One of my buddies playing in the main event was at the table with one of the Hinkle’s and it was hilarious listening to him berate them.  In case you missed Tuesday nights airing of the WSOP Grant Hinkle wins, with his mom and brother in tow (his brother later goes on to win a WSOP bracelet).  The Hinkle’s are like Care Bears, Canadians or the color violet, you are not supposed to hate them, yet you do! When Chris Moneymaker played the bumbling idiot it was cool because a lot of people saw themselves in him and that brought a lot of people into poker.  The Hinkle’s are one of this years big stories, and by all account Blair Hinkle is a prolific pokerer.  Grant comes off as a lucksack (whether rightly or wrongly the TV does not lie, wink wink), it does not matter that he stole a lot of blinds or played one or two hands masterfully, in 3 or 4 of the biggest hands he got really lucky.  Which used to play well because people thought “hey, I can play like that guy and get lucky and win a million dollars”, forget the fact that you have to be willing to make a silly play with 10 4 which most people are not willing to do.  But that was so 2004, this is 2008, even though Chris Moneymaker qualified on a $50 satellite many people have chased that same dream only to be slapped in the face with a big can of variance. 

None of this is my reality, poker has treated me well but I do not look at Grant Hinkle and think, “maybe this will be the thing that brings more people from middle America to poker”.  If you need proof that packaging a similar idea is a bad move does anyone remember New Coke ?

On a side note, while some of us may indeed like the Hinkle’s (or canadians for that matter) I think we can all agree on 2 points:

1.  Theo Tran is a douche

2.  Mike Ngo’s antics would only work at about $1-$2 typically, which further points to Theo Tran being a douche since he could not see through that.

3.  When celebrity poker players are sweating you they are not your friends.  They are owed money.  Though I thought everyone knew this at this point.  Someone tell Norman Chad.

If you have donated money to the Obama Campaign or signed up to his website you get emails from the campaign, sometimes it is the campaign manager, sometimes it is Michelle and occasionally it is Barack (of course I realize it is not Barack).  Anyway most of it I do not read, the titles usually are my guide and compared to the other emails I get they really do not grab your eye the same way.  So the other day I got an email from Michelle (I call her Mich cause we are cool like that) and the title is “My Backstage story with Barack”.  Oh yeah, now this is what I am talking about, good title, not exactly “Cougar attack in MILF park” but it got me to open the email.  Most of these emails basically go like this blah, blah, blah, donate more money please.  Which is fine, a bit salesy but some of that is required.  The story she tells is about him and her backstage before his big speech at the Democratic convention in I think it was 2003, apparently he was a bit nervous and she calmed him down.  Then of course they asked me to donate more money.  Personally I would like a little more steak and a little less sizzle in these emails if I choose to read them.  So here is a sample of a good email that I think would not cross a line but would show that a husband and wife have some interesting moments.

This is Mich (we have to be cool right, I mean she addresses me as Paul in the email) talking:
“In 2003 Barack and I were honored that he would be speaking at such a prestigious event.  Sitting backstage was surreal, when you are in politics this is one of those moments that can make you or break you.  Barack was understandably nervous, it was a big moment for both of us.  We talked for hours up to the speech but nothing seemed to take his mind off of the event.  Right before he went on stage I whispered something in his ear that will remain between him and I and it had it’s desired effect.  It briefly took his mind off of the pressure of the moment and as you all know he took the house down with his vision.”

Now I realize that it might be a bit spicy but come on, it is the internet, besides it would be very viral which is sort of the point of this kind of stuff.  People want to vote for real people and while I am sure my suggestion will go unnoticed that is the type of story that will hit a nerve with a few people.

I just spent the last few hours doing what I think a lot of casual gamblers do, though I sometimes am not so casual.  Between about 4 sites I played between 10-20 and 50-100.  I won every place I played.  I was running fairly decent.  Funny side affect of the WSOP is that you come home ready to crush souls because you are so pissed that you once again did not achieve your dream (though I am not really sure that winning the WSOP is my dream but that is another story). 

Instead of playing against another human beings intelligence I figured I was up about 3k so I played a little BlackJack.  I was down about 1k at one point and then got even and left.

That right there folks is how a lot of people gamble, their decisions are not based on that many factors other than where they have the most fun.  At no point playing BlackJack did I feel like I was getting a fair shake (even when I was even).  People gamble to escape their reality and provide a little excitement on an otherwise uneventful night.  If I had lost at either really nothing would be different, because the amount of money I would have lost would not have changed my life.

