The Well: Tom Bayes

[Tom Bayes]

OK, I've fallen down the well. I'll take questions for the rest of today (Super Bowl Sunday). I probably won't answer questions during the game and my answers will probably be grumpy if da Bears lose.

[Big Limpin]

ok ok ok:
Ditka versus....a hurricane. who wins?
ok, lets say the hurricane was called "Hurricane Ditka"?

[Tom Bayes]

[ QUOTE ]
ok ok ok:
Ditka versus....a hurricane. who wins?
ok, lets say the hurricane was called "Hurricane Ditka"?


[/ QUOTE ]

Well, a hurricane wouldn't be named after Ditka. A blizzard, yes, but not a hurricane. So obviously Ditka beats the hurricane [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Actually I'm still kind of mad at Ditka for not getting Sweetness in the endzone in Super Bowl XX and for his less than masterful coaching job with that team the next couple of seasons. We should have been the dynasty of the 80s, not a one-hit wonder.

[*TT*]

Who are you, where do you play, what do you play, what limits, bla bla bla.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Tom Bayes]

[ QUOTE ]
Who are you, where do you play, what do you play, what limits, bla bla bla.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Who: I'm a 37 year old bachelor. I teach college stats for a living in Kentucky.

Where: Live, my "home" B&M room is Harrah's riverboat in Metropolis, Illinois. I don't like that room because it only has 4 tables and spreads 4/8 limit and 1/2 NL holdem. I occasionally make trips to Tunica. I've never been to Vegas but I hope to fix that this year.

What: I'm a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. I play lots of games and most of my play is low buy-in online tournaments. My favorite game is five-card draw. I like almost all poker games. NLHE isn't my favorite, but I don't mind it. I'd say my least favorite game is omaha high, mainly because limit omaha high sucks and I suck at PLO.

Online I'm mostly playing tourneys in the $3-$10 range or cash games at the $1/$2 to $2/$4 level. I notoriously play below my bankroll. I was intending on trying to play higher in 2007, but with all the recent troubles I've pulled most of my money off the internet and I'm just going to amuse myself with little MTTs as long as I can.

Live, I play mostly holdem because that's all I have ready access to. I'll play limit holdem up to 10/20 and NLHE up to 2/5 if the game has a couple of donks. I'll play limit omaha/8 or stud instead when I have the chance. I'd love to play a small stakes mixed game live.

I'm also notorious for seeking out the most obscure forms of poker online and playing them. I used to play the B2B network a lot because they had draw tournaments and unusual games like sökö and Telesina. I'd like to play more Badugi-in my limited experience I think it could surpass 2-7 TDL in popularity. The little Badugi tournaments at Planet Poker this week have been very soft [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Biggle10]

When did you start playing poker, live/online or otherwise?

[Uncle Wimp]

Why don't you and some of the other posters in the Other Poker forum get together and write a 5CD book that goes beyond the Weisenburg articles? I'd buy it. You can write the chapter on tourney play.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
Why don't you and some of the other posters in the Other Poker forum get together and write a 5CD book that goes beyond the Weisenburg articles? I'd buy it. You can write the chapter on tourney play.

[/ QUOTE ]

You and 15 other people. I hear Kinkos has a buy 10 get 1 free deal right now. j/k

No offense, but there is no market for this. I was talking with Howard at the Gamblers Book Store the other day (he will talk to anyone with ears, he has diarrhea of the mouth but is a sweetheart of a man) when he suddenly decared what books were missing in the market that his customers are always demanding. Things like tournament management, how to set up your own home game, crap like that. I asked him about some odd games like modern 5 card draw and TD - he actually said nobody ever asks about those games - unfortunately proof from the grandpapa of gambling books that there is no market.

[Tom Bayes]

[ QUOTE ]
When did you start playing poker, live/online or otherwise?

[/ QUOTE ]

I learned how to play draw and stud from my great-uncle when I was a teenager, but I never played seriously until about 4 years ago. I was in grad school in the mid-late 1990s and luckily was unaware of IRC Poker or online poker, as I might not have gotten through school so quickly [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

In either late 2002 or early 2003 I had "learned" about holdem and online poker and started at Paradise Poker. I was reading a book on Bayesian stats earlier my first day online, thus the "Tom Bayes" nickname. I deposited $100 and played $0.50/$1 limit holdem. I was terrible and went through a couple of deposits.

I figured out that I'd better either learn how to play decently or quit. I found stuff like 2+2 and RGP on the Internet and got some books and started becoming halfway competent. My first time playing in a casino was in June 2003. Some friends and I were spending a "bachelor's" weekend in the Memphis area with a guy getting married. In addition to partying on Beale Street and going to Al Green's church, we spent a night in Tunica. I played some 4/8 limit at the Grand and had a winning night. I played a cheap live tourney the next day and got AA cracked early.

I didn't really get into tourneys until the end of 2003 when I left Paradise and started playing a lot at UB and Stars. I really liked Stars because the micro tourneys were a cheap and fun way to learn how to play games like omaha and stud and high-low. One of my first final table in a MTT was a $1 Stud/8 at Stars in late 2003. I finished 2nd and played like a real pussy HU. Somewhere in the archives I made a post about it and some dude named Fossilman told me to play more aggressively [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I stumbled across Planet Poker in early 2004. I had gotten Super System and decided I wanted to play draw and lowball, and Planet had some games. I did well in their little tournaments and found that I had more of a knack for draw games than flop or stud games. I also tend to like the more obscure in life-that goes with my taste in music, movies, books, etc. as well.

In 2005 and part of 2006, I played a lot at B2B, particularly PL draw tournaments and some of the unique games like sökö. Currently, I'm playing mostly at Stars, sometimes at Full Tilt or Planet (I still have a bit of a soft spot for that dinky little site).

[Tom Bayes]

[ QUOTE ]
Why don't you and some of the other posters in the Other Poker forum get together and write a 5CD book that goes beyond the Weisenburg articles? I'd buy it. You can write the chapter on tourney play.

[/ QUOTE ]

As *TT* said, this is the smallest of niche markets. Hell, Mike Weisenberg has hardly published any draw or lowball articles in CardPlayer in a couple of years, since that magazine became nothing but articles for newbies and puff pieces glorifying the donkament player du jour.

I did write something up several months ago that I shared with a few people, but I never tried to polish it up for 2+2 Magazine, mostly because I'm selfish and don't want everyone to know how I play [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]