Bet This River?

6-max limit holdem, I'm the button with AcTc.

Terrible Guy limps in.
Folds to a fairly New Guy (no read) who raises.
Normally, I don't cold call unless I'm on the button with a hand that plays well in a multi-way pot. I have all the conditions here, so I call.
Both blinds fold and Terrible Guy calls.
Pot size: 7 small bets

Flop is: Td 6d 5c

Checks to New Guy who bets.
I raise.
Terrible Guy calls, New Guy calls.
Pot size: 6.5 big bets

Turn is: Ah

Checks to New Guy who bets.
I raise.
Terrible Guy calls, New Guy calls. My reads at this point are diamond draw for Terrible Guy and Ace-paint for New Guy.
Pot size: 12.5 big bets

River is: Kc

Checks to me. I have to be better than Terrible Guy; the best he could have is Kd5d for a worse two pair than me. I feel like he is bad enough to call with just the Kd. I will get a call out of CO with AJ/AQ and either a call or a raise with AK (which has me beat). So this looks like a value bet to me but I just want to be sure.

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Sasat For Him

Barbaro was put down today, and as a result we have a new leader in the 2007 Dead Pool standings. I'm arbitrarily multiplying his age by 6 to set some sort of "human age" equivalence (something I didn't consider back at the beginning of January - oops.) All emails of complaint over the inclusion of a horse in the Dead Pool, or arbitrary age designations, should be sent to /dev/null.

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Three Posts in a Single Day?!

This is... interesting:

Dear F-Train,

We greatly appreciate your interest in Full Tilt Poker. That's why, as a token of our appreciation, we are pleased to extend to you the following special offer.

You are eligible for a bonus of $100.00 by earning 800 Full Tilt Poker points.

To activate this offer, you must click on the link below by 11:59 PM ET on Friday, January 26th.

(link removed)

You can also activate the bonus by clicking the "My Promotions" link in the Cashier and then on the "Special Bonus Status" link.

Once you have clicked the above link, you have until 11:59 PM ET on Wednesday, January 31st to earn your required points. You can review your bonus status through the "My Promotions" link in the Cashier.

If you are a NETeller or Instant eChecks customer, you are probably aware that these companies are no longer processing transactions for U.S. based players. However, you can still fund your Full Tilt Poker account using one of our other safe and convenient payment processors.

Thank you again for your continued play at Full Tilt Poker. We look forward to seeing you at the tables.

Sincerely,

Full Tilt Poker

Apparently others have received a similar email with a $50 bonus for 400 points, and still others haven't received anything at all. Could it be that people are jumping ship in light of all of the recent developments and FTP is trying to bribe them to stay?

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Hey Dawn Summers - FYMF

I'm not really a fan of blog memes (especially uber-gay ones), but since I value my life more than I value the sanctity of this space, I've given in to Dawn Summers' ridiculous demands that I participate, just so she can get her coveted link back.

(Whore.)

A- available? Could not be more available. All small, cute, nerdy women know where to apply. Medium-skinned, dark-haired ladies to the front of the line.

B- best friend? No. I either spread myself around in a fairly even manner or, more likely, I tell everyone to bugger off and spend some QT with my favorite person - me. This may explain my first answer.

C- cake or pie? "I PLAN ON WRITING AN EPIC POEM ABOUT THIS GORGEOUS PIE."

D- drink of choice? A really nice, smoky scotch will get me just about every time. Of course, really nice, smoky scotch also tends to be incredibly expensive, and since I tends towards, erm, "frugality", it's not often that I let scotch "get me".

E- essential item I use every day: my penis.

F- favorite color? Any shade of deep, primary blue, particularly in clothing, since it highlights my one good feature.

G- gummy bears or gummy worms? Gummy candy is for 14 year-old girls. But then again, so are blogs. Worms, I guess. They match nicely the worms already living in my intestines.

H- hometown? Succasunna, NJ. Pronounced exactly how it looks, and let me tell you that has just been a *barrel* of fun my entire life.

I- indulgence? Poker, I guess. I'm not really the type to be self-indulgent.

J- january or february? February, but only because it usually involves a trip to some place warm.

K- kids and names: No.

L- life is incomplete without? Breathing.

M- marriage date: Try again.

