That "other" Blog

The original blog I chose to follow was the Poker Blogg, but with little success in contacting them I have chosen to present on Royce Youngs' blog called the Daily Thunder. Young is a writer who does columns for ESPN as well as the Daily Oklahoman. His blog, as you may have guessed, is about the Oklahoma City Thunder as well has other random things occurring in the NBA. It is a fairly well known and well liked blog. This is the blog i will be presenting on at the end of the semester. 

The time has come

        Over the weekend I was dying to play poker. I couldn't stand it anymore. I looked at every major casino in Oklahoma and there daily tournament schedule was abysmal. It was seriously one of the worst schedules I have ever seen. SO I went to the computer; searching. Searching for some sort of online option that maybe I had never heard of or was completely new. Bingo. I stumbled across a forum that was constantly throwing a few sites around and I eventually decided to go with one. Everything I read said it was completely safe for American players and that the company itself was taking the risk. Which if you look back at past events is completely true. The Department of Justice never once targeted the individual poker player, only the companies involved in the online gambling. So here it was clear as day on my desktop. The icon for Lock Poker. I deposited $50 for starters just to be sure it was not a complete scam. The have a pro team on their website with a few well named pros from around the world. It was time for me to head back into the online poker realm. The day was spent with trying out different rooms and tournaments. Just dipping my toe into everything I could on the website. I ended up losing around $25, but it was the best $25 dollars I have ever lost. I have finally found a reliable home for online poker. I am planning on getting back on track of a regular poker schedule. It is hard now because the website is still aimed at European play which means there peak poker time is the opposite time here. So finding that balance of max amount of tournament players and what time it is here will be a struggle at first, but it is a struggle I will gladly accept. 

My slowest Poker year

  So far 2012 has been the dullest year in poker in recent memory. It has been excruciating slow for not only me but all the other players i talk to. After the WSOP Circuit event in Durant the poker flow has almost come to a standstill in Oklahoma. The same players day after day pile into the poker rooms at various casinos searching for something new to play. So far there is nothing. Online did a crazy thing for the poker community; it gave people the opportunity to win money at home who would then be willing to take that money into a casino. With that outlet being gone it makes the poker market of non-major cities (practically everywhere besides Vegas and Atlantic City) very stagnant. There is hope peaking over that very, very grim horizon. Indian casinos are now pursuing the online market. This is fantastic news for those people in states that have indian casinos (OKLAHOMA!!!). With this opportunity available it brings online gambling to a state level and almost out of the hands of the Federal Judicial system, which is always a good thing. This gives me hope that we could potentially see online gambling legalized sometime this year. The difficult part is getting the issue in front of important people. The only problem there is that they are pretty much consumed with a small election happening later this year for President of the United States.  Anyways, in the few times I have gotten to play in the last month I have scratched out a couple hundred bucks. Nothing to call home about. In the next few months is when things become a little more crazy. The WSOP will be here before we know it and with that comes a tidal wave of poker. Probably more than to many people can handle. Just know that when you turn on ESPN and poker is on instead of something you would rather be watching; I am loving every minute!


   On the home side of things, my shower is amazing and is still standing! Next up we will be redoing the guest bedroom into some sort of den/office/my own private sanctuary room. I think my girl friend is tire of watching me play Call of Duty in the living room, so she is moving me to the back of the house away from any guests that may come over!

It's Newt!

       Poker has become extremely elusive in the last few weeks. As i said earlier without the option of an authorized online alternative, playing consistently is my biggest obstacle. This week/weekend was packed with family dinners and work to the point it didn't seem like it was going to end. My only somewhat free day was yesterday afternoon, and knowing that if i went to the casino i would be there till 3 or 4 in the morning. Those times don't work well when you are on an early schedule. So my alternative to playing poker was to see if it was on any particular candidates agendas. Newt Gingrich was speaking at the Jim Thorpe center last night and a friend and I decided to go and listen to him talk. 

      Newt is a very motivated and captivating speaker who is not easily ignored. As i expected online poker was nowhere near the front of anyones mind. I mean; how could it be? Being in the bible belt contraception and religious freedoms are hot topics, as well as oil and job production. I was still very impressed as he spoke with great conviction and determination. They opened up the speech by saying that Oklahoma is no longer a "fly over" state for Republican Candidates. Something tells me that this is only because this has been one of the craziest primary elections I have seen. Once one of these three candidates wins the Republican nomination I will be anxious to see if they make a return trip to our state. Either way I am still undecided who to vote for and with the way things are going we could have an entirely new candidate tomorrow!

Finally!

