"You are so conservative"

Puffing spice at the yearly meeting of the Nevada State Medical Association this past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet with several docs who are high up in the pecking order of organized medicine. (which is an oxymoron in itself for the most part) Now, I have a lowly role as "alternate delegate" to this shindig, although I am the President and PAC chairman for our state ophthalmology society blah blah blah.

From time to time I will send out some emails, and I'm a little heavy on the "reply to all" button when it comes to medical matters. Recently in Nevada there have been several bills proposed which would require insurance companies to cover specific things across the board. Prostate cancer screeening and the new cervical cancer vaccine are two of them. Of course, these feelgood measures sound great and might be a good thing, but they cost money and drive up the costs of insurance. This has played out in many states (especially in the Great Blue Northeast) where the costs of insurance have become huge with all the state-mandated stuff.

So, I feel like this is a bad idea and I let all the "reply to all" people know it.

At the meeting, I introduce myself to one of the officers of the association and he says "I know who you are- I've read your emails- You're SO CONSERVATIVE" (emphasis is sorta mine) We proceeded to have a short chat about the issues, but it wasn't particularly comfortable for either of us I suppose and ended quickly.

But it made me wonder a bit. I think there are a good number of people who think of me and have the same thoughts that this doc expressed. And perhaps it might do me some good if I took some offense, but for the most part I feel quite complemented.

Raising forever with the second nuts

$5-$10 Limit game with a full kill and its a $10-$20 kill pot. I've just sat down with $300, and the villain in this hand has about $200. I'm dealt QQ in mid position and raise two limpers. The flop comes Q-8-8 and I've flopped the second nuts. My opponent bets out I raise and he calls. Turn is a blank and now it gets interesting. He bets, I raise, he reraises, I rereraise, he goes again, and at this point I just look at him and ask him "Do you have pocket 8's?" He shakes his head No and I believe him, so I raise again, and he pops it one more time all in as he is holding Q-8, which from his perspective is also the second nuts. Now I suppose he never thought I was holding queens full of eights until I turned my cards over-- but I really wonder how long the heads up raising would have gone on had he (and I) had really deep stacks....

Am I really a Libertarian?

After some coaxing I agreed to serve as the President of the state Ophthalmology society. This mostly means that I am supposed to raise money and advocate for the profession on the state legislature level. I'm pretty cool with that. But two bills I am supporting have given me pause about how I've pidgeonholed myself as a Libertarian.

The first one has a clause in it that states that if a person does laser surgery on the eyeball that they have to be an ophthalmologist. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? I think so, but the optometrists probably arent too happy about it since their national agenda is to expand their scope of practice by legislative fiat. The pure Libertarian position would be that the government has no business telling people what they can and can't do in matters like this and that they have no power to "protect the public" as this type of legislation purportedly does. In a Libertarian society there would be no medical boards, and I could have someone with a high school education open up a shop next to me advertising that he fixes retinas. In theory, I would succeed in this marketplace because I would have private companies (Like the American Board of Ophthlamology) or the like certify me as knowing what I am doing. I suppose one could then take their chances with Joe Bob's retina palace (which would no doubtedly charge them less than I would), but this stipulates that the public is educated enough to make the distinction.

The second bill makes it illegal for hospitals to enter into exclusive contracts with insurance companies. One of the hospitals in town (the Big Nasty Hospital or BNH) has some phat exclusive contracts which drive patients into its facilities. The smaller players in town are lobbying to eliminate this practice. I personally don't like the way the BNH does business so I find myself supporting the little guys here. But its very anti-libertarian. The market shouldn't be interfered with by the state, and this bill is just incompatible with pure Libertarian principles.

I voted for Harry Browne in 2000. I'm more convinced all the time that I wasted my vote.

Push into the Nuts (again)

Maybe I should retitle this blog.

Typical Sunday crowd at B & M $100 tourney. Down to 14 spots, and I'm bullying my way to about 9000 in chips with blinds at 300-600. I open raise with 89s to 2000 and get called by a woman who has a big stack and hasn't played much. Flop comes A-K-6, none of my suit and I check-fold when she bets 1000 into the 6000 pot. I'm annoyed by this donkey move and I want to get her now. Next hand she open raises UTG to 2000, folded to me in the BB with the black cowboys. Sweet. I'm gonna raise her to 5000 and push any non-ace flop. Good plan. She calls. Flop comes Q-J-5 all diamonds. I don't have enough chips here to do anything but push anyway and so be it if she has a set. I push, she calls with AdKd and you just sat through a bad beat story i think. Have a great day.

More signs of Global Warming

Well its Earth Day in Lake Tahoe, and we got about 5 inches of the softest, driest champagne powder you could imagine.










And since you can take the boy out of LA, but can't take the LA out of the boy-- I drove the wrong vehicle up here last night. Didn't Spring begin a month ago??

I stay up way too late...

Just busted out of the Full Tilt Poker $20 Rebuy MTT. I cash in this one more often than the other MTT's I play on the site. But it really doesn't matter unless you make the final table. I busted out about 16th, which paid a whopping $93, and I bought in for $62. Took four hours. A little over $7 an hour. Now if I had won the tourney the hourly rate would be closer to $700, but people who push their entire stack right into the nuts generally don't do this well.

Freeze has a blog

OK. Here it is.