Netflix Plans Change

Anyone that is a Netflix subscriber, and those that aren't, have heard the news that the "Blockbuster killer" has changed the game again. Like many changes, this will benefit some and hurt others. Unfortunately for me, the way I use their service, I'm seeing a 60% increase in my monthly bill.

Now some of you will say the with Redbox and Blockbuster Express in the mix, we no longer need to get DVDs in the mail. For the most part I agree, but Netflix still has a better DVD library, especially for catching up on TV shows. Also, since I don't have HBO, I have to wait for DVD to see shows like Entourage, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones. HBO offers a great product but their monthly subscription rate is higher than even the new DVD subscription. I will admit, with the new HBO Go, I have been considering signing up for HBO since I can now watch shows on my iPhone, Stacie's iPad and our next TV.

One of my biggest problems with this deal is the overall DVD service from Netflix has changed quite a bit in the last couple of years. I feel with this rate increase on DVD service, they are double dipping with the savings they achieved by releasing new discs 28 days later than they used to do. They got quite a break from the studios when they made that move. Even with these savings, Netflix would rather not send out the physical discs. The shipping and inventory costs are increasing dramatically each year so it just makes sense to figure out how to get more subscribers at a lower cost per subscriber. With the ability to stream Netflix on so many devices, their customer base is increasing much faster without the need to increase their physical disc inventory. Admittedly, this was one of the reasons I initially bought my Blu-ray player and iPhone 4. I have not regretted the years of service I have enjoyed streaming shows from the SyFy and BBC America libraries. They are so committed to the streaming service that when Netflix is launched in Central and South America, it will be streaming only.

Netflix is not the only "villian" in this new strategy. Movie and TV studios must shoulder some of the scorn for the greed. They underestimated the deiree for the product and now want more for retransmission rights. Netflix had already signed a great deal with Starz but Starz and the studios have already stated that Netflix will not be getting the 'bargain' pricing went the contracts are renewed. It is estimated that the renewal rate could rise from $30 million this year to possible a couple of hundred million a year. That is just for one provider! This year we have already seen Netflix having to pull some movies from the instant streaming offering because "too many" people were taking advantage of the service and Sony siad it violated the agreement they had with Starz. Unfortunately for those of us that have cable / satellite service, this kind of thing is very common because of sports broadcasting. Whenever you hear athletes signing big contracts, we all will pay with higher cable rates because those costs are handed down to the end consumer. The owners / leagues start charging more the the right to carry games which in turn increases the costs to ESPN / Fox Sports, which gets charged the the cable / satellite providers and then eventually shows up in our monthly bills.

Who does this help beside just Netflix? People like my mother-in-law don't use the streaming service, so her bill actually went down $2 a month. Also, people that only do the streaming service will also see their bill go down by a couple of bucks. I think Redbox will see a good jump in their subscribership beginning next month and Amazon will probably see more people trying out their service just out of protest.

While I don't like the increase, it's still a great value compared to the old days of driving to the store and paying $4 a movie. With all of this in mind, I will continue to enjoy streaming on my devices and still get DVDs in the mail until the competitors offer the titles I'm looking to rent. I'm fully expecting the streaming service to be at $9.99 in a little over a year and probably be at $11.99 by the beginning of 2014 due to the higher and higher carriage rights that Netflix will be paying. I am also afraid that we also might be in a situation where the wired high speed provider start charging for data like the wireless providers currently do, but that's a post for another day.

Ocala Poker

On Sunday, I drove from a bachelor party weekend in Destin to Orlando for a week long business trip.  I looked on the internet and found a poker room at the Jai-Alai place in Ocala where I could spend some time Sunday afternoon and evening.

The address didn't show in my GPS but I figured I would see some signs for it in Ocala.  I apparently blew right past it and didn't start looking for it until I actually hit Ocala. Since it wasn't in my GPS I looked it up on the trusty iPhone and realized it was 15 miles back up I-75. According to the website, it is "located half way between Gainesville and Ocala." D'oh! Truth be told, I was distracted by all of the Cafe Risque billboards. So back the way I came for another 20 minutes and then I finally found the place. It is in the middle of nowhere but sure enough, they had 1/1, 1/2, and 2/5 games running.

