Crap is King

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It's easy to throw punches when someone's already down. It's easy to call people names when you know with almost near-certainty they're not going to, or can't, say anything in return. It's easier to point a finger than it is to look in the mirror. KnowImSayn?

I should probably just stop here and link to Jesse May's September 2011 Feel the Shame post, because he, as an insider, says it all so much better. But, I won't, because there are some things I just don't get and, well, yes - it's easy to sit behind a screen and give an opinion that no one gives two shits about.

Also - and let's be clear - I'm not a poker pro and I didn't have anywhere near $35k+ stuck on FullTilt. I did lose money in their tits up fiasco, but I'm just one of thousands of players to which that happened. I guess you could say I'm one of those players all you pros WANT in the online game because, on average, I'm donating money more often than I'm withdrawing it (or I was...). So before you go dogging me for this viewpoint, just recognize that without people like me in the game - all you're doing is shuffling money back and forth between the pros among you.

In reading the back and forth between Matt Glantz, Daniel Negreanu, and Doyle Brunson, I pick up on what I think is a real generational gap between perspectives. But first, let's point out - the only person of these three still wearing a "patch" from/for an online real money poker site is Negreanu.* And while it's certainly fair to say that in the grand scheme of things, PokerStars handled things a kajillion times better than all the rest of the online players, the fact of the matter is that they, too, are still under indictment by the DOJ for their activities in the US pre-Black Friday. Just like American players flocked to FT because of players like Ivey, Durr, and Jesus, they clamored, too, to PokerStars** in part because of players like Negreanu. I know I did.

But back to this generational gap perspective. In Doyle's time out on the road in back alley games, cheats were handled differently than they are today. Poker, and how one made a living at it, was a much different ballgame then than it is today. So while I get Negreanu's anger and his use of language harking back to those old-time methods for handling cheats ("baseball bat to the nuts", etc), it's just rhetoric, because that method cannot fly in today's multi-billion dollar industry. It plays to the justifiably angry masses, but it's just theater and nothing more.

As the epitome of much of what's right in today's industry, after all he's a product of today's game, Negreanu likely gets this better than anyone. Sure, he's the Regent of Real Talk, but he's also an accomplished player and, as he puts it in his most recent vlog, able to cast stones because he is without sin. I hope that will always be the case, but I ain't holding my breath because I'm from Texas and I know it's a long snake that doesn't turn.

A while back, I took Bill Rini to task for his Who's to Blame for Black Friday post, in which he articulately opined that "players, journalists, employees of the poker rooms, site owners, affiliates, regulators, or whatever" (all of us) were to blame because "we didn’t demand better. We didn’t demand more transparency. We didn’t ask the right questions." I argued then that it wasn't fair to lay blame at the players' feet for a multitude of reasons. In looking back, especially in light of these recent questions/vlogs/blogs from Glantz and Doyle and Negreanu, as well as re-reading Rini's post - and May's -  I have to say I now think he's right. I think I made some good points, initially, as to why I didn't think it was fair to blame players - and some of that still holds true - but all of Black Friday and the total FT meltdown has disabused me of any future naivete when it comes to online poker. When it comes back around, I'm going to - we're all going to - have to do our homework if we elect to get back into the game.

And that's what irks me about these bat to the balls vlogs from Negreanu, and some of the posts from others, insiders, piling on the bash FT bandwagon. The derision is absolutely warranted, people, I get that 100%.

But what good does it do us AFTER THE FACT to have blogs asking the indicted to answer questions the answers to which would likely be direct admissions against interest, or encourage bats to the balls?

Instead of piling on the rightfully persecuted (and soon to be prosecuted), why not come with some ideas? Some possible solutions?

Here are some for free -

Instead of bitching at the cowards in hiding, why not band together as insiders and pros and players to demand that the prosecutors (the DOJ) start answering some questions? They started this mess. Does the PPA have any leverage or not? Does the poker industry have any lobbyists or not? Do the pros and players have any balls or not?

