listening's Razz blog...

Razzbook Sales Suspended

2011-12-26T21:05:00.001-05:00

Not that sales have been brisk since the DOJ shut down the Razz sites, but I still do sell a book from time to time and I have several reasons for stopping that right now. If anyone is curious, go to the forum and read the first post of the How to Access thread near the top. Other things are taking up my time and I think I want to replace some sections with videos and it's hard to be motivated

Tapie in Dublin could mean Accelerated Start-up

2011-12-19T22:19:00.001-05:00

Sources have confirmed that Laurent Tapie appeared personally in Dublin today and spoke to the employees about the hurdles already jumped and those still ahead.from Subject:Poker This was a throwaway line in an article about FT and GBT formally agreeing to transfer of assets from FTP (through the DOJ) to Tapie. What I thought was interesting is that if Tapie is going to use not just the name/

Trny Props and Stakes Players: The Fix Is In in Nevada

2011-12-06T14:42:00.006-05:00

NEVADA GAMING COMMISSION and STATE GAMING CONTROL BOARD Gaming Statutes and Regulationshttp://gaming.nv.gov/stats_regs.htm 23.020 Definitions. As used herein, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 1. Ante: A player’s initial wager or predetermined contribution to the pot prior to the dealing of the first hand. 2. Call: A wager made in an amount equal to the immediately

Green Valley Ranch needs a Boycott

2011-12-05T21:12:00.002-05:00

From this blog: Green Valley Ranch, still like the South? I returned a few more weeks and table 7 continued to be the “restroom in the South”! If you were the right person to ask, you were able to get a seat. Today, I’d had enough. When I went to register, I noticed that there were no seats seat cards for Table 7 on the counter. I looked at the sign up list and saw that there were about 12-15

Days off plus 2+2 Bits and Pieces

2011-11-16T03:02:00.003-05:00

the 'woods I've been playing daily for a while and I finally had to take some time and clean my house, wash my disgusting floor and launder my clothes. (I'm sure my tablemates will appreciate that last.) When I'm playing I hardly have the time or energy to blog about it and when I'm off I don't want to think about it but here are a couple thoughts. Dealers Keeping Tips Finally they do

Waiting... for the New BOOMers

2011-11-08T00:24:00.000-05:00

I'll bring the fish back the day I deposit online from my checking account without going through a payment processor in China. Or maybe just stick with Otto, here. He hopes, with his eyes wide open.

FTP coming back...

2011-11-03T13:00:00.003-04:00

Laurent Tapie Expects to Finalize Full Tilt Deal in the Next 15 Days | Pokerfuse Online Poker News

WHY are you playing online? Stop It!

2011-11-01T00:21:00.000-04:00

So posting a hand last time was a big mistake, apparently, considering mail I'm getting about how I should join this site or that. Look people, unless the U.S. legalizes online poker and we get some decent sites and action, why would you put a penny online? You think they can't snap-close Bodog and Merge? Let's say you only put a little on to play "recreationally" and run it up to some nice

RAZZ - AGAIN - EQUITY QUIZ

2011-10-27T19:18:00.002-04:00

Here's a hand sent to me by someone who raised 5th because he had the great draw against the made 9. Look at it and estimate what the equities were for the 6 draw against the made 9 here on 5th street. The upcards are the key to this hand as with so many Razz hands. You have to look not just at your upcards and your opponent's, you have to look at them all. You have to notice when

What's FTP Worth without Rush Poker? (PLUS: PA Scumbag Report)

2011-10-20T23:43:00.003-04:00

What is the value of the Full Tilt Poker software, without "Rush" poker? (Patrik Antonius Scumbag report below...) There are actually two "inventors" listed,, one Robert S. Burnside (Fayetteville, Tx., shown at right) and the other Jerry W. Beisel (Dallas, Tx., shown if you expnad the +1 at the link). I have no idea who they are, but if you want to see the patent application you can use this

FTP's Worst Crime?

2011-10-14T23:49:00.002-04:00

From my last post where we saw Dwan's rather curious downswing, last two paragraphs: Doesn't matter, of course. In a few days they will announce a sale of FTP, some sort of restitution will be made to players and no one will care what actually happened. No one will care about years and years of micros-mid level players getting screwed out of the millions by FTP bots and "seized" accounts and

durrrr - gosh! whatta guy!

