September 4, 2008
Email is, in almost every respect, my preferred method of communication. It’s not just the ease of use; it’s the content that’s a million times better than I get over the phone or in the old mailbox barely hanging on to its decrepit post out front by the road.
Take, for instance, an email I got not too long ago inviting me to play in a four-tournament freeroll series with some of my favorite people in poker. My friend Matt Showell, in addition to being a superstar tournament reporter at PokerListings, also likes to actually play poker. Last week he invited me to come along with him and several other of my favorite people in poker for three Saturdays this month to play a series of small-field tournaments he’s calling the PokerListings Run-Good Challenge.
Here’s the structure. Twelve players will play a different game every week (regular NLHE, turbo NLHE, half NLHE/half PLO) with the top three getting paid in each event. Everyone gets points for their finishes (6 for first, 5 for second, etc.), with the top six overall finishers after three weeks (one PL representative and five challengers) advancing to a deep-stack NLHE Grand Final.
Seriously. Email rocks. I don’t get offers like this via phone. And don’t even think about something cool coming in the mail.
Run good, baby!
The chance to play for free money is always good, but the opportunity to do so against a small field is even better. Still, I’ll definitely have to run good playing against the likes of hottest girl in poker Lacey Jones, Houston cougar Michele Lewis, outlaw poker writer Pauly, California pothead-slash-fashionista Change100, blog overachiever and Matusow biographer Poker Shrink, hard-boiled poker literary giant Shamus, stalwart poker blogger and Olympic 20km Walk superfan Kid Dynamite, The Entities Who Need No Explanation Or Introduction, and the two PokerListings representatives, Matt and strategy writer Dan Skolovy. Also, gonzo pink-shirt wearer Pokerati Dan is playing, but I wouldn’t keep with the theme of all my years of interactions with him if I said anything nice like “I need to run good to beat him.” (Besides, have you ever seen those bankroll graphs he occasionally posts in lieu of writing about his own play?)
I have to admit, too, that something like this gives me a reason to play poker again. I have only played on occasion since coming home in mid-July, for lots of reasons. Slight WSOP burnout is among them, but factoring much more heavily into the equation is the fact that the majority of the poker available to me is against unknown quantities over a crappy satellite internet connection. Together, spotty connections and random opponents introduce entirely too many variables into the online poker experience to make it enjoyable for very long. By contrast, the chance to play against a small field, most of whom I know in the “real” poker world, makes the game I fell in love with four years ago interesting and fun for me again.
As Pauly said during this year’s WSOP, “Poker is a simple game. Played among friends, it can be one of the most entertaining experiences in life.” After grinding in the corporate tournament poker trenches for a few years, churning out descriptions of hand after hand that everyone in the game has seen a million times before, I can’t put a price tag on making the game fun again. And I’m getting it for free, all thanks to email.
Hooray, email!
(For those of you who might want to watch the game, the whole thing kicks off at 2 p.m. EDT on PokerStars this Saturday.)
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August 28, 2008
It’s been a while since I posted anything here. I’ve been enjoying being mostly removed from the world at large since getting back from Las Vegas, and I feel just about completely recharged at this point. Coming out of the cave every now and then is a good thing, even if it’s only every six weeks.
Poker
I’ve mostly removed myself from playing poker since I got home, thanks in large part to my crap internet connection. I did manage to make it our for the Tao of Poker fifth birthday celebration, though, and even got the chance to play with Pauly that night. I’ve also played a few sit-and-gos, but for the most part I’ve been poker-free since mid-July. That’s going to change for sure next week, though, when a neat little competition I got in on takes place. (I’ll have more about that later.)
Wii
Rachel and I bought a Nintendo Wii last week specifically to get Wii Fit. We got to see it firsthand at Gracie’s place earlier this month and enjoyed it enough that after a few weeks of thinking about it we made the purchase. I enjoy being able to set goals and keep track of things like weight loss over time and high scores, and the games are enough fun - and enough of a challenge - that I’ve come back every day since we got it. That’s a lot more exercise than I got in the couple of months before our purchase. Add in the fun of Wii Sports (especially the bowling) and I’d say it’s been money well spent so far.