N- number of siblings: Three. All older, although one of them was functionally my fraternal twin as we were 6 months apart in age and in the same grade in school. Let me tell you, nothing builds resentment more as a child than having to share everything with your brother. In my defense, he hit me in the head with a baseball bat when we were about 9. In his defense, I choked him on at least two non-consecutive occasions.

O- oranges or apples? Apples. I do not like citrus fruits at all. Just the very smell of someone cracking open an orange is enough to send me scurrying for the smell of something less foul -- cigarette smoke, a two-week old corpse left to rot in the desert sun, Dawn Summers, whatever.

P- phobias or fears? Do. Not. Like. Heights. Nothing gets my palms tingling and sweating more than heights. Just thinking about heights while typing this sentence, I can feel the sensation starting in my palms a bit. Ugh.

Q- favorite quote? "Are you saying 'boo', or 'boo-urns'?"

R- reasons to smile? Yesterday, I got a letter in the mail from my 8 year old niece's school. Inside was a doll paper-cutout and a hand-printed letter from my niece that read: "Dear Uncle F-Train: I am sending Flat Stanley to you. I hope he learns about your state. Love, Monte. P.S. I love you."

S- season? Lightly, if at all. I prefer most of my food "au naturale".

T- tag: No. Memes are uber-gay. Have I mentioned that yet? Cuz they are.

U- unknown fact about me: I possess an acute knowledge of the symptoms and after-effects of clonidine poisoning after being drugged and rolled by a chick in Moscow in 2002.

V- vegetable you don’t like: I'm not overly fond of radishes. I'll eat them if unavoidable, but they're certainly not high on my list.

W- worst habit: Giving in to Dawn Summers.

Y- your favorite food? Skinny people don't have favorite foods. That's why we're skinny.

Z- zodiac? Cancer/Dragon. "Great emotional vitality is the foundation of this astonishing character's personality. The Cancer/Dragon is born with all of Cancer's profound ability to feel life in every aspect. This subject is also endowed with Dragonish pluck. So we have here a forceful and dauntlessly enthusiastic character. Cancer's eternal black moods will be lightened by the Dragon's phoenix-like ability to rise from the ashes of his own immolation by his natural pep and vigor. Dragon's unwieldy braggadocio will be tempered by Cancer's good sense and dignity. Cancer/Dragon's got just a soupçon of a twinkle in a very sensual glance. Bedroom eyes with a skylight. Cancer wants to keep this subject home. Dragon longs to race out and beat the world at any game in town. Close contact with this dynamic soulful person is always satisfying." Wow. What a load of crap. Anyone who's ever had close contact with me knows that I am neither dynamic nor soulful, and in fact is usually left with the impression that I'm a giant flaming asshole.

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Degenerate Gamblers

I just finished reading an excellent piece on gamblers that was in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine, entitled "Looking for My Father in Las Vegas":

A brilliant, self-educated man, my father cited "The Gambler," by Dostoyevsky, as proof that all gamblers, himself included, were "degenerate gamblers," the phrase he always used.

Definitely worth the read.

--

Meanwhile, in a bit of shameful self-flagellation, I dropped 40 BBs playing 6-max LHE on Sunday, at least 15 of which were in "chase" mode, and further chased those 40 by stepping UP in limits, where I hit a *very* fortuitous rush to make everything back. As I said last week, chasing is the biggest hole in my game right now, and it has been for a long, long time. Those of you who have me in ACH's busto pool may just yet get something for your faith.

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Forecast: Low Ceiling, Limited Visibility

As first reported yesterday in the Times of London (H/T Bill Rini), it appears the online gambling industry is about to take another hit. The New York Times is now reporting that the DOJ "has issued subpoenas to at least four Wall Street investment banks as part of a widening investigation into the multibillion-dollar online gambling industry".

"It appears that the Department of Justice is waging a war of intimidation against Internet gambling," said I. Nelson Rose, a professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif., who is an expert on Internet gambling law.

I know this thing became law a few months back (the UIGEA, I mean), so I suppose this news is not terribly shocking. It's just another reminder that the Golden Age of Internet Poker is rapidly becoming the Jurassic Age of Internet Poker. At least, in the United States.

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Chasing a Loss

Winning poker players have learned how to deal with the psychology of losing. They understand that it's all one big session, and that if they are continually introspective, analyzing and improving their game, the short-term losses will be offset by long-term gains. They avoid tilt in all of its various forms, and they minimize their emotional investment in the game, even when the bad beats do come. Winning players understand that poker is a game of processing information through logical filters and detach their emotional feelings from that process as much as possible; they also understand that sometimes, you can play a hand perfectly and still lose.

