aK(a): asia K

The voyeur and the exhibitionist.
(postmodern parable, saviour-faire.)
NC-17, and no poker.

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 03:54:25 GMT

The voyeur and the exhibitionist.
(postmodern parable, saviour-faire.)

I had a great time in college. Like, really. (yes, i do speak like this. it is weird, i know-- thanks for the mail.) I lived in the the dorms with three beautiful women who could not have been any different from one another, but were just a trip to live near. Up a flight of stairs boyfriend at the time lived (batt), and the one before him was one flight down. :)

So I spent nights and nights in his dormroom that he shared with two other men and their girlfriends at the time, and we hung sheets from the ceiling, strung tiny blue christmas lights around the bed, blared the cure, johnny cash, neil young and morrissey to the chagrin of the EECS living next door and always amped on something, and made love sharing that space... reveling in the shared splendor of massive fuckyous being quiet as rhinos rutting and falling asleep sated at the waterhole.

There's something to be said for being so free with love, and lust, and sexuality. Cal has unisex showers (male & female) and bathrooms and we'd giggle running to the handicapped showerstall with its wooden seat and room for three (!!), making sure we threw the towels over the folding door since the entire floor knew you could make out the occupants thru the 1/4" folding slats, and knew who was making love to whom against those cold tile walls (without any shower shoes) even if you didn't peek. Every other floor had a lounge with couches (evens had the washingmachines), and ours were manhandled to face one another, making a giant, 70s style orange marled monstrosity of a 4-walled, padded bed... we'd bring four or five comforters from our rooms and hoardes of us would pile under, watching movies and not peeking under and being discreet enough not to notice the wandering hands and feet underneath. We stood from that same lounge lobby's patio, and watched as on another building's lounge patio a women knelt and bobbed into a man's lap as he sat on a loungechair, pants on but open. (and yes, a few of us snuck away to our own or onto others to relive watching the open spectacle over in our minds again.)

It was a great time, not because it was probably the first time a good deal of us were actually having fun with our sexuality (opposed to sticky awkward dalliances in borrowed highschool cars and beds), but because we *were* sex there for a while, and we loved laughing about it and acknowledging its light sheen on all of our foreheads. There's a beauty in being so open with love and sex, in girls with bare breasts under tight shirts and in holding hands in public. The delight in it becomes more than sex, more than the positions and digits, and more than the sum of all of our parts-- being big and telling the world of its girth.

But then, you start to realize the quiet delight of silence and stillness with just one person, one to share all that bigness and lock it away from anyone else and just let it strain against the fishbowl walls, catching you and pressing you against the glass in the process. It retreats into becoming less of a display and more of a silent prayer, tripping fingers slowly over their bodies, watching her face though her eyes are closed, listening to his silent sounds and the way his breath feels on the back of your neck, asleep and awake. How resonant his voice is in the dark when its shared by no one but you. How your entire body responds, you can feel your skin straining forth, pulled by a force larger than anything you've ever known. How less-alone it feels in one presence, despite our postmodern bodies trapped in and of themselves; as if you're suddenly able to shatter the boundaries of mind and skin and find solace truly in another being.

"And such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together, and yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment." Aristophanes, Symposium

Yeah, so. :) One of those nights, one of those fabulous flights... a trip to the moon on gossamer wings, just one of those things.

aK
GamesGrid Poker

August 6, 1945.

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 06:49:16 GMT

Private, password protected tourneys on GamesGrid.
(or, how to sneak out for a long lunch!)

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 18:40:59 GMT

Sh, don't tell anyone but I'm supposed to be working.

Anyone want to help me out with something? Know anyone who may be interested in hosting private, password protected tourneys (buyins, freerolls) on GamesGrid? We are the exclusive home to Dealer's Choice and now Kansas City Lowball online, and we're spreading them for private tourneys. Also the old (NL)HE standby, always-a-bridesmaid Omaha and cousin once removed Stud.

poker illuminati staged marriages fo sho.

Feel free to pass my email on or contact me yourself if you're interested in the grid's private tourneys. No Very Frequent Player (VFP) status required, no point requirements/accumulation like some places, no minimum player requirements, etc. If you're an affiliate and the private tourneys sounds interesting, I'd love to talk to you too.

GamesGrid has (insanely) made me the go-to-gal for this, and I had such a fun time with KotoD's KCL last nite that I thought I'd throw that out there.

asiaATgamesgridDOTcom.

that's all. and im going to sneak out for a long walk in the sun. (shh!)

aK
GamesGrid Poker

Poker blogger cannabalism! Big brother is watching the poker blogs!
or, aK gets a job with the weekly world (poker) news.

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 08:45:40 GMT

Bleh. Exausted as usual, and bummed as all fark.

Bill's thown down the sabre on Oddjack (I prattled on too unimaginatively in his comments there, sorry) but you know what's sadder than poker bloggers cannabalizing themselves?

That I have fewer subscribers than Poker Filter and Oddjack. Numbers kinda count tho I know they shouldn't... I mean, Bill's going on about how puny their numbers are and... argh. (This is when drinking and blogging do not a good post make.) I'm bummed to think I'm "screaming into the void." (I don't read the pokerpages bloggers since they don't have RSS. Anyone else feel the same way?)