I bought in for $100 at the 1/1 and immediately played 1 hand before getting moved to my seat at the 1/2.  We had a couple of gamblers at this table that would see flops. One of the gamblers was pretty good and was running great. He was a young kid that used to deal there. He was good at extracting value and putting people on hands. He had the deadly combo of running great and getting paid.  He flopped a set of kings 3 times in less than 2 hours and got paid every time.  I didn't get involved in to many pots in the first hour or two and was slowly getting blinded away.  I tried to steal some pots but usually got push off pots when I got a caller or 2 and then a raise. To induce a little more action or fight boredom, I started doing some straddles and that would build the pot a little better.  My timing was pretty good because I was able to hit some good flops whenever I did straddle.  This got me back over the original buy-in and then the heater began.

I'm in the big blind and we have some early position action with almost everyone calling behind so I complete with the almighty 4,7 offsuit.  The flop comes out a terrific 4,4,7 with 2 diamonds.  Weeeeeee!  I do my usual early position check and let the action unfold.  We get a bet, a raise, and a call by the time it gets to me.  I grabbed some raising chips but then put them back and just called.  Yikes, major tell there.  I clearly wanted the diamond draw to come and I couldn't have advertised it any better.  Sure enough, the turn brings the 3rd diamond.  I check again to see how the flush draw that got there was gonna play.  The first guy checks and the other gambling guy puts out a good size bet.  The tightest player at the table is next to act and just calls.  Now its to me and I have about $50 more left after I call so I go ahead and push all in.  The gambling dude thinks for a bit and calls.  Now it's to the tightest player at the table.  He thinks for a couple of minutes and folds.  We flip over our cards and he's got 4,6 and is drawing dead.  He actually caught his boat on the river but mine was better.  The tight player showed us the nut flush that he folded.  Damn old rockie coots!

This put me back to being up slightly over a buy-in.  After folding for the next 5 hand,  I was ready to leave because I still had 1.5 hours to go to my hotel. I grabbed an empty rack to put my chips in after the next hand. I had 2 more free hands before I was big blind. I look down at UTG+1 and have 2 black Aces. I make it 11, a short stack behind me calls and the guy I just doubled through earlier makes it $25. I have about 210ish in front of me and am willing to just take this pot and book a +150 win for the night so I push. The shortie call his last 30 or so and the other guy thinks and finally calls. Fortunately, he had recently topped up and won a pot so he had over 200 total. The shortie has AJ and we all know what the poor bastard with the big stack had, KK. I quietly ask for my hand to hold. How many times have we lost it all on the "last hand" that we intended on playing, or the 1 after we should have quit? The flop is a wonderful wiff with no draws for either. The turn seals the deal with another ace and I rake one of the biggest pots of my life. I tip the dealer and tell him I'm done. I told the table that I wasn't hitting and running, it was already my last hand. They were cool with it and said they saw me grab the rack before the hand started.

I didn't play particularly well. I had too many tells that I caught myself doing and at least 2 of the other players saw them also. I did make some good laydowns and never really got myself in trouble. I was card dead for a while and bled down to a $40 or slightly below before I went on the heater by winning a couple of good pots and then the biggie.

Since I have a coworker riding back with me tomorrow and I'm so ready to be home, I will have to skip the Ocala Poker Room on the return trip.  I don't expect to be back in the area any time soon, especially not by myself, so who knows when my next casino poker session will be.  I was going to try to meet some friends over in Tunica, but the flooding has put those plans on hold for a bit.  I will have to live vicariously through the bloggers that are in Vegas right now and follow the progress of the winner of our home game league that will be playing an event any day now.  My 2% interest in him could be worth tens of dollars if all goes well.

Conclusion of Season 1 of Survivor Poker: Donkey Island

Well season 1 is in the books and I think it turned out great.  My run came to end a couple of weeks ago when I wasn't able to survive my heads up match against SmBoatDrinks.  I played it really hard but just could never put it away.  I played both the nuts and rags for almost an hour before he finished me.  I don't do alot of heads up play but I was very happy with my play.  While we both had some suckouts, I was on the brutal side of too many to snag the victory.

I was able to finish the series off with a win in the dime rebuy.  I had to pump 20 double rebuys in before I was able to hold on to a stack and then I went on a monster tear.  In just a few hands, I went from 2,000 with a fresh rebuy to around 125K.  Once I got that stack, I never looked back.  Funny thing is, I wasn't able to build it up again too much until we lost half the players at the final table.  I was able to keep taking enough pots to pay for the blinds and keep others from scooping too many pots.  Not even I could blow a lead with a stack that big and eventually took the top prize which netted me almost 13 whole dollars, American even!