--F-Train, July 28, 2004

Here's the situation. You're stuck. It probably doesn't matter how much you're stuck, but if you're a limit player, let's say you're stuck 35 big bets, and if you're a no-limit or pot-limit player, let's peg it at 2 buy-ins. You know that you're better than these donkeys, dammit, and there's no way you're going to end your session stuck to the likes of them.

News flash, hotshot. Any time you start chasing a loss, you are subtly tilting. The bigger the loss you're chasing, the more each individual hands starts to mean to you emotionally, and the more you tilt. Taking a bad beat as you are scraping the bottom of this barrel is like throwing a live grenade into a munitions depot.

Does this mean you should get up as soon as you're stuck? Of course not. It takes money to make money, and sometimes you're going to take those proverbial two steps backward before you get moving forward. However, the longer the session goes without improvement, the more weight you have to give to the notion that maybe today just isn't your day.

This should be a fairly obvious concept, but I have to continually remind myself of it. I like green numbers in PokerTracker. I despise red numbers. I will play sessions longer than intended solely to turn a red session number into a green one. Today's session brought a particularly egregious example. I sat down at a 6-max table and posted in the big blind. Within 3 hands, I knew that I was at a very dangerous table at which the variance would be very high. There were plenty of other games going at my limit, so getting on a different, lower variance table would not be a problem. I knew that the most +EV play, for my style and against these particular opponents, was to immediately switch tables.

But, the red number. I was already stuck 1.5 small bets. 1.5 small bets! Not even a full big bet. But I abhored that red number. So what did I do? I chased the loss, trying to just win that "one pot" that would get me back to even. Then I missed a few flops, and played a hand poorly. Mix in some variance and what happened? Within 50 hands, I found myself stuck 18 big bets and the tilt was creeping in, full on.

At that point, I decided I would play the last 7 big bets in my stack and if I lost them, I was done for the evening. I'm happy to say that I caught a bit of a rush and after another 50 hands, I was up 2 big bets for the session. As soon as my big blind came, I was off the table. But the donkey play had already been made 97 hands prior, by staying at a table I knew I shouldn't stay at, solely to chase a 1.5 small bet loss.

In these situations, when you know you are chasing a loss, I think the best way of dealing with the tilt is setting a cap point for your loss and a time limit to turn it around, and STICKING TO BOTH OF THEM.

Another example. I have a friend who, for anonymity's sake, we will call Shauna Dumbers. Shauna, like me, doesn't like red numbers (or at least, she wouldn't if she played online). Shauna will drive around Atlantic City at all hours of the night looking for "a good game" of 1/2 60/300 NLHE solely to get unstuck $100 or $200. Not even a full buy-in. In the process of doing this, Shauna often loses even more money, because the discipline that she normally uses to make money goes out the window. The longer she plays, and the more tables she switches to/from, the more tired she becomes, leading to worse decisions and, inevitably, more losses. Steam builds.

Shauna doesn't know how to stop at that point. She will chase the loss past the points of hunger and exhaustion until someone bodily drags her from the table. What she needs are effective loss caps and time limits. Yes, she may go to bed with a red number showing an ugly loss, but tomorrow is always another day. It's all one big session, after all.

All of this is easier said than done. I think that right now, chasing losses is one of the biggest leaks in my game. After two decades of playing poker, I still hate to lose. I deal with it much, much better than I used to, but I still haven't developed the emotional discipline to just close up shop whenever and wherever I need to.

But I'm getting there. Shauna, on the other hand, has a long uphill climb.

--

Random personal poker update: despite the freakish nature of today's session, I'm still running riDONKulously good and find myself up 140 big bets over my last 1,500 hands. Would that it were always this easy.

