Card history: Kings (1)
Published May 6, 2012Talked enough about Queens and Jacks here, time for the big cards now: the Kings. All four kings in a deck of cards represent big and well-known historical figures, except for the king of spades, who prolly represents the greatest king of the bible. But they have other things in common. For example, all kings are carrying a sword, except for the king of diamonds, who has an axe. And three out of four have a moustache, only the king of hearts hasn’t.
King of Diamonds
The King of Diamonds, or the guy with the axe, is the legendary Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. I guess all of you ever heard at least once of this fella, maybe you know him from the historical TV series Rome. The transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire is beautifully protrayed here, and especially the crucial rol that Caesar plays in it.
This Caesar guy was a real emperor: he conquested Gaul, invaded Britain and destroyed all his enemies in Italy to become the absolute leader of the Roman world, one of the biggest empires that ever existed. But Caesar underestimated the power of the ones that opposed him in Roman politics and was eventually killed by a group of senators, led by Caesar’s good friend Brutus. So when you play this card, make sure you realize how far you can go with it.
King of Clubs
The king of clubs represents no less than Alexander the Great. If you remember your history lessons, you’ll know that Alexander was the king of Macedon (some region in Greece) and as such he conquered Persia. Alexander really was one of the great rulers in history: his empire once stretched from Greece all the way to the Himalaya.
No wonder Alexander is known as a great commander, but he had one big advantage not every person in history had: his personal tutor was Aristotle himself. This must have helped him while fighting Darius III for the reign over Persia. But Alexander was an ambitious man: he wanted more and wanted to invade Arabia and India. This was one step too far, as Alexander died in Babylon, which is located in the current state of Iraq, south of the capital Baghdad. Alexander nevertheless succeeded to spread Greek culture al over the eastern empires and still is a legend for military leaders today. So don’t hesitate to play this card: it can bring you a lot of winnings, just beware of becoming overconfident.
Our last two cards next time, another couple of big guys: King of Hearts and King of Spades.
Card history: Queens (2)
Published February 18, 2012I’m still discovering the persons behind the cards and I’ll discuss our last two queens of the deck today: the Queen of Hearts and the Queen of Spades.
Queen of Hearts
Just like the other red queen of our cards deck, the queen of hearts represents a biblical figure, ‘Judith’, from the biblical book with the same name. Judith litterally means ‘the woman from Judah’. The story about Judith is one of the rare biblical stories where women are portrayed more mighty than men.
The story goes as follows: the town of Betulia was attacked by the legendary Holofernes, a strong military leader whose assignment was nothing less than conquering the world. His army tried to conquer Betulia by occupying the water source which was vital for the complete water supply of the town. So the citizens became dehydrated and became quite desperate. But then there’s the rich widow Judith who invades the army of Holofernes and tries to seduce him. She attempts to get him drunk and finally Holofernes falls asleep.
She took her chance and cut off Holofernes’ head. Afterwards, Judith returns to town and he citizens attack the besiegers, who are completely confused when they see Holofernes’ head against the city walls. The army pulls back and Judith’s plan proved to be successful. So play this card with guts, because this woman can kick some serious ass.
Queen of Spades
Our last queen is without any doubt the strongest, the queen of spades or ‘Athena’. Athena is one of the most important and well-known goddesses of Greek mythology. She’s the goddess of a lot of things, but most of all the goddess of the clear heaven and the pure air. Athena herself is considered as pure as this air itself, that’s why her virginity was never doubted.
But Athena is also known as goddess of wisdom and art. And like that still isn’t enough for a virgin, she’s also often called the goddess of war and peace. Personally I think it must be a tough job to combine these last two, but hey, she’s a goddess. To thank her for all this divinity, the Athenians built the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis in the city she gave her name to: Athens. So never doubt playing this card, nothing can go wrong with this strong woman in your hands.
The big guys next time: Kings.
Card history: Queens (1)
Published January 10, 2012With all our different kinds of Jacks discussed, it’s time to move on to Queens today. We saw that the pictures in an English deck didn’t represent anyone specific, but that this was the case in French decks. Same thing applies to our four Queens, although there are rumours that the Queen of Hearts represents Elizabeth of York. However we’ll stick to the French interpretation here.
