Tao of Poker

Bonus Whoring, Card Squad, and the Fat Guy

Obviously by now, you know that my brother is blogging over at Card Squad in addition to his own poker blog Poker in the Weeds. Derek got a job with them several weeks ago thanks to the lovely and talented Jen Leo. So far, he's been doing a kick ass job. Joanne just started writing for Card Squad as well and is off to a great start too. And if having Derek and Joanne on the same poker blog isn't enough... they added Wil Wheaton to their roster. He's going to be posting the majority of his poker entries over at Card Squad instead of on WWdN. Wil will be live blogging from the WCOOP, which started the other night on Poker Stars. He's expected to play in 11 more events. I'm playing in one WCOOP event on Friday. Wil also mentioned me in a recent post. Thanks dude!

Anyway, take a peek at Card Squad. They got some pretty good writers over there. For more info about the WCOOP, stop by Poker Stars Blog.

By the way, the Fat Guy is doing something great that I have to bring attention to. He's helping set up temporary housing in Texas and needs your help! Stop by his site Buck's on the Brazos to find out how you can help Hurricane Katrina victims.

Over the weekend, I spent most of my time writing freelance articles, working on a few other projects, and answering email. I played a two online charity tournaments on Full Tilt that raised over $38K for Hurricane Relief and lost my shirt on Party Poker. Just when I finally get close to catching up on everything work related, I have to get ready for being on the road for two straight weeks ending with AlCantHang's infamous Bash at the Boathouse or "Boatyard" as Bobby Bracelet likes to refer to it. This upcoming week will be filled with trip preparations and more writing before I embark on some European misadventures. Living in Las Vegas was epic and a lot of fun, but I'd rather travel from city to city then be in one place for too long.

I have some good news. I've decided upon a selection for an upcoming book on travel stories edited by Jen Leo. She was cool enough to ask me to contribute to her book. I have two stories that I'm going to submit. One is about a bender in Amsterdam with my buddy Senor in 1996 involving a bathroom and two underaged French girls. The other, which I hope gets selected, is a short piece about my trip to Japan in 2000. I went there with Senor to follow Phish and we ran rampant through four Japanese cities in one week, partying it up and raising hell, along with meeting Japanese hippies that knew the words to every Beatles and Grateful Dead song.

I also watched a little TV this weekend a caught an episode of Entourage. That show is freakin' hilarious. Favorite moment: when Johnny Drama stole the TV from his agent's office. Fuckin' priceless. When is Wil Wheaton going to make a cameo? I watched the Yankees win 2 out of 3 against Joe Speaker's A's. I saw the Ring 2 and Naomi Watts is pretty hot, but the sequel was horrible. I really dug the first one but wasn't thrilled with the second one. She wasn't naked, not even one gratuitous nipple shot. Zilch.

Moving on...

For all you bonus whores out there, you have four interesting options.

Full Tilt has a reload bonus of 50% up to $300 ($600 deposit required for max bonus). It will be running for the entire month of September. You have 60 days to clear your bonus and to earn 16.6 points for each $1 in bonus money.

Poker Stars is running a rare reload bonus of 20% up to $120 ($600 deposit required for max bonus). It's only valid until Thursday, September 8th at Midnight ET. There is no expiration date for this bonus. In order to clear it, you have to must earn 5 FPP for every $1 in bonus money.

Titan Poker has a 100% sign up bonus up to $500. Deposit $500 and they'll give you a free $500 and have to play a certain number of hands to clear that bonus. Titan Poker is a brand new poker room that is part of the iPoker network. If you don't like Noble Poker, then stay away because Titan is one of their skins. However, if you like playing against a collection of bad players, then Titan Poker is the place for you since you're playing against the same pool of awful players on Noble Poker. Plus I like the blue tint instead of green. Look for me, I'm playing under the screen name: DoctorPauly.

Party Poker is full of friggin' fish. Iggy reminded me about the Bad Beat Jackpot Tables. I only play them when it hits $250K. It's over $325K when I last checked. In less than 16 minutes on Sunday night, while on the phone with the Poker Prof, I won back 1/3 of my weekend losses. I was shocked to see AA and KK hold up on Party Poker with 5 other people in both times! OK, Party Poker is running a short term reload bonus and you have until tonight at Midnight to take advantage. Use code: USETOWIN to get a 20% reload bonus up to $100. So you have to put $500 back into your account to get $100.

Recent Poker Playing Music...
1. Widespread Panic
2. Beck
3. John Coltrane with Thelonious Monk
4. The Flaming Lips
5. Karl Denson