Well, the results are in. The biggest poker tournament in the world is over. Of course, I can only be talking about the World Series of Portland!

After the real World Series went down on Friday night, 14 of us sat in my brother's garage on Saturday to determine the best poker player in Portland. And the result? Uh, yeah, my brother won.

It was an interesting game all around. I took 7th without ever really getting going. I'll get back to my play in a moment, though. The most interesting hand of the tourney happened at the first table I was sitting at. My brother-in-law (who plays for a living, and whom we'll refer to as D) was up against another player whom we'll call CC. CC learned how to play poker within the last 2 months or so, mostly taught by both my brother and brother-in-law. So far, he's doing really well--making money at the $.50/$1.00 limit games on Party. But D plays for a living; hundreds of hands of $5/$10 on Party every day.

In any case, the details on the preflop action are fuzzy. I can't remember if D led into the pot with the raise, or if he re-raised CC's raise and CC called. In any case, there was some modest raising preflop--nothing too crazy because we were still only on the second level of blinds. The flop comes out 9, T, Q, with two clubs. Again, I don't really remember who was first to act here, but a lot of action came out. We were starting with just under 10,000 chips, and I believe D led with at least a 1,000 chip bet here. CC called and the turn was another club.

At this point, if I didn't have at least a decent 4 flush with pot odds, I'm going to check, call or fold. But D and CC got another 4 or 5,000 chips into the pot. The river was a red A. Now I think I recall that CC was leading the action. He bet, D thought about it for quite a while, then re-raised all in. CC didn't take long to call.

CC turned over KJ clubs for the second nut flush; D turned over AA for a set.

With that hand, one of the two pros in the WSOPortland became the first player to bust!

I would have placed a side bet that D would make it to the money; he won the last live tourney I participated in. But CC took him out first, and it was a tough situation.

With the 9,T,Q flop, CC had hit the nut straight. The next card, a club, gave him a lock with a flush. When that last A gave D a set, well, it's hard to get away from that.

Still, there were 3 clubs on board. D said he didn't put CC on a flush, but I would've probably backed down a bit on the turn, even with AA.

So, back to my play. I took a few small pots early, but I got cut off twice on pretty significant raises by my other brother-in-law, M. Finally I took down a raised pot with AQ after hitting top pair top kicker, but I didn't get any action on the flop.

In the third or fourth blind level, I got AKo and raised pretty aggresively. Kyle, who had already lost most of his chips when he got AA cracked, re-raised all in with his remaining 3,000 chips or so.

Now, I had about 10,000 chips. The blinds were still pretty small, but I read this as a desperation move by Kyle. My raise was significant enough for him to try to steal with a mediocre hand, I figured. Plus, if I called his semi-bluff, I could bust someone out of the tourney and add to my stack at the same time. So I called, and Kyle turned over a baby pair, 55 I think.

Against my AK, he was maybe a 5% favorite. But of course, not a single face card landed on the board and Kyle doubled up. Still, I had 7,000 chips left and was feeling all right about it.

Later, I limped with Ax suited, and bet the pot when I had a 4-flush on the flop. M re-raised me several thousand, and I folded. Later he told me he had flopped a two pair, so that was a good laydown. But by now, I was down to just under 4,000 chips.

It was around this time that we got down to 8 players and re-organized into the final table. I was the second short stack at the table, and in the first two hands, the first short stack busted. It looked like I'd be next, and it turned out I was, but not for a while longer. I did double up first, but I can't even remember what the hand was. After that, I hung around for a while trying to steal here and there, but I got caught trying to take the blinds with K5o. A player re-raised my raise, and I had to push in. He flipped over ATo. Uh-oh. Amazingly, a 5 came out on the flop! The turn didn't help him, but the river was an A, and I was done.

We're going to try to have another tourney in a couple weeks or so, but, of course, we can only have one World Series of Portland each year!

All right, seriously, what gives? I started playing limit because I was tired of the swings in no-limit, and yet it seems that the swings are even bigger in this game! After I complained about being back to even the other day, I had two awesome sessions that put me back up 60 big bets. After a couple more rotten sessions today, I'm only up 30.

If you're interested in the exact stats, here they are:

Hands: 2,754
VP$IP: 14.52
Amount Won: $14.45
BB/100: 1.05

I guess if you were to take Mike McD's quote from "Rounders" literally ("Your goal is to win one big bet per hour"), then I'm right on track (I'm at about 100 HPH when I play 2 tables simultaneously). Of course, I'd rather be winning around 3 or maybe even 4 big bets per hour, and that shouldn't be out of the question.

