Saturday, March 31, 2007

EPT Grand Finale Day 3

By Pauly

Here's my recap of the EPT Grand Finale Day 1b: Chad in Charge and EPT Grand Finale Day 2: Back in Black from Poker News.

I'm back in the luxurious Salle des Etoilles at the Bay Casino in Monte Carlo for Day 3 of the EPT Championships, where there's a red Ferrari parked in front and hot Swedish chicks from bettson.com and poker.se are wandering around the tournament area getting chip counts, while nipping out and distracting extremely tired American media reps such as myself and Otis. You haven't lived life until you've seen the protruding supple nipples of nubile Swedish girls wearing tight jeans and even tighter t-shirts. I might have to re-located to Sweden.


Photo courtesy of Otis

It was a weird Day 2 as both starting flights combined for the first time. Plenty of big names busted out such as Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstien, Patrik Antonius, Erica Schoenberg, Phil Hellmuth, Noah Boeken, George "Scarf Boy" Danzer, Shaniac, Michaela Johansson, Katja Thater, Bill Chen, David Benyamine, Anthony Holden, Isabelle Mercier, Jan Van Halle, and Carl Olson.

When it was all over Andy Black was the chipleader with Josh Arieh second in chips. Arieh had the quote of the day. After he scooped a monster pot and snagged the chiplead (for a moment) a member of the foreign media who had no idea who he was, asked Arieh for his name. He coldly responded, "Billy Madison."

I stood behind Arieh at the time and started laughing which drew odd looks from the other media around the table. Since then, I've been calling him "Billy Madison" in my updates over at Poker News.

Check out this creepy interview that Tiffany did with Devilfish yesterday. It's hysterical but sleazy too. And you know that Devilfish was on his best behavior. As Shronk said, "I wonder what he's like in a stripclub when he's hammered?" Worst, I imagine.


Click here to view the Devilfish interview.

By the way, stop by PokerNews to follow Day 3's action:
Live Blogging Updates (from yours truly)
Photos (from Filipe)
Videos and Player Interviews (from Shronk and Tiffany)
Oh and check out this link to the EPT Live, where you can follow along the action by watching the feature table online.

And before I go... I have to post a parting shot of Sweden's Michaela Johanssen who failed to make it to Day 3. Yes, I know... I was just as crushed as you were. At least I won a prop bet with Otis. We had a last longer bet... he picked Isabelle Mercier and I had Erica Schoenberg. Isabelle busted out a few minutes before Erica and I won 10 Euros which is like $256 US dollars these days. I won enough for a half of a cheeseburger.


Photo courtesy of Filipe Pacecho

Oh and in case you were wondering, I like Ohio State +1 and UCLA +3.5 today in the Final Four. I dunno if I'll be able to watch the games, but when I woke up this morning old school Scooby Doo cartoons were on... in French.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Friday, March 30, 2007

EPT Grand Finale Day 2: Swedish Massage and Ducth Bananas

By Pauly

I wrote a recap of Day 1a for Poker News. Day 1b should be posted soon. By the way, I had my first ever article translated into Portuguese. Now all my readers from Portugal and Brazil (such as Maridu) can follow along.

I logged another 18 hour day at the Bay Casino in Monte Carlo and yet another night where I was up past 6am working. Ah... thats why I get paid the big bucks which I blow on 20 Euro cheeseburgers and overpriced luke-warm beers served to me by surly and devestatingly slow French barkeeps. Let's start off with more tales of urination with Euros and then some pics of sultry femmes?
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. William Thorsson
2. Hasse Eskilsson
3. Anders Hoyer Berg
4. Stefan Mattsson
5. Chad Brown
And now some pics of the hot Swedish massage therapist that has been repsonsible for a slew of chubbies in the tournament room. Thanks to Filipe Pacheco for the amazing photos. He's the editor of Poker News Portugal and our staff photographer here in Monte Carlo. Filipe should get a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize for his outstanding photojournalism. OK, take a deep breath now...




I hope those pics from Filipe satisfied any of you horny guys and/or lesbian readers. There's certainly more to life than poker... such as buxom Swedish chicks.

Moving on...

We'll be playing Day 2 at the EPT Grand Finale as the first two flights of Day 1 were completed around 3:40am last night. About 340 or so players remain. I'm still waiting on final numbers.

