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    <title>TwoRags.com - Poker Blogs</title>
    <link>http://www.tworags.com</link>
    <description>Tworags.com - poker guide for serious poker players who play Texas Holdem and Other Poker Games</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <lastBuildDate>Tue, 18 Nov 08 10:14:15 -0500</lastBuildDate>
    
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      <title>post-FTOPS and more (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3182]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I only had one cash in the FTOPS, but I played a very small schedule.  I finished 46th in event 19 (out of some 2200-odd).  A deep run that I couldn't quite sustain until the end.  Disappointing, but tournaments usually are.

So it's back to the heads-up.  I'm still playing this on the regular, though I had a tough session today (lost two flips for stacks and two other stacks where I got the money in as a big favorite).  Nothing you can do about running bad, although I don't think I had my A-game today.  Again, focusing on bringing that every time is vital to my progress as a player.

It seems like I'm moving in the right direction, though, and it's just going to be a work in progress as I work to maintain the discipline full time and continue to plug leaks.  The goal is to play perfectly all the time; I will probably fail, but as long as I don't beat myself up over mistakes and continue to learn why things work and don't work, I will at least play well most of the time. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 18 Nov 08 00:27:07 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Winning All the Gold (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3180]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[That's what I've been doing this weekend. Well, just Saturday to be more accurate, I gave some back today. Saturday was one of the best days of my internet pokers career though so I'll tell you all about that now. The day started at 2pm with a bunch of tournaments and some 200/400 PLO shots. I made 24K at PLO so that was pretty sweet. Here are the biggest pots I won:


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3461326 - 3-betting preflop is probably more standard but stack sizes make it awkward when he calls and I hadn't been 3-betting much. Obviously get it in on the flop and hold the 56-44 how lucky.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3461335 - Flop pretty good turn better river ok also.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3461339 - I guess I have to get it in on the flop, though if I run into the nut flush draw I'm fairly dead. Getting called in two spots was unexpected, as the hand played out I'm not really sure what they had. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 08 04:31:06 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Things I sort of remember from last night part 1 (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3177]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I just woke up and it’s past 2pm. Thanks to Cade forcing vitamins and water down my throat last night I don’t have any form of hangover and will likely live out a similar evening out tonight. What did I get up to last night? Um, it’s a bit of a blur, but with the help of Cade here’s what I do remember, in 
semi chronological order:


1.  First we went to a place that had live music. I went to the bar and got a beer while Cade stayed talking on the phone to Rachel. The WSOP final table was on TV and the people next to me were chatting to the bartender about how 22 year old Peter Eastgate now has nine million (MIRRION!) dollars. I blew their minds by telling them he got taxed for seven of it. I stood there for half an hour chugging my beer waiting for Cade and realizing the bar was predominately old people. I finished my drink, went back over to the Cade, swore at him, then asked him to use the phone. 
”Hello Rachel? Hi it’s Tony how’s it going? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 15 Nov 08 19:35:57 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Help give Bush and the UIGEA the FUCK YOU they deserve (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3175]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[As pretty much everyone reading this knows, the UIGEA regulations are out, the Bush administrations last attempt to restrict your personal freedoms before his abomination of a presidency comes to an end. For decades to come our country will look back and question how we ever came to elect a bungling, mongoloid, freedom hating retard like Bush twice and some of the damage he’s done to our countries international reputation and respect will take even longer to reverse. 

I’m not one of these people who think Obama is going to swoop in and be the cure all to both the problems of poker players and the nation as a whole. I don’t know how Obama will function as president, but I am hopeful. What I do know is that we have nowhere to go but up. Obama is in the fortunate position that so long as he doesn’t fire a nuclear missile into the center of London pretty much whatever he does will look better by comparison to his predecessor. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 08 18:43:11 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Shit I have done lately (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3173]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So I’ve been in Hawaii for a few days now living with my friend Cade and his very awesome mom Jada. Let’s take a look at what I’ve done with myself since arriving:

1.	Running a shit load. Both Cade and Jada like to go on a 2.25 mile run every other day and I’ve been joining them. I’ve always been pretty terrible at running, but the amount of time I’ve spent on the treadmill at the gym and with my pink jump rope at home has apparently put me in much better cardiovascular shape than I’ve ever been in before. I’m also running about a mile every morning before I eat breakfast. 

