Hey! I just noticed that IGGY over at Guinness and Poker has linked to my blog!

Awesome. Thanks, Iggy, it means a lot to me because your blog is one of the best.

I am now going to pimp Iggy's buy-in code for Empire Poker, which is IGGY1. You'll either get $25 for free, or a % of your buy-in for free, I forget which. Either way, it's a good deal.

And if you're considering Party Poker (and you should be), use the code FOZ for a free $25.

Okay, enough of that, let me tell you a quick anecdote about my play tonight. I checked in earlier today having played several hours of micro limit on Poker Stars, with the intent to fund some tournament action on that site. Well, I decided to test the waters with a single-table Sit 'n' Go. $5 + $.50. I decided against a two-table tournament, because it didn't seem to make sense. You have to wait for 14 players to bust instead of just 6, and you don't earn that much more money.

I sat down at around 6:30, knowing full well that I had to leave the house at 7:30. On Party, single table Sit 'n' Go tourneys never take this long. I figured I'd either bust or have the thing won in that time. In any case, play commences, and I find myself the early chip leader. One or two players bust, but then a funny thing happens: Everyone tightens up. As it gets closer to 7pm, I start to calculate the odds of making the money if I just posted and folded. I didn't think I'd make it.

Cut to 7:20. I'm changing clothes in front of the monitor, trying to play as long as I can before I have to leave the house. There are still 5 players.

A few minutes later, a short stack finally busts out, and puts me on the bubble. I've got a decent stack, but so does everyone else. And the blinds are only 50/100, which isn't too life-threatening at this point. I try calling my brother, the pro, to see if he'll play the rest of the tourney for me. No dice. I try my brother-in-law (also a pro), and he's not home. Looks like I'm posting and folding.

Then a great thing happens: One of the big stacks pushes in a huge raise before the flop, and the other stack re-raises him all-in. The first guy calls, and the two players turn over AA and KK. Outstanding.

The aces hold, and now that I'm in the money and in a hurry, I get super-aggressive and bust the shortest stack remaining out right away. When it's heads up, I put up a decent fight despite being outchipped 3 to 1, but at this point, I've really got one foot out the door. I go to the mat with a weak two pair, and he out-kicks me for the top spot.

This reminds me of a scenario in Sklansky's book on tournament hold 'em. He says he's been asked again and again if there is ever a situation in which someone should lay down AA preflop. Well, there is, not that any of us are likely to ever be in this sort of spot.

Suppose you're playing in the World Series of Poker and have made it to the final table. Unfortunately, you've only got 30,000 chips and are going up against people with millions sitting in front of them. At this stage of the tournament, the blinds are gigantic, and you're only going to survive one more orbit. Let's say there are 6 players left, and you're on the button. You look down and see AA in the hole. But then one of the big stacks pushes in, and two of the other stacks call him in front of you!

The correct move in this situation, Sklansky says, is to lay down AA.

It may seem obvious, but, barring a split pot (which is unlikely), you have just moved up two spots! Sklansky estimates that in this situation, laying down AA will earn you around $400,000.

If you were to call, it's true that you would have a good shot at winning the pot, but AA is much less potent against 3 other players. Further, you would only win 90,000 more chips, which isn't going to keep you in the game at this point. Still further, if you bust, you're only getting money for 6th, even if two others bust at the same time. That's because according to the tournament rules, among players that bust on the same hand, the player who started the hand with more chips gets the higher spot.

I asked my brother the other day whether he could conceive of a scenario in which he would lay down AA. Not having read this book yet, he said it didn't exist, and that he would never lay down AA preflop.

Needless to say, Sklansky and I convinced him.

Damn, I haven't been posting as often as I'd hoped to. And I haven't got comments installed on this site yet.

In any case, here's what's up. I jumped back into poker with some micro limit ($0.01/$0.02) on Poker Stars. Started with a bankroll of $40. The micro tables are interesting because the blinds are so small in relation to the stack you're allowed to bring to the table ($5). At a $25 table on Party, you can bring 50 times the big blind. On these micro tables, you can bring 250 times the big blind! I've played around 1,000 hands, and I'm up about $22. I can't give my exact stats, because the site appears to be finicky about hand histories, and I have been getting them several hours late. So I don't have the latest ones.

