Note: I have started posted my blog entries on my website (http://www.spartanfox.com) and will probably do so mostly from here on out. For the time being though I will be happy to cross-post to my CR blog, since some of you seem to read it when I do post something. Enjoy!

Just the other day a professional poker player wrote up a blog on Cardplayer denouncing Vanessa Selbst as a poster child for poker being a luck-based game and not a skill-based one. (Note: Believe me the only thing that stopped me from using airquotes there was the fear one could use one on me when I describe myself as poker media.) The argument stated that if people who employ a hyper-aggressive style continue to get rewarded on tournament circuit, then detractors of online poker can point to people like Vanessa as an example of poker being based primarily on luck. That...by itself, might have not been so bad, but the fact that the post was laden with so much crap about Vanessa that you would have though this was going to be accompanied by a bad beat story. And while attacking this guy's credentials is, again, slightly hypocritical on my part, I will say that attributing her success to a "Donkey's lifetime heater" (paraphrased) is laughable at best.

Now I had the good sense to postpone any sort of response until after she had won or lost so now I can say this definitively -- Vanessa Selbst most certainly does not suck. Not even a luckbox can win the same tournament twice in a year, and it would be so outside the SD that statisticians would laugh at you for even considering it. Now, at the same time winning as many major tournaments as Vanessa (or Erik Seidel for that matter) have is probably laughably out of range as well, but usually winning isn't attributed to donk play. Certainly not over the course of a year, despite what the blogger may have claimed. Hell, even if she had lost the event and was the first to get knocked out in the final table I wouldn't have been able to say that she was a bad player. (Note: I also will note that in the same paragraph on the subject of standard deviation he talks about a player who does everything right and never wins a tournament. Projection much?)

I think the problem this poster and others may have about Vanessa is that she breaks the mold of the "degen gambler" who dropped out of high school/college to persue the dream of being a professional poker player. She actually already gradutated from college, is an on-again-off-again law student, and by all account is an incredibly intelligent person. I think its that that rubs some people the wrong way. After all, you aren't really a poker player if you have anything else going for you right? Maybe that's a little harsh, but I think its quite possible that on top of being fearless, Selbst may have the best thing a poker player could have -- life outs. Poker doesnt work out? She could become a lawyer...which isn't exactly the worst paying job in the world. Does that partially explain why she'll 5-bet shove with 84o and grin when she's up against AA? (Yes I didn't forget that picture you removed, sir.) I have no idea. But when you have something else going for you, why not go for the strategy that ends up being the wildly-unpredictable, albeit wildly variance-based one. Sorry, but that takes skill to develop and figure out, not luck.

And yes, I realize with that last paragraph that I was the one projecting. It goes both ways.

To all that may or may not have the power to hire people to cover the WSOP:

So the WSOP is coming soon and that means everyone and their mother (literally in some cases) is going to flock to Las Vegas to play poker non-stop for a month and a half. If you are a player, this is a chance for a bracelet. If you are not, you either rail your favorite player, or, potentially in my case, you see if you can get some work done in that time. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have a job already. And its one that pays pretty well (during the summer) and there is a strong chance I'd have to give it up at least partially when/if I do go to Vegas. That said, research sometimes is mind-numbing, and if I can take a month where I do something I enjoy, I'll take it, at least for the next couple years.

So...I posted this on twitter as a sort of open-pseudo-resume. Because I dont know how the process works, and because I'm arrogant I don't feel like being a random intern is in my best interest. (Well that and I am hoping to play cash games a fair amount of time so a full-time gig is possibly not in my best interest either, but anyway...) So here's what I've got going for me:

