Tao of Poker

On the Road... Again

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." - Woody Allen

When it rains, it pours. On Monday, I signed up a sponsor which I'll reveal on Monday. Then a couple of hours ago, I got off the phone with a suit from Fox Sports. I'm about to sign a deal with them to write freelance articles on the 2006 WSOP for their online site. Flipchip will be providing photos for them too, just like last year. I'm excited to be working with them again this year. I'll be blogging here at the Tao of Poker everyday and I'll be posting tournament updates over at LasVegasVegas.com. I'll also be writing twice a week for Fox Sports along with daily recaps for them during the WSOP.

Over the last two years I've spent a too much of my life waiting around in airports. Luckily JetBlue at JFK has a wi-fi hotspot so I can catch up on email, play Party Poker, and throw up a last minute post. There's three hot scrawny model-types that might be strippers sitting nearby. The chances that one of them are sitting next to me are 5%. But if I stole one of their Louis Vuitton handbags, I could sell it and buy into a WSOP event. There's also a young Russian couple nearby screaming at each other. My Russian is so bad, that it sounds like they are speaking Ukranian. With my luck, I'll be wedged between the bickering couple on my flight instead of the leggy models/hookers/strippers.

I'm a people watcher. That's the writer in me who's always observing people. Since I grew up in New York City where there's several million people from all walks of life, people watching has always been a hobby. Sitting here at the airport, I noticed two types of travelers; those flying for business and those going for pleasure.

Last year, moving to the WSOP was all business for me. This year, I'm happy to say that I'm going for sheer pleasure. I'm shocked that I'm actually getting paid to do this. I'm sure that I can be do more socially and politically conscious things with my life like saving the spider monkeys and the rain forest in Costa Rica or joining the fight in Iraq helping "smoke those terrorists out of their caves."

But I'm not. I'm a hedonist and I'll be living with Grubby who wondered about the next time we'd be hitting up a strip club.

I'm going to spend most of my time over the next two months trying to double my bankroll against sunburnt tourists while drinking at the Hooker Bar and composing half-baked commentary and drivel on which degenerate gambler and social misfit woke up with a horseshoe up his ass to river a one outer to win a bracelet and take home more money on a $1,500 buy-in tournament that Doyle Brunson did for winning two WSOP championships.

* * * * *
I picked Italy over the Czechs today but the damn Yanks blew ass chunks versus Ghana. Not only did they get bounced from the World Cup, they also royally fucked me over in my pool.

On the legalized gambling front, I'm taking a bath on one of my stocks. Brasil Telecom has been cornholing me hard the past few weeks. I wish I shorted the stock when I bought in several months ago. Coulda. Woulda. Shoulda.

I opened up a new online trading account. Citibank offered me a free toaster and a Thai hooker to try out their services. A year ago I made enough money from writing and playing poker after the WSOP that I could finally start paying off my credit card debt. That was a day I thought would never come. Now I'm doing the wise thing and stashing money away instead of pissing it away at the tables. Diversification is the key to any fundamental investment plan.

I spent most of this afternoon investing the money that my grandma left me buying some stock, silver options, and oil futures. I'm gambling on international politics instead of donking off chips on Party Poker. After all we're just pawns in the global game of chess and I'll gamble on almost anything. Buying Warren Buffet recommended stocks seems a lot more +EV for me than tossing dice around at Casino Royale with Spaceman or dropping a grand on lap dance at The Rhino with Grubby.

Of course, I'll do both within a few days.

I get in to Vegas at Midnight and will be in town less than 36 hours before I board a flight to Colorado, where I'm going to fulfill a dream that I've had for almost a decade. I made a list of 100 Things I Want to Do Before I Die and one #81 was: See Widespread Panic play at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. I'm going to Panic concerts on Saturday and Sunday.

The Top 3 are still...

1. Publish a book.
2. Sell a screenplay.
3. Kiss a girl in Paris on a rainy afternoon.

On the original list (written in 1996), I have about twenty-five things left to go. I told myself that if I get to do half of those things on the list, then I'd have enough material for one great book. There are two types of people in life: people who talk shit about doing things and people who actually do them. I might not get the top three finished, but I'm gonna die trying.

I fly back to Las Vegas on Monday afternoon. That's when Event #1 of the 2006 WSOP starts and the fun begins.