I just look at my referrer lists and still have several days with "malabrigo yarn" (im waiting for a boatload of merino for some fat winter knitting!), "asia carrera" and "bondage fairies" dominating any sort of anyone interested in poker information and, ... like I said, argh. Kinda bums me out, seeing as I dump a lot of time into this (more than I should, and its all freetime too.) Maybe I should return to knitting posts so I won't feel bad about it and actually have something of substance when I'm done. (I do have a new project that's almost finished I'll be taking pics of..)

But, to wash that blve right out of my hair-- If you're reading me on a news aggregator, click onto my blogsite and check out my "topsites poker blogs link" on the left hand side. And yall who come and pop in check it out there on your right, too. Basically, if you're a poker blogger, pay attention please! :) I think you'll like it.

My new con mucho gusto buddy from CardClubs Network (the site that hosts Lord Admiral Radio's forum and a neat site to boot) has a script you can add to your poker blog that will track your traffic hits alongside other poker blogs and will serve as a pretty rockstar backbone to a poker blogroll complete with visitors stats, etc. I dig it and have it up there -----> even though if some of the Poker Illuminati add it to their blogs mine again will shrinkingviolet (youre turning violet, violet!) in comparison.

I like it as a sort of "pulse of the poker blogosphere" idea; a power in numbers sort of thing. And that a poker blogroll that I can track new additions and bumps in readership quite easily will be created as a side-product-- I like poker bloggers who would take the initiative to be innovative enough to add themselves to the community and to a blogroll like this and I want to know about them and I want to add them to my news aggregator. I believe in solidarity among us all, live y let live... this jives with that.

Then again, I'm a sandal wearing hippie from Berkeley, so don't listen to me too closely.

Both are something I dig (pulse of poker blogosphere y uber interactive poker blogroll touting power in numbers), so if you're a poker blogger please take a look at CardClubs Network's TopSite Poker Blog Script, and you can see what it looks like on the right hand side of your screen if you're reading this from my url. Maybe get some word of mouth under it and link it on your blog.

[/end service announcement]

(I want to make out to "50 ways to leave your lover" right about now...)

Instead I will drag my tired eyes over Pauly's strippper post again (yes, I am that hardup) and then drag my bum to bed. Nite all...

aK
GamesGrid Poker

My apologies to WPC. I suck, and I'm sorry (again).

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 07:51:56 GMT

~~Finally, I've been kickbanned from WPC (full disclosure, I believe in).~~
Edit: I was NEVER banned from WPC nor asked to leave. I wrote this post streamofconsciously and shouldn't have left this in there. I did go on a self-imposed exile from WPC after a misunderstanding there, and I shouldn't have falsely hinted that I wasn't welcome back by anyone there. WPC had been my favorite poker forum to visit right up til I stopped reading it, (my link here about me saying WPC was my favorite place from a long time back)-- and is the nicest and most helpful bunch of people (not just women, but people) I've met online playing poker. (Think: bizarro Oddjack. ;)) I do want to apologize for any confusion on this and will write a new post about my editing this post, b/c I don't like the way it sounds and I didn't mean it to.

Crow Eating Time.

(no, not my belated tour de france post.)

I need to apologize to Womens Poker Club -- its members, admins and mods -- for the above (edited) post I made a week or so ago in my "women and poker" blahblahblah fest. I didn't intend for the above to say or mean that I was banned from WPC; I should have taken more care in editing and posting. As I said above, I've never been asked to leave WPC and my account there is still active.

It was a bad, failed and half assed attempt at cheek and also my way of hiding the embarrassment I felt at not returning to WPC after a long time. (I almost logged in the day I wrote the women & poker post, but I don't think I did.) I felt that in what happened to make me not want to re-log in, I was responsible for-- I was a good deal in the wrong (in a naive wrong way, not an intended or deliberately wrong way), and that embarrassment kept me from logging into WPC long after I should have.

I owe WPC & everyone who got the impression I was asked to leave/removed from Womens Poker Club an apology for my misstatement. As I say in my edited copy post above, WPC has some of the most supportive people playing poker online among its ranks. It runs a "Fresh Poker Faces" league for new women poker players to get their bearings in, and the club works hard to bring events to its memberships and advances the "cause" of women playing poker a great deal with the commitment to its player base and membership.

I suck. And I'm sorry. Again.

Nite,

aK

Pacific Poker (Cassava 888.com) listing on the LSE, and PokerStars is next
(imo!)

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 07:45:51 GMT

Yall know me and my conspiracy theories. Here's a rich one-- all the asshat bigboy poker rooms are suddenly swamping the LSE, in order to keep me from sleep. I could have just turned in after a long day of emailing about GamesGrid's private, password protected tourneys (everyone's doing it!) but no. I had to know what was sitting in my news aggregator, and since its my conspiracy party, they know I'd check it and see tons of news I can't help but harp on, and know I won't sleep til its purged. They're trying to keep this good girl down, friends.

:)

Yeah, so not only does Coral Eurobet wants to bob for dividends on the London Stock Exchange, so does Pacific Poker's parent company Cassava (aka: 888.com -- that irritating ass popup site "want to download while browsing our site?" one). Cassava is expected to have a value of about $1.5bn USD, controlled by 2 pairs of brothers for 70% and 20% respectively. (And who says dreams don't come true-- The brothers set up the business after buying a gaming licence in Antigua for $100,000!) Like we saw with Party Gaming's float, the executives are reaping in the rewards as well: Its chief executive John Anderson, head of UK property group Burford, could make up to £35 million from what is thought to be a stake of up to 4% And its a good time to be a non-US based bank in this "fees bonanza," as HSBC, Cassava's lead underwriter, is thought to be in line for at least £15 million in fees depending on the amount of new money raised and the level of success fee it has agreed.

