Suggestion to TV Guide, TVGuide.com and all like publications:

In the episode description for Trading Spaces, please denote whether or not it is from the Paige Davis era. Without Paige, Trading Spaces is not on my “shows I watch on mute while listening to podcasts” list - with Paige, it is.

Other shows that are great to watch on mute:
- Charmed (besides the girls, it is also surprisingly easy to follow the plot. TIP: anyone with horns throwing fire at the girls is a bad guy)
- Everyday Italian (w. Giada De laurentis)
- Any WSOP or WPT that you’ve already seen
(I will add more as I think of them)

I hope all of you had a great Holiday weekend and are now on a diet as I am! I played Friday Night at the HO-HO Holdem $345.00 NL event with 260 other entrants. I have nothing exciting to tell you other then I am the Master of the Short stack and if I am ever going to be able to accumulate some chips and keep from constantly being card dead, I am going to give some people fits. I played all the way to level 7 Friday night before getting beat with my J6 to a J3 when the flop was Js-8c-5h. I had to go all in I only had 1500 in chips left after only being able to get up to about 3100 at my peak, a 3 hit the river to give my opponent two pair, as he was also in need of some chips. We started with 2k and I tried to stay out of big pots early as half of the field was gone by level 3. I busted with about 60 people left as I could not muster up any rushes.No bad beats to talk about, However I did see some people playing cards such as 10-5 diamonds and 6-4 hearts out of position late in level 6 to try and get some chips. Both of them hit their flushes, so this is how I know they were playing those cards. My luck lately is if I have diamonds or hearts in my hand clubs or spades flop. So even though I have been mixing up my game lately, I have not been able to get over the hump. However I do feel it coming, I am very happy with my game lately.

I wanted to play some satellites over the weekend but as some of you might have heard the city of Malibu had yet another devastating fire erupt and eight of my peers and I had to go to Malibu and assist. I basically drove around with my partner and made sure there were no looters and we had to make sure homeowners stayed out of the danger zone.

It was an incredibly HOT fire. Homes were burnt to ashes. You couldn’t even tell where the refrigerator or any appliances were it was so hot.

One thing that amazed me was the media was giving homeowners “Media Passes” to place in the windows of their vehicles so they could get back to their homes and be filmed by the media outlet crying or grieving over their loss. Anything to get the best story by taking advantage of peoples losses such a shame our society is coming to that. The media always goes to the worse spot in any disaster and shows it live with the reporter and as they try to make the situations bigger than they are people lives are affected.

I wish the Law would change about letting media into disaster areas. They reported so many untrue facts regarding this fire the District Attorney should file a case against them for causing hysteria!!!

Anyway back to Poker. The Five Diamond Classic starts today in Las Vegas at the Bellagio. I have two friends going to the Bellagio to play in the events this week. Jim Pittman, who by the way just made Bluff Magazine for his appearance a few years ago with Phil Hellmuth….Phil told him he couldn’t even spell Poker, after taking a beat from Jim. Trust me Jim not only knows hoe to spell Poker he can Play also. He made the final table at this years WSOP shootout event.Also Jorge Pineda, winner of TWO Holiday Bonus Events at Commerce this past month. Good Luck fellas at the Bellagio.

I will be heading up there next Wednesday as I am playing Golf with my partner and Shawn Sheikhan. It was cancelled last time because of a situation my partner had to deal with at work. So we are both looking forward to the trip and we are staying at the Bellagio Wednesday Night the 5th of December. If anyone is in town,please stop by and say hello.

I am trying to post a picture of my girls here for all of you to see, but I cannot get it to post. I talk about them so much I thought it would be nice for everyone to see them.

Well I must go put up some Christmas decorations. The wife did an outstanding job on the outside of the house this weekend and cars are stopping and taking pictures. Now I have to do the inside the same way and keep up with her.

I am working on three interviews with some people in Poker and hope to have them written by the end of the year. There are still some issues going on in their lives so we are waiting for them to finish before posting the article.

Take Care all. PLEASE be safe..

Thing I miss the most about Philly - being outside with a girl and watching snow get caught in her hair.