Queen of Diamonds
Last time we spoke about legends and mythological figures, with the queen of diamonds we’ve got our first biblical character: ‘Rachel’. Apparently, she was the favorite wife of the Patriarch Jacob. Favorite, because this Jacob was first married to Rachel’s sister Leah. As you see, the bible was more modern than you’d assume.
This becomes more clear if you read the book of Genesis, named after a seventies prog band. This guy Jacob worked seven years for a certain Laban (his uncle), and in return he would be allowed to marry his daughter, Rachel (so this was actually his niece). But this Laban just substituted Rachel for his other daughter Leah (another niece), because Laban thought it was better that the older sister should marry first. So Jacob had to work ANOTHER SEVEN YEARS after the marriage to marry Rachel in the end, something completely normal for those guys from Genesis.
Jacob got a bunch of children from both wifes and then fled with them, away from Laban. I guess Jacob was just tired of all the working. So Laban sold England by the pound and went after them, but he died because Jacob cursed him. Rachel meanwhile gets a second son from Jacob, but dies while giving birth. You can still visit the tomb of the queen of diamonds just outside Bethlehem. So only play this card when you believe in those stories of progressive rock.
Queen of Clubs
The Queen of clubs is a very mysterious card because it just represents ‘Argine’, which is an anagram for Regina, the Latin translation for ‘Queen’. So Argine actually just represents Freddy Mercury, who was not only the singer of Queen, but was also known as the ‘queen of clubs’ in the British nightlife. So play this card when you’re not afraid of taking big risks.
Posted in cards history | 
argine, biblical person, elizabeth of york, freddy mercury, genesis, queen of clubs, queen of hearts, rachel, regina | 
Leave a commentCard history: Jacks (2)
Published November 11, 2011Welcome back, people of the poker scene. As announced last time, we’ll discuss the remaing two Jacks today, the Jack of Hearts and the Jack of Spades. All part of our history lessons here. Goal: know what you’re playing with.
Jack of Hearts
Contrary to our two friends from last time, the jack of hearts represents a figure who has actually lived in our real world. We’re talkin more specifically about Étienne de Vignolles, better known as ‘La Hire’. This guy was a French military leader during the Hundred Years’ War. As you might know (or not), this is a generic term for a long series of conflicts between the kings of England and France (1337-1453). One of his buddies in this war was the prolly more famous Jeanne d’Arc.
La Hire decided to join the army of Charles VII in 1418, when this fella was king of France. Problem for Charles was that Henry VI (king of England) thought hé was also king of France, leading to some serious fighting. La Hire supported Charles when the English army invaded France in 1418. He was quiete sucessful, as he was promoted as captain-general of Normandy. But then he died because of some kind of unknown disease. So you can go to war with his card, don’t hesitate to play it.
Jack of Spades
The real name of the jack of spades is ‘Ogier the Dane’. This is also a character from a legend, so it’s real existence was never proven. Ogier acquired his portion of fame by appearing in so called ‘chansons de geste’. This may sound a litle gay but in fact, those are songs tributed to certain guys who are known for heroic deeds. Those songs date from the 11th and 12th century, when La Hire couldn’t even dream of appearing on a card yet.
Not much more to tell about this guy, as our friend Ogier was not connected to any historical Danish event whatsoever. So I guess the creator of this figure just lobbied a freaking lot to get his creation on one of the playing cards. It’s up to you to decide if and when you want to play this card: this card is surrounded by mystery.
Next time: Queens!
Cards history: Jacks (1)
Published October 5, 2011Time for some history lessons here on vegasblowups.com. We can talk a lot about strategy and stuff over here, but do you actually know who are on the cards you’re playing with? Probably not, but no problem: I’ll introduce all the different characters for you. Today: Jacks.
First thing you’ve got to know about these cards is that they used to be called ‘Knaves’, after certain servants of the King or Queen. The abbreviation of the card, displayed in the index of the card, was ‘Kn’. However, this one was confused a lot with the ‘K’ from the Kings, so they changed it to ‘Jack’ (‘J’). As you all know there are four different Jacks out there and although they don’t represent anyone in particular in the Anglo-Saxon world of cards, they do in French decks. Here are the first two historical/mythological figures:
Jack of Diamonds
The jack of diamonds is supposed to respresent ‘Hector’. Hector origins from the Greek mythology, being the son of the Trojan king Priamos. This guy was considered the most important protector of Troy during the Trojan war. One thing particularly helped him to stay alive during this war: he was prohibited to meet Achilles (his great Greek rival), thanks to a prediction of a prophet. So each time Achilles didn’t feel like fighting, Hector troubled the Greek army.
