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playing poker and teaching science: October 2006

playing poker and teaching science

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Location: Honolulu, HI, United States

I'm a middle school science teacher, wrestling coach, poker player, scuba diver, aikido black belt, amateur writer, and student of life. In the past I have tried to give back a little by volunteering at a children's home in Belmopan, Belize, Central America. I also love Frosted Flakes. I took a year-long sabbatical from my science teaching position in order to sail the Caribbean, retired from teaching in Indiana and now teach at a Honolulu middle school.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

A HORSE with no name

One of the positive by-products of Party Poker shutting down was that I finally deposited real money into my Full Tilt Poker account, and now I have access to one-table HORSE sit-and-goes.

As a professional educator in the public schools, it’s my job to keep an eye out for those students who obviously have an attention deficit disorder and have yet to be diagnosed. Therefore it’s pretty easy for me to know that I have ADD. It was never diagnosed because in nine out of 10 cases, a good whuppin works every bit as well as Ridalin for making you work harder on paying attention and staying out of trouble in school.

My father had a great ADD cure holding his pants up and he wasn’t afraid to use it!

My ADD is usually under control, but I have a short attention span if I get too bored so a game of HORSE is a great way to break up the Hold Em monotony. That, and I just enjoy being able to understand optimal strategy and starting hands and compete well in all the poker games.

I would like to be thought of as a good poker player, not just a good Hold Em player.

So far I’ve played two HORSE sit-and-goes. In the first one I bubbled out in the third round of Hold Em when my pocket kings were outdrawn by a suited 89, but in the second HORSE sit-and-go I won first place. Not only did I win, but I enjoyed the game like few Hold Em games I’ve played recently.

Maybe those lawmakers knew what they were doing after all.

Anyone buying that??

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Going on Tilt

I haven’t worried much about the legislation concerning on line poker. I’m pretty small potatoes. But CD Poker, which I joined for the big signing bonus they had last year has suspended US accounts and I’ve had to withdraw all my money. It also looks like Party Poker is going to suspend US players as well.

What to do…

I’ve decided to move all my money to Full Tilt Poker. They have a 100% signing bonus, which I have yet to utilize, but the main reason for moving to Full Tilt is ego.

Not MY ego, but rather the collective egos of the owner and operators.

Full Tilt is run by professional poker players. This is a most unique group of individuals. When Daniel Negreanu recently wrote about choosing Nick Shulman for his Professional Poker League team he stated that Nick was “a hustler as a teenager, starting with pool and then moving on to poker” and that his background made him very much like the other members of Negreanu’s team.

This is a group of incredible egomaniacs! I say that however without the least bit of disrespect. How could they NOT be? They spend their lives putting their own money on the line with only their wits, courage, and daring between rags and riches.

Add to the mix the sheer intellect involved. The leadership is comprised of former lawyers, businessmen, professors, and doctoral candidates. Not too shabby. There are also a couple of dot com millionaires who most certainly won’t let themselves be pushed around by pesky congressmen!

At the very least they can bail one another out if they get arrested.

I feel like my money will be safe with this group because they wouldn’t let their celebrity status be marred by cheating the group that idolizes them.

Time to deposit. I hope the Party fish school to Full Tilt as well!