(NOTE: It didn’t snow while I was home, but I watched a West Wing episode in which it happened)

…(It was season 3, ‘H. Con - 172′, the Josh-Amy stairs scene for the other Sorkin-ites out there)

Last night was the first event of the HO Ho Holdem Series at the Bicycle Casino. I along with 310 other players signed up. Half of us thought it was a No Limit Event but to our surprise it was a shoot out style event where you have to win your table to continue on,much like a satellite.

I have never played a shoot out event so I was looking forward to playing. I have been playing good lately and as I looked at the other 9 players at my table I saw 4 very good players and 5 I have never seen before.

The button started on seat 9 where I was seated last night. Just as we were about to start, seat 10 to my left arrived and said he was at the wrong table. Some of the players chuckled and he asked where some cushions were. Because the cards were in the air he gave a porter 2 dollars to find him some cushions.

We started with 2000 chips. I was pleasantly surprised because generally at the Bike you start with 1500 chips.

I decided I was going to play premium hands and try and steal the blinds on the button tonite. I have been playing a little soft in position lately and I was told I should raise with any two cards on the button if there were a couple or no limpers in front of me.

I look down at my hand after 4 people limped and I had K J of spades,a marginal hand but good enough to raise on the button, but for some reason I just limped myself. I think it was because there were several quality players at the table who I have seen limp with kings and Aces before and it just didn’t feel right to me, therefore I limped.

Well Mr need some cushions for my chair was a jovial type of guy,mid to late fifty’s and he raised to 175 when the blinds were 25-25. There was 125 in the pot and I just didn’t believe he had that good of hand. It folded to me and I decided to call. My thought here was the starting chips. The extra 500 chips gave us a little more play and I thought this guy might have a small pocket pair or even nothing he was just protecting his blind as a lot of players do.

The flop…Q spades-10 spades 9 clubs.. I flopped a king high straight and a straight flush draw. seat 10 was first to bet and he quickly threw out a 500 chip. I doubled checked my cards which I never do anymore and said, “All In’. seat 10 couldn’t get his chips in the pot fast enough, and he turned over AA…OOPS, he did have a hand but as I showed my flopped straight he got up in disgust as the porter had just arrived back with his cushions, the turn and river were no help and before there were2 minutes of the clock he was gone.

One always needs a little luck in poker and I have said my skill level has been there so much lately, I just needed the luck to start coming around and I thought to myself, tonite is the night.

The levels were 20 minutes long tonite until the second round when they would go up to 40 minutes. I had plenty of time and with a double up on the first hand the strategy I wanted to use tonite was going to be possible because of my chip stack.

My theory soon was busted as a guy in seat 6 raised to 600 chips every time he had the button. A few times I had hands of KQ and Q10 and 22 in the big blind but he continually raised my big blind as if he was testing me. I didn’t want to risk a 600 chip call when the blinds were still at 50-25 and 100-50, so I decided I would try and catch a hand and hope he would slip up.

Over the next three levels I had pocket 6’s and flopped a set as there was an ace on the board. I didn’t slow play I tossed in a bet hoping there was an ace in some ones hand but everyone folded. I then limped with 10-10 one hand with 5 others and a Q-10 of hearts flopped along with a 7 of clubs. everyone checked and I decided to see the turn just in case there was a flush draw. My experience at the Bike with flush draws, it is to hard to push people off of them here. Anyway the turn was a spade and I fired 600 chips at the pot. 4 Players called and as I suspected the 3 hearts hit the river and to my surprise everyone checked and when I showed my set they all folded. Nice pot for me and I was sitting at about 5800 in chips at the break,end of level 3.

I played steady and as usual the cards were not being kind I did pick up some blinds and antes on the button with 7-6 off suit I raised 3 times the blind and everyone folded.

Well it was down to three of us in level 6 I had about 4900 chips as the blinds and antes were eating into me and as I look down at AK of diamonds in the small blind Mr raiser threw in 1200 chips this time on the button as the blinds were 300-150 with a 75 ante. I looked at him and went all in and he immediately called with QQ. What a time for me, but I felt good and truly believed I was going to win this table and have a good night. The flop was all low, but there were 2 diamonds on the flop. The board bricked and he had me covered, so after 3 hours of play I was on my way home, again!! kicking myself.