One mitigating factor: I've only been dealt AA 6 times out of those 2,754 hands, and I've only won 3 of those 6 hands! By this point, I should have had AA 12 or 13 times, and my win rate should certainly be higher than 50%.

Ah well. I've got value coming to me. I should probably move up a level!

In other news, the WSOP (World Series of Portland) is ON this weekend. Should be a great game with a couple pros, a couple very enthusiastic amateurs (I include myself in this category) and very little (if any) dead money. Here's the logo I've been promising.

Sweet, eh? If you wanna play, email me. After all, you can't claim that you're the best poker player in Portland unless you win this tournament.

Wha happened? Suddenly, I'm getting owned in the $0.25/$0.50 limit game. Well, maybe not owned, but I'm basically back at square one, even.

I've had a few beats... people sucking out straights against two pairs, or flushes against sets, but it hasn't been devastating. I guess I just haven't been that lucky. Sometimes you can't help but lose, even if you're playing correctly.

Wow, as I was writing this, I just flopped the nut straight on one table, and hit a set of 6s on the turn on another.

That's a nice little 10BB turnaround.

So, here's the big news: Next weekend my brother and I are organizing a tournament. We're hoping for 15-18 people at 2 tables. The buy in will probably be $25, and it'll be no-limit, of course.

I'm calling this thing the "World Series of Portland," and I've got a killer logo to boot. I'll post it here when I email it to myself from my other computer.

On the odd chance that anyone reading this is in Portland and wants to play, email me, and, if we have a spot open, it's yours.

However, you better be prepared to sit across from this guy:

That's my brother.

Oh, man, I've been way too busy lately to post or play. Here's a quick update: I'm probably just under 2,000 hands (at my new game, $0.25/$0.50 limit), and I'm probably only up about 10 BB. Had a bad run the other day while playing in a tourney and distracted. Played in 2 tourneys the last couple days; here are the results.

$1 No-Limit multi

200 out of approx 1200

$2 No-limit multi

109 out of approx 1200

As you can see, I'm ending up near the bubble a lot in these tourneys. Need to work on that.

Having a live tourney this weekend (I think), so I'll update later in the week.

Ciao!

I'm going to try an experiment tonight. I'm about to play in a no-limit freeroll tournament on Poker Stars and keep a running diary.

Before I get started, here are my latest stats in $0.25/$0.50 limit, the new game I'm trying to beat.

Hands: 1,122
VP$IP: 14.62
Amount Won: $18.90
BB/100 Hands: 3.37

Things have gotten a lot better since my first 400 hands! I'm starting to see how these tables work. Another benefit to moving up to this level (other than hopefully the ability to make money faster), is that I occasionally earn Frequent Player Points. I've got 19, and I only need 16,981 more to get a set of clay poker chips for free. Sweet.

Suited Ax is the biggest difference so far between limit and no-limit. As in, small suited Ax is actually worth playing. In no-limit, you can flop the nut 4-flush and still get pushed out of the pot by a big bet. I mean, you could call, but it's usually a losing play. In limit, you know exactly where you're at with the pot odds, so you end up drawing (profitably, I might add) to a lot more nut flushes. Even better, people with worse flushes often raise you!

Okay, let's get this diary started.

11:52: Still 8 minutes until the tournament. Think I'll get a beer.

11:57: I'm taking my seat! Excitement...

11:58: I'm sitting with Snoop Dogg, an old man, a skull, a starbucks logo, a dog, some random guitar player and two blanks. Should be interesting.

11:59: 300 players have managed to bust out of the tournament already, even though it hasn't started. I kid, I kid.

12:00: I start in the big blind with J3o. I fold.

12:04: 300 players have busted. I'm not kidding this time. By the way, there were 4,230 entrants, in case anyone cares.

12:06: I'm dealt my first pocket pair, 66. I limp from middle position but the flop comes KTQ and I want no part of that. Funny, though, there were 6 or 7 players in the pot, but it was checked to the last person on the turn. These are some extremely passive freerollers I'm sitting with!

12:10: The random guitarist is our table's chip leader, with 3,900 or so. I'm holding strong at 1,420 (players start with 1,500).

12:11: Second pocket pair, 55. I fold it to a 230 chip raise from the button.

