How NOT to Play the Hammer

With the closure of FTP and PS to American customers I've seen a few new faces on my sometimes stomping grounds of World Poker Exchange, and boy are some of them donkified. To wit:

Donk limps for $2 in the $1-$2 game and I make it $8 on the button with K-Q. He calls and we see a flop of A-J-T. Donk checks and I bet $10. He calls. Turn is the Q, putting two clubs on the board. He checks, I bet $15 and he check raises to $51. I time out a bit for effect and call. The river is a blank 6 and donk shoves his remaining $71 into the pot and I, of course, instacall.

Yes, he turns over the 7-2 of hearts.

Opportunity Knocks

First, the good news. As I was posting yesterday I didn't realize some of my questions had already been answered. In case you are as oblivious as me, read this.

Also, there was a post on 2+2 from FTP Doug saying that points and medals may be converted to dollars for cashouts, but I cannot find that discussion again.

Great article on the current and potential future situation of online poker here.

So already some good news is coming out a week after the darkest day for online poker. I spoke to an old colleague via online chat today and he told me he just lost the chance at a six figure front office job with one of the online poker companies. Yet he added "but onwards and upwards. no sense crying over spilled milk."

His is certainly a refreshing positive attitude.

As we agreed later in the discussion, there will be new and different opportunities coming up. I got the nice email today learning that FTP will continue to sponsor this blog with its advertisements, while Party Poker purchased an ad on this site in its aggressive attempt to take some more of the market share.

Last year I teased about a major project I was working on with some established heavyweights in the casino guide industry. My trip to Vegas last summer was largely a scouting mission for that idea. Unfortunately, our plans fell through, but I'm considering renewing that website idea (or something very similar) especially in light of the events of April 15.

Yes, it's cliche, but when one door closes another one opens. While major live tournament attendance is likely to see a significant drop due to the shuttering of the two biggest online poker sites, I think we will likely witness a boost in attendance for both cash games and smaller tournaments at large gambling destinations like Las Vegas as online players are forced to play their trade in brick and mortar properties. This will open up new opportunities for those creative enough to seek them out.

The Fallout

I suppose it's time for me to ring in on this online poker blackout. I was late to the game because I had a blackout of my own -- a tornado narrowly missed my house on Friday afternoon and I was without power for a day and a half. My neighborhood got whacked, with trees busting through roofs and power lines downed everywhere. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt and we feel blessed to suffer only very minor damage to our house.

Perhaps we shouldn't be that surprised of the events of April 15th. Deep in our hearts didn't we know the day was eventually coming? Even if online poker was legalized in the U.S. you had to figure the Feds would shut down Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars for being "outlaws" during the existence of the UIGEA. I figured those two and pretty much all of the other online poker sites now serving American customers would never get licenses to offer games in this country.

I figure I am middle of the road in how this affects me. I only have about $1,400 tied up in financial limbo among FTP and PS at the moment, unlike those with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars that have disappeared into the ether. I am hopeful that we will all be compensated one day, but it's better to forget the money exists and be pleasantly surprised if we get that "windfall" in our bank accounts one day. Perhaps we will even be given the money for our tournament tokens and what nots, even if it's unlikely we ever see any value from the frequent player points we earned on the sites (about $300 worth for me.)

Most of all, I feel for my friends and colleagues who may now be out of jobs. I've had the fortune to meet a host of great people who made their living by writing for these sites, or writing for other websites and publications that feed heavily off online poker advertising revenues. Time will tell who survives and who doesn't. I must assume my great gig writing occasional articles for FTP's Poker from the Rail blog is now over. In addition, Battle of the Bloggers Tournament Vol. 6 was impending, with plenty of freebies in store from our good friends at FTP and thanks to the tireless work of Al Can't Hang. Now that's no more.

