Monday Musings: Radio Free Pauly and Other Weekend Crapola


On Saturday I taped my first segment with Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show. Sean is a poker player from Toronto, Canada and he's the host of a podcast weekly radio program. He interviewed me for 15 minutes and we chatted about some random topics including my recent gig covering the World Series of Poker for Lasvegasvegas.com and Poker Player Newspaper. In June, I will be on his show every week giving live updates of the World Series.

You can download this week's show in MP3 format: here. (I suggest you right click and save as to your hard drive.)

Or visit this link for more information and to read the show notes. This episode is about an hour long and my segment is about 11+ minutes. It starts at roughly 42:00 minutes into the show in case you wanted to skip over the other stuff. However, I recommend you listen to the entire show at some point. Also in the show is an interview with the Poker Prof. They also discuss Poker Tracker Guide, and select The Cards Speak as their Blog of the Week.

Thanks again to Sean for having me. And I know, I say the word and a lot.

Weekend Warrior

Anyway, I played a lot of online poker this weekend on Empire Poker. I was trying to clear a bonus and I had to play 1050 raked hands of poker in order to qualify for free cashola. I cranked out over 700 hands and my neck was killing me! I got to play online with some friends on Saturday night... and they live all over the place... DC, Philly and the surrounding area, Oklahoma, Michigan, Cincinnati, and even Calgary... the one in Canada.

I also played with Mr. Decker yesterday! He rules. He's on the top of my list of Bloggers Who I Wished Blogged More. He can sit at my table anyday. Yesterday, he randomly sat down. He didn't know my Empire screen name so I had to tell him it was in fact, really me. He cracked Hilton Sisters twice in ten minutes. Amazing.

Derek went out of town and up to Maine for a few days. I loaned him my digital camera. He should be posting some pics soon.

On Friday night, Briana, Jenna, and I attended a small cocktail party that Briana's cousin threw with one of her co-workers. Nothing is more fun (can you sense the seething sarcasm?) than being in a room with drunk hipsters grabbing their cellphones whenever they heard a ring similar to their tone, like Pavlov's frothing dog. The other half were liquored up publishing/media types. Even worse. If there ever was a night that I wish I shot heroin... it was Friday night.

The conversation picked up a bit, from mundane to excruciating, when a flurry of people came over to me the moment they found out I played poker. Briana's cousin mistakenly told them that I would be "announcing the World Series of Poker." I dunno if she was drunk on overpriced wine, socially retarded, or trying to impress he peers and party guests with inflating the significance of my new job in Las Vegas. At any rate, I was there to spend time with Briana and Jenna and have fun and most importantly... not to think about poker.

After my eyes were handcuffed to the computer screen seeing flops for four straight hours, I simply wanted to get away from it all and talk about stupid faux-intellectual crapola like Terry Shavio, or everyone's disdain for the Bush Junta, or whether or not Britney Spears is pregnant. Instead, I had a dozen or so soused poker newbies lining up to ask me annoying questions. I never wanted to avoid poker talk more than that moment.

On Saturday night I ventured downtown after Midnight to have a drink and then watch a movie with Briana. We watched Sky Captain mainly because she's in love with Jude Law, I'm in love with Gwyneth Paltrow, and we both want to fuck Angelina Jolie. As I exited the subway on 96th Street, a couple of NYC finest undercover cops were arresting two young thugs for stealing an iPod or a purse. One kid was terrified and looked like he shit in his pants. While the other was trying to give off that "tough look." I wasn't buying it. You could still see the fear in his eyes. He had an awful poker face. Enjoy Rikers, kiddo.

The rest of my weekend involved writing and witnessing the Yankees get whooped by the lowly Orioles and watching golf on TV. Tiger Woods shredded the course on Saturday and Sunday morning. He looked like old form and dominated everyone in his path. Late Sunday afternoon, he made the shot of a lifetime, but blew the lead and a playoff was forced with Chris DiMarco. He ended up winning on the first playoff hole to snag another Green Jacket and his fourth Masters championship.

Big week ahead. I have two more articles to write, more hands to play on Empire Poker, a new issue of Truckin to edit, and Widespread Panic (and Senor) comes to town on Thursday. Fun week, indeed.