Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Faldo Wins for the 3rd Time This Season!

Faldo came in from behind, with a rush late(twss).

Seventeen made it to the NPP felt tonight. Really sixteen as Douge2 never made it in. But his chips did.

No cards early for Faldo, but cards at the right time to stay alive. Other players chopped down the big trees (stacks) and Faldo caught cards late to vacuum up the chips.

That is all there was to it. A run of cards late in the tourney. Just what you want.

We did learn that RodCPA joins Boother36, LittleRedElf, K9isadog, Fourbetbluff, ThePunk75, Nahanni74, T3chlady, 95corolla and a few others as have cashed large in the tourney circuit.

But with two WSOP cashes – 3rd in 2007 and 30th in 2011 in the Senior events for almost $200K, he probably is the highest cashing player at NPP.

I asked for some stories and I hope Rod will send them along.

On to the action:

14 min: Tommydoo’s (17th) two pair loses to RodCPA’s trip.
21 min: KingBing420 (16th) loses a coin flip with (Ad Kd) to RodCPA’s (TT).
27 min: BigDaddyTman (15th) loses to Wingsfancurt’s two pair.
33 min: A rare double kill by T3chlady with (QQ) to take out short-stacked (SS) Tomservo2 (14th) with (A8) and SS Derf-63 (13th) with (55).

40 min: LittleRedElf (12th) goes with his (AK) and a flop of [98K] and run into RodCPA’s (99)!

47 min: A SS 95corolla (11th) is double teamed by Absea98 and the winner with a straight, RodCPA.

48 min: Suetman123 (10th) missed the hand watching the one above at my table.


1st break:
RodCPA 7094
Wingsfancurt 6511
Cigar4John 3621
T3chlady 2966
Mikeniks-Faldo 1529
Absea98 1059
8thmile 1035
K9isadog 820
Douge2 815 (no show)

64 min: K9isadog (9th) loses to T3chlady’s flush.
72 min: 8thmile (8th) Phone call – missed it.
83 min: Douge2 (7th) blinds out.
100 min: A SS Absea98 (6th) has to go with (A6) but T3chlady has (JJ).

2nd break:
Wingsfancurt 9480
RodCPA 8765
Mikeniks-Faldo 2859
Cigar4John 2281
T3chlady 2115

This group settles in and goes to war.

133 min: A SS T3chlady (5th) has to go with (Kd 6d) but RodCPA has (AJ).
153 min: A now SS RodCPA (4th) saw is big stack get broken down by chase downs and then sees his (Jh 8h) pair on the flop, only to see Wingsfancurt with (A5) hit his [A] on the river. Sometimes it is just not in the cards.

165 min: A SS Cigar4John (3rd) sees his (TT) get double teamed by Wingsfancurt and Mikeniks-Faldo with (KJ) and a flopped [J]..

Heads up Wingsfancurt 16500 Mikeniks-Faldo 9000

175 min: Even
3rd Break:
Mikeniks-Faldo 19155
Wingsfancurt 6345

184 min: A SS Wingsfancurt (2nd) has his pair of fours beaten by Mikeniks-Faldo’s trip Aces.

Congratulations to Wingsfancurt on moving up the points board.

1st – Mikeniks-Faldo
2nd – Wingsfancurt
3rd – Cigar4John
4th – RodCPA
5th – T3chlady
6th – Absea98
7th – Douge2
8th – 8thmile
9th – K9isadog
10th – Suetman123
11th – 95corolla
12th – LittleRedElf
13th – Derf-63
14th – Tomservo2
15th – BigDaddyTman
16th - KingBing420
17th - Tommydoo

The total point standings are on the right side of the blog! Remember the top 3 point getters in this 12 round league get a seat in the NPP Finals!

And also remember already [qualified players] are not counted and Faldo is not eligible for the final.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

ThePunk75 Rides a Chip and a Chair to a 5th Place Finish at the Electric Stick


Even Jennifer Aniston wants to know how he did that?? ThePunk75 tells us with a superb write up.

“This wasn't the first time I've been down to a chip and a chair and come back, but the timing of this one was special.

It was last Sunday at The Electric Stick. We are given 35k to start the tournament and right at the end of the first blind level (25/50 blinds) this hand left me crippled.

I played A3 on button. The was a preflop raise to 300, I hate playing A3 under most circumstances but the button made me call and there were 5 callers so there was already a decent pot brewing.

Flops comes [248] checked all around I don't remember what the turn was but someone bet 1k, and I call as do 2 others. River is the 5 and I have made my wheel.

SB leads out 3500, BB reraises to 7000. Folds around to me and I literally have this sick feeling. I have hit my hand and its looks like its no good. My initial thought was the SB also had the wheel and BB had 67 and hit the bigger straight, so if I flat call I get to see and only lose 7k if he did hit it. So I call the 7k.

Then SB goes all in. BB sits there for a minute and folds. Now what do I do. Go with my first read? Rethink the entire hand? How can I fold? All I know is that I might be forever be taking A3 out of my range at any bet level after this fiasco. After a couple of seconds I decide I can't fold, I have to go with my first read, so I call. SB turns over 67. Great. The BB says he had a set.

After all of this I was left with 525 chips. 1.5% of my starting stack. I say at least I have 10 bbs left. As soon as I finished saying that the blinds go up to 50/100. This gives me even less chance of getting many folds on my impending shove.

Very next hand I get AK. Shove. 3 callers. Flop comes AA10. BAM. It’s checked down to river and the running 9's gave me the full house and I held the only A. Now with something like 1800 chips I look down at AK again. Shove. 3 callers. Flop a king and it holds and I have just under 4k and I literally can't believe this.

Next hand there was a preflop raise and I look down at A10, and I figure lets ride this one more time and shove. 2 callers. It was a rag board, and Q on turn, and I'm thinking my luck ran out. A ten hits river and it’s checked around again. I turn over my A10 for a pair of tens and that’s the best hand. One guy said he had AJ.

From 525 all the way back to about 13k in 3 hands and now I have some breathing room. I took down a couple more pots with AK and a set of queens before the break, and had about 16k. First hand after break, AA I raise to 1400(200/400 blinds) with two callers.
Flop is KQ4 all clubs. I check my cards for the club. Yep ace of clubs is down there. I’m going all in on this hand but I want to try and extract some chips first so I check hoping for a bet with the paint of the board. One guy bets and I shove over the top he calls. He shows KQ, which was the hand I didn't want to see him turnover. But the turn was the club I needed and after a fist pump I raked the pot and my comeback was complete, as I now had just about my starting stack back.