While this is truly a sad day for online poker and those of us who loved to play it (it was a great break for me during the day to hop on and play some quick HU SNGs on FTP in between writing stretches) this may finally be the stimulus that gets more people fighting for legalization and regulation. When, and not if, that day comes opportunities will abound for those of us who play online poker and write about online poker like never before. And April 15 will turn from a dark day to once that signaled a bright future.

Afternoon Poker

After having only played in underground poker games in Tuscaloosa a handful of times since John Harper's arrival I recently discovered that my old stomping grounds is running two games that start in the afternoon -- a $10-$20 LHE game with a (doubling) rock on Mondays around 4 p.m. and a $2-$5 NLHE game that usually starts before 3 p.m. on Wednesdays. These work out perfectly for me as I can go play for an hour or two and then head home and help Amy with JH and dinner.

So I believe in the last three weeks I've now played more poker in Tuscaloosa than I did the last 15 months combined. Granted we are talking less than 20 hours of poker, but I've won about $500 in these few afternoon sessions.

That doesn't compare to the haul in one hand I witnessed yesterday. I don't remember exactly how the action went initially, but on a flop of 8-T-J a tight nit pushed about $400 all-in over the top of a bet (or raise perhaps) of $100 by good player Rob. Skipper, a loose and unaggressive player flat calls and Rob calls. The turn brings another ten and Skipper calls a $200 all in from Rob. I was unsurprised to see the tight nit turn over Q-9 for the flopper nuts. Skipper did surprise me by revealing A-A. I was not surprised he could not fold the flop, but was surprised how much he slowplayed PF. Rob surprised me even more to show T-8, which I thought was a very loose call on the flop that got lucky on the turn. He nailed a nice four outer for a $1,700ish pot.

Not a bad score before dinner.

It is Coming...

....what is it?

Here's a four-word clue: Al is the Man!

A Little Trip to Tunica

Here's a recent guest post on the FTP Blogger from the rail on setting goals in poker.

Amy, John Harper and I enjoyed some R&R last week at Tybee Island, a small outpost about 15 minutes east of Savannah. We had talked about a trip to Savannah for years and finally made it over. JH got his first walk into the surf with mommy and cried when she took him out. I suspect he will be a beach fiend like his mother.

That trip reminded me that I never wrote about my rare journey out of the house and into the land of live casino poker. Whereas I once traveled to places like Tunica, Biloxi, Reno and Vegas for weeks at a time I hadn't been to a casino since I got back from Vegas last summer. My friend Brian helped cure that problem as we decided to take a trip to Gold Strike last month.

It was basically just an overnight trip, but I managed to play two events -- a $230 O8 and $230 NLHE -- and a few cash games. As is usually the case in Omaha Hi Lo, I just hung around and then lost the big hand when the stakes got high. In the NLHE tournament I ran my kings into queens about two thirds of the way through the field. The guy who spike the queen on me made the same play four times (!) where he limped in early position and then pushed all-in over the top of a raise behind him. How often does he think he was going to fool us? Of course when I saw him limp I licked my lips and just hoped he didn't have aces that time. Guess he might as well have had aces as it turned out.

I played a $10-$20 O8 cash game with a half kill and it was quite juicy. I made more than $800 in it, including winning a pot greater than $500 with queens and tens on a Q-4-T-8-4 board. Yep, it got four bet preflop and no one had aces in their hand (much less a four). I believe I had A-K-Q-T. Myself and this old guy who played every hand won most of the chips on the table. When he cashed out the game quickly broke up.

The next day that old man made one of the funniest and stupifying mistakes I have ever seen. Brian and I sat down to play a NLHE satellite and the old guy joined up. He put most of his chips into the pot with garbage and lost to a guy who had aces up. He kept examining the board and asked, "Don't I have a low?" I later saw him playing the Stud 8 event so I see he is quite the split pot player.

One other interesting note: I played another satellite with a pregnant woman (and off-duty dealer) who said she was due in May. I overheard her tell another dealer that she hoped she would be able to deal the WSOP this summer!?!?!! So she plans to give birth and then, what, leave the baby with her family? take it to Vegas?