 

   So Ladies and Gentlemen, my shower is finally complete! Here are the before and after picture THE shower that I'm sure you are all familiar with by now. Not to shabby. It took twice the time that was expected but I am very happy with the outcome. Actually it could have looked like crap and I would be happy just to get my shower back. But, needless to say, it turned out great! We also got rid of the terrible yellow paint and now our bathroom looks like it belongs in a slightly newer home. 

On the poker side of things; I played in that Irish Baseball Charity tournament over the weekend. The turnout was about half of what it was last year and the quality of play and structure was ten times worse . I ended up placing sixth of about thirty or so which seems great, but the tournament only paid the top five. Suck. So I missed the money by one and was very glad to be out of the tournament with the pace of play mimicking that of a crawling snail. It was excruciating. It was filled with first time players and grandparents who used to play "back in the day". So my night consisted of explaining basic poker procedure and listening to "when i was a boy" stories. You could pay $10 for a cup that got you all the beer you wanted all night, and for that I was extremely grateful. After striking out on the tournament I went home and did a little political research about online regulation. Word on the street is it may be added to the coat-tails of the Pay Role Tax Cut bill currently sitting in Congress. I kind of doubt it will be added in such short notice though. And I have accepted to fact that I can't base my election vote strictly on online poker. There are to many problems much greater than that to be focused on. 

I really enjoyed Dr. Hochenauer's talk on Tuesday. It was nice to see how just a small blog can turn into such a highly respected, award winning publication. I don't really agree about anything he says from a political standpoint, but I respect that fact that in such a conservative state he has chosen to still talk in what he believes in. I think that is the main reason why his blog is still so successful. He is passionate about what he writes about.  

This shower better be Awesome

Ever so slowly the tiles are going up. We are looking at completing all the tile and floor work today and grouting it all tomorrow. That means Saturday we will be sealing everything and by Sunday i will be enjoying my brand new shower. ($1600 later) Oh well it was much needed. Now we just have to get rid of that gross, tacky yellow paint and we will be in good shape. So painting the bathroom will probably consume my entire day Sunday. Lucky me.

Now for some poker!!! (I know, this has been looking like a home improvement blog, I promise to stay as much on topic as I can from here on out). This Saturday night I will be participating in my little cousins annual charity poker tournament for his little league baseball team. Last year was the first year i participated and won the whole thing, something around $800, so that was nice. It's basically full of all these parents (who are both loaded with cash and alcohol) playing the type of poker they think they saw on ESPN the night before. Last year I made it heads up with this guy who had to be in his sixties who thought he was hot stuff. All I heard about was how he won a bunch of tournaments and that he has his own poker "room" at home that him and all his buddies play at every week. Anyways... We started out and he had me covered like 3 to 1 in chips. He thought he was in good shape and so did everyone else. 20 minutes later I had the chip lead and he was feeling "tired" (sucks for him). He tried to make a deal with me where we add up first and second place money and split it. I would end up getting around $400. Not a bad score, but i didn't spend the last five hours to not win so I respectfully declined. It didn't last much longer after that. I took him out and hopefully crushed his poker confidence .  So thats what I have to look forward to this weekend. Hopefully I come to class Tuesday being the two-time Irish Baseball Poker Champion (and with a new shower) 

Still no Poker!

Well this week has been a little less than spectacular when it comes to my participation at the poker table. Non-existant in fact. My life has become completely consumed with one thing, and one thing only; finishing my shower. Getting the guy to come work on our shower is like pulling teeth. If we do get a full day of work we also get a two hour lunch break and at least two hour trips to the hardware store. What was supposed to take a little less than a week is now a two week job. We have ran into every imaginable problem like three feet of dirt in the walls that are from what appears to be a gopher. Awesome. Then the drain wouldn't come out of the ground. With all the problems behind us (for now) we are looking at Saturday as the day of completion.


In poker news, my absence at the table has allowed me to catch up on some reading and checking up on where online poker is at in the eyes of Congress. Now as i previously said I will try to stay out of politics as much as possible on here, but this is something that directly effects me. I was doing some research of the Republican nominees, and where their stances were on the issue of online gambling. Turns out the only one in support of the matter is Ron Paul (not happening). Romney and Santorum both have come out within the last week and stated that regulating online gaming is dangerous for the country. (????) I don't see how it is any less dangerous than alcohol or tons of other things that we have legal here. The only one who hasn't officially take a stance yet is Newt Gingrich. He did however just take a 10 million dollar endorsement from Sheldon Adelson; who is one of the biggest opponents to the legalization on online poker. Everyone says "money talks" so its time to see if its true. If Newt condemns online poker strictly due to the donations he received I will be very disappointed. Nevertheless I am hoping to have some sort of legalization within the year.