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Dead Pool Standings

Rosters and standings in the 2007 Riding the F Train Dead Pool:

Standings
1. Team DuggleReaper (4) [375]
2. Team 130 Pounds of Fury (4) [385]
3. Team SoxLover (4) [397]
4. Team ACH / BigMike (3) [287]
5. Team Clareified (2) [134]
6. Team Mary! (2) [155]
7. Team Chilly (2) [160]
8. Team Drinking, Milwaukee Style (2) [186]
9. Team DonkeyPuncher (2) [194]
10. Team Chugarte (2) [207]
11. 4 teams tied (1)
15. 3 teams tied (0)


Rosters

Team 130 Pounds of Fury

1. Brooke Astor DECEASED - AUGUST 13, 2007 (105)
2. Fidel Castro
3. Phyllis Diller
4. Farrah Fawcett
5. C. Everett Koop
6. Ernest Gallo DECEASED - MARCH 6, 2007 (97)
7. Lady Bird Johnson DECEASED - JULY 11, 2007 (94)
8. Jack Lalanne
9. Lindsay Lohan
10. Harry Morgan
11. Bobby Murcer
12. Phil Rizzuto DECEASED - AUGUST 14, 2007 (89)
13. Andy Rooney
14. Ariel Sharon
15. Keith Urban

TOTAL: 4

Team ACH / BigMike

1. Brooke Astor DECEASED - AUGUST 13, 2007 (105)
2. Dutch Boyd
3. Wilfred Brimley
4. Walter Cronkite
5. Olivia De Havilland
6. Phyllis Diller
7. Kirk Douglas
8. Betty Ford
9. Estelle Getty
10. Billy Graham
11. Lady Bird Johnson DECEASED - JULY 11, 2007 (94)
12. Andy Rooney
13. Mickey Rooney
14. Abe Vigoda
15. Kurt Waldheim DECEASED - JUNE 14, 2007 (88)

TOTAL: 3

Team April (CA)

1. Sid Caesar
2. Dick Clark
3. Tony Curtis
4. Farrah Fawcett
5. Annette Funicello
6. Estelle Getty
7. Zsa Zsa Gabor
8. Charlton Heston
9. Meat Loaf
10. Ricardo Montalbon
11. Harry Morgan
12. Nancy Reagan
13. Keith Richards
14. Nicole Richie
15. Roy Scheider

TOTAL: 0

Team BkynPlague

1. Yogi Berra
2. Ernest Borgnine
3. Mel Brooks
4. Dick Butkus
5. Jimmy Carter
6. Walter Cronkite
7. Phyllis Diller
8. Betty Ford
9. Stephen Hawking
10. Dolores Hope
11. Christopher Lee
12. Jerry Lewis
13. Stan Musial
14. Terrell Owens
15. John Wooden

TOTAL: 0

Team Chilly

1. Bob Barker
2. Joey Bishop DECEASED - OCTOBER 18, 2007 (89)
3. Ernest Borgnine
4. Fidel Castro
5. Dick Cheney
6. Dick Clark
7. Kirk Douglas
8. Betty Ford
9. Charlton Heston
10. B.B. King
11. Jerry Lewis
12. Luciano Pavaroti DECEASED - SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 (71)
13. Sargent Shriver
14. Margaret Thatcher
15. John Wooden

TOTAL: 2

Team Chugarte

1. Moktada Al-Sadr
2. Brooke Astor DECEASED - AUGUST 13, 2007 (105)
3. Dick Clark
4. Phyllis Diller
5. Kirk Douglas
6. Andy Rooney
7. Pete Doherty
8. W. Mark Felt
9. Henry Kissinger
10. Charles Lane DECEASED - JULY 9, 2007 (102)
11. Jake LaMotta
12. Art Linkletter
13. Mickey Rooney
14. JR Simplot
15. Amarillo Slim

TOTAL: 2

Team Clareified

1. Bea Arthur
2. Lauren Bacall
3. Tammy Faye Baker DECEASED - JULY 20, 2007 (65)
4. Harry Belafonte
5. Yogi Berra
6. Doyle Brunson
7. Fidel Castro
8. Farah Fawcett
9. Betty Ford
10. Charlton Heston
11. Julio Iglesias
12. Evel Kneivil DECEASED - NOVEMBER 30, 2007 (69)
13. Courtney Love
14. Nick Nolte
15. Elizabeth Taylor

TOTAL: 2

Team DonkeyPuncher

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Brooke Astor DECEASED - AUGUST 13, 2007 (105)
3. Bob Barker
4. Fidel Castro
5. Dick Clark
6. Estelle Getty
7. Billy Graham
8. Charlton Heston
9. Michael Jackson
10. BB King
11. Jerry Lewis
12. Courtney Love
13. Nelson Mandela
14. Kate Moss
15. Phil Rizzuto DECEASED - AUGUST 14, 2007 (89)

