Way back in August, I got a message from Hanel on Facebook asking me if I would know how to do some programming to create some data analysis tools for poker tournament results. He had been approached by Perry Friedman asking if he knew anyone who could do it, and would be interested in a job. I said absolutely and got put in touch with Perry, who put me in touch with Annie Duke. I drove down to LA for a short meeting with her to talk about what she was looking for, and was asked to come up with a proposal and estimate for the work.

Some of you may have already read about the new poker league Federated Sports + Gaming is launching. They put out a press release today. Last month at the WPBT gathering, I told some of you I was working on a poker-related job but I couldn’t really talk about it. This is it.

From the press release:

The new poker league led by Duke will be comprised of the world’s top 200 players and the events will be rake-free for poker professionals and feature generous prize pool overlays. The league will have a proprietary ranking system based on an eligibility formula that is driven by mathematics and proven historic achievement. This system will rank the top professional poker players with guidelines similar to those governing professional golf and tennis.

I am not deciding which players get invited to the league but I developed the tools they are using to do so. I can’t comment right now on the player list or requirements needed to be invited (and it’s not yet finalized, anyway), but I am pretty sure the formula used will be made public when invites are sent out.

As a side note, it’s been interesting to me to read all the speculation on where Annie Duke was headed after leaving UB, and not being able to comment on it at all due to my NDA. I’m glad they’ve finally gone public.

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This is a shirt from my “local” casino. It’s about a 35 minute drive away, and has a nice 14 table poker room. I used to go very often, but don’t really make it there much any more. I should start going back.

I bought this shirt in the casino gift shop. I’m not really sure when.

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Last weekend, I went up to Chumash both Friday and Sunday night. Did pretty well, though Sunday night I was up a lot more than I finished with. I went back again Friday, and would have Saturday if I wasn’t at a wedding… I think I’m hooked again. My most recent trip I actually felt like I was starting to play pretty well, again, too. Only got my money in bad once, and that was with set under set. He turned the case king, so the last 7 on the river woulda given us a jackpot. Sadly, it didn’t happen. Later in the night, we were again a one-outer away from a jackpot (though I wasn’t in the hand). Someone had KJs, flopped AT3 of clubs. All in against AT. An ace on the turn. No queen of clubs on the river. Shame. I will very likely head up there again this weekend. I’m actually enjoying it again, and not getting bored so quickly.

The Mets lost two of three to the Phillies, but by winning the third game and not getting swept, managed to hold on to a 2 game lead in the division. The next three weeks are gonna be stressful. Wagner is now out for the season, too. Hopefully, the Mets bullpen can continue their solid stretch the last couple of weeks. Evan went to his first Mets game yesterday, the day game of the doubleheader. Brad’s comment on the game: Evan lasted longer than Pedro! There are pictures if you follow that link…

Rock Band 2 comes out on Sunday. I’ll probably be getting the game right away, and then dealing with new instruments (if I want them) later. The old ones are decent enough, anyway. I’ll wait to see what happens with accessories (cymbals) on the drum kit first, I guess. Gears of War 2 comes out next month. I’m looking forward to that one. I haven’t played much other than Rock Band or a Guitar Hero game in a while. Amazon has a GoW2 Lancer that I might have a hard time not buying. I have absolutely zero use for it, but… It’s a Gears lancer! A gun, with a chainsaw. Seriously. How can I not get it?

I guess that’s it. I’ll leave you with… McCain getting BarackRoll’d:

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I haven’t had any sort of real post here for quite a while, though I’m sure no one really noticed.

Most of my time lately has been spent watching Stargate SG-1. I bought the DVDs for all but the last season a year and a half ago, and finally started watching them a week and a half ago. I should be done by the end of the week. That’s a whole lot of TV, but it’s a good show. The weekend before I started, the Stargate movie was on Universal HD, and watching it pushed me into wanting to watch the whole series.

