Episode #147: Joe Navarro returns
MAIN TOPIC
Ex-FBI agent Joe Navarro, our favorite expert on nonverbal communication, swings by the studio again to dish on some more tells you should look for at the poker table (hint: look at the thumbs). He has a new book, What Every Body Is Saying, and is still heavy on the poker academy circuit. Click here to hear the show.
OTHER TOPICS
Chris gets a gift: Annie Duke's book has made it to the Dollar Tree!
Chris gets a scoop: So, have you heard about the high-stakes poker player who has been using high-priced call girls? You'll never believe who it was.
Chris gets a lawyer: Well, not yet, but he and other members of the Poker Players Alliance can now get legal advice on poker laws in their hometowns through the PPA's Litigation Support Network.
Chris goes to Washington: Well, again, not yet, but if he had, he would have heard testimony on Capitol Hill this week about how the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is a bear to enforce. Ante Upper Short-Stacked Shamus covered the hearings, and he also has a new podcast.
Chris gets a bracelet: Okay, now I'm really stretching the fantasy. But if he wants a bracelet, Harrah's says cash buy-ins to the World Series of Poker this year of $3,000 or more will have to come with a Social Security or Tax ID number. Also, the Golden Nugget plans a monthlong tournament during the World Series, and check out David Matthews' blog Gambling in Space for some good reviews of Vegas card rooms.
Hotline: StatikKling is relieved to learn that our Omaha analogy was to a stool, not, um, stool. And John from Texas wants to know how people fit all those multitabling tables on their computer screen.
Tampa Bay Poker Replay: The Florida Senate has passed a bill allowing quarter horse racing, which could lead to several new Florida poker rooms if the House and governor go along with it. One-Eyed Jack's is now running Daily Doubles, and help out the students at St. Petersburg Catholic High School by playing in their $200 charity tournament.
One Minute Mystery: Columbo makes the call with his rivered wheel on a board that has flush possibilities, and is rewarded for his bravery as his opponent had just two pair.
HAND OF THE WEEK
Alan (aka BigAl) sends us a hand from a $2/$5 no-limit cash game from Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls.
An early position player, new to the table and believed to be tight aggressive, bumps it to $20, and Alan calls with Js-Jc. The loose button calls as well.
The flop: 3h-Ks-6c.
The raiser bets out $30, Alan calls and the button folds.
The turn: Ac.
Check-check.
The river: Ah
Raiser bets $30 into the $127 pot, Alan calls and takes down the pot against pocket 9s.
NEXT WEEK'S SHOW
Dissecting a HORSE tournament. A member of the Ante Up Nation sent us the strategy he uses to attack HORSE tournaments, and we'll share ours. Send us yours, too.
- SCOTT
Christopher Cosenza is co-host of the longest running poker podcast on the planet, Ante Up! He started playing poker seriously in 2003 and his favorite players are Phil Ivey and Kenna James, though he tends to act like Phil Hellmuth if you make a bad play against him.
Scott Long, Ante Up!'s other co-host, is the author of the monthly Bet on It column in tbt*. He began gambling way too young (don't tell the fuzz!) and in the seventh grade, named his state "Gambleland" for a school project (State Animal? Loan shark, of course).
Chris - Scott
Production values, sketch comedy, in-studio guest. Send this one to the Academy voters. One of your best weeks.
Posted by: aces88ss | April 05, 2008 at 02:19 AM
Scott,
I just read your column in Friday's TBT and I couldn't agree more with your column. The thing that strikes me about people who seek to regulate and push underground various activities that adults wish to engage in, whether it be drinking, gambling, or (add in your favorite vice here), is that they act like addicts themselves.
I have no doubt that there are people out there whose lives have been ruined by drinking, gambling, smoking, etc. But for every addict, there are many who enjoy these behaviors responsibly. The interests that choose to make drinking or gambling illegal, or at least a pain in the ass, believe that if they can just manipulate this one law, make this one behavior illegal, that they will change people, and thereby make something of their own lives.
They are, in a way, enablers. They're confident that they can fix people who are broken by taking away the behavior that currently gets them into trouble, not realizing that addicts will be addicts, and if it's not legal gambling at a Florida casino, it will be trips to Vegas or underground gambling in the basements of cheats and hustlers. If they can't gamble, they'll seek another way to fill their emptiness and desperation, through drinking, illegal drugs, etc.
There are elements of society so desperate to fix broken people that they place blame on the behaviors, rather than the people who abuse those behaviors. In doing so, they send a message that people are not responsible for their own lives - and if people are not responsible for their own lives, then they'll seek something else to fix their blame upon.
Banning gambling, drinking, even drugs, does nothing more than make gambling, drinking and drugs more dangerous. If anything, it can create addicts. The morality addicts need to realize that if people are to change, they must look to themselves first, and stop feeding their compulsion to control other people.
Posted by: Mike | April 05, 2008 at 01:19 PM
The video instruction available on Joe's website (iAmplify Store) is $130. I would like to see it but, wont at that price. Joe is quite an interesting interview. He should have a segment on the show like Columbo, even one tip a month would be great. Chris, another speeding ticket? Ouch!
Posted by: Lincoln | April 06, 2008 at 11:14 PM
I like to play the $5 HORSE SNGs on FTP. In nearly every one there is someone who signed up for the wrong tournament or has no idea how to play razz. Make sure you are in the first two or three razz hands, find that player and punish them.
Posted by: nzgreen | April 07, 2008 at 06:09 AM
Yea $130 for a hour and a half video is redonkulous. I really wanted to watch it too. I really enjoyed Joe's segment in the show.
Posted by: NateTrib | April 07, 2008 at 09:37 PM
Great Book! Check out "The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How to Think Like One". It's by David Sklansky, helped me out alot!
Posted by: UK Poker Player | April 13, 2008 at 06:09 AM