Monday, January 29, 2007

Poker cheating methods.



Have I mentioned how much I can't stand poker cheats.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Did I take too much of a break?

As you viewers have probably noticed I have not been on the pitch since early November. One would think I miss it. It could be that I have been on call during my absence I have trouble stepping on the field knowing someone could be trying to get a hold of me. Partially why I took the entire high school season off. The other reason was to make sure my legs healed up so I was 100% when I stepped on the field.

By the beginning of march I'll probably be turning in my easy money pager as someone else wants to jump on the money train. So I can referee pretty much without a conscience.

Why am I not celebrating? I sure was celebrating when I got my 5, but it was like since I came back from the absense almost a decade ago, I pushed to upgrade every other year and then of course the higher the grade, the more tough it was. The Grade 5 was my greatest accomplishment for the simple fact I had fun on the way and never gave up. Now I have the year coming up and I said I was going to guage the next couple of years to see what my level of assignments was before I decided if I was going to go for my National badge or just reside as a grade 5 until I couldn't do it anymore and go emeritus. Emeritus, that is a scary thought. There is only one younger then me that went Emeritus and there are several in their 40's and 50's that are still holding on to that State badge. Some grade 5's.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Hmmm perhaps I should have done more research

I'm referring to Direct TV. The nice part is we have our DVR and it works like a charm. What I didn't realize was they use phone lines, but it's not to clear what for except when they want to contact us or PPV. The guy shows up, pretty much leaves messes everywhere he goes, but then again we are shifting things around for Paula's new sewing center (which is coming out quite nicely). Things seem to come together 5 hours later and then I notice on my modem, the lights are not in proper sequence indicating a problem. Turns out I have new phone lines that are unflitered. Pretty much resolved the issue.
Now I'm called this morning that our downstars TV wigged out. I'm hoping this isn't a making of a comcast commercial.

In other news, I went to my local comic shop a day early (I was thinking yesterday was already wednsday). The guy that had to leave was there and asked me "So are you here to lose again?" I smiled, Jim had his laugh about me showing up a day earlier. Then I mentioned I would not be there the next couple of weekends. He said, "Oh we have had games postponed for months." sigh

If there was one reminder, this should be it. Always have a set of rules when you host a tournament. I have my house rules, and if there isn't something covered by my house rules, and we can't come to the good of the game (wow you think I was talking soccer), then we have Robert's Rules of Poker to fall back on.
Works for me.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Comcast...You're Fired!!!!

We decided after much debate to switch to Direct TV. As it turns out, we're not really saving a whole chunk of change but we are getting some features we didn't get with Comcast. We are getting two DVRs installed where we can record shows on the fly. No more stacks of video tapes. Our book shelves in our room will look like bookshelves. We can record two shows at the same time while watching one show we previously recorded. Is that cool or what? It also means my wife will not be night after night setting VCRs. One thing we will miss is In demand that comcast did have. Now we didn't do the premium channels but we did get some good movies. However we will get Starz for free for one year.

In other news I haven't talked about my family much as to what has been going on. Paula is going to get her sewing room. She has big plans. Marlena has been improving on her Ice Skating. She is having fun in the process which is the most important thing. I mean if it's not fun, why do it. That was the pep talk I gave her when I told her how long it took me to get my 5. Basically 5-6 years. She has levels she needs to go through. Sometimes she breezes through them and sometimes she needs to repeat. Repeating a session on the ice seems to be the norm though which I think takes a little pressure off of Marlena and just opened it for me to just ask, "Hey, are you having a good time?" She said yes. That was all I had to say on the subject.
Gabriel's head is in the 70th percentile. I can see the dumbfounded faces asking, "Is that good?" Yes it's good. He contineus to go the right direction. His new thing is to yank his glasses and throw them across the room. We call that attitude!