• I've hosted a podcast near constantly since Janurary 2010, going from an independent podcast I plugged through Pokerroad to my current show with Cardrunners that continues to this day. I've had quite a few people tell me that I've "gotten a lot better" since I started, and while I will never say that I'm good enough to move on to bigger things, I can definitely say I've done a fair share of work to get better at this. (It applies to my research work anyway because I have to speak in front of an audience quite a bit so having to speak well is a must.)
• I've also been writing for Pokerati for the past 6 months or so, writing mostly feature pieces on various topics until settling into a now twice-a-month breakdown of the news called "Winners, Losers, Coinflips." Its kind of like The Weekly Turbo, except far more uncensored and lets me show off my particular style of writing (of which I acknowledge I'd probably have to tone down a little bit if I wrote for a major outlet).
• I have a little bit of live tournament coverage covering the November Nine for Pokerati last year, and beating @ESPN_Poker to the punch on the HU coverage until Twitter decided I had done too much and temp-banned me for an hour. (EDIT: This is less to show how awesome I am and more to show that I apparently talk too much, so maybe this isnt a brag more of it is a beat. Oh well. I still was there and covered it.)
• Intangibles: Since I'm a Computer Science Ph.D. student, I have this tendency to just know how technology works, so you'd have your resident IT guy...unless its a Mac....then you're stuck finding the nearest Genius Bar.

• I'm not gonna lie I want to play because I think I'm a reasonably good poker player. Not great but not a fish. That said a major focus I'd have while in Vegas is playing the game, not covering it, so that might conflict depending on how much work I was given. That also implies that I'm trying to use media as a stepping stone into poker, and that's true. But I'd rather get my media training by actually doing something than stumbling blindly around.
• I'm arrogant enough to say that I probably would want to do a podcast of some sort since I feel like that's a strength. Also, because I have a tendency to do this, I probably am going to think that I could take a more important role than I deserve because I feel like I can do it. Whether I'd actually be able to do it is kind of a different story.
• I'm a Ph.D. student. In engineering. Which means I'm probably not a long term asset UNLESS I start making more money in poker-related things than doing research after I graduate. Because at the moment I will be trying to graduate. And yea I know people are scratching their heads why I do this in the first place. You got to love what you do, and unfortunately I love both research in Computer Science and playing/writing about poker.

Occasionally I remember that I write for Pokerati and thus have commitments to them to actually do something over there once in a while. Well, the result is the series "Winners, Losers, Coinflips" that breaks down the news into winners and losers for the month, with a personal touch that would never get me hired at the likes of a Pokernews, but whatever, this is why I have a day job. Check it out to see what you missed over the course of Feburary. I thought about cross-posting it, but the pictures wouldn't come through cleanly so I decided against it. Plus, if you don't read Pokerati already you really should, so really I'm just doing you a favor.

Warning: This is, in essence, an angry rant. Before you start writing in the comments or tweeting me about how much of a *insert negative name here* I am; please take that into consideration. Oh, and I know that some of this might be addressed during their show tonight, so a lot of this may not apply. Meh, better to get it out now anyway. Finally, scroll down for tl;dr version.

Lately it seems like we are getting more than our fair share of drama in the poker industry. Sorel Mizzi is apparently cheating more people, but somehow was able to do it live. Mer Brit is apparently not actually a poker player, but a pretty face that Pokerstars signed a deal for without actually vetting her. And now, there is this. Seemingly out of nowhere (or a Google alert anyway), apparently Travis Makar found his conscience and brought it with him to Donkdown Radio.

One thing I want to say right off the bat is that I am a HUGE skeptic of the whole deal. I certainly don't think this is a ginormous level on the part of Donkdown, that would be a new low where "ends justify the means" would really be a fitting excuse. Nor do I think that it wasn't Travis that they spoke to, the bar meeting Micon had yesterday should have cleared that up and if it didn't I guess its a different person doing the leveling. No, my skepticism comes from the fact that each party in this mess seems to be using the other party for some form of gain, and that kind of makes me a little nauesous.

First, there is the folks at Donkdown. If you dont immediately think the folks over there hate UB's guts and would do anything (reasonable) in their power to bring them down, I have some prime real estate on some swampland to sell you. They sounds like kids at Christmas time when talking to Travis, and they should. This is, in their own words "the Holy Grail." I do have to commend them for one thing, it was a brilliant interview, and the fact they have the balls to actually follow up on this is something that is sorely lacking in any form of journalism, least of which poker journalism. And its not as if they are wrong in pursuing this issue because it is important for the poker community to find out what truly happens so, say, Pokerstars won't do the same thing to us in 2012, for example. No, my beef is one I have said rather constantly about them, they have rabid dog syndrome regarding UB, and will literally foam at the mouth if anything comes up that validates their claims, be they true or not. Donkdown ate it up sight unseen, and while I wasnt present for their meeting, I believe that there would never be a question of the authencity of the info presented, even if its warranted. No offense to Micon, but I would like a more objective source around to confirm all of this. (Seriously, no offense, and no, I won't be going to Vegas for another month.)