Interestingly enuf, Credit Suisse First Boston, which has been advising Cassava’s shareholders, had been expected to act as adviser to the company but is understood to have decided against such a move over the US legality question, and that's how the US cookie crumbles. CSFB would rather forgo $30m than face the sabre-rattling DOJ and its band of merry informational subpoenas.

Of course, like I predicted (somebody quote me!) -- it's not just one or two wanting to jump in the waters. Its been long speculated that as PokerStars has been planning to move its base of operations from Costa Rica to the Isle of Man, but they've finally gone and made an honest (wo)man of IOM by announcing their flight from Costa Rica to IOM's open (and gradually taxing) arms.

Now, yall may say who gives a nipponese cockroach about Poker Stars' move, but I submit that a European base for online poker companies is necessary for a successful LSE launch and to attract EU investors (seeing as the American ones are left in the cold again!) Party moved its servers from Canadia to Gibraltar before its listing on the LSE, ostensibly to make its IPO shinier, and it seems that PokerStars' move is mimicking that play in its relocation.

The EU is truly becoming the home of online poker and online gambling-- stocks, banks and now actual physical space and server occupation.

So, stay tuned for a "PokerStars is listing on the London Stock Exchange" post from me in the near future. A guess, anyway.

As for now, you know the drill-- Nite all :)

aK
GamesGrid Poker

Coral Eurobet float and Foxwoods' wishywashy, Viagra needing selves.

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 11:27:50 GMT

"Well, if your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd follow right along, huh?"
--mom, catching me rattle thru my bedroom window at 6am after a speakerhumping session ay some warehouse rave in la county

Coral Eurobet too? Yeah, float(sam) float(ies) float(syourboat)-- Coral Eurobet is aiming their sites to float on the LSE later this year. It did come of a slight shock to me since they were recently lauded as the UK's "most successful private company" per KPMG just a few months ago and for some reason I thought that they'd stick around for joy. I should have paid more attention to the fact that Eurobet was falling in the Party line (get it? sh!t, as if anyone reads this online poker crap anyway) -- in their use of Captcha bot-prevention technology and popups warning of screen scrapers that can and would detect unauthorized software use (ostensibly Poker Edge and Poker Prophecy, because of the offending nature of shared hand histories).

A few details for those who don't religiously follow my links (and why not? hellsbells but it takes me a long time to compile them in an interesting way for yall...):

The timing of the offer has not been decided and will depend on market conditions, but sources suggest a launch later this year. A straight sale of the business remains a possibility, but a float is the preferred option.

However, smaller online gaming groups could saturate the market over the next 12 months, experts say, and there are fears that aggressive marketing of Olympic Games scratchcards could hurt betting firms. A series of National Lottery games and television shows aim to raise £1.5 billion for the Games.

A float would provide an exit for Charterhouse, the private equity group that bought the business for £860 million, including debt, in a management buyout in September 2002.
Charterhouse has already taken an estimated £560 million out of the business so far, following two refinancings.

Sources said that there was no obvious trade buyer for the business unless an overseas player decided to bid, leaving the most likely alternative to a flotation a sale to another private equity player.

And of course you know me, wanting to know who's cashing in on this stuff...

While the management team is set fair for big profits, the major gainer will be Charterhouse, which paid just £278m for the company's shares and took on its existing £582m debts in September 2003.

The finance group has already taken out an estimated £560m from refinancing deals and still holds shares that could be worth around £685m.

And with no segue to speak of...

Foxwoods has ~~changed its mind again~~ decided to hold off on rereleasing its online gambling game... at least until state hearings on the issue have commenced. Now Foxwoods says that the issue is a matter of appearance. The PlayAway Web site never explained that the fancy blackjack and slot machine graphics were just a facade, a way to heighten the experience of checking for a winning keno ticket. Cmon now, they were advertising slots and poker for online play, and now they're claiming its been mistaken for KENO? Crap, I suck at poker but I don't even think I'd make that mistake. Wimps. (well, lets see where the hearings go at least before i start using even saltier language.)

Holy hell, did you know its 5am? I have more to write about but f it, I'm going to bed. Nite all.

aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)

For Oedipa, (electra?)
No poker.

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 08:27:19 GMT

Freestyling, freefalling. Pink from a minihike in Contra Costa County off of Crow Canyon, more for a change of scenery from asphalted-soldout Berkeley to the yellowelephant hills undulating towards Mount Diablo than anything, and I'm tired. Tired of, yeah. Poker :) Who'd have guessed. I think poker is tired of me. So no content in this mucho maas (stream of) consciousnaas post okay?

Oh, except GamesGrid now has private tourney capabilities and I've been talking to so many ppl lately about it my head is swimming. I had a dream about it ("no, its not flirting if i pick your password" is all i could remember, i have no idea what it means). I was thinking of running one of my own, adding something (overlay? something?) and playing a private tourney w/ the friends I've met online doing this blog, work, whatever. I think I'd need at least nine to not be humiliated, don't think I'm there yet as far as drawing power ;)

Ah, who needs 9 people when right now I am gilldeep in my crowning achievement as 2+2's most perverted poster. I don't think I won, but hey, anytime my lone boob gets splashed across 2p2 is a day for celebration in my book. Oh well, that concludes this station's test.