Books
I’ve also been reading a little bit. I re-read Watchmen in anticipation of the movie next year, and I’ve slowly been making my way through Tobias Wolff’s Our Story Begins and George Saunders’ The Braindead Megaphone. I used to read a lot more books than I do these days; I still read voraciously, but I lean toward periodicals and news these days. The return to a book in hand has been nice.
Music
To wrap things up we got to see two concerts.
My Morning Jacket played at Riverfront Park in Nashville right after we got back from Florida; they were one of the few bands I’ve ever seen who really sounded just as good live as they do on record. The band’s energy, specifically that of frontman Jim James, was a sight to behold, and over the course of their three-hour set (!!!) they played almost everything I hoped I would hear. I’ll make sure I have tickets the next time they’re anywhere near where I am at the time.
Then at the end of last week we saw Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band at the Sommet Center, where the Predators play during NHL seasons. That show, not so much fun.
It wasn’t the band’s fault. They were fun to watch, especially since the Boss has such a solid base of fans that knows all his material. He actually took up homemade song-request signs from audience members and then muddied the setlist with these new additions - sometimes from memory since the band hadn’t played some of the songs in years. And watching him play bandleader, it’s obvious why he’s had such a long and successful career. He’s great at what he does.
Speaking of great at what he does - Max Weinberg is amazing. The man is a human metronome with seemingly limitless stamina.
The problem with the show was that the crowd in our section was just kind of crap. There was a load of frat guys in the front of the section who kept literally running up the steps to get more overpriced generic beer throughout the entire show; one of the guys decided after he was good and plastered that chucking his cup over the railing into the lower bowl , and then tried to play innocent when the usher, a woman in her late fifties, confronted him. Also, the entire section was filled with people who insisted on standing up to see a show they didn’t have to stand up to enjoy, forcing everyone behind them to choose between standing up or just not seeing the show. We, of course, were in the back row.
So, boo to what should have been a good show ruined by the crowd around us. Stadium concerts suck.
I almost forgot - there was a third show in the mix. We saw Spiritualized at City Hall, a very un-stadium Nashville venue, late in July. I’ve been a big fan for a long time and hadn’t seen them since they toured in support of Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space back in 1998, so unless things went horribly wrong - and they didn’t - I was going to enjoy the show. Rachel, on the other hand, wasn’t real familiar with Pierce’s body of work going into the show but had a great time and enjoyed the music. Pierce almost died a few years ago, and watching him you got the feeling that he was enjoying every second of the time he’s got here.
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August 12, 2008
Rachel and I are in Florida right now visiting some of her family. I’ve always avoided this state because I figured it had nothing to offer me, being that I’m not a big fan of water or overcrowded theme parks. Turns out I’m really enjoying the place. Go figure.
Gracie and Pablo were nice enough to host us Saturday evening in Gainesville, where we played poker and hung out and generally had a blast. Now we’re in the Melbourne area. We stayed the first two nights here in a condo that Rachel’s aunt was renting until the house she bought was ready to move into; I got to do some writing outside on the balcony, listening to the waves roll in, and it was the easiest the words have flowed from my fingertips in a while. Maybe I should do more writing by the beach.
Today we had a great breakfast at The Omelet Station in Cocoa Beach and went to the Brevard County Zoo, which was really nice. Hooray for white rhinos, spider monkeys, and lorikeets! Tomorrow we’re going to to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, and on Thursday we’re going to the Dog Park so we can see some races and play a little poker. That night we’ll drive home so we don’t miss My Morning Jacket in Nashville on Friday. Then we get to see Bruce Springsteen the next week. Should be good times, but in the meantime I’m enjoying the Sunshine State.
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July 18, 2008
A beautiful wife willing to cook for me, a full belly, a comfortable couch, and two dogs more than content to be as lazy as I am: who needs plastic Vegas when real life is like this?
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July 17, 2008
Despite plans to the contrary, I didn’t sleep my last night in Vegas. Instead I spent the hours from 9 p.m. onward in a haze with other off-duty members of the WSOP media corps. The best parts of the WSOP every year are the moments spent bonding over your mutual suffering with fellow scribes who don’t know enough to avoid seven weeks in an overpriced desert shithole where you only matter if you have money in your pocket. Every year there’s a handful of us who say we won’t do it again, only to find ourselves returning the following summer to America’s darkest city despite ourselves. My membership in that group sometimes feels like it’s stamped “LIFETIME.”
