I’m still recovering from a rough day of play where it just seemed like I couldn’t get anything going and had a bad mood/outlook to boot. There are times when no matter how far you are in the lead they seem to catch up (which isn’t out of the ordinary…unfortunately) and yesterday was one of those days. Here is a sample hand where I made a great hand but couldn’t get away from it after it was apparent I was behind: the can’t-fold-I-have-something trap. It was even early in the tournament…ouchie.

MTT (Multi-Table Tourney) Blinds 30/60 No Ante : First position folds and I call for 60 with 9h9s in second position at a somewhat loose table with 2255 in chips. Personally, I love these mid-pair hands although I’m not too fond of them from early position because of the inevitable limp fest and reraise from late position. Two players fold and then a raise to 270 from 5th position with 3200 in chips. Everyone folds back around to me, which is a good time to evaluate the raise size and various factors applying to it. With only one limper, this player has decided to make it exactly 4.5 times the Big Blind, which is a fairly large raise this early in the tournament. This is typically a “go away” type of raise but could indicate a large hand given that I’d been playing fairly tight to this point with only a few stabs at pots so far. A call here of 210 takes about 10% of my chips but I feel like I’m still in the lead and want to take a look at the flop. If it comes lots of high cards and I hit my set I’m probably going to take down a nice pot, and I’m a good post flop player (usually) and can take a look at my other options after surveying the board texture as well. Call for 210.

F lop: Ks Jd 9c I hit my set and now have to decide how to play it. There are no flush draws, but a made straight is possible (QT) as well as lots of open-enders and gutshots. Most of these hands don’t fit into the preflop raise, though, so I’m left with an interesting dilema: check, hoping for the action-ending reraise or bet my premium hand outright to see where I stand. After a few moments of deliberation, I come to the conclusion that big bet preflop will more than likely continue the betting on the flop, so I’ll let them take the first move. Check. They check behind me pretty quickly.

Turn: Qs What a horrible card for my hand. That elevates all kinds of hands into a dominant position, any of the straight draws we were worried about and even TT now improved to beat me (a hand that fits well with the betting to date). At this point I had to bet out to see where I was, but I’m putting this player on big cards having made large two-pairs or the unlikely straight, most likely TT which I had dominated on the flop. I lead out for 285 and I’m insta-raised to 900. I’m not liking this at all now, and I’m pretty sure they have the AT or TT at this point but with so many other hands they could have (based on previous observation) I start to talk myself into calling the 615 more, when my options should actually be pruning towards either pushing (possibly into a made hand already, never good) or folding (615 is almost half of my stack at this point and would completely commit me to the pot). Did I mention I was having a bad day so far? Yep, knowing that I was a 85-15 favorite over AT and 77-23 favorite over TT on the flop, I talk myself into a bad call. The only way I should continue is if the board pairs, but its early enough in the tourney that I can fold, lick my wounds and recover back into contention fairly easily. Call 615.

River: 6d Well, that card changed nothing about the hands both of us probably had and so I check. After a long pause, the opponent pushes all-in, correctly assuming that I’m having unexplained difficulty in folding what has now become a marginal hand given the board and the betting. To this point today, I had been having a Daniel Negreanu type spooky day with bad beats, having flopped the nuts three times in three straight tourneys only to have the most unlikely Turn and River cards beat me (such as flopping the nut straight and getting an all-in from a player with bottom pair that catches a runner-runner full house…ugh). I make a bad call and they flip up the AT. Checkout time.

Post-game analysis, which is always much clearer, looks like a bet on the flop (which is the standard play with a set on a board such as what I was facing) would have been best. Even though a long-shot hits to put me behind, I usually can get away from it here but based on a bad mindset I was convinced they were playing something like KQ or KJ which I had beat. After a nights rest and some refreshing doughnuts for breakfast, I’ll be back at it today with a more focused game. See you at the tables!