12:13: Ouch! Just limped from the small blind with Q6o for some reason (hey, it's a freeroll), and hit a 6 on the flop. Bet 20 chips for the hell of it, got one caller. Another 6 came out, so I bet 150. Called by a short stack. River is a 5. I put the guy all-in (he only had 310 chips), and he called. He rivered a straight with the 5! I'm down to 900 chips. Perhaps this will be a short diary after all....

12:20: The guitar player still has 3,900 chips or so, but the old man is gaining on him with over 3,000. I'm at 810 and in need of a double-up. Oh, Q6o, what have you done to me!

12:23: Well, this stinks. I was dealt AJo in late position and raised 150 chips. I am getting desperate. Flop was Q, blank, blank, and it was checked to me. I bet 130 and was called by the guitarist and old man. Had to shut down at that point. On the river, the guitarist hit a 5 to go with the 65o he had called my raise with. Sigh. I'm down to a sad stack of just 545 chips. At least 1,600 players have already busted.

12:26: The guitarist is playing unreasonably slowly. He causes the "It's your turn, you have 15 seconds to act" dialogue to pop up on every round. And he's playing every god damned hand to the river. Argh!

12:29: AK just got pwn3d by J9. Bad luck. Thankfully, not mine.

12:29: Priceless table talk from the aforementioned bad beat:

pdrice33 [observer]: how the hell do you call with that ****?
N4SA: dunno .. but took you out
pdrice33 [observer]: i have a top 3 hand and you call almost all your money with J-9?
N4SA: yup

12:31: This guy's still talking. He's taking the freeroll WAAAAY too seriously.

pdrice33 [observer]: just answer me one question....do you realize how horrible of a call that is? how high the odds are against you?
pdrice33 [observer]: oh wait....no you dont, your a ****en moron

12:32: I raise all-in (only 400 chips or so) with K4d. Called by the noob who just won a pot with J9, and the old man. They had A7o and QTo, respectively. One of them hit a T, and I'm done. I was getting tired anyway. I finished 2,207th out of 4,230 entrants without coming close to winning a single hand! Hilarious.

I've actually done pretty well in these freerolls before, but I guess tonight just wasn't my night. The best I did was 33rd out of 5,000 in a limit freeroll. Another time, I made 85th out of 5,000. Also limit. Of course, they're not very hard tournaments.

Anyway, in conclusion, I'm tired. Catch you later.

Whew! It's been an exhausting week. I started my new job as an ad copywriter on Wednesday, and I haven't had time for much else. That includes poker, and this blog, obviously.

The job is interesting. It's been several years since I've felt anything but completely confident in the workplace, seeing how I worked in the same field for so long. This is a related field, of course, but I still feel like a noob compared to everyone else. Oh well, I'm sure I'll catch on quickly.

I have been able to play a bit of poker, enough to creep back close to even in the $0.25/$0.50 limit game I've been exploring. I was down 18 big bets after 400 hands; after an additional 220, I'm down less than 4.

Some of these players think they're so frigging cute, with their bluffing and slowplaying. I'll have their money soon. Check out this hand I played tonight:

I've got AKo in late position. One player limps, I raise, the button, small blind, big blind and original limper all call.

The flop is Ks, Tc, 6c. UTG checks, next guy bets, limper calls, I raise, button folds, UTG folds, the other two both call.

Turn is Ts. Now I'm worried that someone had paired the T on the flop and now has a set. Still, when it's checked to me, I decide to bet. If it was raised, I would have considered folding, or just calling down the rest of the hand if the pot was large enough. But the first guy just calls, and the next guy folds. It's now heads-up.

On the river, a third club comes out, the Queen. The guy checks to me, and here's where I made a nice read. Something about the way he had played this hand made me think he had a monster. A flush was the obvious concern, but for some reason I didn't think he had that.

So I check rather than bet, and he turns over a pair of Queens! I'm not sure what I think of his check-raise here. Obviously, it didn't work out for him, since I didn't bet. However, it probably would have worked if the third club wasn't on board. Of course, I think he made a mistake when he just cold-called me before the flop rather than raising, and again when he called my raise after the K flopped. I don't care if you're holding QQ, when an overcard flops and you are raised after betting, you usually have to fold. Especially if you cold-called before the flop.

Of course, I don't mind that he was throwing his money into the pot the whole way through this hand ... I'm just not thrilled he caught one of his two outs!

