Oddly enough it is because I am playing lots of poker.

If you are a member of RakeRecovery or UltimatePals you are likely aware of the freeroll and rake races we are putting on. A lot of the wheels were rolling on this before the recent scuttle butt about UB but that really is not the point of this particular article. Well apparently the news has gotten out to our competitors are none too pleased that we are stepping up to the plate so voraciously.

Simply put if you are giving away 15k and we are giving away 40k I would not say there is a lot of room for debate. We win on that account.

I will fully admit that we rested for a long while but I think you can expect big things to continue to come and things will only get better.

Representing Minneapolis

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. 

Now I totally get it that Paul Pierce owns the world at the moment and has every right to gloat.  And also there are so many celebrity types at the Bellagio and around Vegas that this would warrant no consideration.  Except that when you are walking with no shirt on early in the morning it has a "look at me" factor.  Now I am sure Paul is still celebrating and he will get a pass from me but for a lot of people that is exactly the type of stuff that makes them think that athletes do not deserve the adulation they deserve.  I do not think I have ever seen anyone walking with no shirt on in a casino before, so when it is someone that is well known it certainly stands out.

There is an air of pithiness around the WSOP that really takes away from the fun you are supposed to be having.  I suppose you can argue that poker has always been like that and you see a few old timers that are grumpy and mumbling to themselves and wonder if that is what a lot of poker players are going to end up like in the future.  By its nature poker, and especially tournament poker, can be a bit negative whether it is taking a bad beat or just running card dead for a while it wears on you.  I doubt that I have the need and want to be exceptional at poker mostly because of the fact that I would have to operate around so much negativity.  I am speaking mainly of live poker.  With online poker I just close chat.  I ran across a couple of young guys that seem excited to be here I just wonder how long that lasts with a collective toll of bad beats, bad beat stories and the ups and downs that wear on you.

It sucks getting close to a final table and whiffing.  I came in 49th in the $1500 NL, I was going to play the $1500 today but I do not feel up to it, so I am likely going to just relax by the pool side, meet up with friends and have an overall chill day.  It is tough playing live poker only once or twice a year, while the skills are there, I am sure I missed a few spots and I know I was awkward with the chips occasionally.  At one point I made a minimum raise because I did not adjust to the blind levels, when someone went all in for 96k I folded my 88 but the result might have been different if I had made a standard raise.  Overall though I think I have a lot of good elements to do well in tournaments and I am fairly confident going into the main event.  I play on the 3rd.

Today I will be live blogging the $1500 tournament at the WSOP on twitter at www.twitter.com/beaniepoker.  I have 46,500, average is about 35k.

So first let me say that I was the guy that knocked out the bubble guy with 6c7c.  He had about 20k and I had about 40k.  He raised 5k into the BB that was openly saying that was openly saying he would fold with Aces.  Figuring that he heard that and needed to chip up I put him on a steal and hit a straight on him.  Do not ever believe the updates, they either write what they are told or reconstruct the action but common sense would tell you that I did not call with 6c7c, which is how pokernews wrote it up. 

OK, so to the Layne Flack part.  I was at the Bellagio and was cashing some chips when I see a friend (Greg Pierson) in the high limit section.  After I get my money from the cage I tell my dad "let me just stop by and say hi for a sec".  Greg is having a few drinks with Layne Flack and both seem to be having quite a good time, it looked like Layne was playing 100-200 Limit Holdem and Greg was just sweating him.  As I was leaving I acknowledge Layne by giving him a little head nod like "hey, how is it going".  Layne looks me dead in the eye and says "fuck you", I smile at him and just walk away.  I hear Greg say, do you even know who he is and Layne goes "yeah I know who the fuck he is", kind of loud like.  My dad is dumbfounded and says, "man that unabomber guy is a real dick".  I then explain to him that he is thinking of Phil Laak, and then also have to explain who Layne Flack is.

Socially I have had a few interactions with Layne, nothing that super stands out, so here is what I have nailed it down to:

[ ] Laynes mom bought a Royal Blue Peanut from me when it was 6k and now it is 2k.
[ ] After Layne won Aruba he played a lot of 25-50 on UB.  I was playing a lot at that time and did quite well.  My buddy list consisted of three people that I would always play, Layne was one of three.
[ ] Once in chat, he was sober at the time, he got upset at me about something silly and I told him he has lost his sense of humor now that he is no longer drinking.
[x] Layne was 8 o’clock drunk.