Which one of you insiders or long-time paid poker bloggers/journalists or paid poker lobbyists or paid PPA members or sponsored poker pros or poker regulators is drafting - right now - the Poker Player's Bill of Rights (akin to the Patient's Bill of Rights) or creating a Player Advocate Foundation for when online poker comes back around (to the US) to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?...Bueller?...Bueller?

Aren't these the type of questions we should really be asking?

I'm disgusted. We're all disgusted. But it's too easy to sit back, after the fact, and cast stones and bitch and say woulda coulda shoulda.

It's much harder to actually do something...to come with solutions and ideas that actually create change and/or get something done.

I'm not an insider, and I certainly have no clout, but I'm willing to help and would be glad to work with any other like minded individuals on solutions. But if all you're gonna do is sit there and point fingers, call names, throw stones, or ask for answers to questions that no sane indicted person would ever answer, you're not part of the solution. You're part of the problem.

***

* Glantz appears to be a sponsored player of/for Epic Poker but to my knowledge they are not (currently) an online real money poker site.

** It may well be that when all is said and done that PokerStars walks away from the indictments completely unscathed due to their internal accounting, policies, and procedures. I hope that will be the case

Targets

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Lots of interesting stuff made the rounds this week in the poker world.

Of note was this post by poker professional, Jason Somerville (@JasonSomerville), in which he comes out as a gay man. It won’t be the last time in his life that he comes out, but hopefully it will be one of the sweetest.

I was glad to see Jason get a lot of positive feedback to this information, which is as it should be (imo)! The world, it is a-changing, and I think most people understand that being gay is just one of many things that make up the whole of a person. So, good on you, Jason, the courage it takes to be honest and real is an inspiration and admirable.

Hard-Boiled Poker did a nice job of covering the story and reminds us what a discomfiting thing it can be to play poker. Shamus wrote, “it is a most self-conscious thing to play poker.” To play it seriously, we must be willing to think about “(1) who we really are, (2) who we are perceived to be, and (3) the relationship between the reality and the image.” Quoting Anthony Holden, he further shares:

Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life.

Matt Glantz also laid out some honesty this week in a post from Saturday, in which he calls on FullTilt Poker to do the right thing by players and break what has become a nearly year-long “black hole of silence.” He didn’t sugar coat things:

Your continued public silence is a disgrace. It is not only irresponsible, but also thoughtlessly unfair to the thousands of players who have money tied up in your ongoing debacle….I am embarrassed for you and I am ashamed of you.

Kid Poker brought his own brand of “real talk” to the fray in a video blog in which he also didn’t mince words:

I don’t think I would have any problem with somebody who had $15,000 dollars of their hard earned money on your site come up to you and bash you in the nuts with a baseball bat.

It should be noted, Negreanu seems careful to be sans any patching or sponsorship logos (I can’t tell if his hat has a logo blocked out with tape or if that’s just the hat) and he does clarify:

I’m not gonna personally do it, ok, and I’m not Charles Manson so I’m not gonna be, like, sending messages to people to go “Hmm! That’s a great idea!” If somebody wants to bash you in the nuts for what you did, they’re gonna bash you in the nuts whether I say so or not. And like I said, for me, that’d be ok.

In essence, Glantz and Negreanu are saying the same thing – FullTilt’s silence is despicable. I think Negreanu’s brand of “real talk” gets more play, though, because when people get wronged we automatically want to lash out. And right now, there are a lot of people who’d love to take a baseball bat to FullTilt Poker and all associated with them. We like real talk. We want people to tell us how it really is, because by God we can handle the truth. And besides, there's a huge difference between saying you want to kick someone's nuts in - and actually doing it. 

Unfortunately, while bashing somebody in the nuts (or talking about it) might feel good in the moment, it’s not going to bring back the money. Ultimately, all a bashing would do is serve to get the basher a criminal record for assault and battery, a hefty bill for legal fees, and maybe some prison time of his or her own. But, geez...people are crazy, and who knows whether someone will take the bait and apply some knee to the 'nads back alley justice one of these days.