Then, there is Travis himself. I'm gonna split this into two seperate categories: he's full of shit, or he's not:

- Full of shit: My money was initially on this one. He was Russ's assistant, and Russ recently has been getting an unbelieveable (but warranted) amount of flak for even being in a poker room on this planet. Why not just spread some rumor on a show that will readily spread it for you that Russ wasnt all that bad and there are unseen forces that have been pulling the wool over their eyes for years? Seems pretty simple to me, and hell I could fabricate emails to that effect if I was in Russ's employ, I'd know exactly what to do. As time has got on I have decreased (but not eliminated) this as a result for the whole mess and instead have gone with:

- Not full of shit, but definitely shady: The alternative theory is he has bailed on Russ and is presently having money issues. Regardless of his "road rage" incident in Utah, he has been very slowly leaking information to Donkdown in a fashion meant to scare the shit out of people that may actually have a reason to have the shit scared out of them. I have credited the UB scandal to gross incompetence, but hell I could be wrong, and I won't say that's not possible. But there is no way Travis Makar is doing this out of guilt or the kindness of his own heart. He might not be a poker player, but he's trying to bluff that fact pretty hard. No, I really think he's trying to get someone to spring some cash to shut him up. And what better way than to, again, go on the one show that won't ask him any hard questions and eat up every piece of (in this scenario factual) evidence he provides until someone pays up/cracks?

I really think someone needs to ask Makar the tougher questions:

- Why are you coming forward now, what made you change your mind? (Because saying I'm done covering for Russ seems ridiculous when your name hasn't really made waves in a long time.)
- If you had no involvement and did not gain anything from the UB scandal then what was your incentive to keep quiet in the first place?
- What kind of federal case is going on, and is it moving forward?
etc.

But I dont think that will happen. Not, at least, for now. Its possible (and hell, likely) that with more prep Donkdown would have asked these questions in a way that might have actually gotten answers, but I guess we'll have to wait for another day for that.

And lets not forget about UB itself. Soooooo much nonsense has been made about UB keeping quiet about this whole affair. Joe Sebok not speaking out means he must have drank the kool aid, right? No press releases means that everything is true, right? Probably not. Frankly whether Travis is telling the truth or not, UB isn't going to say a word, because no one would believe them anyway. Nearly everyone that cares about the scandal has voted with their dollars and left, never to return. Only reason I ever play on that site is because the site gives me free money to play, I haven't deposited to play poker in a very long time. And if I did do so, I might as well assume I'll never see it again, though in fairness these days I think that is true of any US-facing online poker site. Point is, this negative press won't change UB's stance in the industry. Those that are left on the site (and trust me, there aren't many) probably wont get all up in arms about these latest revelations, and UB has been trimming down anyway so they'll probably cockroach their way through this like they have every other scandal. Those that saying this is "OMG AMAZING NEWS DOWN WITH UB" should look at history. Its been done before, yet UB is still there.

In the end, Travis Makar is no saint, and until proven otherwise my money is on him trying to squeeze some money out of someone. Whether its a co-conspirator or UB itself is anyone's guess, but it's probably someone.

tl;dr: Donkdown may be getting used and they are loving it, also, Makar is probably trying to extort people.

OK, I'll acknowledge this right off the bat, getting 10 people to have any sort of consensus is going to be difficult. Doubly so when you are trying to rank poker players, as fans of players not on the list will gripe about how either golden child deserves to be on the list, why others should be higher up, etc. That said, the ESPN "The Nuts" list this month did give even me a bit of pause...because its starting to look less like a list of the top players and more of the "these are the 10 safest picks" list. I wasn't even really thinking about writing anything until I got this DM from @ESPN_Poker:

@ESPN_Poker: Looking forward to it...