Some people just aren't cut out to be parents.

No BBT?

First, it appears that the possibility of BBT6 is on shaky ground. Al said he's not sure if he should host another once since so many people don't actually use the WSOP packages won to play in WSOP events.

I can understand the frustration of organizing such a major event with a specific purpose and the winners not fulfilling the purpose of the prizes. On the other hand, unless we're talking about the main event it doesn't matter if a player enter a WSOP bracelet event and wears FTP gear--since it's not on TV the site gets little free advertising. I've used prizes won to play WSOP events. I've also used prizes won just to use as a Vegas bankroll to play smaller tournaments. So perhaps you can blame me for being part of the problem.

Obviously, when the BBT is going on it's about all the bloggers who participate talk about on their blogs so FTP gets plenty of marketing via the buzz there. The question would be how much is that really worth to them? Is it worth as much as the prizes given away?

If BBT6 does not happen I'll miss the camaraderie of the events and the fun in discussing the results on the blog. These are always fun tournaments in which to participate. I realize the blogger events go on all year, but with nothing at stake I can't justify taking the time to play them.

Shoot Al some love. Promise to use any money won to go to Vegas and play a WSOP tournament. Let's see if we can make BBT6 happen.

The Comeback

After months of poker hibernation I've been both playing and winning more in 2011. After piddling around with chump change on FTP I finally deposited enough money to play for real stakes and the results have been good. If not for four, and I mean FOUR on the money, bubbles in FTOPS satellites the last couple of weeks the results would be more in the range of spectacular.

I'm still hooked on those HU Ultra Turbo SNGs, except now I play more PLO8 than Hold'em. I've also hit the .50/$1 Rush PLO table pretty hard in the last week to good results.

This weekend I'm headed to Tunica for some live casino poker, which will be the first I've played since I went to Vegas last summer. I'm looking forward to hitting the real felt for the first time this year. Considering how cooped up I am in my house most of the time, it's hard to fathom that I once spent weeks at a time on the road playing and writing about poker. My lifestyle has changed as dramatically as you can imagine in the last year, but I wouldn't trade John Harper for anything. My son is the light of my life.

As for Vegas in 2011? My streak of attending the last seven WSOPs will not continue unless I "win" my way to Sin City this summer. This brings me to the point that I think has many of us poker bloggers in suspense--is Battle of the Bloggers 6 imminent? Considering we thought it had bit the dust last spring yet Al managed to score even more prizes for us I would be really surprised if BBT does not return. Maybe I'll try to prod Al for some info...

What's Right/Wrong with the WSOP

Jason and I put this together for Al Can't Hang at Poker From the Rail.

Flame away.

Thanks for my invitation for the World Championship of Blogging events, PokerStars. Oh wait, you never gave me a ticket? Guess I better get rid of this free ad I put up for you then...

Poker Goals

Presently, I'm writing an article for FTP Blogger from the Rail about poker goals. What's a good goal? What's reasonable? What should you NOT focus on?

I used myself as an example of a person who used to set bad goals. The prime one being my focus on winning at least $10,000 a year. Because of the fickleness of luck you hit some ridiculously good swings and hellaciously bad swings. Can you really expect to win "X" amount of dollars in a month? In a year? Not really. Your focus should be on improving your game and making good decisions. The wins will come in the long run if you do those things.

It's not that much different than what Nick Saban beats into the minds of his football players. He emphasizes the focus needed to do the right thing and make the right play no matter the situation. If your focus is where it needs to be you will make the same play no matter if it's the first play of the game or in the last two minutes of a tied game.

That being said, I haven't made any goals for myself this year other than to play more poker than I was at the end of last year. I want to bring more balance into my daily structure, with a good mix of writing and poker playing. If there's plenty of writing work to do I will put the brakes on the poker. If writing is slow I can spend more time on my poker game. Definitely I will look for more opportunities to combine the two by writing about poker more this year, seeking out more freelance work and posting on this blog much more often than I did in 2010.

