Just Poker Talk

• PTS Reservation Service Announced

PokerNews is reporting today that PTSeats Reservation Service is now accepting Poker Tournament Reservations for the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The site is reporting that other Casinos in Vegas are ‘Coming Soon’ to the Reservation Service. No more getting to the Tournament site an hour early to ensure you don’t get shut out of the tournament. The PTseats accept credit cards. Poker Tournament buy ins have always been ‘Cash Only’.

The site charges a fee based on a percentage of the buy in for the tournament being ‘purchased’. A quick check of one tournament shows that for a $300 (+$50) tournament, the service charge for providing the seat is $14. So, to buy in early for a $300 (+$50) tournament will cost you $364 via the website. Once you buy in, the website sends you a printable ticket, which you present at the casino with your table and seat number already assigned.

Rather than for just local daily/weekly tournaments, one area this service might be especially good for is for preliminary events to tournament series. For example, right now players can buy in to many of the prelim events at the USPC (held at the Trump Taj Mahal) direct through the website. source

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Absolute Poker ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot nears $700,000

The Absolute Poker (AP) ’Bad Beat’ Jackpot that grows at a rate of $2,000 per hour will reach $700,000 sometime early on Tuesday if no online player suffers a bad beat. Absolute Poker an online poker room that still accepts U.S. players instituted a ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot in late June of 2007. AP has already paid out $1.4 million in the jackpots.

Here is information from AP that explains the ‘Bad Beat’ Jackpot.

HOW IT WORKS

Look for our new ‘Bad Beat Jackpot’ tables and watch our jackpot grow. We’ll collect $0.50 from the pot of each raked hand that is raked .25 or more. The poker jackpot will keep growing until someone hits an unbelievable bad beat.

What constitutes a bad beat? If you lose a hand holding four eights (8888) or  anything better, that’s a bad beat. But at these tables, your luck couldn’t be better.

Thanks to your bad beat, everyone at the table will win a piece of the distributed jackpot. And you’ll take the majority of the prize.

As soon as someone hits a qualifying bad beat, 65% of the jackpot will be shared between everyone at the online poker table where the bad beat went down. 25% will go towards the next jackpot and 10% will go to the house.

We’ll take the new amount and divide it amongst the players seated at the Bad Beat Jackpot table.

• The loser of the hand – ie. the bad beat victim - will take 50% of the prize
• The winner of the hand will take 25% of the prize
• The rest of the players seated at the table will share the remaining 25%

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger will be heading to AP to see if I can get a bad beat. I get beat all the time at the tables, so I just have to hope to flop quad 8s or better and have somebody hit a straight flush. I can get all my poker loses back in one ‘Bad Beat’. That is my plan and I am sticking to it. I think it is a good plan. Certainly better than my current plan of trying to win enough playing at the tables to retire from blogging.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• New York Congressmen Oppose Poker Ban

Congressmen Steve Israel and Pete King a democrat and republican from New York both have expressed their support for Representative Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act (IGREA) HR 2406. They published an editorial titled ‘Web Gambling: Tax, don’t Ban’ in the New York Post.

The congressmen find irony in the enactment and enforcement of the UIGEA.

“Years ago, the Treasury’s Secret Service agents used to help Harry Truman put poker games together in the White House,� they wrote. “Now they’d be locking him up.�

The two legislators believe there are more important items on the American agenda.

“Frankly, federal law enforcement officials have bigger fish to fry,� they stated.

Protecting the President, investigating counterfeit money and tracking terrorist financing were mentioned as better ways of spending U.S. funds.

American history and the basic right of privacy were cited.

“In the end, there is the question of how much we want government to be involved in our private lives: For many, playing poker with friends on the Internet is a way to unwind at the end of the day,� the men said. “Technology aside, Web gambling isn’t so different than the way Americans have relaxed and enjoyed the company of friends for decades.� source

In an earlier post your ‘Dead Money’ blogger requested that you support the Poker Players Alliance (PPA)  by going to their site and joining the Alliance. Also at the site you can easily send a letter to your representative to support HR 2406 and HR 2610 ‘Skill Game Protection Act’.

Now you have two New York Congressmen that are supporting your ‘Dead Money’ blogger. If you like playing online Poker go to the PPA site and register and send those letters to your congressmen to get the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) changed.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• WSOP Academy schedules Camp in Atlantic City

WSOP Academy has scheduled a No-Limit Hold ‘Em Camp in Atlantic City on December 1st and 2nd, 2007. The dates are just before the WSOP Circuit event that begins on December 8th, 2007 at Harrah’s Atlantic City. Full details on the Camp can be seen =====> here.