I have clinics coming up next month. There is one on Feb 3-4th. One is for the instructors/assessors and now assigners. The other is for the rest of the referee world. If it's like last year, it will be the same stuff. As least they got this one right. Have the instructor clinc first and the rest last. I only have to show up for one. Which is good because I really didn't want to give my entire weekend up. We have the SFSFL clinic the same day as my poker night. Still it's a better deal.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Jaded in poker

I was playing a 5 dollar buy-in. There was 4 of us left and I was on the short stack. One of the guys who was really low had to leave. He pulled his all in for the last hurrah. I had a good starting hand and I decided to call. Unfortunately I got another caller. One the flop I was in the lead and then I drowned on the river card.

Not the reason I was jaded. I was still in the game, but this dude now tripled up. Then he took out someone who beat me in a previous all-in. Now he quadrupled. Now he really had to leave. If you read your general poker rules, anyone who has to leave can do so, and his stack will be blinded out. The suspended the game until "another time"

Hmmm just when was the other time supposed to happen? Next week? Hmmm I'm busy. No really I am. The following weekend? No, I am also busy.

See why I am jaded?

When I see the host wednsday for my dose in comics, I will inform him to blind me out. Perhaps he will get a clue.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Helping a host at a poker tourney

I found this site www.homepokertourney.com and while it's not really a place to play good poker advice (well there is some), it's an excellent resource for organizing a home poker game.

I've been organizing poker games at my home for 2 years and every time I do, I learn a lesson in some shape for form like I have said in a previous post. I did find an interesting post which talks about helping the host.

Some key things to remember when hosting a tournament:
  1. In many cases you may know more about poker then the one who doesn't. If you don't know as much, you're going to have a tough time hosting.
  2. Make sure you have enough chips. I can't stress this enough. My very first poker game was a ring game and I had 300 chips between 7 players. Needless to say I treaded water with a 5 dollar buy-in with a 5 dollar re-buy. In my next game I had more chips now totaling 800, but pay particular attention to the weight of the chips. 11.5g gives the feel of a real casino. I had 8g chips. They were playable, but a couple of people noticed. It wasn't until last year I upgraded my chips. Now I have 850 chips that are 11g which is good for a 16 player tournament. I haven't felt the need to go beyond this. I still use the 8g chips for my side ring game on tournaments.
  3. Have food for the players to snack on. You can either designate a list where people can pick off and bring something or do it yourself. I usually have things for my guests. I will stock beer, but I always say BYOB so they don't expect it. This is going to bring me to number 4.
  4. Do not expect your guests to chip in. Meaning, take a buck or two from guests. This can be construed to making a profit for playing in a "home casino" which can be illegal, definitely in California. People offer to drop money, especially when they won. I don't expect this and usually turn them down like an Uncle who took third did. Basically he doubled his buy in and wanted to give me the profit. I didn't feel comfortable with it because he was giving me his winnings. I was going to get my money back and then some (I took first, but even if I took second, I would have made money)
  5. Finally you should be hosting because of the love of the game.

However if you do get invited to a game, people tend to leave the house once they are eliminated (which hosting a side ring game would keep them around). What would be nice to help the host would be to help pick up beer bottle which are laid out around the house. I swear I was picking up beer bottles for two weeks, I would stumble on to odd places like land mines after my last game. You can also help out with changing out smaller chips with big one as the blinds go up. You can player permanent dealer. Just little things to make the game go smooth.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Beckham signs with LA Galaxy

Since the MLS has lifted the salery cap, things have gotten interesting. The most interesting thing that has happened is Beckham signing up. As on article it was calling instead of Bend it like Beckham it was called spending it like Beckham.

One of my concerns is MLS is following the old cliche', those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. NASL went into a spending spree and not many years later, went bankrupt. It pretty much caused us not to have quality soccer for nearly a decade.

Of course financial discipline is not the only thing MLS needs to do to get their act together. They need to be more accordance to FIFA. They tried their marketing BS like the shootout and letting star players get away with murder.