Tonight is the 335.00 dollar NL event. The Bike didn’t have any satellites last night because the turnout was about 100 more then they were expecting so all the dealers were dealing tournament table. Im taking my girls to a local amusement park today, Knotts Berry Farm so they can see the Christmas decorations and Snoopy.

Looking at the dates and upcoming events at the Bike I do not see me playing for awhile. If things change I will keep you posted. Also if you get a chance to get a copy of “The Scene” a poker magazine published by Denny Williams the Tournament Director at the Bike and his partner, Ron Kramer who is a legend in the poker industry who also works the tournaments at the bike, it is very good reading. You can contact Mel Judah,yes the silver fox at meljudah@hotmail.com he is the director of sales.

Hope your Thanksgiving was a very happy and festive one, Take Care all.

After the past 2 days of wearing a plastic chemical suit with all the seams taped shut and my gas mask sealed to my face, I am glad to have the next three days off. My unit has been doing training for different types of events that could occur in our cities and since I lost about 8 pounds in that suit I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixings.

I am going to play in the first event at the Bicycle Casinos Ho-Ho Holdem Turkey shoot tomorrow night at 7pm.

While on the subject of the Bicycle Casino, they were going to allow us to have our charity event there to raise money for Fallen Officers and Firefighters families who die in the line of duty. As of yesterday there are some second thoughts about them helping us out and I sure hope the Executive committee has a change of heart.

We are the largest Sheriff’s Department in the World.I always see several other smaller agencies getting great advertisements and support from other Casinos and Magazines. However for the past 2 years I have had difficulty getting some people on board with this great event.

This year Full Tilt and CBS are throwing MAJOR support to this event and several professional players will be stopping by schedules permitting, to show their support. Mark Seif, Shawn Sheikhan and Linda Johnson were terrific last year and will be this year as well.

I have to say I sent a flyer to a popular poker radio show and never heard back from them. But yesterday I sent an Email to them voicing an opinion I had about something I heard on the show. I immediately received an e-mail back saying I probably should not listen to the show if there style upsets me.

I was a little surprised by the response. I have had the upmost admiration for one of the hosts. I originally met him about 18 months ago and I thought it was the beginning of a friendship. He was always cordial when he saw me but I had a strange feeling I was looked at by him and his associates as a PAIN or a BOTHER. I started to become uncomfortable around them so I stopped sending e-mails.

I am a pea in a pod in the poker community. I have been given a great opportunity to talk about poker here at wisehand. I have become a descent poker player who can hold his own against some of the best and I strive to get better every day. Poker is not my living it’s become a hobby,one I think about every sparing minute I have in the day. I even go to bed at night dreaming about poker. But I have a job. I have a career and have been sworn to serve the people of Los Angeles. Which I do everyday with pride. Am I upset someone I admirer sent me such a strong e-mail, somewhat, I am more surprised. Will I let it bother me,somewhat. But I have dealt with worse things in my life as I have said many times I pick and choose my friends carefully and I support them. I stood up for one of them and have taken some heat. Im ok with that!!!

I am like all the rest of you… I dream of winning a big event someday. If I didn’t think I could do it, I wouldn’t continue to play poker as often as I do now. I have been getting deep in tourneys lately just missing the money in several but I see not only my skill level improving but my luck has been steadily increasing also… A very good sign for me.

Take Care….Happy Thanksgiving To EVERYONE.

After the past 2 days of wearing a plastic chemical suit with all the seams taped shut and my gas mask sealed to my face, I am glad to have the next three days off. My unit has been doing training for different types of events that could occur in our cities and since I lost about 8 pounds in that suit I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixings.

I am going to play in the first event at the Bicycle Casinos Ho-Ho Holdem Turkey shoot tomorrow night at 7pm.

While on the subject of the Bicycle Casino, they were going to allow us to have our charity event there to raise money for Fallen Officers and Firefighters families who die in the line of duty. As of yesterday there are some second thoughts about them helping us out and I sure hope the Executive committee has a change of heart.

We are the largest Sheriff’s Department in the World.I always see several other smaller agencies getting great advertisements and support from other Casinos and Magazines. However for the past 2 years I have had difficulty getting some people on board with this great event.

