I never got to talk about JasonS's Guest Blog post from a week ago.  TBH, I'm not that crazy about his play, but considering he won more money than if he played the hand "standardly," I guess that speaks for itself.  The reason being is that he basically never has a K in his hand (other than maybe the nuts) once he checks the flop.  And it's not like I'm "normally" one of those crazy aggro guys who starts spewing once the PFR checks (eh hem...).  He has no "likely" kings in his range and I have all the kings in my range that I would normally defend (a tricky AK that I didn't 3bet (not likely vs Jason tho), KQ, KJ, KTs, etc) that I would play the same way along with most JJ and some 66.  So basically when he raises the turn, he's going to be superpolarized.  My defending range from the BB vs a MP3 is not particularly wide - easily less than 1/2 as wide as his opening range and Ks make up a decent percentage of that.  So my strong hand percentage >>> his strong hang percentage.  While he (and the board) has blockers to many of my Kings, I 3bet so rarely postflop that the percentage of times I actually have a K in my hand is probably > the frequency with which I 3bet the turn.  On the river, I think I should have shoved the river (repping KJ, JJ, 66, KQ), but I thought I had decent showdown value because I didn't think he had a K - maybe a weirdly played J, but most likely nothing.  So when he makes the river bet, I thought he was trying to get thin value with a weird J (and possibly nothing because his line is so bizarre) and I had a choice between a call or a small raise.  I felt like I could fold out a "J" and opted to rep a strong part of my range.  Of course it never occurred to me that he could have QQ, and thus blockers to most of the Ks I would raise the river with.  FWIW, I am probably *the* reg most likely to check the river (either to check-call or check-raise) with a good hand, so the "he checked the river so he can't have a strong hand" doesn't necessarily apply to me.

It was probably one of the more interesting hands I played this month.  He's a good player, who I play with on a pretty regular basis.  He also started coaching.  He had this "pool" story in the lifefish blog, and it reminded me of a funny story:
 

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I have very healthy sweat glands.  I don't know a single person who sweats as much as I do.  People claim to "sweat" a lot, but when I sweat, it literally RAINS on me.  G is a chip off the old block.  So one time, we took him to Dutch Wonderland (a kid's amusement park in Pennsylvania), and we were waiting in line on a warm summer day for the flume ride.  A bunch of camp kids get on line and one of them asks us how we liked the ride.  I had to tell him we hadn't been on the ride yet...  the little kid thought that we had been on the ride because both G and I were covered in sweat!

And our number 1 choice for online professional poker players wanting to raise a family is...

1) Dallas, Texas:   It's funny we decided on the northern/western Dallas suburbs because about a year ago, GrandMelon was complaining on 2+2 that he was bored out of his mind in Dallas.  But the schools are pretty good and the houses are dirt cheap.  There are over 40K homes for sale around Dallas, many of them less than a decade old.  Think about that - FORTY THOUSAND homes.  You can get a relatively new 4,000 sq ft home for a little over $300K (probably averages $400K).  I was shocked that the houses seemed reasonably well-built - all stone exteriors, nice wood floors, etc.  The houses were kind of chintzy with the kitchen appliances, but I guess not everyone gets *that* into cooking.

Half the fish counter

The food scene there seems pretty good and reasonably priced.  Relatively safe, pretty well-educated, and decent ethnic mix (depending on the neighborhood).  And the Korean supermarket there was the best I've ever seen.  They must've had like 20 different kinds of WHOLE fish neatly displayed on ice.  I practically wet my pants when I saw that.  Thank god for the Depends.

And some of the strip malls were some of the nicest and biggest I've seen.  The size of some of the bookstores was probably close to half a Manhattan bock.  I'm a pretty big guy, but the sheer size of the city made me feel like a midget.  So maybe I don't have to lose any more weight.

The main drawback is that it gets brutally hot in the summer.  Mrs. Fly and D will be happy with that, but G and I are sweat machines (later post).  It was almost 80 degress in the winter and I was sweating. But fortunately, I don't plan on being home in the summer (since we'll be traveling), so we'll only be around to enjoy the nicest weather of the year.