Instructors for the Camp are:

• 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer
• Former FBI Agent Joe Navarro
• Alex Outhred

Camp Agenda includes:

• Live Hand Demonstrations
• Interactive Workshops
• In depth Seminars
• Tournament at end of Day 1 with Champion awarded a seat to the $5,000 WSOP Circuit Event in Atlantic City

The event is limited to the first 100 registrants and organizers fully expect the seats to sell out early. The price tag on this poker-intense weekend is $1,699. For complete details regarding the Atlantic City camp and other WSOP Academy events, visit www.wsopacademy.com or call 1-800-989-WSOP. source

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• PokerTek PokerPro in Detroit Casinos

In an earlier post your ‘Dead Money’blogger discussed the 1st fully electronic Poker Room. No dealers, no shuffling of cards, no chips. Just like playing online but you get to sit across from your opponents. Today there is a story in the local Detroit press that discusses how the PokerTek PokerPros are not being received that well in Detroit.

“I tried the PokerPro at Greektown,” said Guy Hickey, 44, of Warren. He’s a manager of operations for an engineering firm, and plays a lot of hands at Greektown’s traditional tables now. “I didn’t care for them. You miss the interaction of the chips and passing cards back and forth. It’s not the same. It’s like playing at home on your computer.” source

The story goes on to say once the luster of the new product wore off it appears that live poker players went back to the tables. The articles references the New Buffalo Michigan Four Winds Casino and Resort that is the worlds only completely electronic Poker Room.

Four Winds Casino and Resort in New Buffalo, a mega-complex that just opened Aug. 2, is wagering that electronic poker tables will bring in enough to replace dealers altogether. While the casino still uses live employees for other table games, its poker room is entirely electronic.

“Lots of confidence in the product is what it comes down to. I think it’s been very well received,” Four Winds general manager Matt Harkness said. The room runs a little less than half full during the week and fills up on weekends. “Many people in the demographic that play poker are very computer-savvy. Many people learn to play poker on the computer. So it’s an easy transition for people to make. I think it’s the future.” source

So just another view that the traditional Poker Rooms still have some life and Dealers will not be out of a job just yet. Go to this ====> link to read the entire story.

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael

was in the Detroit Greektown Casino today but played at a traditional Poker Table with a dealer, shuffling of cards and chips and of course ‘Tokes’ the very few times I actually prevailed in a hand.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Poker Players Alliance

Needs your support. They have a goal of 1 million poker players to register for Poker Players Alliance. If you click the logo you will be taken to their site and see that they have over 660,000 registered PPA members. Ever since last October when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was signed into law Poker players have been joining this grass roots effort to assist in getting Poker back into the legal forefront of the United States.
The site has lots of information regarding Fighting for Poker including:

• Major Points
• Federal Legislation
• Latest Member Actions

The reason I am blogging about this today, is I saw on the site the ability to send pre-filled letters to your congressman to support HR 2046 the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007 sponsored by Rep Barney Frank and to support HR 2610 the ‘Skill Game Protection Act’ introduced by congressman Robert Wexler. The site even sends the letters for you. It couldn’t be easier to tell your Congressman that you support Poker and have the Country start down the path to removing the UIGEA law.

So your ‘Dead Money’ blogger is recommending that you join the Poker Players Alliance and click a couple links to send the letters to your Congressman. Please do it now.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Just Poker Talk - Satire

Since Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy seemingly will be heading to prison in the near future, they got together with Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips, Tony Taylor and some low level mobsters to play some Hold ‘Em in the Bad Newz Poker league.

According to ESPN up to 20 other NBA referees might have played in the Bad Newz Poker League.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger knows he would not want to play in this league given the way Vick, Peace, Phillips and Taylor treated the dogs that didn’t perform well for ‘Bad Newz’ kennels. I have always avoided guns, hanging, drowning, electrocution and getting slamed against cement whenever possible. Donaghy is the full time dealer and when some of the low level mobsters win a hand he gets ‘toked’ $5,000. Donaghy is giving inside information to the mobsters to help ‘fix’ the Hold ‘Em games. Donaghy is also letting his mobster friends know what Vick and friends are holding. He is also dealing from the bottom of the deck to assist them with taking all the Dog fighters money before they go to prison.

Of course all of the above is satire, but the real stories on Vick, Donaghy and group can be found below:

• Michael Vick 
• Tim Donaghy

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Fit or Fold is Silly - Mason Malmuth

In the August issue of Two Plus Two Internet Magazine, Mason Malmuth has a great article that discussed the ‘Fit or Fold’ strategy and the weakness of that style and how it really will be quite costly. It goes into many examples and tells you how over the long run the Fit or Fold strategy makes money for your opponent.

