Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - Josh
All the party echoes from December are slowly fading into the scenery. Even though the year just started, it seems like routine is casting her shadow upon us and is ready to land… Good news is it’s easy to oblige her to do a quick turn and fly somewhere else: it’s all about perception; it’s all in your mind.
Since I’ve always been into philosophy, whenever I have some free time, I love to gaze into the sky and ask myself silly questions about life. There is one interrogation that always jumps into the stage: how much are my inner feelings determined by exterior events and how much depend on my own attitude. I always keep battling with this thought that assaults me beneath the blankets, over the night… I always get to the same conclusion: even in extreme circumstances, no one can mess with another’s head without his approval. In other words, you decide what you let inside. This means you are the architect of your destiny… What are you using to build your path? How are you constructing your future? Are you utilizing what others throw at you or are you only employing the stones you pick on your way?
I utterly believe life is just what you make of. So, if you wish to paint your day with the brightest of colors, you need to stop buying black and white! In this constant battle of the mind, it is what you think of and want that makes the difference… Feel it and you’ll taste it.
I imagine you must have a lot of resolutions for this year. What can you do when Ms. Routine tries to lead you astray? Well, I’m gonna tell you what works for me. Maybe it will have a similar effect on you. Whenever I feel like I’m about to take a step back, I remember a friend of mine who told me that, in order to make a habit from an activity, you need to religiously complete that action for a minimum period of 30 days. No exceptions allowed. Once you’re done with that, you will have created a habit, something mechanical. Honestly, I don’t know if she made that up or she read it somewhere. All I can say is it has worked for me. As the very resolute man I am, when I have a goal in mind I do anything to walk that walk. The very first step, for me, consists of achieving that task for at least 30 days. Then, miraculously, it’s like it’s in print in my personality.
So, halfway through January, it’s the perfect time to check how much you have followed the objectives you set for yourself. Have you been hitting that treadmill? Are you staying away from McDonald’s and closer to Subway? Are you feeding yourself from optimism or negativity? Are you really trying? But most importantly, have you hit the tables like you should? Are you on your way to becoming a poker icon? Remember, it’s all in you. Whether you fail or succeed, it’s no man’s doing but yours.
Tags: new years, new years resolution, Rai$e VIP Team, raise, VIP
Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - ProductMan
As tempted as I am to get a head start on my new year’s resolutions, I’m still clinging to at least 2008 delusional dreams. I don’t have an official to do list that I’m still toying with, but I know that fresh starts usually involve discipline at the expense of fun and the biggest party of the year is only hours away.
Even though the calendar is set to strike ’09 at the edge of tomorrow, I won’t be contending with reality or officially dismissing the holiday season until Monday. You know how those midweek celebrations usually deliver pandemonium right into the weekend. Luckily, the product team isn’t slacking.
Next week we’ll be adding the convenience of tooltips to each of the options in the Game Options window. Tooltips are those small text boxes that magically appear when you run your mouse cursor over certain parts of the screen. Without having to click your mouse, tooltips display valuable information about the particular option. You’ll no longer have to go searching for definitions and explanations of each menu choice, which will make it even easier to customize your game. As we get set to roll out tooltips, you can take a look at all our handy options below.
• Hot Key: Keyboard shortcuts for common poker actions. (F1: Fold, F2: Check, F3: Bet, F4: Call, F5: Raise, F6: Double Raise, F7: Double Bet, F8: All In, F9: Bring In)
• Sound Effects: Enable or disable all sounds.
• Display Bet amount: Show or hide the numeric chip amount next to chip stacks on the table.
• Rabbit Cam: Displays the next card that would have been dealt after the hand has ended. Only available on some holdem ring game tables.
• Display Chat bubble: Display or hide chat bubbles on the table when players chat.
• Full Animation: Display or hide the full table animations such as dealing of cards.
• Show Pot Value: Displays the numeric pot amount.
• Show whole dollars only: Show or hide cents from chip counts, bets and pots.
• Show Ultimate Points: Display or hide the number of UltimatePoints [FAME Credits] earned after each hand has completed.
• Disable Enter to Bet: Prevents the keyboard Enter key from placing a bet.
• Disable pop to front: Prevents the table from popping in front of other windows when it is your turn.
We’ll be ushering in the new year with tons of other new and handy features. Keep visiting this space for all the latest news. As always, we welcome your feedback.
Tags: game options, menu choice, new years resolution, poker options, poker software, Product Features, Product Team, software options, tooltips, year end
Comments (1)
Monday, December 22, 2008 - Annie Duke
What on earth is going on with chat lately? I don’t know if it is cabin fever or the general disintegration of manners in general but there has been some pretty awful chat lately online. I want to quote Rodney King on this one: “Can’t we all just get along?” So the first really bad incident happened to me at a stud 8 or better. I had a hand where I started with split Kings and I was against a 6 up. I made three Kings on 6th street and, it turns out, I was against rolled up sixes. Oops. Donkey escapes with the pot again.
Now, ironically, I had rolled up sevens only a few hands before and had jammed it on 3rd and 4th streets. I proceeded to lose against a straight flush! So there ya go. What goes around comes around. When I lost my hand I said, “vnh” in the chat box which seemed like an appropriate response.
What would you consider an inappropriate response? Would “you f***ing c**t” qualify? How bout if you said that like 5 times in the chat box? Would you be surprised if you got removed from the site after that? I mean come on guys…it is a hand of poker. A hand of poker! Not life or death. No real effect on you. You lost a hand. Get over it. And if that is going to be your reaction then you shouldn’t be playing and you should learn some manners anyway. I don’t care what you scream *at* your computer. But to say that in the chat box repeatedly is just beyond the pale. I am pretty sure that word should never be said to a woman even if you are hiding behind the anonymity of the computer screen.
What is weird is that only a couple of days later I won a hold’em hand on the site and had the same thing said to me. That person got barred, too. I will report anyone who says that to me or anyone else. I hope everyone playing on the site is there to have fun. What on earth could be the upside to that kind of behavior? It just goes against all human decency. Emily Post would be appalled.
UB is no fun if we aren’t all treating each other well. So let’s try that as a New Year’s resolution.
Tags: manners, new years resolution, stud poker, table chat
Comments (8)