In any case, it's obviously going well. At first I was thinking I would only play pairs and big slick. With blinds that small, you don't need to play many hands. But after a few hundred hands, I noticed that the overall play is incredibly timid. What I mean is that the other players often price you into a hand that you would normally fold, and it becomes profitable to limp with suited aces and connectors, and to chase certain hands. Say you've got the second best pair and a decent kicker. The pot is $0.20, and there are two or three other players involved. I find myself in this situation a lot, and I always expect to fold. Except when someone leads into the pot with a $0.02 bet, and it's called to me. For $0.02, you've usually got pot odds, not to mention implied odds! The exceptions, of course, are when there is an obvious flush or straight on the board, and your hand won't improve enough to beat those hands.

I thought the players on Party were bad, but they look like geniuses compared to most of the folks at these micro tables. Okay, maybe not geniuses, but still. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people limp and slowplay AA, only to get drawn out. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people bet $0.02 with top pair, top kicker. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I will buy back into Party soon, after I've had my fill of micro. I'm hoping to use the micro tables to fund some tournaments on Stars.

Thinking about buying into Party Poker? Well, first read (or at least skim) "The Theory of Poker," by David Sklansky. Then use the code FOZ and you'll get $25 for free!

Oh, hey yo. Just checking in on day 3 of my self-imposed break from poker. I need a few days for the tilt to evaporate from my system, but later this week I'll ease my way back in with some micro limit games on PokerStars. You can't really make much money there, but I think it'll help me find my mojo again.

All right, I've been promising an excerpt from the novel all week, and I'm finally ready to deliver. I've been making a lot of progress--I have the first 10 pages written and a rough mental outline of the entire plot. I expect it'll take me almost a year to fully complete--provided I keep at it.

One note, before jumping in: The book has nothing to do with poker. There is, however, a mention of poker in the very first paragraph. It's just a coincidence.

*******

In Monument Valley, Kentucky, 1968, a young boy was born who excelled in every way. A prodigy piano player by age five, state spelling bee champ by the age of ten, he was also, ironically, a punishing all-state running back in high school and Homecoming King. After getting his doctorate in physics from MIT (dissertation title: Why Quantum Theory is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong), he married his high school sweetheart, placed tenth in the World Series of Poker and set about inventing a hydrogen power conversion kit for conventional gasoline engines. Just when it looked like he might fail, he succeeded beyond everyone’s wildest dreams. It wasn’t even close. His name, unironically, was Lance Perfect.

This is not his story.

This is the story of a skinny, dark-haired kid from Seattle named Abe. Abe didn’t skip ahead in school or win any awards; he was held back a year for lighting his teacher’s wig on fire.

His best friend was named Chab. Because Chab grew to the unnatural size of 6 foot 6 and 285 pounds, nobody had ever dared ask him the obvious (What, did your mom write the “d” backwards on your birth certificate?), so he had never thought of it himself. Though he did wonder why he hadn’t met any other Chabs.

At the age of 23, wandering penniless in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Abe became a detective.

*******

There you have it. The book is a detective story, albeit with an unorthodox detective. There will (hopefully) be suspenseful parts, but for the most part the story is meant to be irreverent and humorous. I could tell you more, but I'd have to kill you.

I'll check in again this week, hopefully with good news to report from the micro tables. Once again, if you are thinking about signing up for Party Poker, use the code FOZ and you'll get $25 extra with a minimum $50 buy-in.

Hey, it's been a while since I've posted; thought I'd check in. I cashed out a sizeable portion of my stack the other day. I think I just play better with a shorter bankroll, despite the greater possibility of going broke. I'm less tempted to call short stacks that push in all their chips when I only have mediocre hands like AQ off or TT.

Played in a $20 multi-table last night with about 1750 entrants. I finished a bit out of the money in 210th (top 130 places paid). The blinds were 400/800, and I was getting somewhat desperate with only 2,800 chips. I got AK off in the small blind, and it was raised before reaching me. I re-raised, and the previous raiser ran his clock to the ground thinking about it, then finally called. Flop was all rags, and here's where I made my mistake: I pushed in. I should have probably just made the minimum bet--if the guy had nothing, he would have folded. Trouble was, he had 99, and had flopped a set. I caught a king on the turn, but wasn't lucky enough for the runner on the river, and that was that.

It wasn't a terrible play--even a minimum bet would have been almost all of my chips. And I don't think I would have made the money if I had just posted and folded.