Chad Brown ended Day 1b as the chipleader with over 140K. He amassed his monster stack after he busted two players on the same hand including Gus Hansen. On a King high flop with two clubs, Hansen flopped bottom two pair with 10-7o. One guy had A-K and CBrown had 9c-6c for a gutshot and a flush draw. He got there on the river as he sent both players to the rail. That had put him over the 100K mark and he never looked back.

Here are the Top 10 starting chip counts for Day 2:
Chad Brown (USA) 150,425
Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) 133,875
Hans Vimmo Eskilsson (Sweden) 110,600
Jani Vilmunen (Finland) 95,925
Steve Jelinek (UK) 95,375
Dario Alioto (Italy) 87,850
Thomas Wahlroos (Finland) 87,625
Andrew Black (UK) 86,925
Peter Christiaan Dalhuijsen (Holland) 82,600
Maurice Kenter III (USA) 76,500
Defending champion Jeff Williams was elimianted along with Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Ram Vaswani, Tony Bloom, Roman Yitzahki, Adam Junglen, Juha Helppi, Vanessa Rousso, and Marcel Luske.

Both Phils were in the field yesterday which created a buzz in the room as spectators and media swarmed their tables. Only Phil Hellmuth survived, but he's short stacked. Phil Ivey busted out before the dinner break. By the way, did you know that Hellmuth lost over 536K to Phil Ivey in a game of heads-up Chinese Poker where the Poker Brat was playing 2K a point? Check out the interview we did with Hellmuth where he talks about that incident and his bout of what Shronk refers to as... Phil-anthrophy.



Click here to view the Hellmuth stuck 536K video.


Tiffany and Shronk also did a rare interview with Brian 'sbrugby' Townsend. Here are some other intersting videos from Day 1b:
Day 1b Montage
Phil Ivey interview
Gus Hansen interview
Shaniac interview
Erica Schoenberg & David Benyamine
Oh an I forgot to talk about the hot Dutch girl who's with a documentary film crew. She has been randomly interviewing Dutch players and walks up to them after hands while they are sitting at the tables. Let's just say, she doesn't wear a bra and you can see her bananas when she bends over. Snoopy from Blonde Poker and I had a celestial moment as she honed in on one player. Mon dieu! Rest assured, I have a new assignment for Filipe... Dutch bananas.

Oh... I almost forgot about the prop bet with Otis. I have a last longer bet. He picked Isabelle Mercier and I have Erica Schoenberg. Both were shortstacked late into the evening. Since Erica had twice as many chips as Isabelle, I had to give Otis 2 to 1. Rat bastard. Minutes after we shook hands, Isabelle doubled up. They are close to even when the day ended.

Isabelle was sporting an "Amsterdam" shirt for most of the day then changed clothes after dinner break which I'm sure Change100 would be drooling over her double outfits everday.

Head over to PokerStars Blog to follow Otis' coverage of the event. I love their photos of broken glass. Here's what I wrote yesterday in the Poker News Live Reporting Updates called Shattered Glass:
There seems to be a lot of players knocking over their drinking glasses. Every half hour or so, you can hear the shrill sounds of a glass shattering in the distance. Here in Monte Carlo, players are given Evian water and Pellegrino to drink with fancy long stemmed glasses. They look nice, but are fragile to the touch. Since there are so many spectators, media, staff, and players roaming around the tables... it's inevitable that someone bump into the small tables with the bottles and glasses. The result... one of the staff sweeping up the shattered glass.
Before I go, I must post one last photo. This one is of Michaela Johanssen from Sweden. I first met her at the Aussie Millions and she's wuickly become one of my favorite Scandi poker players here in Monte Carlo. She ended the day as one of the short stacks and we're all hoping she can make it through one more day.


Michaela Johanssen

Action will resume at 2pm local time. Head over to Poker News to follow our live updates, videos, and photos.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

EPT Day 1b: Pissing Scandis and 20 Euro Cheeseburgers

By Pauly

First of all, head over to the Tao of Pauly for random pictures of Monte Carlo and a hilarious YouTube video I posted of Beverly Hills 90210 dubbed in French.

