Who sucks more?

That's the real question. Me, for just busting out of a 2,400 person freeroll on the VERY FIRST HAND, or the guy who called all-in with A-high, only to nail a fourth heart on the board on the river?

REASON WHY I SUCK MORE: I shouldn't have been in the hand in the first place. I had K7o, fer cryin' out loud. (Warning: Loser's justification ahead.) But I was in late position, and everyone in front of me had folded, mostly because they had timed out (if you play large freerolls, you know how that first hand goes), leaving the button and blinds behind me. I figured the odds were better than even that anyone with a good hand behind me might also time out, and that anyone who was there would fold when I raised the the $20 blind to $125. But I forgot evilbilly's second rule of freerolls: People will take insane risks early on to try to build a big stack, since they have nothing invested and would rather bust out early than spend all that time to bust out on the bubble, thinking to themselves, "Oh well, it's just a freeroll."

REASON HE SUCKS MORE: He called all-in with A-high! WTF was he thinking?

Anyway, flop came K-high, giving me top pair. I bet $300, which is just a hair more than the size of the pot. He calls. My thoughts: "Uh-oh. He definitely has me outkicked." Turn brings a third heart. "Maybe there's hope. If he only had me outkicked, then maybe he'll fold to strong bet now that the flush draw hit. Unless, of course, he had the flush draw. Only one way to find out." I bet all-in. He calls. I have a half-second to curse myself for betting into the made flush, when he turns over his cards showing only AJo, no flush, not even a pair. (Okay, I realize he still has a flush draw, but come on! All-in?) I now have two full seconds to congratulate myself for doubling up on the first hand, when the fourth heart hits the board, making me a flush with my 7, and him one with his A.

Oh well, it was just a freeroll.

But above I mentioned the evilbilly's second rule of freerolls, meaning there must be a first. And I'll bet you're wondering what it is. It is, only play freerolls when drunk.

I stumbled on this rule the other night, having just made my contribution to the housework by cleaning all the beer out of the fridge. I quickly found that my stupor came with the side-benefit of producing just the right combination of balls and stupidity needed to succeed at freerolls, and I spent nearly the entire night in the top 10 in chips. And I can quite honestly say that I was only able to achieve my lofty stature on the leaderboard, not by playing brilliant poker, but by making completely boneheaded plays that require a good buzz to truly appreciate.

Of course, I did just say "nearly the entire night," which leads me to the corollary to evilbilly's first rule of freerolls: When you have achieved optimal drunkenness for freeroll success, make sure there is enough alcohol in the house to maintain it. After the third break, I had sobered up far too much, and I ended up going out 63rd, when only 40 paid. This transpired about 5 minutes after I had built my stack to over $90,000 and had moved back into the top five, at which time I looked at how many players remained and seriously considered logging out and autoplaying my way into the money, letting the chips fall where they may, so to speak. But no. I couldn't do that, and that and my newfound sobriety are why I didn't finish in the money.

And that leads me to end this post with the familiar refrain (all together now):

Oh well, it was just a freeroll.

WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe begins

The latest stop on the new WSOP tour appears to be getting off to a good start. Event 1 had 542 entrants. Of course, it was only a $200+25 NLHE event. Tournament report follows:

Coming Home: World Series of Poker Returns to Where It All Began

Event #1
No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $200 (+25)
Number of Entries: 542
Total Prize Money: $105,148