2.	Getting freaked out about the UIGEA regulations. God knows if they’ll have any effect at all but they certainly have people in a panic and many American players considering jumping ship on the whole country if they have their worst possible implications. I find it doubtful they’ll actually make a difference, but if they do I’ll have to scrap any possibility of moving back to the US. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 08 06:44:28 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>UIGEA regulations are out &quot;Whew&quot; (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3171]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[The final regulations are 66 pages long and there's no way I'm immediately reading them when other people can do it for me (I'll do it later), but the gist appears to be this: 

-Withdrawals are not blocked in any way (THANK YOU BABY JEBUS)

-Electronic deposits (including echecks) are blocked via a continually updated blacklist [edit: scratch that. Instead, it looks like each bank develops its own policies and "somehow" makes sure that cross border transactions aren't used for gambling.]

-Paper deposits are not blocked (more than they were; WU/MG, for example, "cannot be used for gambling" even though that's never stopped any sportsbook from simply rotating different names to send money to every few days)

-The compliance deadline is 12/2009

2+2 has predictably panicked. Personally, I think this is close to the best case scenario possible. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 08 23:12:49 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Bad Habits, a Donkament Score, and High Stakes PLO (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3169]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Since arriving back in Toronto I've quickly gotten back into my normal lazy at home routine. I stay up too late, then sleep away the hours of the day in which I could actually go out and do productive things, then play some tournaments and cash games, watch TV, download the TV I miss, and various other lazy activities which keep me up all night. It's not like I'm super upset about it, not having any real obligations and being able to live on such a ridiculous schedule if I want to is a pretty sweet luxury to have. I'm enjoying my time relaxing, but at times the unproductive and lazy feeling of a day mostly spent at a computer or TV screen can be pretty gross, even if I've spent a lot of that time "working". As an example, this blog is being written at 7:30am and I assure you I did not just wake up. I'll get to what I was doing tonight shortly but first let me recap what else I've been up to since the last time we talked.

FTOPS started and I've played a handful of events. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 08 08:23:01 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>hey steady steady (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3167]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[the HU grind has been going okay.  I've had a profitable run at it, at least, although I've also had a couple of sessions I should have quit sooner.  Even so, my discipline is improving as I go.  It's a process, of course, but I feel the more I play, the more my old instincts to play well return, and then I've been developing the discipline and patience to not spew stacks if I'm not winning as quickly as I would like to be.

I'm still not putting in as many hours as I'd like, and I think I'll have to restructure one or two things in my life to make that possible.  For one, I don't really have a proper setup at present, and my laptop is on the fritz (again).

I sold some pieces to the FTOPS, so I'm gonna play some events in that over the next week.  If I pop a big score, great.

Life is good; I'll keep updates coming as anything interesting happens.]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 08 18:53:44 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Check in  (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3165]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[What’s happening people? I’ve had a very pleasant few days since I last wrote in this blog. I spent a few days playing poker online at more relaxed pace since being let out of the bet before Chris, Stevo and I planned to go down to the beach house for the weekend. A couple days ago I even had a large score in the Stars nightly for $18,509 when I took second, making me feel considerably better about planning to take the rest of the month off.

As it turns out, we had to cancel the trip to the beach house for a number of reasons. As a result, I’ve moved up my departure to Hawaii and am leaving on Sunday afternoon, about 36 hours from now. I’ll be staying in Hawaii for about two and a half weeks before coming over to the Sydney APPT, staying at my friend Cade’s place while on the island. Cade is the son of famous American/New Zealand poker player and personal friend Lee Nelson. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 08 09:34:45 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Yes, we did (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3162]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I think it's a great outcome. Many of you undoubtedly disagree. Let's set that aside from now on and hope Obama is a good leader (and, oh yeah, fixes online poker and stuff).

