Thanks to Kleckner for this link on “bots.” I believe that there are a large number of Party Poker players that are either entirely automated or at least assisted by computer programs. But the reason I don’t lose sleep over it is twofold:

1) I am playing poker as we speak. There are 53,000 people playing at PP right now. If even 500 of them are “bots”, that is less than 1% of the players. And yet I know that about 10% of the players are real humans that are terrible at poker. I may lose to that 1% but I am scoring off of the 10%, and I like that math.

2) I believe that bots largely play limit poker. I base this on what I have read and also on common sense: The way to win in limit is by eking out money when you have tiny edges – tiny edges a computer could calculate better than a human. In NL, the math keeps you afloat, but you win or lose in the long run based on how well you read your opponent – a skill that humans should have more so than computers.

This is a pretty fun list of the Poker Boom’s Top Ten Best and Worst. Personally, I would have put “Having a Porn Star get second place at the World Series Main Event” as #1. Don’t know what I am talking about? Dallas’ own David Williams is a porn star. Read all about it. You can’t make this stuff up, guys. David evidently was in a “foot and a$$ worship fetish” movie. I heard CCM has it downloaded on his PC. Let’s all hope they don’t find an old porn with Greg Raymer.

Scroll down to April 19 on the Kick A$$ Poker Blog. It seems that another poker player, Gavin Griffin, is in the news. Evidently, he was duped into forking over $6,500 to a guy pretending to be a girl. Really, you can’t make this up.

Un-freaken-believable.

Not only have they pissed off all of the fans who wanted to draft Vince Young (but most of whom would still shrug and say, “well, Reggie Bush isn’t a bad consolation prize”) they have also managed to piss off the rest of the fans who weren’t married to drafting Vince but who were excited about the possibility of at least using the first pick to get someone who could electrify the crowd and make crazy plays on the field. Now they have a combine star. Charlie Casserly is a moron.

Un-freaken-believable.

Not only have they pissed off all of the fans who wanted to draft Vince Young (but most of whom would still shrug and say, “well, Reggie Bush isn’t a bad consolation prize”) they have also managed to piss off the rest of the fans who weren’t married to drafting Vince but who were excited about the possibility of at least using the first pick to get someone who could electrify the crowd and make crazy plays on the field. Now they have a combine star. Charlie Casserly is a moron.

Un-freaken-believable.

Not only have they pissed off all of the fans who wanted to draft Vince Young (but most of whom would still shrug and say, “well, Reggie Bush isn’t a bad consolation prize”) they have also managed to piss off the rest of the fans who weren’t married to drafting Vince but who were excited about the possibility of at least using the first pick to get someone who could electrify the crowd and make crazy plays on the field. Now they have a combine star who can run the shuttle run really fast and bench press 225 pounds multiple times but who was at the very least unremarkable during his senior year in college and at the very best a preseason All-American. Charlie Casserly is a moron.

Some days you are the dog and some days you are the fire hydrant. Today I was the dog. This is indicative of the luck I have had lately:

I flopped a set of Tens:

(The dialogue box was quite busy after that one.)

Then, three hands later, I flopped a set of 7’s. There is no picture of that.

And then on the very next hand, I flopped a set of 9’s:

I think I am going to go buy a Lotto ticket…