Official Results:
1. Tony Prestigiacomo, Genoa, NV, $31,563
2. Steven Lunn, Arroya Grande, CA, 16,940
3. Jody Thompson, Lithonia, CA, 8,410
4. Ron Collins, Oakley, CA, 7,360
5. John Buchanan, Las Vegas, NV, 6,310
6. Kevin Kanemasu, Sacramento, CA, 5,255
7. Jeff Bond, Thousand Oaks, CA, 4,205
8. Hien Le, San Francisco, CA, 3,155
9. Don Mullins, Mooresville, NC, 2,105
10. Stephen May, 1,155
11. Jory Post, 1,155
12. Nick Garcia, 1,155
13. Vin Pham, 945
14. Gary Smith, 945
15. Michael Nelson, 945
16. Austin Jones, 735
17. Michael Nelson, 735
18. Josh Paul, 735
19. Dustin Fox, 525
20. Joseph Seimas, 525
21. Tony Dedo, 525
22. Vic Campana, 525
23. Jim Hoppersteag, 525
24. Tom Nguyen, 525
25. Matt Letourneau, 525
26. David Goodell, 525
27. Tammy Ritter, 525
28. Ted Milkey, 420
29. Tony Yuke, 420
30. John Gorman, 420
31. Earl Odom, 420
32. Larry Gilbertson, 420
33. Tim Briscoe, 420
34. Ernie Meier, 420
35. Chris Ekwall, 420
36. Ken Kootstra, 420
37. Anthony Lee, 315
38. Louis Cara, 315
39. Matt Baltz, 315
40. Tim Watkins, 315
41. Anthony Greco, 315
42. Ryan Swenson, 315
43. Matt Gunby, 315
44. Manny Danarra, 315
45. James Filippi, 315

Local poker player Tony Prestigiacomo wins largest major poker tournament ever held in Northern Nevada

In 1969, Texan Tom Moore bought the Holiday Casino in Reno, Nevada. Moore thought he could create some publicity for his casino by staging an exclusive by-invitation-only poker tournament, which he called the “Texas Gamblers Reunion.” Although the gathering attracted many top Texas-based poker rounders including Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim Preston, and Johnny Moss – other famous gamblers such as legendary pool hustler Minnesota Fats and oddsmaker Jimmy ‘The Greek’ Snyder attended as well. A 66-year-old casino owner from Las Vegas named Benny Binion also happened to be at the “Reunion.’ The rest -- as they say -- is history.

The following year, Benny Binion transformed the Texas Gamblers Reunion into a bona fide poker tournament, which he christened as the inaugural 1970 World Series of Poker. Indeed, if there was a forerunner to what would eventually become the world’s longest-running and most prestigious gambling spectacle, it was most certainly the pioneering event held in the ‘Biggest Little City in the World’ 36 years ago.

Fast forward to 2005; The World Series of Poker has now returned to the region where it all began. Harveys Lake Tahoe, nestled at an altitude of 6,200 feet high in the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains hosted the fourth WSOP Circuit stop on this year’s tournament series. After successful events in Atlantic City, San Diego, and Las Vegas -- the focus of the poker universe has now shifted to the beautiful Lake Tahoe region.

Given poker’s long history and dedicated following at Lake Tahoe and nearby Reno, it’s no surprise that Lake Tahoe Circuit Event #1 attracted the largest field in Northern Nevada history. A whopping 542 players entered the $225 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. Play on Day One lasted 12 hours. 497 players left the cardroom with a bad beat story, while places 10 through 45 received prize money ranging from $315 up to $1,155. The nine finalists returned for Day Two, with Tony Prestigiacomo from nearby Genoa, NV holding a decisive 2 to 1 chip lead over his closest rival. On Thursday, April 28th the final table was played in front of a packed standing-room only gallery adjacent to the Hard Rock Café on the second floor at Harveys Lake Tahoe. Players were eliminated as follows:

9th Place – Don Mullis arrived with the second-lowest chip count. Mullis, a car dealer from North Carolina, had won several online poker tournaments, but his final table stay lasted only a few hands. Mullis went out ninth and received $2,105.

8th Place – Vietnamese-born Hien Le went out next. Le, who now lives in San Francisco and plays poker full-time, made it past 535 players, an impressive feat – but he could not crack the final seven. He collected $3,155 for his 8th-place finish.

7th Place – When one hears the name “Bond” in gambling circles, visions of a tuxedo-clad British spy sitting at a baccarat table come to mind. Distant cousin, Jeff Bond from Thousand Oaks, CA hoped to double up and challenge for the chip lead, but he lost a coin flip hand and was busted. His final hand, 5-5, lost to John Buchanan’s A-K when an ace flopped. Bond was bounced off the final table in 7th-place, good for $4,205.