I've felt like such a watcher lately. I mean, I feel like I've been drinking in my environment lately, in huge gulps and holding my breath til I see the whitefire halos around their wavering forms, seeing a keener, brighter world. I spent a good deal of time on Friday waiting around Oakland for a friend to get out of the bigoffice jobs there and catch dinner; I always like to make the farmers markets there on Fridays since there's so much to see in the few blocks. There's the official marketplace, with the organic greens with edible flowers $4 vendor; honey guy (I hate honey, sorry); quark lady (there's this cheese-based spread called quark, not like cream cheese but its vicinity-- lemon quark tastes like crumbly lemon cheesecake on morning toast); 7 interchangeable fresh fruit in season stands; omifuckinggod kettle corn in the $6 jumbo icantbelieveimcarryingthisbigassbagofpopcornhomeonthebus bag that i always get; ... and then there's the unofficial farmers market, the second block down, comprised almost completely of chinese sellers selling all sorts of off the wall shit in comparison to the vanilla market just across the pavement. Like balut. I saw zero guys in businesssuits hanging out in a line to buy balut, where I had to elbow some soccer mom to keep my place in the popcorn herd. My first boyfriend ever was filipino, and he'd cook a whole chicken in the oven after liberal dousing with "Accent" brand seasoning (aka: monosodium glutamate - MSG) and manage to down the entire mess cracking bones and greasy skin while drinking a 2 litre and not sharing any of it. He'd brag about eating balut too, knowing it was supposed to shock whitegirl me, at least more than his throwing knives at me did (really, i can pick em folks...)

Yeah, and the unofficial farmers market in Oakland has poor chickens in a cage, twist and go curbside service too. I'm not fucking kidding, saw 3 chickens decapitated/wrung before I could decide I didn't want to watch anymore. It's like this very odd NSFW! blog of a sleepyeyed naked woman posing to get poker bloggers' attention. Yeah, I don't understand why either but I think it fits that *I tried looking away thing* I was getting at. And damn, I know I'm topsofthepops myself when it comes to being here but not being there, but I generally know what month it is myself (still, NSFW)...

Hm. Good segue into link dumping land.

Over 100 different Google-pageranking factors

Firefox' pageranking extension that lists the PR of any site you visit (what the hell do you mean you're not using firefox?)

VERY NSFW x-ray and sex pics, from Wim Delvoye ... dont say i didnt warn you, share it with someone you love. :)

I really want someone to take this kind of effort to nail me. "Instead, what you will find is a flood of information, organized in succinct and clear order on how to Locate, Approach, Attract, Seduce, and Lay as many women as you can handle with great speed and efficiency. All kinds of women."

FF to 830 or so Oakland time, chinatown when the suns set but the skys greyish blue still, and all of the florescents are on and everything looks mushroom bright in neon green, red script, swings of signs and so much shared office space. Listening to the karaoke from 3rd story nightclubs was altering, because it wasn't bad and it was heartfelt and it seemed to carry further because the night wasnt it yet... too many ducks and heads and eyes in windows looking out, that cracking skin and quantity of brown...bakeries everywhere (though I'm biased to the virginia bakery myself, and never liked dim sum-- too ashamed to admit it though),...

Best food treat any ex has introduced me to was hamachi kama-- yellowtail "collar" or the brace of neckbones around the 'shoulder' part of a fish (under the head, before the steaks of body). Broiled and picked off fishcheeks... man a sweet, greasy delight. He shocked the hell out of me, that one (boy, not fish). I met him in a small bar a girlfriend from work ran as her second job-- barely 21 and hi, how're you as I'm holding another girlfriend's hair back as she redistributed bacardi to the oakland sewer system... Fast forward nine months and he's at my doorstep with two garbage bags full of crap I'd managed to leave under his bed (I'm still missing a bra, you freak), which is normal and how it always ends except my friends were breathing easier that I didn't want to move into his whitepicket house just cos he asked me to, because he was 46 and wanted someone to be home for him and it really didn't matter if it was going to be me or girl friday from another bar pickup, it just had to be someone and it had to be then.

I found a gift he gave me tucked away doing a little cleaning... So for Christmas he gives me a watch. A mickey mouse gold watch. And Mickey Mouse earrings.

Okay. You know, if I had ever had a conversation (ANY conversation) about MM with this man I could have understood this choice. If I didn't overhear him (sitting in the passenger seat of his car, driving), "yellow or white? uh, yellow" with his secretary who was out buying this for me as I'm supposed to pretend not to know. If he had ever tried to at least pretend it wasn't because I was just a warm body and because it was me he wanted. If I hadn't tried so hard to think of something perfect for him in order to fill the gap knowing that he wasn't the one.

I totally don't regret it, its just mindboggling to me. I mean, you want to be with me the rest of my life, and you dont ask me my middle name? DONT KNOW THAT I DONT HAVE PIERCED EARS? That this is nothing I would want (that it was chosen by your secretary, that you notice me enough to see that nothing like that has ever graced me in your presence...), that I wish it wasn't an accident that led me to think -- wow, does he ever know me! he totally knew i'd love this, he put on his sunglasses and looked into my soul.