This year Full Tilt and CBS are throwing MAJOR support to this event and several professional players will be stopping by schedules permitting, to show their support. Mark Seif, Shawn Sheikhan and Linda Johnson were terrific last year and will be this year as well.

I have to say I sent a flyer to a popular poker radio show and never heard back from them. But yesterday I sent an Email to them voicing an opinion I had about something I heard on the show. I immediately received an e-mail back saying I probably should not listen to the show if there style upsets me.

I was a little surprised by the response. I have had the upmost admiration for one of the hosts. I originally met him about 18 months ago and I thought it was the beginning of a friendship. He was always cordial when he saw me but I had a strange feeling I was looked at by him and his associates as a PAIN or a BOTHER. I started to become uncomfortable around them so I stopped sending e-mails.

I am a pea in a pod in the poker community. I have been given a great opportunity to talk about poker here at wisehand. I have become a descent poker player who can hold his own against some of the best and I strive to get better every day. Poker is not my living it’s become a hobby,one I think about every sparing minute I have in the day. I even go to bed at night dreaming about poker. But I have a job. I have a career and have been sworn to serve the people of Los Angeles. Which I do everyday with pride. Am I upset someone I admirer sent me such a strong e-mail, somewhat, I am more surprised. Will I let it bother me,somewhat. But I have dealt with worse things in my life as I have said many times I pick and choose my friends carefully and I support them. I stood up for one of them and have taken some heat. Im ok with that!!!

I am like all the rest of you… I dream of winning a big event someday. If I didn’t think I could do it, I wouldn’t continue to play poker as often as I do now. I have been getting deep in tourneys lately just missing the money in several but I see not only my skill level improving but my luck has been steadily increasing also… A very good sign for me.

Take Care….Happy Thanksgiving To EVERYONE.

I was really glad to hear the Federal Judge in Las Vegas dismissed the Deportation case against my good friend, Shawn Sheikhan, Thursday. The Judge stated the INS did not submit sufficient evidence to continue on with the process. As I had stated back in September, I fully supported Shawn and I truly believed the case against him was very very weak.Let me be the first one to thank his attorneys for a job well done and I am honored to know Shawn and his family. Shawn has this “Bad Boy” image which is good for television,however I know the real Shawn Sheikhan! It’s a shame Shawn had to go through a week of hell continued by weeks of waiting and for those of you who convicted him and spoke badly of him,I hope you are preparing statements of apologies!!!!

I played Thursday night at Commerce casino in the $345.00 event. I could not get anything going and again I had several small pocket pairs,8’s 6’s 7’s several times early in the first level but could not hit anything on the flop. I was again very card dead and went out in level 4 with KK. I only had 475 chips when I went all in and got called by A-10 and an ace hit the turn. It was an easy call for my opponent so out of the 200 plus entries I limped my way through more than half the field just waiting for the right moment and the right pot but it never came.

Thursday starts the Ho-Ho- Holdem event at the Bicycle Casino and the buy-ins for this 3 week series are very reasonable. I want to congratulate my good friend Jorge Pineda who won 2 events during the Holiday Bonus series, a job very well done Jorge!!

Again there were several professional players hanging around Commerce and trying to get some POY points during this event. None of them made a final table as there is some tough competition from the local players here.

I had wrote earlier this month I believed there was some collusion going on in satellites and the tournament staff did a great job of watching for it. Thursday night a hell of a fight broke out between two guys at a 280.00 dollar satellite as one accused the other of cheating. Commerce should of charged admission to us to watch that fight as it was one of the better ones I have seen recently with the exception of the Contender finale on ESPN.

I hope all of you have a great weekend as you prepare for Thanksgiving. Please be safe on the roads as you travel to your loved one’s homes. There will be no local tourneys until next Thursday except the usual daily 50.00 dollar buy ins at some of the local casinos. I will let you know if I play any of them this coming week.

Take care and be Safe…

Haven’t blogged in a while.

courtney 9xx: have you ever listened to This American Life?
oOkayPlayer: no
courtney 9xx: know what it is?
oOkayPlayer: an animal?

I was wrong.

Also found out today that there’s a clinical name for my weirdness - neophobia. I’m not going to link to it because if you google it, there’s like a million results. Deal.