While I type up a full postmortem, here's what happened on Intrade last night:

Before election day, I had a solid plan backed up by a decent sized investment fund that I promised would have a conservative approach. With an effective six figures on the site, I could both move my own lines when I wanted them to move and spread out my picks so that the fund would get the safer, conservative lines while my own money went to riskier, but higher return lines. What I wound up doing was to park the bulk of the money in the main President contracts and their derivatives because of their liquidity, then spread the rest out to state and Senate races. The fund mostly focused on complete locks like PA, IA and WI; my own account was riskier and had large positions all over the map. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 08 23:13:01 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>November and Future Plans (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3160]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Now that I've been home a few days I've had some time to sit down and plan out the next few months. The rest of this year is going to be pretty laid back in terms of live poker, but it looks like the beginning of next year is going to be really really crazy. So for November I'm probably not playing any live tournaments. There's a chance I could go to Vancouver for the BC Poker Classic but it's looking pretty unlikely at this point as the buy-ins just aren't that big. There's another FTOPS starting today though so I'll play some of those events. I certainly don't plan to try to grind the events every day like I have in the past but I'll play when I feel like it and don't have other plans. The $5K buy-in 6-handed 2-day event should be awesome and is the only one I feel like I can't miss, but I'll try to play at least all of the bigger prize pool events. Then at the end of the month is the ECOOP on the iPoker network. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 08 03:05:34 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>T-24 hours (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3158]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Tomorrow will bring two things: the election of Barack Obama (no jinx plz) and the end of my year-long Intrade experiment. Although I'll leave some cash on the site to experiment with, it'll be the end of me obsessively refreshing 538.com every half hour, pouring over every poll internal and following returns by county while lining up the next state to roll over the profits according to the time their polls close. 

I'll miss it :(

I promised myself I'd write a summary and postmortem of the Intrade experiment, and I'm already working on it in my head. It'll be a very long article that I will likely be putting up on the 5'th or 6'th, after my hangover wears off. It'll be interesting to see how much of what I write at the end of this long, strange trip applies in '10 and '12 - you can be sure I'll be back at it next time, probably using 100% of the cash I can spare. 

In the meantime, [url=http://www.pocketfives. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 08 23:36:21 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>So Long (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3156]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[So to make a very long story short, it would appear Celina and I are broken up. I won’t get into a long ranting post about the reasons why, not only because it’s personal but that just isn’t the kind of content I put in my blog really. We’ve talked about trying to hang out in Sydney and see how we go, but until then we are officially not a couple and we won’t be seeing each other until then.

I woke up today and tried to grind, but realized very quickly my head was not in the right place. One thing I’ve prided myself on in poker is that I always keep my cool and never get worked up over any table talk or berating. That ended today. I had a situation come up today after this hand: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/87/high-stakes-mtt/top-pair-drawy-board-100r-335866/
One of the other players on the table berated me for my call when it turned out the BB had 6d4d and got there on the river. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 08 20:27:14 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title>Live poker &gt; online poker  (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3154]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Just to prove it’s all about how you spin things let’s take a look at the reasons why live poker is vastly superior to online:

1.	Social interaction: 

a.	Live poker: Has real flesh and blood people. You can look at them, hear them, smell them, and touch them; though purposely and blatantly attempting the last two may lead to many awkward situations. You’ll meet people from all walks of life at the table and can make friendships that’ll last a life time, but most of all you’ll witness some truly hilarious interactions.

b.	Online poker: Where all your friends and peers are the same little flashing box on whatever instant messaging system you prefer and the closest thing you have to interaction at work is a 30 second conversation with the delivery man from the Indian place.

2.	Non poker players acceptance: 

a. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Nov 08 00:50:02 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>A real look at live vs online players  (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3152]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today was a big day for my poker career. That’s because today I had my first hate thread in NVG, meaning I’ve attained enough notoriety in poker to have people despise me and want others to know about it. It appears the posters main problem was my live vs online poker article:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/tony-dunst-333176/

During the conversation with Greg Raymer that resulted in the ‘Fossilowned IMO’ post Greg mentioned that he’d read my ‘challenge to the world’ entry. He said he was surprised how I came off in it and how it’s rather unlike how I am in real life.
“Don’t worry Greg, nobody could take outlandish arrogance of that degree with any seriousness, and there’s a lot of joking entries like that in the blog. I mean I made a barely better than stick figure drawing of a guy holding both middle fingers up while stomping tiny opponents. What kind of moron would take that seriously? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 08 10:21:09 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Live Q&amp;A about the AP scandal (hey, I made a final table!) (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3150]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[First, the very short term: I'll most likely have another article on P5's either this weekend or on Monday. It'll be about Obama and poker - I'll have to post an exact topic and maybe repost the article after I write it, but if you've been reading the blog or my posts on 2+2, you already know most of what I think on the subject. Suffice to say I am optimistic about the chances of a UIGEA repeal under Obama and feel that the game would be better off with him in office. (I also did make a CR video - it should be up sometime next week.)