So everything went pretty smooth for Hector, till he decided to kill Patroklos, a nephew of Achilles. Achilles got really pissed off by this and he challenged Hector for an heads-up. Achilles pwned this match and really kicked the hell out of Hector. While dying, Hector begged Achilles to transfer his body to Priamos, but Achilles refused, tied the body to his chariot and drove him THREE times around town, quiete a humiliation. He then left him to the dogs but the Gods protected Hector’s body from further damage.
But Achilles wasn’t finished yet: each day he dragged Hector nine times around the grave of Patroklos, refusing to hand over the body to the Trojans. As you can see, this Achilles guy was not somebody to mess around with. Zeus himself was needed to convince Achilles of giving the body to Priamos, which he did after receiving a huge ransom. So be careful with this card, this Hector can get you into great trouble when you’re overconfident.
Jack of Clubs
The jack of clubs stands for ‘Lancelot’. Lancelot takes part in the legend of King Arthur, whose characters were never proven to have really existed. Lancelot was the right-hand man of King Arthur and one of the Knights of the Round Table. According to the legend, Lancelot and Arthur were good friends. However, Lancelot couldn’t hold his hands off Arthur’s wife Guinevere, which damaged the unity between the knights of the king.
Before Lancelot started his booming career as a knight, he was just an outlaw in search of some freedom. Lancelot becomes an hero after he saves Guinevere from the enemy one day, consequently receiving a fixed seat at the Round Table as ‘Sir Lancelot’. But when he betrays Arthur, Lancelot is banned from castle Camelot (the place they used to gather for knights stuff), ending up as a slumdog again. So never bluff with this card, as your opponent will find out the truth and will leave you behind without any money.
Next time: Jack of Hearts and Jack of Spades!
Posted in cards history | achilles, card history, hector, jack of clubs, jack of diamonds, jacks, king arthur, knaves, lancelot | Leave a commentMe as genius
Published August 31, 2011Wow, I kicked a lot of poker asses this week. I think my blog (as a platform to ventilate my frustrations and in this way prevent some blowups at the the tables) is already starting to pay off. Online as well as in live games.
Let’s start with my online adventures. Still playing some tournaments on Pokerstars, trying to collect enough points for my personal cardprotector, completely with ‘Bernaers’ engraved in it. I won a single table sng because of a really genius play in the early phase of the tourney:
I can imagine you are really amazed here. Of course I have to make this call preflop because of all the chips that are already in the pot, this is called ‘pot odds’. Then I just call the continuation bet, because you don’t want to make a big pot with only one pair. Turn is not a good card for me, but the bet from my opponent is a real pussy bet so I immediately know this guy is fooling around with junk and I try to build a pot. And then on the river: what a genius value bet to extract some extra chips against a marginal hand.
The next day I took off for the homegame at Borry van Beffel. People were laughing at me again because of my cheap looking car, but I didn’t care. I was confident because of my online play and I didn’t give them a chance to get me off my A- game. This resulted in another genius call, here you go:
This guy who thinks he can laugh at my car tries desperately to get me off my hand, as he shoves all-in on the river with AQ for about 34 euros (blinds: €.10/.25). But I take my time, know he wants me to fold and to show the rest of the table how big a loser I am. So I decide to call, and give myself the respect the other players refuse to give me. I am on a ROLL.
Everybody picks on Phil
Published July 20, 2011Another typical phenomenon in poker which affects your nerves while sitting at the table: all other players are rooting for your opponent to win the hand. This is another thing I have to experience a lot in our homegame and it’s another thing I have in common with Phil Hellmuth.