The end run of my last night in town was a Pai-Gow-and-Greyhound binge at the Gold Coast in the company of Otis, Mean Gene, and one of those Tao of Pokerati guys. That stint saw me win money at the only real gambling I did over seven weeks and end the 2008 World Series of Poker in style with a true old-school poker blogger crew that you can’t put together any other time of year. While washing down vodka and grapefruit juice we talked of sitting in the 4-8 Hold’em game, but that never materialized; instead we capped off our stay with a visit to the Buffet, the quality of which appears to be at its peak during breakfast if my two lifetime visits there are any indicator.
Not sleeping didn’t come in real handy at the airport. I wore my Ray Bans at all moments except when I went through security, including the hour-and-a-half stretch I spent in and out of consciousness at my gate waiting for the boarding call. I also wore them my entire time on the plane, which consisted of passing out as soon as I had my seat belt on and waking 150 minutes later to a chorus of screaming ten-year-olds. When a baby screams on a plane, it’s excusable; when half-grown children who ought to be kept under control scream on a plane, it’s justification for homicide. Luckily for the parents of those children, I’m a lover, not a fighter.
I’d be dishonest if I were to say I won’t miss all my summertime friends. But I’d be the same if I said I wish I were back in Las Vegas right now. The Tennessee air positively drips with moisture, there’s a tree in my front yard weighted down with fresh apples, and the love of my life sleeps in my bed while I spend the morning hours readjusting to life in the real world. How could I want to be anywhere else?
Posted in 2008 WSOP, People 2 Comments »
July 7, 2008
Last night I waited thirteen and a half minutes for an elevator to take me down to the Rio’s casino floor, where Rod and Jen were waiting for me so we could go eat at the Palms. It was long enough to make me wonder if the down button just lit up to mock me as I listened to elevator cars whizz by my floor at top speed. When the thing finally arrived, it was going up - to the 51st floor. I hadn’t pressed the up button, and nobody had asked for the car to stop on my floor.
I didn’t want to go up, but neither did the twelve other people crammed in around me; they all figured, just like I did, that after waiting so long any elevator was better than no elevator at all. Turns out the wisdom of the crowd was right in this case, just like the audience in Who Wants to be a Millionaire when it’s asked a question about Britney Spears. When our descent from the 51st began the car moved with the same speed I’d heard from it while I waited for it on my floor.
“I hope it stops at the bottom,” somebody remarked.
“If not, it’s been nice knowing you all,” I said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 2008 WSOP, People, Poker, Travel, Work, Writing 2 Comments »
July 6, 2008
One of the greatest parts of my job is that getting to know great writers is a by-product of the work. Just off the top of my head, here are a few.
This piece by Gene Bromberg is one of the most succinct summaries of the state of America that I’ve read in recent memory, despite the fact that I’m still optimistic about online poker being legalized. Gene-o also has great taste in beer and laptop bags.
Otis is the man. That’s really all that needs to be said.
Pauly gets better with every passing year at both the Tao of Poker and the Tao of Pauly. The WSOP brings out the best in him. It also brings out the darkest of him. He takes you where no one else will, and for that alone you should let him be your guide to Vegas and poker. Millions of readers can’t be wrong!
Steve Rosenbloom covers Chicago sports most of the time, but he also comes out to the World Series of Poker. Nothing but respect for this guy - and envy that he covered the glory days of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Dan and California Jen write at Pokerati, one of my personal favorite poker blogs that’s “unofficial and live” at the WSOP. Occasional forays into bowling, statistical analysis, and other side streets coexist with insiderish poker news and cartoons. A+++++ GREAT POKER BLOG!
And of course, all the boys on the PokerListings.com WSOP team are doing a great job covering this Main Event. Arthur, Chris, Ed, Marty, Matt, Owen, and Rod all know the game and how to tell a good story, a great mix to work with.
Now if I could just meet a great barbecue cook in Las Vegas before I leave, I’d be all set.