The cards went cold for awhile and the blinds were eating me up so I look down at 55 and shove my last 28k, two callers and they both have AQ. My fives hold and a nice triple up.

Now in BB, an UTG shove, and I see 66 and call. He has me covered in chips so this is it for me. A queen hits the flop and I stand up. The 6 hits the turn. I sit down. I now have ballpark of 130k.

We get through one more orbit and I'm in BB again. Another shove on my BB and just as I look down at 55, the tournament director says final table is set. Now what do I do, I have made it to final table if I fold. But I really am short-stacked to do anything but shove once I get there. I call. He shows AK. I hit a 5 on flop and another fist pump. But he gets a straight draw on turn, but misses the river.

The player asked me after the hand how I call that. I said I needed chips to do anything at final table and 55 has been good for me tonight. An equal 8 way chop (with top 3 playing for remaining balance) was agreed upon at the Final Table.

Seeing I wasn't even supposed to be there I had no argument for that. My final hand went down like this. 6 players left, an all in from UTG, and all in for less next to me and look down at 77. Seeing a chance to triple up again and have a shot at the additional cash I call, and I’m against 99 and A10. The nines held and I finished 5th.”

ThePunk75

What a night and what a story! Great job Punk, and thanks for the re-cap.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

LittleRedElf On His Recent Success – Faldo 5th in Rise Poker Tourney

LittleRedElf gets extra motivation from his cheering section.

Faldo wants preface this article by saying Faldo asked “The Great and Powerful Elf” to write something about his success over the last two straight NPP tourneys. As you may have noticed, Faldo was at a loss for words (accolades?).

LittleRedElf graciously agreed.

“The first thing I want to say is this: I do not play this league tourney any differently than I would the previous league $5.50 tourneys or any real money event.” [Ed. Note: Obviously Elf and thank you from the league for that. Faldo plays the same too (but that is what is wrong with Faldo’s game in the first place)]

“The first hand I was dealt was AK suited which I raised 3x pre flop, it did not hit anything but I took it down with a bet on the turn, then the next hand was KJ suited which hit the J on the flop.

I do not remember a lot of hands but I do know that I won the first 7 showdowns I was in which is very significant. I bluffed a few times in certain instances when I felt I could take down the hand.

There was a big hand against CPA where I held 77 and foolishly called his bets and caught a 7 for a full house on the river. He was very upset set at me for doing that. My contention about that hand is this:

I never made any moves except call his bets, including his all-in at the end when his AA was beat. He did not need to do that. The next hand I got QQ, hit a Q on the flop and got a lot of chips from somebody (I can’t remember, maybe Absea98) who had KK.

So yes, in those two hands and the final one with T3CHLADY who held 99 against my A/10 (I caught an ace on the river, like Barry Greenstein’s book), I was significantly behind pre flop and got lucky.

The hand with ThePunk75, I was holding 6/2 in the big blind I think, there was no raise pre flop and the flop was 663. The turn was a J and I bet a little chunk and punk called with his jack.

The river was the last 6 and I bet a little more than the pot, but only about a third of punk’s stack. He pushes all-in and of course I call with my quads. My point is: why didn’t ThePunk75 just call?

If I just have a jack, we split the pot no matter the size. Why push in more chips? Poker is brutal. We have all been on both ends of bad beats. It’s just the nature of the game. I’ve been fortunate the last 2 weeks.”
Regards, Dave

Thanks Dave! There you have it folks. You have to be good…and lucky. That’s poker.

But it sure helps a lot if you are as good as LittleRedElf. I speak for the entire NPP family when I say that it is a pleasure to play against you, Elf.

Speaking of lucky, Faldo finished 5th in a Rise Poker tourney finishing 5th out of 151.

The end came on a hand I thought I played well. Your opinion please!

I am 4th in chips in the SB with 9 BB’s left. The villain is 5th in chips in the cutoff with 12 BB. I look down and see (22).

UTG calls the blind, as does the villain and the button. What to do?

I don’t like a shove here. Not with (22). What do the NPP pros think? If I get heads up, I MIGHT be a coin flip and if there are multiple callers, which I think there will be at least two, then I am behind.

I call set-mining and if that fails maybe one or two of these mopes get eliminated. We take the flop as a family. I like the pot but obviously, but have to get lucky to earn it.

So that is not happening. It’s Faldo. The flop comes rainbow [4 7 8]. I check although a shove here may be a better option. The only problem is that the BB could have hit this flop and have me dominated.

But to my dismay, he checks as does the UTG player. The villain moves all-in and the button folds. I smell over-cards only and call, super relieved when the BB and UTG fold also.

The villain has (KJ) and hits a [J] on the river.

I built myself a big pot and got to the showdown as over a 2 to 1 favorite. I think the hand is a Faldo success story, except for the outcome which doesn’t mean anything.

Comments on this hand?

Friday, November 25, 2011

The True Story of Thanksgiving

History revisionism is not something that’s been going on since outcome based education. It’s been going on for quite a while. The false story of Thanksgiving can be summed up very quickly.

The Pilgrims came from England to escape oppression. They arrived in a new land and were immediately overwhelmed with their own incompetence as human beings. They couldn’t grow food. They couldn’t feed themselves. They couldn’t protect themselves. They had no clue what to do.

Our schools and the media have obliterated the contributions of America’s earliest permanent settlers, the Pilgrims. Why? Because they were people inspired by profound religious beliefs and overcame incredible odds. Today, public schools are simply not teaching how important the religious dimension was in shaping our history and our nation’s character.

President Washington’s holiday declaration for Thanksgiving spoke only of using this day to thank God for the many blessings and miracles he gave our nation. Period!

There was nothing about thanking the Indians or stuffing ourselves. Whether teachers are just uncomfortable with this material or whether there’s been a concerted effort to cover up the truth, the results are the same. Kids are no longer learning enough to understand and appreciate how and why America was created.

The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century. The Church of England under King James was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs. A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community.

After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible.

The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning.

During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford’s own wife – died of starvation, sickness or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper!

This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments.

Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives.

He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. That’s right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened?