TOTAL: 2

Team Drinking, Milwaukee Style

1. Muhammed Ali
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Joey Bishop DECEASED - OCTOBER 18, 2007 (89)
4. Barry Bonds
5. Jimmy Carter
6. Fidel Castro
7. Walter Cronkite
8. Ernest Gallo DECEASED - MARCH 6, 2007 (97)
9. Billie Graham
10. Paul Harvey
11. Bobby the Brain Heenan
12. Nancy Reagan
13. Donald Rumsfeld
14. Verne Troyer
15. Kanye West

TOTAL: 2

Team Drizz

1. 50 Cent
2. Barbaro DECEASED - JANUARY 29, 2007 (24)
3. Bob Barker
4. George Bush (Senior)
5. Michael J Fox
6. Annette Funicello
7. Teri Garr
8. Denny Green
9. Stephen Hawkins
10. Harmon Killebrew
11. Wink Martindale
12. Mary Tyler Moore
13. Don Rickles
14. Ryan Seacrest
15. Kanye West

TOTAL: 1

Team DuggleReaper

1. Sammy Baugh
2. Kitty Carlisle DECEASED - APRIL 18, 2007 (96)
3. Kirk Douglas
4. Ernest Gallo DECEASED - MARCH 6, 2007 (97)
5. Billy Graham
6. Paul Harvey
7. Ernie Harwell
8. Kirk Kerkorian
9. Karl Malden
10. Les Paul
11. Phil Rizzuto DECEASED - AUGUST 14, 2007 (89)
12. Mike Wallace
13. Eli Wallach
14. Richard Widmark
15. Jane Wyman DECEASED - SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 (93)

TOTAL: 4

Team Grubette

1. Fidel Castro
2. David Crosby
3. Sheryl Crow
4. Kirk Douglas
5. Hugh Downs
6. Clint Eastwood
7. Queen Elizabeth
8. Farrah Fawcett
9. Mick Jagger
10. Paul Newman
11. Keith Richards
12. Nicole Ritchie
13. Anna Nicole Smith DECEASED - FEBRUARY 8, 2007 (39)
14. Donald Trump
15. Barbara Walters

TOTAL: 1

Team HighOnPoker

1. Tom Cruise
2. Billy Crystal
3. Pete Doherty
4. Dakota Fanning
5. Sean Preston Spears er Federline
6. The Game
7. James Hetfield
8. Paul McCartney
9. Mary Kate Olsen
10. Keith Richards
11. Don Rickles
12. Andy Rooney
13. Mr. T
14. Tina Turner
15. Abe Vigoda

TOTAL: 0

Team Maigrey

1. Lauren Bacall
2. George Carlin
3. Jimmy Carter
4. Sean Connery
5. Kirk Douglas
6. Farrah Fawcett
7. Michael J. Fox
8. Ernest Gallo DECEASED - MARCH 6, 2007 (97)
9. James Garner
10. Martin Landeau
11. Angela Lansbury
12. Roger Moore
13. Anita Page
14. Sidney Poitier
15. Jerry Stiller

TOTAL: 1

Team Mary!

1. Fidel Castro
2. Dick Clark
3. Walter Cronkite
4. Yvonne De Carlo DECEASED - JANUARY 8, 2007 (84)
5. Pete Doherty
6. Queen Elizabeth II
7. Zsa Zsa Gabor
8. Estelle Getty
9. Meadowlark Lemon
10. George Martin
11. Maureen O'Hara
12. Peter O'Toole
13. Luciano Pavarotti DECEASED - SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 (71)
14. Mickey Rooney
15. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

TOTAL: 2

Team Snailtrax

1. Muhammud Ali
2. Bob Barker
3. Yogi Berra
4. Fidel Castro
5. Dick Clark
6. Snoop Dogg
7. Robert Downey Jr.
8. Kevin Federline
9. Betty Ford
10. Stephen Hawking
11. Stan Musial
12. Terrell Owens
13. Keith Richards
14. Axl Rose
15. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. DECEASED - APRIL 11, 2007 (84)