Calling him "the most important voice in poker", Glantz recognizes that the words and actions of poker's top ambassador carry weight, when he tweeted:

But, that's Daniel Negreanu, the royalty of real talk, as we've come to know him and as Somerville coined him in his recent post.


Still, I couldn’t help but be reminded of another high profile person who took some flack for using some questionable rhetoric and propaganda in an altogether different arena. That person was Sarah Palin. And her targets were Democrats. Gabrielle Giffords, who had predicted there could be repercussions for the escalation of violent rhetoric in the media, ended up in the crossfire.

Making the decision to come out publicly, even in a society that is becoming increasingly tolerant and accepting, takes guts. It's real and it's admirable.

Calling a thief a thief, is just the truth (if it is indeed the truth, otherwise, it's just slander). 

Rhetoric from high level representatives that encourages people to "reload and take aim" or incites anger or ill-conceived action in some already well-pissed off people is just noise and nonsense, at best, and irresponsible, at worst.

There were some good take-aways in both Glantz and Negreanu's missives. Namely, their speaking up about an injustice that's impacted a lot of people. That's always a good thing. But instead of a bat to the balls, it's Negreanu's other idea that could, perhaps, better (and without physical injury!) convey his disgust.

Concerted shunning is often more powerful than any word or any weapon could ever be.

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

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So I wrote here just a few weeks ago about NaNoWriMo and how exciting that seemed to me and how I was going to be filling the pages of my blog with all kinds of writing, writing, writing…and then, I didn’t have anything to say.  And then I got so damn depressed pondering the news of this world, the plight of poker, and all the unmitigated crap that happens on a daily basis. A work station with internet access is a very bad thing sometimes.

To top it off, I had three losing sessions at my live cash game and I just woe is me’d myself to death until it got to where the worms in the garden would start laughing every time I came to sit among them and feast. Such a waste of time...there. In the garden. Eating worms.

I went back through my blog one afternoon, trying to see if I could find a spark of inspiration or a way back to where I’d been before. I was trying to find the me who had written about my love affair with poker and the passion that had fueled me year after negative ROI year. In the face of Black Friday, I was wondering if the day had come that my love for the game was just gone…as dead and withered as the worms in the garden after this long, hot Texas summer. 

It took me a long time to admit that what I was feeling, post Black Friday, was a real, deep in the bones depression. Missing the steady habit of grinding a scheduled routine, I was displaced and not really sure what to do with myself. I was surprised, and a little (ok, a lot) embarrassed, about it.  

I know part of it is the death of a dream, and probably an unrealistic dream. Unrealistic because…I mean, come on, look at all these pros out there crushing and killing, taking names and banking cashola. While me…well, I was just starting to get profitable. The road to getting even still stretches before me like an endless painting I can walk forever in and never get to the horizon.

I’ve learned that’s part of the game, though. It is an everlasting walk toward the horizon you’ll never reach because the game is never-ending. You get up from one session only to enter it again the next time you sit down. The button ceaselessly rotating and the cards ever shuffling, your entire life is just one long session. Tommy Angelo describes it better, but this forced hiatus is helping me see it clearer.

Another part of it, though, is the complete and utter tripe that’s come out about the poker community since Black Friday.

Please notice I didn’t say “about poker” or “about the game.”

The NLHE game itself is as it always was and will be: your stack, two hole cards, opponents, the flop, turn, and river.

The poker community, on the other hand, has been nearly laid to waste (EDIT - links to Jesse May's post, which captures everything I, as an outsider, was feeling).

Journalists who used to cover stories about hands and winnings, now hustle from one breaking DOJ story to the next, stopping only to cover the next story of abuse, cheating, or scamming (a la Girah).

Pros who used to crack-wise about balling now bitch and/or take every opportunity to flaunt their flawless judgment and superiority, or use their time to criticize new poker ventures.

New poker ventures get derailed by unclearly adhering to a possibly poorly thought out ethics code of conduct.