Back in Action!

Long time no see.

The last few months have been relatively busy, with few poker hands played by me. John Harper turned the big ONE in December, and I cannot tell you how much joy he brings into our lives. 'Bama had a decent year that was well below our repeat championship dreams, and Auburn came out of nowhere to win the title. The football season was, however, fun as always. I worked almost all of the home games for CBS and ESPN and was usually outside Bryant-Denny Stadium selling copies of Crimson Magazine before games.

I rarely even thought about poker since I got back from Vegas. When I did sit down to play I couldn't seem to win, and my online bankroll vanished as a result...$20 in PokerStars, $10 in FTP and $60 in WPEX. I think I played live once.

I did not come close to the ol' five figure win, ending my streak of six or seven years of scoring at least $10,000 from poker.

Sometimes poker is telling you to take a break.

So I did.

But I am back.

Well, to a degree. While I will definitely not be jetsetting to such farflung and exotic locales as Tunica, Biloxi and New Orleans on a regular basis, I am at least back to mixing in some online poker with my daily writing activities. Those writing activities have not included the subject of poker much in awhile, what with Rounder magazine seemingly folded.

Things have taken a swing upwards lately. Al Can't Hang is asking some of us regular FTP Blogger from the Rail guest posters to contribute more often, an Jason "Tennessee Spaceman" Kirk and I have begun a point-counterpoint column.

I managed to run that $60 up to $1,000 on WSEX, and thanks for the money I get from the ad for the good folks at FTP I was able to build my bankroll up some on that site, as well. I get to take a little weekend trip up to Tunica for the World Series of Poker Circuit event Feb. 4-7, too.

Howdy

Long time, no see. I realized the other day I haven't posted since before I left for Vegas. The truth is I've taken a hiatus from poker playing, and haven't done much of any poker writing in the last few months. These are the things that usually spur me to update this blog and help explain my prolonged absence.

I had a rare losing stretch in Vegas. For whatever reason I tend to fare well when I visit Sin City, but it wasn't to be on this trip. I didn't get crushed by any means -- I was only there a week -- but I just couldn't seem to win at tournaments or cash games. The main reason I traveled there was for research on a new website project that has yet to come to fruition and seems to have stalled to my frustration. That big news I promised before is not yet official, but we will see.

I actually did pretty good on FTP the latter half of July, between teaching a summer journalism course at a local middle school and working on articles for the fall issue of my Alabama football magazine. After that I hit a rough stretch in August and have played very little poker in the last six weeks. While I am still well ahead for the year, my streak of multiple $10,000 or more poker wins in a calendar year is in danger of ending in 2010.

Considering I have taken close to three months off from poker so far this year that really shouldn't be that much of a surprise, and maybe it's a good thing to take extended breaks as I often feel I can make more money per hour doing other things. Plus, breaks can make me feel renewed and rejuvenated when I come back full force. When I gave up poker for Lent (or at least part of it!) in the spring I bounced back from the break by winning about $3,000 in two weeks.

Here in Tuscaloosa the heat finally broke and we are no longer dealing with highs in the 90s everyday. The Tide pulled out a heart-attack inducing game at Arkansas this past weekend and has a big rematch against Florida this Saturday. As usual, I've been doing stats work for networks and will be working for CBS up in the press box at Bryant-Denny this weekend. I'll also be selling copies of Crimson magazine outside the stadium for most of the rest of the day. Busy times, but good and profitable times.