It's going to suck being a Giants fan and having to go into Texas Stadium.  But the plus is that I'll get to see one game every year.  And the Yankees should be coming to town once a year.  The Texas Motor Speedway is there, as well as pro basketball, hockey and soccer.  It's not like I go to that many live sporting events anyway.  And let's not forget the Six Flags theme park and the new LegoLand that's about to open.  And I can just taste the fried butter at the Texas state fair.  Yum..  (Seriously tho, that sounds pretty gross)

Oh, and as a bonus, the Winstar World Casino is a little over an hour away, and they supposedly have a decent poker room.  Not sure about the rake tho.  I'm mostly interested in MTTs tho, since I'm going to need some live practice for when I finally show up at a WSOP.  It actually looks like a *real* casino.  Next month, they have Air Supply, Jay Leno, Kool & the Gang with Morris Day and the Time, Tommy James & the Shondells, Duran Duran, Jason Aldean (Who/What TF is this dude?!?), and Harry Connick, Jr.  Not a bad line-up for an old geezer like me.  And Choctaw Casino (smaller) is 1.5 hours away and seems to offer some WSOP satellites.  God bless those Indians.

At this point, we haven't decided between the Southlake / Colleyville area in the west, or the Plano / Frisco / McKinney / Allen area in the northeast.  The Dallas-Fort Worth airport is on the west, so outdoor noise could be problem.  It seems there's a battery recycling plant in Frisco that may have a lead problem, so if we go that way, I'm going to have to be super-choosy about location.  But all in all, the air quality is *STILL* 2x to 50x as clean as the NYC suburbs, and we currently live like 10 minutes from a regional airport now, so it's not like we'll be that much worse off.  I later found out that CNNMoney did their own analysis and decided three of the Dallas suburbs were in their Top 25 places to live - McKinney (#5), Allen (#16) and Rowlett (#24).

I'm 95+% sure we're moving to Dallas later this year.  Stay tuned...

[GUEST POST:  One of my readers, Brian Woods, happens to be a CPA, so how timely is this post for all us Americans?  And he also had a blog on my blog links]

When Doublefly and I originally traded e-mails about writing one of his “guest” entries, I originally thought I would write about transitioning away from NLHE cash games and into mixed games.  I am primarily a mass-tabling PL/NL O8 player at the lower levels (mostly $50-$200).  My transition away from NLHE evolved for one primary reason: I am arguably the worst on-line cash NLHE player on the interwebz.  That crazy two card game most of you play is both mind-numbingly boring and impossible for me to beat.  So I moved to PLO initially and ultimately to PL/NL O8 where I grind out paltry winnings on a monthly basis; though I am owed A LOT of money by Mr. David Sklansky.   

However, after thinking about it I decided to go in another direction entirely.  You see in the real world I am a CPA.  I own my own practice and we are primarily a tax shop for individuals and small businesses.  I handle the tax work for a handful of poker players in addition to other clients.  Over and over on the forums I see horrible advice and misconceptions about taxes (US) as it relates to poker winnings (poker and gambling winnings are used interchangeably in this post).  Hopefully this blog post will dispel some of those myths while not putting you to sleep. 

So without further ado here are the Top 5 misconceptions about taxes on poker winnings:

1. I broke even (lost) for the year so I don’t need to report my winnings-This is probably the most commonly repeated error I hear.  The reality is that if you have one session where you won $1 you have winnings and you need to report.   A win can come on-line, in a live cardroom, a home game or even an illegal private club.
2. I didn’t cash out my on-line winnings so I don’t need to report-Uhhhhhhh yes you do.  In the US we use the “constructive receipt” doctrine to determine if an item of income is includible.  Simply put if the funds (winnings) are received by a taxpayer without substantial limitations on access to those funds, constructive receipt has occurred and the winnings are taxable income.  Thus, if you deposit $215 one Sunday afternoon in December and ship the Sunday Million that evening for $250k that $250k is now taxable income whether you cash it all out or wait until the following January.
3. The IRS doesn’t even know I won-Yes we live in a country that requires voluntary compliance with it’s taxing system.  Having said that the IRS can be a bit of a pain in the rear if you underreport your income.  Here are a few people the IRS had to give a little spanking to:

4. I can just go to the track and collect losing tickets-Well, of course you can do this.  I mean what is a little fraud between you and the IRS?
5. On-line poker is illegal so I can’t pay taxes on an illegal enterprises-Well first, smarter people than I still conclude that on-line poker is not federally illegal (I realize it is in certain states).  But even if it were illegal you would still be required to report that income and pay taxes despite the illegality of the income source!