Players out money have adorned a lynch mob mentality and use social media to denigrate and threaten the figures they deem to be at fault.

Player organizations sit in their own camps with their thumbs entirely up their asses.

And fans? Well, instead of playing, we sit on the fringe and watch it all play out.

I wonder how many new fans will be up and coming as we wait out this dark season of poker?

The good and bad thing about following a dream is that along the way, two things can happen. You can reach your goal and realize the culmination of all your hard work, and then begin a new path. Or, you can do everything in your power to reach your goal and realize at some point it’s not a goal worth having any more.

If Black Friday had never happened, I wouldn’t be feeling as I do today. I’d still be plugged in, planning my poker work and working my poker plan. But, things are different now.

I hate that Black Friday happened, but with what it’s brought to light, I’m glad it did. But for the DOJ doing its job, we might all still be in the dark about the likes of Nick Rainey and Girah and the what-the-fuckery that has become Full Tilt Poker.

Sometimes, going to the garden to eat worms is a good thing, a healing process. At some point, though, you’ve got to get up. Dust yourself off, make new plans, and open your eyes.

I started the journey with an unabashed love for the game. Along the way, I grew to love from afar some of its heroes. In the face of this dark season, I’ve seen the man behind the curtain and made my peace.

All I have left is my love for the game. 

***

Early Morning Rant

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I'm writing this post under protest. My own self-imposed protest that no one's participating in but me; but still, under protest.

Protest because I'm so damn angry inside. That's pretty much the protest. That I'm angry. Because there's absolutely nothing else I know to do to address and rectify what's making me angry. I have no power to change things and politicians are stupid. So, I blog.

Five months ago, I had a plan. I had a goal. I was trucking along in my mind at what felt like the speed of light. Each day was mapped out and I was bringing all my forces, limited as they may be, to bear on the plans I'd set before me. I had the freedom to do that because I had the ability to take whatever knowledge and skill I had taken the time to cultivate and shore it up next to thousands of other like-minded individuals in a survival of the fittest competition - each day, every day, as often as I chose. The way I see it, that kind of competition goes on every day on the main streets of America when people make a decision to open a business and ply their trade. May the best man win and to the victor go the spoils.

Hard work goes into opening a business. Planning. Studying. Often, coaching. Financial preparation. And yes, sometimes, luck. A successful entrepreneur is the ultimate gambler, who does his homework better than anyone else. And keeps doing homework, long after his regular competitors have given up and folded shop, because there's always someone new looking to fill the void, to take the spoils. Plus, the best simply want to continue being the best.

I'm an entrepreneur. I started my own business in '08 and I can ply this trade anywhere in the world I'm licensed to do so. I can do it well, and I can continue to do it well so long as I stay on top of the law that is my area of practice and so long as I have clients.

Poker is Entrepreneurial

I can appreciate the argument that there may be some aspects of online gambling that are better left to brick and mortar endeavors. And, in light of the FT fiasco in the face of Black Friday* (for me, Full Tilt Poker will forever stand for 'Fucked The Pokerz'. Yes, I know that's an overly broad and simplistic statement. I don't care. I'm angry.), as well as the things I've learned about online poker since then, such as the apparent prevalence of ghosting (a la Girah, Nick Rainey, etc.), I can see that there is a need to regulate the entrepreneurial endeavor that is online poker. (*Wonderful articles explaining Black Friday can be found here, here, and here.)

But, come on. How hard is it to do? You open a site, the house gets a reasonable cut. Players compete fairly. A winner wins, the site reports cashes for all those who cashed, and those who cashed pay taxes on their winnings as required under the current tax code.  
Somewhat simplistic. Maybe a little over broad. But, for the most part, this is exactly what a business does every single day it opens its doors, rings up the register, or cuts an invoice.