To conclude this much-delayed post let me share my ups and downs in Vegas this summer:

UPS

Aria -- The casino between Bellagio and Monte Carlo (and also owned by MGM Mirage) opened last December to rave reviews. Now I know why. This place is a great addition to the Strip. The poker room is instantly one of my favorites and offers a great game selection. Poker room manager Adam Altweis is trying to attract some of the high-roller crowd with the one-table Ivey room. I believe a $100-$200 PLO game was taking place one of the times I was in there. I interviewed Adam for my website project and he was very generous with the comps for myself and the friends with whom I was traveling. Aria hosted a summer tournament series concurrent with the WSOP, but the numbers were low. The convention area at which the events took place were spacious and inviting. I played one of their nightly tournaments and the structure was great. In about a 90-player field I played for seven hours and finished 9th.

WSOP -- Criticize the WSOP brass all you want, but they try to make improvements every year. I was impressed that they managed to secure all of the Rio convention space for the WSOP, which allowed for all of the tournament, cash game, satellite action you could stand. I thought the addition of a $200 daily deep-stack tournament in the afternoons was a smart move to steal back some of the poker traffic headed for The Venetian, but I heard the structure was a bit too good and I didn't enter one of these because I didn't want to play until 4 a.m. just to make the final table.



DOWNS

Binion's -- My old stomping grounds continues to go downhill. As you probably know already, the hotel is closed and my beloved coffee shop was also shut down. Cash games have almost dried up and the Binion's Poker Open events attracted smaller fields than ever before. CK and I played a O8 tourney down there that drew less than 100 players. My Oregon pal Ted had to move over to the Four Queens this year for his usual extended WSOP stay. I managed to visit with him just before I left so it was good to catch up. You could say that poker on Fremont Street in general is a down. There's just not a lot of action here anymore.

Harrah's greed -- While the WSOP has seen improvements in service, it grows ever stronger as a money pit for poker players. Prices at the Poker Kitchen continue to rise. Rake was taken in cash games without a flop. Etc., etc., etc.

Viva Las Vegas!

Can you believe it? Here I come:



For the third consecutive year I said I wasn't going to make it, yet my airline reservation says leaving Birmingham on June 30 and returning from Las Vegas on July 7. I promise to stop saying "this is the summer I don't make it to the WSOP." While I still can't divluge too much about my new project it will have me hitting the ground running when I touch down at McCarran. We should have a site up and running in the next week and then I will kindly ask you to help me promote the heck out of it.

John Harper's "Half" B'day, Plus Big News on the Horizon

John Harper waves to the camera as he celebrates another day of wonderful life. Man, I love having a son. It was hard to adjust to this big change in our lives at first, but I think we've hit a groove -- and John Harper just hit six months, at already nearly 18 lbs. and 27 inches. The kid's going to be a linebacker!

Life is good on the homefront, and things are also improving professionally. I had been considering contacting a certain book publisher on the casino industry for more than a year and finally stopped procrastinating last week. Quickly, the ball has started rolling not on any book deals, but on some poker blogging for a major website. Perhaps not just a blog, but an entire new poker section wholly created by me. I have a conference call about this endeavor Tuesday morning and should have some big news soon.

WSOP From Afar

Since I will not be making my annual trek to poker la-la-land this summer I am admiring the WSOP from afar. I've been playing the Full Tilt Poker Fantasy Poker game for the first time this year and am in the Poker from the Rail group. I thought I had some good picks to start, but so far my team(s) have sucked as I'm only 12th in the group and 4,000 something overall on FTP. I can't believe that many people actually take the time to pick a team. I always thought much of the poker coverage, with excited talk and hype about particular players, was pointless. (Of particular amusement is the pick the finishers of the WPT final table segment on PokerRoad Radio.) Personally, I couldn't care less about individual tournament players. For me, it's always about the game. It seems there are plenty of poker fans out there who DO care about the players and follow them as if they would Kobe, Tiger or Manning.

My pal Brian is headed out to Vegas on Monday for four days and plans to hit the poker scene. We were talking the other day about how he should plan his attack with $1,000 in his pocket. That sparked inspriation for an article I wrote on what to do in Vegas if your poker bankroll is $1,000, $5,000 or $20,000...I sent it to Al for Poker from the Rail so hopefully he runs it. I've sent him several items in the past few weeks, including the timely "Best Players Never to Have Won a Bracelet" article, which featured Michael Mizrachi, who won the $50K the next day.

