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STORIES last 4
03-13  21 - The Movie (my review) by AndyBloch
02-29  NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship by AndyBloch
02-19  Poker After Dark this week -- "Cowboy"... by AndyBloch
02-12  A5 versus A3 by AndyBloch

COMMENTS last 4
04-12 21 - The Movie (my review) by donof
04-08 Why I'm not playing the Bellagio WPT by almostrambo
04-06 21 - The Movie (my review) by johnchang
04-01 21 - The Movie (my review) by alanj

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10-17  Poker Players Alliance
02-09  Pocket Idiot's Guide to Poker Tells
10-31  Expert Insight - Final Table Poker DVD
10-31  Tourney.com

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21 - The Movie (my review) Email Article To a Friend View Printable Version 

Blackjack(This may be a little rambling, but us MIT grads aren't known for our writing. Plus I'm still up at 6am after seeing the movie. This review contains some spoilers, so don't read more than the first few paragraphs if you want to maintain the suspense. If you want to look like a genius in front of your friends when you watch the movie the first time, read it all the way through.)

As a former member of the MIT blackjack team, I've already been interviewed a couple of times about the new movie, '21', based on the team and inspired by the book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich. The movie opens nationwide on March 28th, but tonight was the Las Vegas premiere. Originally I wasn't going to go, since I wasn't invited and didn't have anything to do with the making of the movie, but I decided that I should see the movie sooner rather than later so I'd know what I was talking about the next time I got asked. The real "Mickey Rosa" came through with a ticket for me, from a friend who got it comped (in true MIT blackjack team style).

"Mickey" also passed along a plot synopsis, which didn't give me high expectations. Another former teammate gave a good review after seeing it in Boston, so I tried to keep an open mind.

There were plenty of scenes that I found implausible, but overall I enjoyed the movie. I worked on a couple of versions of my own blackjack script with some friends (mostly Jeremy Levin, a friend from Harvard Law School) and it seems the writers had the same trouble we had. How do you make the plot fit into the standard three-act movie structure -- particularly, how does Act Three resolve the Act Two confrontation in a creative, exciting, yet believable way? In the end, they borrowed a plot twist from other movies of this genre, most notably Ocean's 11. However, they did it in a way that reinforced the team ethic, which ultimately won me over.

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NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship Email Article To a Friend View Printable Version 

PokerOriginally, I wasn't one of the 64 invited to play in the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championships. But then the writer strike ended and Brad Garrett had to go back to work. When the producer asked me if I wanted to play in his spot, I told him I had to think it over. So, he invited someone else instead.

(Just kidding, I said yes right away.)

The draw party was tonight, and my first round match is against actress Shannon Elizabeth, who made it to the semifinal round last year. We're in the "Hearts" bracket, the first one to play. Action should get underway between 11am and noon PT. NBC will broadcast the tournament on Sunday afternoons beginning April 13th.

8 comments
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Poker After Dark this week -- "Cowboy" week Email Article To a Friend View Printable Version 

PokerSet your DVRs for "Cowboy" week starting tonight (now) on Poker After Dark. I'm playing against Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Hoyt Corkins, Gabe Kaplan, and Chau Giang, and we're all wearing cowboy hats. PAD airs at 2am on NBC weeknights and there's a director's cut after Saturday Night Live.

1 comments
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A5 versus A3 Email Article To a Friend View Printable Version 

PokerI just got this email, and since I've been asked this before I decided to post my answer here.

I'm wondering why you prefer A5s over A3s. The former requires 2,3,4 to complete the straight but is vulnerable to 5,6 in the hole. A3s seems more protected because 2,4,5 is only vulnerable to 3,6 which is a much less likely holding. Please comment.

Harry

Well, you are right that you are a little more confident when you make a straight with A3 than with A5 and you might not make as much in the long when you flop the straight with A5s because of the money you lose when you're against 56. However, whatever you might lose to 56 when you flop the straight with A5, you gain when the flop is 55x and you're against 56 and possibly also 45 or 57.

Plus, every other factor favors A5.

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Are you a Pochger? Email Article To a Friend View Printable Version 

PokerIf you read Michael Craig's blog regularly, you may already know what a pochger is. I've been searching the web for old poker books to add to my poker book collection and found an old book which proposes that the word poker is derived from the Yiddish word pochger:

 

However, it seems more likely that poker derived from German or French. I can't find any verification of the Yiddish link. There aren't very good Yiddish dictionaries online and I can't find pochger or any related words in them. If there are any Yiddish speakers still out there or anyone with a good Yiddish dictionary that can check on this, let me know.

From my further research it seems there was an old European game played by Yiddish speakers called something like oke or uka that may have been similar to poker.

Post a comment  [ Views: 325 ]  


FTOPS VII HORSE Tournament chat Email Article To a Friend View Printable Version 

PokerTonight I hosted the $500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament of the Full Tilt Poker Online Poker Series (FTOPS). While playing, I also chatted on Full Tilt Poker, and here's the transcript.

Andy Bloch has entered the room.

Andy Bloch: Hello and welcome to the chat!

Question From nicstr5: mr bloch what do you consider the hardest hand in hold em poker to play and why?

Andy Bloch: Well, like everything else, it depends.

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