Yeah ladies and gents, I structure my love life choices over raw fish and greasy fingers. Who needs throwing bones when the fish is already cracked there for you?

My tongue's been pierced for like, 7 years. I take it out and clean the whole thing and my tongue feels naked, free of the superweight. (I did buy a huge setting, thinking that showing off my big balls was titillating and discovering later that it was really boring and sad). Someone told me I had a lisp because of it, but I can barely move my too-free tongue to talk without it. you'll never know since Lord Admiral has nothing to say about hamachi kama and mickey mouse earrings ;)

I bought ticklers but never used them.

I want someone to take the effort to put together a sex tape with me intended. Man, I'm so there thinking of mixtapes-- shit, I made my 16 year old boyfriends mixtapes of records and haunting bsides (dont have sex to morrissey, it messes with your worldview). But, ever do that? Make a tape for someone, want them to catch how cool you are thru the arrangement of song, to speak for you and make her move close and 'oh' approvingly with each segue... I jsut think its a lot of effort for someone.

I want someone to make the effort. :)

aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)
**Free year subscription to GamesGrid Backgammon, $80 value!**

Dedicated to Mariah, white hair and self-portraits:
Ultimate Bet's IPO, Kahnawake, Foxwoods' Online and WPT's lame smackdown
(Best nite in ages, thanks!!)

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 08:06:16 GMT

I.found.a.white.hair.today.

Now, this may freak some ppl out, but this is my first ever. I think its *so* freaking cool. I would be more than happy to have a head full of white hair, and think it'll look rad.

A pic in memory:

And of COURSE I didn't pull it out! (Sorry I resized; follow the strand btw my fingers up towards the middle.) Weird, rare hair down pic.

While we're having fun w/ self-portraits:

I was inspired by the MS Paint thread on 2p2...

Love to see some self portraits, please. :) (I'm a cheeky monkey tonite, looking at softporn pics when I shouldn't and reliving speakerhumping days, all apologies...)

So I'll penance myself with ~~Mariah (no, shes been undone tonite already, vicariously at least)~~ poker...

So, UltimateBet has made it official and is going to go public. w00t, join the club. Like I told a member of the poker illuminati the other day (they do exist, be afraid)-- I think this is a good thing. I think that the more online poker rooms get listed on stock exchanges alongside already acceptable bookmakers the better. Legitimacy is money, and everyone having their hands in your honeypot means that everyone is going to defend tooth and nail their dividends and ~~pound of flesh~~ 23% part-ownership stocks stamped "sit back and don't say anything" bought for seispence on the LSE.

I'd like to be the first to publically wonder:

Will Kahnawake's "grey" legality affect Ultimate Bet's ipo? You have to wonder if they're thinking of abandoning their server space in Canadia in order to offer a more solid offering to the hawks looking to snatch up a piece of the £145 to £200 million ~~apple~~ pie... Party Gaming removed its servers from Kahnawake before its ipo (and perhaps the evil amount of server downtime Party has suffered recently has been karmic retribution or a tribal curse because of it...) and now that the Law Commission of Canada has released a report that states that Kahnawake is allegedly violating the criminal code of their jurisdiction by licensing and providing space for online poker servers for some of the major poker rooms online (PDF!), we may see UltimateBet pulling out of Canadia or making a very public announcement about the precarious position of their server space in Canada in their prospectus, detailing the possibility of the hammer falling on the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. At least I'd hope-- as much as Party Gaming was honest in theirs, I'd expect another skeletons-tumbling-out of the closet annoucement from UltimateBet too. (Some of my more hardcore readers are enjoying the shaky Annie Duke and/or Big Steve allusions there.)

And never one to abandon a tribal curse segue, Foxwoods Casino will relaunch its ~~online gambling~~ no skill, no luck, predetermined online keno game after being told by CT's attorney general that it was a no go-- "stop violating the Wire Act!" and shut down! A week passed and its arisen as a weaker, uglyduckling phoenix from the cyberashes...

Now that they've relaunched as a "keno only," no-chance no-gambling-here-ossifer site (where earlier, the site was offering: "Enjoy your favorite games-- slots, poker, blackjack, and so much more-- at home! Win big cash payouts!" a la online gambling) you have to wonder where they're going with this switcheroo. Perhaps they realized they cannot win the Wire Act challenge as easily as they thought, so they decided to scale back quite a bit and test the waters with this (lame) keno crap. Maybe they're onto the next big thing, predetermined scratcher-like keno plays that can only be activated by an offsite computer with tickets that can only be cashed in at Foxwoods. In Connecticut. Like, that's even further from me than soubay is.

Hm.

Either way, this massive scale back isn't so rosy for GameLogic, the mental giants who created the software powering Foxwoods' offering. Or as they like to call it, the ~~mind control device~~ "casino experience persist[ing] outside the casino walls." Goosebumps, and its not even b/c I'm flirting with my doppelganger in another window. :)

And of course, its not big business and poker if we don't talk about the World Poker Tour. Or, "wpt" as they like to lingoize. ;) WPT has apparently won several intellectual property suits recently, defending its watery brand from the likes of a free, ProBoards based poker forum and the "mid ohio super satellite no limit championship" (from Ohio, natch.)

And they say lawyers have too much ~~guano~~ time on their hands.