Even if I can't experience the WSOP first hand this year I can make a little coin in writing about it from the comfort of my Tuscaloosa, Alabama, office. I'm still settling in from the Nicaragua trip and trying to get caught up on things. My office (and house) is so disorganized and cluttered I don't know how I ever get anything done here. I should post some photos on here and you can SEE what I am talking about.

I've been thinking about next year and I've set a goal. Obviously, I would like to return to Vegas in 2011 when John Harper is a year older and perhaps I can get away for a few days. Those month long trips are a thing of the past, but short stays may be feasible. I'm going to start putting money made from ads on this blog toward poker trips such as the WSOP. Hopefully, if I am able to block out some time next summer I will either win money for the trip in BBT6 (fingers crossed that it returns, but I suspect it will) or raise enough on here to fund the getaway.

Until then I'll keep picking fantasy players...

Packing up the BBT

Congrats to the BBT winners last night. I recall seeing jjok and NYRambler (who I have marked in red on my FTP program, meaning I think he's a tough player) as two of the main event winners. Don't know if they plan to actually play the WSOP, but very good luck to them and the other winners (sorry, forgot the rest).

I pretty much packed it in after Sunday. I just returned from Nicaragua and took my shot at the last Sunday freeroll and almost earned my TOC seat. I made only my second final table of the series and busted in sixth when all in with JJ against AK and KQ. I was good to triple until a king smacked the table on the river. After that I decided I didn't want to stay up late on Monday or Wednesday after coming home exhausted from the mission trip. Plus, I needed to spend some quality time with the family after being gone for more than a week.

In years past I was obviously actively involved in the BBT, posting frequently about it on the blog and having better than expected success. This year, I only played about half the events of these poker tournaments. Funny how life changes such as babies being born and mission trips alter your world. It's not that I don't love the BBT and want to participate; it's just that there are other priorities that prevent full attention to this.

I'll try to actually write a trip report of some kind this year. Our church was able to raise enough money to build FOUR houses in the Chacasecra community of Nicaragua this year instead of the lone house we paid for in years past. Our team worked on one house together (oddly located between a bar and a cockfighting ring!) while visiting the other building sites a couple of times.

This week I've been trying to catch up with work after being out a week, shipping some WSOP preview articles to Al for Poker from the Rail, doing some of my online writing work and playing poker online.

Here's a pic from in front of Lake Managua:



That's me in the big hat.

Stinkin' Up the BBT

Two weeks of BBT5 have come and gone and the best I have to show for my efforts is one 15th place finish. I've either caught no cards, played bad by bluffing off my stack, or took bad beats in each event. But that's tournament poker, isn't it? At least the middle item can be prevented by not playing like a donk.

It's going to be a crapshoot to get into the TOC for any of us due to limited amount of tournaments available. I am glad to see that more people are getting into the Sunday invitational that want in it. When I saw that the field was initially limited to 50 and excluded many regular BBT players I figured there would be a big fuss. I didn't see the fuss, but I see that the field size has more than doubled. Good call by Al and the FTP folks. Of course, that 1 in 25 shot at getting to the TOC from the Sunday event has disappeared now, but the move was just.

When BBT5 started I figured I had about a 50-60 percent shot of qualifying for the TOC. Now, I'd say it's more like 10-20 percent. Field sizes have grown, my tournament game is apparently rusty and I will miss a week while gone to Nicaragua. Hard to believe I leave in less than two weeks.

While I am sure that many are glad the old BBT system is gone, I miss the three months and point system league because I think it suits me better. As was evidenced by my results, my saving grace was consistency. In the six months of BBT3 and BBT4 I finished 1st, 16th, 1st, 12th, 1st and 3rd during the six months of competition. I believe the point system made me play more disciplined. My first goal was to try to make the top 25 percent to earn points and then go for the win. The method seemed to work well for me. Thinking back to casino poker tournaments I've won I can hardly recall one I led wire to wire. I think any I won or chopped I just hung around and then caught fire when the blinds rose and it got to shove in time. The same seems to be true ot BBT tournies.

