Have No Fear, I’m Still Here!
Sorry there's been absolutely no posts lately. Life and work have been uber busy. Let's take this in chunks.
Work
My life in the poker media continues to go well and I am having such a great time. I just got back from Las Vegas and was able to attend the WSOP Main Event and see it all play out in front of me from the orchestra. I sat next to PND site editor Dan Cypra and ESPN.com's Bernard Lee for most of the 15 hour first part of the November Nine. It was great to be in attendance and like I told Norman Chad (interview will be on PND on Monday), it felt like I went to WrestleMania and a poker game broke out.
I was extremely happy to see Jonathan Duhamel and Jason Senti do well. As you might remember I bonded with both while covering them on Day 7 when play was at 27 players. I guess my golden touch continued with them as they both made seven figure paydays with Duhamel obviously hitting the lotto and winning the whole damn thing. Both of those guys are top notch players and great guys. Trust me ... finding good young players that are both humble and skilled that care about the industry is *extremely* rare. Although I didn't get to know John Racener too well, all indications are that he's a great player and a great guy and will be heard from again.
I have some cool things coming up, including a trip tomorrow to The Bike to see the NAPT LA event. If you are in the house come say hi. I'm hoping to finally get an interview with Daniel Negreanu, who has to be the last "big pro" I have yet to interview from PokerStars. Both PokerStars and UB.com do great jobs getting their pros available during events for interviews. No comment on the rest 
Personal
There is not much of a personal life going on. I'm super excited for the end of the year holidays as my 4 year old nephew and my sister are flying in to spend the holidays with us. There will be multiple Disneyland trips and hopefully a LegoLand trip coming up. I'm hoping to get back into the gym routine and play an hour of basketball and lift for 20 minutes at least 3 days a week. I can't tell you how big/slow I feel. This is coming from a guy that was the fastest guy on the soccer team for two years ... back in high school.
Poker
Last month I got in a shade over 35,000 hands playing full ring. It started slow, then had a great stretch run ... then hit a wall the last week of the month. I still obviously booked a win for the month so I was happy about that. With so much going on in November I doubt I can even hit 20k but I am gunning for a 50k month to end the year with. While in Vegas I played a bit of 1/2 and lost a little bit but nothing big. I really prefer 1/3 over to 1/2 and although it seems like there's no difference, there really is. People limp call at 1/2 like no other and don't seem to as much at 1/3 where I tend to play a lot more aggressive since I know I can fold out players where at 1/2 it seems like NOBODY folds ever. Anyways, poker is fine, no complaints and hoping for a continued steady climb.
read morePredictions for the November 9
If you want to get my pulse on the November 9, which I will be covering in-person at the Rio on the 6th and 8th, please check out my article (and leave a comment on PND!).
2010 World Series of Poker November Nine Predictions
I'm very excited to be covering the event for Poker News Daily and think that this year's group of players is probably the best final table in terms of skill I've ever seen. It really goes to show you that the days of a donk filled final table at any event, be it at the World Series of Poker or at the World Poker Tour, are totally over. In today's tight economy, donks aren't throwing tens of thousands at tournaments. On the other side of the coin, the player pool has gotten better and better every single year.
There are a few sentimental favorites at this year's final table. Joseph Cheong and I used to play at the same local casino, Oceans 11, in San Diego. We recognized each other during an interview I did with him and he instantly became my favorite. I tend to root from people from my hometown to begin with, but also my local favorite casino? Come on, one time!
Also on the sentimental list is Jonathan Duhamel. He's a great guy, the first one I got to interview (before he was massive chipleader thank you) and we're both hockey players. I have an aunt in Montreal and I connect with people from cities where I got family. So hockey + Montreal = cool. The other is Jason Senti. He's a super nice guy and I hung out with his wife and brother leading up to the final 9 back in July more than any other touring group of friends. If you want to root for a super nice guy who's genuinely working hard to win it all and takes it seriously, root for him.
I'll see you at the final table!
read moreWhat Site I Plan to Play At
So I've been playing at Full Tilt Poker pretty much all year long although my volume this year has been rather low. I work a great job full time and give plenty attention to my family. I'm obviously not your typical 22 year old internet kid who lives with mommy and daddy with no job or school and has 15 hours a day to grind.
After analyzing the changes at Full Tilt, it looks like my RB has been slashed about 28% in total. I guess as a Full Ring nit I got the short end of the stick, although I have been playing some 6max at 21/18 and it was the same result (about a 20-25% difference between $ Rake and WC Rake).
Since I have absolutely zero shot at hitting SuperNova this year at Stars, I'm going to ride it out at Full Tilt Poker for the remainder of this year. Then on January 1st, the grind will officially begin at PokerStars and I'll aim to hit SN hopefully in 3-4 months time.
read moreI Leave For 1 Week…
Seriously people, I leave for vacation for 1 week and I come back to two headlines that really shocked me when I read them. Here's my take, but next time, try to make the week I leave very uneventful!
First headline: PokerStars Stops Serving WA Residents
Wow! Now, for those of you international folks, WA is the only state where online poker is actually written into the law stating it's illegal. There had been a case in appeals court that recently upheld the law, which is what PokerStars is acting on. This represents the first time that a state (maybe stupid Kentucky?) has been cut off from the online poker world. Are more to come? Very doubtful. Here in California we're trying to get laws *passed* to help poker, with serious fights coming from the casinos, who enjoy charging $7 in rake PER HAND at a $1/$2 table. They also charge a $/hr for just sitting at the mid-stakes games! So they enjoy their tyranical monopoly and obviously can't compete online (they lack the brain power) so they are hell bent on making sure online poker doesn't come to California. Only problem is for them is that it IS going to come to the tech savvy state that is starving for cash. In any event, I was really surprised that PokerStars took this line of action and it doesn't bode well for citizens of the United States.