Aside from poker, I've been working again on the novel. I have a good idea where I want to go with it now, and I finally figured out how to write my way out of a spot that I'd been trapped in. You can expect an excerpt soon--probably the first page.

Whew. Just reading last night's post gives me a headache. I'll keep it short today. It's around 4pm, I've played about 320 hands, and the losing streak continues. I'm down about $30 on the day. I was playing well, grinding out wins, then AQ hit me in the face a few times.

I think I'm playing the hand incorrectly. In late position, I usually raise to at least $2. In early position, I'll often limp. Sometimes I'll call a raise to $3 or less if I've already limped in early position. I think I need to stop doing this.

The first time I had AQ today, I was in middle position and I bet $2. I got one caller in early position. Flop is T, Q, Q rainbow and I'm thrilled. He checks, and I check as well, figuring this hand is worth a slowplay. Turn is 3c, officially killing any flush possiblity. Another check to me, and I check again, hoping that the other player will hit something minor on the river and bet into me. The river is 5d, and the player bets $4. I consider pushing in, but only raise to $8. Then the other player re-raises all-in, and I call. I was sure I was going to win this hand, putting the other player on a worse Q or a two pair. Instead, he had TT, and was slowplaying me the whole way.

I think both of us played this hand pretty well. There was really nothing I could have done. If I had bet on the flop, I am sure he would have simply called rather than raised. Even if he had raised, I don't think I could have laid down top set with Ace kicker on Party.

A while after that kick in the gut, I was dealt KK and bet into by two players! I pushed all-in, not respecting the two previous raisers. Well, the first guy had KK as well, and the second had AA. Nothing hit the board, but the guy with AA had a short stack and only took about $4 each from me and the other caller. If you're going to lose with KK, that's not a bad way to go.

Finally, I was getting ready to quit for the day, and I'm dealt the dreaded AQ again in late position. It's folded to me, and I bet $3. The button calls, but the big blind, who's been playing like a loose maniac, raises to $7. I put him on a bad Ace or something suited, and raise all-in. The button folds, the raiser calls. The flop is all rags, and the raiser takes down the pot with, again, TT.

If it wasn't for that last hand, I would have only lost $9 despite getting KK cracked and losing a huge pot to a guy that flopped a boat. Overall I'm not disappointed with my play, I'm just frustrated that the last 3,000 hands haven't gotten me anywhere.

Enough poker for now. I may play a bit more today, but I'm going to work on my book for a while first.

Once again, if you are thinking about signing up for Party Poker, you can get $25 for free by using my bonus code, FOZ. Thanks!

Thank you, my dear, that was wonderful. By the way, when I said I would spare you all the mundane details, I meant things like, "At 10:14am, I poured a bowl of Corn Flakes. The bowl was ceramic with blue diamonds on the side, from Crate & Barrel. The cereal was crispy, but not overly crunchy." If you're into that sort of thing, please check out obsessiveconsumption.com. No, I think I'll stick to excerpts from my novel and poker-related anecdotes.

I mentioned earlier that I have had 4 particularly nasty beats in the last week or so. Well, thanks to PokerTracker, I can recall them in perfect detail for you now. Brace yourself, it gets ugly.

Beat #1: QQ Conquered
I have QQ in the big blind at a $25 No-Limit table. My stack is up to $36 after grinding out a few wins. It's many thousands of hands into my PartyPoker career, and I haven't had a bad beat with QQ yet, so I'm pretty confident. In fact, I've made more money with it than I have with AA or KK. This is about to change. 4 players limp and the small blind completes, so it's my turn. I raise to $4 and get only one caller. The flop is Js, Tc, 3d. I'm first to act, so I bet $12 at a $10 pot. I'm a little nervous that the caller has AA or KK, but that's about it with that beautiful rainbow flop. The caller does what he does best, and calls the bet. Now, I'm always a little scared when someone smooth-calls a bet like that. The fear is that he's slowplaying a set, or the dreaded AA or KK. It would have been okay with me if the guy folded right there and all I got was the raised pot. Or, if he had re-raised me, I could have considered a laydown. But no, a smooth call, and we're on to the turn, which is 5s. Now I have to consider the possibility of a flush. But even if the other player has four spades at this point, I'm still a huge favorite and must bet accordingly. I push all-in for $21 and, after several nervous seconds, the caller calls. I'm rooting against spades for the river, and my heart breaks a little when the 2s hits. I watch my cards disappear as the money zooms across the table toward my adversary, who was holding 9s, 8s.

