Bobostonepony

There’s a new kid in town. If you’re as hooked on poker as I am you already have the subscriptions to Bluff, All In, and Card Player, and to be perfectly honest after reading through some of them I am left wanting more. More content, less casino ads.

Deal hit shelves earlier this month and I picked up a copy while wandering around Walmart looking for some chicken. So you know, I am always lookin for some chicken. Anyway, I wasn’t able to really look at it until yesterday afternoon while sitting in my library (a.k.a the bathroom in my apartment)…. but I digress.

Let me get back to the other poker mags…. I’m a bit disappointed in them. Basically they are just books of advertisements with a one page story mixed in every 5 or 6 pages. All they really are, are ads for casinos in California that have 20 different varieties of Pai Gow Poker and ads for online poker rooms (there are thousands!). Who cares!!!!!!!! We want content! We want interviews! We want tips! We have the internet, we already KNOW about Poker Stars, Ultimate Bet, Poker Room, etc etc etc blah yada yada yada.

The first thing I noticed about Deal is that there are very few ads. That might change however since this is the first issue. But, I was pleasantly surprised. I was a little disappointed to see the ad for Girls Gone Wild however… WTF!

The first section in this installment of Deal is a Texas Hold’em strategy guide. I HIGHLY recommend it. This strategy guide is all the amateur hold’em player needs to get started. It covers the basics in a language that everyone can understand. I was particularly impressed with the explanation of pot odds. Not being very good at math, pot odds were a concept that I simply ignored in the past. All of the online explanations that I have read left me a bit confused and frankly a little disinterested. However, the explanation in Deal is very easy to understand and they even provide the basic math calculations you will need to determine which bets to call.

Deal also seems to cater to the tech savvy. If we’re playing on the internet, we already have a little bit of computer sense and they know that. Therefore, they have a lot of content that focuses on online poker websites (not online casinos), poker teaching software, and game software. Apparently, the writers of Deal have a background in internet publications and gaming mags.

Another great addition of this first collectors addition is a software cd. This cd justifies the $9.99 price tag. On it are numerous game demos, shareware poker tools like poker tracker and odds calculators as well as some videos.

Deal is for real folks. It’s hard to tell when the next edition will be out because I was unable to find it anywhere. The magazine simply says Summer edition. I’m hoping it turns into a monthly publication, however I can’t fathom that they would be able to impress me this much each month.

If you are an amateur poker player go out to your nearest Walmart and buy this magazine. It is definitely worth it. Do not deposit a dime into an online poker room until you have read the entire thing. Then, keep it and refer to it as necessary.

Good job guys. Keep it up.

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Just an FYI. From time to time, I will post the articles from the front page in the blog. I do this because some people link directly to my blog and therefore don’t see the articles. So, just keep that in mind if you notice a subject covered both on the front page and on the blog.

It’s not much, but it feels good to get a win. I’ve been getting 2nd and 3rd for the past 2 days online. I’m gonna take a few hours off, go have some barbeque, and then play another before bed.

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I played in a tourny tonight with some old co-workers. I was late so I had to buy in after everyone had already been in for over an hour. I made it to the final table and was knocked out 6th. No money. I don’t feel real bad about it, my Kings were beat by pocket Aces. I probably could have laid down at after the turn but was pretty committed at that point and I didn’t put the other player on Aces.

Now that I’ve been working on this site for a couple weeks, I’ve seen how many people out there are doing their own poker blogs and podcasts. This is a great way to network and get your site seen.. not just for poker but really any ideas you want to share. As far as poker goes I found a great blog that originates from my hometown, Austin. It’s thisisnotapokerblog. I’d like to thank April, the owner of the blog, for linking to my site.

Therefore, I will do the same.

THISISNOTAPOKERBLOG.COM

I’ve emailed the editor of Deal Magazine requesting a short interview. Hopefully, I’ll hear back and we can get it up on the main page asap.

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4th out of 40, top 3 paid. I’m going to kick my neighbor’s dog. Talk to yall tomorrow!

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I had to drive to Houston yesterday for work so I wasn’t able to update the blog. I was pretty tired when I got back so I didn’t play online. But… I’m gonna play a sit-n-go tonight and hopefully come out in the money. That might help me forget about the $411 I won and then quickly lost on Sunday.

Wish me luck! I’ll let you know how it goes.

After Sunday’s brutal beating, I decided I would only play Sit-n-Go’s because that is how I made most of the money I lost. To recap, I turned $25 into $415 and then lost it all in about 2 hours on Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, I got home Monday evening and decided to make another small deposit. Again, my plan was ONLY to play Sit-n-Go’s. I entered a $4.40 sng with 20 people. I ended up coming in 2nd and it paid out $24. This pretty muched doubled my small deposit. So, what do I do next? Well, instead of calling it a night, I did EXACTLY what I said I wouldn’t and that was to go into a ring game.

Needless to say, within 3 minutes that money was all gone. I was dealt K10 offsuit. I raised preflop with position. I have 1 caller and he is the big stack. The flop comes AKK. So, I flopped a set of Kings. I check the flop and bet relatively big on the turn. He calls. The river comes out and it’s a meaningless 7 or 8. Anywho, he checked so I went all in. He quickly calls and shows big slick giving him Kings over Aces.

At that point my plan was to kick my monitor out of the bedroom window. However, since I am on the 3rd floor there was no way of telling if someone was standing down there. I didn’t really want to kill anyone, so I decided against the monitor kick. Instead I went to bed.

The moral of the story….

DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO DO! So, for the next 2 weeks I will ONLY play in Sit-n-Go’s and maybe the occassional multi-table tourny. NO MORE RING GAMES! They can be fast money, but they can also break you just as fast.

Happy birthday to you…
Happy birthday to you…
Happy birthday dear Jen (you sexy mutha fu$$&a)
Happy birthday to you…

Everbody, my friend Jen had a birthday on Sunday and I hope you will all wish her a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY. She’s hot and she don’t dig me, but I’ll get over it! She is the bomb diggity fresh though. and… if a body could be compared to ice cream, she would be Häagen-Dazs!