2011-09-28T22:02:00.002-04:00

From the durrrr answers thread: Post #22 durrrr: i think there was just one big mistake in late 2010 (crediting player accounts when people deposited), and then a slew of other mistakes not owning up to the 1st. I really dont believe anyone involved intended to be a criminal, but thats not to justify their ridiculously criminal actions Oh dear. Oh, durrrr. This is a very intelligent young man

Here:

2011-09-11T23:00:00.000-04:00

I have nothing whatsoever of interest to say. I just stole this little guy off a forum and wanted to see if he works.

Poker 4 Grown-ups

2011-08-31T21:39:00.000-04:00

from Chad Holloway's blog: Thoughts on a Controversial Hand from Poker After Dark PokerNews column: Matusow responds to Holloway. If you read the Poker News column, there are comments at the end, almost all attacking the play and especially Matusow. Naturally we have nit-calling and even collusion-accusion, but then there is the "abomination to poker" comment. Holloway, in his blog

No Time, No Life, No Blog

2011-08-17T22:20:00.000-04:00

I have all these things I think of posting about here when I am playing. Then I get home, collapse in bed, try to get something done when I wake up and get back into the car and go play poker. I could give up altogether, I s'pose, then I'd have time to write. I just wouldn't have anything to write about. I could break down and buy an iPhone or something I could post with from the table, but

Advice to a Grumpy ME Player

2011-06-27T23:53:00.000-04:00

Poker Grump aka Rakewell has acquired a free entry to into the 32011 Main Event. <---see how Naturally, I will advise him. "Naturally" because it's in my nature as old lady supermom and writer. I suppose I could say "unnaturally" as I don't know jack about NLHE, have never played in the WSOP and never will, and am not even freinds with the guy. But I've always resonated with the Grump.

Bitching about the Livestream 2011 WSOP Coverage

2011-06-26T00:46:00.001-04:00

Last year, someplace, I wrote that they should just make an area with a couple tables all set up for recording Final Tables where anytime they have a star-studded one, they can move the players there and record it for TV or at least live stream it. So, they took my advice. (yeah - I know - probably didn't really get it just from me - or from me at all but ...) WHY DID THEY SCREW IT UP? WTF

Luckbox? Chips, the Brat and the 10K Stud Bracelet

2011-06-22T03:34:00.004-04:00

I stayed up all night watching the Final Table of the 10K Stud 8, which I would just to see Phil Hellmuth win his 12th bracelet, but was especially excited about because one of the 2+2 Stud forum regs, no - not "reg" - after all these years he is a pioneer of the place, was there. 2+2's Chips Ahoy, Mr Eric Rodawig, who became the first Stud 8 coach at now-defunct Stox poker and I believe was

Norman Chad the 2011 WSOP and Me

2011-06-15T21:31:00.001-04:00

Norman Chad follows me on Twitter. Yes, that Norman Chad: mustachioed, bespectacled, appreciator of asses of all genders, one half of the famous poker commentating duo of Norm and Chad, Maryland's homegrown middle-aged guy with a dream. Hopefuls from 50 states submitted their Twitter names to be chosen, 1 from each state, to be followed by our shorter, whinier, but oh-so-hooked-up hero. In

The Crux of the Phil Ivey/Tiltware Lawsuit

2011-06-01T19:32:00.005-04:00

Here's most of Page 3 of the Complaint PI's attorneys filed: http://www.scribd.com/doc/56836292/Ivey-Tiltware-Complaint-060111 This is not about your $, this is about Phil's $. OTOH - You'd think Phil'd go to the WSOP just have the chance to punch Lederer in the nose, wouldn't you?

The Future of RAZZBOOK

2011-05-28T01:45:00.002-04:00

It has none, really. It is still published on Listening's Razz Forum and you can buy access to it for $5 if you have Pay Pal. I wrote it for online Razz, for a community I hoped would grow again. I was looking forward to adding to it and rewriting and .... But now I can't play. And I can't make it better. Now ............ live ...................... I play ..................................

