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Poker Blog established in 2003 as the first stop for poker news, poker stories, and bad poker advice.

July 29, 2008

The Nuts: N 82 50 24 / Nat Arem Blog

by Luckbox

Wonder how the Absolute Poker cheating scandal broke wide open?

Got a question about who was cheating players on Ultimate Bet?

Wonder why your page rank suddenly dropped from 3 to 0?

Curious as to who launched the poker database that tracks online tourneys and players?

If you do have these questions, that means you haven't been reading one of the most imformative poker blogs on the web. Nat Arem has been a poster on the 2+2 forums for a few years and was central to uncovering the Absolute Poker scandal. He has also played a role in investigating who may have been one of the cheating superusers at Ultimate Bet.

Nat Arem's blog is the latest edition of the The Nuts on Up For Poker. This is real journalism we're talking about. And since the G-Vegas crew has a bit of a journalistic background, we certainly appreciate poker bloggers who are willing to do the hard work for the rest of us.

So head on over and give him a read (if you're not already). And if any of you designers want to give him a hand, he's looking for someone to help him redesign his page. I think he's done enough for the online poker community that perhaps one of you talented people out there may want to help him out!

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May 7, 2008

The Nuts: Hard-Boiled Poker

by Luckbox

The goal of "The Nuts" here at Up For Poker is to point you in the direction of a poker blog that should be at, or near, the top of your daily reading list. (Unless it's alphabetical, in which case our latest pick will fall somewhere in the middle.)

Hard-Boiled Poker has quickly become a must-read for the Up For Poker crew. Short-Stacked Shamus consistently delivers thoughtful musings on everything poker. He's a self-described micro-limit online player, but if great writing was his bankroll, he'd be sitting at the Big Game at Bellagio.

I'd suggest you check out his report on the UB cheating scandal, his thoughts on the future of PLO and his insightful conclusions on the WSOP final table delay.

If it's not on you blogroll, add it. If it's not in your RSS reader, add it. You won't be disappointed. Our latest edition of The Nuts: Hard-Boiled Poker.

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April 24, 2008

Lee starts again

by Otis

I've never told this story in its entirety. I never will. Even if I someday abandon my 80% rule, some things about my entry into the world of the poker media will never see print. Discretion may or may not have anything to do with valor, but it certainly plays a role in the friends you make and the friends you keep.

Nonetheless, there is somebody who played a huge role in my new life who needs mentioned today. He played one of the major roles in getting me where I am--wherever that is. Sometimes I don't know whether to thank him or curse him for that, but I know I can always count on his as a friend.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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July 24, 2006

Yo! Bloggers!

by G-Rob

Whatever happened to the wide world of poker blogs? There was a time, not too long ago, when I could kill an entire workday reading your fantastical tales. Sadly, that time has passed. There are, of course, some of you who never miss a beat. You're still on my daily reading list. Some of you, however, have dropped right of the face of the Earth and are simply munching away space on our poker blogroll.

I suggest, and of course CJ actually MAKES decisions like this, that it's almost time to pare it all down.

Get writing or get out.

That goes for the disappeared G-Vegas types... and the other South Carolinians.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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May 4, 2006

New poker reading

by Otis

I've been fortunate enough to meet some fine people on the poker road in the past year or two. Most of them have been mentioned ad nauseum here. Two of them, however, have remained unmentioned and unlinked for far too long. Now, they both have new projects that are more than worthy of mention.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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November 4, 2005

You Feeling Cold? Because I'm Feeling Chilly!

by Luckbox

You know how every superhero has an arch-villan, right? For Batman, it's the Joker. For Superman, it's Lex Luthor. For the X-Men, it's Magneto. Of course, that leaves dozens of bad guys out there who like to fancy themselves the arch-enemy, but they're simply delusional. The Penguin? I don't think so.

This all brings us to G-Rob, a local superhero of questionable morals. I think we can all agree that G-Rob is to Superman as Otis is to Lex Luthor (work with me here). Spend a little time at the tables with them, and that becomes rather clear. I suppose a case could be made for Bad Blood, but he's really more like General Zod, if you ask me.

