Bad Jokes

I just flew back from Europe…. and boy, are my arms tired. Ba-duhmp-bump.

It's 4am, I'm wide awake, and here I sit in front of my computuer. Ah, the joys of jet lag. Business travel sucks.

And speaking of bad jokes and other things that suck, I want to mention a poker book I purchased a while back. The title is Decide to Play Great Poker and I’ve been looking forward to finding some time to read it cover to cover. Well, I finally did so on the airplane…., and boy is it bad. I mean truly bad. As in don’t buy this book unless you want some horrible poker advice that will hurt your game. Seriously.

The principle author is Annie Duke (which should have given me a big hint as to the quality of the material), but the coauthor is a guy named John Vorhaus, who is a poker writer I’ve enjoyed reading before. He's a columnist for Card Player Magazine. His “Killer Poker” books aren’t too bad, and I generally like his writing style, so I was looking forward to this new book. I figured Duke just put her name on the front cover, and Vorhaus did all the actual poker thought and writing. Alas, I think Annie had more input that she should have been allowed.

In just about every section and chapter of this so-called poker training book, there was really, truly, completely horrible poker advice. I was shocked at how insipid some of the logic and reasoning was, how bad some example hands were explained, and how utterly wrong a number of basic concepts were put forth. I felt so strongly that I actually wondered if it were just me, so I searched the forums and discovered that David Sklansky has written an in-depth, 20-point commentary/rebuttal to this joke of a book. From reasons why you bet, to how to hand read, to why you perform different actions at the table, this book is an absolute mess, with factually incorrect statements, illogical leaps of logic, and blatantly false information. Unless you want to ruin your poker game, decide to not waste your money or time on Decide to Play Great Poker.

In other (sorta) poker news, I’ve been watching some of the Republican debates (if you can call slander, libel, reckless pronouncements, and idiotic statements a debate, that is). Last time around, the GOP offered up a crotchety old guy and vapid Alaskan arm candy, and it looks like this this time around will be no better. If you’re disappointed in Obama (as I am), your alternatives on the other side of the aisle look equally bad. I won’t go into any policy specifics here (this is a poker blog after all), but I do want to point out something important (because this is a poker blog, after all).

If you’re a poker enthusiast, and get a chance to vote in an upcoming Republican primary, keep this little factoid in mind: One of Newt Gingrich’s biggest super-PAC contributors/backers is a fellow named Sheldon Adelson, who is a billionaire that has given good old Newt's political action committee some money. How much money? Well, between him and his wife, Adelson has provided Newt's effort to get elected President with a reported $10M. So what, right? All these guys are getting big buck support from various super-PACs. Why should we focus on this particular rich guy?

Answer: because Adelson is none other than the Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Remember him now? He’s something like the sixth richest guy in America…. and he's also the f**ing idiot leading the charge against the legalization of online poker. If not for any other reason, don’t vote for Newt, as he’s going to be bought and paid for by this anti-poker zealot.

Gotta run. Or Sleep. Or something....
 All-in for now…
-Bug