* * * * *

By the way... back by popular demand!
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Jani Sointoula
2. Theo Jorgensen
3. Ambjorn Haga
4. Kristian Ulriksen
5. Victor Ramdin
The first day of the EPT Championships was a long one. I logged a 16 hour day in the casino and skipped dinner break to do catch up work. I ate a 20 Euro cheeseburger in media row. Ugly. Beers are 7 Euros. I did get to have one beer with Otis at the start of Level 7 around 2am.

The best thing in the media room is free drinks; Coke, Coke Light (Diet Coke), coffee, OJ, Evian water, and Pellegrino. Only in Monte Carlo. The media room is massive. The tournament was actually held in this room last year. There are 200 international media reps from all over covering the EPT Grand Finale.


The Media Room


The tournament area

329 players started Day 1a and they are expecting about the same amount of runners for Day 1b. When the first flight was over, 159 players remained with Chris Ulsrud from Norway as the chipleader with T133,875.

Players making the cut included: Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Josh Arieh, Victor Ramdin, Johnny Lodden, Harry Demetriou, Carlos Mortensen, Mark Vos, Theo Jorgensen, Pete "The Beat" Giordano, Noah Boeken, Mark Gregorich, Jan Boubli, Carl Olson, Chris Moneymaker, Katja Thater, Jan Von Halle, Fabrice Soulier, Dave Colclough, and John Shipley.

Players busting out on Day 1a included: Gobboboy, Annette_15, ActionJeff, Humberto Brenes, Max Pescatori, Rob Hollink, Barny Boatman, and Ben Grundy.

The best thing so far... is all the Swedish chicks here in media row covering the Swedish poker players and all the hot ass in the poker room. Here's what I wrote over at Poker News for their live coverage:
Several of his tablemates deeply respect and admire (Chris) Moneymaker for what he's done with poker, especially how he, as an unknown player won a seat online, headed to Las Vegas to play in his first live tournament and eventually take down Sammy Farha en route to his 2003 WSOP victory. One of the players at his table noted about how big the EPT has gotten.

"I started all this," he joked.

Everyone at his table laughed and thanked him for his contribution to poker. I also want to thank him for the international "Moneymaker Effect." Because of him, thousands and thousands of Swedes now play poker. They bring their buxom blonde girlfriends and their friends (for some odd reason Swedish women travel in packs) to poker tournaments and stand on the rail. Thanks to Moneymaker for all the Scandi eye candy. It makes covering tournaments in Europe a lot more fun with plenty of talent on the rail to gawk at.



Photos of hot Swedish ass courtesy of PokerStars

Head over to Poker News to follow our tournament coverage. We'll have plenty of photos and videos so stop by and check it out.

Day 1B players include Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Patrik Antonius, Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Isabelle Mercier, Bill Chen, Vanessa Rousso, Anthony Holden, Swedish singer Dilba Demirbag, Shane "Shaniac" Schleger, Emad Tahtouh, online pro Ansky, Per Ummer, Marcel Luske, Andy Black, Erica Schoenberg, David Benyamine , Juha Helppi, Mel Judah, Patrick Antonius, Ram Vaswani, Dave Ulliott, Iwan Jones, Jeff Lisandro, Ross Boatman, Surinder Sunar, William Thorsen, Julian Gardner, Lars Bonding, Jeff Williams, Joe Beevers, John Gale, Martin De Knijf, and Willie Tann.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

EPT Championships Day 1A

By Pauly

I'm currently sitting in media row at the Bay Casino in Monte Carlo. The media room is where the actual tournament was held last year. Now it's set up to house over 200 international media reps. The EPT has come a long way since September of 2006 when I was one of a dozen media people (with the Antes Up and Gutshot guys) huddled around one table underneath the staircase at the Casino Barcelona.

This year's prize pool is close to 6 million Euros. The TD's had to set up an extra day to accomodate the record number of players. The defending champion is Jeff Williams, a 19 year old kid from Atlanta, GA. He won 900K Euros last year. This years winner might take home close to 2M Euros.

Last night there was a cocktail party sponsored by PokerStars at Jimmy'Z, the hottest night club in Monte Carlo. I was invited and took advantage of the open bar. I bumped into PokerStars staff like Otis, Mad, Ali, Conrad, and Tamar. I also saw players such as Isabelle Mercier, Chad Brown, Katja Thater, Joe Hachem, Humberto Brenes, Vanessa Rousso, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Shaniac, Luca Pagano, Bill Chen, Carl Olson, Gobboboy, Brandon Schaefer, Noah Boeken, and Lee "Final Table" Nelson.