Perhaps this shill of a press release gone plop is meant to divert attention away from the fact the SEC is looking very closely at the WPT-Brunson bid for possible market manipulation, and has set its crosshairs double on Lakes Entertainment's Lyle Berman, owner of the controlling company of WPT and already under SEC investigation.

But who knows, maybe WPT is really sleeping easier by putting the smackdown on the world's smallest poker forum and gets its jollies with weak public displays like this.

I know I do, so there you go.

And here I go, off to have promised dirty dreams modeled after my dadaist cyber session tonite. (jinx!) Nite all.

aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)
**Free year subscription to GamesGrid Backgammon, $80 value!**

Asia Carrera and poker.
Really, I found the missing link. Pics.

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 09:40:53 GMT

In honor of Ms Tilley's (aka: winner of women's event at the WSOP 2005) Tonite Show appearance on the 28th...

From Asia Carrera's site:

I was the body double for half-Asian star Jennifer Tilly in the movie "Fast Sofa." I had to get naked in a room with her first to get her approval, and we both turned red!

Don't say you don't learn anything here. Yes I had a good reason for hanging out on Ms Carrera's site-- looking for her email (not listed) so I can get the nerve to say hello. *gosh* (oh yeah, and to come play poker with me. i'd throw her a freeroll and everything ... GamesGrid now has private, password protected tournament abilities.)

aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)
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Poker and women.
Blogs, women's only events, oh my!

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:00:33 GMT

Women and poker.

Ah, everyone sits up a little straighter eh?

(I was going to write about my own last strip club trip, inspired by grubby's... can I hint: ensenada, no ingles, goalie poles instead of the sissy singles in the USA? laterlater skaters, I need to drink a little more and it be a little later in the day for that.)

But that's the fun of it, and the hook of it, and the female-ness of it. Hook in being female, I mean.

I saw Maudie's post about the poker.about.com best (wimmin) bloggers y WPC's ladies-only tourneys essay (and reminded of the RGP post from a few weeks ago: Women were disrespected in their WSOP event), and thought my ~~penis-less~~ strapon self should get in the mix.

First, I actually meant to email Toby and thank her for my inclusion on poker.about.com's women poker bloggers list. I was actually quite flattered (coworkers didn't appreciate my massemailing about it-type of flattered) and feel like a dunce since I hadn't yet. Still am flattered to be included, esp since I carry no HHs or advice/insight into the game whatsoever.

Second, I am staunchly opposed to equality feminism in all forms. I do consider and identify myself as a feminist, but the ladies who ask me what kind always get the goosebumps going. :) So there you go.

~~Finally, I've been kickbanned from WPC (full disclosure, I believe in).~~
Edit: I was NEVER banned from WPC nor asked to leave. I wrote this post streamofconsciously and shouldn't have left this in there. I did go on a self-imposed exile from WPC after a misunderstanding there, and I shouldn't have falsely hinted that I wasn't welcome back by anyone there. WPC had been my favorite poker forum to visit right up til I stopped reading it, (my link here about me saying WPC was my favorite place from a long time back)-- and is the nicest and most helpful bunch of people (not just women, but people) I've met online playing poker. (Think: bizarro Oddjack. ;)) I do want to apologize for any confusion on this and will write a new post about my editing this post, b/c I don't like the way it sounds and I didn't mean it to.

(5751 yodaphreaks sigh with relief as that syntaxmonster has already been slayed.)

Do I think women *need* women's only events? No, in the giant scope of it all, no. Do I think if women choose to play only with other women that it's a bad thing? Nope. Do I think they should have the right to make that choice if they want? Sure. So why would women/anyone want to elect to take away those choices, or deride women for making them? If it gets them to play, why not?

I guess I look at it from the perspective I take on almost everything: I think women are more interesting than men. Sorry. :) I guess I could rephrase it, I think women are more interesting when they are involved in primarily male-centered occupations/endeavors, and pay attention to them more closely b/c they are women. Sure they undoubtedly shine as bright if not brighter than men in several respects of their individual endeavors, but I'm paying attention because I want to support them and because ... I think women are more interesting than men. :) I just do, I keep deleting that but, kudos for honesty, eh?

Tell me of a woman tearing it up in any male-dominated anything & I'm there googling away. Cos I'm PULLING for her. Sh!t, I didn't even pay attention to the WSOP ME coverage til Ms Williamson was making a show dragging her feet along the way (and I'm glad she did since I kept Pauly on a tab & kept refreshing long after she'd been booted-- poker bloggers kick tech/poli bloggers arses, btw.)

And yeah, I actually pay more attention to women poker bloggers. I'm not even looking for naked poker chick pictures, I promise. I mean, if I see a female-sounding name on a poker blogroll, I'll be x times more interested in clicking in. Doesn't mean I'll stick around for joy, but it does capture my interest more readily than a similarly-situated (male-written) blog. Sorry, just trying to be honest and say why I enjoy highlights of women in poker.about.com's manner. (On the flip and something of cud: I read a lot of knitting blogs and many are dominated by women. I find myself x more interested when I find a male-knitting blog. Go figure.)

I know, poker doesn't *have* to be male-dominated... game of skill with no physical requirements etc. But, it is. So's math, science, upper eschelons of big business and management, younameitetcetc. So why not welcome women to play whereever they feel comfortable? If you don't want to play with them, fine-- but why not live y let live for women who choose (for a million valid reasons, and a thousand invalid ones) to orient themselves around women players?

