So it's sorta social, demented and sad, but social. Right?

I have so much I want to write about some of the business stuff. I've taken a lot of meetings with execs from Casinos, online folk, and some Mag people, and all is lining up like a big grapefruit coming out of the pitchers hand and making its way to the plate just begging to be crushed. But its not an appropriate time to give the details, so like a bitch, I tease...

I have been running amok lately taking those meetings, the kids are all over the goddman place with basketball, karate, dance, school trips, school plays, and of course studying. The last weekend didnt help with a pile of parties, and of course, the kitchen ceiling decided to fall down because a seal broke in the drain of the tub in the kids bathroom. That was fun, but fixed and we move on.

I'm not (don't) sleeping much at all, and with the active schedule, I am getting run down. I've had this stupid cold for like 3 years, and my basketball game is very sluggish on Sunday nights.

I figure its time to get back into shape... for real this time. So I did some research.

I have a plan on a spreadsheet already typed up. What to eat, when to eat, and when and how to exercise. The workout will consist mainly of plyometric type stuff, lots of pushups, situps, and a simple weight routine. I will also start practicing juijitsu again, but nothing too extreme. Really just to get some cardio in and gain some flexibility back.

A friend has a full gym in his house and he wants to learn juijitsu, so we will train together, and I will be able to us his gym whenever I need to.

On the diet front, I have to make some drastic changes. I'm not one for diets at all, but it has gotten way out of hand. Fast food has become a staple, because, well, its easy. and fast. So its time to soldier up and get her done...

For one, I'm a coke fiend (pop, not blow). I went through some sites and these are the changes I will be making....

No more coffee... Instead green tea. Why? Because I drink my coffe with half and half, no sugar. But I also believe they call it half and half, because thats how you use it. Half coffee, half half and half. That oughta cut out some calories.

No more sugar... This is mainly going to effect my coke problem. Any soft drinks or ice tea will now be sugar free... That oughta cut like 2,000 calories a day.

Starting yesterday, I am going to try at least 100 pushups/ situps a day. probably 5 sets of 10 in the morning and again at night. Pull ups are just impossible at this point. In the Marine corps I did 37 pullups in a row. Yesterday I couldnt do 2. My fat ass weighs in at a cool 256 right now.

I plan to be at around 230 by August first (210 is the overall goal). I know, a lofty goal, but according to the spreadsheet and some advice from a personal trainer/nutritionist friend it should be completely doable.

I'm a very disciplined person when I focus, but the toughest part will be meetings, poker games, and just the regular dinners with the kids and such. I"m a big fan of comfort food, so cutting that loose is going to be rough. The new diet will now consist of lean meats, veggies and fruits, fish, chicken. Cutting bread out will be hard. Not completely, but I love me some good Italian bread.

Breakfast will consist of cottage cheese and a piece of fruit.
Lunch will mainly be a salad of some type with maybe a piece of meat
Dinner will be extremely small variation of lunch with maybe some starches like potatoes or something, but the biggest change will be the timing of dinner. It will have to be eaten before 6pm. Thats a crazy number for me since we normally eat very late. Plus I can see midnight rolling around and wanting to eat the ass out of a horse.

Went out in the mook and the RC in 18th place the last two nights... Big game is the last chance for the final TOC seat. Hope to see all there...

Have a great weekend!

Lemur Avatar... Goat Rules!

Not to go after criminals because they might try to harm you is really not a policy of the FBI. See, we try not to say uncle. We try.

Scene 1: Corner of an old crusty bar somewhere in Phoenoxville, two cynical, yet happy gentlemen drinking under the premise of work

hippy: I think I'm going to the shore Memorial Day weekend
good looking, intelligent, awesome dude: What? you can't!

Hippy: What the fuck does that mean? Who are you my father?
GLIAD: No, I mean Bam is coming to town.. (FAAAAAWK!) mistake one

Hippy: He is? How do you know, I didn't see anything on his blog, and he certainly didn't call me.
GLIAD: Ahhhhh Fuck, it was supposed to be a surprise! Lets pimp him.

{backround bar noises while the two hover over a laptop devising a plan. Hippy looks confused and amazed, while the GLIAD speaks}

Hippy: Genius, this is all a great plan, save for one aspect.
GLIAD: Whats that?

Hippy: I met him in person already. He knows what I look like, and he knows that I know what he looks like... Remember? In Toronto? Strip club, poker room, Casino, hotel? NO? not recalling any of that?
GLIAD: DOH!