You might say, well yeah, but businesses have a lot of hoops to jump through before they can ply their trade and/or sell their wares. This is true. It's called 'laws on the books'. For example, a business owner can't use underage workers in circumstances that don't comply with child labor laws (governed in the US by the Fair Labor Standards Act and each state). And women are to be paid an equal salary under the Equal Pay Act. And under Title VII, a company can't discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And every business has to comply with the Internal Revenue Service tax code.

Companies follow the requisite guidelines, they get to keep on plying their trade and selling their wares. Companies get caught not following the requisite guidelines, they get fined, sanctioned, despised in the court of public opinion, and sometimes they go out of business. All, supposedly, for the good of the consumer and in the interest of capitalism.

I have no idea what goes into running an online poker site and I'm not a gaming attorney. Thus, my opinion/grain of salt. But you've got the entrepreneur [which I see as the site itself (the business, its investors and employees) and the poker players utilizing the site to 'do work'], and you've got the consumers [which I see as including both the entrepreneurial poker players and the recreational poker players].

It's not that difficult (ok, it may not be easy, but it is not freaking rocket science). A federal law requires:

• no minors
• report earnings/tax as provided under the law
• no super using
• no ghosting
• no overly burdensome rake
• all the current "game responsibly" measures

I don't know how to effectuate any of this and I know I'm leaving stuff out, but this is my rant.

To protect against minors playing, require birth certificates (yes, everything can be falsified but, again, my rant). If the entity is going to be international, the age requirement in the country in which the individual lives controls.

To protect against super using, impose spot checking like drug testing and require a strict liability penalty for the site's owners and investors, large enough to hurt/put them out of business AND that mandates monetary remedy (payback) to impacted consumers.

To protect against ghosting, I don't know. Rewards for people who report it, maybe. Plus, it seems like there's got to be a way a computer program could monitor that.

Spent

This is just my early morning rantings. And now my anger is spent and I'm left with time on my hands. That's what got this ball rolling in the first place, though...I woke up this morning, checked in online to Facebook and Twitter. Found myself wondering who in the hell all these people were in my Facebook friends list, started deleting, found the exercise maddening, got pissed off that I was even messing with it, realized I'm spending way too much time acting a fool on social media, thought about why that was, remembered how my days prior to Black Friday had been scheduled and orderly, got pissed again, and viola - blog post.

I'm an amateur and this is what the free-fall has created in me. God bless the pros who lost their jobs. And screw the politicians who can't sort this out right.

***

The Ivey Impact

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Artist, Margaret W. Tarrant

On the day the 2011 World Series of Poker kicked off, its most famous player and the most recognized face of Full Tilt Poker, Mr. Phil Ivey, essentially showed the world poker's ass.  I'm not saying Phil Ivey is an ass. I'm saying that the inability of Ivey and the other powers that be behind Full Tilt to come to an agreement *before* he took to his FB page and filed a lawsuit against his former business partners means that a whole bunch (more) of poker's dirty laundry will soon become fodder for the grist mill. This, in turn, will further blacken the shiner the industry's been sporting since Black Friday.

The DOJ's action on Black Friday (warranted as it was) was bad enough and certainly brought to light some of online poker's worst business practices.  Since then, though, and thanks to Twitter and Quad Jacks, I've learned so much more about some aspects of the poker community and about online poker, in particular, that I'm just pretty much disgusted with the whole thing.

For example, apparently it is actually a lot more common than I thought for pros to multi-account (i.e., cheat).  For every Nick Rainey, how many others *don't* we know about?  I can't help it. After hearing Nick publicly admit to cheating on QuadJacks this week, I am questioning *every* major win online. In my mind, ghosting/multi-accounting in online poker is no different than doping in professional sports and a fail safe mechanism to protect against the activity must be implemented when regs eventually get passed legislating online poker. If you guys want more fish in your pond, then you better clean the freaking lake. If not, how can an amateur like me encourage people like my mom or family members or friends to give it a try when, and if, it ever gets regulated? Right now, I would tell even my worst enemy to avoid online poker like the plague (yes, moot point, I know, but you see what I mean...I hope). And honestly, knowing how well our federal government regulates things...?  Sigh.