It's true. It seems that when a referee for example goes national and has MLS opportunities they need to conform to MLS, not USSF, but MLS or forget about refereeing that league. I seen two cases of this first hand.
I won't name names, but the first time I was on the AR spot and noticed a few players that were playing out of control. A few cards I felt should have been given and the goalkeeper for one team, I swear he was on something like PCP because he was complaining but not making a lot of sense. When I asked why he let so much go, he said, "He needed to cater to the fans who want to see action." I had my opinion on that statment but since I was new in the division I was AR in, I bit my tongue.
Years later I was on the line for another National Referee. Another one who didn't clamp down on dissent and let things go, including potential cards. I was not a vetren now and didn't hold my tongue too much. When he said he should have giving that one player a second yellow for the reckless challenge I said "It should have came sooner" as the guy was heckling me most of the game. He also let a goalkeeper come out to challenge me after I saved the referee's butt in a PK call and later finding out almost cautioned the wrong man. I didn't get that card until after he was scored on he said something in spanish in regards to my mother.

Back to the MLS, the question lies to: Are we signing up a quality player or are we getting a used farrari which has some problems that will haunt him and the MLS? He's had a fair share of injuries over the year. His performance in the world cup was sub-par with just a free kick.

If this doesn't work out we'll never see the San Jose Earthquakes again. Why? Becuase the MLS will be bankrupt.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Home Poker Games

If you ever want to throw a home poker game don't do like I first did and just throw one on the fly with knowing the minimum. If you did like I did, you would find yourself in a world of trouble. Drinking more than my fair share of beer didn't help matters as it made my temper fly when someone was being an ass.

On my next ring game I got a little smarter. I didn't drink so much alcohol. Not only I doubled, but everyone had fun.

When I threw my first home tournament, it was after Thanksgiving. It was basically friends and family tournament. That one ran smoother but one lesson I learned was posting rules on late players, and players who invite others without so much as asking the host if there is a seat available as one did. However in the grand scheme of things, the good side, bigger pot. Down side of having 9 players on a 8 player table is one doesn't get a rack and it's crowded.

Since people had a great time with that one I held a tournament after mulling it over with my office. Had 12 people which was a good turn out. Evite is good for these kind of invites. You can get your yes, no, and maybes. You can even tell if someone has even read the invite. Two drawbacks is not everyone is email savvy and there are those who don't even have email (shocking I know). You can limit the amount of guests (you don't want 20 showing up when you are prepared for 16). You can also control whether or not they can invite guests or not. I recommend you control this aspect because I tend not to play poker with anyone I don't know. Just follow the if a friend is a friend of an initial invite then it should be good enough for you. I read though one guy who runs tournaments said if there was cheating involved and it was a friend of a friend, he would cut the stranger's thumbs off and the person who brought him.

You also want to control the time it starts. I will say, no game starts at a certain time on the dot unless you are playing the WSOP. So what to do? Request people show up at 7pm but the game starts no later than 8pm and stress to them that they may lose their seat or playing rights by showing late. More on that later.

Another problem was the game went slow. Be aware on how the blinds are set. If you want to give a large sum of money ( I did 1200) then make it so the blinds are sizable by the 3rd hour. Otherwise it will take a while and my first game of hold em ended at 2am. I now do 1000 and I keep the blinds small in the beginning but make dramatic jumps in the end..

My next game was my birthday. We only had 7 players. Not certain what happened there but it was fun none the less. However that was due to a last minute add on and a last minute drop out. The add on was a pleasant surprise but soured by a cancellation. Not so big pot. But people still had fun.

In August I did another and I had 7 (seemed to be my lucky number). I nearly had a cancelation but thanks to my stern lecture on how this affects everyone, I got her to show. I added a re-buy option in this game which increased the pot. It was used quite a bit as there were 3 re-buys. I cut down the amount of money and as a result, the game ended in a decent hour. By the way, if you have a laptop, for timer purposes I go to www.pokerroom.com. There is a poker timer software which organizes the time and blinds schedule. It's a great piece of software and it's free. It also makes your tournament look professional as I have had nothing but great comments on my timer and it automatically restarts vs. a kitchen timer which dings. You can pause if need be.
Lesson Learned: Need to clamp down on flaky people and not count on them. If they reserve a seat and don't show then there should be consquences for that. I don't me never invite him, but make it known it's frowned upon.

On my Novemeber game in many aspects, it was the best ran tournament I have had yet. We had 15. We would have had 16 but a last minute cancelation blew that. This time I had poker rules. Very important and it's a miracle that I survived this long without them. Have them posted in the room and given to the players prior to the game so they know what they are walking into. If they choose not to read them and then say "I didn't know that." then you have something to fall back on. Willful ignorance is not an excuse.