So what about Chilly? It's kind of pathetic, actually. Have you ever heard of The Prankster? Yeah, me neither. But I bet he fancied himself as Superman's most villainous foe. Chilly is our own Prankster.

Despite the delusional tendencies, Chilly has made enough of an impression to land himself a coveted honor, "The Nuts." If you need to know the reason, take a look at the application...

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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March 25, 2005

--;

by Otis

Um...I can't be the first poker blogger to notice this.

I think the WPBT needs to form a concensus on whether we approve and then act accordingly.

Comments are open for discussion on the topic.

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January 18, 2005

The Mizzou Crew

by Luckbox

With the addition of a member of Otis' Mizzou Crew to the Up For Poker contributor list (I figure he'll write something eventually), I would be remiss if I didn't mention the addition of two other members of the crew to the blogroll.

Some of you met Marty while we were in Vegas. In fact, he made the final table in the WPBT Las Vegas Holiday Classic. You can follow his thoughts over at JMC Automatic.

Brian didn't fare as well and, in fact, he went out on the exact same hand I went out on (FYI: I got sucked out on, Brian just got beat! ;-). You can find more from Brian over at This Perfect World.

More additions to come, thanks to the response to my post on "The Nuts." And if you haven't noticed, "The Nuts" now features Poker Chip Tricks (courtesy of MtDewVirus over at 2 Hole Cards). The chip trick site has some remarkable tutorials with some great video!

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January 6, 2005

Chips Fly in the Bahamas

by Luckbox

If you're not reading Otis' tales of poker and more from the white beaches and blue waters of the Caribbean, then you're missing out.

Go visit... now! And leave Otis some words of encouragement. What he's doing there can only help all of us bloggers down the road!

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January 4, 2005

New Table! (Changes coming...)

by Luckbox

Thanks to the rising celebrity of everyone's favorite poker blogger, our own Otis, this humble little poker blog is about to move up limits.

When this blog launched in September 2003, it was just a way to get the poker content off my regular blog so I would stop annoying my readers. That's why the address for Up for Poker is the hard-to-remember www.upforanything.net/poker. That's a mouthful.

Late last week, I finally secured the domain names upforpoker.com and upforpoker.net. Now, all I have to do is figure out how to move this blog to the new domain and then redirect all traffic from this site to that site. If any of you can provide any guidance, I'd appreciate it.

A side effect of the increasing popularity Otis is bringing to Up For Poker is a bandwith my original hosting plan couldn't handle. With that in mind, you might have noticed a little something over to the side called "The Rake." If you like what you read and wouldn't mind helping out a little with the cost of maintaining this site, I'd appreciate it.

However, don't worry about us. This blog isn't going anywhere. It's something that's become such a part of Otis and I that we couldn't imagine not having it. It really has a lot to do with the amazing poker blogger community we've become a part of.

And don't forget... Otis is in the Bahamas now! Stop on over and say hi!

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January 3, 2005

Otis Away Auto-Reply

by Otis

I walked into work this morning and my boss gave me an odd look.

"You're here," he said.

I looked at the assignment board for the day and noticed that I was on the Away List. Somebody had screwed up and this time it wasn't me. The bosses thought I'd already be in the islands.

I'm not, but I will be in less than 24 hours.

So, if you'd like to keep up with the tournament or whatever else I can dredge up while I'm there, you'll find me at Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure.

Hopefully, I'll have time for a little Up For Poker blogging while I'm there, as well.

In the meantime, I'm trying to generate as much traffic for the Bahamas blog as possible, so any temporary link other bloggers can provide would be appreciated

I'll be back with the rest of my Vegas trip reports in about eight to ten days.

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December 27, 2004

Briefly

by Otis

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure blog has gone live and now has a brief introductory post up.

One blogger has already sent me a note lamenting the lack of comments on the site. That was originally done by design. Now, I'm having second thoughts.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the site and suggestions on how I could make a short-term blog more useful for readers.

Another trip report coming soon.

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December 17, 2004

We interupt your regularly scheduled trip reports...

by Otis

Let's talk a little bit about karma for a second.