Ok, so I fucked it up. Bam was coming down ninja style and had asked me to make sure everyone was going to be there. He wanted to surprise a couple of people. Being it a holiday weekend I knew it would be trouble to get people around, but Al and Donkette were def going to be around. the trouble was a slip of the tongue to Al some two weeks before the actual event.

So I tried to turn it around. Of course I had no shot of helping out because of the fact that I would be watching he tribe all weekend because the wife would be working. She was scheduled to work until about 10:30 getting home around 11 and I was going to head over to the Pub to meet up with my northern friends with Al and BigMike. Hell, maybe JDub would be there as well.. always a bonus.

Wifey decided to stop for a drink herself on the way home with a neighbor who just happened to be near the Old Navy she was working at when it was quittin' time. And since I was out til about 6 am that morning playing poker, I guess she figured she didn't need permission. It has taken her about 15 years of marriage to learn, understand, and utilize the credo that I have used constantly since the beginning of our relationship, which is... "It's easier to get forgiveness than it is permission"

I dont mind really, but the difference is whatever she asks of me would always be a resounding "yes".. "hey, I"m going to stop for a glass of wine" - sure dear... "Hey, Kim wants to head to New Hope for some shopping on Friday night" - No problem, whatever...

See thats the easy part with me. Just ask.

With her, it usually goes like this... "Hey, um, I was thinking of heading down to the baseball game with Miller and Snakster" - WHAT???!?!! WHEN?!?!?! AGAIN!?!?!!

So I don't ask anymore... I just go, then say I'm sorry when I return home... although that seems to be needed less these days, cause I think she finally gets it. Seems to work better that way :)

Sucks I missed Bam and Pebs but I know within the next three months he'll/ they'll be here again, at the bash, and the way things are going these days, 3 months is like a week.

So being at home, all by myself, kids asleep, I decided to catch up on some work. But I got bored fast. So I watched a movie. The Kingdom, starring Jamie Fox, Chris Cooper, and Jen Gardner. This was a really good movie. What starts out as a movie trying to make a political statement, turns quickly into a Tom Clancy type military, shoot 'em up flick. Right up my alley!

Go see it if you wish.. very cool movie. I can't get over how good of an actor Jamie fox is. Really. Everything he does is done really well. Chris Cooper does a good job as well as always, but I can never get the thought out of my mind of him turning queer and then killing Spacey in American Beauty. Jen Gardner does a remake of Sydney from that spy show she did on one of the networks, and Justin Bateman plays the goofy smart kid, always telling jokes. Reminded me of the side kick he played in Dodgeball sans the stupidity.

Overall it is a very entertaining movie, and well done.

Big week on the business side, and I will have updates on some of that in the next few days.

Jules, you give that nimrod $1500 and I'll shoot him on general principal!

BBT stuff...

First, I can't even begin to think how bad the BBT has been for me. For one, I have played like a retard throughout. Internet Poker has been something that I have used just as fun, and not really ever put on my competition hat. And this isn't just specific events. This is all of them. Just retarded, stupid, dumbass play throughout. I am usually busy doing something else, and just don't put the concentration into it. Sometimes I'm on the radio, or working, or just plain conversing in like 10 different IM boxes with some of you and don't pay attention to position, stacks, or betting patterns anymore. It really is just about the worst thing anyone can do when competing for the crazy prizes that are up there, at the cost involved. Shame on me.

Last night I tried to hunker down and really play. That lasted about as long as the first half hour when I got a phone call from a potential suiter for the Radio Show. I ended up working about 3 spreadsheets and Power Points all while playing (and drinking, which doesn't help).

When I got down to 13th, I saw 55 in the small. I had a little less than average stack. UTG, (I forget who) had bet out about 1500 (4700 behind). I thought for about half a second, (had them covered by about 500) and just heard the voice in my head about having to win races. So I shoved. I wasn't completely sure about getting a snap call as this player had played extremely tight. Maybe He/She would be able to fold the likes of AQ, and I didn't mind going up against AK. I wasn't worried about cashing, I just wanted chips to make a run at a win. They had Jacks, and although thought about it for a while, (maybe 6 seconds), I was called and sent home. It was a horrible shove on my part. I don't think many hands raised like that utg are going to fold with the stack they had. Just another play where I wasn't paying attention, and decided to gamble on the bad end. I don't know what I beat there, or what I hold up to either, so another lesson re-learned. I just have to really start to pay attention more, if I want to take this seriously.