The Lesson: This wasn't as terrible as the other beats I'm about to list. The caller did have an open-ended straight draw on the flop, which is 8 outs (well, 6 if you subtract the two queens I was holding). When the second spade fell on the turn, he had those 6 outs plus 9 more spades. Out of 44 possible cards, this is a bad call, but not monumentally so. What really gets me is that he called the $4 bet preflop with 9, 8 suited! This is not uncommon on Party, though, and usually you want loose players like this at your table. On to beat #2....

Beat #2: QQ ... again?
That's right, three out of the four beats I'm listing happened when I was holding QQ. Until this week, I loved QQ. Now I'm not so sure. I've still made triple-digit dollars with it, but I find myself in tough positions all the time. Here's what happened: I'm two to the left of the big blind with QQ. A player had just joined to my right and posted a blind, so he checked. I immediately raised to $4 and got one caller in late position. Flop is 4h, 9h, 6d. Again, I'm worried about the flush, but at least one of my Qs is the heart, so if two more fall, I have a shot at this thing. Probably gun-shy after my last outing with QQ, I only bet $7 at a $9.75 pot. In retrospect, this was probably my undoing. The caller pushes in the rest of his money, $18.65, and puts me to a tricky decision. After thinking for a second, I call. I had the guy's stack way covered, and I put him on a four-flush, just like the last jerk who drew me out. If he had had a four flush, I would have been a decent favorite (hence the call), but later I would find out I was a near lock at this point. Still, when the 10 of hearts fell on the turn, I thought I would lose to a flush. The seemingly insignificant 7 of clubs hit on the river, and I sighed, expecting to see the guy turn up something asinine, like 2h, 3h, and take down the pot. Instead, he turned up a pair of 8s, and I nearly fell out of my chair. My money was gone all the same, but this guy had just drawn a back-door straight!

The Lesson: As far as my play goes, I should have pushed in all of my money on the flop. Maybe, just maybe this newbie would have folded his precious 8s if I had done that. As it was, he probably saw my relatively small $7 bet as some sort of half-assed bluff. More likely, he wasn't thinking at all when he re-raised me at that point. To give him some credit, at least he raised instead of calling the bet. A raise gives me something to think about, and I might have laid down my cards if I didn't figure him for a noob. But my call of his raise was correct, as he only had 2 outs in the entire deck at that point. When the 10 hit on the turn, he now had a gutshot (4 outs) to go with his 8s. And blammo, the 7 landed on the river and took me out. I had to dust myself off after this one. You don't see a backdoor straight every day.

Beat 3: Hey! It's not queens!
I actually have a third bad-beat QQ story, but it's predictable and I'll summarize: Jerk calls $4 preflop with K2 offsuit, re-raises my $12 bet to $24 when he pairs the 2 on the flop, immediately hits K on turn and owns me. Ugh. Let's move on to something different. I've accidentally sat down at a pot-limit table. I never play pot-limit on purpose, but I've been known to play it on accident for almost half an hour before noticing. At the beginning of the hand, I did not realize I was playing pot limit. By the end of the hand, it was crystal, as Tom Cruise might say. I have 88 in late position. 6 players limp, then the big blind raises to $1. Now, I used to throw away low-to-middle pairs to any raise. But my new strategy is to call small re-raises (up to $1.50) with 6s through 10s. I will also call a raise to $1 with 2s through 5s if I am the last to act, and assured of seeing a flop for the extra $0.50. 5 of the 6 limpers call the extra $0.50, and we're onto the flop, which is 8c, 6d, 2h. Beautiful. A lot of players are in the hand and I've got the top set. Plus, there aren't two of any suit on board, so the flush-chasers are at a disadvantage. First to act bets $2. Wonderful. Two others in front of me call. Spectacular. I try to push all-in. "Try" is the operative word here, because it turned out I only bet $16.20, instead of the full $21.75 I had in my stack at this point. Now, a remarkable thing happens: I get two callers! I sit back and fold my hands (my literal hands, not the hands on the poker tables), waiting for the turn and river to land, and for the cash to zoom up to my cartoon player. But wait, I still have to act! It's checked to me, and I still have money to bet! The turn, by the way, was the 3 of hearts. At this point I realize it's pot-limit, so I throw the last little $5.55 into the pot, which is up to $57. Of course, neither player folds, but one of them is all-in with only $3. Meh, I figure, I've got this pot owned anyway. Who cares that I wasn't able to bet the full amount on the flop? The river is the 9 of clubs, and, thrilled that it wasn't a third heart, I lean forward as if I needed to scoop up my chips from the monitor. This time, I do fall out of my chair when the player to my right turns up 99.

