Years ago I used to read the usenet rec.gambling.poker newsgroup. I think I wandered over from alt.vacation.las-vegas. This is back when usenet was a big deal.

RGP had a host of colorful characters, but none was as over the top (or as annoying) as Russ Georgiev. According to Iggy - and Russ' own site - crazy Russ died last week.

Love him or hate him (hate was up about 150-1), the man had a lot to say. You could run a month's worth of uberposts just on the "best" of Russ. RGP has been dead for years but without Russ it'll be even more dead.

It's too hot to do anything productive tonight, so I'm playing online poker (for play chips LDO).

Currently, I have four tables open: One of limit badugi, one of pot limit omaha, the token frenzy tournament (NLHE) and a pot limit omaha/8 satellite.

Yeah. Smart. REAL smart.

I'm getting great Omaha hands at Badugi.

I should open up a stud table and a mixed games tournament while I'm at it.

Not drunk. Really.

Just stupid. And bored.

Which might explain why I just bluffed most of my stack with the hammer like it was 2004. Amazingly enough, it worked.

Who says poker blogs are dead? Go read.

If you haven't been paying attention, Bill Rini has been blogging much more often lately. A change in jobs (and locations) might have something to do with it. Bill's posts are always well-written and persuasive with perspective only someone who's spent years on the inside of the online poker business could have. If you're not reading Bill you're missing out.

Blog posts about strategy aren't dead, either. CK put up a beginner's guide to badugi yesterday. If you hunt though her archives, you can also find guides to many other games nobody plays.*

I was inspired enough to give her post the same half-assed read that I've given every poker book I've ever owned and to fire up Stars. Badugi was the only game offered online that I'd never tried. I found that "reading" brought me up in skill level from full-on retard at least to mouthbreathing idiot, which was good enough to outperform most of the opposition. Holy level zero thinking Batman! If you can't beat the people playing nanolimit badugi you might want to take up checkers. Or Connect Four if checkers proves too challenging. Yeesh.

Go. Read.

So there's your poker content for the day. It's time for me to fire up the U.S. Open stream and make sure nothing productive gets done at work. TGIF.


* okay, almost nobody.

Congratulations to sprstoner for 3rd place in $2500 NL at the WSOP.

Congratulations to CK for finishing 39th in the $2500 OE event.

Congratulations to LJ for finishing 10th in the $1500 HORSE event.

Let's see some more deep finishes!

This weekend Stars has a giant WSOP main event satellite - I think it's 200 seats guaranteed - in place of the Sunday Million. That got me thinking.

Suppose I satellited in and then luckboxed my way to a seat. I still wouldn't be able to play the Main Event because (a) Stars can't buy people in directly, (b) cashout is a bit of an issue at the moment from what I read on the tubes, and (c) I don't have a spare 10k sitting around while I wait for some sort of cashout to happen.

Over/under on the number of those 200 seat winners who actually play the main event? 12?

Intentional timing by the government, tying up funds at a time when lots of players would be looking to withdraw?

No poker content here. Haven't played in a week or so, instead I've been on a golf binge. You don't want to read about that, so check back another time.

***

How many ****ing "Czars" does this administration need?

Just this week, our beloved presidente appointed a Great Lakes Czar and a Compensation Czar to monitor decide how much executives at companies getting government money should make. That's in addition to the Auto Czar, Health Care Czar ... Enough. This isn't goddamned nineteenth century Russia.

Truthfully, I don't know if it's the administration calling these mini-dictators "czars" or if it's the ****ing media. Either way, I proudly extend a double middle finger salute to whoever's doing it.

As planned I made my way to over to the Poker Zone in Holland, MI on Saturday evening for a little live charity poker action.

Noted: Live game is a bit rusty.

I've commented before, I think, on the room. The folks at the Poker Zone run a pretty good game. The dealers know what they are doing. The wait list system can be a bit sloppy, but I've never waited so long that I felt like leaving. Otherwise any limitations on the experience are really imposed by the charity gaming rules. For the most part, it compares well to any casino room I've ever visited.

It's been months now since I've been to the Zone and yet I was completely at home as soon as I arrived. Some of that is about the people - a lot of the players and the dealers never change. It's the same group. I got a seat at one of the cash tables (1/2 NL) after a brief wait and I knew by name or nickname four or five of the other nine players.

I won a few small pots playing crap in position early. I didn't chip up very fast because I kept getting small pocket pairs, which I could play inexpensively. None of them turned out, so that was a steady drain.

I flopped exactly one set, which worked out well - three kings held up against a flopped set of threes. That got me a decent stack.

Beyond that one big pot, I didn't win many hands of note and lost two which took a nice chunk of my profits. I simply got unlucky on the first hand - I popped it to $15 with AA in late position after a limp or two. Guy out of position called and lead out for $25 on a not real scary T82 board. He didn't have much behind, so after I raised him of course he was going to call ... with 98 offsuit. Yeah, second pair nine kicker. River 9. It happens. The other loser was a good read and a questionable decision on my part. Again a raise to $15 preflop by me, this time with AKo and an out of position call. On a very similar 10 high board, this time opponent open-shoves for $49. Analysis: He either has an underpair or AQ. It was 66, which held. I'll have to check the math on the right move there.

I received an unprecedented number of premium hands. AA two or three times, KK, QQ, TT, at least a dozen smaller pocket pairs. Just the one set, though.

Ended up playing for about five hours and cashed out fifty bucks to the good. Subtract out the cost of driving down and the buck I spent for a coke and it was a minimum wage kind of night.