6th Place – Kevin Kanemasu is used to dealing with lots of money. The 31-year-old auditor from Sacramento was third in chips at one point, but took a tough beat on his final hand. He started out with Q-Q and it looked like he might win a big pot when John Buchanan (with 7-5) flopped a smaller pair. But Buchanan caught a second pair on the turn and made two pair with 7s and 5s, eliminating Kanemasu. Sixth place paid $5,255.

5th Place – After eliminating two players, next it was John Buchanan’s turn to experience the bitter sting of defeat. Buchanan, a professional Internet poker player who lives in Las Vegas, tried to make a move at the wrong time and missed making a straight. Ron Collins, with a pair, busted Buchanan. Fifth place paid $6,310.

4th Place – Ron Collins made an impressive leap up in the money standings. Lowest in chips coming into the finale, Collins jumped up five places and finally went out in 4th place. On his final hand, he was dealt A-Q and moved ‘all in’ versus Jody Thompson’s 10-10. The board failed to connect for Collins, and the construction engineer from Oakley, CA was finally demolished. Collins earned $7,360 in prize money.

3rd Place – Despite a nice payday, the final result had to be disappointing for Jody Thompson. He seized the chip lead away from Tony Prestigiacomo about midway through the finale and appeared to be in good position to earn his first major tournament victory. But disaster struck in the final 15 minutes of play, and Thompson’s stack was machine-gunned down to the felt. His final hand of the night was particularly brutal. Thompson (with A-9) called an ‘all in’ raise by Prestigiacomo (with Q-J). Thompson loved the situation. The smile was suddenly wiped from Thompson face with the flop came 10-9-4. Thompson had flopped a pair, but Prestigiacomo still had plenty of outs with two overcards and a straight draw. Then, disaster struck. Boom! An ugly eight fell on the river, completing the dreaded straight and crushing Thompson’s hopes of doubling-up into a big chip lead. Thompson, an actor from Lithonia, CA exited off the poker stage in third place, with $8,410.

The heads-up duel between Tony Prestigiacomo and Steven Lunn began with the early chip-leader holding a 3 to 1 chip advantage – 404,000 to 139,000. By this time, Lunn had become an obvious crowd favorite, due largely to his underdog status. Everybody loves the underdog and Lunn had barked many times. Consider this: When play was five-handed, Lunn took a heartbreaking beat and believed he was knocked out of the tournament. He began to walk away from the table in disappointment, but when both stacks were counted down, it was discovered that Lunn still had two-chips remaining (a paltry 2,000). Then, the unexpected happened and lightning struck Lunn. Over the next 90 minutes, he won six ‘all ins’ and split two critical pots when he was at a clear disadvantage – thus ending up as the only obstacle to Prestigiacomo’s determination to win his first World Series of Poker event.

The final duel last for about 20 minutes. With blinds escalating, any pair was strong enough to commit a full stack. Fittingly, on the final hand of the tournament, both players were dealt pocket pairs – Prestigiacomo’s 6-6 versus Lunn’s 4-4. As the crowd rose to its feet, everyone wondered, would Lunn be able to do the impossible one more time? The flop answered the uncertainty very quickly. The flop showed Q-Q-6, giving Prestigiacomo a full house. That blow essentially left Lunn drawing dead and put an exclamation point to an event filled with several exciting moments, at least one inspiring comeback, and a convincing victory for the tournament winner.

This was Steven Lunn’s second time to be a bridesmaid. He took 2nd place at Harrah’s Rincon (2005 WSOPC) in Event #1. Lunn, a retiree from Arroyo Grande, CA received $16,940 as the runner up.

The ultimate winner was Tony Prestigiacomo, who like all poker champions has an interesting personal story to tell. Prestigiacomo, now 58, was born in Sicily (Italy) and came to the United States at the age of eight. He was the only person in his family to attend college and he earned a Masters Degree from New York University in computer science. Prestigiacomo was clearly way ahead of his time, since his degree came long before personal computers and the Internet. Prestigiacomo launched his own high tech company and eventually settled down in the nearby Carson Valley, in a town (oddly enough) named after a famous Italian city, Genoa (which Prestigiacomo proudly points out is the oldest town in the state of Nevada).