Second, in a surprising development, the AP/UB story is *still* slated on 11/9 and might actually stay there :) (If not, it shouldn't be pushed back past 11/16.) For the last couple of weeks, I've been working with the Washington Post on the newspaper and online side of the story, and they'll be hosting an online, live Q&A segment for an hour or so the day after it is released. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 08 15:14:23 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>GOING TO FUCKING KILL SOMEONE (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3148]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today was the maddest I have ever been at a poker table. I don't give a fuck about bad beats or about bubbling the stupid tournament. I'm partly very mad at myself for being an idiot and allowing this bullshit to happen, but moreso that some jackass actually pulled this on me. The story is coming shortly let me begin at the beginning. So I run/play bad for a bit and get down to 200K, then double with TT vs 22 blind vs blind and I think win some other pot I can't remember. Then this hand happens:

6k/12k a1k I open to 32K UTG with JJ and the BB who is bad defends. The flop comes J87 with two hearts, he checks and I bet 56K which he calls. The turn is an 8 he checks and I bet 86K and he calls. The turn is a Q, he leads out for 125K, I say all-in for his roughly 200K more. I hear him almost immediately say call and turn over my hand. At this point he says "What are you doing I didn't say anything yet." I ask the dealer "didn't he say call? [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 08 05:07:12 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Fossilowned IMO (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3146]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I was talking to Greg Raymer on skype today about strategy in tournaments and mixed games. While I was playing in a $109 freeze out I played a rather standard hand that ended in massive beratement from the other player and quite a bit of fun conversation.

First the hand: 
Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t175/t350 Blinds + t45 - 9 players
The Official [url=http://www.twoplustwo.com/]2+2[/url] Hand Converter [url=http://www.deucescracked.com/?referrer=converter_2p2]Powered By DeucesCracked.com[/url]

jc0880 (BB): t6890
revheat969 (UTG): t9272
dannygreen1 (UTG+1): t8220
[b]Hero (UTG+2): t5680[/b]
[b]Pti4ka_Tucan (MP1): t2710[/b]
brettsky678 (MP2): t15120
[b]mike121112 (CO): t11338[/b]
BaldGuy (BTN): t15755
Stoweski (SB): t10553

[b]Pre Flop:[/b] (t930) Hero is UTG+2 with K:club: A:spade:
[i]2 folds[/i], [color=red]Hero raises to t950[/color], [color=red]Pti4ka_Tucan raises to t2665 all in[/color], [i]1 fold[/i] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 08 10:48:39 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>The life of a man with no life (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3144]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[With the combination of Celina being gone for a month, my strict diet, and my needing to get up early in the morning every day, it’s safe to say I don’t have a life and won’t for some time. My daily schedule for all of November looks something like:

6:50am: Wake up, shower. Set out my breakfast of protein bar, water, and skim milk. Maybe an apple.
7am: Fire up as many tables as possible. I won’t stop registering until 1pm.
12pm: Eat lunch. Likely some meat from the grill or a simple pasta heavy on chicken and vegetables and low on actual pasta (must watch those carbohydrates.) 
4pm: Have a healthy snack like nuts, fruit, vegetables, or another protein bar.
7pm: Finish playing. I can’t be certain of my exact finish time, but this amount of registering tends to work out to about a 12 hour day. 
7:30pm: Go to the gym. In the event it’s a day where the gym is closed I’ll go running or go play tennis.
8:30pm: Return home from the gym. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 08 10:59:50 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>The sabbatical is over (nath)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3142]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (nath)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, I haven't written in an extremely long time, and it's largely because I've been laying low, and partially because it's been a busy/crazy time outside of poker, and I haven't had much chance to play.  We survived Hurricane Ike okay, but were without power for five or six days, and I had to miss part of the WCOOP.  I came back in time to cash in the final two NL events, including the main.  I took a little time off after that.

