What does Mr. Google say about you?

I read a blog by bastin (note the lowercase 'b') each day. He has a sitemeter, and in a recent post called Gotta laugh, he complained, tongue-in-cheek, that someone had found his blog by a search using the keywords "poor poker players." That caused me to start thinking, always a dangerous thing.

I went to Google and keyed in the same words. Yep, there he was at #6.

So let's try some other words. I keyed in "poker blog Korean jew," and sure enough, another of my favorite blogs popped up, this time as #1: BWoP.

I wonder how crazy readers other people find me? Let's ask Mr. Google. I keyed in "poker bridge blog," and there I was at #2. At #1, incidentally, was Gavin Wolpert. For those of you who don't know him, he's a super bridge player. He has also had terrific poker success. There was a two-page spread in the latest issue of Card Player magazine (casino version dated Oct. 22, 2008, on pages 36-37) where he analyzed a key hand that helped him win a big online tournament. Unfortunately, his blog isn't active (his last post was nearly a year ago). I guess he's too busy winning money.

I then keyed in "bridge poker blog." In other words, I switched the order of the two words poker/bridge. Do you think it would make a difference? Yes, it did! Gavin dropped to #4 and I wasn't listed at all. It did bring up Phil Gordon in several spots such as here. (Besides being a top poker player, he's a terrific bridge player as well.) I also found this link where a blogger suggests this slogan: Play bridge (it's like poker, but for smart people). Obviously you have to be smart to play good poker, but bridge is considered to be the ultimate card game because it's so complex. In case you haven't guessed, bridge players tend to be a little snobbish.

What else? I tried "Poker blog Canadian," but it didn't find any of the Tuckfards. I tried "poker blog humor," but nothing exciting turned up.

Maybe you can think of keywords to use and do some searches of your own.

Back to where I started -- bastin. What makes a good blog? It takes two things: You have to have something to say, and you have to be able to say it well. He does both of these (and occasionally an amazing photo), so give him a read.