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June 28, 2008
Check out my mix for today - a little of this, a little of that:
Donkament Madness, Part Seven
Pixies - Ed Is Dead
Built to Spill - Big Dipper
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Through the Jungle
Modest Mouse - Doin’ the Cockroach
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World
The Beatles - Dig a Pony
Okkervil River - A Girl in Port
My Morning Jacket - Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1
Yo La Tengo - Stockholm Syndrome
Silver Jews - Blue Arrangements
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Anemone
Sublime - KRS-One
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June 28, 2008
It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy the last week enjoying time with Rachel here in Vegas. Unfortunately she left for the airport a little while ago, so that period of my 2008 WSOP is over.
The good news is that the rest of the WSOP is going to be a breeze. The Main Event isn’t very far away, and that’s by far the easiest tournament of the entire summer to cover. Why? Because we’ll have three people covering one tournament on every shift, as opposed to three people covering six tournaments at once. Math might be hard, but splitting up one tournament with your co-workers is easy.
The WSOP has never gone this quickly for me. I’ve had to take a few moments every now and then to just soak it in and remind myself that I’m lucky to be here. Pretty amazing, considering last month I wasn’t looking forward to the trip at all.
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June 23, 2008
I had the chance to see George Carlin about a week ago when he was playing at the Orleans. I got too busy and forgot to get tickets, and all I could think was, “Oh well, I’ll see him next time.”
Looks like there won’t be a next time:
Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.
I feel really, really stupid for missing the chance to see one of the greatest minds in the history of American comedy.
Posted in People No Comments »
June 21, 2008
Today is the happiest day of the WSOP for me by a long shot - and that’s saying something, because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my work this summer.
So why am I so enthused about today? When I get off work tonight I’ll head back to my room, finish up a quick blog or interview (depends on my source material), and then take my beautiful wife out to dinner.
Rachel and I have spent a lot of time together in Las Vegas over the last four years. Quite a bit of that time was before I worked in the crazy business of poker, too; she still loves this place and says the magic hasn’t worn off for her. I can’t claim the same, even though I find ways to enjoy my time in the desert. Having her here ought to bring a little of the fun back. The best part is that she’ll be here for a week.
I have to admit that when we planned the trip we chose this particular time because it was squarely in the middle of the WSOP schedule. We both figured the time apart would be difficult enough that putting our time together in the exact middle of the schedule would help to ease the difficulty of being apart for so long. The last two summers apart weren’t easy. But this has been such a pleasant work experience compared to years past that the time has flown by; it barely feels like two weeks even though it’s already been more than three.
So I think that this next week is going to be the best week I’ve ever spent in Las Vegas. I’m surrounded by friends all day, and when I’m done with work I get to spend the rest of my time with the best one I’ve ever had. Best of all, I get to introduce her to all the great new people I’ve met this year. We should have a lot of fun.
Posted in 2008 WSOP 2 Comments »
June 17, 2008
Wow, Rachel is posting somewhat regularly again. Apparently all I have to do is stay gone to make her more creative.
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June 17, 2008
There are some days when I think I’m the only person in this industry who’s optimistic about the future of poker. I really think we’re a year and a half away from legalized online poker in America - two years, tops. And why, you ask, am I so optimistic?
First, as a nation, we’re currently drowning in debt thanks to the total mismanagement by our leaders of both our economy and our unique place in global culture. Second, the bill that created the current fuzzy online poker environment (but didn’t make the game illegal) never had any popular support at all and is, in fact, derided and despised by a fairly wide portion of the voting population. Put those two things together with the insane amounts of cash the government could get its hands on through taxing poker and there’s plenty of reason for the incoming gang in Washington - whoever they might be - to reverse the curse.
The biggest thing in poker’s favor, though, is the absolutely disastrous job George W. Bush has done as president. Because he has pushed his religious conservative agenda so hard since the beginning of the decade, there are a lot of people out there who will be willing to go along with anything that flips the “Jesus hates you and your bad habits” mentality on its head. Legalizing online poker in America, then, dovetails quite nicely for these folks, who just happen to be the current targets of a focused voter registration drive by the Poker Players Alliance.
Last night while I was covering the final table of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event at the Rio, I saw WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky walking around with an old guy in a sport coat. Ed Sevillano, who’s been working with me this summer, asked if he was a news guy. I didn’t think so at first, but then I realized he was right. The man was none other than journalist Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes fame.