Well dang, I guess I have to do something now. I like to start my week off by showing why people should think I have a viable opinion in the poker media and potentially lighting bridges on fire, its what gets me up on Mondays. Anyhow, here's my "complaints". They are not meant to flame ESPN for what they did "wrong", just perhaps give my own rationale for how I would rank the players given their performance this month:

• Phil Ivey is not only still #1, but its #1 with 8 of the 10 votes: Look, if this is supposed to be anything like any other "Top 10/25" list out there, you should be punished for a bad month. I can't speak for how he did in any Aussie Millions cash games, but Ivey produced no results in January tournament-wise, and he lost $550k online in January. To me, that means he shouldn't be number one. Does that mean he falls off the list? No, of course not. But its like college basketball, you lose a game, it doesnt matter if you were #1 or #25, you're probably going to drop at least one spot unless everyone else does as bad as you. And since Mercier, at number 2, at least cashed this last month, all things are not equal. Its worth being clear here, I do think that he is the greatest player on the felt, but the greatest player might have to accept the #2 or #3 spot in a slump. Duke had to.(ESPN's Ranking: 1, Mine: 2)
• Sorel Mizzi jumps to #6, Replaces Junada: Actually, until Vanessa's Sunday Million finish, I would have had him ranked fifth, that's how close it was. Sorel is playing amazing poker, and the fact he's moving up from (NR) to 6th in a couple month span is a sign he could be in for a serious run. Junada is another story. His claim to fame this month is a one day cash of $250k. Eh, its nitpicking, but why move him down for winning that much? It means he's efficient. But I guess if Sorel is as hot as he is you have to knock someone down. (ESPN and my ranks are the same)
• Daniel Negreanu comes in 2nd in one event, suddenly in everyone's good graces again: I suppose this is an extension of Seidel being as low as he is, but Daniel is just too high on the list. He had a couple final tables late last year, and of course the $1 million 2nd place finish in the PCA $100k is commendable. But it doesnt beat three cashes in big buy-in events in my opinion, and in a short period of time. That said, I will acknowledge that Daniel likely has more staying power. But placing Daniel behind Erik, at least for this month, seems like a given. (ESPN: 8, Mine: 9)
• Erik Seidel just very barely made the list despite winning $3.4 million: Alright, alright, fine. He doesn't done much else recently, and all of his victories are in what amounts to 4 table SnGs (or less). But the fact that he was able to cash in all three SHR events he played and even won one of them really makes me feel he deserves to be higher than 10th. Depending on how you cherry-pick the All Time Money List he actually leapfrogged Daniel after this month, and Daniel is 8th. So...I feel its only justice to have Seidel and Negreanu swap...or at least Erik is one spot higher than Daniel given he had 3 TIMES the accomplishments in the month. (ESPN: 10, Mine: 8)
• With all the big cash talk, Eugene Katchalov is left out in the cold: In talking about the list's bubble boys, they discussed Daniel Cates (who recently lost $51k to Isildur1), Michael Mizrachi (who hasn't done much this past month), and Patrik Antonius (who admittedly did something this month, getting 8th in the Aussie Millions. But Eugene has done more than all these players, and did well in a non-SHR event to boot. Eric Baldwin has been a little quiet lately, I think if that's the argument for keeping Mizrachi off the list the same can be said for Basebaldy. Replace him with Katchalov and you have a "better" 10th man. Katchalov: (ESPN: NR, Mine: 10) Baldwin (ESPN: 9, Mine: NR)

The WSOP schedule came out a few days ago and people are already buzzing about the great changes that were made for this year's event list. Not to be outdone, I've got some stuff to say about this knowing full well I'm scooping myself for next week's Rabbit Hunt show:

Pros

• The Players Championship is not the first event: I get it, it was supposed to open the series with a bang, and it probably did. But as an event designed to get people excited it didn't draw nearly as many numbers and it could later in the month, which they've remedied by holding the event at the end of the schedule, just before the Main Event. People that could not play because they didn't have the roll might get hot over the course of the WSOP and give a $50k a shot. You never know.
• The Tournament of Champions is not on the schedule, which means less of a clusterfuck: Let's face it, the Tournament of Champions felt like an after-thought when it was held with no real start or stop times and they had to cancel it when Joe Hachem went to sleep at the late hour of 8PM last year.
• Holy $1.5k events, Batman!: Yea, the $1k and $1.5k events are the very large bulk of the schedule. And as someone that has an evil scheme to win a WSOP entry and use it not for the main event this is an excellent development. Also, lets face it, the economy isn't exact in tip-top shape yet either, and with the UIGEA in place its better to have more low buy-in tournaments, not less.
• 10-Game Mix: Yea, yea, its starting to become a ridiculous number of games, but I like the idea, and this is where I can tell Matt Savage to shove it when he only limits his LAPC event to 7-games. People do and should learn to play 2-7 Triple Draw if they want to become the best. To say nothing about Badugi and 2-7 Single Draw as well.