I am a man of poker etiquette. I can’t stand all kind of animals at my table who don’t behave in a proper way. They should really read some books about poker like I did. But let’s face it: those guys will always be around, so you’ll have to cope with them, just like you have to handle bad beats. Let’s watch a hand from Poker After Dark:
It has become a shorthanded game and Phil is playing against the magnificent Phil Ivey and The Boring Professor, Howard Lederer. Phil loses the hand thanks to a king on the river and of course he’s pissed because of that. But I think Phil is especially mad because of the fact that a player like Gus Hansen is just hoping for a beat for Phil. It’s exactly what always happens to me in our homegame: whatever which hand I shove with, the complete table is rooting for the other guy to win the hand. So I hope I once get the chance to meet Phil, for me definitely one of the most influential people of the past two decades, and talk with him about the strategies to cope with this kind of behaviour and transform the rage into positive vibes.
Tony G doesn’t like Russians
Published June 7, 2011We all know Tony Guoga of course. He’s a famous poker pro and even has his own online poker room, Tony G poker. I played there for a while till I lost all my money in one big PLO pot against some guy called UmbertoDL. Those were the days I didn’t have a single clue about bankroll management.
However, the reason why I’m talking about him today is that he showed some fine examples of blow-ups of another kind. The blow-ups I mentioned here before were from players who just lost a big pot thanks to some fair portion of injustice. Tony is famous for his blow-ups after winning a pot. I’ve got the classic example here for you:
This hand dates from the Intercontinental Poker Championship in 2006. Tony is playing here against the Russian player Ralph Perry, who ended up third in the 2002 WSOP Main Event. Of course it’s a bad call from this guy with KJ, but I can’t stand the reaction from Tony. It’s exactly the same kind of behaviour that some guy at the Borry’s homegame shows sometimes and I always feel like punching him in the face when he does that. So that’s another circumstance you have to deal with at the poker table. But in Tony’s case it’s maybe just some old Lithuanian resentment against Russians in general, who knows…
Vegas Lifestyle
Published April 10, 2011No poker school today, but just a lesson about how to behave when you’re in Las Vegas. After all, that’s the goal of every gambler, isn’t it?
First of all: Vegas is always ready for everyone, your mission is to be ready for Vegas. This means: don’t go to Vegas when you can’t afford it. There are a lot of people who go to Vegas with all their savings and walk around in the local casino’s like slumdogs. You don’t make a good impression that way and your money is scared money, which will never make money.
Besides, open your mind for the local culture. If you don’t like decadence, just don’t go to Vegas. Vegas is all about drinking a lot, gambling at high stakes and going to strip bars. I’ll give you an example from my own Vegas experience:
As you can see, if you’re in Vegas, certainly as a European guy, adapt to the local standards and drink large American beers. There are two other things on the picture that say a lot about the Vegas lifestyle. First, in Vegas you better drive in a big car, otherwise you risk just being pulled off the road. And one last thing: when driving through Vegas, you listen to Hot 97.5 KVEG! This radio station is always blazin’ todays hottest music and it’s just part of the Vegas lifestyle. Have a good time in Vegas and see you next time!
Posted in las vegas life | hot 97.5 KVEG, large beers, scared money, strip bars, vegas culture, vegas lifestyle | Leave a commentNo clue poker
Published January 25, 2011Another report from the homegame at van Beffel’s for you today. First of all: I received some mails from readers who don’t believe I folded the KK int he hand I talked about last time. Well, especially for those guys I included a picture of what happened after this hand was played, when I showed my laydown to the rest of the table:
Of course everybody was stunned and I saw the respect everybody had for me in their eyes. Although they were saying I made a stupid lay down and they were trying to bully me by saying I had to pay a fine into the next pot, I didn’t blow up and converted the rage I felt into more self-confidence. So I think this blog is already having some effect at that point.
However, the game remains full of idiots who are playing some no clue poker. I have a perfect illustration of this for you:
This guy thinks he can bluff at EVERY pot and so he does this time: he played his seven deuce very aggressive from the beginning but he didn’t release till the river, while the other idiot clearly had some kind of hand. Of course I put him on an Ace, as I’ve read a lot of poker books and those state that you’ve got to have an Ace in this spot to call a fourth bullet. So I was surprised when he only showed a Queen but it also made clear to me that there’s a lot of money to make at places where donkeys sit down at a poker table. Thanks for your reactions and till next time!