Once these myths are wiped from your brain your next question will likely be “OK now I understand those issues but how exactly do I fill out these forms?”  Well there is one very important question to answer when determining how to present your return.

Continued next week...

So we ended up visiting:

3) Ponte Vedra, FL:  It's a big golfing community (since TPC Sawgrass is there), and it's very close to Jacksonville (which is an okay city).  The beaches are nearby, and Amelia Island and St. Augustine are both within an hour drive.  But it just didn't have anything that said to us "move here now!"  The restaurants there seemed somewhat meh (later post) and there didn't seem to be a great place to get any Korean food or groceries.  So we pretty much nixed it when we went to the next town...

2) Melbourne, FL:  The schools in the entire county (Brevard) are pretty good - all the way up to Cape Canaveral.  What annoyed the hell out of me is that they have two magnet schools that are extremely good, but it's a completely random lottery for the thousands of kids who meet the minimum standard.  Like WTF happened to a meritocracy?  So it's harder to get into than Harvard.  F.U.  The two biggest draws were the proximity to the beaches (which are nicer than the beaches in Ponte Vedra) and of course, the 1 hour drive to Orlando.  Sadly, we have the only kid in the U.S. who thinks Disney World is lame.  But hey!  There's also Universal Studios, Sea World and a boat-load of water parks, restaurants, and entertainment options, including cruises.  And there's even a poker room (altho I don't know what the stakes are - probably small).  Sadly, the restaurants and entertainment options in Brevard County are pretty meh.  Some of the gated communities are nice, but oddly the areas near the beach are kind of run-down looking .  I think in about 30 years, the whole area might become more upscale (like their southern counterparts), but I might be dead by then.

Anyway, for me, Brevard County was a close second, but the boss (Mrs. Fly) had a strong preference for...

Continued Sunday because I have a Saturday Guest Post (no more cliff-hangers - I swear!!!)...

BTW, if any of you guys that I know from 2+2 or the blog want to do a guest post, let me know.

There was a great website called NeighborhoodScout.com that lets you look at the entire country by various factors.  So I punched in "best public schools" for starters and looked at the various states.  While comparing test scores isn't the end-all way to determine if a school "good," this was a decent starting point.  Each state has it's own requirements as to what an "acceptable" level of education is.  What I liked about the NeighborhoodScout site was they attempted to calibrate the differing state requirements.  Another good site for schools is GreatSchools.org, but this site does more of an in-state rating (so a "10" in AL isn't the same as a "10" in CA) - not as useful when trying to compare states.

This starting filter let me get rid of a whole bunch of the warmer states that I would have assumed would have been full of rednecks anyway.  :-)  I pretty much used a 75% rating as a screen.  Again, not perfect, but I needed to narrow my search somehow.  FWIW, my current area got a 93.  So it let me concentrate on looking at a few southern states that seemed interesting to me.  And those states were California, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas.  As much as Mrs. Fly and I love Nevada, we had to cross it off (maybe later post).

California started off being my number one choice, but I couldn't find a house I "liked" for under a million, and it was probably going to be closer to two.  Um...  might as well just stay here.  And then you get taxed up the yin-yang, and being Asian it's going to be difficult getting into one of the top few dozen colleges from there (since there are a bajillion other smart Asians there).  Later post on my expectations for my kids' college.

Virgina was my second choice, since my in-laws live there and it's a pretty nice place to live.  But we couldn't find an area we liked.  Ditto for North Carolina.  Which left us with three cities in two states, which coincidentally were ZERO STATE TAX states.

Sorry again Raw Force, but it looks like my time is up for today...

So I started this thread a few months ago, and most of the reasonable responses were Florida and Texas, because of the zero income taxes.  Anyway, I thought I would do some of my own analysis.  So here is what I am looking for (and some of the reasons I'm moving):

1)  Good public schools.  I went to public school and had a great experience (it was a nerdy high school, so I fit right in!).  I've never really liked the private school kids at my college, and I just like the idea of my kids going to school with a wide variety of other kids.  Also, I'm a cheap ass (as you already know).  Anyway, I can't move to an area where the schools suck.