Playing Live: FOPs

2011-04-25T20:49:00.000-04:00

I've played rather a lot of live poker since the 15th and I find more and more former online players (FOPs) coming to Foxwoods. They seem to travel in packs of three or four often, but even those who are seated singly, and don't seem to have previous acquaintance, do have the same conversations with each other, or with their companions who tend, at some point, to hover behind their chairs. The

Anything New?

2011-04-17T14:30:00.000-04:00

So, Black Friday came and went. I s'pose I should say something. But I think everyone already said everything. My sympathies to those whose livliehood is tied up online. I hope everyone finds a live venue. But this is a Razz blog and I'm mostly concerned in it with Razz and these days with Razzbook. Here's a 2+2 thread about Razzbook started who knows why, my first response got a violation

PM from the Minions

2011-04-05T18:58:00.001-04:00

So, as we know I get harrassed in forum threads by the Lis-haters. That's okay, I can take whatever. One of these guys just can't stand it, though, and he keeps posting (off-topic, as always) about how I should post my results and my handle so he can "check my results." Of course, my having to change my name is well-known to everyone, so he knows that won't happen. Nor does he ask SGspecial or

More Blogging?

2011-04-04T16:15:00.000-04:00

I decided I should blog more. Doyle Brunson Tweeted today that his Tweeting was ruining his blogging because once he'd said something, he didn't want to repeat it. I'm so busy arguing with people on 2+2, trying to post in the women's forum there - That's What She Said! - and trying to keep up with correspondence, wait, wasn't I supposed to be playing poker? OTOH, I mostly Tweet RTs of

Razzbook changes...and stuff

2011-04-02T20:32:00.000-04:00

I just added this to the 6th street chapter of Razzbook: from the Author April, 2nd, 2011: In this thread on 2+2 you'll find a couple posts by Dan Abrams about an article he published in 2+2 Magazine where he believes he has mathematically proven you have the odds to call here. I won't dispute that, because he is usually spot on. I also think this part is the first I'll rewrite, I had

Winning Without Cards - Literally

2011-03-19T22:09:00.001-04:00

I haven't posted for a while. I think after the Razzbook, I said pretty much everything I wanted to say about Razz. Was thinking of commenting on a couple of these bizarro "scandals" but mostly think poker forums and poker player Twitter accounts often end up being like having to listen to 10-year-olds go at each other on the playground at recess. BUT.. I ran across an interview with TJ on

High Stakes Poker Season 7: The First Hand | High Stakes Poker | GSNTV

2011-02-26T16:16:00.000-05:00

High Stakes Poker Season 7: The First Hand | High Stakes Poker | GSNTV

Jamming 3rd for Value Only

2011-02-05T16:43:00.001-05:00

In Razzbook, there are 5 chapters dealing with 3rd street. There are a total of 4 to cover the play from 4th - 7th. I say this over and over: if you play 3rd street well, the rest of the hand often plays itself. If you check your stats, you should be winning about 38-42% of all hands you see 4th street with. You can play more hands on 3rd and win more pots, but you will not win more money.

The $5 Full Tilt Experiment

2011-01-30T17:09:00.001-05:00

I guess I've made it pretty clear I don't like Full Tilt and don't play there. But I did take a Razzbook payment over there, so instead of having like, .23, I had $5. Which is no good to me since the cashout minimum is $100. Not that I would cash it out because I told them any money for books would be money I'd play with. So I have a dilemma as I'm not depositing on that site, ever. I also

Razzbook on Ebay and Poker Tracker Abandons Stud Program

2011-01-23T09:25:00.000-05:00

I put Razzbook on Ebay, you can buy it with Paypal, but be sure and read the How to Access thread first on the forum. ----------------------------------------------------------- POKER TRACKER ANNOUNCED in this post that as of May 1, they will no longer support Poker Tracker Stud. I said this about that on Poker Road: Of course, without updates, PT Stud will soon become unusable as changes at

THEY TRY AND STOP THE SALE OF RAZZBOOK

2011-01-20T08:14:00.001-05:00

My daughter got this from PokerStars yesterday, I think it was: It has come to our attention that you may be receiving real money transfers on PokerStars to receive payments for the sale of products. I can confirm that using PokerStars' real money transfer service to receive payments for products is a breach of our rules. As you may be aware, PokerStars moved all its operations away from

A Few Mid-month Notes...