TOTAL: 1

Team SoxLover

1. Brooke Astor DECEASED - AUGUST 13, 2007 (105)
2. Fidel Castro
3. Betty Ford
4. Johannes Heesters
5. Gordon Hinckley
6. Albert Hofmann
7. Dolores Hope
8. Lady Bird Johnson DECEASED - JULY 11, 2007 (94)
9. B.B. King
10. Charles Lane DECEASED - JULY 9, 2007 (102)
11. Art Linkletter
12. Maurice Papon DECEASED - FEBRUARY 17, 2007 (96)
13. Ariel Sharon
14. Gloria Stuart
15. Abe Vigoda

TOTAL: 4

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Fatality

Congratulations to Team Mary! for scoring the first fatality in the Riding the F-Train 2007 Dead Pool. She was the only person to choose Yvonne DeCarlo, aka Lily Munster, and now leads all teams by one point.

I'll be linking the roster page in my side bar and updating it throughout the year, for ease of reference. Also, an email will be going around to all participants later today (hopefully).

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Love in an Elevator

People in a New York City elevator tend to do one of three things: look up at the floor display as it ticks up or down; look down at the floor; or stare straight ahead in a somewhat unfocused manner. (This ignores people who may know each other or work in the same office who ride the elevator together. They usually engage in extremely banal conversation, to the point that any sane person would want to jam an ice pick in his ears so that he didn't have to listen.) Very few people look at any of the other occupants of the elevator, which allows me to play a little game without being perceived as overly creepy.

As I take four elevator rides a day between the ground floor and 46th floor of my office building, I like to try to guess what type of elevator rider a person is when they get on the elevator. By and large, people fall into the categories you think they would. The meek-looking people stare at the floor; the impatient and Type A-looking types drill holes in the floor display with their gaze; and the most non-descript, middle of the road types stare into nothingness. That's not to say that everyone is a perfect fit. I am surprised on a regular basis by floor-starers who I thought would be display-watchers.

I don't really have a point here; I just find it interesting that almost nobody takes any note of their fellow elevator riders or, God forbid, tries to engage them in conversation. But if you want me to have a point, I'll say this: take note of your opponents when they sit down across the felt from you. Before they're dealt any cards, their mannerisms and appearance can help you form an initial read as to the type of player they are. Just don't be afraid to jettison that read if their actions dictate it.

--

Still running pretty good with my resurrection at limit holdem. Most interestingly, I am only losing from ONE position - the small blind. I am dead even in the big blind, and every other position shows me in the green. I've been spending a fair amount of time working on blind defense, since 6-max seems to be where the best money can be made and the blinds come more frequently in 6-max, and so far it's paying off.

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Once More Unto the Breach

The only constant is change.

2006 was not one of my finer years. If a chart of my personal change, growth and development for the year were delivered to an emergency room doctor, he'd shout for a defibrillator. It was a flat line from January to December, interrupted only by a few downward blips along the way (a certain November Friday rings some bells).

Last week, on January 1, 2007, the Year of the Hammer, through a few glasses of mulled wine and champagne, everything seemed tinged with hope, the promise of new beginnings and positive change. A week later, I've returned to earth and realized the only way that 2007 is going to be any different than 2006 is if I get off my ass and make it so. Change begins at home. I know what some of the things are that can be worked on. Others will, I hope, make themselves known to me over the course of the year. No matter how I stumble across these life revisions, the power to see them through ultimately rests with me.

From Kings County, here we go.

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Dead Pool Rosters

Tomorrow is officially the last day to get your roster in! Here are the fourteen submissions I've already received:

January 6 UPDATE: Final tally is 17 teams, all listed below the jump.

Team 130 Pounds of Fury

1. Brooke Astor
2. Fidel Castro
3. Phyllis Diller
4. Farrah Fawcett
5. C. Everett Koop
6. Ernest Gallo
7. Lady Bird Johnson
8. Jack Lalanne
9. Lindsay Lohan
10. Harry Morgan
11. Bobby Murcer
12. Phil Rizzuto
13. Andy Rooney
14. Ariel Sharon
15. Keith Urban

Team ACH / BigMike

1. Brooke Astor
2. Dutch Boyd
3. Wilfred Brimley
4. Walter Cronkite
5. Olivia De Havilland
6. Phyllis Diller
7. Kirk Douglas
8. Betty Ford
9. Estelle Getty
10. Billy Graham
11. Lady Bird Johnson
12. Andy Rooney
13. Mickey Rooney
14. Abe Vigoda
15. Kurt Waldheim

