H.O.R.S.E. = Donkey

The weekends seem to be slower on the poker front for me. I don't really have a good explanation as to why that is. Probably because I don't play any more on the weekends than I do on the weekdays. Both Sat and Sun, I got my required 200 pts at FTP to keep up my status for the ironman challenge and then once I got that, I just switch over to video games or in today's case, football. This weekend though, I felt like I was playing pretty well. No significant profits (maybe $50 here and there but nothing too exciting) but I guess if I can earn my points and not lose my money, that's probably a good thing.

Recently, thanks to the bogus UIGE Act (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) that was sneaked in by Bill Frist (who I am happy to add is no longer a politician - he's back to being a doctor after that dirty sh*t he pulled) and supported by Jim Leach (also happy to add that after 30 years of representing Iowa, this is the first time he lost his seat), Neteller decided to no longer do business with US customers. Well, pretty much. Neteller agreed to no longer process transactions for US customers with online gaming sites... which sucks because I used Neteller. Just to clarify. Neteller is not going out of business. They are a third party processor that acts as an intermediary between a bank and a vendor and the only reason they would be used is if someone feels uncomfortable giving away their bank account number to do certain transactions online. one could set up an account like Neteller, fund the account like a prepaid debit card, and go from there. So, naturally, since the banks were already not doing transactions with these poker sites, I had a Neteller account. Well, since Neteller caved to the pressure of the US and the fabulous (please, sense the sarcasm here) Bush Administration (2008 can't get here soon enough), I had to open another account similar to Neteller. So, I decided to go with Click2pay, for no major reason except that was just another one that I knew of. Until I learned that just a day after I opened an account with them, they are no longer accepting new US customers. The only problem with this legislation that is causing all these very legitimate third party processors to deny US customers is that soon, once all the legit businesses refuse our request, we're gonna start turning to anything that would do it. That could potentially mean that we'll be funding money through unregulated, unsecure third party sites who for all we know could be using those funds for money laundering. Too far fetched? Possibly. But considering that Frist and Leach and Goodlatte all used terrorism and money laundering as the possible dangers of allowing internet gambling, mine is a lot more realistic than all those a$$clowns combined.

Alright, I'm starting to get fired up here so let me calm down and talk about something I'm starting to really get into. HORSE was a common terminology to me since I played basketball and the popular game of matching the shot that was made right before you in order to avoid getting the letter was played countless times when I was in school. How does that relate here? Well, it doesn't. But HORSE in poker has a totally different meaning. It is an acronym for Hold'em, Omaha hi/lo, Razz, Seven card stud, and Eight or better stud. I love it because of the variation it gives. The way it works is there's a set number of hands for each game. So in other words, after 10 hands of hold'em, it switches to omaha, 10 hands later, razz, etc etc until it repeats the whole cycle. Now HORSE is a limit game so in other words, it's quite different from the NL hold'em world that I am accustomed to being in. However, I read enough materials to at least understand the differences in gameplay between NL and limit hold'em. The other games give me variety on what I play because there was a period where I was starting to get tired of hold'em. Well, unfortunately, I am a total donkey in HORSE. I can obviously hold my own in hold'em and I do fairly ok (at least I can survive) in omaha and stud. But eight or better stud puts me in the donkey territory and I'm a total donk in Razz. Except, amazingly, I love Razz. That's starting to become my new favorite game. For those that don't know razz, basically it's a low ball game. In other words, the person with the 5 lowest card combination wins. If someone has a 7-5-4-3-2, then that person beats a 8-4-3-2-A because his first card is lower. 7-5-4-3-2 however will lose to 7-5-4-2-A, for example. Aside from that, it plays out just like a seven card stud. And for some reason I am totally hooked on it. I wish I could find more material about the keys to success in this game because I am getting killed (well, I play very very low limits so after like an hour, me being killed is like losing $10). But where it shows up most is when I play in a HORSE tournament, that's where I usually bust out or bleed all my money away. I believe Jennifer Harmon is regarded one of the best Razz players in the world... I wonder if she has a book out.

Well, that's about it. Not a major poker day. As much as I wanted the Saints to win, after seeing Lovie Smith, Thomas Jones and especially Brian Urlacher who's been with the Bears for a while, it was nice to see them make it to the Superbowl. Now, the Patriots just need to put Manning back to where he belongs during the playoffs (at home sulking) and that would be great. Speaking of Manning, how awesome would it be to see him and Marty Schottenheimer get together. Not that I have anything against Marty but that combo will break the record of the Dolphins and go 16-0.... and lose in the first round of the playoffs.... ha ha ha ha ha.