"You guys left and didn''t say good-bye!" screamed Kary, one of our favorite Tilted Kilt waitresses.
The WSOP ended on Friday morning and as much as we were all glad it was over, we missed the people we saw and hung out with everyday. Like my fellow bloggers. And the slutty Milwaukee's best girls. And the British and Irish bloggers (especially Snoopy!) And the creepy security guard that kept checking out my junk when I'd walk by. And then there were the Tilted Kilt waitresses.
The waitresses at the Tilted Kilt also missed our group, as much as we missed them. Like little angels in tiny plaid kilts and exposed mid-drifts, they brought us cold pints of beer to help ease the pain. Kary wanted to say good-bye to everyone and never got a chance. One day we showed up and came in every fuckin' day afterwards for seven weeks... then pooof!
The Tilted Kilt was the new Hooker Bar.
"And you can't say Hooker Bar anymore," Kary warned me. "It's a crime knowing about the location of it and not reporting it."
"Guilty as charged," I said.
The Hooker Bar was my escape during the 2005 WSOP. This past several weeks, the Tilted Kilt became an oasis away from the insanity of the WSOP. The waitresses were hot and cool and the food was decent. Plus they usually had on the Yankees game.
I ended up meeting my buddy Coach at the Tilted Kilt for dinner on Monday. Coach is the guy who writes Coach's Corner segments on the Tao of Poker. he's also a regular at the Blue Parrot homegame back in NYC. He was staying at the Rio and in town for a few days. He suggested dinner at the Kilt. I thought my last Kilt trip for the year went down last week when we brought Michael Craig along since he was running out material to write about and he chose me as his latest subject.
If you haven't read Michael Craig's blog specifically the entry called Mayor of the Tilted Kilt, then you need to read it. This is my favorite part for obvious reasons:
We had just sat down when the hottest waitress in the place - and they are all hot - said to Pauly, "I read your blog last night. I love your writing."And yes, that exchange put Wil and Otis on mega-tilt.
The other bloggers were howling in protest. One said, "Jesus, I can practically feel Pauly's erection poking me in the leg." As I wrote this down, another said, "Don't write that. It'll be all over the web. His head will get even bigger."
The waitress went on to say that she was reading this at 5 AM and she was "pretty hammered," but that didn't seem to diminish Pauly's enthusiasm about the compliment, or any of our collective disgust, for that matter... More
Anyway, I met Coach for dinner on Monday and Kary was happy to see us. In an ironic twist of weirdness, Wil happened to call me just as we were sitting down. I gave Kary the phone and she chided Wil for leaving town without saying good-bye.
I've been around and traveled the world with a lot of interesting, funny, and entertaining people in my life... but the group of folks I bonded with the past seven weeks are in their own class. I'd gut salmon in a frigid Alaskan fisheries seven days a week or ten hours a day (without piss breaks) if it meant I got to be with these people again.
The WSOP was brutal but the people kept me sane and entertained and happy on the tough, sad, dark days. The last seven weeks was like summer camp for some of us. Wil described it like shooting on a movie on location and the camaraderie that comes with working in such close quarter together. Michalski kind of described it like being a war reporter or being a group of plane crash survivors.
To me hanging out with the WSOP it's like attending an AA meeting. Everyone has a worried and hungover look about them, while most of them need spiritual guidance after living a bankrupt existence for one day too long. Sometimes the media room reminded me an Irish wake. Everyone's raging drunk, talking too loud, and telling wild stories about a dead guy while others are in the corner sobbing uncontrollably.
I wish I was the puppy!
Even though the WSOP is over, I'm still loyal to making Tuesdays... Liz Lieu Tuesdays. Here's Liz Lieu with some puppies.
I won $100 from a food prop bet. Sunday night was my buddy Friedman's birthday, so we went out for sushi. At some point, JW offered me $300 to eat some cabbage that was in my soup. I wouldn't do it for less than $1000. He bumped it up to $500 and I was so close to calling... but folded. I hate cabbage.