It did not really bother me but it has been a while since someone has said "fuck you" to me so it was a bit shocking.  Equally as shocking was it happening in front of my dad.

Well after a few interesting instant messages I figured out that the good majority of people did not know it was a joke.  “The Strip Club” is a restaurant in East Saint Paul, as in “New York strip club”.  There really is no nudity involved but if you live in the twin cities it is a great spot (though a bit loud).

Vicki and I went to R.E.M. last night.  I think all of these bands need to learn a bit more about their audiences.  Everyone there was over 30 and likely has kids.  So when R.E.M. strolls on stage at 9:45, well, that is not going to work.  We left at about 10:45 when it looked like they were going to be going for a while longer.  We still had not heard many songs we knew.  Which does sort of suck.  It was still fun and we enjoyed it.  I watched a documentary with Michael Stipe in it a while back and that was the big reason we got the tickets.  He just seemed a bit different than I would have imagined.

One of the jokes that came up between my wife and I was the concept of someone “Putting on a good show”.  Cirque Du Soliel is a good show.  These guys are singing, while their energy is great and the atmosphere is phenomenal with that much energy in a room, can we just retire “they put on a good show”? Or at least can we compare it to Cirque Du Soliel, that should be the bar for a show.

I have been playing a bit more poker getting ready for the WSOP.  I am doing well.  I am also using the Beta version of the hand history software I have been talking about for 2 years.  We are still working out a few kinds but having it usable is literally like the fulfillment of a dream.  There is no question that this software will be a welcome addition in the poker world.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about this but it was buried amongst a bunch of other stuff.  So this time I am going to give it the proper amount of attention.  So a few weeks ago my wife says “you know that new all gals radio station, they have been raving about The Strip Club”, previous to this little tidbit I thought the shows were all about shopping and feminine protection.  Of course I had to play it cool, otherwise I would be blowing my golden opportunity.  So I said “go on”, meanwhile my heart was racing trying to figure out if she would be getting the lap dances or if I would.  She said it was new and on the East Side of Saint Paul, OK, whatever, when do we leave?

The first time we were there we could not get a table, so we sat at the bar and amazingly it was an OK time.  I did figure out though that I was being set up, both guys and gals work at “The Strip Club”.  Ok, whatever, a little emasculating but I am sort of a freak like that.  After a few drinks and a little conversation we decided to dive into the main course, which definitely exceeded my expectations.  THERE WERE SO MANY COUPLES OUR AGE IT WAS UNREAL! So we did not feel so out of place.  As we left both of us had a devilish grin and we knew we would be back soon.

Which brings me to last night, on the last occasion we went on a Friday and it was packed.  Last night was a Wednesday so there were less couples and we got a table easily.  Immediately a very attractive gal came over to see if she could serve us in any way.  I have to admit, even after the second time my adrenaline was rushing and I could tell that my wife was also a bit excited and freaked out at the same time.  It was time for some wine to get this party started (for her not me, but her relaxing helped).  Gradually things became a bit less awkward, there were less men this time too, which was a good thing from my standpoint.  After about 2 hours of people watching it was time to go home.  But we will certainly be back soon.  There is more to the story but unfortunately my time is short.  Maybe I will give another update tomorrow.

I have written about Nick in the past and I likely will write about him a lot more.  He runs cardschat.com which is likely the best run forum online.  The classic sniveling and arguments that typically make up a poker forum do not happen at CC.  Most online forums begin as a community but then as they become more popular negativity begins to take over as a disconnect happens between users.  CardsChat is a reflection of Nick, he is pretty low key and that is how his forums are.

Nick is also 19, he can not even get into a bar and in case you have not figured it out he has been running things since he was about 15.  I do not know about you guys but when I was 15 I was thinking about who I was going to take to the homecoming dance.

It is not uncommon in poker for young people to do well because the game requires a fresh mind.  Looking at the results from every major tournament you can see what I mean.  In the poker industry however young people have not historically done well.  Part of the reason is that there are a lot of negotiations that need to happen.  In Nick’s case though he has a thriving community that is loyal to his cause, card rooms see that and want to be a part of it.  Nick does not need to yell, he let’s his actions do the talking.

As you can obviously tell I am impressed.  Nick is a tireless worker and his blogs and poker strategy sections are some of the best on the internet.  Unlike a lot of things in this industry where people pay each other to recommend them, this is unsolicited.  Virtually everyone in my family and everyone I know has heard about Nick.  If you are looking for a great poker site that is refreshingly low key in a world of flash banners and stupid prop bets check out www.cardschat.com.