It didn’t work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation!
But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for hundreds of years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.

Here now, in its entirety, the William Bradford journal, what he wrote about the social experiment after abandoning what essentially was socialism shortly after the Pilgrims had arrived in the United States or in the new world:

“The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,” Bradford wrote. “For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense…that was thought injustice.”

Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They harnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the under girding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products.

Not just use themselves and not just send to a common store but they could market. They could grow as much, they could sell it for what they could get for it, and the incentive was clear to do as much as possible on both sides. “And what was the result? This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’ Bradford doesn’t sound like much of a Obama-maniac, does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes.

In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.

And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’ Now, let me ask you: Have you read this history before? Is this lesson being taught to your children today? If not, why not?

Nevertheless, the Pilgrims and the Puritans of early New England are often vilified today as witch burners and portrayed as simpletons. But to the contrary, it was their commitment to pluralism and free worship that led to these ideals being incorporated into American history, and our history books purposely conceal the fact that these notions were developed by communities of devout Christians who studied the Bible and found that it prescribes limited representative government and free enterprise as the best political and economic systems. Now, there’s only one word for this, folks. It’s censorship.

That’s what’s being taught today. What is not being taught today is the devotion to God that these people had, but the failure of a socialist compact to adequately provide for the residents of the first colony and how William Bradford himself saw it was failing almost from the outset and devised a new compact which was basically capitalism and unfettered competition, and incentive, and then it was Katie bar the door. All of these things are part of the original Thanksgiving, and even when I go back and remember my days in school, I was not taught this. I was not taught the involvement and the references to God.

I was not taught that the Pilgrims had all this bounty after awhile and shared it with the Indians. It was quite the opposite. The purpose of teaching Thanksgiving when I was a kid was to tell all of us just how wonderful the Indians were and how well they treated us when we arrived because we were basically inept and incompetent.

I enjoy passing this story along every Thanksgiving because we’ve been doing it here since I published and wrote the book, and it always reaches new people. Every year we do it, people who have never heard it before are amazed. Now, if I was able to find it and get the true story, it’s out there, but it’s not in conventional history textbooks that you’ll find in many of the public schools.

Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Douge2's Humor Corner - Evidence

The Recession has hit everybody.....

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

The US Communist Party laid off 25 of its Democrat Congressmen.

A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.

I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or Them.

McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

And, finally...

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.


Would You Marry Again?


A husband and wife are sitting quietly in bed reading when the Wife looks over
at him and asks the question....

WIFE: "What
would you do if I died? Would you get married again?"

HUSBAND:
"Definitely not!"

WIFE: "Why not? Don't you like being married?"

HUSBAND: "Of course I do.."

WIFE: "Then why wouldn't you remarry? "

HUSBAND: "Okay, okay, I'd get married again."

WIFE: "You would?" (with a hurt voice)

HUSBAND: (makes audible groan)

WIFE: "Would you live in our house?"

HUSBAND: "Sure, it's a great house….and the kids know where it is."

WIFE: "Would you sleep with her in our bed?"

HUSBAND: "Where else would we sleep?"

WIFE: "Would you let her drive my car?"

HUSBAND: "Probably, it is almost new."

WIFE: "Would you replace my pictures with hers?"

HUSBAND: "That would seem like the proper thing to do."

WIFE: "Would you give her my jewelry?"

HUSBAND: "No, I'm sure she'd want her own."

WIFE: "Would you take her golfing with you?

HUSBAND: "Yes, those are always good times."

WIFE: "Would she use my clubs?

HUSBAND: "No, she's left-handed."

WIFE: -----silence -----

HUSBAND: "shit."

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

LittleRedElf Wins His 2nd in a Row! 3rd of the Year and His 13th NPP Tourney!

When you are a great player …and then the deck shines on you, the rest of us might as well say good night. And we all did. [Ed. Note: Same heading as last week!]

We welcome KenLamb to the NPP felt.

And a hat tip to Faldo for showing him in. Ken received the typical NPP welcome of an early elimination. Don’t take it personal Ken. We treat everyone that way the first week. [Ed. Note: Same third paragraph as last week!]

Besides, LittleRedElf was on fire so there was nothing any of us could do anyways. [Ed. Note: Same 4th paragraph as last week!]

It was Groundhog’s Day and déjà vu all over again. A repeat. The same. Ditto.
It was Groundhog’s Day and déjà vu all over again. A repeat. The same. Ditto.
It was Groundhog’s Day and déjà vu all over again. A repeat. The same. Ditto.

On to the action:

10 min: Cigar4John (16th) Losing my hand to LittleRedElf on the other table and didn’t see it.

18 min: KingBing420 (15th) with (A9) hits an [A] on the flop, but Tomservo2 with (QQ) hits a [Q]! Ouch! A lot of OUCHES tonight!

29 min: Tommydoo (14th) Missed it while winning my hand at the other table.
32 min: K9isadog (13th) with (44) loses a coin flip to ThePunk75 with (AK) and an [A] on the flop.

43 min: A short-stacked (SS) KenLamb (12th) sees his (7d 6d) run into ThePunk75’s (AJ).

50 min: A SS 8thmile (11th) sees his pocket (77) lose coin flip to Suetman123’s (KJ) with a [KJQ] flop.

52 min: A SS 96corolla (10th) goes with (6h 5h) but cannot catch LittleRedElf’s (QJ).
60 min: Mikeniks-Faldo (9th) flops trips, but Tomsevo2 flopped two pair, and hit a straight on the turn. Déjà vu for Faldo from last week. OUCH!

1st break:
Tomservo2 5730
LittleRedElf 4683
ThePunk75 3772
RodCPA 2517
T3chlady 2302
Suetman123 2163
Derf-63 1444
Absea98 1389

75 min: RodCPA (8th) has (AA) and LittleRedElf has (77). LRE hits a [7] on the river! OUCH!

88 min: A SS Absea98 (7th) has to go with (AQ) but he is two-timed by Suetman123 and the winner ThePunk75 with (A7) who hits a [7] on the flop. OUCH!

91 min: A SS Derf-63 (6th) has to go with (AJ) but ThePunk75 has (Kc Tc) and hits a [K] on the flop. OUCH!

94 min: A SS Tomservo2 (5th) has his (Q4) with a [Q] on the flop, lose to LittleRedElf’s (QJ).