2011-01-14T03:30:00.000-05:00

THOSE TABS ABOVE... are the new Blogger feature that allows stand-alone pages. They look just like this one and are just single posts, but we get ten of them, so that's good. One right now has some info about my Razz results, but will contain a autobiography of sorts on my poker history, whenever I get around to that. Since the Razzbook post is already buried under new posting, I put it on a

January 1 - Why "Play Happy?"

2011-01-01T18:41:00.000-05:00

I guess I really should write a blog post today, kind of an update. Let's see, the Razzbook sales are going very nicely. Thanks to everyone who had the faith to buy it. I always wanted it to just be a word-of-mouth thing. It is and I'm glad. Blogger is giving us this "pages option" so I think I'll do one on my personal poker history (I'm not that interesting but some seem to care) and then

Listening's RAZZBOOK is Finally Done!

2010-12-01T16:03:00.005-05:00

This is a page section from the 4th street chapter to give you an idea what it looks like. YES!!! I finally got it done! This link will take you to the "What's Inside/Table of Contents" and this to the Main page where the "how to access" info is. I guess what's important to know about the content is that I just wrote everything I had, so, if you never played Razz before, this'll tell you all

Why Women Don't Play Poker

2010-11-13T16:42:00.005-05:00

Couldn't believe how long it had been since I posted and thought I'd finally talk about this. During the WSOP broadcast, there were several times that they spoke of wanting to see more women at the tables. The answer is patently obvious to me and I was intending to write about it when I got more time. Which is ironic, as you'll see. There's been all kinds of speculation about this dearth of

Lis' Stars' Graph.....

2010-10-24T09:45:00.007-04:00

This USED to be "Anonymous Poker Arrives." I scavenged it just now to post this: Before I changed my handle I once posted my (at that time) complete Stars Razz graph, and I just told someone they could find it here, but I can't find it myself, so I am reposting. Now, be advised I'd been playing for over a year before I got PT so this starts after I was doing okay at Razz for awhile. Probably

Razz Relativity

2010-10-14T08:34:00.007-04:00

All those miners came up safely today and it just reminds me how insignificant a book of Razz strategy is in the great scheme of anything truly important. OTOH, I remember Mother Teresa on meeting a professional athlete who gave his position on a soccer team, and she surely had no clue what he actually did for employment, giving this advice: "Be the best one you can be." To me, choosing to win

Razzbook Update:

2010-08-29T14:10:00.002-04:00

A Tweet from Mike Caro resetting the date of the opening of the new Poker 1 from Sept 1 to Oct 21st (article) inspired me to do the same for Listening's Razz Book. The thing is, I knew doing it online in the forum format would give me a lot of flexibility, but the more I write and work on it, the more possibilities I see, and, like the shooting of Jaws, I'm adding more and going over time and

You Know You're an Online Poker Player When....

2010-08-13T19:42:00.002-04:00

This makes you ROFL and you don't even need a context.For source and even better laughs, click the link. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/view-new-way-insult-people-838201/

2010 WSOP RAZZ

2010-06-24T09:05:00.003-04:00

Frank Kassela Wins Bracelet #2 in Event #40! ($214,085) Wednesday early morning June 24th Last year was the year of the multiple bracelet winner, and it took forty long events to find our first one at the 2010 World Series of Poker. Frank Kassela, a husband and father of five from Memphis, Tennessee has just completed his climb to

Poker Shame and Bipolar Poker

2010-03-24T18:21:00.006-04:00

1 - The Resignation of Stoxtrader from StoxPoker and the concomitant hoorah at 2+2. I can't think of enough bad things to say about the gossip-mongering self-righteous losers who do the character assassination at that forum. Of course, they are only responding to the manipulation of those behind-the-scenes who's agaenda it was to break Stoxtrader to Stoxpoker could be dismantled. So, this

Listening's Razz Book or: Where did the 2+2 articles go?