The Lesson: Don't ever accidentally sit at a pot-limit table. There's no guarantee that these players would have folded if I had bet $21 instead of $16, but who knows? Getting rivered by a set that is only one card higher than yours is incredibly hard to take. Especially when you were more than a 20-to-1 favorite. Oh, what did the other player who had been calling all the way have, you ask? Ace Jack offsuit, of course. He was drawing dead from the flop, because he had no flush or straight draw, and even if he had hit running As or Js, I would have had a full house. It's nice to have players like that in the hand. It's just too bad that this jerk with the 9s had to get lucky.

Beat #4: This one's quick
I'm going to rush through this description of how I got annihilated with AA so I can change pace a bit and talk about a hand where I got lucky as hell. So, I have AA one position to the left of the big blind. I act first and bet $7. What the hell, I figure. Sometimes I scare people off with such a large preflop bet, but you'd be surprised what people will call with. It's not looking good, though, everyone is folding, right up to the big blind, who ... makes my day and calls! Actually, he made my day shitty, but I didn't know that at the time. The flop is 9h, 2s, 8d. A rainbow, my favorite. The player checks to me, and I bet $14 into a $15 pot, expecting a quick fold. Instead, he comes right back over the top with a raise to $28! Now, it's nearly impossible to lay down a pair of aces in your pocket, especially after raising $7 preflop. I mean, what could he have? A set of 9s? An open-ended straight draw? I'm a bit flustered, but I steel myself and make the call, which puts me all-in. Turn is Qh, river is Jh. Guy has QQ. I can't even speak.

The Lesson: No lesson here, the guy's an idiot. I don't mind the preflop $7 call with QQ at all, though. Hell, I've probably done it myself. People raise such ridiculous amounts with such bad hands sometimes that it can be worth it. But, I only do it when I've been at a table for a while and noticed that a player is loose. However! To check-raise all-in after the flop against someone who had A) bet $7 before the flop and B) just thrown 14 more dollars in there, is both A) ballsy and B) retarded. Nevermind that he instantly hit his queen on the turn. There were only two queens left!

Now, I'll tell you about a hand that has somewhat mitigated the awful luck I've just described. Believe it or not, I have made money at this game, just not a lot in the last week. Here goes.

I have 7, 4 offsuit in the big blind, a hand so crappy it has no nickname. I would never, ever consider playing this hand if I wasn't the big blind. I was ready to fold faster than an origami master. But, when 6 players limped and the small blind completed, I checked and got ready for the flop. It's 5d, 4d, 4c. Wow. I've gone from having one of the worst hands possible to a set. Still, I had just taken a beat on another table, and I wasn't about to push in just yet. I only bet $4, which was the size of the pot at that point. Then the player to my left surprised me by re-raising to $8, and getting a caller. When it was my turn, I considered pushing all-in right there, but I thought I'd just call. It was a bit of a slowplay, but I thought as long as another scary card didn't fall, I might pick up some extra bets. Plus I was tired of having control out of my hands on the turn and river. When another 4 came out, I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth. From joy, of course. Joyful throw-up. Anyway, with the nuts, I thought a slowplay was most definitely in order, and I checked. The raiser to my left bet $5 into what was now a $28 pot. The other caller folded, and I waited extra-long to call, as if I was really contemplating. The final card was the Ace of diamonds, and I was first to act. I thought about check-raising, but decided it was too risky that the other player might check, so I tried to push in. Again, "tried" is the important word here. I dragged the little bar all the way to the right and again waited for effect before clicking the "raise" button. But when the 20-second timer started going to remind me I needed to act, it reset my buttons just as I was clicking, making me throw a $0.50 raise out there. Well, a $0.50 raise into a $38 pot is about the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. But I think that here, it actually made me money. First, of course, it made me look like a total idiot. The raiser thought for a second, then pushed her remaining $25.70 into the pot, and I instantly called, making sure not to screw up the buttons this time. She had a full boat, the three 4s on board and one 5 in her hand. I had the four 4s, and I took down $71.60.

