Tao of Poker

Blogger Whores

"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." - Hunter S. Thompson

I updated my list of poker blog links. It's grown to over 113. And I spent over three hours visiting every blog I have linked up. If you don't believe me, check your site stats. My thoughts after the heavy reading session: Some of you are talented writers and some of you are slacking off in your posts.

Alas, I'm shocked that there are so many new and old poker blogs out there. It seems like every two months there's a new batch that I have to read. And as it's been, when twenty new blogs are published, several old blogs languish and fall into into blogger purgatory. And I even notcied that some of the more recent new blogs stopped posting. I guess that their authors lose interest. Maybe it's because blogging is hard work. Perhaps it's that people have newer interests. And better yet, maybe they went broke and out of sheer embarrassment, silently stepped away from the scene while they lick their wounds.

Writing about poker can be mundane. I try to spice it up, but sometimes despite how much lipstick you put on a pig... a pig is a fuckin pig.

When I first moved all the poker content off my main site (Tao of Pauly) almost a year ago, I never imagined that I'd read 12 poker blogs in one month, let alone 113 in a single morning (without the assistance of an intern or herbal enhancements). With the recent poker boom, and add the trendy, hipster, blogger boom, we are now bombarded with the poker blog boom. I said it once, blogs are the new tattoos. I need to differentiate myself from the common blogger... and that's why I am the author of several blogs on various topics. But what sets poker bloggers apart from the rest of the world? Perhaps because poker bloggers come from all walks of life... yet we are united by a passion for cards.

I've become cyber friends with seasoned alcoholics, several computer geeks, a divorced child prodigy, Wall Street traders, up and coming poker pros, lawyers, a fashion magazine editor, doctors, former college athletes, a stand up comic, school teachers, graduate students, thespians, fellow writers, poets, and scribes, and even a hammer wielding penguin from the other side of the world. And we all share the bug, the poker bug, the little monster than keeps us awake late nights, chasing a nut flush to the river at 3:30am, when we should be sleeping or cuddling with loved ones. And of course, I find myself at the (left of) center of this intense, supportive, and frenetic group... my fellow poker bloggers.

You all inspire me. Well, most of the time, anyway. I read your sites as much as I write. I smile when you take down huge pots. I cringe when your flopped full boat loses to runner runner qauds. I am with you in spirit. I am cheering you on. And yes, I am flattered when I see parts of my literary (or shall I say bloggery) influence in your posts or your writing styles.

Sure most of what I say is meaningless (I adhere to a 10% rule... only 10% of what I say and write makes sense), and you won't learn anything new from reading my site everyday that already hasn't been said by more thorough bloggers and from the poker experts. But I can see little flashes of greatness on your sites which were inspired by my blog, and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, just like a shot of Tequila on a cold winter's day.

I write for myself. I have thousands of pages and millions of words that will never be seen by anyone. This blog is the forum where I choose to share my thoughts on poker and gambling. And it feels great that I have an audience. If you build it, they will come. I woke up one day in late November 2003 and I noticed that dozens and dozens of blogs (new ones) had me already linked up, and every day, the traffic on the Tao of Poker increased. I am getting new and repeat readers.

I realized that it's not so much the content (poker) than the matter in which I present the content. In short, my site is more entertaining than informative. Which is how it should be. Phil Ivey, I am not. But Phil Silvers, I can definitely kick his ass... in life and in poker... even if he is dead or stuck in a retirement community in South Florida.

Link Backs

I'm a confident person and my self esteem is fairly high. I know that I am not linked up on all the sites I have listed. Sure it's proper netiquitte to linkback anyone who linked you up, but I'm not going to fly off the handle and get super pissed off at those of you without a link to my site. It's not like I'm going to dispatch a couple of thugs from Brighton Beach named Yuri and Ivan to your house and convince you with rubber hoses and dull steak knives to add my site to your list of links (if you even have one). What I will do is ask you to link up my brother... and his blog Poker in the Weeds. He's hilarious. He's only been playing poker since I taught him around Turkey Day last year. And he's finally posting at least once a week.

If you have a new poker blog and you want to be listed, drop me an email. And in case you are wondering, for the most part with some excpetions, the blogs on my site are listed in chronological order. The blogs at the bottom are the newer ones, or the ones I added last. I decided to keep this order because I have my own system on reading blogs and I don't want to mess that up.

Big Pimping

A couple of the bloggers I play with at the Blue Parrot also have artistic pursuits. If you are in the NYC area, you should check these guys out. Asphnxma from Riding the F Train is a performer in the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comedy improv group. His next show is on Monday, August 9, 2004 at 6:30pm and it's located at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (307 W. 26th Street, NYC).

And when Ugarte is not groveling about poker or downloading geriatric German bondage porn from the net, he's working his ass off in an attempt to pursue a career in stand up comedy. Visit Ugarte's Upcoming Gigs page to find out when he's performing next. He has three upcoming shows in the next week at various venues here in NYC.

OK, that's it for now. Blogger ate my original post and I had to write this all in less than ten minutes. I'm sure I missed some things that I'll address in a future post.