I've been playing heads-up, trying to pick up more and more hours of it as I rebuild my bankroll.  It's been slow going, though.  I've been pressing too much and getting myself stuck in bad situations.  Getting into the flow of the game is crucial in heads-up; even if you feel a player has enough leaks that you should have an edge against him, so much is dictated by the action / reaction that if you're against the ropes, it's often best to just quit, or at least slow down and get your bearings, rather than press for a situation to make the money back. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 08 19:50:16 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Bond18 vs StevoL vs The World (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3140]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[As many of you know, I stated that I would be having a November challenge with my friend Stevo. We elaborated on that idea and decided to challenge EVERYONE for the month. Here's the post that has appeared on 2p2/P5's/PNW:

Konichiwa bitches,
So I was engaging in my standard MSN constant trash talking of StevoL the other day, and with plans to put in a high volume month of November boasted that I was naturally kick the shit out of him results wise. He told me to put my money where my mouth is and after considerable discussion we came up with a number of bets. Not only that, but we came up with the idea that us two will challenge a team of ANY two players in a November monthly PLB contest. 

We’ll be betting each other in 
A. Total monthly PLB score.
B. Most final tables. Dinner of winners choice. 
C. Most wins. % equity freeroll in tournament to be determined (likely APPT Sydney or Aussie Millions.) 
D. Most final table bubbles. Weed paraphernalia of winners choice.
E. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 08 00:14:51 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Poker and the invisible hand   (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3135]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I’ve referenced ‘the invisible hand’ numerous times before in my blog when discussing poker player’s motivations and their ethics. The term comes from the ‘father of modern economics’ Adam Smith and in his book “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” he elaborates on the concept:

“...every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Oct 08 03:00:35 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Getting back into Cardrunners (Adanthar)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3133]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Adanthar)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I never really "quit" doing CR so much as I just quit playing tournaments (outside of Sundays, at any rate.) As you guys know, for the last two months I've been concentrating on politics (Obama '08? More like my wallet '08) and haven't been playing much. That, in turn, has led to zero decent hand histories worth submitting to CR and zero videos - I keep my standards kinda high and don't really want to do a vid about any old tourney with no interesting hands. But CR has recently asked me to do a leakfinder video, which doesn't involve my own HH's, and I'll likely get to that on Saturday. This'll be kinda interesting because the HH they gave me is one of my students', so he'll get a free session at the cost of having all his leaks pointed out to a few hundred people. I'll have to ask him how that turned out a few weeks afterwards.

The bad news is I had a Washington Post photographer over for their online version of the AP story and asked him about the timeframe. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 08 23:34:07 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>November show down  (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3128]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Celina left this morning for Macau. She’ll be there for a week, and then spend about 10 days visiting friends in Kuala Lumpur. After that she’ll be going to APPT Manila for roughly another week, meaning she’ll be gone about three and a half weeks in total. It seems unlikely I’ll attend APPT Manila, as it’s a nearly 13 hour plane trip and a low buy in tournament that would take several days of my time, making it a financially –EV trip. I’ve also been told by just about everyone that Manila is a hole and I’m just plain sick of traveling, so I’m sitting this one out and returning to the internet. 

As a result, my friend Stevo and I have decided to make a massive volume PLB (points leader board) bet for the month of November. The bet itself isn’t anything giant, loser buys dinner at winners choice restaurant, but we’ll be making a number of wagers on other volume related accomplishments including most final tables, most wins, and most final table bubbles. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 08 09:28:49 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Festa al Lago Day 2 (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3126]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Well I'm busto. I grinded my short stack for quite a while but every time I got something good going I immediately lost a pot to give it back. In the end I obviously got owned Doug Lee because why wouldn't I?

Hand 1: 500/1000 a100 Somehow I'm down to 13K at this point and Jen Harman opens on my right. I move in with KK and Kristy Gazes instaships in the BB and Jennifer folds. She has QQ and I double back to around 30K.

Hand 2: Somewhere in here Doug Lee gets moved to the table. It folds to me in HJ and I raise to 2700 with QsQh. It folds to Doug in the BB and he calls because when it's his BB that's what he does. The flop comes A64dd, he checks and I check behind intending to fold approximately never no matter what happens ever. Then the turn is the Kd, and he bets 5K and I cry and fold. There's a good chance calling down here is still correct.

Hand 3: 600/1200 a200 So I get back to like 22K and raise to 3200 in the HJ again with KQo this time. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 08 22:15:11 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Shout out..... (Mr_Taterhead)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3124]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Mr_Taterhead)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[I want to give a shout out to one of my best friends, Ben Mintz (The Destroyer-online screen name). Ben took down a WPO preliminary tourney yesterday at the Gold Strike in Tunica, MS for $21K. Along with the first place prize money he won a $5K main event seat and a gold bracelet.