That's enough for now--I've got to keep an earlier schedule these days. Don't forget, if you're thinking about buying into Party Poker, you can get $25 for free by using the code FOZ! Thanks!

Good morning. I'm about to head out to my new job, but I thought I'd check in first. I decided to move up to $0.25/$0.50 limit with the small bankroll I've built in the $0.02 no-limit games on Poker Stars.

Well, after a 400-hand dip in the pool yesterday, I'm down 18 big bets. It's quite a different game, and I think it'll take some getting used to. Still, if it weren't for one mistake and one bad beat, I'd be about even.

I'll post some results after my next session.

"Check me ouuuuut. No, seriously, check me out!"
-Strong Bad

Don't worry, the quote is a one-time gimmick meant to draw attention to the new design of my blog. I finally got comments added (thanks to a serendipitous site upgrade by Blogger).

I've promised some hand histories, so here we go. This happened yesterday, but it's an instant classic.

I'm in the small blind at a $0.01/$0.02 table with only four other players. I was planning on posting this blind, seeing the next three hands for free, then moving to a full table. I look down and see Q4s and think, "What the heck. I'll ante the penny and see what happens." It's SOOTED, anyway.

Imagine my surpise when the flop is 444! According to my brother, flopping quads with unpaired hole cards is 19,000 to 1. Needless to say, this was the first time it had ever happened to me.

Two players had limped, so there were 4 of us in the pot staring down at 444. I was under the gun, and I obviously checked. The only way I could lose this hand is if someone else had a pocket pair and hit runner cards on the turn and river. I'm not sure what the odds of that are, but I'm guessing they're even worse than 19,000 to 1. A lot of casinos offer "bad beat jackpots" for exactly that sort of scenario. Shoot, for the small stakes we were playing, I would welcome a bad beat like that. It would make for a better story!

In any case, everyone checks, and I start to realize that I'm probably not going to get paid off even a little bit for this miracle flop. I mean, who would bet with three 4s on board? Slowplay or not, I'd be lucky to pick up $0.10. When a Q came out on the turn, I laughed a little bit. Just my luck to catch another pair in addition to my quads. In some alternate gambling universe, I had just hit the coveted QUAD-PAIR! The Q also made me even more certain that nobody would bet into me, since there were only two other Qs out there.

I check, the next two players check, and then, remarkably, the button bets $0.12! The other two players folded, but I did one of my patented "think-calls," where I run the timer down a bit before calling.

The river was Td, and I figured I'd come out betting a small amount rather than risk a check from the button. So I toss $0.10 out there and the button re-raises me to $0.30! Not getting greedy yet, I simply re-raised him to $0.50. When he re-re-raised me to $1, I went all-in. Surprise, surprise, he called.

Seeing my quads, the other guy (girl?) mucked, but thanks to Poker Tracker I know that he (she?) had QJo, and had hit 4s full of Qs on the turn. I actually apologized to this player after taking his (her?) stack, but it's probably a blessing in disguise. Anyone silly enough to call re-raises with trips on board probably shouldn't be playing the game of poker.

By the way, the parenthetical notes are there because I couldn't tell if this player was a man or woman. (S)he had a somewhat androgynous name and picture.

That's all for now. Hey, be sure to check out my new comment functionality. Just click where it says "0 comments" and add your thoughts.

Oh, one last thing. BUY INTO PARTY POKER RIGHT NOW USING THE BONUS CODE FOZ! I COMMAND YOU! YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY! VEEERRRRRY SLEEPY! YOU WILL GET $25 FOR FREE! WHY WOULDN'T YOU DO IT? ARE YOU THREATENING ME? I NEED TEEPEE! AAAUUUGH!

It's been a couple weeks and I still haven't figured out a good way to "begin" each new entry in this blog. Iggy over at Guinness and Poker always opens with a quote, which is a great way to go. Ah hell, I'll just start rambling each time.

I got an email from a reader, JD, who runs his own blog, Cheap Thrills. Check it out--JD has some interesting stories about home games and his poker background. Extra cool--his wife is into poker as well, and the two of them had customized poker chips as party favors at their wedding. Now, if I could only get my wife into cards.... she'd be a great player, actually. There's a game called BS, where you basically "bluff" about which cards you're holding, and she's unbeatable. If I could get her to read some Sklansky and memorize a bit of the math, I'd have my own Annie Duke.

As I mentioned in my last post, I just found out that I got the job I was hoping for. I'll probably have to move up several levels in poker, of course, because I won't have the time to grind out $4 per hour at the penny tables.