Team April (CA)

1. Sid Caesar
2. Dick Clark
3. Tony Curtis
4. Farrah Fawcett
5. Annette Funicello
6. Estelle Getty
7. Zsa Zsa Gabor
8. Charlton Heston
9. Meat Loaf
10. Ricardo Montalbon
11. Harry Morgan
12. Nancy Reagan
13. Keith Richards
14. Nicole Richie
15. Roy Scheider

Team BkynPlague

1. Yogi Berra
2. Ernest Borgnine
3. Mel Brooks
4. Dick Butkus
5. Jimmy Carter
6. Walter Cronkite
7. Phyllis Diller
8. Betty Ford
9. Stephen Hawking
10. Dolores Hope
11. Christopher Lee
12. Jerry Lewis
13. Stan Musial
14. Terrell Owens
15. John Wooden


Team Chilly

1. Bob Barker
2. Joey Bishop
3. Ernest Borgnine
4. Fidel Castro
5. Dick Cheney
6. Dick Clark
7. Kirk Douglas
8. Betty Ford
9. Charlton Heston
10. B.B. King
11. Jerry Lewis
12. Luciano Pavaroti
13. Sargent Shriver
14. Margaret Thatcher
15. John Wooden

Team Chugarte

1. Moktada Al-Sadr
2. Brooke Astor
3. Dick Clark
4. Phyllis Diller
5. Kirk Douglas
6. Andy Rooney
7. Pete Doherty
8. W. Mark Felt
9. Henry Kissinger
10. Charles Lane
11. Jake LaMotta
12. Art Linkletter
13. Mickey Rooney
14. JR Simplot
15. Amarillo Slim

Team Clareified

1. Bea Arthur
2. Lauren Bacall
3. Tammy Faye Baker
4. Harry Belafonte
5. Yogi Berra
6. Doyle Brunson
7. Fidel Castro
8. Farah Fawcett
9. Betty Ford
10. Charlton Heston
11. Julio Iglesias
12. Evil Kneivil
13. Courtney Love
14. Nick Nolte
15. Elizabeth Taylor

Team DonkeyPuncher

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Brooke Astor
3. Bob Barker
4. Fidel Castro
5. Dick Clark
6. Estelle Getty
7. Billy Graham
8. Charlton Heston
9. Michael Jackson
10. BB King
11. Jerry Lewis
12. Courtney Love
13. Nelson Mandela
14. Kate Moss
15. Phil Rizzuto

Team Drinking, Milwaukee Style

1. Muhammed Ali
2. Osama bin Laden
3. Joey Bishop
4. Barry Bonds
5. Jimmy Carter
6. Fidel Castro
7. Walter Cronkite
8. Ernest Gallo
9. Billie Graham
10. Paul Harvey
11. Bobby the Brain Heenan
12. Nancy Reagan
13. Donald Rumsfeld
14. Verne Troyer
15. Kanye West

Team Drizz

1. 50 Cent
2. Barbaro
3. Bob Barker
4. George Bush (Senior)
5. Michael J Fox
6. Annette Funicello
7. Teri Garr
8. Denny Green
9. Stephen Hawkins
10. Harmon Killebrew
11. Wink Martindale
12. Mary Tyler Moore
13. Don Rickles
14. Ryan Seacrest
15. Kanye West

Team DuggleReaper

1. Sammy Baugh
2. Kitty Carlisle
3. Kirk Douglas
4. Ernest Gallo
5. Billy Graham
6. Paul Harvey
7. Ernie Harwell
8. Kirk Kerkorian
9. Karl Malden
10. Les Paul
11. Phil Rizzuto
12. Mike Wallace
13. Eli Wallach
14. Richard Widmark
15. Jane Wyman

Team Grubette

1. Fidel Castro
2. David Crosby
3. Sheryl Crow
4. Kirk Douglas
5. Hugh Downs
6. Clint Eastwood
7. Queen Elizabeth
8. Farrah Fawcett
9. Mick Jagger
10. Paul Newman
11. Keith Richards
12. Nicole Ritchie
13. Anna Nicole Smith
14. Donald Trump
15. Barbara Walters

Team HighOnPoker

1. Tom Cruise
2. Billy Crystal
3. Pete Doherty
4. Dakota Fanning
5. Sean Preston Spears er Federline
6. The Game
7. James Hetfield
8. Paul McCartney
9. Mary Kate Olsen
10. Keith Richards
11. Don Rickles
12. Andy Rooney
13. Mr. T
14. Tina Turner
15. Abe Vigoda

Team Maigrey

1. Lauren Bacall
2. George Carlin
3. Jimmy Carter
4. Sean Connery
5. Kirk Douglas
6. Farrah Fawcett
7. Michael J. Fox
8. Ernest Gallo
9. James Garner
10. Martin Landeau
11. Angela Lansbury
12. Roger Moore
13. Anita Page
14. Sidney Poitier
15. Jerry Stiller

Team Mary!