I've always been a big believer in what comes around goes around. That goes for good and bad. If some malevolent creature conspires to hurt me or a friend, I feel like, regardless of the outcome, that creature will someday get her's.

It goes for good, too. And that's the good thing about karma. Pauly half-joked last week that he made it a point to give handouts to as many homeless people as he could find in hopes the poker gods would shine down on him in Vegas.

Karma can be a fun thing to consider as you live your humdrum lives. Perhaps more than that, it can be a good way to live your life. It's sort of an off-shoot of the golden rule. Do unto others, yada, yada, yada.

Now, I need to talk to you about Wil Wheaton a little bit.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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October 29, 2004

WPBT Going "Big Time"

by Luckbox

Thanks to one of our favorite poker bloggers, Auntie Maudie from Poker Perspectives, we have a great new poker bloggers logo. You can see it over there to the left. If you'd like the logo for your own blog, simply go to Auntie Maudie's page and copy it (it's cleaner there than my slightly adjusted version). And then give her credit for doing all the hard work!

Now, we just have to find someone who can start getting these poker chips manufactured so we can use them in our home games...

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September 30, 2004

Another Bad Choice?

by Luckbox

Many of you bloggers remember the first Grublog Classic poker tourney. The Poker Grub took it upon himself to find a site willing to give us a private tourney. He worked hard and got screwed.

Choice Poker basically stole all of our money. Once it was put in, no one was able to cash out. We were robbed.

It seems as though Choice Poker wants us all to make another bad choice. I received an email today, an email I'm sure many of you also received.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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September 22, 2004

A So-Blo's lament

by Otis

It would take precious little effort to stumble--in an inebriated poker player's shuffle--out of the Mt. Otis garage game, through a few mountain pathways, and onto the decades-old Appalachian Trail. It would take little more than a gauzy, willful mind and a good pair of walking shoes. Sure, it aint close, but it ain't far. And a good drunk's tunnel vision loves things at that distance.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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September 16, 2004

Didja know...?

by Otis

For want of a poker game, for want of a casino, for want of a computer not protected by workplace firewalls with download protection, I sit at the office, stuck with nothing to do. My profession occasionally requires that I sit and wait. Tonight, as now-Tropical Storm Ivan pushes its way across the southeast, I'm stuck in a place between sit and wait.

I find myself with no real poker playing content (unless you really want to hear my buddy GRob's bad beat tale of woe--kings full of sevens beat by quad sevens).

And since I'm lacking in a real poker story, I thought this might be a good time to catch up on some miscellany. I call it...DIDJA KNOW?

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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July 29, 2004

Poker in Louisiana

by Luckbox

As I watched the WSOP on ESPN, I caught a commercial for the Mighty River Poker League. It's a Louisiana based poker club that promises to send someone to the 2005 WSOP.

Of course, I had to check it out. It turns out there's a Baton Rouge league and a Lafayette league. You pay a membership fee ($50) and monthly dues ($15) to enter and receive 5000 points. You use those points to enter tournaments and the top 200 points winners at the end of the season get to play in a tournament for one seat in the 2005 WSOP.

I think it's a brilliant idea. Each tournament also has a separate prize pool for those who want to play for money as well (extra $25 entry fee, and 100% of entry fees are paid back out).

That's all the good news. The bad news is that the Lafayette tourneys are played on Thursday nights at 6:00pm, and I'm lucky if I'm out of work by 6:45pm. Still, I think I'll look into it. The first points tourney is on August 19th. Maybe by then, they'll push back their start times!

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July 15, 2004

Otis and the Mea Culpa

by Otis

I've always thought of a "mea culpa" as something you might run into in a back waterway in Venice. It sounds slimy and, perhaps, a little on the dangerous side.

In reality, it's something people don't say enough.

Which is why I need to take a brief diversion from our regular poker passion to consider the value of our community of poker players and writers.

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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July 13, 2004

wil's going fishing

by Luckbox

Head on over to wil wheaton's blog for fish on -- part one. His poker reads are not to be missed!

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June 11, 2004

Time's Running Out!!

by Luckbox

You're invited to join the Up For Poker blogger community. Just send your submission here:
submission@upforanything.net
We'll pick the best of the bunch to become regular contributors.