-J

There was talk infront of the Judiciary Committee today regarding the unlawful internet gaming bill. From what I can take on it, it looks very good for on-line poker returning to the USA. There were some very good points brought up. Here is a news release from Washington as of 3;00pm pst today November 14, 2007……………………………………………………………………………………….

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic head of the House Judiciary Committee voiced frustration on Wednesday about what he said are disparities in the enforcement of U.S. Internet gambling laws.

Chairman John Conyers questioned “the selective nature” of Internet gambling enforcement and said a ban enacted by lawmakers last year could end up hurting U.S. relations overseas.

“Continuing with the same old failed policies for the sake of feel-good politics doesn’t make sense,” Conyers, of Michigan, said at a hearing on the issue.

Conyers did not signal whether he supports any changes to the current law. A bill introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, would roll back the ban on Internet gambling that was enacted by Congress last year.

However, Conyers and several other lawmakers on the committee pressed officials from the Justice Department and Treasury Department at the hearing to explain why they are cracking down on some forms of Internet gambling but not others.

As part of the crackdown, two founders of payments processor NETeller Plc were arrested in January. In May online gambling operator BETonSPORTS Plc, pleaded guilty to U.S. racketeering charges and agreed to cooperate in a case against the company’s founder and other co-defendants.

The Justice Department interprets a decades-old U.S. law, known as the Wire Act, as banning all forms of gambling over the Internet, although the gambling industry has argued the law only bars sports betting.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Conyers and other committee members questioned why the Justice Department had not sought to prosecute other forms of Internet gambling, such as online horse-racing.

“To cherry pick … is what I find to be particularly intellectually dishonest,” said Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat who has introduced a bill that would exempt poker and some other games from the Internet gambling ban.

Conyers also wanted to know why horse-racing and some other forms of gambling “will continue to proceed unfettered” under new regulations proposed last month by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.

The regulations were drawn up to enforce a law enacted by Congress last year that makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

The ban has been closely monitored by investors in some British-based gaming companies, such as Partygaming Plc and 888 Holdings Plc.

Conyers also echoed critics of the new Internet gambling ban, saying it could run afoul of the United States’ international obligations.

European trade officials argue that the online gambling prohibitions discriminate against European companies that want to offer online gambling services in the U.S. market.

The World Trade Organization in March found U.S. prohibitions on online betting illegal in a complaint filed by Antigua and Barbuda several years ago. However, U.S. officials have said they will maintain the ban anyway and retroactively remove gambling services from its market-opening commitments.

Well I am going to jump on the Survivor bandwagon and give you my thoughts just as everyone else has.Jean -Robert and I are on a first name basis, so I know he will not get upset when I call him Bobby, in this blog.

I have been a big fan of survivor since season one. I wish I could watch an unedited version of some of the years because we all know CBS has to make some people look like the villain when they actually are not.

I think this is what happened to Bobby. The first episode showed him snoring like I have never seen anyone snore before. How many people actually snore that watch the show,quite a few I am sure. They made Bobby look lazy around the camp,however when the challenges came around he and James were the strongest two survivors in my mind. I saw Bobby help one of the contestants in the mud barrel event as she was half way under and Bobby pulled her up and I could read his lips, “I am sorry” he said to her. If he was such a moron as everyone stated he would of just laughed at her.

There is an old saying,”you can please some of the people some of the time, however you cannot please all of the people all of the time”. Bobby was feeling out the crowd. I have to give CBS some points here because they really do their homework. Where they come up with some of these people amazes me. They all seem so mild and mannered when you first meet them then out of now where the Dr.Jekyll Mr Hyde comes out.

The little scrawny airline attendant guy. I would love to get him in a dark alley down in Compton with some of the players there and see how tough and manipulative he would be. Courtney the stick girl. what a whiny good for nothing lil winch. She did not pull her weight.. 95 lbs I am guessing, at all in any event, yet she bats her eyes and is probably taking care of one of the guys when the cameras away.

Not to drag this out much longer, but Bobby impressed me after the dinner when he read the clues to where the immunity idol might be and figured it out pretty darn quick. Too bad his buddy James and his tribe feared his knowledge and strength so they voted him off which might turn out to hurt some of his original tribe members later.

It was enjoyable watching Bobby, good luck to you in your future endeavors. I cannot wait to see how you handle the Jury.