I am back into the top 18 in the Bodog with two Final tables the last two weeks, taking a 5th and 4th. I have decided to really pay attention in that one being that i can afford to be stupid the first couple of rounds being the structure is so slow and blinds are really low. I still need to make sure I point out in the last two to be sure that I stay in the top 18. I'm not sure how much I like or dislike that site yet. There are too many things missing that I am used to such as a time request button, and just the over all look of the site is confusing. You can't, (at least I can't find) a leaderboard, where it lists the chip leaders without having to find them at each table, and so on. Last week I was trying to call an All in against Don and someone else with AK. Everytime I hit call, I got a message that said the software is experiencing problems, please shut down and restart. It eventually worked and Don was upset about the perceived slow roll. Everytime I get moved to a new table it seems I have to shut down and retart as well. Just weird. Maybe its because I run Shitsta on my laptop, and there are compatibility problems, who knows. But Shitsta has been out for a while and you would think they would have a patch for it to work well with their software...

To follow up on the last few posts, I have spoken to more folks in the industry about the GSN situation. High Stakes Poker is actually the highest rated show on GSN and for them to outright cancel it just makes no business sense. Unless you believe that the advertisers will not continue to support it. It could be the only show on TV with 80 billion viewers, but if know one wants to pay for it, then it goes away. I have heard some things about the online sites scaling back their TV ad budgets in hopes of getting some support from the TV lobbyists on getting the UIGEA overturned. Sounds like a plan, but how much pull can the networks have in congress over this one particular issue?

I believe poker after dark is actually owned by a company owned or controlled by FTP, so that obviously would be treated a little differently. But who knows. Time will tell.

Good luck to everyone who still needs a seat in the TOC. Fischman asked me when the TOC was and I told him the wrong date. Hopefully he doesn't figure it out! One less player for all to avoid! :) My gift to all who made, and make the TOC!!

Poker, cont...

Casinos have spent millions on poker rooms in the last 5-8 years because of the demand to stay competitive. Everyone else was, so we need to as well to attract people for what they want to play. Obviously poker does not make a ton of money compared to other casino games. But its what the players wanted, and those players brought friends and family. This past December was the first month in 5 years where the industry actually saw not only a slow down in growth, but an actual decline in growth. Worse than the previous month. It has slowed.

So what do they do now? The fields in tournament poker have dwindled over the last year. 10k events are gertting smaller and smaller , and I spoke to several pro players who gave me some insight on what they think. For one, they feel that people are just going broke. They can't recoup the money they spent for travel, expense, and buy-in fees without at least a win AND a few cashes somewhere along the tourney schedule. Payout structure in those 10K events tend to pay less than you're buy-in in the first stages of cashes, and midway through you'll be lucky to break even after your expenses are paid to even get there.

The brains in the industry tend to think that the smaller buy-ins, like the $2000 and $2,500 buy-ins will be the wave of the future. A little less easier on the wallet, and almost as much value. The Borgata showed that when they had their recent 500k guarantee and had to turn people away. Over 1,000 wanted to play, and they handled 775. That turned into a 1.6mm prize pool. Not bad for three days work if you can avoid running KK into Aces, and catch your 14 out draw when you bluff into a set.

These lower buy-ins with huge prize pools will also attract those who play recreationally and those who play more seriously, but not seriously enough to want to plop down 10k to show that they can do well.

Internet quals have also subsided a little. Two years ago, the WSOP ME had 8500 players. 65% of those players qualified online. I expect some qualified for as little as $10, but the issue at hand here is the drop off they had last year. Now I don't know for sure how many actually qualified via online sites, but I do know that when they did qualify, they had cash, instead of a voucher deposited into their account. And obviously more decided to keep the money then dust off in the WSOP. For some, doing so would just be irresponsible. Pretty wide assumption there, but you have to agree that for most, winning 10k should be put towards household expenses and not a 1 in 6000 chance of winning huge money, especially if you play recreationally. The bottom line here is if you usually play $10-$24 tournies, you don't have the bankroll for playing a huge event. Furthermore you would be going for the experience, and maybe get lucky enough to cash. Lets not be dillusional here. Lucko played, and ran KK into top pair and the noob caught trips after the money was in. It happens. But guys like him, who are financially responsible, and win consistently online, aren't who we are talking about.

We are talking about the Snaksters of the world, the Skidoos of the world*, who have families, or are just starting out. I think 3-4 years ago there would be some justification. The poker world was just really coming into its (dare I say?) prime with the unknown of pros positioning for big scores in mainstream ad money and sponsorship. Something that hasn't come about at all. Back then when it was assumed that stuff like that would pop, maybe the lure of hitting some other jackpot from playing in the WSOP with all the media coverage would make it worth it. Plus, you didn't have the option to cash out either. The sat was the sat, and you had to take the seat. Which was known going in beforehand so who cared. You wanted the seat. You wanted to take your shot.