2010-02-16T13:54:00.003-05:00

Go on over to the forum for more, but essentially, I took all the articles off this blog and a lot of the strat stuff off the forum and put it all into a "Book" that is a private area over there.I did this for a lot of reasons, one was that when approached about writing a book, I found out that y'all will pay $20-30 and I would get $1-2 per book. And it would take a huge amount of my time and

OMIGOSH - LOL! (someone stole my name)

2010-01-27T17:57:00.004-05:00

(where are the 2+2 articles? explanation here)I wasn't going to post anything more for a while but I just checked my email and someone sent me a hand from Absolute Poker of a HH with a player named :"LISTENING" at the table and wanted to know if it was me?Nope.As a matter of fact, there is no place online that I currently play under the name "listening." Not at any site, anywhere.I hope the AP

BAD forum advice: The Limp Trap

2010-01-27T16:49:00.003-05:00

Note from Listening: The article below was first published as "Microtraps: "Saving" Your Money." No one but a micro-newbie would play this way.Then a bizarre thing happened. Led by either a very bad player, or high stakes players who wanted to create fish for themselves, some posters on the 2+2 Stud forum started advocating limping in and seeing what develops. This is the worst advice I can

Will TV Greed Kill Poker?

2009-11-24T15:16:00.008-05:00

Here's an excerpt from an opinion piece from Las Vagas Weekly.com about the ratings for the WSOP FT this year. From the article:If there were ever a year when the World Series of Poker should have enjoyed a renewed boost, it was 2009. The stars had aligned in every conceivable way, and grandiose predictions seemed warranted. “This is going to be the most-watched Final Table in history,” legend

What Would You Do - 6th street

2009-11-09T11:59:00.005-05:00

Tournament - Razz - Level III (75/150), Ante 10, Bring-In 20Seat 2: 1,680Seat 3: 3,190Seat 4: 1,505Seat 5: 2,560Seat 6: 2,635Seat 7: 3,455Seat 8: 2,0253rd Street - (1.07 SB)Seat 2: xx xx 3:___foldsSeat 3: 5: 2: Q:___callsSeat 4: xx xx T:___foldsSeat 5: xx xx K:___brings-inSeat 6: xx xx 3:___foldsSeat 7: A: 2: 6:___callsSeat 8: xx xx 7:___callsThese low buy-in tournaments seem to have picked up a

Every Mistake a Newbie Can Make

2009-10-24T16:10:00.009-04:00

I'm not Seat 6 here, I wasn't at the table. Some players will make an argument in favor of the 5th street bet here. I say: ew. [b]Razz[/b] ($0.04/$0.08), Ante $0.01, Bring-In $0.02 ([url=http://www.andyblackwood.com/converter.html]converter[/url])[b]3rd Street[/b] - (1.75 SB)Seat 1: xx xx 3:___foldsSeat 2: xx xx A:___foldsSeat 3: xx xx K:___[b]brings-in[/b]Seat 4: xx xx 5:___callsSeat 5: xx xx T:

Starting from Scratch or "I'm Itchin' to Have a BR Again!"

2009-09-01T23:40:00.006-04:00

It's September 1st and this was my goal to get some money online and start rebuilding a bankroll. There's a thread over at 2p2 about John Robert Bellande admitting he lost his BR and is in building mode. Some of the comments made clear that people were very impressed he'd admit it. Those comments caused me to think that people don't understand how often that happens, why it can happen, and how

STARS GIVING MICROS PARTIAL FPPs

2009-08-13T13:21:00.007-04:00

Stars has started giving micro players partial FPPs so that we can ALL earn those bonuses. About time and thanks Stars.ALSO - see Listening's Razz Forum for a breathtaking day-to-day - sorta - account of the All-New Stars-Pays-Micros-Partial-FPPs Bankroll Challenge - wherein I take my measly 40 bucks and work off my bonus only playing .10/.20 (to start) Razz!Here is the Stars info from this page

The Physics of Poker: How Forum Advice can Hurt Your Game

2009-07-26T12:12:00.007-04:00

I've been posting on poker forums since I started learning the game and have certainly been helped a great deal by the advice I got there. And I hope to be helped as much in the future. What is also true, however, is that forums can also hurt your game, and dependence on the advice from the regulars, can lead you away from your optimal winning strategy. To understand how that can happen, we have

Playing Out of Your Comfort Zone

2009-05-17T00:10:00.006-04:00

I was talking to someone about staking the other day (that's another blog post, tho') and he said he'd want to see a graph of all hands and sites in PT. I play so little on FT, I don't think those hands make any impact, really, so this is all Stars and almost all the cash game hands I have. I don't have any tournament stuff in PT. I took the money part off, can't think why the actual amount