For the vast majority of poker players (and dare I say online BlackJack players) that is the case.

Most years at the WSOP everyone but one person walks home unhappy.  This year it was 9 people.  Unfortunately one of those 9 is not Dean Hamrick.  All of you will see how well Dean played and how unlucky he ultimately got. 

For myself I left the WSOP feeling like I did the best I possibly could.  I might have missed some spots but that is neither here nor there at this point.  Almost from the minute I was knocked out I started packing and I was energized in a big way.  I got a little sidetracked on a few things but mostly my sleep has been out of whack.  Well that is coming together as well.

So right now I am about as motivated as I have been in a long time.  I am about a week away from my public Beta (this will change poker completely) for my new software and I am introducing new blogs so customers can better communicate with me.  Here is an example of the blog for RakeRecovery.

Most importantly when you finally wake up and realize that at least for this year your dream is dead.  It is actually refreshing and liberating.

P.S.  My year starts and ends at the WSOP.  Sort of a Beanie New Year.

As many people know there is a scandal involving UltimateBet and cheating on their site.  Most of the scandal predates the current management and as a consultant for UB at the time I decided to contribute some thoughts.  And then wow! So let me start from the beginning and maybe that will help.  At no point in this discussion will I ever condone cheating or cheaters.  As far as I am concerned I really hope they catch whoever it is behind all of this.  I have told this story many times in this blog and elsewhere but just for ease I will retell it.

In the 2nd year of the WSOP I played in the Aruba event after winning 3 aruba seats.  I played poker locally for many years but this was the first time I had ever had some success in tournaments.  This started my online bankroll and I met many of the people I still call friends today.  That next year would see me winning I believe it was 10 Aruba seats, I am not sure the number really matters at this point.  Once you had one the rest were given to you in cash so that was 90k.  I was also a bit ahead of the curve of the cash games but I was certainly no super baller, at that time I played a lot of 15-30 limit (6 tables and such) on Party and had some really good runs.  In the 2004 WSOP I went fairly deep (about 150 or so), when I busted out I was invited to a party where I met Annie Duke.  Let me back up a bit.  After Aruba I was doing well online, enough to see that something very promising could happen for me in poker.  It was also clear that the business side of things would need some people to help manage things.  As such I pitched a system to PokerStars first (on the Poker Stars cruise), Full tilt second (in Reno of that year) and ultimately to Annie Duke at this party.  Annie was very intrigued about my ideas on how to treat the best customers the best and many of my ideas regarding tournament structures and how the games might be a bit better.  It was also obvious that UB would have an overlay in their Aruba tournament that year and so I proposed that I would take a number of seats in exchange for my ideas and because I was playing most of the WPT and WSOP at this time I would become an affiliate of UB, essentially investing all of the proceeds from the seats I would sell to well known players into promotions for this program.  The idea was a monster hit, this was the early days of rakeback when no one really even knew what it would be called.  I certainly did not invent rakeback but I was on the ground floor on what would be a trend of good value to poker players for the future.

From the time I met Annie to approximately May of the following year it was a series of disasters.  The big games on UB were filling up and that was a direct result of a lot of my hard work with my affiliate stuff.  Politically though within UB there were a ton of issues that were unrelated to my success, also players did not just want to play UB they wanted to play other sites and wanted to know if I could get them similar deals at those places.  When it came time for UB and I to come to another agreement their was not an overlay in the upcoming tournament and I think secretly people did not see a point in paying me as both a consultant and an affiliate any longer.  At this point I hardly knew anyone at all other than Annie Duke, I only met Russ Hamilton once in Los Angeles.  So for about 9 months to a year I helped out with the tournament schedule and some general promotion ideas.  Meanwhile I knew virtually no one and I certainly had no inside access to anything really.  I did not need any of that, my players were generating a significant portion of the rake for UB and already that was providing me with a decent income.  Adding additional rooms would only help that, they were not crazy that I would not be exclusive to them anymore but without paying me as a consultant I was essentially a free agent.

One thing that has come up is “did Beanie have success at other sites”, the two other sites I have had success at are Party Poker and Bodog, with Bodog being by far the bigger of the two.  I also won my 2004 WSOP seat on PokerStars.  UB and Bodog were my main sites, Bodog for limit poker and UB for tournaments.