	Ben and I have been best friends since high school and I pretty much got him playing poker. He was a pit game kind of guy before I finally showed him the way during one of my many trips to visit him at the old Horseshoe poker room in Tunica. Underage of course!!! Ben’s online career pretty much started because of me, so I like to think. This was probably in 2004. I had $20 in my Party Poker account and Ben turned that $20 into over $1,500 in a very short time. Then not too much longer I got the sweetest call ever. He called me one morning while I was grinding my way at my desk at work and he said that things were about to change. I was like WTF happened. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 08 09:40:37 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Festa al Lago WPT Day 1b (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3122]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Not a very successful day 1 today unfortunately. I finished the day with 25K of my 45K starting stack. My starting table was very soft, the only other players I recognized were shaniac and gobbo. Unfortunately I then got moved to some crazy table with Shawn Sheikhan, Brad Booth, Minh Ly and some other people I recognized. Here are two interesting hands I played today, the latter being the key hand of my day.

Hand 1: 200/400 a50. The player on my right opens to 1400 in MP and I flat KK next to act hoping for a squeeze from Sheikhan or Brad Booth or to just trap the raiser. One player calls behind me in position and Booth calls from the BB. The flop comes AT6hh and checks around. Turn T checks around. River 5 checks to me and I figure I almost always have the best hand and I may be able to get value from a hand like JJ or QQ so I bet 2800 and Brad calls with JJ.

Hand 2: Brad has been very active making a lot of really big preflop raises and reraises. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 08 02:01:15 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Im Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack (Mr_Taterhead)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3120]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Mr_Taterhead)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Who cares right? Oh well.

	Hey Guys. I guess you all thought that I died or just gave up since I haven’t posted a blog in over 3 months. Well I didn’t die, but I had to take a little break from poker for a while, so that I could regroup and get my brain in working order again. 

	The last time I blogged I was playing $100NL FR on Bodog with a big enough bankroll to withstand the variances, so I thought. Well after I lost about 10 BI’s in the span of 2 weeks I told myself that I needed a little break from poker. So I did just that. I completely stopped playing online, live, home games and even lol play money games. I didn’t miss it one bit. 

Then football season started. I never really played that much during the week ever. I did the majority of my playing on the weekends, but when football season started something else was there to occupy my mind. So I put off my poker playing another month or so, but now I am getting the urge to start playing again. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 08 11:36:11 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Awesome Day! (SirWatts)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3118]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (SirWatts)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[Today started like almost any other day. I woke up and lazed around for a bit. Eventually I forced myself to go get a workout and then I came back to the room and ordered some food. I watched the new episode of Entourage which was the best in a long time, and also Dexter which was really good as always. After that I decided I'd go check out the poker room and see if any good games were running and buy into Day 1B of the WPT event for tomorrow. I ran into Vivek in the poker room and we both ended up sitting in a 10/20 game for a bit. Then we heard a new 25/50 NL game was opening and that a certain swimmer you may have heard of was playing it, so we instantly locked up seats and moved to that game. Sure enough, seated three to my left was none other than Michael Phelps. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 08 05:30:51 -0400</pubDate>
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      <title>Bond18s guide to poker business and sponsorship  (Bond18)</title>
      <link><![CDATA[http://new.tworags.com/index.php?ACTION=blogs&todo=view&ID=3116]]></link>
      <author>admin@tworags.com (Bond18)</author>
      <description><![CDATA[As more and more online players gain live success and fame they’ll likely encounter the business side of poker. Unfortunately, the sponsorship game can be an awkward and complicated social shoot out with many potential pit falls. Having spent the last several months on the live circuit and interacting with many people on the business side of poker I’d like to use that experience to drop some knowledge on those for whom this will soon be an issue. I imagine a lot of people are expecting an entirely sarcastic and subversive post, and there will be plenty of that, but I’d also like to seriously talk about what I’ve ‘seen in this scene’ and how to use it. If you have half a brain you should be able to tell the two apart.

Do: Win a televised major donkament. Obviously right? Clearly this is easier said than done, but it is the fastest and most direct route to sponsorship. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]]]></description>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 08 03:24:41 -0400</pubDate>
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