THE PERSISTENT IRRITATION

Local SSA does good

 

Alumni update

Sean C. continues to make waves in the universe, or at least on cable. As some may recall, Sean was the champion of the 2005-2006 season. These days, he holds court in the micro-clique of dark matter media personalities living in Los Angeles. His new book is out now. Also,  check out his site if you haven't lately.

WSOP - Hammond

The World Series of Poker is coming to town. Which means it's going to be ridiculously crowded at the Horseshoe in coming weeks. Best to hit the Majestic if you're looking for cash game fun.

On the other hand, this does create some opportunities for the daring soul. These big tourneys are held up in the Venue, a monstrously large theater upstairs. For those who complain that the room is bad for concerts because the room isn't pitched, well, I suspect this is the reason behind this decision.

So, anyway, the last time the tournament was in town, there was a steady flow of freshly bounced players coming down to the card room. They were all hot and tilty and made for pretty easy pickings. And they had money to burn.

Something to keep in mind for those of you with time to kill this weekend and beyond.

Lost in the Pages

This just in from our west coast bureau:

The LA Music Awards just nominated John Enghauser's CD for "best album" in 2 categories.  The final voting happens by you, my friends and fans, at the LA Music Voting Party at the Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood on Thursday, October 8th.

John needs your vote so mark your calendars if you're going to be in L.A. that day. It should be a big event and a great time with some legendary industry personalities present.

Be there or be L7.

- PI -

Cowboys, Full

TimeOut Chicago interviews James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street and the upcoming Cowboys Full. If I remember correctly, PFS was a pretty good read, though you had to hack through the non-poker story lines to get to the real juice. 

I'm done buying new books (we all have to do our part to keep the economy down), but maybe it will show up in a used bin somewhere. In which case I will purchase, read and review accordingly.

And although it doesn't come out until October 27, you can immediately declare yourself a fan of the book through the magic of Facebook.

Speaking of being on tilt

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Gambler son ordered tried in parents' slayings

A professional gambler was ordered to stand trial Friday on charges that he murdered his parents in their Pleasanton country club home in hopes of reaping an early inheritance to pay off mounting gaming and other debts.

yikes!

Are progressives on tilt?

Fivethirtyeight.com asks the question here. Poker analogy comes at the end:

In poker, one of the situations when a player is most prone to go on tilt is when he had been on a winning streak and then begins to lose. It's one thing when you simply aren't getting cards all night and lose money slowly and steadily. When this happens, most poker players are pretty good at accepting that it just isn't their night and will continue to play reasonably well, if perhaps a little overcautiously. But if you had been winning -- if you had already "booked" the win in your mind -- and then you start losing, things can get really, really ugly. You'll make bold, rash, irrational gambles. Your big win will turn into a small win and, if you're not careful, into a big loss.

This is sort of the situation that progressives are in right now. They're not in a mood to compromise. They're in a mood to gamble. This may well be irrational. It may well prove to be self-destructive. But the one thing you never, never want to do with someone who is on tilt is to try to bluff them off their hand.

KK v. AA

Jeff H. explains the odds of having KK when someone else has AA. Feel free to check the math and discuss accordingly.

At long last, the final scores

Holy cramoly, we have a new champion. Congrats to Brent C. for besting them all this year. Hopefully a little bit of analysis (and some guest math from Jeff H.) later on. But don't count on it.

How Twitter is Changing the World of Professional Poker

How Twitter is Changing the World of Professional Poker Shared via AddThis