The Seven Deadly Razz Sins

2009-02-03T20:35:00.005-05:00

(this post was originally published in the November 2008 issue of 2+2 Magazine)Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, PridePope Gregory the First, 6th CenturyNovember 1st being the Day of the Dead in many Western traditions, I thought considering which Razz misplays are most likely to murder your chipstack would be an appropriate topic for this month. With all due respect to Pope Gregory, I’

Table Image

2009-01-28T16:10:00.007-05:00

One of the things I find woefully underrepresented in poker strategy books and articles is table image. For example, The Poker Mindset, (Taylor, Ian and Hilger, Matthew, Dimat Enterprises Inc., 2007) one of my very favorite books, contains the chapter “Into the Minds of Your Opponents.” This is twenty-two pages of good information on your opponents' table image: defining player types, assessing

How to Become a Winning Player

2008-12-22T19:54:00.003-05:00

I'm working on a kind of "Razz tutorial" for the forum, and one of the things I deal with as a strategy writer is people wanting me to tell them how to win. So, if I am going to develop a series on how to play Razz, I should be telling everyone how to win, right?I've only been playing poker a few years and when I started the "poker boom" was already underway (I am a boomer!) so there was a lot

Why Contempt is -EV or: No Name-calling!

2008-07-30T19:06:00.004-04:00

I'd been on the waiting list for a $3/6 Razz game on Stars and when I sat down this was the first thing I saw in the chat box:SKRooU: "I love taking money from moron fish"The name is made up, the comment is a real quote. I guess the "moron fish" had been sitting in my seat a few seconds prior. I noted no one else made any comment at all. Then I watched SKRoo lose 90% of his bankroll in about

The Stoxpoker Video: DON'T DO THIS

2008-06-25T17:30:00.005-04:00

We made a video at Stox recently where we all sent in our hand histories to be merged, so all the cards were exposed and Doctor Razz could make some real in-depth commentary on our play. Today, the first of those videos appeared. I knew this hand would be featured (actually, I think he's doing them all in a series) and I just want to say: do what he says not what I did - well - except if you are

Stars MicroRazz Bankroll Challenge!

2008-06-01T01:51:00.007-04:00

Stars just put up a bunch of new limits for Razz including: .04/.08 -- .10/.20 --- .25/.50. Yes! We asked and they came through.So, for newbies and micro players, I put $25 - the minimum deposit - in my account and am going to play micro exclusively for a while - to make a $600 bankroll for 1/2. I'll be keeping a separate blog for it on my Razz Forum and I invite some of the higher stakes

Stop-loss: Measuring Your "Luck"

2008-02-24T00:10:00.012-05:00

This entry should really be under the "moot philosophies" portion of the program, because it involves an idea a lot of people don't think is based in fact: that randomness must involve patterns that they can be exploited. The Random Number Generator isn't "fixed" and no one is cheating. (Well, someone may be, but I don't think Stars or any premium site is.)If the computer-generated dealer were

Miracle for a Micro-Player: Cashing in the 2007 WCOOP Razz

2008-01-31T23:55:00.007-05:00

(This was the first article I ever wrote for 2+2 when I had been playing Razz for a very short time. The rest of the 2+2 startegy articles are now part of my Razz Book on my forum - see link at upper right- Lis~) “Razz … a beautiful, beautiful form of poker” Ted Forrest, Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide You ever lose your whole

The Free Poker Money/Stuff Scams

2008-01-28T15:39:00.002-05:00

You've seem them, maybe even tried to use them, they have names like Free Poker Stuff Online! Yet, the average user rarely, if ever, manages to collect the free stuff no matter how carefully they adhere to the rules. So, what are they getting for raising your hopes and wasting your time? About a $1000 a name for every one they collect. These sites are owned by list traders.I'm going to tell

Microstakes Profitability

2008-01-21T23:21:00.003-05:00

How much can you expect to earn at microstakes Razz? How do you know if you are doing ok, or if your "variance" (read: downswing) is really you on tilt?The Stud forum at 2+2 is a great place to read. The following information came from a thread there.I culled this out of a few posts, one from a player who generously shared Poker Tracker Stud statistics for over 15k hands played at .25/.50 on