[Sidebar: I also don't think that women who do not want to be berated for their sex while playing poker should just get better and beat men at "their own game." (My rehash of common "women playing poker" advice.) While I'm getting better, I should sit and soak up all the "bitch, etc." you can throw at me cos I've got different plumbing? I move when someone pees on transit, and I won't endure someone calling me sexist terms either. I just won't. The world's too big and I can go too far in it to have to take crap like that from strangers. I know a woman can enunciate "bitch" just as well as a man can, but does it sting/smack like it does coming out of xy's mouth? Nope. (do you see why? lol)

The thing is, my personal philosophy on it all... I don't have to stand for anything. I've got my right to vote, I've got my college degrees, I can greymatter wrestle with the best of em. I don't have to prove anything to anyone anymore-- incl. my ability to absorb sexist slurs if I don't want to. I *can* take it, but I *choose* not to. If that choice leads me to womens only events (doubt it, if I played in one it'd be cos I think I'd get a singular thrill playing w. so many other women)... so be it.]

So yay for women who play poker, be it in the WSOP ME, WSOP womens event, women only, men and women only ;), etcetc. Thanks again to Toby for thinking of me too... I've always enjoyed reading Tanya's/MissT74's blog if anyone's looking for another female poker player's blog who isn't listed at poker.about.com, too.

who wants nothing more than for someone to call me a bitch in my comments ;),
aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)
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You spin me right round baby, right round...
Rotating tables and toggling sound options, now available at GamesGrid Poker

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:56:48 GMT

Nothing's sexier than a big software push. :)

(Well, I'd usually disagree with myself, but this one is pretty sexy. Especially a server side one, meow.)

GamesGrid Poker now has "sit where you want" rotating tables - table seating. Too freaking cool, I've been rotating myself and unsuspecting gridders around the tables for hours now, and I'm the only dizzy one. Please, call me puppetmaster and pull my chain.

Oh yeah, an option to toggle sounds (on, off, critical only) also implemented in "settings" tab in lobby server as well. See, sexie pushing all around.

That's all for now :) Go try spinning the tables around-- you don't need to sit, or even have an account, to spin me right round (like a record baby right round round round...)

aK
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MSNBC - Motley Fool: Jump in, online poker's fine
Was the WPT fakeout a wakeup call?

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 06:57:56 GMT

My my, how the worms turn. The Motley Fool/MSNBC's latest online poker investing article is pretty rosy... Party's ipo is fairly valued "in an industry that's showing tremendous growth and popularity," and the two major hurdles that the online poker industry faces (that poker is a potential fad, and the quasi-illegal status of online poker in the US) are not ones that should hinder anyone willing to take the risk from talking to their brokers about investing in the London Stock Exchange-- namely, in online poker stocks.

So, the difference days make?

Although it wasn't mentioned except in passing, the jump the WPT stock(s) took two weeks ago has to have been an eyeopening experience (or, at least one confirming greed will jujitsu morality in a heartbeat) to US-based traders and the author of the article. Sure, the stocks ended Friday at less reflective of the $700m bid, but this was also after trading was halted and then resumed for the WPT stock-- it was frozen at $29.50, much closer to the supposed bid price, broken down to $34/share valuation if the $700 million figure is accurate. And who knows how high it may have gone had it not been capped off early and reintroduced later?

What the hell am I talking about?

That the online poker industry (again) has the attention of US-based investing houses and banks thanks to the WPT shenanigans. All of the surrounding poker hype in financial markets: Party Gaming's float and its moneyspewing onto the London market (buoying the FTSE, along w/ rising oil prices, to a 3-year high), the moneymoneyeverywhere-but not a drop for US banks singsong, and the quick reaction the market showed to Dolly's offhand, "number on a piece of paper" in an envelope (aka: the official bid for World Poker Tour brand) all lead up to a salivating US market on the end of that doj rope.

Were Brunson et al simply testing the waters to see the market's reaction to the possibilty and power behind the WPT brand (and as a figurehead for the overall market valuation of the poker meme as a whole?) Is this article a direct, if not attributed, reaction to the WPT bid? Can we expect to see more US-focused investment firms and information clearinghouses offer the suggestion to slip Party Gaming into their portfolios?

Who knows. [the illuminati does.]

Did you know I registered "mega-pots-of-gold-superstar-internet-poker.com" after this foxtrot comic came out, at MicroBob's "suggestion"...

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20050606/lft050607.gif
(i hate broken pages)

hehe.. i also meant to tell yall i bought a "real" redirect url too... asiaK.net, but am staying on my (mexican)radio so pls don't change bookmarks on account of me.

And my whoa insertion of the day (well, second one anyway...) ;)

Doityerself stoplight changer instructions!

Good thing I don't drive.

aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)
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SEC investigates Brunson-WPT bid, Kahnawake versus Canadia
Someone get me into the poker illuminati, please.

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 04:33:45 GMT

Let us indulge ourselves with a tiny bit of poker content, eh?

Last week I was as shellshocked as (I'd like to think) the rest of pokaworld was at Brunson's $700m bid to buy out the WPT brand. All I could think was, whoa-- Beal's the moneyman backer, the corporation hasn't really been playing highstakes poker games all this time (not all, anyway) but groundworking a newfangled poker-Illuminati that is looking to pull all the strings in our pokercrazed world and the first stepping stone to absolute dominion was the wpt-feather in their caps... (i get a little conpiracytheorish late at nite in the dark, pls forgive me)... and *wow* what's going to happen next?!

