Unrelated and Random

Being new to this exercise, I wanted to give credit to Iggy for helping me get some of the basics down to Blogdom "fame and fortune", and (as Anthony reminded me) unknowingly allowing me to steal fellow Poker Blogger links off his page (though I haven't yet been through all of them, if they are worthy enough for Iggy, they are most certainly good enough for me).

I will make a dedicated effort in the upcoming week to visit all "my" links and re-order them such that they are more relative to my own experiences and references. Speaking of Iggy, if any of you are interested here's a very great deal per his blog if you haven't yet obtained an account with Noble Poker:

As extra incentive to sign up with this harried blogger, Noble is offering a
100% deposit bonus up to $500 with [Igg's] links. It's usually only $300, but because they humped [his] leg so hard, they decided to make a special offer and allow [his] readers to get an extra bounty on their deposit.

Some thoughts on doing business on eBay:

• Shipping is becoming a racket. It's out of control. Look, I don't mind paying for something of value, but when it comes to paying a premium for a 'necessity', I'm a lunatic -- much the same way as I am with having to pay for parking, tipping the Maitre D at the end of a cruise, paying for "misc. shop supplies" at the Jiffy Lube, et al. Paying for shipping makes me sick. I understand if I'm only buying one item, ok, charge me to ship the one item what it costs you, but let's make sure it's reasonable -- shipping should not be part of the profit margin. A few dollars isn't going to kill me, especially if it's paying for the convenience of home delivery. But charging me more than 5-10% per item, with "handling" (as though the handling is so intricate that it requires additional costs to maintain this exceptional massaging devoted to the item I wish to buy) and/or by weight is nonsense. Pass that cost on to someone else, hell, make the item more expensive if you have to online. Unless the inventory is being given away, as far as I'm concerned, the onus of shipping should fall square on the shoulders of the seller. Outside of eBay, I refuse to do business with any online retailer who doesn't have some type of shipping discount, coupon or like-promotion. In a nod to mob-like business practices, sellers are charging a ridiculously inflated price for shipping and manage to conceal the actual price of the shipment using an online service which prints the shipping label without the cost. Were I the entrepreneurial type, I'd follow Amazon's new formula and create a business that offers "all-you-can-ship" services for chronic or frequent eBay buyers so that they pay one fee per year. All the shipping would be handled by this 3rd party whose business model would include the coordination of all shipment from eBay sellers who'd offer along side their payment options, a variety of shipping options including the "all-you-can-ship" selection to their buyers. Scammers wishing to continue jacking-up shipping costs would lose competitive volume since buyers who'd subscribe to this service would seek out sellers featuring this interesting method of shipment. It could be the shipping arm of eBay, just like PayPal has become its finance arm. Just a thought.
• Feedback needs to be mandatory. You should be kept from browse or listing items after logging on should you owe feedback. Furthermore, feedback needs to include a column which shows 1) how many business hours and days pass between auction end date, and payment posting.

Some thoughts the WPT:

Quite the win from the Philosophy major who won a WPT event this week. Millions of aspiring players -- those still flush with impenetrable enthusiasm and "shatter-proof" bankrolls -- are naively hollowed with the belief that hitting 2 big open ended draws up against made hands to become a millionaire is something pedestrian. The tour doesn't show all the players from the busted field that had those very same sentiments. We know the math, but the math has to coincide with truly impeccable timing which in my experience is rare. "Descartes" made some interesting plays (no question, the re-raise against Mizrachi was a very nice read and move), but without hitting either straight against Daniel, then Chau, he's likely as mortal as they come out of Wisconsin.

Is it coincidental or did Mike Sexton make a conscious decision to mold his TV persona after the WWF's Vince Mcmahon? He does have some great insight from time to time. Other than his irrational and unimpetuous arm movements and his reference to the "as we say" line, the one thing that bugs me the most is when a Pro gets knocked out, he suggests it's the cards or bad luck, but when an Amateur gets knocked out, it's because he's overmatched.