105 min: ThePunk75 (4th) sees his full house run into LittleRedElf’s QUADS!! OUCH!

106 min: A SS Suetman123 (3rd) sees her (QJ) run into LittleRedElf’s (KJ).

Heads up LittleRedElf 21000 T3chlady 3000

109 min: A SS T3chlady (2nd) has her pair of nines beaten by LittleRedElf’s Aces.

Congratulations to LittleRedElf on his 13th NPP win!

1st – LittleRedElf
2nd – T3chlady
3rd – Suetman123
4th – ThePunk75
5th – Tomservo2
6th – Derf-63
7th – Absea98
8th – RodCPA
9th – Mikeniks-Faldo
10th – 95corolla
11th – 8thmile
12th – KenLamb
13th – K9isadog
14th – Tommydoo
15th – KingBing420
16th - Cigar4John

The total point standings are on the right side of the blog! Remember the top 3 point getters in this 12 round league get a seat in the NPP Finals!

And also remember already [qualified players] are not counted and Faldo is not eligible for the final.

Ms. Barnhardt's Entire Letter - No Rules, Except for Us Serfs

BCM Has Ceased Operations (source)
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - November 17, AD 2011 10:27 AM MST
Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global.

Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse.

Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses.

I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.

Perhaps the most ominous dynamic that I have yet heard of in regards to this mess is that of the risk of potential CLAWBACK actions. For those who do not know, “clawback” is the process by which a bankruptcy trustee is legally permitted to re-seize assets that left a bankrupt entity in the time period immediately preceding the entity’s collapse. So, using the MF Global customers as an example, any funds that were withdrawn from MFG accounts in the run-up to the collapse, either because of suspicions the customer may have had about MFG from, say, watching the company’s bond yields rise sharply, or from purely organic day-to-day withdrawls, the bankruptcy trustee COULD initiate action to “clawback” those funds.

As a hedge broker, this makes my blood run cold. Generally, as the markets move in favor of a hedge position and equity builds in a client’s account, that excess equity is sent back to the customer who then uses that equity to offset cash market transactions OR to pay down a revolving line of credit. Even the possibility that a customer could be penalized and additionally raped AGAIN via a clawback action after already having their customer funds stolen is simply villainous. While there has been no open indication of clawback actions being initiated by the MF Global trustee, I have been told that it is a possibility.

And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.

Remember, derivatives contracts are NOT NECESSARY in the commodities markets. The cash commodity itself is the underlying reality and is not dependent on the futures or options markets. Many people seem to have gotten that backwards over the past decades. From Abel the animal husbandman up until the year 1964, there were no cattle futures contracts at all, and no options contracts until 1984, and yet the cash cattle markets got along just fine.

Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform. So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy.

To my clients, who literally TO THE MAN agreed with my assessment of the situation, and were relieved to be exiting the markets, and many whom I now suspect stayed in the markets as long as they did only out of personal loyalty to me, I can only say thank you for the honor and pleasure of serving you over these last years, with some of my clients having been with me for over twelve years. I will continue to blog at Barnhardt.biz, which will be subtly re-skinned soon, and will continue my cattle marketing consultation business. I will still be here in the office, answering my phones, with the same phone numbers.

Alas, my retirement came a few years earlier than I had anticipated, but there was no possible way to continue given the inevitability of the collapse of the global financial markets, the overthrow of our government, and the resulting collapse in the rule of law.

As for me, I can only echo the words of David:

“This is the Lord’s doing; and it is wonderful in our eyes.”

With Best Regards-
Ann Barnhardt

Monday, November 21, 2011

Open Letter to All of My NPP Friends

As you know (or should), Faldo wants only the best for his friends and family. As I learn things (and think and predict things) I want to share it with those I hold dear.

This is a real letter from a real CEO who lives, breathes and eats investing, wealth management and financial security.

Do what you will with the information I supply:

From: Barnhardt Capital Management
To: All Investors
Subject: BCM Shut Down -The Liquidation of All Assets Back to Investors
From: CEO of Barnhardt Capital Mgmt.

"The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not.

The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity.

In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.

Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform.

So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy." - Ann Barnhardt

Ms. Barnhardt also insists Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank have to go...out of government (Ed. Note: and preferably to jail or a firing squad) before she would start her business again.

In addition, if anyone saw “60 Minutes” last night, our main stream media STILL openly broadcasts the Democrat lie that it was the banks, corporate CEO’s and Wall Street - alone - to blame for the economic disasters spreading across the globe. They used none other than the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde to regurgitate the lies.

The fault rests completely with the socialist and communist governments across the planet (the United States included), and the cronie - "government help and bailouts to certain friends of Democrats/Socialist parties" - and insider trading and government loan guarantees to political friends.

All of this corruption is Democrat rooted. If it was not, NAMES would be attached to it, not generalities like "Wall Street", "bankers" and "speculators". The media is as guilty for not reporting the truth as the actual criminals are for their activity.

Governments also cannot continue to print worthless paper and pretend you have funds to give to unproductive people and not drag down the wealth of all that earn it.

Research about the economic collapse of Argentina. See what is happening in Greece. The United States is on the brink of the same fate.

Personally, I feel like Joe Paterno.

Even though I don’t personally witness it, I know every liberal, Democrat and Democrat voter is responsible AND continues to drag our nation into the sewer - either thru treason or gross ignorance and arrogance.

Yet – I do nothing. Well, certainly not enough. Not near enough.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Chess Magic - Too Many Knights Alone

Black to move and win.

White is about to move his h-pawn to the last rank and then promote it to a Queen. Black must 'get er' done' soon before re-enforcements arrive.

Find the three move win for Black.

PS: The standings have been updated by PokerStars and are correct on the right side of the blog.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Niks Poker Palace - 1000th Post!


Wow! Started on July 12, 2006 with an article on the best internet poker sites to play on. Poker Stars was #1 and Bodog was #2.

Talk about Faldo advice being dead on! History proved that Faldo - way back when - steered players to the two sites with the most integrity.

PokerStars paid their US players when they had to shut down and BoDog has announced their closing date to US players at the end of this football season - so ample warning to cash out.

If everyone had just listened to Faldo (including Faldo) everyone would have all their poker funds cashed out.