I actually managed to get some poker in this weekend, too, at a pretty good home game Saturday night. It’s the second time I’ve been there. I didn’t cash the first time, but this time I won. It was a two table tournament, ten handed. $20 buyin, $200 for first place. It’s very well run, and has a good structure with 25 minute levels. I didn’t win my first hand until the middle of the third level, over an hour in. I didn’t get a single pocket pair until we were already in the money, with four players left. It was pocket kings. I got kings again, and then aces to knock out the third place finisher, within the next 20 minutes. I finally won when all the money went in on a 653 flop, and I had J5. My opponent had Q8, and turned an 8. The river was a J. The really big hand for me was quite a bit earlier, when I won a four-way all-in (with a good amount of other dead money in the pot, too) with AJ. I was against QJ, K8, and A6. I flopped trip jacks, and no queen came out to bust me. That hand finally put me in decent position after I had been limping along all night. It was a fun tournament, and I expect I’ll continue to play in it. Perhaps even venturing into the realm of online poker at ประสบการณ์บริการที่ดีที่สุดของ ยูฟ่าเบท for added practice and thrills.

Yesterday was an attempt at a fantasy baseball draft, and it didn’t go well. There were a bunch of issues with the draft, specifically the keepers. After the first round, almost half of which were supposed to be keepers, took almost an hour and a half, I just gave up and left. I wasn’t in the greatest mood when it started, and it was way too frustrating to figure out my picks given the problems we were having, so it was better for my sanity to just leave. I won the league last year, but don’t expect to do much of anything this year. I don’t know that I’ll even pay attention to it at all. In my other fantasy league, which drafts Wednesday, I pretty much have no shot because the keeper rules are weighted to give the better teams a huge advantage. Given my team, I don’t see any way I can have a player worthy of a first round pick, possibly ever again. Any time I spent preparing for the drafts seems like such a waste. I may just let that other league auto-draft as well, instead of trying to draft from the bowling alley. I don’t really care about it anymore, and really should have left that league this year.

I’m not really into the whole model kit building thing, but this looks kinda awesome. I doubt I’ll get it, though.

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For a weekend I had planned to do absolutely nothing, I got a whole lot done.

• Had my mailbox bees taken care of. This was actually done on Friday
• Bowled Saturday morning, the last week of the league. The league is normally a PBA shot, but since it was the last week, they put the house shot out. I shot a 688.
• Took my college diploma frame in for repair.
• Took delivery of a bookcase for my house.
• Took a picture in to a photo place for a nice big print.
• Played a round of disc golf, at Evergreen. I’m also thinking of getting a golf simulator installation at home to practice.
• Played some poker at Chumash. Lost $200, but if not for a 4 outer on my last hand I’d have had $700 instead of being broke. A♥A♣ vs K♥J♠, board J♣3♣2♥9♣, or something like that. River? J♥. $20 in preflop, $100 on the flop, $185 on the turn.
• Got a carwash.
• Got a haircut.
• Made a ton of progress on cleaning up my office at home, though you couldn’t tell by looking at it. It was mostly going through and shredding lots of old bills and other stuff that I have no need to keep anymore. Shredding is fun.
• The Mets took 2 of 3 from the Dodgers. I had very little to do with this, but I did watch most of the first and last game, and some of the second.

It was the most relaxing weekend I’ve had in months.

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<ScottMc> come play micro plo with me 🙂
<Drizztdj> now that’s an idea
<ScottMc> belrose lil dinky $10 max

I decided to join them. I’m glad I did.

That’s TEN buyins. Too bad I wasn’t playing higher.

Thanks, Scott!

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Not all that much to say lately. I got bored of online poker again pretty quickly, and when it’s boring, I lose money. I need to find a way to make it fun again. I need Badugi, dammit.

The Mets are having a horrible June. They were like 6-14 before finally winning 4 in a row, sweeping the A’s and taking one game against St. Louis. Two days ago, they tied the game up in the bottom of the 9th only to lose in 11 innings, and last night they won a rain-shortened 5.5 inning game (Glavine CG SHO! One hitter! Win 297). Somehow, they still have a 3.5 game lead in the NL East.

Last Saturday, I played disc golf for the first time. It’s a lot of fun, and a good way to get me outside. There’s a course pretty much right down the street from me, which is nice. I also played at Lake Casitas, which is about 45 minutes away, and a beautiful place. I’ll have to get back there sometime just to use my camera, not to play.

This weekend, I’m heading up to Reno for the USBC Nationals. It’s on a tough oil pattern, and I don’t expect to bowl particularly well, but it’ll be fun. The league I’m in on Saturday mornings has been using the same pattern, and I’m averaging around 175 in it, which is pretty much what I expected. I’m driving up there with a couple of friends, instead of taking the bus that broke down, like I did three years ago.

I guess that’s all I’ve got for now.

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