BINGO! Umm, I mean poker???

A while back I wrote my initial article on the ClubWPT poker site. I have since noticed quite a few visitors on my blog landing on this particular blog and thought it might not be a bad idea to write a follow-up article with a bit more information for anyone interested. I’ve recently begun spending some more time there (for about 6 months or so, I stopped playing online poker completely) and figured people could use some more information than my original post provided.

One thing that appears to have changed is that the people at ClubWPT must have gotten a bit of static from members about the tournaments that “used” to require rather substantial TP (Tournament Point) buy-ins. I say this because I no longer see any tournament scheduled that has a buy-in of more than 500 TPs today. This, of course, invalidates some of what I said in my original article and, in my humble opinion, just plain sucks.

“Why on Earth would anybody be upset about being able to play the big games with a smaller risk?” you might ask. Well I’ll tell ya – it greatly reduces the skill-level of the players involved in the better tournaments by turning what used to be a source of protection against donkeys for the larger games into a blatant invitation. Not only that, but – since everyone is guaranteed no less than 500 TPs at the beginning of each day – turns the satellite tournaments that can be played for seats to these tournaments into moot wastes of time.

As a case in point, I’m scheduled to play a tournament this evening called the WPT Bellagio Super Final tournament. The winner of this tournament will be “off to Las Vegas, NV in April, 2009, to play at the Bellagio in a Super Satellite tournament” along with “$1,380 in cash for travel and spending” – which makes me wonder if the air-fare and hotel are even included – and you’ll be able to “join a top Poker Professional at dinner to discuss strategy and tips for playing in the Big Event.” Of course the “Big Event” here is merely a $2,620 buy-in Super Satellite to the $25,500 buy-in 2009 WPT World Championship which isn’t bad, but it’s not really what they appear to be selling it as…

The thing that irks me a bit about this is that I won a seat in this tourney. I played a satellite with, if memory serves me correctly, a bit over 800 players that awarded a seat in this game to the top 10 finishers (I placed 3rd). I was hoping that ClubWPT would get this correct and only let those that qualified through the rather large number of satellites they ran to play; but no – after finding the tournament listed, I noticed that anybody willing to drop 500 TPs as a buy-in was welcome to join. This of course translates to ANYBODY! Placing in the satellite was just a waste of time… There are currently (some six hours before the tournament starts) 1816 people entered and this number is sure to grow.

That’s just the way it is there. Sure, tournaments do exist that have decent payouts; unfortunately it inevitably ends up being nothing more than a long-shot played against hundreds or thousands of BINGO players and skill becomes secondary at best. I’m just wondering why they wouldn’t create a club environment where skill was rewarded as opposed to the “anyone’s welcome” lottery that they’re currently running. Having the large buy-ins for the big games was a good start however they’ve done away with that.

One other bet that I have most definitely lost was the original comment I made on their user interface. There have been several “updates” made to it since my original article; unfortunately it still sucks! As a matter of fact, I’m a bit confused as to what these “updates” were even for – seems like the same old crappy interface to me. Perhaps I expect too much in a fee-based, online poker club? I wonder how much bank they’re getting from the members as very little of it seems to be going toward improving the membership experience.

But I guess it is what it is. Just don’t go and fool yourself into thinking that this “club” is going to allow you to play against skilled poker players for fabulous prizes because it won’t. And if you’ve ever played any of those “play money” online tournaments, you should know exactly what I’m talking about. What you’re going to get at ClubWPT is the opportunity to sharpen your skills at playing tables filled with donkeys. Unfortunately if you ever get the chance to play in the “real” big games – the high-stakes games played throughout the world in the various real-life casinos – the donkeys will be rather noticeably absent. If you’re a fan of BINGO then ClubWPT is most definitely for you; if you want to play poker though, I believe you’re much better off heading to a casino.

bis später,

Coriolis

Doe!!!

I seem to remember mentioning earlier that keeping a car pristine was somewhat of an impossible feat, right…? I mean you can spend as much time as you want pampering the vehicle – keeping the mileage low, only taking her out on days with 0% chance of precipitation and implementing a multiple day wash/wax routine using various Zaino Brothers’ products – however, as one Edward A. Murphy, Jr. would attest, something’s going to come along and render your efforts futile. This happened to me a couple weeks ago…

It was your ordinary Saturday during a tape-out. (A “tape-out”, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the completion of a chip. And by “chip” I am referring to an IC – a CMOS image sensor in this case. In the old days, prior to the high-speed Internet availability, a design was written to magnetic tape and shipped to fabrication … the name “tape-out” has stuck with us since…) I arrived at the office bright and early – 6:30 in the morning. My plan was to get as much work as I could done with the layout for the digital block and kick off a couple probable candidates for timing closure that could run throughout the rest of the weekend giving us a greater chance of something usable by Monday morning. Tape-out is always a very hectic schedule as unrealistic timelines become the expected. 18 hours later, I had completed my task and was headed home.

I remember contemplating which route I should take – should I just hop on the 101 or save a couple of miles and take the back roads (in this case, Potrero Rd. – a much more sparsely used and hazardously bent road that I often take as a straight shot to work). Being that it was approaching 1:00 in the morning on a Saturday night (well … Sunday morning, actually…) I figured I would avoid the drunkards and take Potrero. I’m now questioning whether this was a poor decision or perhaps a life saving decision for, as I will soon explain, I arrived home in Chris’ vehicle.

“What happened to my vehicle?” you might be wondering. Well, I’ll tell ya – it got towed away on a flatbed shortly after becoming non-drivable. It seems that my efforts to avoid a “deer” resulted in Precious (my ’02 Firehwak) careening sideways down the road a bit until she was stopped, rather abruptly, by a couple of boulders on the far side of the road. (The second boulder actually stopper her – the first one just kinda “spun ‘er around”…)

The thing that I’m having a difficult time figuring out now is what, exactly, caused me to completely lose control. At first I figured that it must have been due to hitting the shoulder – your standard gravel-based shoulder – and losing all traction; however the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that something rather important to the proper functionality of my front, passenger-side wheel may have busted. I distinctly remember hearing a very consistent squeaking sound from my front, right suspension every time I would slowly pull into Chris’ garage and, from the damage done, it’s looking like that squeaking was trying to tell me something. If only I would have acted sooner – I was planning on getting the suspension checked out at my next oil change…

I guess it really doesn’t matter now … whatever the reason, I lost control and did some major damage to my poor baby. That, of course, is why I’m paying for insurance. In the last couple of weeks, Allstate has inspected the damage – twice, actually – and, after finally getting some sort of written valuation for the vehicle, has informed me that she is repairable (or in insurance talk, not totaled). The estimated cost of the repair is somewhere around $9700 last I heard (of course I’ll be paying $1000 of that, myself, with the deductible); but the good news is that this rather large sum of money isn’t enough to consider Precious totaled. I really have no idea how long this is going to take, but Paradise Body & Paint is now in possession of my vehicle and assures me that she can be fixed. This, of course, was after she was moved from 101 Collision (directly across the street from Paradise) who basically told me that they refused to complete the repairs due to liability concerns. It’s my impression that they’re just not willing to work with Allstate; but it’s no skin off my back as Paradise seems to be willing to do the job.

Of course something tells me that she’s never going to be the same. The majority of damage was basically cosmetic; however the rear axle was shifted a couple inches to the left after the unscheduled stop which makes me wonder about the frame and suspension a bit. Oh well, the technicians at Paradise are professionals and I guess I’m just going to have to leave it to them to get Precious back to pristine (or as close as possible). All I can do now is hope for the best…

bis später,

Coriolis