Indeed, this was a day when history was made. The World Series of Poker finally returned to the Lake Tahoe region, where the concept of hosting a big poker extravaganza was born long ago. And despite many other poker tournaments in the last three decades, most notably the Super Bowl of Poker which was held at Lake Tahoe in the 1980s, it is the World Series of Poker that is attracting record crowds.

“This was a tremendous privilege, honor, and experience to win this event,” said Prestigiacomo, who collected $31,563 and a gold ring for the victory. “I can say at this point, that more important than the prize money was the joy of competing and going heads up -- and ultimately winning.”

Report by Nolan Dalla – World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Circuit Director – Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director – John Grooms
Harveys Poker Room Manager – Vince Contaxis
Harrah’s Full Service Games Manager -- Steve Schorr

www.FreePokerTrips.com

Okay, I've finally finished my second (and hopefully last for awhile) website. I won't go into any huge introduction, just let you judge for yourselves:
www.FreePokerTrips.com

Easy money

Has everybody already heard about GreenZap? I hope not. I just signed up.

GreenZap is a new money transfer service, like PayPal or Neteller. Do you remember when PayPal first started up? They were offering every new customer $10 for free, just for signing up. A whole bunch of us back then took advantage of that just to get the free money, and it worked for them.

GreenZap is going one better. They're giving everyone who signs up with them $25 free during the initial signup period, plus you can refer friends to GreenZap and not only will they receive $25, but you'll get an extra $5 for each one you refer.

Signing up is easy. There's just a one-page form and it only asks for name, address and phone, and you choose your own bonus code for your friends to use when they sign up. The hardest part for me was finding a bonus code that wasn't already taken, but I was literally finished with signing up in 2 minutes.

To get started, go to www.greenzap.com/freebonus25 and pre-register. Do it today, because who knows how long this will last.

I just don't see it

= ?
So, let me get this straight ... Nicholas Cage is going to play Amarillo Slim Preston in next year's movie, "Amarillo Slim." OK, I'm trying to picture it. It just isn't working.

I mean, I don't doubt Cage can do the part convincingly. He can do the aw-shucks Southern redneck as well as anyone. But the look just isn't there. As far as looks go, Cage is about as appropriate for the part as Ving Rhames or Dakota Fanning.

And the champion is ...

The World Poker Tour Championship is finally over, and the boys in WPT's editing room are going to have their hands full. I seriously do not know how WPT can capture the spirit of this one unless they make it a two-parter. Most folks know this, but there are still a few people out there who are surprised to learn that the weekly WPT episodes don't show every hand. If they did, it would require much more time to show the final six than the two hours they have on the Travel Channel each week. In the case of this one, it would take much, much longer, since it didn't get over with until more than 11 and a half hours had passed. Your normal WPT episode shows somewhere around 25 hands; this one had 193.

Here's how the final table looked at the start of the day:

Hasan Habib, Downey, CA, 7,795,000
Rob Hollink, Groningen, Netherlands, 4,430,000
Phil Ivey, Las Vegas, NV, 3,365,000
Paul Maxfield, Stoke-On-Trent, England, 2,885,000
Tuan Le, Los Angeles, CA, 2,680,000
John Phan, Long Beach, CA, 1,405,000

How it ended was nothing short of incredible. I will warn anyone who wants to preserve the suspense until this episode airs to not read any further, because I am about to spoil it all.

First, I was thrilled to see Phil Ivey and Tuan Le at a final table together, figuring that would make for a lot of fireworks. Unfortunately, that didn't quite come to pass, since Ivey was the first one out. Considering how many hands they will have to sort through, I doubt he will have much screen time in the final edit.

Habib continued tearing through the field and at several points had around $14 million. Despite that, it still wasn't his night. He ended up going out in third, leaving Le and Maxfield to battle it out.

Le showed resiliency as has probably never before been seen on the WPT. He was down to around $100,000, yet still managed to fight and claw and bluff his way back to win the whole kit and kaboodle.