My friend's fiance is having her bachelorette party in Vegas this weekend, and it's killing me that I haven't been there in almost a year. Next time my brother wins a big tournament, I'm making him buy me a ticket.

That's it for tonight. I got a request for some more commentary on the players at the penny tables, and I'll deliver tomorrow. Until then...

Hey. It's been a day or two--lemme jump back right into this blog with my latest stats on the Poker Stars micro tables.

NL $0.02
Hands: 3,696
Amount won: $62.64
BB/100 hands: 42.37 (this is misleading because a big bet is only $0.02)

$0.05/$0.10
Hands: 810
Amount won: $7.71
BB/100 hands: 9.52

I think I was running a bit hot today, but before that I had about an 800-hand cold spell. The $0.05/$0.10 tables are proving to be an interesting challenge. The strategy is a world apart from how you'd have to play on a real limit table, like $2/$4 or even $1/$2. You almost always get 4 or 5 callers even into a raised pot, and often 3 or 4 stick around until showdown with nothing! The result is that you get paid off royally when you hit a monster hand, but you also get sucked out on a lot.

I've got one hand that I've just got to share. It's a prime example of sub-intelligent play on the $0.05/$0.10 limit table.

I'm in the big blind with JJ. Under the gun raises and gets three callers before it reaches me. I re-raise, and under the gun caps at $0.20. All the previous callers call!

The pot is already $1, and the flop comes 8h, 5s, 8d. UTG bets, I raise (trying to feel out whether anyone's got the set of 8s), the guy to my left re-raises, and everyone calls. At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose the hand to a set of 8s or a full house, but with the big bets being only $0.10, I'm going to call it down unless two players start going crazy.

On the turn, which is 6s, the pot is up to $1.75. UTG bets $0.10 and I just call. Guy to my left goes all-in calling with his last $0.09. One player finally folds, but everyone else calls.

The river is Qs. So now, there are three spades on board, an overcard, and the possibility that someone's got a straight. Still, with the pot over $2, there's no way I can fold. UTG bets, I call, and the last player (who's not already all-in) calls.

You'll never guess what everyone had. I've broken the other players' hands down, complete with a grading system.

-Under the gun had 73 offsuit. Now, he had an open-ended straight draw on the turn, but his preflop calls were ridiculous--the equivalent of 2 big bets with the second-worst hand in poker! Also, he had no business betting the flop, let alone calling when he was re-raised twice! Grade: COMPLETE CALLING STATION

-The player to my left had KT offsuit. He was under the gun before the flop and he actually raised with this hand, then CAPPED when I raised back at him! On the flop all he had were overcards and a backdoor straight draw, yet he 3-bet! After that, he ran out of money and could only call the turn. Grade: OMFG, WHAT A NOOB

-The last player had Q9s. Okay, obviously an idiot for calling max raises preflop. Even dumber for calling a 3-bet on the flop with a weak overcard and backdoor flush draw. He had a gutshot on the turn and I think he was actually getting pot odds for a $0.10 call there, so that's not so bad. But here's the kicker: When he hit his Q on the river, he didn't even raise! I guess he might have been scared of the flush, but since he was calling raises the whole way with nothing, you wouldn't think that that would enter his mind. Grade: POSSIBLY THE WORST PLAYER I'VE EVER SEEN

One last thing before I head out: I got the job!

I've gotten some good feedback on the 8 foot-tall cowboy story, so I'll include another Vegas anecdote today.

In the meantime, if everyone out there could please cross their fingers and hope that I get this job I've applied for. They asked for references after the second interview, so that's a good sign, right? The only thing that's making me nervous is that I've had a couple of email snafus when corresponding with them. Bit of advice: Don't trust Yahoo mail!

I'm almost too nervous to write. But I'll press on.

One of my favorite places in Vegas is the Casino Royale. It's a small little place across the street from the Mirage. You'd hardly notice it, what with the Eiffel Tower, Space Needle and Statue of Liberty distracting you. Anyway. My friends and I found out about this hidden hot spot on our very first trip to LV. We were staying at the Mirage, but, being college students, the $5 blackjack tables were too rich for our blood. We wandered into the Royale and spotted the first $1 table we'd ever seen. Perfect.

If you have even an inkling of how to play blackjack, I will argue that this table has positive EV. EV, by the way, is a gambling term that's short for Expected Value. In poker, you have positive EV when, mathematically, your bet is a favorite. You can expect to make money on it in the long run.