The Lesson: Sometimes you just flat-out get lucky.

That's it for tonight. Gee, only a couple thousand words. I'll post again tomorrow, hopefully with fewer bad beats to report.

Once again, if you enjoyed this and you're thinking about signing up for Party Poker, you can use my bonus code FOZ and get $25 for free. If you're thinking about signing up on Empire, definitely use the code IGGY1. You'll also get a bonus for that one, and it'll hook up the guy who runs a great poker blog. Good night!

The following will be a guest post from my lovely wife.

I love Krispy Kreme. I do. I cant help it, those lovely chemical filled fluffly cream filled donuts. Heaven, I tell ya. Heaven. My mother-in-law bought a couple dozen today and of course I was tricked into thinking one of the glazed filled donuts was filled with that delicious creamy frosting. It was actually filled with jelly. Gross! Thankfully, I noticed before eating it. So, this probably counts as one of the mundane stories that my husband promised not to post, but being that all he does is play poker, he is bound to post some mundane stories. One of these days he will get a job, he is super smart and talented. You can look forward to more random mundane postings from me. They will most likely be related to food. Thanks for reading my first weird random journal entry ever posted on the web. By the way, if you ever write anything on his blog or on the internet in general, he is probably critiquing every bit of grammar and punctuation. He is doing it to me right now!

All right, here's the official intro to my new blog. This is certainly not a journal or anything like that, but I'll get started by telling everyone a little bit about myself. I'm 26 and I live in Portland, Oregon. My wife and I were both born and raised here, but we had been living in Los Angeles until December, when I was laid off from my job. We decided to move back to Portland, where homes are actually affordable, to try to buy a house.

While looking for work, I've been writing a novel and playing quite a bit of poker online. You can expect a lot of poker content in this blog, as well as snippets from the novel. I welcome feedback on both.

In the last week, I've played 2,630 hands of poker on PartyPoker.com, and won a total of $20.30. Now, now, that may sound like a lot, but it actually only works out to .008 cents per hand. Ah, sarcasm.

In all honesty, it seems like an amazingly profitable time to be knowledgeable in the art of Texas Hold 'Em. I've studied Sklansky's "Theory of Poker," and Cloutier's "Championship No Limit Hold 'Em," and consider myself a solid player. Solid enough to spot the bad players, anyway, and there are plenty out there. Thanks to Chris Moneymaker and ESPN, everyone wants to get in on the poker action. Most haven't done their homework, though, and are easy targets if you have a cool head and can play patiently.

The frustrating thing about the game, of course, is that as a good player, you will most often lose big pots to bad players. You will hardly ever lose a big pot to a skilled player. Why? Because skilled players know how to lay down hands and won't call when the odds are against them. Just this week, I've been beaten 4 times on crazy longshot hands, the type that can drive you crazy. Would you make an even-money bet that you're only going to win 3 out of 45 times? Of course not, but that's exactly what these players did, and it so happened that I paid them off.

When I started playing, last November, I was one of these players. I got lucky right off the bat, and built a $50 stack into $265. When I started losing, I just couldn't figure why, and I went on tilt like nobody's business. Having busted completely, I read Skansky's book cover-to-cover. This helped, and I was able to hold my own in home games with my brother and brother-in-law (both professional poker players).

If you're thinking about signing up for Party, I am planning on setting up an affiliate progam in the near future. What this means is that I'll have a bonus code available on the site, which gives you a free $25 whe you buy in for a minimum of $50. What's in it for me is a small percentage of the profit you generate for PartyPoker. I'm not sure how much it works out to, but it doesn't come out of your winnings at all. If you like the blog, and poker, it would be a good way to get started. You could also use the code IGGY, which belongs to the author of http://guinnessandpoker.blogspot.com. I'm giving him props because I'm hoping he will link to this blog from his own poker blog, which got me started on the idea.

But that's a bit down the road. I haven't even set up the program yet.

I've got a lot of spare time, and a lot on my mind, so expect another post soon. I'll try to keep it related to poker, my novel and occasional miscellaneous ramblings. I will try not to bore anyone with the mundane details of my personal life. Thanks, and enjoy.

This is the start of my new blog. Hopefully it'll be filled with interesting stuff soon. That is all.