1. Fidel Castro
2. Dick Clark
3. Walter Cronkite
4. Yvonne De Carlo
5. Pete Doherty
6. Queen Elizabeth II
7. Zsa Zsa Gabor
8. Estelle Getty
9. Meadowlark Lemon
10. George Martin
11. Maureen O'Hara
12. Peter O'Toole
13. Luciano Pavarotti
14. Mickey Rooney
15. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Team Snailtrax

1. Muhammud Ali
2. Bob Barker
3. Yogi Berra
4. Fidel Castro
5. Dick Clark
6. Snoop Dogg
7. Robert Downey Jr.
8. Kevin Federline
9. Betty Ford
10. Stephen Hawking
11. Stan Musial
12. Terrell Owens
13. Keith Richards
14. Axl Rose
15. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Team SoxLover

1. Brooke Astor
2. Fidel Castro
3. Betty Ford
4. Johannes Heesters
5. Gordon Hinckley
6. Albert Hofmann
7. Dolores Hope
8. Lady Bird Johnson
9. B.B. King
10. Charles Lane
11. Art Linkletter
12. Maurice Papon
13. Ariel Sharon
14. Gloria Stuart
15. Abe Vigoda

Seems the most popular choice is Castro.

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And So It Goes

A small part of me died this week.

I am very happy to see that four most excellent writers are now getting paid for their hard work (with a fifth potentially to join shortly, according to my sources). Their posts are almost always a joy to read, and I begrudge them nothing for jumping at a chance to turn a profit off of something that each of them unquestionably loves to do. At the same time, I'm dismayed by the realization that our grassroots community has outgrown itself – from within. Unless I've missed the mark, people that I like as individuals are trading on the relationships forged in this community over the last few years to make a few bucks off the backs of these four writers, and I find it a touch disappointing.

Never stand in the way of the money, I guess.

Maybe this shouldn't be my concern. After all, I don't have all the facts, and I'm sure these writers went in with their eyes open, weighed the pros and cons, and made their decisions accordingly. It's certainly hard to turn someone down who tells you that they want to pay you for something you would do for free. I suppose I just had this silly, naïve notion that even though poker is a business, and writing is a business, somehow we would be able to keep business separate and apart from the poker writing community that we built for ourselves; that, at worst, any business opportunities that attempted to exploit these relationships would come from outside the community (I bet you never knew I was such a hippie), even though as a business lawyer I recognize that most deals get done because of pre-existing relationships.

Ah well. Life goes on. I want to express my sincere congratulations to Joe Speaker, Maudie, Amy Calistri and Change100. You guys definitely deserve any amount you can get paid for your writing. Good luck with your new gigs!

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Dead Pool Addendum

(12:09:15 PM) Dawn: i need one more for my dead pool: f-train?
(12:09:23 PM) F-Train: see, that's just wrong.
(12:09:29 PM) F-Train: THAT's why you're going to burn in hell
(12:09:42 PM) Dawn: why? because it's unfair that i know that i am going to kill you?

Judge's Note: selecting me as a member of your dead pool roster violates the Riding the F-Train Dead Pool TOS and will result in the immediate disqualification of your entire roster, not to mention horrible karma for 10,000 years and a visit to your home by one of my new Russian "pals" from Brooklyn.

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Dead Pool Rosters

As of today January 3, I've received rosters from the following people:

Me
Chilly
Dawn Summers
Maigrey
SoxLover
April (CA)
Daddy
Jordan
Grubette

In the interests of "the more, the merrier" (and the fact that some people may not have seen the initial call for entries since it was posted Friday afternoon), I'm extending the deadline for submission of entries to this Friday, January 5. Send me a roster with your 15 dead pool entries and I'll get all rosters posted later this week.

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