JW knows my weakness for proposition gambling. He picked up a piece of broccoli. For $100 he wanted me to eat it. I obliged and ate the entire thing without spitting it out or drinking water.
"Ship it!" I said.
"It's healthier than a Keno crayon," said Change100 as she videotaped the entire event.
$100 is $100 and I was happy to have it. But I'm still stuck for the WSOP in food prop bets. A couple weeks earlier I lost $100 to Change100 because I couldn't eat a small plate of veggies. I also donked off $400 on the now infamous Otis Keno crayon bet that's made Otis famous in exotic places as far away as Sweden and Hoboken.
I haven't played much online poker the past three months. My time on Party Poker over the last 100 days hasn't been serious. I'd play for 10-15 minutes at a time. I withdrew everything on all the other sites except for like a grand to tinker around the aquarium at Party.
Now it's time to reload. Full Tilt has a reload bonus which is perfect timing. It lasts until August 16th. You can get 50% up to $300 which means if you reload for $600 you get a $300 bonus. They release their bonus in $20 intervals.
I also did a reload (no bonus) on PokerStars to play some EPT satellites and I'm considering playing in a WCOOP event or two. Derek told me about one of the WCOOP satellites he played in this weekend. I stopped playing online tournaments because they were draining my bankroll and I'm a profitable Limit Hold'em and PLO cash game player. But I'm gonna play a few NL tournaments for fun and to mix up the monotony of grinding away at the limit tables.
The WCOOP schedule features Razz and HORSE. Yes, it's true PokerStars is now Razz and Horse friendly during the WCOOP.
I'm thinking about playing the $500 PL Omaha and the $300 Stud if my schedule is open during those times. I'm also considering backing Derek in the Razz event. The Rooster considers Derek and F Train as the two best online Razz players in the NYC tri-state area.September 16: Razz ($200+$15)
September 17: NL Hold 'em ($500+$30)
September 18: PL Omaha (rebuys) ($300+$20)
September 19: NL Hold 'em Match Play ($200+$15)
September 20: Limit Omaha High/Low ($500+$30)
September 21: NL Hold 'em (rebuys) ($200+$15)
September 22: Limit Hold 'em ($200+$15)
September 23: HORSE ($200+$15)
September 23: PL Hold 'em ($500+$30)
September 24: NL Hold 'em ($1,000+ $50)
September 25: Seven Card Stud ($300+$20)
September 26: PL Omaha8 ($300+$20)
September 27: PL Hold'em ($300+$20)
September 28: Seven Card Stud High/Low ($500+$30)
September 29: PL Omaha ($500+$30)
September 30: HORSE ($5,000+$200)
September 30: Limit Hold'em ($1,000+$50)
October 1: NL Hold 'em ($2,500+$100)
I played only live poker a handful of times during the WSOP. I sat in a mixed games table at MGM (mainly 3/6 HORSE) with some bloggers that included April, Amy, Jay Greenspan, Jen Leo, Tim Lavalli, BJ Nemeth, Ryan, Wil, Otis, Tuscaloosa Johnny, and Brian Raymer (Greg's brother). Even Miami Don and Carmen stopped by. I forgot how much I love Stud and was reminded about my faulty vision. I had a tough time seeing cards dealt to Seats 2 and 3 during Stud and Razz.
I played NL at the MGM and at Mandalay Bay with mixed results. I had K-K cracked by a junk hand. I knew I should have played my flopped set fast, but I chose to slow play and I got felted for trying to outwit a tourist. MB now spreads a juicy 2/4 NL game in addition to my favorite game on the Strip... 4/8 Limit with a 1/2 Kill.
Grubby returns to Las Vegas this weekend to clean up the rest of the apartment and box up a few remaining items. I'm pretty sure he wants to play poker one last time together.
Take a peek at Otis' caption contest of the picture below. I'm gonna pick out my favorite caption and give that person $5.
Jen Browning snapped that photo while Wil and I covered the final three tables at the WSOP.
Check out Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos and don't forget about For Peyton.
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