I think I am also hurt by the lack of "skillz" in this BBT. The mixed games in the Skillz tournament suited me. I may not even have an edge against the average field in BBT in NLHE events, but I believe my edge in the rarely played other poker games was quite strong. I won five events in BBT3 and BBT4 and I believe three of them were in non-NLHE games.

So it appears barring some miracle win I will, as expected, not head to Vegas this summer. I'll live vicariously through other bloggers and poker writers. No biggie. A guy needs a break from the madness every once in a while, and I would miss the dickens out of my little one if I was in Nevada. Going to Nicaragua and leaving my family behind will be hard enough. I'll probably be back for WSOP 2011 though.

To be honest, I'm ready for some football. Bama just had its spring scrimmage known as A-Day and my mag Crimson just came out with the spring issue. I might have to look for some NCAA football tickets too and hit up some Bama road games this year.

More BBT thoughts

Al pointed this out in an email, and it's a good point, is if you can get into the TOC of BBT5 there will be a MAXIMUM of 24 players in the final since there are only three tournaments a week for six weeks with a total of four qualifiers from these weekly events. If we have a repeat winner (or top two finisher in the invitational) that will reduce the total number in the TOC by one each time it occurs.

Assuming 24 players in the TOC and all things being equal, a player will have a 1 in 8 chance at a main event seat and a better than 1 in 5 chance of winning one of the prizes. With $34,000 in prizes up for grabs in the TOC each player's equity in this tournament will be $1,416.66...and this is on a freeroll! That's quite a bit better than in the past two BBTs in which the final contained two main event seats and a couple of bracelet race packages. With about 45 players in the final the average equity was around $500.

As a guy who enjoys competition, but has little athletic ability, I live for the BBT. I'll miss the point system and the monthly races because it was a great yardstick and challenge, but the trade off is well worth it for the increased TOC equity, more prizes and many fewer mathematical headaches for Al!

At the very least the return of the BBT should get us all blogging more often, as I see I am far from the only one who has been lax on his posts in the past year...

The deets of BBT5

If you haven't read it on Poker from the Rail yet, here is the scoop on BBT5.

Leave it to the amazing Allen Rash to hook us up with lots of free goodies -- $50,000 in all, including three main event seats, three $2,000 bracelet race packages and $14,000 in freeroll money. For the rest of you fortunate enough to receive invitations to the Sunday tourneys I will see you there!

Four months with John Harper, Amir Vahedi interview

Well, he and we survived four months. Little guy turned four months old yesterday and celebrated with congestion and diarrhea. He hasn't felt well this week.

Amy fed him rice cereal from a spoon Thursday -- the first semi-solid food for him. He liked it when the spoon was in his mouth, and cried when it wasn't. Surely, it's not as satisfying as the constant flow from a nipple.

Meant to post this when I sent it to Al at Poker From the Rail, but here is the link finally. I had the opportunity to do a phone interview with Amir Vahedi only a couple of months before his passing. It shows how out of touch with poker I was that I did not learn of his death until weeks after it occurred. The interview was for an issue or Rounder that never published. I thought Al might like it as a tribute to the gregarious Vahedi and he ran it here.

I just heard that Al posted via Twitter that there's a BBT5 in the works with $40,000 in free stuff. This comes as a pleasant surprise, and I can't wait to hear the details. I'm really curious what the prizes will be, as I have to assume they will not be WSOP related since the thing would probably not start before May. FTOPS or WPT entries perhaps? I was looking back at BBT4 and I believe the total prizes were about $30,000 (two main event entries, four $2K packages and about $2,000-$2,500 to the overall leadrboard plus jerseys) so this looks to be the biggest BBT yet!