Another thing that people are misunderstanding is when I said that I send multiple transactions a day to people I do not even know.  Which of course is a reference to rakeback and the fact that most of these customers are not people that I have met.  So I hope that helps on that particular part.  I do in fact trade with a lot of players online but likely not much more than any other high stakes player.  I think for the average guy my transactions would be wild but to a rakeback affiliate or another high stakes player it would be very normal.

Over the course of the next 3-4 years I got to know Russ Hamilton, not so much regarding UB but more poker deals in general.  You have to remember that I had little access at this point, I was just a guy from Minnesota.  Russ has become a good friend within poker, we have really never had any significant business dealings, I sort of use him as a mentor within the poker business.  When I quit consulting with UB that virtually ended my relationship with Annie Duke and we have hardly spoken since then. 

Over time UB went from my biggest program to 4th or 5th which was just based on customer demand.  I now maintain a relationship with the new management but I have very little access.  This was brought up because I mentioned that I visited Costa Rica to see UB in May.  So did about 20 other affiliates including Nat Arem.  I am not trying to throw Nat Arem under the bus because in my eyes Nat is an online poker superhero for what he did with the AP scandal.  I just point it out in an effort to say that I was not on some covert mission or part of some monster cover up because I understand that for most people this whole world of online poker is a bit foreign.

Also I quit posting in the thread on 2+2 because there really is no benefit for me (and also people in the thread asked me to stop, so I did).  I will post a link to the thread at the bottom. 

Some other tidbits:

I know nothing of the account -Fred- and have no idea who the owner is, at the WSOP I met Fred David but I never recieved a transfer from that account, my understanding is the same as Freddy Deeb’s that it is just a management account.  I have no information on that account at all or Fred David’s role at UB at the time, or if he even had one.  Whether that is all just big a coincidence or not is not something I have information on but I will be happy to share whatever comes to light.

dont-trust-paul-nobles.com was a site put up by someone that I had a business dispute over.  It was covered a bit on p5’s and within days of that site being put up the matter was resolved and the site got taken down.  It is sort of a long uninteresting story, I am pretty sure the guy that put up the site regrets dealing in that manor as he has become very successful in other endeavors.  I was supposed to get that URL and a few others as part of the agreement we settled on but I have been lazy about transfering them over.

In closing I will still follow the thread on 2+2 and try to address people’s concerns and if anything comes to light maybe I will pass it on to Nat or post it here.  There is really no equity for me in coming to the defense of anyone, even people who have treated me well because people want answers and I can not give them.  I had very little access back then and even less now.  For me to be viewed in any way shape or form as condoning cheating or trying to divert people’s attention from the scandal was never my intent, so to any extent that happened I would like to sincerely apologize.  Here is the link to the thread on 2+2.

I will first tell you what I do not believe, I do not believe in a guy sitting on top of the clouds judging people and throwing lightning.  Similarly, I do not believe in a little red guy in the middle of the earth that will be the consequence for a bad life.  But I certainly am open to the idea of something bigger than myself and yesterday would be a big example of the possible existence of a force like that.  In case you have not followed I have 58k in chips and lost a big pot towards the end of the day that would have had me well over 100k.  So I was feeling a bit sorry for myself.

So as I got on the plane to go back home (I play again on Tuesday) I was a little surprised to see a young man already on the plane.  I introduced myself and he did as well.  It was still a bit strange to have such a young kid in first class so I probed a little bit.  It turns out he was going to camp in Minnesota and this was his first time ever on a plane.  He is 14 and his sister was already at the camp.  The camp is Camp Heartland it is a camp for kids that are HIV positive or have AIDS.  Wow, I mean like wow.  The way he told me about the camp was in a way that he likely has done often telling people just to see their reaction so he can know whether or not to broom them from his life quickly.  Sure put my whole WSOP misadventure in perspective.  Certainly either disease is not the death sentence it used to be but as we talked I found out that both he and his sister take incredible amounts of medication.  I also found out that he is a running back on his middle school team and wants to become an electrician.  Just like any other kid he has dreams and hopes.  I could not contain my emotions for most of the plane flight but I tried to not let him notice but at one point I had to put on my sunglasses.  All I could think about the whole time was how grateful I should be for my families health and also mine.

I sometimes wonder if my life is just more eventful than other peoples lives.  This stuff happens to me all the time, every time I question the presence of God something like this happens and makes me think twice.