• The Ladies Event is still on the schedule: I covered this ad nauseum last year, including an "off-the-record" conversation that became very much on the record. I think that this is a good event for the Ladies to play, and I've heard of plenty of female players that won't play any other event because of the "all boys club" atmosphere, but there are always guys that sign up for the event. And it forces people in the media to talk about it. Every. Single. Year.
• The $25k NLHE Heads Up Championship as Event 2: So the argument for not having a high buy-in event the beginning is why the Player's Championship is in July, so why is a equally high event in it's place? Yes, its going to attract the internet guys and the same crowd that would play the Players Championship anyway, but it just seems like you are doing the same thing...just with a different spin.
• The Tournament of Champions is not on the schedule: The fact its not even on the schedule this year is perhaps a sign they will move it to November, or that they won't bother with it at all. That remains to be seen. But the fact that they may axe the idea one year removed from saying "HEY GUYS, ITS BACK!" is ridiculous.

So there are probably a billion poker books out there and while the vast majority are garbage, there are a few good books out there to take a look at. I've actually read a few books lately that I have to recommend, and while some of them are not strictly strategy related (or may have "competing" authors to CR), they are still good nonetheless:

Lost Vegas by Paul "taopauly" McGuire
I did my first WSOP stint this past November and Dan Michalski of Pokerati fame and Paul were the two guys that probably kept me sane the most during that 15 hour marathon. That said, I don't think my opinion of the book would have changed regardless if I actually met the man or not. Simply put, if you ever, ever plan on joining the poker media, you need to read this book. Its not just that you get a glimpse of what life is really like in the poker media, but you also get some decent insight on what life was like at the height of the poker boom and how things have changed over the years. No strategy here, but not all the books you read should be absorbing poker strategy, some things need to be a little more "mindless". I highly recommend reading this, especially if you've never spent an entire summer at the WSOP.

Check-Raising the Devil by Michael Matusow (and a couple others)
Haven't finished this book yet, but its equally good so far. The Mouth has a tendency to rub people the wrong way but Mike's story isnt boring, at least it certainly won't be as boring as the current new generation of poker stars that win solely on the internet then crush live games without the baggage of having ADHD, drug problems, etc. Again, not recommending this for its strategic content, but its a good read nonetheless.

OK...now I'll give a couple strategy recommendations:

Don't Listen To Phil Hellmuth by Dusty Schmidt and Paul Hoppe
I think the results of these players speak for themselves and former stoxpoker subscribers should recognize these two as "leatherass" and "giantbuddha". They both work for Drag The Bar now (I believe), but this book is a good one for beginners/intermediate players that keep listening to the advice given by pros that don't really know what they are talking about. As someone who's first book was "Play Poker Like the Pros" by Hellmuth himself, I can say for certain most of the advice he gave doesnt work AT ALL in today's game, and Dusty and Paul do an excellent job of picking apart that advice and actually give advice that makes sense for today's game.

Harrington on Hold'em series by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie
This a somewhat obligatory recommendation for those that haven't really gotten into tournament poker yet. Yes, what Harrington says is kind of obvious, but when the books were written they weren't so obvious, and they still aren't for beginning players. I recently re-read these and have been using a couple new tricks as a result of these books.

Finally, a few "honorable mentions" for something to pick up after the fact:

- Treat your Poker Like a Business by Dusty Schmidt
- Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time: Volumes I and II by Eric Lynch, Jon Turner, and Jon Van Fleet
- Professional Poker by Mark Blade (I recommend this one not because his ideas are original but because he enforces strict bankroll management and really makes you want to think before turning pro.)

Couple things to get going right off the bat. First, the title seems pretty self explanatory because the latest episode of the Rabbit Hunt has been released. Secondly, if you get the reference congratulations, if not either shame on you or...maybe I'm just getting old. Anyhow...