If you want more details, Mike Paulle put together a WPT Championship Blog that gave live updates throughout the day and is where I got all of my information.

It might really happen

Didn't I tell you earlier today that having both Phil Ivey and Tuan Le in the top five at the WPT Championship would make things interesting? Well, play has ended for the day and they are now 1 and 2, respectively, with 17 players. Hasan Habib joins them in third, as the only three players with stacks over $3 million.

I can't wait to see this final table.

It's done

Another bit I've held on to is that my new website is finally finished. As I mentioned earlier, it's a guide to poker affiliate programs that I hope people will find useful. It's actually been up since Monday, but that's another one of the things I've sat on while I was busy neglecting my blog. You will find it at www.pokersalary.com. I'm not very happy with the name, but you try to find a domain that evokes both poker and money that hasn't already been snatched up.

The site is completely free. All of the information is open to the public. It isn't one of those deals where I give a few pointers, then charge extra for the good stuff, or where I'm trying to sell some book, tape or program, and I haven't accepted any advertising. The only way I benefit at all from the site is that the affiliate programs I have listed on there are linked through my own affiliate programs, so that if someone likes what I've written and decides to give the online poker affiliate biz a try, I will make a tiny, tiny commission on top of what they earn. Therefore, it's in my best interest to provide as much good information as possible, so that my subaffiliates do well, or else I don't do well either. That's about as fair a business model as you're likely to run across.

Anyway, to give a little overview about the site, it's divided into three sections. The first section explains what poker affiliate programs are, how they work and how they can be a good money-making opportunity if used well. I have also addressed some of the issues you will face when becoming a poker affiliate, such as whether to choose to receive a flat upfront fee or a monthly percentage of player profits. These include recommendations about the best choice to make, with the rationale behind the recommendation explained.

The second section lists 15 poker affiliate programs, but it's more than just a list. Each listing provides detailed information about each site, such as what types of compensation each site offers, how much each site pays, what methods they use to pay, when payments are made, and what types of bonuses, special promotions, features and games each site offers that your potential clients will want to know about. You can view all of this information at a glance and then make a determination about which program best meets your needs.

The final section of the site is probably the most important, and it turned out to be the hardest to produce. It deals with how to successfully promote your poker affiliate program, which is about 99.9 percent of the battle. It covers such things as website promotion, email promotion, offline promotion and a little something I like to call guerilla marketing, or nontraditional promotion.

Anyway, I hope you will check it out and enjoy it, and I certainly hope you decide jump into the business yourself and make a bunch of money! Again, you will find it at www.pokersalary.com. And if you have any suggestions or you find a problem, please let me know.

HERE WE GO AGAIN: While I've never been the most prolific blogger, my updates dropped to almost nothing while I was working on www.pokersalary.com. So now that I've finished that, I should be ready to resume blogging on a more regular basis, right?

Ummm ... well ... this is going to sound a little crazy, but I'm doing it again. You see, one day while I was surfing the web, I had what I think is fantastic idea for promoting my own poker affiliate programs. I mean, this is one of those ideas that just hit me like a bolt of lightning. As I later told my brother when sharing it with him, it was one of those "Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter" Reese's Cup type of moments. And the crazy thing is that it is so obvious, it has literally been staring me in the face the past couple of years. Yet I never put 2 and 2 together before, and to my knowledge, neither has anyone else.

In fact, I feel like this idea is so good, I'm guarding it like gold and not letting the cat out of the bag until after I am ready to launch a full-fledged promotional assault. But don't worry, that will be very soon because I've already been getting everything ready. I am very close to completing yet another website which will serve as the front door to this promotion, and then I'll be ready to go pure marketing fury all over the place, as my friend Jarrid would say. Stay tuned.

CONFESSIONS OF A NONPLAYER: With everything that's been going on in my life lately — creating two websites, preparing a gi-normous marketing blitz, a seemingly more hectic than usual time at my real job and my youngest son's recent debut in t-ball — my schedule has been exceptionally full. In fact, I hate to say this, but I haven't really had much time for poker lately. In fact, tonight pretty much marks one full week that I've gone without playing. I say "pretty much" because earlier this week I did get online and played for about 10 minutes before deciding that I had far too much else to do, but that's essentially no poker for someone who has averaged about 20 hours of online poker a week for the past two years.