With a massive redesign of the ChessandPoker.com site approaching completion, I decided it was time to update the ol’ blog too. And, since I’ve been a bit lazy posting, I’m going to develop a personalized blogging schedule for myself so I’ll have plenty of ideas to write about each day. I do so well with schedules it’s amazing that I haven’t set one up for this, but with work + kids + wife + online poker + websites + I’m ready for sleep already! I’ll be covering my tournament schedule as well, which might be of some interest to those of you who also play (and may have been facing me without knowing it). I’m also going to dig through the daily news and pull out any and all gaming news that interests me, including my take on things of course. That and more, that and more :) Let’s go over some site news first to get everything up-to-date.

Following many months of testing and redesigns, we’ve finally come up with a new look for the main site. I’m still working out a few kinks to make it totally to my liking (which is a tedious process) but I hope to roll it out before my birthday in October. There will be a few changes to the site that I’ve been tossing back and forth in my head that may or may not please some of you, most notably the removal of the Blackjack and Video Poker strategy guides :( I’ve simply decided that both of these works don’t hold enough spark to be truly helpful on their own in their current form, but I might bring them back if I can get back into loving them and wanting to dig deeper into their strategy secrets. Time will tell.

The most important update, though, is the pending release of our extensive Chess and Poker guides which are currently in development and testing. I’m working on some in-depth articles covering both of our namesake games, with some amazing insights and analysis into both of them that I feel will greatly improve anyones game. I’m so excited about the release of these new articles I can’t even describe it. If you’re considering buying up lots of poker books for Christmas you may want to hold off, this stuff is that good! Well, maybe next Christmas but they will deliver…whenever I get the time to finish them!

Talk with you all soon! - James

It’s been awhile since my last blog post but I always bring big news each time….Kevin Harvick wins the Daytona 500!!! In a daring last lap move Harvick got a bump-draft from Matt Kenseth (Green Bay Packers fan) that shot him up from 7th place into a side-by-side battle for the lead with half a lap to go. Kyle Busch moved up to try and block Harvick but he was coming much to fast, forcing Kyle to move back down the track. Harvick kept the pedal floored and rocketed past Mark Martin for the lead. As Martin battled back, trying to win the coveted Daytona race that’s eluded him for his entire career, a massive wreck erupted behind the two which sent cars spinning around and Clint Bowyer over onto his roof. NASCAR let the two race it out for the win without throwing the yellow flag and Kevin Harvick edged out the valiant Martin by .02 seconds to take down his first Daytona 500! Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Harvick!!! ChessandPoker.com loves you bud!

I’ll be posting again soon I promise :) WhooooHooooooo!

Sometimes you notice some neat things in your day-to-day activities that bring back memories. Like being single, poor and desperate. For example, it’s so great to have fully functional vehicles. When I get out of my Jeep it beeps if I’ve left my lights on. In my wife’s car it tells you the directions, heats the seats and grips the road like the tires have melted into it. I remember back in the day having a car that I just hoped the door would open and would be able to make it across town without breaking down at least half the time, much less worrying about any features. An AC that functions, oil without that pesky white stuff in it and not having your tire actually fall off of the car. These things are luxurious to me.

Anyways, since I’m already off topic, I guess I’m still steaming from the Carcassonne loss my wife dealt to me last night. I had been dominating her at it with about 6 straight wins but I was horribly crushed 112-78 this game. I’m thinking of posting up my Carcassonne strategy guide I made up one weekend but she’s already gaining an edge on me. Is it wise to post this information? I’ll have to think about it. I did take her down at Battleship, though. That was quite satisfying, considering the last time we played she came from behind and (miraculously) sunk my patrol boat. I mean, I had her battleship pegged and had a win next move (we play until the entire fleet is depleted, complete with madatory explosion sounds and screaming) and she had FOUR different options after hitting it only once. And guess what…she sunk it. Ouchie. I’ll have to play her again until I win, and then officially retire the game…forever. The last Champion in the books. King. Legend. Nice.
For the record, I’m still well ahead in the lifetime standings for both games ;)

Alright, I’ve been a bit behind on my blog postings but now I’ve got some news….we were featured in Forbes magazine at Forbes.com!!! Author Tom Van Riper contacted me about writing some material for the Forbes Special Report “Games” particularly for his article titled “How to Win at (Nearly) Everything“. I was very excited and provided some material which he subsequently used in the article. I was even listed as the Poker expert in the featured slideshow (third slide). What an honor, thank you!