Anyway, this labor of love was the brain child of Davethedog (4putt). And he still contributes here on the odd occasion (like the last video post). Other regular contributors include Douge2's Humor Column, and he gets anonymous assistance from Bigbrimar.

4Putt convinced me, after a day of golf (he was - back then - not fully neutered yet) and beer drinking - and then 5 pitchers of beer with cigars at Hooters in Novi, that I could and should write a poker blog.

Stupid beer always gets me in trouble. But in the immortal words of Beerhog, "You can't drink all day if you don't get started in the morning." 4putt and I gave it a try that day.

But a blog is not successful without readers! Readers are the most important thing. They are the yardstick that measures how good your blog is!

I want to take this opportunity to thank my faithful readers! So Thank You! - to both of you.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Boother36 and the Hartland Poker Tour - Needs a Little Hand Help!

Can the NPP poker brain trust let Boother36 know what they would have done in this spot?

"I know firsthand that NPP players are some of the best around. So I am asking for some help with analyzing a hand. Here is the set up:

This is the first hand of a $360 qualifier for the Hartland Poker Tour. The top 20% win a buy-in to the Main Event ($1,650). The starting stacks are at $10,000.

The blinds are $100/$100. The button is in seat 1, yours truly is UTG, Villain #1 is in seat 7 and Villain #2 is the BB.

I get my cards and look down 8-8. I bump it to $400. V#1 calls and V#2 calls as well.

Flop comes A-10-A. It checks around.

The turn is an 8. V#2 checks, and I bet $500, V#1 calls and so does V#2.

River is a 6. V#1 checks, I make it $2,200, V#1 thinks about it and calls, V#2 thinks even longer and makes it $7,000. Still thinking I have the bet hand, I push all in. V#1 calls and V#2 insta-calls.

We roll them over, V#1 has A-J (and is very proud of it….pointing at it vigorously like he has something really special!!), V#2 shows A-10. And just like that, I am out on the first hand!! I have never done that before…but I guess there is a first time for everything!!!

So here is my thought process…..I put both of them on an Ace each…guessing that they were novices/amateurs, I figured them to be all excited about a having a set of A’s and not likely to fold. While I was right with my read, I guess I didn’t think far enough along that one of them would actually have their hole cards matched the board….so I guess I under estimated my opponents!!

I am looking for some feedback and thoughts by some of the other NPP players. What would you have done?? Could you have laid down a hand that had a better than 98% chance of winning on the first hand of a “big” tourney?!?!?

Any analysis would be appreciated. And I expect a few smart-ass comments as well!!
BTW – this is a very similar hand to one in the 2005 WSOP Main Event when Sammy Farha was up against some famous actress’s husband and the flop came A-10-A too. The “famous by association” dude had 10-10 and Sammy had the A-10….that duesch lost to Sammy and went out on the first hand too!!"

Boother36

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

LittleRedElf Wins His 2nd of the Year and His 12th NPP Tourney!

When you are a great player …and then the deck shines on you, the rest of us might as well say good night. And we all did.

LittleRedElf wins in a walk and slides past Hartland Poker Tour pro Boother36 on the NPP Walk of Fame. Nicely done Elf!

We welcome RodCPA to the NPP felt. And a hat tip to Derf-63 for showing him in. Rod received the typical NPP welcome of an early elimination. Don’t take it personal Rod. We treat everyone that way the first week.

Besides, LittleRedElf was on fire so there was nothing any of us could do anyways.

On to the action:

12 min: T3chlady (14th) Missed it by losing my hand at the other table.
25 min: Cigar4john (13th) sees his 2 pair lose to Wingsfancurt’s straight.
51 min: A short-stacked (SS) RodCPA (12th) sees his (A9) run into 95corolla’s (AK).
52 min: Pre01 (11th) sees his pocket (88) lose to Suetman123’s pair of kings.
60 min: Tomservo2 (10th) I usually miss the final table bubble hand.

1st break:
Wingsfancurt 4075
Suetman123 2860
Absea98 2720
95corolla 2685
Tommydoo 2290
Derf-63 2145
LittleRedElf 1550
8thmile 1475
Mikeniks-Faldo 1200

76 min: Tommydoo (9th) flops top pair, but LittleRedElf flopped two pair.
82 min: SS Mikeniks-Faldo (8th) has to go with (Ah Th) but LittleRedElf has (JJ).
100 min: A SS Suetman123 (7th) has to go with (AK) but Wingsfancurt hits a 9 on the flop with (As 9s).

105 min: A SS Derf-63 (6th) has to go with (KT) but can’t catch Wingsfancurt with (AT).
107 min: 8thmile (5th) has his (AK) lose to LittleRedElf’s (JJ).
115 min: A SS Absea98 (4th) has to go with (A7) and runs into 95corolla’s (66).

2nd break:
LittleRedElf 9860
Wingsfancurt 8790
95corolla 2350

134 min: A SS 95corolla (3rd) sees his pair get out-kicked by LittleRedElf.

Heads up Wingsfancurt 13000 LittleRedElf 8000
140 min: Wingsfancurt 6300 LittleRedElf 14700
145 min: Wingsfancurt 3300 LittleRedElf 17700

147 min: A SS Wingsfancurt (2nd) has his pair out-kicked by LittleRedElf

Congratulations to LittleRedElf on his 12th NPP win!

1st – LittleRedElf
2nd – Wingsfancurt
3rd – 95corolla
4th – Absea98
5th – 8thmile
6th – Derf-63
7th – Suetman123
8th – Mikeniks-Faldo
9th – Tommydoo
10th – Tomservo2
11th – Pre01
12th – RodCPA
13th – Cigar4John
14th - T3chlady

The total point standings are on the right side of the blog! Remember the top 3 point getters in this 12 round league get a seat in the NPP Finals!

And also remember already [qualified players] are not counted and Faldo is not eligible for the final.

Community Card Review - Liberal School System's Current Crop of Disasters

Pharaoh Obama’s Ministry of Justice, led by Field Marshall Eric (“I won’t prosecute my people who intimidate voters, but I will sell guns to Mexican Drug Lords in order to blame it on the 2nd amendment”) Holder, is demanding the Alabama school districts turn over a list of names.

They want a record of all students that have dropped out of school this year. The reason? The Communist and Chief wants to see if Alabama’s immigration laws are hurting school attendance by illegal immigrants children.