Fit or Fold applies to playing the flop in Hold ‘Em. If the flop fits your hand you stay in the hand, if it doesn’t fit you must acquit…. err fold.

Malmuth references his book ‘Hold ‘em Poker for Advanced Players’  he co-authored with David Skalansky, when the article discusses a short handed game with an aggressive player and the flop didn’t fit. Folding or by calling about 50% of the time when you hit or have a draw will only lead to long term profits by your opponent.

He refers to the book again when discussing a large multi-way pot and how you get 12-1 to call if there was a pre-flop raise but only 7-1 if no pre-flop raise. Discussing how that goes into your decision instead of blindly using ‘Fit or Fold’.

At the end of the article Malmuth ends with this gem regarding Fit or Fold: 

By the way, there is another point to be made about “Fit or Fold”, and this point has been mentioned many times before in my writing. It is the fact that poker is not simple. If it were, we would all be playing correctly and there would be no winners. So fortunately, it is a good thing that “Fit or Fold’ is a silly concept. source

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger finds the Two Plus Two Internet Magazine an excellent source for Poker information.
Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Harvard Professor wants to use Poker Theory at College

has a story about a Harvard Law Professor pushing to incorporate Poker skills into the curriculum of universities and secondary schools.

Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson is set to announce the forming of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, an organization that ‘views poker as a game of skill that can be used as a teaching tool at all levels of academia and in secondary education.’ source

Maybe if your ‘Dead Money’ blogger would of had Poker Theory in college he would have finished school in the normal amount of time, not to mention going to all the classes and he wouldn’t be ‘Dead Money’ at the tables. I can see it now, those hateful math story problems…….you are on a train traveling 55 mph heading east and you are in the ‘Poker’ car with 8 outs after the turn and there is $300 in the pot and you have to call $60 to see the river…….do you call? Those type of story problems would have been a lot more fun to tackle.

The Society aims to offer workshops and seminars to secondary schools and community centers, using poker as a means of developing strategic thinking skills. Bringing the secondary strategic lessons taught by poker to underprivileged neighborhoods is among the highest of Nesson’s goals with the project. He also hopes to sponsor team poker matches between law, business and other graduate-level programs, and to conduct seminars and conferences that explore poker as a means to teach strategic thinking and related public-policy issues.

The Society’s first chapter will be based at Harvard, and more chapters are expected to open later in the year. Nesson also hopes to launch a ‘team poker,’ NCAA-style championship between competing American universities. source

Wow, you can almost imagine a future with the NCAA Final Four for Poker. Can you see it now? CBS hyping the Tournament endlessly not to mention the Bracket show and Phil Gordon analyzing the Finals. Don’t forget ESPN high lights of the big upsets and Bad Beats. ‘Poker Today’ on every night to discuss who is going to win the NCAA Poker Tournament this year and the top 10 and RPI rankings. Matusow, Hellmuth, Negreanu, Brunson, Gowen as the ‘Experts’ in the studio. Sideline reporters Gold, Hachem, Moneymaker, Raymer.

Count me in.

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael will be looking into Harvard admission criteria just in case his luck changes at the tables and he can afford the tuition.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Harvard Study does not support fears about Online Gambling

had this story recently, a comprehensive study of online gambling behaviors.

Harvard Medical School’s Division of Addictions characterizes a majority of online gamblers’ behavior as “moderate,” concluding that its findings do not support previously-made claims that online gambling has “an inherent propensity” to cause problem or “excessive” gambling.
source

the study responds to the current paucity of information regarding online gambling and to the fact that “concerns about Internet gambling are growing across various interest groups.” For similar reasons, Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) proposed a House bill (H.R. 2140) early last month to provide for a study of online gambling by the National Academy of Sciences source

The study included:

• Data from 40,000 individuals over an 8 month period in 2005
• Time spent gambling
• Frequency of placing bets
• Amount bet

Researchers concluded that:

“the subscribers’ gambling activity levels were moderate,” and that the “findings reported here do not support the speculation that Internet gambling has an inherent propensity to encourage excessive gambling among a large proportion of players.” source

The author concludes the story by reporting that future studies will likely include the online Poker Industry.

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael

hopes any future study doesn’t include his online money won, tournament wins or in the money finishes, because he is pretty certain the study will return ‘no data found’.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Video to show you how to Shuffle your chips like the pros

YouTube has this short video that provides you instruction on how to Chip shuffle like the pros. I know that after watching the video your ‘Dead Money’blogger will shuffling the chips anytime he has at least 4 chips in front of him. In other words not very often. Just click on the YouTube logo above to start the video.