If that wasn’t enough, this week we finally completed work on our much-anticipated Dominoes strategy guide. It covers some simple but very effective methods to make your play better in Dominoes. Most of the ideas are now available for the first time for casual players. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Finally, I’ve gone through and updated most of the site with a new look, which I feel is more professional and pleasing to the eye. I added a “Next Featured Article” section on each page as a footer, as well as several other minor adjustments including quote boxes at the top of the pages. These sections feature actual emails we receive from visitors just like you, and occasionally I’ll like them so much I want to put them out there for the world to see! Wow, that’s alot of exclamation points…can you tell it’s been a good week here? Thanks for stopping by, I’ll try to be more active in the coming weeks and months!

Vladimir Kramnik stunned the Chess community Monday when he overlooked an obvious mating threat in his match with the program Deep Fritz, playing the horrible blunder 34. … Qe3, and was promptly mated by the computer. A ripple of disbelief washed throughout the many thousands of players following the game, with many wondering if a mistake had been made on the part of the broadcast team. Unfortunately, it was all too real.

Kramnik had drawn with the powerful Chess-playing program on Saturday in a game where he had several opportunities to play for a win. The World Champion had stated the he knew he should have an advantage at that time based on his position, but just couldn’t seem to find it. Monday’s game seemed to be cruising towards a similiar outcome, with an even position on the board following a mutual Rook trade on moves 33 and 34. Then the unthinkable happened…Kramnik overlooked a checkmate even an amateur would have noticed. He blindly played his Queen to e3, which allowed Deep Fritz to immediately mate him with 35. Qh7#

On the Playchess.com server many observers were at first skeptical that the move had even been played, assuming it was just a form of analysis to show what could happen in the position, as had been occuring throughout the match. But when it finally began to sink in, confusion gave way to outrage, with many expressing their anger and disappointment with Kramnik and his stunning loss. It is already theorized that the most likely reason for this gross oversight may have been that while in deep concentration, Vladimir may have misplaced his Kings position in his head, which would have caused him to overlook the mate. This has happened over the years, but in a match of this caliber that requires the utmost care and attention to detail, perhaps taking a look at the board could be of some benefit.

In any case, it will be interesting to see what Kramnik has to say to his supporters and viewers from around the world and also how (and if) he will rebound in the match. With the burden of representing mankind versus the always-improving computers, and facing what many feel must now be an insurmountable deficit, Vladimir will certainly have much to think about before Game 3 begins on Wednesday.

World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik faced the powerful Chess program Deep Fritz today in the first of six match games, holding his silicon opponent to a draw Saturday. GM Kramnik played quite solid in the opening, never allowing the game to significantly open up and keeping the board well under control. Kramnik opted for smoothly trading down into a more manageable endgame, even though this phase of the game can prove to be quite daunting for the human player with the computers calculating depth becoming greatly increased due to the reduced number of pieces in play. Super_GM, an observer on the PlayChess.com server, remarked about the nature of the board following the initial moves, “This is the type of position to aim for versus a computer…not too much tactics, but not too much anti-computer strategy either.”

