I am now back from vacation. Week two took Betty and me to Harrah’s Rincon for R&R. We made a trip to Ocean’s Eleven, where I got to play some $20-$40. I was somewhat surprised to find $20-$40 was the biggest limit game, and that managemnet would not spread a $40-$80 even if all of the players wanted it. They would give “overs buttons”, but I do not like playing with them as it complicates my math too much. Say you have an overs button, and another overs person bets the flop. You call with two people behind you figuring you can call the turn as well. But the two others fold, and now the original player can bet $80 instead of $40 on the turn. So now you are not getting the right price to call and must fold. But if you knew you had to fold on the turn, you might not have called the flop. So calling not only depends on how many players call and their position, but which ones have buttons and what their tendencies are. Especially with strangers, I will not take on the added headaches. Probably just as well, as I lost for the session.

The World Poker Player Conference will be held November 12, 2005 in Foxwoods starting at 9:30 AM. Confirmed speakers include Mike Caro, TJ Cloutier, Nolan Dalla, Paul Darden, Barry Greenstein, Mark Gregorich, Linda Johnson, Lee Jones, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Sexton, Mark Tenner, and me.

Early registration is $169 until November 4, 2005. After that it will be $199. More information and early registration forms are available here.

I will be participating in a seminar near Denver, CO on the evening of Oct. 19. My co-speaker will be a fellow pro and friend, Mike “Oz” Osborne. Our joint topic will be, “Winning Poker Strategies.”

Mike will speak for one hour, then I will present for an hour. We will field questions for a half-hour after that. The event begin at 6:30PM at: Fat City Entertainment Center, 9670 W. Coal Mine Ave., Littleton, CO. Attendance will be limited and there will be an admission charge of $70,but you can save $15 by registering early. If you are interested in attending, please e-mail George Davis at suberu@earthlink.net for more details, or go here for info and registration. Please click on the News link on the left for my other appearances.

Betty and I jut spent a week in Florida visiting my 91-year-old mother. She is doing well, thanks.

We were dismayed to find that there are no longer any gambling ships or poker cruises-to-nowhere leaving from Southeast Florida. There used to be as many as four, with the St. Tropez being the newest just two years ago. They had an excellent 11-table non-smoking room. Where have all the players gone?

It seems many of them are playing $1-$2 poker in various B&M facilities, the largest being the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, which has a jam-packed 50-table room. With large rakes and jackpot drops, as well as generous tips, I find it hard to believe there are any long-term winners, but there sure are players.

And they smoke as well. Betty and I dropped by one evening. They do run some single table NLHE tournaments with $140, $250 and $500 buy-ins. Just as on-line, they pay three places. In the $140, they appeared to pay $585, $350 and $225, keeping $240 or $24 per person. Thus the buy-in is $116+$24, compared to $100+$9 on-line. And of course they expect tips. The play was bad enough that these tournaments might still be winnable by an excellent player, but I doubt it.

I played in two $250 events, but did not win anything (no bad beat stories on my website). Betty played in two $140’s and took third and most of first after a deal. Nice going, Betty!

I gave Betty a quiz which she got right immediately. At my table, a player limped under the gun with KTs. Several others limped, and after a K82 flop, the player bet and called an all-in raise (he had the raiser covered by a bit). The raiser showed 22 and the player lost. He then started loudly berating himself. What was he angry at?

Was he angry that he played KTs under the gun? No! Was he angry he called a huge raise with top-pair bad-kicker? No! He was angry at himself for not raising with his piece of cheese in a 10-handed NL game. You can decide what the Thought of the Week is from here.