There are rumors that both Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey will be playing today.

I will be heading up the live blogging team over at PokerNews. Stop by and check out our live coverage starting up at 2pm local time or less than an hour away.

Otis will be blogging over at the PokerStars Blog, so take a peek. And Jan from 50 Outs is blogging over at PokerStars German blog.

Take a peek at our first video of the day featuring the lovely Tiffany Michelle:



Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Iberia

By Pauly

"Where the fuck is Iberian?" my cabbie asked as he drove me to JFK airport.

"It's not a place per se," I mentioned. "It's the name of the airline."

"I'm fuckin' horrible at geometry. I don't know where anything is. Iberian? Sounds like it's in fuckin' Iraq. Be careful kid, you don't want your fuckin' balls shot off by those towel heads."

I let it slip out that I lived in Las Vegas and was going to Monte Carlo.

"Monte Carlo? Is that were fuckin' Iberian is at?"

I didn't want to get into the semantics of Iberia which is a geography reference to Portugal, Spain, and Gibraltar. My cabbie looked just like Big Pussy from The Sopranos and about every sixth word was a derivative of "fuck." He could have been an extra in any mob flick and within five minutes of picking me up, he told me a craps bad beat story.

"I went to fuckin' Mohegan Sun this weekend," he said as he cut off a truck and flipped the driver the bird. "I was up 3Gs when I hit a cold streak. Next thing I knew I was broke. That was a tough drive home. I spent the rest of the weekend in my fuckin' pajamas chain smoking."

My cabbie was in the middle of the worst losing streak of his life. He had one that was pretty bad a few ears ago and took five months off and avoided Atlantic City, Foxwoods, and Mohegan Sun. He eventually built up his roll and headed back as he recanted his system of grinding it out. He started throwing dice when he was 13 years old growing up in the Bronx. In his late teens and early 20s, he played in various Italian social clubs.

"Back in the day, those games were fuckin' hot," he said. "Any action you wanted you got. I used to come out of there with a few grand every fuckin' week. When I started dating my wife, we had plans to go out to the movies. It was a Friday night. That's what we fuckin' did every week. A dinner and a fuckin' movie. Well I got off of work and headed to the club. I lost my entire paycheck shooting fuckin' dice. When I went over to her house she asked what fuckin' movie we were going to see. She was changing a light bulb at the time as I explained what fuckin' happened. She was pissed and smashed the fuckin' lightbulb over my head. I was so fuckin' pissed but I understood where she was coming from."

The ride to JFK took a little over an hour while he spoke and I listened. He told me that he drove an elderly couple down to AC twice a month. He'd drop them off on Tuesday morning and pick them up on Thursday. He charged them $600 for the round trip. They were in their 80s and only played blackjack. Sometimes he'd shoot dice at the Trop after dropping them off. If he lost, he headed back home and drove the cab. If he won, he'd come down early on Thursday and let it ride.

He asked me if I needed cigarettes.

"My cousin Petey runs cigarettes," he said. "I get a great fuckin' deal. Give me a call if you need fuckin' smokes."

His phone rang and he picked it up as he weaved through traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway.

"Where's my fuckin' money!" he shouted.

After his brief call, he told me that he was also a small time bookie. One guy was stuck so badly last NFL season that he owed the cabbie over $40K.

"You should have faded his picks," I mentioned.

"I thought about it. But with my fuckin' luck, the week I faded him is the week I lose my shirt."

He also mentioned that he played online poker and played the numbers every day. He blurted out, "Patience is the key to all gambling."

I picked up on the Zen musings of a Bronx cabbie. He was right. Patience is the key to so many elements in life, especially poker.

"And poker? Don't get me fuckin' started on poker. It's all about who has the biggest balls and who gets lucky first."

We finally arrived at JFK and I gave him a $21 tip. He asked for my business card and I lied and said I didn't have any left. He wished me a good flight to Iberia and I told him that I hoped he got unstuck from his craps losing streak.