However, I feel that's all about to end. I'm starting to feel that itch to play again, and I'm pretty certain that I'm not going to make it past this weekend without scratching it.

Reactions

Yeah, these are a bit dated, but so is my last post. It's not that I haven't been thinking about you guys or I didn't have anything to say. I've been stockpiling little comments for my next post for awhile now, but I just haven't gotten around to actually posting them.

60 Minutes: I was very surprised by the story that came out on 60 Minutes Wednesday this week. Plus I was a little nervous since I have been gearing up for a major push on my affiliate programs and was afraid they might have found something that would utterly kill online poker. No reason to fear, however, because Wednesday's story was nothing but a puff piece that actually might extend poker's reach into the mainstream. I'm even more suprised the story even ran, because there was nothing new in it. I'm sure that quite a few people in 60 Minutes' normal audience didn't know the first thing about poker, but there was nothing said on Wednesday that hasn't been said countless times before. It was actually just a 15 minute infomercial for poker. But I'll bet WPT was pissed that they spoiled the ending of that night's episode.

WPT: I had been waiting quite a while to see that episode. Of course, I followed the tournament closely when it was actually happening back in December, but that was limited to reports and hand histories online. But there's nothing like actually seeing it happen. I thought I would be bored because I already knew what was going to happen, but that didn't turn out to be the case. This week's episode was actually one of the more entertaining ones I've seen. I'm just waiting for my chance to see Humberto win one.

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: We're getting down to brass tacks with this one, folks, as it's now down to 45 and well in the money. This one could get interesting, with two very dangerous players near the top in chips. Tuan Le heads into today in third, while Phil Ivey comes in at fifth. I would really like to see these two both make it to the TV table.

But speaking of the WPT Championship, who in the hell dreamed up this payout schedule? Last year, 343 people entered the event and 50 were paid, with first getting $2.7 million. This year, there are 452 players, so you would expect a huge increase for the winner, right? Hell, no. First only gets $2.8 million. I realize that's not chump change, but 3.7 percent increase when the field is 33 percent bigger? When there's an additional $2.5 million in the prize pool? That's ridiculous!

You might be wondering where all the extra money in the prize pool is going. Well, they decided to double the number of payouts this year, meaning 100 people finish in the money. I don't think would be alone in thinking that paying more than one in every five entrants is too much, and that it is unfair to the top finishers.

Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick ...

Just received this press release today and thought I would pass it on.

‘60 Minutes Wednesday’ Announces Poker Feature

Popular CBS news program set to highlight segment on poker – airing April 20th

NEW YORK, NY — CBS News announced that ’60 Minutes Wednesday’ will show a special feature on poker, which is scheduled to air on April 20, 2005 at 8:00 pm EST. The popular weekly news program, widely acknowledged as one of the top shows on television, will devote an entire segment on poker psychology and the astounding popularity of the game. The lead reporter on the story is Dan Rather, a legendary figure in TV journalism. Rather recently retired as the CBS Evening News anchor. This is one of his first special assignments since his retirement, which occurred in March.

One of the world’s top online poker sites, PokerStars.com was instrumental in developing the story with CBS News. PokerStars.com executives, Rich Korbin -- Director of Marketing and Nolan Dalla -- Director of Communications pitched the idea of doing a special feature on poker to an Executive Producer at 60 Minutes. A short time later, Dan Rather was assigned to the story, which led to interviews and research.

The focus of this Wednesday’s program will be poker psychology and the nuances of the game. Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 World Series of Poker champion, discusses poker’s mental challenges and gives specific examples of ‘tells’ he picked up at the final table when he won the world championship. Rather interviewed Moneymaker in New York in February. Most interesting was the fact that Rather found the subject so captivating that a scheduled one-hour interview turned into a nearly three-hour discussion on poker.