Obviously I haven't posted on my CR blog in months, a lot of that had to do with my jump into working for Pokerati for a few months. So a lot of stuff has happened since then, and probably did a lot to shape how my 2011 is going to be.

Grad School

Put simply, I got my ass kicked in the first quarter. It doesn't show grade-wise (3.7 GPA for the quarter, which amusingly is I think the highest I've ever done in college or close to it), but it was beyond hard to juggle coursework and research. I kept getting told it will get easier once I dont have to take classes anymore, but seeing as how I have to take said classes for 2 years thats some cold comfort. Still, I signed up for this nonsense and I can't say I hate it, so we'll see how it goes for this quarter. I've resolved to work harder at getting my stuff done sooner, and that's worked fairly well so far, though its only week 4 out of 10 so there is plenty of time for things to fall behind again.

Poker Media Stuff

OK, I had a lot of fun covering the November Nine and if I can manage it I would love to do some coverage of the 2011 WSOP, be it for Pokerati, Cardrunners, or whatever media outlet is willing to let me play and write (read: not be a slave to Media Row).

I am hoping that the changes we have made to Rabbit Hunt are well-received, we are moving away from a purely news oriented show and are now trying to get together interviews with professionals (got a couple lined up, the first of which I talked about in this week's show). We'll see how it goes, we are aiming to sink more time into this year's shows and put forth our best effort. Hopefully it will go well.

Unfortunately, partially as a result of what happened with school, I had to find things to cut timing-wise just to make sure it wasn't because I overloaded myself, and Pokerati is what took the biggest hit. I hope to write a column for them about once a month in order to remind people I still exist, and take a much bigger commitment (provided I'm not persona non grata by then) when the World Series comes back aroundW. hich brings me to the last bit:

Poker

I've been breakeven for about a year and a half now. After winning my seat two years ago I had about $1000 left over in the online bankroll and right now...that's about how much I have going into 2011. I'm a fair bit behind my goals that I set out for myself last year, though I can chalk that up to other things going on in my life that just made it hard to continue. I'm hoping that I can change that this year, as I'm finding amusingly that if I set out a plan for the day I end up finishing my work with hours to spare that I'm starting to use to play poker. I (quite obviously) don't possess the money for one-to-one coaching, but I'm hoping a few more cardrunners videos a week will help out. After seeing verneer's rather rapid move up the micro rush tables I think I'm going to take my crack at 10NL rush for a bit, knowing I'm overrolled for it a little bit but I'd like to get some good volume in.

Ideally one of my goals for the year is to win another seat to the WSOP, but instead of playing the main event chop it up into hotel stay for most of the series, maybe a $1k or $1.5k event, and a lot of cash because...man...those games are SOFT.

Anyhow, hoping to be a bit more active here, we'll see if this post stays at the top of my blog for 6 more months or 6 days, but here's to 2011. Hopefully its better than how 2010 seemed to end, heh.

I don't plan on tweeting this blog post, as it will be short and not worth many people's time, but it worth mentioning it anyway. I will likely become a contributing blogger for pokerati.com in the future, specializing in creating "news timelines" of sorts to get people caught up on all aspects of a story as it has developed. Its not 100% set in stone yet, and I might be jumping the gun (you'll know for sure if this gets pulled), but I hope this results in a long working relationship between Pokerati and myself.

I still will be posting my longer stories in this blog for the time being, and I am going nowhere with my podcast. Its just an additional chance for me to get my name out there, and I'm going to take it.

Also, as this is my blog, I probably will start posting a little more about my recent infatuation with mixed games. Hoping the ludicrous BB/100 pace I'm at right now will continue long enough for me to keep moving up in limits and get out of the low stakes, where barely any games run right now. We shall see.

At any rate, if you read Pokerati (as I'm sure a lot of people do), look for the author "Mark Gahagan" for my posts, I'd like some feedback on that style of reporting as its certainly not something I've tried out before. Also, if you want my take on the poker world (and some random stuff as well) my twitter is @Mark_Gahagan, as I have finally gone ahead and changed that to reflect my desire to have people know me by my actual name first, my poker username second.