Second headline: Full Tilt Poker Changes Rakeback
Full Tilt unveils its new VIP system that's been discussed in the forums for years as The Black Card, which we still don't know exactly what it means or what it's worth. But you do have to play your ass off to get it. You get double the FTP Points, which are easier to get, which apparently (maybe?) gets you access to Black Card bonus dollars for purchase with points. But that's all rumor since the Black Card store has yet to open, so for now, it's meaningless. The bigger picture here is that rakeback is now based on a "weighted contributed" factor rather than dealt. This means that most (99.9% according to Full Tilt) 6max and Full Ring players will see less rakeback now, with players reporting anywhere from 10-20% less. We can presume that the 10-20% less that FTP is paying to all their rakeback players will be distributed to the top level Black Card members. So, the rich players get richer and the micro and small stakes players get less. Fair right? Anyways I am not thrilled with the change but it has the potential to help me ... assuming:
1. I start playing a shit ton at FTP and qualify for a Black Card.
2. A lot of the RB nits at FR decide to play elsewhere.
The odds of either one of those statements being true is just about zero. My life is too damn busy to play 1k hands per day for 100 days to qualify for this Black Card. So that is most likely out. Also, if the Black Card offers bonus dollars and let's just say offers you what works out to be 30% rakeback, then the nits don't need to go anywhere since they will be making more than before, since they were probably break even to begin with.
EDIT
I was able to find a custom stat for HEM that shows off your $ Rake (already in there), your Rake Paid and the Weighted Contributed Rake. The difference is significant, as there is a 31.2% difference. So, that means that whatever I made in Rakeback at Full Tilt last month, in October I'd just make 68.8% of that amount. That sucks.
Conclusion
So, that's my take on that people. I'm not happy about either and I don't think the online poker industry is in a better place today than it was two weeks ago. I'm not sure if this means I should move to Stars full time. The games there are tough at 100/200nl, or at least, tougher than at FTP.
read moreVacation!
Leaving today. If you need me, I've posted a picture below of where you can find me.
Best post ever.
My Fun Computer Gadgets (video)
Today I am bringing you the video I promised a while ago that shows off me talking in front of a camera, then me holding said camera in front of my desk showing off all my fun input devices, then a screen capture of some cool "deep" features inside TableNinja you may not know about.
In this video I talk about my office, which you'll see behind me is my bookshelf, where I keep my extensive BluRay and DVD collection, in addition to a ton of books ranging from fiction, science fiction, religion and of course ... poker theory.
The first thing I do is introduce the Sennheiser HD555 headphones, which I must say, are really sweet. They are high on comfort and great for quality of sound. If they have a negative is that they have very little bass to them.
The next item is the new Logitech G13 gamepad which my left hand and wrist is still thanking me for buying. With it you can map and create hotkeys using various programs to automate tasks. For the poker player this means mapping keys on the gamepad to TableNinja, so that you can just hit a button and do your tasks like fold, check, call or bet. You can do this with your normal keyboard but trust me, it'll kill your wrist if you put in any decent volume at the tables (or online gaming!).
I also show off my keyboard which is ergonomically shaped, in addition to my Microsoft Natural 6000 Mouse which I am sure will get plenty of weird looks. I love the thing, even though it took a day to get used to, I'd buy a replacement exactly like it in a second.
That does it for today's entry, I hope you enjoy the lovely gadgets that make up my desk. Yes, I do know I'm a computer geek 
Poker Platitudes
Whenever I go through a tough stretch (like now) and show people some hands or ask something stupid like "Is a 39% W$SD normal when my career over 3 years is at 53%" that thinly veils how I am running, I am often greeted with stupid platitudes. Clearly, if I'm only bitching about running bad, that's definitely all I deserve. BUT - I get ticked off whenever I hear them at all whether it involves me or not. So, I decided to try to think of a list and I plan to revise this post later with more.
By the way if you don't know what a platitude is ... (stolen from some dictionary site I forgot to get the url from)
A platitude is a trite, meaningless, biased, or prosaic statement that is presented as if it were significant and original. A platitude is often used to describe seemingly profound statements that a certain person views as unoriginal or shallow. An example of a platitude could be "go with the flow" or "a rule is a rule."
Here we go...
- That's poker!
- What you are experiencing is just variance. Play more hands and ride it out, eventually it'll even out.
- I never play Aces in that spot, it's just unlucky.
- Don't ever check results, it'll just tilt you.
- Never feel bad about going all-in with the best hand.
- You run bad.
- Ace King is just a drawing hand.
- You gotta know when to fold'em and know when to hold'em.
- I knew that's what you had but I had to call.
- I called here (big blind) because my cards were suited.
- Don't you know that online poker is rigged?
- I just felt like it (a draw) was going to hit!
- I'll let you have this one (folds).
- A chip and a chair!
- I'll show you one card.
About Me
My name is Sean Gibson and I am a poker journalist and part time poker player. I work full time at PokerNewsDaily.com where I host a daily news show called "The Daily Deal" and also handle the bulk of the live player interviews. In terms of poker you will find me playing $1/$3 No Limit Hold'em in Vegas or in Los Angeles (or San Diego) and online playing small stakes games.
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