But nein, WPT bid fails anticlimactically (and it really isnt always two roads diverging but means to that particular end, sometimes) ... and we're left wondering wtf just happened, where's my all in protection? Poker is rigged!

The SEC is wondering wtf actually:

Poker legend Doyle Brunson, who we often see on TV in poker tournament finals, has certainly mastered the art of bluffing. But the problem, some investors say, is he took that skill to Wall Street in what appears to be a major rip-off.

Some angry complaints have already been lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which, I'm told by a Nasdaq investigator, has kicked off an investigation into what a number of Wall Street pros believe was a bogus takeover offer for WPT Enterprises, the Hollywood, Calif., creator of the widely watched World Poker Tour telecast on the Travel Channel.

So, no poker Illuminati? (if there is one, give me a call. sliding scale and really, i just get off on information and dont mind the cloak y dagger stuff either).

Nope, and what's that leave us except good ol run of the mill, no capes required corporate greed...

Meanwhile, there is a sizable short position in WPT. One short seller in the shares thinks it's inevitable that any probe will reveal one or more of the following:

* The bid was never real and some investors knowing that profited by buying the stock in advance of the offer and possibly sold it short after the run-up in price.

* The bid was real, but for some reason it fell apart in midstream, and no one ever disclosed that fact. In the process, some investors, aware of what was going on, illegally capitalized on that information, perhaps on the long side, the short side, or both.

* Some investors, aware of everything going on, may have also made money in Lakes Entertainment, which holds a 62% stake in WPT. Lakes, which also has a sizable short position, experienced a recent roller-coaster ride, as well.

And lets not forget that Mr Berman, who controls Lakes Entertainment, is already embroiled in another SEC corporate escapade:

It's good news for Lakes, which has been in a tussle with the Securities and Exchange Commission because it counts millions of dollars in loans to Indian tribes for developing casinos as assets. The SEC says the loans should be counted as expenses.

Berman said he expects the SEC dispute to be cleared up within three to four weeks.

The Brunson bid reverberated alrite, shivering Lakes up in the process.

Who would be the poker Illuminati, anyway? Pros? Corporations? Players? *bloggers*? ;) (lonely girls who have nothing better to do than pound this stuff out alone in the dark cos the chair retains warmth better than the bed....)

Kahnawake better watch out, it may lose some grand master status soon. You know, the Mohawk tribe in Canadia that licenses online poker and internet casinos across this fair set of data ups and downs...

Anyhow, their ability to do just that is being called into question, according to a research report for Canada's Law Commission...

The report does, however, explore some of the grey areas that have formed in the gambling industry like the legality of 30 internet gambling sites that have been operated on Kahnawake Mohawk reserves in Quebec since the late 1990's.

Under the Criminal Code, provincial governments are the only ones that can operate on-line casinos, but the Kahnawake Mohawks, who consider themselves an independent state, have established the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to license and regulate the sites on Internet servers physically located on their tribal lands, the report says.

"The question is whether the Kahnawake are a provincial government," Mr. Campbell said.

Well, I daresay that Party Poker may have had secondsite (online poker is rigged!) in pulling out their remaining servers from the kahnawake reservation around the time of their IPO, though I think the real reason has more to do with alignment with the UK and server location legitimacy issues than anything...

But, the Law Commission won't present its recommendations based on the research til 2006, giving lots of time to dig its heels in the masonic poker catacombs and have Grand Chief Delisle issue press releases about their legitimacy...

Either way, knots are forming in panties across the globe... starting with all of the permit holders from Kahnawake who are ~~worrying~~ wondering right now how the sun is in Malta and if the women are as noir as they imply...

Man, roo ruch roker. I almost feel, dirty. :)

aK
GamesGrid Poker (and Backgammon!)
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ps, what do you think my shot in hell is in getting into the poker illuminati, for reals? now i want one just to exist so i can quiver knowing its out there, even if i dont shine brite enough to warrant the pointy hat.

aK(a): asia K

The voyeur and the exhibitionist. (postmodern parable, saviour-faire.) NC-17, and no poker.

August 6, 1945.

Private, password protected tourneys on GamesGrid.(or, how to sneak out for a long lunch!)

Poker blogger cannabalism! Big brother is watching the poker blogs!or, aK gets a job with the weekly world (poker) news.

My apologies to WPC. I suck, and I'm sorry (again).

Pacific Poker (Cassava 888.com) listing on the LSE, and PokerStars is next(imo!)

Coral Eurobet float and Foxwoods' wishywashy, Viagra needing selves.

For Oedipa, (electra?)No poker.

Dedicated to Mariah, white hair and self-portraits: Ultimate Bet's IPO, Kahnawake, Foxwoods' Online and WPT's lame smackdown(Best nite in ages, thanks!!)

Asia Carrera and poker.Really, I found the missing link. Pics.

Poker and women. Blogs, women's only events, oh my!

You spin me right round baby, right round...Rotating tables and toggling sound options, now available at GamesGrid Poker

MSNBC - Motley Fool: Jump in, online poker's fineWas the WPT fakeout a wakeup call?

SEC investigates Brunson-WPT bid, Kahnawake versus CanadiaSomeone get me into the poker illuminati, please.