What I've Learned

I saw the November Nine. It was... well... odd. But I picked up a few things:

1) Congratulations to Peter Eastgate, you won $9 million. Unfortunately, since you're from Denmark and the income tax rate is 75% (compared to the flat tax of 13% for Russia and the even decent 40% US tax rate), you're going to keep only about $2.3 million. Of course, with the rumors of "I went to England so I can keep my money", we might have another Jaime Gold saga. Pity... he was a nice guy. All 9 were, and suprisingly, I didn't want to (insert empty threat here) to any of them. Still, you played your heart out, and yes, you got hit with the deck, as all great champions do.

2) I'm okay with the format now, but here are 2 changes. a) Either up the starting stack to 25000 with blinds 25/50 or raise the buy-in. Bellande's elimination hand explains the quality of play. It was like watching Celebrity Poker Showdown's Drunk Week. Still, they played, and I didn't (perhaps it's because I'm too young?) and hey, it worked. Second, once you get down to the final nine you play it out. No pause for heads-up. One day it's going to be a Mike Tyson Punch Out Moment*(see note at the bottom for explanation).

3) This "UIGEA" thing? Don't panic. It's going to get repealed, since the next Congress has to certify all the acts of the previous one, so all of you panicy people can relax (poker is still a game of skill, so they can be like FTP and spit at it like FullTilt did in 2006.) because it's not going to happen. Because, well, people sportsbet online more and that'd be a little shockwave.

4) I seem to get really unlucky when I'm short. IE: 45 man SNG, getting clobbered all night, find AK and shove on the flop with top pair to get called by J8, runner runner 8s, bam, down another buck quarter. At least I know it'll get better.

Well, Turkey Day is coming up, which means family, food, and being tortured by the Detroit Lions (who haven't been good for 50 years, so WHY are they playing? I understand if it's someone who USED to be good like Miami or Oakland, but Detroit?!?). Oh well, maybe I'll play some more on the weekends.

*= In the NES game Punch-Out (coming to Wii in a few months!!!), the final boss was actually Mike Tyson. The only bad part? You were KOed in ONE FREAKING HIT in the first 90 seconds, which means more often than not you became cannon fodder. If you lost the title fight you have to start all over again, fighting Glass Joe. Still, I wanted to work in a Punch-Out refrence because it's one of my 5 favorite NES games ever.