If you already have a blog of your own, you can still enter to become a UFP blogger. In fact, if you have a new poker blog, UFP is the best place to find new regular readers. We've got hundreds of readers every day, and if they see your writing here, they'll be sure to follow you back to your blog.

Time is running out! Get you submission in as soon as possible!

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June 7, 2004

Seat Open - Table 4

by Luckbox

The poker blogger community is exploding, there's no doubt about it. When this humble poker blog started last September, I was excited when we reached 25 visitors a day. In our first month, we reached about 750 visitors according to Site Meter.

In May, 22000 people stopped by Up For Poker or read an entry in syndication. That's about 715 every day!!! And we just keep growing!

Now it's your turn to get your poker ruminations published on Up For Poker. Since early March, the stable of semi-regular contributors has dwindled to just two, and Otis is about to go on a well deserved hiatus. That means I need writers!

If you're interested... read on...

More in this Poker Blog! -->
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May 24, 2004

On the Front Line

by Luckbox

I can't be there... but other poker bloggers are, and you can't find a better write-up on the WSOP than you'll find at LasVegasVegas.

The pokerprof and his fellow poker "journalists" bring you the story of every event played in the WSOP thus far, and a day-by-day write-up of the big $10,000 NLHE event, complete with chip totals. It's great! Don't miss it!

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May 4, 2004

Get On Board!!

by Luckbox

I've decided we need a better way for all of the poker bloggers to keep in touch. With that in mind, I've set up a simple Poker Bloggers mailing list that poker bloggers can use for announcements or communication.

For instance, if it's time for a poker bloggers tourney, we'll send an announcement to all subscribers on the mailing list. If a blogger is changing domain names or website locatios, you can tell everyone to update their links via the mailing list.

This will be a list for poker bloggers only. It's not for readers, so the list won't be clogged with random messages.

So, if you'd like to get on board, just send an email to me (pagemaster @ upforanything.net) and tell me which blog you run. The list is very simple to use, and I think it will help us keep all our find fellow poker bloggers up to date. Let me know if you have any questions!

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April 25, 2004

WSOP Coverage

by Luckbox

The PokerProf has had a new blog going for the past two weeks, and he's currently providing some coverage of the World Series of Poker events. As he said in an email to me:

Well, since I discovered blogging I also discovered that WSOP considres bloggers to be offical media (with a business card). As such I feel the need to live up that litttle press badge and after a very exhusting day just finished posting up the first days news and events.

Head on over to LasVegasVegas for news on the second event final! Nice work, PokerProf!

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January 23, 2004

Chis Halverson is the Man!

by Luckbox

Chris over at his poker blog has instructions for how to get the playing card symbols on your blog (Movable Type primarily). Right now, my diamonds don't quite look right, but I'm just practicing. I'm going to try this, but I'm doomed to fail since I don't know scripts that well. Hopefully I don't destroy the blog!

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December 23, 2003

Poker Blogs

by Luckbox

Is there a faster growing segment of the blogosphere than poker? Okay, perhaps I'm exaggerating. There are probably 1000 political blogs that launch each day compared to just one poker blog. But really, which would you rather read?

If you haven't been keeping up, we're up to 14 dedicated blogs over there in the "Better Hole Cards" column, and I'm always looking for more (I know there are more than 14 sites over there, but some aren't blogs). Please visit them and leave comments, they're all enjoyable reads. Besides, some of their bad runs will make you feel better!

Also, if you know of another blog out there, please leave it in the comments, and if you'd like to be a contributor here at Up For Poker, leave a comment or e-mail me (it's over there under "Get in the Game"). And as always, thanks for visiting!

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November 28, 2003

Bad Beat or Bad Play?

by Luckbox

Ever wonder if your AK unsuited should have lost to that pair of 7's?

Everyone has a million bad beat stories, but how bad are those bad beats really?

I stumbled across a website that gives you the odds on command (Hat Tip: A Poker Odyssey).

You can plug in your hand, their hand, and even cards on the board. It's a fascinating way to find out whether you should have really played that hand.

And if you're wondering, the 7's beat that AK unsuited about 54% of the time.

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