Kroft and his crew from the show were here to do some filming and research for their piece about the Absolute Poker scandal, which Nolan Dalla wrote about back in March on PokerListings. Nolan was afraid of a hatchet job, and rightfully so, given the show’s past actions regarding poker.
But a lot has changed in a few months, and it seems pretty clear that whoever our next president is, he won’t be continuing Bush’s failed social policies. (He’ll probably have plenty of social policies of his own just waiting to fail, but that’s another matter altogether.) Can we really expect 60 Minutes to attack a game that millions of people clearly love, one which has been demonized by opportunistic social conservatives in an effort to gain political advantage over their rivals? I don’t think so.
I think 60 Minutes is going to tell the public that there’s no stopping this behemoth. I think Kroft is going to make it clear to Middle America that the only way to keep online poker from becoming a hotbed of scandal is by legalizing and regulating it. And I think that the public will respond and demand of the new regime in Washington that the game they love be made perfectly, explicitly legal.
I’m rarely an optimist, but in this case I think my rare switch of sides is entirely justified. Of course, we’ll have to wait until November to see what really happens.
Posted in 2008 WSOP, Poker, Politics 2 Comments »
June 16, 2008
I’d hoped to be a bit more productive in this space while staying in Vegas, but best laid plans and all that…
I did get to go bowling at Gold Coast the other night with some of the PL.com boys, as well as Benjo and his French friends from the Winamax team (Nicolas Levi, Ludovic Lacay, Alexia Portal, Almira Skripchenko, Guillaume de la Gorce et Anthony Roux) . I rolled a 180 in the first game (big stuff for me these days) but fell to a 101 in Game 2. I blame the Heinekens. We then all went to the cafe on property for a giant breakfast. Good times!
I’ve played a tiny bit of poker but it’s all been online outside of that Sahara tournament really early on in the trip. I can’t afford to donk it up at the live tables, so I go to PokerStars or Full Tilt instead. The night before last I got aces cracked by underpairs twice in my first 13 hands in a cash game….so much for that! I’ve gone deep in a few tourneys without cashing, including being chip leader in a Razz cheapie on Stars the other night at the first break.
I get my next day off day after tomorrow, which I will probably eat up with the evil necessity of doing laundry. Maybe I’ll get a little poker in too, who knows? If anyone’s going to be in town that day (I am so not keeping up with the rest of the world right now), please do get in touch with me. I’d love to hang out with anyone who hasn’t been eating-breathing-sleeping poker since the beginning of the month.
Until I write again, go read Rachel’s movie reviews.
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June 10, 2008
Every year about two weeks into the WSOP a thought hits me: I have no idea what’s going on in the rest of the world right now. I didn’t know that Hillary Clinton had finally dropped out of the presidential race until Rachel told me on the phone today.
Being removed from the 24-hour news cycle actually feels like a good thing to me. I’m so immersed in my work that I don’t have the time to pay attention to what the talking heads are saying, or what the bloggers are saying about what the talking heads are saying, or what the other bloggers are saying about what the bloggers are saying about what the talking heads are saying. It’s nice to avoid noticing that the mirror reflects the mirror which reflects the mirror. At the end of the day, of course, avoidance is all it is. The world goes on whether or not the ostrich has his head in the sand.
It makes me think about Las Vegas on the whole, and how much it leeches resources from the lands around it without considering that those resources are highly limited. It’s all about today, here and now, forget the future. Take a look at the shorelines of Lake Mead the next time you fly into Vegas and ask yourself why there’s all that white rock above the water line.
When I look out my window here at the Rio, I see a pretty fantastic view of the Strip and the rest of the southern end of Las Vegas. I also see brown mountains, sand, and scrub on the surrounding edges of the valley, proof that this place has no business even existing because THERE IS NO WATER HERE. Someday that’s going to come back to bite Vegas in the ass - or more likely, hundreds of thousands of people in the areas surrounding Vegas who don’t have the same political clout as the leaders of Sin City have with Washington. Vegas has the straw, and the rest of the West has the milkshake.
For now, though, I’m here surreptitiously downing the milkshake and acting like I’m a dairy teetotaler, just like everyone else in Las Vegas. And why do I do such a thing? Because this is where the work is. Even if I save the world today, the bill collectors will still come around tomorrow, and they don’t give credit for good deeds.
Posted in 2008 WSOP 4 Comments »
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