But let's look at what else is disgusting...When I first read Ivey's FB page post, I admired his statement and I still do. Dude drew first blood and was able to frame the action in a manner most favorable to him. In the court of public opinion, he aligned himself with, and championed, all players wronged by Full Tilt's horrible business practices. But be clear what he's doing.  This is not about my frozen FT bankroll and it ain't about yours. Nope, this is very much about Ivey protecting what's his, as *any* good businessman should do. As @Grange95 so succinctly put it, "Ivey's lawsuit is 99.44% about Ivey's contract, non-compete clause, & funds on Full Tilt. Other players? Lip service."

For *anyone* to bash Ivey for doing that, they're crazy. He's not your uncle, your counselor, your savior.  He's a brand, a business man, and an entity unto himself. He made that happen. Not FullTilt and not Tony G and not Mike the Mouth or anyone else. If that were you, and your livelihood was on the line - what would you do?  Seriously. Think about it. If you tried to work things out with your partners to no avail, you'd lawyer up. And that's what's happened here.  Litigation, like the making of sausage, is really a gross and unpleasant endeavor and the longer this goes on the more...um...mashed up sausage casing, I guess, we're going to see.  I'm sad that it won't just be us, the poker community, seeing it. I can only hope, though, that all of this will serve as a catalyst to get online poker back up and running in a safe and regulated environment (that is not raked so bad that it becomes cost prohibitive).

This post is not a "Team Ivey" or a "Team whoever" post. It's just my opinion about what I see a businessman doing, which for better or worse has an impact on a lot of other people.  But it's for that reason that I think it's pretty gross to see people in the industry, especially some of the more vocal pros of late, publicly decrying Ivey's actions and laying the groundwork to, in effect, blame him for Full Tilt's failures. Ivey filing this lawsuit, sure, may not have been good for Full Tilt's ability to get funding to pay players back - but how is Full Tilt's inability to pay Ivey's fault? 

Unless it is shown that Ivey is responsible for the entirety of FT's business practices, including drafting, overseeing, and ultimately approving the agreements that allowed the non-segregation of player funds, then this public blamefest is nothing more than form over substance (which, sadly, happens every day when business deals go sour and former partners become locked in a death battle to "get what's theirs").  Do you honestly believe, though, that any of the pros, much less Ivey, were involved to that extent? (Whether they should've been and/or have provisions protecting them from the actions and omissions of their partners is another issue and not the subject of this post.)

I mean, it's like one minute these pros (I'm thinking of a couple) hate each other and are mortal enemies, but the next, they're best friends aligned in support of the hate on Ivey train. Talk about your flip floppers...it's just gross guys, so please stop.  Plus, I honestly can't help but see it as just another PR ploy (akin to Ivey's FB statement, but a day late and a dollar short - because IVEY GOT THERE FIRST) to "manage the damage" in the court of public opinion. 

In life, everyone's always shooting for an angle. Good poker players know this better than the general public and better than even the best of lawyers.  Ivey is, arguably, the best poker player in the world. The impact his most recent actions will have on the poker industry will be worth watching for a long time to come. I, like many, wish those actions could have been observed on the felt rather than in a courtroom, but you tell me, who do we really have to blame for that?

Tune In and Turn On

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Experts from iGaming, Ongame, Catania Gaming Consultants, iMEGA, Gambling Compliance, and more, are hosting a free webinar  Tuesday, April 19, 2011, to discuss what happened this past Friday, when the founders of  PokerStars, FullTilt and Absolute Poker were among 11 people charged by a US federal grand jury in a case that seeks at least $3 billion in forfeitures & penalties. 

Paraphrasing from the website, the good news is that instead of just rampant speculation, we'll hear from industry experts who will analyze and update the audience on what has happened to-date and hopefully shed light on the impact this will likely have moving forward.  In otherwords, it may still be rampant speculation, but it'll be from experts and I find that comforting.