Well, as any real gambler knows, playing perfect blackjack is about a break-even prospect at best (unless you count cards--more on that later). But still, I will argue that this table has positive EV. Why, you ask?

It's simple--the $1 table at Casino Royale is directly in front of the part of the bar where the cocktail waitresses fill their orders. Thus, it gets the most attention from the waitresses. Thus, you get the most free drinks.

Let's say you are a good but not perfect blackjack player. We'll say that the house edge on you is around 5%. Let's also say that you will play 25 hands of blackjack per hour, which seems like a reasonable estimate to me with a full table. Let's also say that you always make the minimum bet of $1.

Over an hour, you are going to lose $1.25 on average. But at Casino Royale, I guarantee that you're going to be visited by the cocktail waitress at least 4 times in that hour!

That's 4 drinks for $1.25, my friend, which I call positive EV!

Of course, you have to tip the waitresses, but that's another story.

All right. I was just reading through Wil Wheaton's poker blog, when I remembered that I have tons of Vegas stories to share with the world. Of course, they aren't necessarily about poker, since I didn't play back when I used to go to Vegas every year, but they are worth repeating. I hope.

The first story will help explain the new name of this blog. In my post last night, I mentioned a contest to rename my blog (formerly TGI McBloginator). Well, I won the contest. I just lost a dollar ... to myself!

Starting my senior year in college, a group of friends and I began heading to Vegas every year around spring break time. More specifically, around March Madness time. We usually spent the entire trip playing $1 blackjack at Casino Royale and watching the games at Caesar's. A couple years into the tradition, we decide to save some money and book a cheaper hotel than usual. I was in charge that year, and I found what seemed to be a great deal: a place called Hotel Maxim. It was near the strip, it had a pool and it would cost less than $20 per night each (there were 5 of us sharing the room. We didn't plan on sleeping much). No, the hotel wasn't related to the magazine. In retrospect, I wish it had been.

The second we walked through the front doors, we realized we had made a mistake. There was no casino! It's not that we ever played in the casino we were staying in, but we were concerned that a hotel within 100 yards of the strip without a casino might be a questionable establishment. Not a single slot machine or card table in sight.

We'd later find out that the entire hotel was going to be remodeled, and that its casino hadn't been profitable enough to keep open in the meantime. You know things are bad when your casino on the strip is losing money!

Nevertheless, we took it in stride and asked the lobby clerk what floor the pool was on. "Pool's closed for renovations," she said between puffs on her cigarette. "Won't be open for another month or so."

Fucking great.

Our trip off to the worst possible start, we headed out to the cars to retrieve our luggage and see what sort of spider-infested craphole of a room we'd been issued. Walking back through the lobby, we showed our room key to the 110 year-old security guard and headed toward the elevators. We pushed the button and waited. When the doors opened, an 8 foot-tall cowboy walked out. The lobby lights reflected off his wraparound sunglasses and his 10-gallon hat nearly scraped the ceiling as he walked. Taking a drag on his cigarette, he addressed us. "Bit of advice," he drawled, walking past. "Stay away from the dice."

Of course, it turned out to be the best Vegas trip ever.

What's up, y'all. The last few days, I haven't got much work done on the novel or on poker, because I've had a number of family functions, and I've been preparing for a job interview.

It was actually the second interview for the same job, and it was this afternoon. Went pretty well, I think.

I have squeezed in a bit of poker on the side, and my current status in the micro games is around 2,200 hands and up $40. I've been playing 4 tables--3 no-limit, 1 limit. I'm not very familiar with limit outside of tournaments, so I thought I'd teach myself at $0.05/$0.10.

While I've got a second, I'd like to address something that's been bugging me from the get-go: The name of this blog. It started out as PDX Poker, but, after I decided to take a break from Party and hit the low-limit tables on Poker Stars, I wasn't sure how much poker content I would be including, so I changed the name to a placeholder. TGI McBloginator.

Uh, yeah.

It doesn't really mean anything, and I've been trying to come up with a better name, but I'm stumped. So I'm having a contest. I want people to email me with suggestions. The winner will receive $1.00 transferred to them in Poker Stars. Pretty sweet deal, I know.

Still on the agenda for this week: Get comments on the site. If anyone out there is reading this, I'd like to hear from you. You could just email me, but I think comments are easier and less of a commitment, don't you?