It’s that time of year again. PUBCON BABY!

While we’re all excited to hit Vegas yet again as we check the events schedule to plan out which sessions we’ll be attending, I know for sure there’s only one event that is marked in stone on my calendar. The ever popular Pubcon Poker Tournament hosted by DK at Purpose Inc.

This year DK is doing something really cool and requiring all players to post an entry on their blog about a charity in order to qualify for the tournament. Two thumbs up DK! I am always an advocate for doing stuff that counts. While I would normally pimp The Blind Project, a charity that fights to abolish the sex slave trade in Asia, I thought I would bring up another non-profit that I am a member of that is a little more relevant to DK’s event.

The Poker Players Alliance is a non-profit membership organization that fights to give poker players a safe, secure & regulated place to play both online and offline. Lawmakers across the country are fighting to make it more and more difficult to play poker legally both online and offline, whether it be in your homes, bars, or even at charity events such as DK’s. The Poker Players Alliance is a committed group of players devoted to keeping the game of poker alive and legal. If you are a regular or even occasional poker player, the Poker Players Alliance can use your help!

That being said, here are 10 tips to help you win DK’s Poker Tourney!

1. Rest — Pubcon is out of control. For those of you who are regulars, you know what I mean. For those of you who are going for your first time, you’ll see. If the tournament starts at 8:00, I recommend catching a nap beforehand so you’re well rested. Being alert and well rested will seriously improve your game and give you an advantage over the players who are still fighting the hangover from the day before. (That being said, don’t oversleep and miss the tourney altogether like I did last year!)
2. Drinking - Now while not drinking may seem ridiculous at an event when there is an open bar, you can’t play serious poker when your judgements are seriously impaired. If your goal is to win, consider not drinking, or seriously limiting yourself to one or two drinks an hour. Otherwise if you are just there to have a good time and enjoy the open bar… Come sit at my table
3. Don’t Overvalue Hands - If you have top pair top kicker on a board with possible straight and flush draws, be careful about getting all of your money into the pot. Just because you think your opponent isn’t that strong, how do you they’re not trapping? Even if they’re not, do you know the odds that they will draw out to make the best hand? Best advice is to proceed with caution.
4. Don’t Be Predictable - If you find that opponents that you were beating, you are now loosing to hand after hand, maybe you have predictable patterns that players can easily read. Try to change up your play to avoid being too predictable.
5. Remember the Action — One of the things that novice poker players always forget is to keep track of what has already happened in the hand. If your opponent limped in preflop, then checked the flop and turn, and then suddenly fires out a big bet on the river when an Ace hit — does it make sense that he/she has an ace? Why wouldn’t they bet preflop, or when an uncoordinated board came out on the flop?
6. Play A Style Opposite of the Table You Are Seated At - As a general rule of thumb, you will do better in poker when you play a style opposite of the rest of the table. If the table is playing generally aggressive, take a conservative style; if the table is playing conservative, play aggressive.
7. “Poker Tells” — While it is unlikely that you will pick up someone that has a “tell” as obvious as not looking at you when they have a hand, and staring you down when they don’t, be alert of small physical tells like someone who might get nervous and put a chip on their cards when they normally don’t. If you spot on a tell, sit on it. Oh, and, share it with me
8. Respect the Power of Position — While you may have heard that “position is power”, you need to understand why. In blackjack, the house always has position, they get to see what you do before they have to make any decisions. Sometimes you bust before the house has to do anything. The same applies to poker, if you are out of position, your opponent has a lot of information about you based on the decisions you are forced to make before he/she has to do anything.
9. Don’t Get Bored — If this is the first live tournament you’ve played, don’t be surprised when every hand isn’t an all-in showdown of AA vs. KK. Poker tournaments are a lot of sitting around, and a lot of bad cards that you should fold. Don’t get bored and find yourself playing hands that you shouldn’t just because you want something to do.
10. Defense - Tournament poker is much different from cash poker in that you can’t buy back in if you bust out. Because of this you want to play defensively, making sure to defend your chip stack. Tournament play is not the place for outrageous all-in bluffs or chasing down expensive hands to the river if you want to build your stack. Consider not only your strategy on each hand, but your strategy for the tournament as a whole to make it to the final table.

Good luck to everyone that will be playing, hope to see you there!

I was pinged by Monica Wright in the IM Spring Break meme. So here are my 7 reasons you should definitely attend IM Spring Break:

Plus, I have an added BONUS REASON!!! 

REASON #8:

All of the fabulous 7 plus poker!!! Do you NEED more convincing!?

This morning, I did a fun little social experiment with the people in my office using skype. All of my co-workers are used to me sending them random things via skype, so my little “experiment” wasn’t something too out of the ordinary for any of them, most likely they just thought I was being Kenny. The experiment simply consisted of me skyping an arbitrary word to everyone in my office, and seeing their replies. It’s actually kind of interesting (and funny) to see the results. You should try this in your office!

Skype Message: “zebra”

Results:

Sara: “donkey”

Reinard: “antelope”

Joshua: “did you buy a zebra farm?”

Keegan: “finch”

Chris: “who you callin a zebra?”

Magda: “ok”

Austin: “giraffe”

Jon: “braze” (his last name is Braese, pronounced ‘braze’)

Recently there has been some confusion around this image that was posted on the whitehouse.gov:

I would like to clarify, because this image has been circulating around the web as “Bush giving the shocker.” This is not the shocker. This is the shocker:

Notice the lack of space between the index and middle finger on a correctly demonstrated shocker. What Bush, and the rest of the assembly are representing, is Eastside:

The Eastside gang sign is the less popular rival to the Westside sign:

Keep it real.

Here’s a graph that will help you understand the accuracy of statistical data:

A la Jon Braese

I got tagged with this video by @oilman, encouraging me to register to vote. Of course, I have already been registered for months and following the campaign trail closely, but I feel the message is worth spreading none the less. Plus, Todd is just sour because he’s Canadian and can’t vote himself, so I feel its my duty, and yours, to spread the message along for people like him!

My tags are: Cameron Olthuis, Dave Snyder, Austin Curtis, David Brown, and Lisa Bettany!

Go register and then tag 5 more people! Quick!

The Position Tech west coast team went on a harbor cruise for our summer outing. We had a blast!

Check out the pics here

Well, I didn’t actually shoot my friends, but I did go shooting with them. 

Check out the pics!

- Kenny

Here’s a little shoot from the exciting sport of girl jumping. If you’ve never heard of girl jumping, as most people haven’t, it’s pretty self explanatory. There are only 2 rules in this fantastic sport:

1. The girl(s) that you jump have to be complete strangers to all parties involved. (Jumper, Photographer, or bystanders in the involved party)
2. The girl(s) can not have any prior warning before being jumped. This includes loud noises and/or laughing prior to the jump.
It is also best if, after the jump takes place, you continue walking on down the beach. Do not look back, kinda like in rock climbing, you never look down. The same principle applies in girl jumping.

This particular jump took place on Cinco de Mayo, in sunny Isla Vista, CA. Brought to you by Patron Tequila. –kenny