Part of the Rather-Moneymaker interview included questions and answers about online poker. PokerStars.com was shown on a large video screen and Rather asked Moneymaker several questions about online tactics and strategy.

The ‘60 Minutes Wednesday’ feature is expected to be the biggest one-time audience ever to see a program which exclusively focuses on poker. With an expected 15 million viewers, poker is about to get another big boost thanks to Chris Moneymaker and PokerStars.com.

Ugh ...

Oh, man. I thought I was exhausted last night. Today is much, much worse. Pull the feeding tube. I'm brain-dead.

In fact, I really, really regret promising to put up a post today. Every letter I type is like lugging a cinder block. But that's okay. My readers are important, and they deserve to get some verbiage from me much more frequently than they do.

The first bit of news I have is that I am about a good night's sleep and half a day away from completing a new website I've been working on. No, I haven't been sunbathing all this time that I've been away. I've actually been working on a new site that I think a lot of people will find useful.

The site is a how-to guide to affiliate programs, specifically poker affiliate programs. It includes an introduction and overview to how they work, a fairly detailed comparison of affiliate programs for (so far) 15 different poker sites, and a rather lengthy section on how to promote the programs in order to get the most out of them. Okay, yeah, it's also a shameless way for me to get a bunch of subaffiliates signed up under me, but that's beside the point. The fact of the matter is that this site will be very useful to anyone who has ever considered jumping into the affiliate program world but wasn't sure what was involved, or who has tried and failed. The site I've been working on will answer just about every question you'd ever want to know before deciding whether pursuing such an avenue is right for you. It IS NOT just a page with my various affiliate links. It IS a detailed site with lots of very useful information and some great ideas that I've picked up from experience or have learned through researching others' experiences, which just so happens to also contain links to my affiliate programs.

Other than needing to fill one gaping hole, the site is done, and I'm tempted to throw it up on here in preview form to get some feedback from folks. However, I'm resisting that urge until I actually get everything done. Then I'll put it up here for folks to preview before I set up a separate site.

Oh, I guess I alluded to two bits of news yesterday. The other concerns one of the goals I set for myself this year, which was to become an online prop player. (If you don't know what a prop player is, it's sort of a house player. The player plays with his own money just like always, but is required to help start new games or keep dying games going, which means playing short-handed nearly all of the time. In exchange, the prop player sometimes get paid an hourly or per-hand rate, or more often a refund of all the rake he has contributed.) Well, I'm sorry to say that, due to the agreement I've made, I cannot say whether or not I have been successful in that goal. What I can say is that I'm happier than a pig in shit.

Sorry for the anticlimactic moment there, folks. I really cannot say anything more on the subject.

Switching gears, how would you like to be known as the Poker King? Well, if you've been honing your game, there is a tournament this year that will give that title to someone. More specifically, the title will be "Poker King of the Philippines," and to get in at the beginning you would have to travel to Paranaque, Philippines, this weekend, although there will be many more chances throughout the year. This weekend is the first qualifying leg for the Poker King tournament. It is limited to 60 players and the top three will compete in the championship event sometime in December. There will be other qualifying legs throughout the year. The cost of entry is 1,000 Filippino pesos, which, according to my most recent visit to the Yahoo currency converter, works out to about $18. Yup, $18 for a chance to be known as the Poker King. Win that baby and you could legitimately get that POKRKING personalized license plate you've always wanted. You could honestly type in the chatboxes, "I RULE at poker," followed quickly by a parenthetical "at least in the Philippines."

Hmmm ... that last paragraph may be a clear indicator of exhaustion/sleep deprivation/madness. I honestly don't know what possessed me to write it.

Oh well, it's probably best to cut off now. Hopefully I will be back to my senses when I return.

Apologies

No, I'm not dead, nor have I given up on the blog. I had hoped to be able to offer a full post tonight, because I have several bits of news to discuss, one of which is primarily responsible for the lack of updates lately. However, work was a marathon today, and I'm just too pooped to write many words beyond this one. Sometime tomorrow I will post, though, and if I can't get to it all, I get to as much as I can. Be back soon. — evilbilly