The question now becomes, how does the revision of the UIGEA, if it does become legal, effect the popularity of poker? Does it BOOOOOM again? Does it matter if the law changes or not? Will it happen anyway? When that law went into effect, 80% of the online market came from the US. Yet it lost only 15% of the market after the law took effect in the first year. Obv, Americans are still playing, but did the international community pick up that much slack? Or did US players just not go away like expected. Does the US gov see this and use it to push the revision through, or are we just to retarded as a country to ignore the potential tax revenue over morality? (like that has anything to do with it)

In 2006, "poker" was a top 5 search word. (I think it may have been the #1, just dont feel like fact finding), and in 2007 it fell below the top 10. Kids are playing more and more poker these days, but does it, and will it burn them out? How many will continue on to play almost full time when they finally figure out what they want to do with their lives? I know guys who played almost every single day, as you all do, who now hardly play once a month, if that, because of puchback from wives, families, and work or other obligations.

The point is, was this huge proliferation of poker over the last 4 or 5 years fabricated by the hype? Is it like any other hobby? When "A river runs through it" came out, it seemed everyone and their brother went out and purchased $3k worth of fly fishing equipment and took trips to all the major locales for the best the country had to offer. Now I'm lucky to see 5 guys on my local rivers with a flyrod in their hands.

Time will tell I guess, but I fathom that the overturning of the UIGEA will have a huge impact. Or in the very least, give us some sort of indication of what that impact will be.




*obviously I'm not advocating anyone NOT playing in the WSOP if they feel they want to. And I truly hope whoever wins the TOC does play. I think in this instance this is found money provided to us by Full Tilt because we show our loyalty, and I think there may be some sort of obligation to the comunnity to play (my opinion only). I only use Snakster and Skidoos names because I know both of them have families, (and I felt like pimping them). Both may have gazillions of dollars and choose to play. I hope you get my point.

...the pleasure's all on this side of the table, trust me.

What is going to happened to poker? GSN announces, or doesn't announce that they will not be renewing High Stakes Poker, and that leads into the assumption, with some articles written about it, that they won't be renewing the WPT either. This after the WPT just got picked up by GSN.

The question is, how does this effect poker? At all? Huge? Negatively? Certainly not positively, but how far will this reach?

Does the influx of new players then subside? If it does, at what rate? Has it already? As a business owner in this industry, especially one that specializes in introducing the new players, I can tell you that there has been a slow down of sorts. We still see new growth, and we still see the good attendance, without much of a drop, but players are certainly starting to cycle out.

This year has been somewhat different. The Winner of the WSOP ME basically went underground after his win. There have been a few stories about his philanthropy, but absolutely no real stories about him at all. He was not the spokesman that I think a winner of that size of an event needs to be. Maybe its because he wasn't really that much of a player. Maybe it was because he didn't want to , or didnt care.

Hachem was great, Moneymaker was great, Raymer was great, and Gold, was well notable. 3 of the 4 mentioned above all became ambassadors of the game. They were inlvolved in poker. They played, they got involved in business ventures within the industry, they helped out things like the PPA, and most of all , they were visible. People could identify with why they were famous. And more importantly, they understood what made them famous. Yang did nothing of the sort. The guy up and dissappeared like a fart in the wind.

Without that story, that person to tell his story over and over again, and show people how he won one the richest prizes in all of sports/ entertainment, there really is no bait for the public to follow. And this comes at a bad time as well. General folk know that there is a law banning online poker, but have no idea what it really entails. They just know it exists, and therefore, poker must be dead. Then the guy who wins the biggest prize just vanishes. And no talk about the WSOP after that. What gives? Maybe poker is dead. Of course not. Not in the least. But there is something to be said about the average guy or gal who aren't informed to hear snippets and just assume. When I tell people I'm going ot play poker in a real casino, I still get, "isn't that illegal?" In the very least things like that will take their interest away from even pursuing a foray into the poker world.



I will follow this up tomorrow with another post delving deeper into this whole thing. Obviously I'm not blaming Jerry Yang for the destruction of the whole poker world, but I think his non-involvement has something to do with the lack of interest from the non-poker playing public. Even if you didnt play, you still watched. Now thats not happening anymore.





I've had some good conversations with some industry folk over this and will follow up with an online piece and a live piece tomorrow, and what some of their thoughts are and what some others plan on doing about it.

Happy Weekend!!!