 

Sign up to listen in, mark your calendar so you don't miss it and then TUNE IN.  When you sign up, submit a question in the box provided if you're so inclined.  Looks as though they may try to address them via Q&A. 

Bottom-line, this thing is an hour and a half long so, imo, there's absolutely no reason to miss this, absent serious work or family related constraints (again, imo). 

-------------------------

Whistling Past the Graveyard

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From *October 2006* in response to the UIGEA (as found on poker playing attorney Chuck Humphrey's website):

"It is now widely believed that when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is signed into law, all but the most cavalier of online operators will stop accepting bets from US citizens.

          "The notion that a number of the leading companies, may then decide to hang
          around in the US, exploiting opt out clauses in the Act, simply beggars belief.

"Until the climate changes, the best advice would be to give the US a wide bearth once and for all. To do otherwise would be to antagonise the US authorities, and to further increase the risk of arrest. And that is something that beleagured ordinary investors can live without."

Jeff Simpson, the business editor of the Las Vegas Sun expressed this conclusion: [I]f the poker community keeps whistling past the graveyard, pretending that there's nothing wrong with flouting the law in pursuit of easy money, even tougher crackdowns are ahead. 

Took awhile, but looks like they were right.  Check out Humphrey's wesbite. 

New Year, New Goals...screw that, just bring on the POKER!

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This is the obligatory New Year's "serenity" picture

After all this time I bet you guys thought I was never gonna post again!  Blasphemy!

So...we went to Germany for the holidays and stayed with family for 16 whole days...ahem...therefore, while Germany was wonderful, you can imagine how we all got on each other's nerves.  Thank God we're family and hopefully everyone can recuperate by summertime so we can do it all over again (insert evil laugh and grin here my BFF SIL).*

 All I know is I go away for a few weeks and everything changes in the poker world.  Annie and Phil have left UB.  We're about to find out who Isildur1 is (whatever, can't even be bothered to figure out how to spell that).  Sebock** (maybe?  maybe not?  Either way, not too shabby, hombre) is sharing the pleasures of manscaping.  Harry Reid still can't get legislation passed.  Daniel Negreanu is judging yet another person about their life choices.  Wait a minute...ok, maybe some things haven't changed.

At any rate, here's hoping that 2011 will be a banner year for everyone.  What are your goals for the new year?  What are you doing to achieve those goals?  If you're planning to fly by the seat of your pants, I wish you well.  I generally do that, too, but am still working on my discipline which shall, forthwith, include, but shall in no manner be limited to, the following:

1. The continued blogging of  my travails (poker and otherwise) as the year progresses;
2. The persistent study of the game of NLHE poker via videos, books, regular play, @thewaxslinger***, and maybe a course with The Maven;
3. Testing the limits of stake-age and higher limit MTTs (with my pahdna @thewaxslinger)
4. Participation in live events, with at least one "travel out of town" tournament a month til the WSOP;
5. Oh my gosh I've gotta go on a diet;
6. Two weeks at this year's WSOP because I'm playing the ME baby (when I sat into it or sell enough pieces, that is); and last, but not least,
7. Love.  Love.  Love.  Love. Crazy Love.  CanNOT forget that.

My daughter's currently in a Hip Hop dance class (JAZZ HANDS!), Basketball, and Tumbling, and she rocks at all of it.  Plus, the day job and my Bahbee must receive fair recompense.  So...it's gonna be a great year people.  I hope for you, too!

Tell me what you're doing to improve your game, your life, your...sandwich?  I love hearing your comments and really appreciate that you take the time to write them.

Until next time, good luck at the tables, amigos.  And - Happy New Year!

* If you are reading this my BFF SIL, leave a comment. Luz you!
** Please, did you really think I would link to that??  My mom reads this blog!!
*** You really should start following her on twitter already.

I Haz Chips

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What? I couldn't sleep.



I'd like to thank @MyYearOfPoker for inspiring this monstrosity and @Street3 for some of the (definitely the only sensible) dialogue.

*yawn* Good luck at the tables, peeps.