In this rematch of their 2002 encounter, which Kramnik drew 4:4 after initially leading by a score of 3:1, Deep Fritz operates on a Dual Intel Core 2 Duo 5160 system which allows it to calculate about 8mil positions per second, an intimidating increase in strength over its predecessors maximum of approximately 2.7mil per second. This level of competition presents a seemingly insormountable task for the human player, who must maintain steady concentration at all times and avoid even the slightest mistake, since the opponent across the table will not return the favor. While Vladimir stands to receive $1mil Euros with a victory, on top of his $500k appearance fee, the focus is most assuredly not on the monetary prize. From Kramnik:

“The machine is the clear favorite, but don’t discount me just yet. I know some top players would be very nervous about playing the computer – they might even avoid this kind of match. That’s understandable since a cut-and-dried defeat can affect your future game. Of course, this computing monster keeps getting better year by year, month by month, day by day: My opponent will be incredibly strong. But I think I can still beat it. Whenever I can fight, I’m extremely motivated. After all, I might be the last human being to be able to defeat this machine. My team and I will be expending all our efforts to cut this so-called artificial intelligence down to size.”

While some observers felt that Kramnik could have pushed a slight advantage in the middle portion of the game, it seems that a draw will give the flesh and blood Champion an underlying confidence going into Game 2, which is slated for Monday the 27th. Chess and Poker Dot Com will post updated reports as we continue our coverage at that time. Good luck to both participants.

All right, time to catch up on our NASCAR news. As you all know, the season ended on Sunday with Jimmie Johnson winning his first Nextel Cup championship. He had come in 2nd twice, both times losing by heart-breakingly small margins, so it’s a victory well deserved to be certain. Matt Kenseth came in second (both of these guys are my wife’s favorite guys…hmmph). Denny Hamlin capped off an amazing rookie season with a third overall finish. I like Denny and will be rooting him on next year for sure. Great Fed Ex commercials!

Our hero Kevin Harvick finished a valiant 4th, probably exhausted from all the wins he had throughout the Nextel and Busch series (14 big ones). He even finished 3rd in the Nascar.com Power Rankings. It is easy to see why he is so well loved here at the Chess and Poker Blog. The only bad thing about Sundays race is that we must endure many raceless weekends until next February :( I’m writing the president of Nascar to complain about the ever-apparent lack of domed race tracks. Health hazard? Rubbin’s racin, sir.

In Chess news we have the Man vs Machine battle, Kramnik takes on the Fritz program, game one on Saturday. Then in the 2007 we have the first of two Super Grandmaster tournaments at Wijk aan Zee, Holland, from January 12 to 28, 2007 which should feature some heavy hitters and great games. The next comes in Feb/March in Linares. I’m ready!

With the Thanksgiving holiday soon approaching, looks like it’s time I finish up some painting around our home. My wife has taped about every piece of trim we have in our home so I’m guessing that’s some sort of hint to get things moving. Concerning the site, I’ve been working hard on our new pages. I created a very nice chart for the dominoes strategy guide (American-style) that should help to explain the process I’ve developed to play the game. I didn’t realize dominoes was so popular. From the NY Times:

The games almost always draw spectators, so perhaps it is no surprise that the ESPN sports network has declared dominoes the next big spectator sport and is promoting it as both a colorful cultural touchstone and a highly competitive game, complete with rankings, formal tournaments, celebrity events and sponsors.

I’ll be working more on this guide in the coming weeks, including a fair amount of playtesting on the many dominoes-playing sites such as Yahoo and Pogo. It’s not uncommon to find several thousand players enjoying the game at any given time day or night. What a powerful, explosive scoring game American Dominoes is!

For me, this weekend was quite satisfying. On Saturday we had Kevin Harvick coming close to winning his record-tying 10th win in the NASCAR Busch Series, finishing a close second to Matt Kenseth. I’ll forgive Matt…I guess…since he is from Wisconsin, home to my favorite NFL team the Green Bay Packers who defeated their bitter rivals the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday 23-17 at Minnesota. And just after that, we saw the Nextel Cup Series race end with an exciting finish….and Kevin Harvick wins it! How sweet it is.

A great combination….Farvick.