2)  "Inexpensive" house.  It sucks ass owning a multi-million dollar home and still paying for it.  In most parts of the country, you can get a brand new 4000+ sq foot home for under $500K.  Actually, we found one for $300K.  I don't know... maybe we splurge and get the 6000 sq ft house for $700K, but it's still like a quarter of the cost of a comparable house in my area.  As previously mentioned, I really don't need to be in this part of the country.  My future career choice is going to allow me to take the entire summer off and take the family to an awesome place for 2-3 months...  RVing, Europe, Asia, Latin America, etc.  (later post)  Much easier to do when you have a lower cost base.

3)  Access to better food.  Even tho we live in a suburb of NYC, the food around here is shockingly meh.  I just can't get excited to eat out, except for maybe at the meh sushi place 25 minutes away(!) because Mrs. Fly doesn't make sushi...  hey!  wait a sec...  So we just end up going to the same handful of restaurants.

4)  Low crime.  Pretty much speaks for itself - the fewer people I need to send to "the chair," the better.  It's going to be tough to beat my current area, but there are plenty of safe places to live.

5)  Nice weather.  I used to LOOOVE the cold (mostly because I sweat a lot).  When I was in college, I like to go for runs in subzero weather in shorts and a sweatshirt.  It just made me feel alive!  Now that I'm an old man, the cold sucks.  We got like 3 feet of snow this winter and my skin is feeling absurdly dry all the time.  So *that's* why I keep the bottle of lotion next to my computer.  Eh hem.  Also sucks to have a $1000 heating bill in the winter because Mrs. Fly and D have like zero body fat and they need the house at 74 degrees.

So our top 3 choices were...

I'm back from my 10 days off.  Today's blog post will be delayed a few hours.

***

A few hours later...

So I see that no one liked me "suited" Hand History pictures.  Tough crowd...

No weekly graph this week, since I played zero hands, LDO.

Well, so many things to say, but I guess I'll start off with the big news that we've been talking about for over 6 months...

We are seriously considering moving.  Southern Connecticut is fine if I plan on going back to work, but since I plan on being a rakeback pro the rest of my life, the arguments for staying here aren't as strong.  We briefly considered moving abroad, but the meager tax benefits wasn't really worth the hassle.  So during G's 10 day winter break, we went and toured three potential areas.  The three areas of the US that I think would be good for people who want to raise a family and play poker for a living. (later post)

I have 7 days to lose like 7 pounds.  Sure, my wrestler buddy from college will say "LOL?  You have 7 days?  I can do that in 12 hours."  But I'm trying not to go too crazy.  But I think I may have to start a low carb diet or something to at least make a run at it.

HANDS - C'MON MAN EDITION

The last in my flatting 4bet series, villain was a 12/8/5.3 reg.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($441.50)
MP2 ($402)
MP3 ($1097.20)
Hero (CO) ($408)
Button ($1012)
SB ($474.60)
BB ($412)
UTG ($430)
UTG+1 ($1218.80)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 8, 10
5 folds, Hero bets $10, Button raises to $36, 2 folds, Hero raises to $90, Button calls $54
[I think the best 4bet bluff hands are those with a blocker, but I like mixing it up once in a while with suited cards or pocket pairs.]

Flop: ($186) A, A, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $90, Button raises to $922 (All-In), Hero calls $228 (All-In)
[I generally bet a little over half pot, but I figure he either has an A or he doesn't.  And unless I bet like $50 I'm going to be priced in, so whatever.]

Turn: ($822) 4 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($822) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $822 | Rake: $3
Main pot: $822 between Hero and Button, won by Hero

Results:
Button had J, J (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Hero had 8, 10 (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $819

The dude could have just taken my $90 pre, but he decided he needed to get all fancy pants on me and let me see a flop with a playable hand.  Thanks for the monies!

Seriously tho, I can see the merits of calling, needing only 29% equity and being IP, but I think I prefer shoving.  Call me a simpleton.

HUMOR 

Since you guys seem to enjoy defecation humor, here's a comprehensive list of different types of shits.  My favorites are:

THE CROWD PLEASER - A shit is so intriguing in size and/or appearance that you have to show it to someone before flushing.