It was in late September of this year when a Federal judge upheld most of Alabama’s immigration laws.

The Obama dictatorship is suing the State of Alabama for trying to enforce the few FEDERAL immigration laws the FEDERAL court still allowed them to enforce. Czar Obama’s Injustice Department is also suing South Carolina for the same reasons.

A sitting president of the United States, not only failing to enforce federal laws, but using tax payer money to attack those that do, is an out and out violation of his oath of office and an act of treason.

Not that anyone seems to care.

The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation accidentally reported what was an inadvertent act of journalism when wide spread cheating was discovered done by school administrators.

No, the school administrators did not catch cheaters – 180 of them - were the cheaters! They falsified test scores and up-ticked grades of many students to show higher levels of achievement than they actually earned.

The cheating was all about greed. If the students had better grades, the administrators got more funding for their pension plans. [You didn’t think most of the education dollars goes to the classroom – did you? With unions involved? Seriously?? Albert Shanker, head of the United Federation of Teachers once proudly remarked, “I’ll worry about children when they start paying union dues.”]

The students of the Atlanta school system are really worried that this will affect their ability to be accepted into or then perform at colleges they wish to attend.

If liberals can treat children that they are supposed to be caring for this way in order to enrich themselves, one should ask, “What else are liberals lying about and who else are they cheating?”

If Atlanta school children can ask themselves those questions, they may learn one of the most important life lessons – in spite of the liberal school system they were forced to attend.

After decades of coddling student trouble makers in school, New Jersey school administrators claim to now have a ‘bullying’ epidemic in the schools. So the rules are changing.

The act of jumping in front of the school lunch line can now be reported to the POLICE thru the Crime Stopper’s Hot Line. If only the Penn State grad student had witnessed someone ‘taking cuts’ instead, Joe would still be coaching. But I digress. . [I take it Tony Soprano’s NJ union docks where people are still sent to ‘sleep with the fishes are exempt from the new rules? I’m just sayin’.]

Children in school from kindergarten on up will take six hours of training on how to become a state sponsored public snitch, as opposed to a private citizen tattle-tale. [No fear of early Hitler Brown Shirt training. Nothing to see here. Move along.]

Students will be taught that if they see bullying, they are to ‘butt in’, because there are no ‘innocent bystanders’. [No prelude to ‘your neighbor had a banned newspaper, so you MUST have read it too.’ Nothing to see here. Move along.]

Each school must employ an “Anti-bullying Specialist” to investigate complains. Each district must employ an “Anti-bullying Coordinator.” Results must be published on the State’s Education Website. [No union featherbedding here. Of course there is money to pay for all of these salaries – and pensions - and most important, union dues. Nothing to see here. Move along.]

No United States left to see. Move along.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Enjoying Cigars - A Classic Line of Puros


H. Upmann is among the oldest cigar brands in existence, dating back to the 1840s. Around 1840, banker Herman Upmann opened a branch office in Havana, which provided ample opportunity to send cigars home to Europe.

The possibilities of a commercial endeavor became clear to Upmann and in 1844 he invested in a cigar factory and the H. Upmann brand was launched. This made Upmann one of the first non- Cubans who made a name for himself in the cigar industry.

Upmann is sometimes even credited with the invention of packaging cigars in cedar boxes to give to their customers.

Through the late 1800s, the H. Upmann brand gained international recognition at various exhibitions and won seven gold medals which still adorn the lithographed art on today's H. Upmann boxes, along with Hermann Upmann's original signature.

The favorite cigar of US President John F. Kennedy was the H. Upmann Petit Coronas. The night before the Kennedy embargo on Cuba was signed, he had aide Pierre Salinger procure every box he could gather from Washington, DC tobacconists, for a total of 1,200 of his favorite cigars.

Et tu, Democrat? Democrat laws for the low masses only - existed even then.

H. Upmann cigars are classified as mild to medium strength, but Faldo finds them to be medium-strong. After all, they are of a pure Cuban blend heritage. H. Upmann is a great cigar, but a little pricey.

H. Upmann maintains it’s #3 favorite USA cigar status. With 30 different styles, Faldo is not done trying this brand.

Friday, November 11, 2011

The First Linebacker ...uh, First Lady Arrives at State Dinner...Seriously???

Caption this photo.....

For instance, "This is embarrassing. Can't our country's cheap hookers dress better than that???"

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Douge2's Humor Corner - Letters

Dear Icebergs,
Sorry to hear about the global warming. Karma's a bitch.
Sincerely,
The Titanic

Dear Yahoo,
I've never heard anyone say, "I don't know, let's Yahoo! it..." just
saying...
Sincerely,
Google

Dear 2010,
So I hear the best rapper is white and the president is black?
WTF happened?!
Sincerely,
1985

Dear Windshield Wipers,
Can't touch this.
Sincerely,
That Little Triangle (twss)

Dear Nickleback,
That's enough.
Sincerely,
The World

Dear World of Warcraft,
Thank you for ensuring my son's virginity.
Sincerely,
Parents Everywhere

Dear Batman,
Seriously, what was your power again?
Sincerely,
Superman

Dear Customers,
Yes, we ARE making fun of you in Vietnamese when we talk to each other.
Sincerely,
Nail Salon Ladies

Dear Global Warming,
You're the best imaginary friend ever!
Sincerely,
Al Gore

Dear Ugly People,
You're welcome.
Sincerely,
Alcohol

Dear Mr. Gump
WTF are you talking about? There's a little diagram on the lid that
tells you EXACTLY what you're gonna get....
Sincerely,
Jenny

Dear White People,
Don't you just hate illegal immigrants? We do too!
Sincerely,
Native Americans

Dear iPhone,
Please stop spellchecking all of my rude words into nice words, you stupid
piece of shut.
Sincerely,
Every iPhone User

Dear Trash,
At least you get picked up...
Sincerely,
The Girls of Jersey Shore

Dear Man,
It's cute, but can you pick up peanuts with it?
Sincerely,
Elephant

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Faldo Has a Serious Question to Ask

How do Democrats get more than 30% of the vote, let alone win elections?

Explain this to me. As a non-retarded person, it just makes no sense.

Nothing they believe or pretend to embrace has ever worked in the history of mankind, and instead has caused the death of billions and the suffering of billions and billons of even more people.

Why are they even taken seriously as Americans, let alone the other main political party?

