Dead Money w/ Dan Arfin

Don't play another fu, I meannn godforsaken poker tournament

Fuck tournaments. This is why.

Just some random thoughts about life, poker, and making fun of NITS

I haven't played much poker recently. I've been wanting to, but not quite feeling it. And when that happens, the only thing to do is just sit out and wait for the burning desire to return like it always has and always will. May tends to be the calm before the storm for Las Vegas poker anyway. The WSOP is upon us in just a couple more weeks. More guests will be to follow in future episodes before that all kicks off, but I didn't want to just sit out of everything entirely. I have to record and talk to my therapists--aka anyone who listens to the show for even a single second. So this week I decided to touch on what my approach and state of mind to playing has always been, and why I think less is more. But I've also been thinking more lately how much I can't stand nits. Not because of their play style. That's all well and good. I will never complain about an opponent who goes out of his way to make sure he isn't trying to make life hard for me. But their egos and their attitude. Oh my god. It's insufferable. There's that word again. It's become my new favorite. So I also talk about why they're so laughably unbearable to listen to, and I share a story about one as well.

Veteran Poker Pro Sank Desai talks Internet play and live setting adaptations

Whether you play poker professionally, moderately seriously, or just for fun, we all recognize the game appeals to many people because of the social camaraderie. But if you're playing online a lot like Sank Desai, going from your secret poker cave back into the real world of play is not as seamless a change as one might envision. I've known Sank probably a good 7 years by now. We've talked a lot of strategy and hand analysis, but today Sank talks a bit about the adjustments both hem and what he presumes other Internet players have to make when they head for the live scene. And then I return to Sank as my hand history sounding board (he rarely agrees with my decisions), and he and I each talk about some of the recent hands we played followed by in depth analysis. As an Internet player, Sank can surely process a whole lot all at once. And as always, he then has great insight to offer.

One of the sickest hands I've ever lost in an all-night street fight

I recap some of the key hand history highlights over 3 different sessions. We've got a few standard stories as always of people behaving so ineptly it makes your heart hurt, but this episode is mostly wild hand history analysis. Every once in a while you find yourself in a long overnight session that takes a piece of your being from you. Your very existence feels compromised afterward. Like you've been violated. And the sickest part of all is...it doesn't even matter if you won or not.

The Bellagio 2/5 finally raised its cap! But everyone is still an idiot

The Bellagio 2/5 has been painfully capped at $500 for as long I've been living in Las Vegas which is well over 17 years. Recently the rake has gone up to a $6 max, so perhaps in conjunction with that they FINALLY raised the buy-in maximum to $1,000. We had all figured the Messiah would come before that ever happened, but we were wrong. I don't figure this to be a game I play in all the time, as buying in for 200 BBs is still a bit of a tease because you can only merely TASTE the thrill getting to buy in with 300 BBs. Nevertheless, this is a massive improvement and I certainly expect to help spread out the 2/5 action in the city. It's a game I expect to be really good quite often, and that has been the case for the two sessions I recently played in--one of short length, one of normal. The normal length session was quite the facepalming ride as it was overrun with incompetent and insubordinate dealers, weird players saying bizarre things, and, of course, huge fish gone fishing. In this week's show, I over all the stories of the confusion and hand history analysis.