What's the Deal: Sunglasses

Dealt by Tim Bangs.

Why do poker players insist on wearing sunglasses? 

Last time I checked, poker rooms across the country are typically not that bright.  Or outside. 

What are you hiding from me?  Your eyes are the least of my worries.  Your betting patterns and body movement are of much greater concern to me...

Keep On Rockin' In the Free Roll

:: snake

It was a week or so ago when Chops told me he was planning on dedicating the majority of his online play to WSOP main event satellites.

As anyone who follows the granddaddy of poker events knows, this strategy of getting in on the cheap (anywhere from a $10 buy-in and up) and surviving several rounds of tournaments is a mix of lottery luck and poker prowess, and yes, is one that has paid off in spades for the last two WSOP champions; making it the biggest ROI this side of late ‘90s IPOs. Simply put, other than being filthy rich or good enough to have someone stake you, from here on out online satellites will likely be the way the majority of players will earn a seat at the $10,000 event.

For Chops, this decision to focus on satellites sprung from an honest assessment and humble acceptance that his original plan of winning a $10,000 seat from $50-100 sit-n-go’s just didn’t quite have the steam he imagined.

He confided in me, “As of now Colin, I’m a bit short of the buy-in.”

Starting to Think I’ll Take Lucky Over Good

Chops here.

It’s decided.  Changed my mind. In poker, I’d rather be lucky than good.

After playing what I felt was some great poker over the past six weeks or so, and consistently having the crap kicked out of me on rivers (“getting rivered” as we call it) or other painful scenarios, the tables finally turned in our weekly WCP game last night…

Killing More Time...

If you're like most desk-job-corporate-lackey-working-men, you probably spend 75% of your free time reading ESPN.com. 

While ESPN's poker room launched last month, the "global sports leader" (isn't that like Michael Jackson calling himself the "King of Pop") has just integrated some content with Card Player Magazine. 

Hopefully they'll start adding some more original content (Phil Gordon, Jackpot Jay if he actually starts writing about live poker experiences again, etc.), but in the meantime...

20 Ways to Put Your Table on Tilt

Whether it's in a tournament or a ring game, there are a lot of players who look for ways to dig under the skin of others at their table, to get an edge, put people on tilt, and generally annoy the crap out of them. The most effective way can often be to turn over a nice bluff...like showing your 6-3(o) to an opponent that mucked a pair of Kings with an Ace kicker. And of course a major suck out such as pocket ducks taking down rockets on the river with a 3rd deuce can also do the trick.

But what if you're just not that good..or lucky?

2 Robbers, 3 Shots & 200 Quarters

:: snake

No, the above is not the title to a new Guy Ritchie film, it's the subject of this week's installment of "You Can't Make Up Poker News Like This", the new weekly series from Wicked Chops Poker scheduled to appear here either bi-monthly, quarterly or every so often (but definitely not weekly). This time we're passing along an AP story about a home poker game in Dunedin, Florida that got robbed by gunpoint. Details are sketchy but the jist of it, as thoroughly reported by the AP, is:

"Two robbers held up a Dunedin poker game for $50 in quarters, wallets and cell phones. One of the players ran rather than be robbed and was shot three times. Michael Butler, 42, is recovering from surgery after being airlifted to the hospital. The host of the weekly game says he recognized one of the robbers as a former neighbor. No arrests have been made."

So in light of the above, you have to ask yourself . . .