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Tomservo2 Wins His 2nd of the Year and His 6th NPP Tourney!

Tomservo2 doesn’t need to win this quarter having already locked up a seat in the finals. But he played tonight like it was do or die for him. A great job all the way thru.

We welcomed back Douge2, who has entered a few nights, but this was the first time he played. It was good to see our NPP contributor.

Faldo must apologize to “RodCPA” who requested to join, but Faldo was late to the tourney and missed his application. Rod, be here next week!

On to the action:

14 min: Derf-63 (15th) – was at the other table.
28 min: A short-stacked (SS) ThePunk75 (14th) pair of Jacks ran into Mikeniks-Faldo’s flopped two pair.

33 min: Douge2 (13th)
49 min: KingBing420 (12th)
52 min: Bblbtt (11th) hits two pair but runs into Absea98’s flush.

1st break:
Tommydoo 6577
Tomservo2 4340
Pre01 3170
Absea98 2570
T3chlady 1855
Mikeniks-Faldo 1298
LittleRedElf 950
Suetman123 925
95corolla 525
8thmile 290

63 min: Mikeniks-Faldo (10th) bubbles the final table as usual with (AK) against LittleRedElf’s (JJ). Faldo flopped a [K] but Elf made a straight on the river.

64 min: (SS) 8thmile (9th)
66 min: Suetman1 (8th) has to go with (AK) but Tomservo2 has (AA)!
69 min: A SS T3chlady (7th) has to go with (KQ) bur Tommydoo has (A8).
71 min: A SS 95corolla (6th) has to go with (A4) but with (Kd 7d) Tommydoo hits a pair of kings.

76 min: LittleRedElf (5th) has his (AK) lose to Tomservo2’s (KK).

Now that the children (small stacks) are asleep, the quick exits stop.

90 min: Absea98’s (4th) trip kings has kicker problems with Pre01’s trip kings.

2nd break:
Tomservo2 9736
Tommydoo 6724
Pre01 6040

137 min: A SS Tommydoo (3rd) goes with (A8) but Pre01’s (KJ) flops a [K].

Heads up Tomservo2 13400 Pre01 9100
140 min: Tomservo2 16600 Pre01 5900
145 min: Tomservo2 15400 Pre01 7100
150 min: Tomservo2 17200 Pre01 5300
155 min: Tomservo2 14500 Pre01 8000
160 min: Tomservo2 15700 Pre01 6800
165 min: Tomservo2 18200 Pre01 4300

167 min: A SS Preo1 (2nd) pairs his ace, but Tomservo2 makes a straight!

Congratulations to Tomservo2 on his 6th NPP win!

1st – Tomservo2 - [8.4]
2nd – Pre01 – 3.3 pts
3rd – Tommydoo – 5.4 pts
4th – Absea98 – [17.7]
5th – LittleRedElf – [9.4 points]
6th – 95corolla – 8.9 pts
7th – T3chlady
8th – Suetman123 – 9.6 pts
9th – 8thmile – 2.5 pts
10th – Mikeniks-Faldo – [7.7 pts]
11th – Bblbtt – 2.4 pts
12th – KingBing420
13th – Douge2
14th - ThePunk75 – 4.8 pts
15th – Derf-63 – 6.1 pts

The total point standings are on the right side of the blog! Remember the top 3 point getters in this 12 round league get a seat in the NPP Finals!

And also remember already [qualified players] are not counted and Faldo is not eligible for the final. So plenty of chances to jump into contention for a seat in the Finals!

Monday, November 07, 2011

Men Have Their Way, But Women Have Their Wiles

Ari Brugh's dress has my attention!

A girl, Gabrielle was born France in August of 1883. Her father abandoned the family when she was 10 years old and her mother died of tuberculosis two years later. Gabby went to a Catholic orphanage until she was forced to leave on her 18th birthday. On that day, she dropped her father’s surname and used her mother’s – Devolle.

To make ends meet, she got a job as a cabaret singer and got the stage name “Coco” – which was short form of ‘cocotte’ – French for ‘a kept woman’. She would soon learn to and earn that title for life.

One of her quotes in life was, “Once you know men are children, you know everything.”

When she lost her job as a singer, she took a job in a combination textile mill and tailoring shop. There she applied her wiles on the owner’s son E. Balsan, and future heir of the business. Soon she was no longer sewing, but designing hats for her adulterous boyfriend.

She moved into an apartment he furnished for her, as he lavishly showered her with gifts and jewelry. But in 1909, she began an affair with one of Balsan’s best and even richer friend, Captain Arthur Capel.

Capel soon financed Coco’s own hat boutique, and continued to do so nine years after marrying another aristocratic woman.

She said at the time, “I don’t know why women want any of the things men have when one of the things women have is men.”

Coco dated some of the most influential men of her time, but she never married. The reason may be found in her answer, when asked why she did not marry the Duke of Westminster she said,

“There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Coco.”

When a famous French actress wore one of Coco’s hats on stage and another at a modeling show, her business took off.

In 1924, Coco made a partnership with two brothers who owed a perfume factory. They felt they needed a woman’s point of view to expand their business.

Coco said at the time, “A woman who wears no perfume has no future.”

Her fame as a hat designer had grown, but the market for hats was declining. So she expanded her designs to dresses and shoes. She said at the time,

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall trying to turn it into a door.”

In 1931, while vacationing in Monte Carlo, she met Samuel Goldwyn. Coco was dating Sam’s friend, the Grand Duke of the Russian Empire at the time. Sam was impressed with Coco and made her an unbelievable offer. He would pay her the sum of $1 million dollars ($75 million in today’s money) to come to Hollywood twice a year to design dresses for his MGM stars.

Coco had told him, “Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no dress, there is no woman.”

But ultimately it was her perfume line that made her the most famous and wealthy despite everyone telling her she would fail.

She said, “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know failure is inevitable.”

On their 5th attempt, the perfume was perfected – and she decided to put away the past and named it with her father's last name – Chanel.

She thought that - Chanel #5 - was the best name of the ideas she came up with. She said at the time,

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself out loud.”

Now you know the rest of the story.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Chess Magic - Too Focused!

How does a good player make a serious chess error? Usually by over-thinking minor attacks, threats and positional advantage, without realizing a grenade has already been dropped in your foxhole.

[Faldo has no concept of what error is, but I have heard they happen. That's a shame.]