If you want to read about the rest of my flight to Monte Carlo, head over to the Tao of Pauly.

* * * * *

While I waited for Shronk's flight to arrive in Nice, I spotted Snoopy and Jen from Blonde Poker as they walked out of baggage claim. They're two Brits who were in Las Vegas covering the WSOP last summer and we had some fun times with them in the media room. Otis and I teased Snoopy incessantly how he should be our British butler and personal assistant, getting us things like beers, chocolate shakes, and random chip counts.

It was good to see some familiar faces in Nice, France of all places. Of course, I get to hang out with Otis a little later tonight for the media event and tournament. The EPT Grand Finale starts on Wednesday at 2pm local time. I'll be blogging for PokerNews.com, which has a much smaller team than originally planned. Tim Lavalli hurt his back on Sunday and could not make it to Monte Carlo while Schecky was busy with work related stuff and had to stay behind.

Alas, we have an interesting team made up of myself, Shronk, Felipe (our photographer from Portugal), and Tiffany Michelle who will be doing all the video interviews for PokerNews. Stop by and check out the videos, pics, and live coverage of the EPT Championships starting at 2pm local time (or 8am NYC time). It's gonna be a lot of work, but we're going to do our best to have a ton of fun.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Sheer Madness

By Pauly

There's a cute waitress at Red Rock who works the sports book. She knows Miami Don and occasionally bets on the games. Miami Don called her "The Mush" because her picks were so bad that everyone instantly wanted to fade them. When she said she had Memphis with the points and the moneyline on Saturday, I knew I was doomed. Derek didn't want to know her picks for Sunday, yet Don asked her anyway.

"I like Florida and UNC," she said as Derek winced in pain knowing that he had bet big on UNC.

At least she chopped her picks today. That's when you know you are in trouble, when you are fading picks from a cocktail waitress show a lot of mid-drift and a hefty amount of cleavage.

UNC certainly fucked me in the ass twice in three days. I bet against them on Friday and took USC who blew a twenty point lead as the Heels won by 10 (spread was 8). And today, the Heels led for 38 minutes before they blew that ugly fucker. The word around the sportsbook from veteran sports bettors was that the fix was in... with Georgetown on the good side. Those guys practically live in the sports book and know a fix when they see one. If you consider that non-traveling call against BC and all of the sketchy calls down the stretch against UNC, it makes you think twice about everything. And I'm not bitching about Georgetown because I lost today. I was on the right side of the fix on Friday and had Vandy with the points. Today, I was on the wrong side. Shit happens.

I dropped about 3K in all during the trip and all of it was at the sportsbook at Red Rock. I must have wagered over 20K in various March Madness, NBA, and NHL bets over the last four days. I'm super lucky that I'm only down 3K and still up a tad overall only because I got gunshy with UNC and didn't bet the rest of my roll like I was going to do. I also hedged a bet in the Oregon-Florida game and took Florida -1 in the second half. That was my only winner of the day.

Senor left early in the morning to return to Rhode Island while Derek and I spent most of Sunday in the sportsbook watching the games with Miami Don and Change100. Everyone's favorite Hollyweird blonde is starting to develop a degeneracy for sports gambling.

When I left Red Rock, the line for the G'town-Ohio State game was a Pick'em while UCLA was -3.5 against Florida. I made two last bets before I left and took OSU and Florida.

I played a little Pai Gow on Saturday night and actually left the pit with a minor profit. I finally played poker in the last two hours I spent in Las Vegas. Dr. Chako was in town for a conference and I got to hang out with him a bit. He was playing NL when I saw him last.

I was seated next to my brother at a 4/8 with a half kill table. I cracked his K-K with A-Js when I flopped two pair then turned a boat. Derek also took a wicked beat when he flopped a boat with 7-7 on a board of 6-6-7. He ran into an old guy with 6-6. Ouch. I won a couple of pots defending my blind with hands like 9-2o and 10-7o. I flopped two pair with 9-2 and cracked Jacks against one pissed off local. That's what I miss the most about playing in off the Strip rooms like Red Rock and Green Valley... tilting the locals.

I'll be back in Vegas around April 20th for the WPT Championships at the Bellagio and then I move back here sometime around Memorial Day for the WSOP. I do not have a place to live yet and I'm looking into different options.

