I’m an avid poker player. But I hate losing. And if you play no limit tournament poker to win, you’ll find the swings of the game will sometimes put a dent in your bankroll. Bad beats are numerous and typically, poker tournaments only pay the top 20% of the participating field. If you hit a dry spell, you could waiting forever for your next win.

The other factor working against poker players is more insidious: usually only the better players remain at the end of the game; mixed in with a “I got lucky ones.” This makes the end game and the effort to end up in the money a lot more difficult.

I was pleased, however, to find a nice solution to this problem when Pokerstars recently launched their single poker table double or nothing tournaments. The entry fee to the tournaments is anywhere between $1 - $100, and the best part is unlike a traditional poker tournament where only 20% of the players win and get paid, 50% of the players get paid in the tournament, or HALF THE TABLE in a tournament game. What do you win? As implied in the “Double or Nothing” game title, double your money.

Generally, I find that if you play good, solid, tight agressive poker, this game is a real money grinder.
Now, here’s the best part: Doing some math, out of 100 games, you’d only have to win 60 of them to be profitable. Or a 60% win rate. And you only have to be one of the five remaining players in the game to win on a 10 person table.

If we take the $21.60 entry fee game, which costs you $21.60 per game, you win $18.40 each time you finish as one of the five remaining players.

60 games * $18.40 = $1104 won.
40 games * $21.60 = $864 lost

$240 profit.

I find that you can win these games more than 60% of the time; however, again, with good play.

Want to earn some side income in a tough economy? I hate to say, “try gambling,” but honestly, I’m finding a hard time saying it isn’t a good investment.

Pokerstars Double or Nothing

Most of us are bound to make a trip to Starbucks at some point. And even if you don’t like a New Age McDonalds of Coffee and prefer one of the few remaining mom and pop coffee places, you still should make it a point to try Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal. It’s the same instant stuff you got at the mom and pop places, but it’s nicely packaged and a fantastic compliment to their beverage offerings, and somehow when you combine the two, they just taste great.

The oatmeal comes in nice looking cup and the free extra toppings are yummy. You get your choice mixed dried fruit, nuts and/or brown sugar. You can get one, two, or all three. Bon Appetit!

Expects to Sell 2 MILLION UNITS BY 2009!

Price reported to be $179.00.

Ok, you can see just how cool this phone is from the horse’s mouth. I particularly like the data sync of your contact information between the web and your phone. If you lose your phone or your phone gets stolen, you still have your contacts on Google. Of course, you may not want to have your contacts on Google. Privacy, you know. The last thing you want is Big Daddy Google finding out that contacts include Heidi Fleiss & Friends!

Time for a little humor.

I actually think I’m looking forward to Saturday Night Live’s election coverage each week than the real media’s coverage. For those of you out there that missed these very comical visions of our potential presedential and vice presedential candidates, you’ll appreciate the writing genius of these send-ups no matter which side of the political fence you sit on.

This Saturday’s installment featured Queen Latifah as debate moderator Gwen Ifill complete with an Amazon Book Plug for her new book. (We won’t miss the opportunity to plug it here as well as one of our cool new things.) Go Tina Fey! You make a better Sarah Palin than Palin herself!

So the new T-mobile Android Phone is the G1. It’s very impressive. If you have any doubts about how this will overtake the iPhone Market, just check out this video. Touch screen, WIFI built in, Micro SD card with 2GB, slide out keyboard–just a few of the cool features. Plus, an open source development platform; which means a lot of programmers can come up with neat little applications for your new phone. What do you guys think?

Apparently, Google is getting into the new cell phone market with its open source operating system called Android. And Motorola is building up a 350 person team to support it. It will be a more app friendly environment for developers to write programs to, and it will be on par with iPhone. If you think iPhone is your only choice for the latest and greatest phone, think again. Visa is also coming on board as an early adopter of the android system, building applications that allow end users to get directions to merchants, real time card activity alerts, and discounts! (Sounds like we should sign up!) T-mobile is scheduled to release the first Android enabled phone Oct 22nd!

For those of you who like to visit “little Vegas” a.k.a. the Reno/Tahoe area, you might want to sign up for the Grand Sierra player’s club card. It’s absolutely free, and you’ll get some deeply discounted marketing offers, particularly if you thow even a little money at the tables while you’re in the hotel and use the card.

I received a flyer advertising their “Fall Into Savings” offer where during October, they’re almost giving away the boarding at their hotel. $55 Fri-Sat! When was the last time you found a room for $55? There aren’t many left. And $35 Sun-Thurs–that’s the bargain basement for hotel rooms.

PLUS, you get TWO FREE NIGHTS in November. I’m surprised the casino doesn’t have everyone under the sun checking into their place. Even though it is a “B” grade casino–think the El Dorado Lite–the former Hilton is reasonably sized and has all the games that you’d normally go to a casino for, as well as a small poker room that’s fun to play in.

Grand Sierra is located off of the central part of town. It’s near the Peppermill and the Alantis Casino, but there are plenty of shuttles and taxis to take you to the main part of town and you can enjoy some other parts of the area as well. If you’re tired of spending a fortune going to Vegas and staying there, this trip offer won’t have all the glamour of Vegas, but it’ll allow you to get away on a budget. I highly recommend it.

We all know about those people who just can’t get out of bed early enough.  (I’m one of them.)   There’s a new way, however, to wake up with this nifty little alarm clock and bed shaker.   It features TWELVE VOLTS of shaking power–enough to wake the dead in my opinion–and has built in flashing lights to alert you visually to its alarm sound.  The tone and volume are completely adjustable, and it even features a battery backup, so it keeps the time when there’s a power outage.    It makes a great gift idea and at $44.95, I think it’s quite affordable.

Sonic Alert SBT425ss Sonic Boom Loud Vibrating Alarm Clock with Telephone Signaler

Remember digital watches? They're
back. And, yes, your new digital watch is in style too.

At first glance, The Giordano Men’s LED Light Master Digital Stainless Steel Watchmay look like something out of the 1970’s, but it’s really an eye catcher.  It's a sleek new design on the old digital watch trend is a great conversation piece. It carries a somewhat hefty price tag at just under $359 USD, but if you want that special accessory that will peak people’s interest and turn heads look no further. Pushing the crown of the watch, provides a colorful, digital LED display of the current time in either a 12 hour or 24 hour format.   The watch comes with a five year warranty and, unlike digital watches of the past, the battery lasts a lot longer. The time piece come in both gold and silver tones.
Makes a great gift for a guy who wants to add a little pizazz to his appearance or the avid watch collector.

Welcome to Those Cool New Things.
Glad you stopped by!

We’re under construction at this point, so pardon our dust!   Over the next few days, I’ll be adding more content.

Those Cool New Things will be a destination for entertainment news, products, and promos. We’re all about lifestyle. Simply put, those things that are new and cool. See the stories that we’re all talking about, along with reviews latest, cutting edge gadgets, as well as fun life experiences and destinations. Our goal is to always have something interesting for you to read.

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Thanks again for reading my blog. I hope you’ll be a frequent visitor!

Product Guy