Poker in December

[Terry]

The first three weeks of December has always been vacation time for me when it comes to poker, an artifact of having learned the game in Las Vegas. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, tourism falls off dramatically and the few people who do arrive tend to be those who are there only because of the incredibly cheap room rates available at that time... not the type to make for good loose poker games. The games dwindle daily, both in number and quality, becoming populated nearly entirely by locals.

By the time December 20th to 23rd roll around, it’s not at all uncommon to walk into a casino and see a BJ pit that would normally have 60 games going full blast have only 15 to 20 dealers standing behind dead tables, without a single player in sight. It really is that dramatic a lull.

I’ve carried on my Christmas vacation tradition for the past few years, in which I’ve played almost entirely online; we need breaks. (Yes, that explains the length of my recent posts. I have an “extra” six or eight hours a day.) I’m wondering, though, curious as to whether or not the pre-Christmas lull carries over to the online games. It seems it might, people having lots of other things to do with their time and money at this time of year. How are you guys finding the games this past week? Any noticeable drop off? Would you expect a Vegas-like “all hell breaks loose” late on Christmas day, as family functions end and people get their new computers connected, feeling flush with the money they got from Auntie Mary and perhaps from a bit of “Christmas cheer”?



Poker in December

<input type="radio" name="option" value="1" />So that's what's going on. I thought everybody had finally read HPFAP.
<input type="radio" name="option" value="2" />Nope. Seems lively as ever to me.
<INPUT TYPE=Submit NAME=Submit VALUE="Submit vote" class="buttons"></form>


I can’t think up a segue right now that doesn’t seem contrived, so I’ll just abruptly change the subject and tell you about some of the things I’ve found during my R&amp;R (Rest &amp; Research).

What does this poker player do when he’s not playing poker. He plays, of course... just not poker. (Hey, speaking of segues, that ain’t half bad [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])

I came across this Amarillo Slim Dealer’s Choice while poking through some Abandonware (stuff that once may have been state of the art but about which the publisher no longer cares, and which can be download free) sites. It plays Hold ‘em, 5, 6, and 7 card stud, draw, and Mexican poker, and all games can be played high, low, or high/low, with or without a declare. Sounds impressive, huh? And it was published in 1991, so it shouldn’t be too primitive, right? Well, I caution you not get too excited. I rather quickly relegated it to my personal abandonware file, but you might want to have a look. It’s a very small download.

On that same site are several games that I had once spent real money for... for some of them I even did expensive computer upgrades to be able to play them. How far we’ve come... you’ll see. One of those games, “Empire, Wargame of the Century”, I had once been so addicted to that I actually had to take it outside and burn it because I just couldn’t stop playing it. My (short) session with it last night did not have the same effect.

More positively, Railroad Tycoon 3 is in the stores. I’ve liked the previous editions, and this one is also great fun with some pretty impressive graphics. If you like simulation games, or if you’ve never tried them, a Google search will find you lots of places to download the demo. It doesn’t contain much in the way of instructions, and might therefore be somewhat difficult to win, but will give you a good idea of what the game is like. FWIW, I like it.

And finally... ever wondered how you would do as an online stock trader? Want to have $1,000,000 to try your luck / skill at the market? This one Virtual Stock Exchange isn’t really a game. You open an account (it’s free) and are given a million dollars to invest in stocks. You play on the real stock markets, in real time (but with a 15 to 20 minute delay) at real market prices. You can play it alone, or you can join in or set up “competitions” to test yourself against others. There is an incredible array of tools, information, and advice available. It’s just like the real thing because it basically is the real thing. I promise that you will not be disappointed with this one.

Cautious grinder that I am, I invested a little over $3,000 today in three different stocks. One remains unchanged, so I’m still eating the commission on that one. (Yes, there are commissions. Like I said, this is (virtually) the real thing.) One went down a penny. On the third, I’ve taken a short position because I discovered through one of the research tools that the company insiders have been selling. It (grrrrr) went up 1.5% today, but it’ll come down... I know it will come down... maybe tomorrow. Today I lost $178.20.

Have fun, all. I’ve gotta go find a route to lay rails through the hills so I can get passengers and freight into Rome. Lessee... if I dig a tunnel here...<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/dopoll.php"><INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="pollname" VALUE="1070934604Terry">

[pretender2k]

Thanks for the stock site. This should be fun since I would like to do some stock speculation with some of my winnings. I'll try this for at least a couple months first.