Right now, I'm currently at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas ready to board a red eye back to New York City. I have a 10 hour layover before I fly to Monte Carlo via Madrid, Spain then Nice, France. On my way back, I'm hitting up Amsterdam for the second time in five months.

Why am I going to Monte Carlo? I will be covering the European Poker Tour Championship event for PokerNews.com. Don't forget to tune in on Wednesday for live updates of the start of the EPT Grand Finale. I heard a rumor that both Mad and Otis will be there. I will do my best to prop bet Otis into eating snails and other assorted French cuisine. Stay tuned for YouTube videos and sordid tales of my first trip to Monte Carlo.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

March Madness Elite 8 Day 2 Picks

By Pauly

This will be a short post. I got unstuck yesterday with UCLA's win. Today, I'm letting it all ride on UNC. I'll be putting a tiny bet down on the Ducks. Overall I'm 27-17-4.

Here's Sunday's lines according to BoDog:
2:40p Oregon +7 Florida
5:05p Georgetown +4 North Carolina

I'll be betting on:
UNC -3.5 (got the bet in yesterday)
Oregon +7
Here's the Top 5 in the Pauly's Pub March Madness Pool:
1 Ladies Love Mean Gene 2 (MeanGene) 940
2 warren coolidge all-stars (Hector31) 930
3 Logan's Run (Gracie) 870
4 Capt. Tom and the P.O.B.s (Change100) 850
5 Jack Tripper Stole My Dog (Pauly) 840
Best of luck today. I leave Vegas later tonight, flying the redeye back to NYC. I leave for Monte Carlo on Monday night.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

March Madness Elite 8 Day 1 Picks

By Pauly

Sometimes there are moments in life when suicide is a viable option. The world makes no sense whatsoever. You feel embarrassed, humiliated, dejected, and sitting in a cold puddle of utter depression which may or may not include your own urine. When Wall Street traders and gamblers lose big, they are bombarded with waves of those demure feelings.

I don't know how I got into that position, but someone... anyone... shoot me now before the pain sinks in deeper.

I didn't sleep much last night and it wasn't the insomnia keeping me up. It was a big loss that went down after a day that started out perfect. Within a matter of a few minutes, I experienced a 6K swing. If North Carolina and Oregon don't cover, I win big as my March Madness roll increases to the size of a small poodle. There's a fine line between going 4-0 and 2-2 and I got my ass ripped apart last night.

I went with all of the underdogs and by mid-afternoon, I was walking on air. I nailed an easy NBA bet with the Mavs -8.5 against the Celtics along with Butler and Vandy getting points. I knew that Georgetown and Florida would win but by a small margin. I felt the same way about USC and like Vandy and Butler, they jumped out to a comfortable first half lead. Only with the Trojans, the shit hit the fan in the second half. The Heels outscored them by 19 (including an 18-0 run) with Tyler Hansborough scoring a paltry 5 points for the entire game. That's what happened when you commit 10 more turnovers and get outrebounded. Not to mention shooting 5-18 from downtown. In the last two minutes, they took four shots... all treys... and missed each one. USC didn't score a single point in the last three minutes and scored just two points in the last 4:25. Talk about a bad beat.

The UNLV game was pure torture. The sportsbook at Red Rock was filled with UNLV fans and alumni wearing red to support their team. They looked good early but then out of nowhere Tajuan Porter had the game of his life and every three pointer that he hit was a tiny little dagger that pierced my heart. When the dust cleared, Porter dropped 33 points on UNLV including 8 treys. He went 8-12 from downtown. UNLV shot 9-33 from three point range and scored just one more than Porter's 8 treys. They also shot crappy from the floor and FT line.

UNLV looked like they were dead until an amazing 17-4 run late in the second half to pull within 4. They would get as close as 2 with a few seconds left. The money line bet was toast, but I was ahead with the points. I was getting 2.5 and 3 on two different slips. Of course, Oregon nailed the free throws to put the game out of reach. Another wild beat.

I can't recall ever losing so many games by 1 and 2 points in a single year during March Madness. I'm 26-16-4 overall. I'm up for the entire March Madness even though all my Las Vegas gains were wiped out thanks to North Carolina and Oregon.