This was the game that would decide who would get the guarantee pay day.  Simply put, the last of the two candidates standing would secured 40% of our Survivor's pool money. This came out to be a little over $120.  With momentum from our heads up match and after VeryJosie decided to bring him to the final two, SmBoatDrinks was able to last longer than her.

After the tournament was over, Buddy was able to announce the voter's choice to receive 60% of our Survivor's pool good for a slightly less than $200.  With a close vote, VeryJosie was crowned our first champion.  Congratulations to both players.

Ahhh, what could have been?  I had a real good shot at some of the prize pool.  I certainly floundered in the beginning and was apparently clueless when the teams merged.  That was when my immunity winning skills came to good use.  I still can't help but wonder what would have happened if the 3 outers didn't hit so much during the heads up game.  I could have also played a few hands better but looking back I realize what I did get out of it all.  It was a nice mix of cashes, great conversations and I got to know XKM1245 and Turtle a little better.  Hanging with Buddy, Jo, and Numbbono on BDR is always a treat and I hope I added to the entertainment.

A big thanks goes out to all of those that put this together and contributed extra dollars along the way - Buddy, Julius Goat, Heffmike, AlCantHang.  I think we have begun to expect all of this free, extra money or at the very least we take it for granted.  Whether there is a BBT6 or not, let's not forget BBT 1-5, the WPBT gathering goodies and what we got for Season 1 here.  As part of the poker blogger community, we all know many people who are employeed by the major poker playing and reporting sites.  Let's make sure we let them know how much we appreciate them and their companies throughout the year, not just during the freebie madness times.

Decision Time on Donkey Island

Last night's game of the Survivor Poker Donkey Island was a wild one.  It was a turbo format so it was expected for the action to go faster.  It turned out, that we didn't need an accelerated blind schedule to have some big hands.  Here are 2 of the craziest for the night.  All the money was in preflop both times.

Fortunately for me, I wasn't involved in either of these pots.  After these crazy hands, that left just Turtle and I battling for immunity.  I've been on the chopping block for the past few events but have been able to be the last one standing and stay safe until the following event.  I knew how important it was for me to outlast Turtle but it wasn't to be.  TwoBlackAces was running like a God and when I did challenge him, he had my underpair in bad shape.  I wasn't able to pull a Buddy and hit my out so that ended my night leaving Turtle with immunity.

With immunity granted, we were able to cast our votes to Buddy.  The votes were read and the final tally was 3 votes for SmBoatDrinks and 3 for myself.  Since there was a tie, he and I will battle it out in a $5 heads up match at 9PM EST tonight.  The loser of this match will be the next player voted off of Donkey Island.  I really think tonight's game will be the linchpin for the makeup of the final 3 players.  This is the biggest event that has happened since the Goat slaughtering a few weeks ago.

See some of you tonight, and the rest I'll see you in the inagural Dank on Wednesday.  Also, thanks to HeffMike for providing the great stats.

March Madness

After a very slow start to 2011, I have been crushing March.  I'm 4 for 4 this month in home games and my last 2 Survivor series games.  Skidoo and I chopped last night for roughly 100 a piece.

This gave me much needed immunity.  We are to the point where it only takes one vote to swing the decision.

First Cash of the Year

I've only been playing bloggers games this year and have gone the big O-fer in cashing.  That's especially bad when you are playing in a Survivor league with much better players.  I've been in danger of getting voted off each week, but fortunately, things fell my way by either a team win, or a power struggle gone bad.  Between my time on BDR and watching the scheming behind the scenes, this has been a really fun series.

Well, I was hit hard enough with the deck tonight to pull out not just a cash, but a victory.  It was made even nicer thanks to AlCantHang and FullTilt.  They provided a little gravy to our cutthroat contest.  This was a multi-entry tournament and since I suck at multi-tabling, I just went for the 2 buy-in option.  The highlight of the game was when BamBam pushed in to my four of a kind on the turn when we were heads up.  Weeeeeee!

See ya in the Mook / Dank on Wednesday.  Oh, and as a side note...... Daylight Savings Time blows!  It's the dumbest thing right behind Columbus Day.

Hilarious Poker Videos

I'm addicted to these stupid things.  I can't stop laughing.



We all know this guy:







Ahhhh, this reminds me of the good old days of blogging: