Thanks to everyone for reading, posting, commenting, and playing... Keep 'er comin!

Mike

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BPT, "What 'they' say 2"

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For starters my thoughts: The Blogger Poker Tour event six was great. I think the biggest story of the tournament is that JayNYC made yet another top twenty five finish. For the record, he did not start until event three, placed 24th in that event. Followed it up with an 18th place finish, then a third... and now this week 7th. If he's not the hottest player on the tour right now, and odds on favorite to be playing in Aussie, I'm not really sure who is.


Second, it's disappointing that one or two people attempt to hijack the tour and whine about things, as stated in my post yesterday on the Blogger POKER Tour. Especially from someone who puts themselves out there not just as a blogger, but also as a journalist... to link a forum thread to the thought that "other bloggers are not happy either" (about event seven being pot limit omaha hi/low), when in reality, there was one negative comment on that thread --- (but even that comment wasn't all that negative). Furthermore, that thread was in support of event six and just got a bit off track! My advice, go back to the school of journalism, learn to seperate fact from opinion, learn how to express the difference between fact and opinion, and finally... if you don't like it, simply don't play. Quit whining, nuff said...

Now onto "what 'they' had to say" about event five of the blogger poker tour:

Two from Skinski at the House of Poker Blues:

"Evil has been on a huge roll at the tourneys lately and yesterdays BPT was no exception...
"And to think that the next game is hi-lo omaha ....This is evil's game of choice folk , so BEWARE !



AstinaGuy - "after a beautiful saturday paintballing and drinkin with some mates i was ready for another blogger event!"

Hacksaw over at the 5th st forum blog - "...(*^)(^_(&_)(*_)&(&)(^&$##*%*(^(&&^..." --- beerguy note: I assume someone sucked out...

Beerguy note number two --- does only a few of the top players blog in nearly real time? continuing on...

Joey over at Eat, Sleep, Poker - "...I've gone to the breaking point now that if poker.com didn't have such great online support or offer so all these great promotions, I'd dump them"

Bolcs - "I wanted to make it to top 5, so I get more points, but it's okay too. Now a little light came up at the end of the tunnel..."

Paul being "made famous." --- way to hit your goal! haha...

Quote of the day so far... Lightning36"What a game. Even if you play perfect poker, you can still get beat if the poker gods are cheering for the other player. I guess that is why we love this game so much ..."

Well, not even two minutes later, my daughter calls and totally hijacks the quote of the day on something not poker related... in case you didn't know, I have twins that are six yrs old. This morning, my parents took them bowling. My daughter calls me to tell me all about it. She's quite a talker, so she is chattering away and then she asks:

"Daddy, what are you doing?"

I tell her that I'm talking to her...

Then she asks, "Well, Daddy... are you sitting down or standing up?"

Why is that the quote of the day, you ask? At six years old, that question is cute... Any older, and she has some news to drop on ya, and it ain't good... You're pretty much needing to be sitting down for it.

And finally... Wise and Foolish"I’ve resigned myself to instant death in the Blogger Poker Tour
. . . it’s inevitable."

Hope everyone enjoys the reading...

Mike

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Blogger Poker Tour Search Engine

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New Poker Room necessary? List of Poker Rooms who welcome all customers as of 10/19/2006 10am EDT
Blogger? Join the Blogger Poker Tour today! From the Blogosphere to the Aussie Millions... BPT - only at Poker.com!. BPT Event 6 (12/2) hosted by Flopilicious!

In my state of boredom today... I decided to play around with building a custom search engine. This search engine has loaded into it "most all" of the Blogger Poker Tour Blogs, and a few other blogs I specifically enjoy reading on a regular basis. Click here to access the code to display the BPT Search Engine on your blog or website.



My usual disclaimer applies, of course... which is I may have missed a site or two, due to human error. I actually tried to include everyone who appeared on the leaderboard this time around, however, I reserve the right to go back in and peel non-blogs from the list as I see fit.

Additionally, drop me an email in the event you have an additional website you'd like to include (I included CheckRayz, of course).

Mike

BPT - Lookie here...

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New Poker Room necessary? List of Poker Rooms who welcome all customers as of 10/19/2006 10am EDT
Blogger? Join the Blogger Poker Tour today! From the Blogosphere to the Aussie Millions... BPT - only at Poker.com!. BPT Event 6 (12/2) hosted by Flopilicious!

I was going through this morning and checking for blogs, sites who link to me, and I came across the following blog: Freshinkd. Be sure to add him to your blogroll and show some love!

Mike

BPT - What "they" are saying...

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Blogger? Join the Blogger Poker Tour today! From the Blogosphere to the Aussie Millions... BPT - only at Poker.com!. BPT Event 6 (12/2) hosted by Flopilicious!

I was hoping to have a whole lot of "theys" to post about regarding commentary and/or feedback for the Blogger Poker Tour Event 5 - House of Poker Blues, hosted by Skinski.

Here's what "they" had to say...


Some quotes have been pulled from each blog below. Please vist each blog for the proper and complete context of noted quotes. I'm confident you'll find something on each blog that you'll like!


Brodoughno - "Also worth noting is the determination shown by last week's runner-up imjusthere4thebeer, who found trouble immediately this go around. Nursing only the remnants of his crippled stack, he made a 'Smokey & The Bandit' magnitude beer run, eventually finishing 19th."


Margie at the House of Poker Blues - "Thank you to my bestest bud Earl for yet another great tournament. You sure know how to plan and execute them well!"

and speaking of that bestest bud Earl...

Earl from the House of Poker Blues - " ...Well i feel that a short handed table favors the tighter player , and we all know that is my style till the later parts of a tourny . It worked out well for me to ,I must add ."

DawgRoyal - "... I knew I was behind and just refused to fold..."

enortone - "Bueno en este evento, me fue muy bien, saque lugar 5, llevandome $45, igual me costo mucho, ya que al principio tuve un error gravisimo, quedandome con 700 fichas de 2000 de las cuales te dan al comenzar" Free Translation

Hope you enjoy...

Mike

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Historically speaking, I’ve not been much of a reader. I have always had a passion for writing, but the reading part really kicked my a$$. In fact, when I was in college, I started and withdrew from six different English and Writing 102 classes, because they required me to read some novel and do a review/critique on the damn thing. I finally found an ES102 class that just required me to write one huge research paper. We’d meet in the library once a week (class was 2.5 hours long).

Getting off track here for a second, this reminds me of a story from this class specifically. I got done with my semester long research paper by the third week. Thus, the focus of the class became socializing with the babes, as opposed to doing the work. One of the girls, Gianna, and I had hit the local bar to “pre-game” the class. We finally showed up to the library right on time, and decided we were hungry… So, I called the pizza joint and ordered a pizza to the top floor of the library.


About 45 minutes into class, the pizza guy shows up, pizza in hand. I pay the man, take the pizza and he hit’s the elevator. No sooner does the door open than two of the library employees show up, getting off the elevator glaring at me. I no-sell them by continuing on to the water fountain to fill my coffee mug with water.

The one uptight lady asks me what I’m doing. I give her the “isn’t it pretty obvious” look. She threatens to call security on me because “it’s pretty obvious” that there’s no food or drink allowed in the library.

Now, being the smartass that I am… I get this confused look on my face. I ask Mrs. Uptight why it is there are drinking fountains in a place where food and drink are specifically prohibited. I go on to cite that I’ll be glad to go outdoors and eat the pizza and drink my water, providing they immediately either remove said water fountains or place signs above all fountains saying “not for human indoor usage.”

Gianna and I ended up eating the evidence before security arrived and I got a big slap on the hand, while campus security attempted to keep a straight face. The Professor - also trying desperately to keep a straight face and knowing my love for reading threatened to give me a supplemental novel review if I ever acted out during his class again.

Back to the point… historically speaking, I’ve not been able to force myself to read much of anything. I got really good at taking “multiple guess” tests, thus I could skate through school, rarely reading the required material, but guessing on the tests smartly. As for my attention span, you either have it or you do not… there is little, if any in between.

During my stint as an investment advisor, I became interested in technical analysis, specifically point and figure charting. Unfortunately, the firms were more so interested in the “sell, invest, forget, repeat” concept than dealing with someone who was a subject matter expert. They wanted a used car salesman, not a knowledgeable portfolio manager; yet I was expected to position myself as such.

I respect history and keep with current events. I read on things as they catch my eye. I can pick up a poker book and read it cover to cover in one sitting. Yet, I cannot bring myself to read for leisure for some strange reason. I’m not certain, but I think I am missing out. I wish to force myself to read for leisure and as a form of relaxation.

I plan to start small. I already blog quite a bit (ya think?). I also read several poker blogs daily. I am committing to seek out and read anywhere from three to five “non-poker blogs” a day. How am I going to find these gems, you ask? The little “next blog” button up above on the blogger toolbar is where I am going to start. As I find these new blogs, I’m going to post the blogs in which I’ve discovered and read right here. This will both keep me accountable, and perhaps allow any of my three readers the opportunity to do some new reading as well… With any luck, maybe I’ll be able to read one of my kid’s picture books cover to cover for enjoyment five years from now if I keep on pace.

Today’s leisurely reading list:

On the blog Bandwagon - nice writing on procrastination... I totally relate.

Muthagander - a poetic daily rag of sorts, setting current events to poetry... pretty funny.

network street - lot's of useful technological information. Specifically, I found interesting and useful an article detailing Darknet - "internet" of sorts that does not allow one to be personally identified. They also offer masked ip addresses from Sweden for a low price.




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