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael is off practicing shuffling chips.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• PokerListing Provides a great Service

Check out this site before you go hunting for a Poker Book. PokerListing Ranks the Poker Book Retailers and keeps them updated in Real time. They have 25 Poker Book Retailers listed. For each Retailer PokerListing provides a summary of what the site provides.

Some of the hi-lights of the retailers offerings.

• Rebates
• Discounts
• e-books
• Reviews of books
• Promotions everywhere
• All the Poker accessories you need

• Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger Michael needs some Poker instructions books so he can graduate from ‘Dead Money’ to ‘Donkey’.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Fully Automated Poker Room Opens in Michigan

Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo Michigan became the 1st fully automated Poker Room in the world. The Poker Room will feature 15 PokerTek ‘PokerPro’ ten seat tables and 4 PokerPro heads up tables. Four Winds is the 1st Casino to go fully automated. PokerPro means no waiting while cards are dealt, no waiting shuffling of the deck, no waiting for while pots are split and no need for anyone to create side pots as PokerPro accomplishes all these functions instantly.

PokerTek’s Chief Executive Officer Lou White had this reaction:

“PokerTek is pleased to be working with an operator whose dedication to making this room a success is only rivaled by their desire to exceed player’s expectations by offering such a broad range of game offerings, tournament schedules and major tournament satellite events.” source

Ned Harkness Four Winds Casino GM said:

“We’re going to offer the best action in the region,” Our tournament schedule is second to none, our games are all reasonably priced and playing on PokerPro gives players more action with fewer hassles and distractions.” source

Click here to see all the details on PokerTek PokerPro electronic Poker tables.

Your ‘Dead Money’ blogger looks forward to trying out these electronic tables next time he is in a Casino that offers them. The way it seems the PokerPro offers the speed of online Poker with the ability to look at your opponent across a Poker table. Another plus to me is if I want to communicate something to an opponent I can just say it. Probably people will be less likely to drop ‘F’ bombs on you if they are not anonymous. Is this the way of the future? Poker Rooms fully automated with electronic Poker Tables might some day be all there is and we will long for the old days. If that happens Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo Michigan will always be the 1st.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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• Types of Poker Players that take the fun out

Just your ‘Dead Money’ bloggers rant on the Types of Poker Players he finds irritating to play against. I don’t mean irritating in that they play well and take my money. I know I am ‘Dead Money’, I just like to play and I actually hold my own against them. I mean I do not enjoy playing with them as it is no fun. I was just having a discussion yesterday with my son about how much I enjoy playing Poker and writing about Poker and talking about Poker. Guess you could say one of my passions is poker. That being said when I play online or go to a B&M facility there are specific types of players that I can’t wait to see them leave my table. Doesn’t mean I go on Tilt or anything, just means I don’t have as much fun when these types are there.

See if you recognize the types of Poker Players and if you have played against them.

• Trying to teach you how to play

You know the type always trying to show you how they know it all when it comes to poker with comments like:

•  
  • ‘you shouldn’t have called’
  • ‘you should have known I had you beat,  
  • ‘pots odds dictated that you should have called’, said after you muck
  • ‘what are you doing calling an all-in with A-7 off’?
• Critical of and rude to all other players at table and dealers

I have heard at live games or seen online comments like:

•  
  • ‘you are an idiot’
  • ‘what a stupid a** playing that’
  • ‘where did you learn to play like that’?
  • ‘is this your 1st game’?  

I actually am in a home game with a player that is a good person but has told me he just trys to irritate other players to get them on tilt so he can get their chips. He readily accepts that somebody has to wear the black hat. Envisions himself the Phil Hellmuth or Mike Matusow of the home game. In a post earlier this month I talked about the World Poker Association (WPA) development of a Code of Ethics. One of the sections addresses player to player relationships and another section deals with player and dealer relationship. I hope the Code of Ethics become the standard of how poker is played everywhere.

• Constant whining about Bad Beats
  • Citing the Percentages
    • ‘I was 80-20 to win after the flop’
    • ‘I had you 3-1 after the turn’
    • ‘you were 4% to hit that on the river’
  • Saying things like:
    • ‘I can’t believe you sucked out like that’
    • ‘I had a boat and they hit quads’
    • ‘I flopped a straight they hit a back door flush’
    • ‘they hit a 2 outer’ 
• Loud happy winner, Quiet ornery loser 

When winning you have the incessant happy chatter with everybody, the constant chip rifling, the loud bets, the showing of their cards including the bluffs, the nutz, the big laydowns.

