Naked Paul Toast’s Insights

Started my monthly poker game Friday. We don’t play over the summer. I’ve said this before, none of this group play serious poker, it’s a social thing. The host provides the place, the booze and the food. The stakes are quarters. The variance ranges from losing $30.00 to winning $30.00, though occasionally some manage to find themselves outside of these ranges. The record winning night was set by me a couple years ago, up $72.00.

Traditionally, we all count our change at the beginning, count it at the end, and then compare win/loss. Though we always have a pretty good idea idea who is up and who is down. After five hours, I finished up $0.25. That’s a whopping win rate of 5 cents an hour.

Spent Saturday golfing with my brother-in-law, while Mrs. NakedPaulToast and her sister-in-law went to Canada’s Wonderland. I won two skins. That’s a whopping win rate of 40 cents an hour.

We then all met up for a barbecue and beer .

Perhaps if my parents had focused more on my Arithetic as a youth, I wouldn’t be such a degenerate gambler.

Conspiracy theories (and theorists), the world is absolutely full of them.

JFK assassination, 9/11, moon landing hoax, are probably the most notorious modern day conspiracy theories. They have a lot in common, like most conspiracy theories, they fail Occam’s Razor, they’re not falsifiable, they’re not support by industry experts, they defy logic, they demand too many people stay silent.

They just don’t make sense.
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It was a beautiful day, I didn’t do anything productive. I should have mowed the lawn, but I didn’t. It was too nice a day, to mow the lawn.

I sat in the shade of my Gazebo, with my laptop. Browsing the Internet, procrastinating work and watching a Praying Mantis. Yesterday, on the roof of the Gazebo, I noticed a him. He hung out there, all day. I took some pics of him with my iPhone. Mantids are probably my favorite bug, they’re absolutely fascinating.

Today, he was still in the gazebo. Standing perfectly still, he would then crawl to a new spot, and return to his statue pose. I assume this is how they hunt, but I didn’t see him catch anything. They are absolutely mesmerizing to watch.
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My online poker success has mostly been derived from Limit Hold’em Sit and Go (SnG) tournaments. It was through these tournaments on Party Poker years ago that I built my bank-roll. I started off on the $5+$1 tournaments, and gradually kept moving up to the $10+$1, $20+$2 and had just started the $30+$3, when the American UIGEA Bill was passed, all the American players were banned from Party Poker. The games, especially Limit poker games dried up.

I’ve been concentrating on No Limit, but decided to put together this Limit SnG tutorial. I still think that Limit SnG tournaments are the best way to get started in tournament poker. Start with the lowest possible 9 or 10 person tournaments. Ensure you have at least 30 buy-ins, in your bank-roll and keep moving up to the next level when you reach 30 buy-ins. Move down if your bank-roll has 20 buy-ins.

I got started with a free $25 US bonus on Party Poker, played micro-limits until I worked off the bonus, and then started with the SnG tournaments. The smallest tournaments were $5+$1, I was underbank-rolled but got lucky and didn’t have any long loosing streaks.
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I have another poker session to share with you.

I played this session yesterday, it’s a very different session than my previous poker video.

In this session, there is a lot of opportunity to discuss some key poker concepts. Unlike the previous session, there are no huge All-in pots. It contains a lot of small pots, demonstrating continuation bets, pot odds, minimising losses. Basically what it takes to grind-out a win at low limit No Limit tables.

Pay particular attention to hand number 59, at 29:00.

I’m only supplying Windows Streaming Media this time.

NL Poker Session 2.

I’ve been playing poker for more years than I care to remember, casino poker for about 10 years, and online poker for about 5 years. I’ve had some success.

My specialty has been Limit Hold’em ring games, and Limit Hold’em Sit’n Go tournaments. With the huge explosion of No Limit poker, and the American unfriendly UIGEA bill. Limit Poker is drying up.

I’ve been focusing on No Limit ring games and tournaments. I’ve been doing well at the ring games, but not so well in the large entrant tourneys. Still working hard though.

I’ve created a video of a recent low limit No Limit Hold’em session, where I narrate my play and thought process.

Enjoy:
- Windows Media Streaming Video
- 37 Meg Flash Video

I picked up the new Caravan today. Love it.

And no, it wasn’t free, it is actually the most, I have ever paid for a vehicle.

I’m using the term free, somewhat loosely. It’s income that I normally would not have had, had it not been for Game Maker and Poker.

I bought it with income that was 100% derived from Game Maker and Poker.

I got home from my annual fishing trip at Lake Dalrymple. Had a fabulous time.

The itinerary consisted of Fishing, Golfing, Poker, Casino, and Alcohol Consumption. Though, some of the gang don’t fish, some don’t golf, some don’t play poker, and some don’t go to the Casino. Everyone drinks though. I’m pretty sure that this year, I was the only one who participated in all the events.

The Fishing
This was actually the poorest fishing year, I can remember. The goal, as most who fish Dalrymple this time of year, want to catch Walleye(pickerel), might settle for Crappie, and throw back the Pike. Not this year. There wasn’t a Walleye to be found. The only fish that made it off the boat were Pike. That was fine by me, I like Pike.

I was somewhat fortunate, I got the first fish, the last fish, the biggest fish and the most fish. I also got two Muskies, but they were out of season and to small, they were released. (more…)

I experienced a huge disappointment a few weeks ago, the biggest I can recall in a long time.

Mrs. NakedPaulToast showed me an email she received, kind of a community what’s happening thing. On it was a poker camp, $90 bucks. Day 1 - poker seminars, Day 2 - an online poker tournament. One prize, winner take all, paid entry to the $10,000 buy in WSOP  main event.

www.JustJacks.com
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I have been absolutely busy lately.

There are a few topics that I have wanted to write about, and will shortly.

In any event PokerStars is hosting their annual bloggers championship. To qualify, you must have a regularly updated blog, that must have been active for at least two months. And you must include the following link.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 9819206

Let’s hope that I have something positive to write about late Sunday night, early Monday morning.