Sickness, Tilt, Poker Stars, Hilton Sisters, and Duck Hunters



I'm sick again. No poker for me since I cashed in that awful speed tournament. I have no energy or time today to write up the last two chapters of the Vegas report. Stay tuned for those.



If you don't know yet, Iggy has organized the first event of 2005 for the WPBT.

Where: Poker Stars

When: Feb. 2 at 9pm EST

How Much: $20 plus ? (I'm assuming it's a $2 fee)

It's open to readers which means that Coach and my buddy Jay can (and will) play. I don't play incognito on Poker Stars. My screen name is Dr. Pauly. I often hide myself from the public on Party Poker. If you want to know my screen name, all you have to do is ask.



I will be holding a the first Hilton Sisters Challenge of 2005 during the tournament. If anyone cracks AA with QQ... they can select from a list of prizes (stay tuned for that). For the last event on Poker Stars, I gave away a Pauly painting to Rod in Calgary. I added another country (Canada) to the list of places where my artwork is hung.



Tilt



So when did poker bloggers all of a sudden become entertainment critics? Just kidding. I like some of the reviews of Tilt that I have been reading. You will not find any here, for now. I watched the first episode, but I will wait until the season is over to give my complete thoughts. I cannot judge an entire series on a single episode. Some of my favorite shows had first episodes that I thought were boring... like Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Sopranos. It takes a while to get into a flow, even for actors in an ESPN series. I liked The Playmakers but it took a few episodes for it to grow on me. I'm not saying or comparing Tilt to any of those shows... my initial impression is that it's cheesy. I'm just going to wait a while before I let loose any snarky commentary. Now, as far as the dark light that it sheds on the poker world, oh well. That's the entertainment industry for you. After all, one of the most popular shows today is called Desperate Housewives... not Happy Housewives.



Bloggers Meeting Bloggers



It looks like the good people of Minnesota survived a trip from AlCantHang. Thanks for the call on Sunday guys! Someday I'll visit Minnesota, but not in the middle of winter. I bought a plane ticket this past week to Florida. I'm heading down to sunshiny Miami in mid February. You don't leave a cold place and go to a colder place. Think warm.



I'm a big fan of random blogger meet ups. I have fond memories of my first meeting with Felicia and Glenn at the Bellagio (last April with Derek) while we sweated Glenn in a satellite in his bid to win a seat at the WPT Championships.



The Atlantic City trip to the Borgata in September was a ton of fun. I met Helixx, Carter, and Grubby for the first time. EvaCanHang won $1200 playing slots and I lost a $500 pot to Grubby playing NL. Al made a kid cry. Oh yeah, on my way back to AlCantHang's house, we were blasting Led Zeppelin and I almost hit a deer.



One of my more memorable moments being a poker blogger was crashing BG's homegame in Michigan last June (on my way back from following Phish in Indiana) and playing with Lord Geznikor and of course... meeting Boy Genius and Bob's smoking hot cousin who looks a little bit like Summer from The OC. It was late in the tournament and we took a smoke break and went outside. BG's cousin was playing with the neighbor's cats.



"I love cats. I'm so obsessed!" she said as she tickled one of the cats.



I uttered something like "I know the feeling."



I'll never forget the look on BG's face. He shook his head and gave me a wry smile that told me, "Pauly, please stay away from my 18 year old cousin! Don't forget we're an Italian family and there's a very big lake a few blocks from my house!"



Ducks



Warning! Inside joke content to follow...



By the way, while I am writing this, I have on American Outdoorsman or some sort of hunting show on ESPN2. Travis Tritt is wearing an orange neon hat while duck hunting. Oh the humanity!