Of course seeing their cards is a good thing for the other players but when combined with the noise I still find it irritating.

Just the opposite when losing, hardly says a word (not necessarily bad), no chip rifling, never see their cards, big frown on their face.

• Tells you why they called
  • ‘I had you on’,
  • ‘I felt you were bluffing’
  • ‘knew I had you beat’
  • ‘I am on a rush’, ‘

Personally, I try to ignore all of the types listed and just focus on playing poker. Very rarely use the chat box online and at B&M generally have very little to say. I think part of the reason there are so many of these types of players now, is that Televised Poker seems to show so many instances of this behavior. ESPN almost tries to make a celebrity of the player that exhibits these playing styles. Just thought I would Rant a little bit.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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Do Poker Rushes Exist?

had a story by Arthur Reber Playing the Rush recently that your ‘Dead Money’ blogger not only found fascinating but made me really get lost in this whole ‘Rushes’ question and if they really exist.

Since I started playing poker I have always believed in the Rush concept. You know what I mean. You win a couple hands and all of sudden you are not mucking that 7-2 off suit you were just dealt and you hit a set of ducks. I know I have fell into that situation often and I always thought it got me some chips. Now after reading Arthur’s story I am not so sure about the Rush. 

Arthur makes to me very convincing points that the concept of a Rush is wrong mathematically. That the Rush is more a outgrowth of your own play improving when you win some hands and of other players at the table believing you are on a Rush and staying out of your way.

He made a comparison to athletes that seem to hit every shot or go on a tear at the plate. He discussed the ‘Hot Hand’ concept of a coach that feeds a shooter who seems to hit every shot. Also he mentioned the manager that adjusts the lineup to get the hot bat higher in the lineup so they might get more at bats.

Arthur talked about three reasons why a player would play a Rush.

1. Playing my rush because I’m ‘running good’

He details that most players believe this is accurate but they are wrong. He explains that what you are really saying is:

‘that you believe what happened in the past will continue into the future’

Mathematically this is wrong as each hand is independent of earlier hands Arthur explains.

Arthur wraps up the 1st reason by saying:

‘There is no increased likelihood of winning the next hand because you’ve been running good - just like there is no increased likelihood of losing the next hand if you’ve been running bad.

Arthur discusses the 2nd reason players play rushes.

2. Playing my Rush because I’m sharper when I’m winning

Arthur tells us that this reason is closer to a good reason. He lets us know that most players play better when winning. Winning increases confidence and aggressiveness.

So there is some reason to play a rush if your game is sharper than usual when you do. ‘this argument has nothing to do with being on a rush, if you are like most recreational players, your game is better when you are winning’

Arthur moves on to the 3rd reason players play rushes.

3. Playing my Rush because I can dominate the table.

Arthur tells us that this reason is the one that makes the most sense.

The key is that most players believe that rushes are real, that they will continue and that the ‘rusher’ is going to ride his wave of good fortune as long as he can. When someone goes on a serious rush a chorus of refrains will be heard from others at the table. ‘Man, you’re really on a roll no way am I playing a hand against you’ or ‘I am just going to stay out of your way for a while’

Essentially players will fear the ‘Rush’ and not be playing optimal poker and you can take advantage of it. But it is not because of the ‘Rush’.

Arthur ends the Rush discussion by telling of a study psychologist Amos Tversky did some years ago. Tversky was trying to analyze the ‘Hot Hand’ theory by charting every shot several basketball players took over a full season. He found little evidence of the ‘Hot Hand’ theory.

Players got hot about as often as a random number generator got hot. If a player shoots about 50% overall, we would expect to see a run of shots made and missed - and we can calculate just how many runs we ought to see and how long the runs should be.

The source for all the quotes in this blog is: Playing the Rush

The study by Tversky was really fascinating to me because it took your ‘Dead Money’ blogger back to his childhood when ‘Grandpa Joe’ introduced me to Lifetime averages. I was beside myself with worry when one of the veterans on my favorite Major League Baseball team was only barely hitting above the ‘Mendoza’ line about 2 weeks into the season one year. ‘Grandpa Joe’ showed me the Lifetime Average on the back of the player’s baseball card and told me that by the end of the season the player would hit pretty close to his Lifetime Average. Sure enough the player did and I remembered that reading Arthur’s discussion of the ‘Hot Hand’ study by Amos Tversky.
Sadly, it also reminded your ‘Dead Money’ blogger that he will always be the ‘Dead Money’ at the poker table because my ‘Lifetime Average’ is ‘Dead Money’.

Feel free to add any Poker related comments, they are welcome always.

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