Here Black has two issues he is concentrating on:
1) making sure his knight does not end up trapped on the edge of the board ("A knight on the rim is grim" - twss) and

2) taking control of the queen side of the board where his strength is amassed.

If White does nothing about this, his pawn structure will be shattered and the enemy will pour thru on the left flank. So White played the natural looking 1. Rc3, which appears to clear the way for re-enforcements.






Black continues his assault plans with 1. ...bxc4

Find how White wins, but only take credit if you find the full three move win.



The solution can be found by emailing Faldo at npokerp@yahoo . com or scroll down the right side of the blog to Chess Magic Revealed.

Thursday, November 03, 2011

The Community Card Review - Communism on Display

Our Speech Maker and Chief accidentally delivered a speech full of truth! Of course he was not aware he did it. I guess his telepromper didn't either.

At a Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Obama said,

"In too many troubled neighborhoods across the country, the conditions of our poorest citizens appear little changed from what existed 50 years ago. They are broken down slums, plagued by violence, with under-funded schools and lack of adequate healthcare. "

He is 100% correct. And who has run these neighborhoods with an iron fist for the last 50 years? Anyone want to take a guess?

What political party do the citizens of these areas keep sending back to the state and federal government capitals? Anyone want to guess?

Despite the special programs, the war on poverty and the trillions and trillions spent on wealth redistribution, nothing has changed.

The truth is lack of education, lack of jobs and lack of mobility is job protection for Democrat politicians, who - with their promises - keep the crumbs falling down to the slums of their useful idiot voters (google the term).

Speaking of “useful idiot voters”:

The President does a fund-raiser at the Bellagio. One casino owner and frequent donator to the Democrat Party will not be there - Steve Wynn.

"The policies of this administration have destroyed the living standard of the working class in America. What is supposed to be the base of the Democratic Party is taking the worst hit in history.

It is because of these unbelievably uninformed polices of this president and his colleagues who have fostered this ridiculous class warfare, these non-sensible policies that have been proven to be in-effective and unsuccessful everywhere they have ever been tried in the world."

And how does Obamacare affect business in the future?

”I am frightened to death about the future of any business. My friend Harry Reid hung up on me for the first time in forty years. That is what it has come down to.

I supported a Democrat, a congress woman named Shelley Berkley. I called her during the Obamacare vote and I said, 'Shelley, what are you doing? How can you do this? This is killing the country and all of us who are supplying healthcare to our employees."

And she said to me - quote - and I mean quote, not hear say, and she is running for the Senate!
”Steve, I know it is terrible. My husband is a doctor and he hates it too. But if I don't vote for it, Nancy Pelosi will punish me!”


If any businessman or any working person doesn't understand that this is a turning point in American history, then I am afraid we are going to get what we deserve."

Faldo has been warning people that the Democrat Party is the home of the Communist Party for over a decade now. There is no denying it now. No one listened, but you are welcome for the genius anyway.

Now my fellow Americans, FIX IT or doom your offspring for eternity. If the light of freedom goes out in the USA, the entire world goes black. Well actually communist red

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Absea98 Wins His 4th NPP Tourney!

A nice win by Absea98 in a 14 player NPP night. That is his 2nd win this quarter and his 3rd this year! Absea has really picked up his game. Nice job Ab!

Derf-63 took the early lead, Suetman123 made a great comeback, and Absea98 just steadily got it done.

These longer blinds are making for long final table battles. What is everyone’s opinion of that?

On to the action:

4 min: T3chlady (14th) runs into Derf-63’s straight.
18 min: ThePunk75 (13th) ran into Tommydoo’s aces and LittleRedElf’s flush – back to back!

34 min: The hand of the night! Well, it was for Faldo. A short-stacked (SS) Mikeniks-Faldo (12th) is card dead, but finally hits an Ace-high flush with his (AT) on the turn. The river pairs the board and LittleRedElf (11th) hits a 2’s over kings full house with (22). But Derf-63 has (K2) and has the kings over 2’s full house.

41 min: Wingsfancurt (10th) bubble the final table.
45 min: A SS Bblbtt (9th) is double-teamed by Derf-63 and Tomservo2.

75 min: Tommydoo (8th) has to go with (K8) and a flop of [KK6] but Derf-63 has (KT)!

1st break:
Derf-63 7235
Tomservo2 3989
8thmile 3235
Suetman123 2150
95corolla 2040
KingBing420
Absea98 952

73 min: KingBing42- (7th)
91 min: Tomservo2 (6th) has (KT) and hits a pair of kings, but Suetman123 has (KJ).
94 min: 95corolla (5th)
97 min: A SS 8thmile (4th) loses to Derf-63.

2nd break:
Absea98 13117
Suetman123 4610
Derf-63 3273

130 min: A SS Derf-63 (3rd) goes with (A2) and runs into Suetman123’s (AT).

Heads up Absea98 13600 Suetman123 7400
130 min: Absea98 14900 Suetman123 6100
135 min: Absea98 14700 Suetman123 6300
140 min: Absea98 6500 Suetman123 14500
145 min: Absea98 8500 Suetman123 12500
150 min: Absea98 17000 Suetman123 4000
155 min: Absea98 16000 Suetman123 5000
160 min: Absea98 17800 Suetman123 3200
165 min: Absea98 18300 Suetman123 2700

167 min: A SS Suetman123 (2nd) has to go with King-high, but Absea98 paired his Jacks.

Congratulations to Absea98 on his 4th NPP win!

1st – Absea98 - [15.3 points]
2nd – Suetman123 - 9.6 points
3rd – Derf-63 - 6.1 pts
4th – 8thmile - 2.5 pts
5th – 95corolla – 8.9 pts
6th – Tomservo2 - [3.7]
7th – Kingbing420
8th – Tommydoo – 2.8 pts
9th – Bblbtt – 2.2 pts
10th – Wingsfancurt
11th – LittleRedElf – [7.3 points]
12th - Mikeniks-Faldo – [7.7 pts]
13th – ThePunk75 - 4.8 pts
14th - T3chlady

The total point standings are on the right side of the blog! Remember the top 3 point getters in this 12 round league get a seat in the NPP Finals!

And also remember already [qualified players] are not counted and Faldo is not eligible for the final. So plenty of chances to jump into contention for a seat in the Finals!