THE GROANER - A shit so huge it cannot exit without vocal assistance.

THE FLOATER - Characterized by its floatability, this shit has been known to resurface after many flushings.

THE PEEK-A-BOO SHIT - Now you see it, now you don't. This shit is playing games with you. Requires patience and muscle control.

THE "I THINK I'M GIVING BIRTH THROUGH MY ASSHOLE" SHIT - Similar to the Lincoln Log and The Spinal Tap Shits. The shape and size of the turd resembles a tall boy beer can. Vacuous air space remains in the rectum for some time afterwards.

THE "WHAT THE HELL DIED IN HERE?" SHIT - Also sometimes known as The Toxic Dump. Of course, you don't warn anyone of the poisonous bathroom odor. Instead, you stand innocently near the door and enjoy the show as they run out gagging and gasping for air.

THE "I JUST KNOW THERE'S A TURD STILL DANGLING THERE" SHIT - You sit there patiently, waiting for the last cling-on to fall because if you wipe now, it's just going to smear all over the place.

[JasonS is someone I see at the midstakes full ring tables on a regular basis.  As his guest post, he decided to post a hand where he pwned the shi*t out of me.  What a swell guy!   I'll post my comments on the hand when I get back from vacation.  He is a member of Lifefish and a poker coach]

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($782.05)
Button ($600)
SB ($603)
DoubleFly ($600)
UTG ($615)
UTG+1 ($882.50)
MP1 ($618.45)
MP2 ($832)
Hero (MP3) ($647.65)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Q, Q
4 folds, Hero bets $18, 3 folds, DoubleFly calls $12

Flop: ($39) K, 6, J (2 players)
DoubleFly checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($39) K (2 players)
DoubleFly bets $24, Hero raises to $72, DoubleFly raises to $180, Hero calls $108

River: ($399) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $51, DoubleFly raises to $198, Hero calls $147

Total pot: $795 | Rake: $3
Main pot: $795 between BB and Hero, won by Hero

Results:
BB had 8, 8 (two pair, Kings and eights).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Outcome: Hero won $792

I thought this hand was interesting for a number of reasons. I would like to break down what I was thinking street by street:

Preflop: Obv incredibly standard but wanted to talk about a few things here so we can set up action for later streets. I would think that Dfly is going to be folding 66 some % of the time here seeing as how my range is to wide for him to get paid off often enough. I would expect him to be 3betting KK 100% of the time and I would expect that he 3bets JJ/AK a large % of the time. I would think he always flats with KQ and would most likely 3bet or fold KJo, and fold or sometimes flat KJs.

Flop: The first non standard part of the hand. I would obv be cbetting an incredibly large % of the time however I have position, I have a decent hand to check back the flop with, and I'm not going to get value from much by betting I elect to check. I have different thoughts about this and how exploitable it is however I feel like I am able to balance it enough so that I can remain profitable in a spot like this.

Turn: Basically on the turn because of the range I assigned him preflop I feel like I am ahead almost 100% of the time. Now it becomes a question of how to get value out of his range. Calling turn/river is obv an option but I feel that raising is a much better one for a few reasons. First off, I rep quads. I feel that by repping one hand but having another that I shouldn't have is great in a spot like this. Secondly, I get value from worse hands which kind of goes hand in hand with my first point. When Dfly 3bets the turn it makes the hand even easier to play in my opinion. There are so few value hands in his range that he would play like this. There is no value in shoving so calling is clearly the best option.

River: So the river is pretty much the worst card in the deck for Dfly to continue to bluff, however I'm still positive I have the best hand. The fact that I have the best hand is all relative though since I cant expect him to call with his air and if I bet something like 1/2 pot there is little room left for him to make a bluff raise. I decide to make a "level" size bet and bet 1/8th pot. I feel that this accomplishes a few things. It allows him to hero call with his Ace high hands if he thinks I misclicked or puts me on a hand
like QT/Worse Ace High/Etc. It also allows him plenty of room to make a raise. Just as I believe its hard for him to have any hand for value in this spot my range doesn't make a whole lot of sense either and if he thinks I will fold a hand like Jx then a raise becomes good.

All that being said See my coaching listing :)