Few examples are in my game in betting, you just have to meet the minimum blind (or all-in) to play and you can bet any amount after that big or small. In other games, they enforce the minimum bet. There are pros and cons to this.
Pro for not enforcing the minimum raise amount is the game is more lax, people are having fun without the intensity of meeting this and that. Many have stated this. However I read in some published home poker rule that if you announce Raise, but don't (you put in the minimum bet for just a call) then what is the minimum? So before my next game either I have have a clause for people that does this or I have to enforce the minimum bet. Problem is it's not posted and in my first poker game, I had one cutthroat player on table 2 (I was on table 1) who was enforcing it. Worked to his advantage too. See the problem? Nobody hemmed or hawwed but it could have been worse.

Another recent problem was dealing. People were having an issue on how some were burning the cards. Maybe cheating. However, I may need to state all burn cards on the table, face down, no peaking.

If you need good poker advice go to www.homepoker.com. This has made things simple.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Blatter is a buffoon.

I know it may be bad politics for posting this, but since I am never going FIFA, I can care less. Basically I read that Blatter apologizes to the Italian team for not being there to present the World Cup trophy himself like FIFA Presidents are supposed to. That didn't sound to be as his reason for not going.
It seems in the opening game he got boos and whistles for well....being Blatter. And because of this he was afraid he was going to get boos and whistles for this one too. Well Mr. Blatter, you know what the referees have to endure when the set foot on the pitch and to bitch about them doing this or not doing this, it's easier said to do the right then, then to do the right thing.

I wonder if the jackass ever apologized to Valentin Ivanov . The russian Referee who booked 16 yellows and 4 reds (coincidently doubled my last game of 2006).
If you look in his Bio, he has no referee experience. It would explain some of the stupidity behind his comments. Remember the the game where Grahm Poll and his english squad was on and gave 3 yellows to one player before sending him off? Blatter wanted the forth and fifth officail (USA referees) to run on the field and yell stop to the center. Apparetnly Stott had his hands full with the bench and I don't know where Lawery was at the time. But again, it's easier to say what the right call is and harder to make the right call.

It's amazing...

..after ten years of doing technical support that the same habits have still taken place. People do not do enough research on product before purchasing them to do the things they want them to do. They see a cheap price and it's buy now and damn the consequences later.

If you are reading this, my suggestion if you are buying any kind of computer equipment is to do your research on it and the system you are adding too. Write a list of your requirements and then your secondary desires. When you look at this piece of equipment whether it be a scanner, hard drive, printer, software, see if it will do this.

Example, I can tell you Adobe Acrobat Standard will create PDFs for you, but will not let you create fillable forms like Adobe Acrobat Professional does. But people expect them to.

Then their pissed they can't return the opened product. Do your research beforehand, it will save you headaches later on.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Outted first for the first time

Played poker at my local comic shop and I went all in on pocket 6's and walked into kings. I had a better chance of hitting a straight. Need to use my head more.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Got offered to referee in a Tournament in Las Vegas

It would be a nice opportunity to work on my Texas Hold em skills, but after a few hours of considering it, I did promise I would take time off to help my wife with her sewing room (Since Gabe was born I no longer have a full fledged bat-cave). I bought her this cool, but collapsible sewing table for her embroidery machine and sewing machine. She's got plans, I'm excited about her plans enough to help her see this through. More excited then a trip to LV.
Since I have reffed in the State of NV already it would not be new to me (if you didn't know, my goal is to referee a soccer game in as many states as I can).

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Back to normal

Well today is the first day I have set foot in the office since before xmas eve. It's been busy as the company I work for decided that January 2nd was also going to be considered a holiday. Because of this we are flooded today.
Xmas holiday was good. I really couldn't complain except I was sick for most of it. My wife spoiled me with good presents. I managed to come through with my "something romantic" which was nice, funny, and on the side we both could joke about in the process leading to xmas morning. I know she didn't see her presant coming, but observing her the following days, I know she was pleased.