I was wicked pissed after the last two loses and stewing in a pot of gambler's anger. Since I was in the middle of the sportsbook, I had to contain myself and walk away silently. If I was alone at home and suffered those loses, I would have punched a hole in the wall the size of Webster. I would have kicked my dog if I had one. If I had a litter of kittens, I would have tossed them in the microwave. Consumed with ire, I wanted to head butt the lone Oregon Ducks fan in the casino. I wanted to find an LA douchebag with a Mercedes and key his fucking car. I wanted to piss and shit on Tim Floyd's mother. In essence, I just wanted to die.

The hardest part to being stuck in Las Vegas was to ignore the temptation to get it back at the tables. Luckily, I just headed to the cafe and ate a late dinner with JW, Friedman, Derek, Senor, and Change100. I brooded my loses and couldn't wait until Saturday morning to come around so I could bet on the Elite 8 games.

Senor got super drunk and couldn't stomach the last five minutes of the games. He headed to the pits and tried to recoup his sports book loses.

"I walked by the craps tables and put $100 on the field. Then... fuck!!!!"

He headed over to the $25 blackjack tables and bet big. When he stumbled into the cafe, he admitted that he won back 25% of his sportsbook loses playing blackjack. He was bummed because I promised him a trip to the Rhino had I won big.

"Tomorrow's another day!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

He's right. We have two games on Saturday and after we win both, we're going to eat high off the hog then head to a stripclub. Or two.

Here's Saturday's lines according to BoDog:
4:40p Memphis +2.5 Ohio State
7:05p UCLA +2.5 Kansas
And I'll be betting on:
UCLA +2.5
Memphis +2.5
After almost losing the last two games, Ohio State is lucky to be still alive. They have an awful record against the spread while Memphis has great numbers as an underdog. I'm also going with UCLA and an upset of Kansas. The Bruins have been shooting better from the FT line. I want to write more about both teams, but I'm out of time. Bottom line, I'm betting the dogs. In the last two days, dogs are 5-3.

* * * * * Random Live Updates * * * * *

1:30pm... Will be able to do a little live blogging today watching the games from my room. We might also have a few special guests providing you updates. Stay tuned.

1:40pm... Change100 says: "Ohio State won the tip. Of course they did. They are wearing white uniforms, and teams wearing white uniforms were 8-0 during Sweet 16 play."

2:06pm... Derek says: "I won a 3 team parlay yesterday. Fuck all you crackers!"

2:20pm... Miami Don says about Antonio Anderson who's bleeding: "A couple of stiches and he's ready go!"

2:30pm... JW says: "Memphis better pick up the pace or Anderson won't be the only one bleeding today. Anyone need a drink ticket?"

2:45pm... OSU up by 3 at the half. I got Memphis with the moneyline too. Looking for a big second half from Calipari's crew.

3:00pm... Miami Don says about one of the refs: "Ted Hillary is crooked. Always look for the crooked refs."

3:26pm... Derek says: "Crooked Ted . . . the fix is in for the Ohio State Luckeyes. Never trust a drunk Irishmen referee."

3:53pm... Looks like the Memphis pick was a dud. A big fuckin' dud. 0-1 for the day. If I had a kitten, I'd drown it right now. (Disclaimer: No actual animals were harmed in the writing of this blog)

4:30pm... Derek says: "Daddy likes em stout!"

4:35pm... Derek says: "The gang is wondering how much dope Bill Walton and Robert "the Chief" Parish smoked together. Over/under 2.5 pounds?"

5:00pm... UCLA up by 4 at the half. We're looking good for now.

5:15pm... Miami Don says: "There's a lot of talent on that UCLA cheerleading squad."

6:15pm... With 45 seconds left and UCLA up 8, I'm close to winning my big bet of the day (and biggest bet of the tournament).

6:20pm.... Ship it! UCLA gets me unstuck for today and the last two days.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Friday, March 23, 2007

March Madness Sweet 16 Day 2 Picks

By Pauly

Another wild day in Las Vegas. I'm shacking up at Red Rock Casino in Summerlin and avoiding the insanity of the clogged Las Vegas Strip. It feels good to side step the masses that embarked on a Vegas Vacation from their various flyover states. I often prefer smaller groups to travel and party with and finally had my first non-blogger Vegas trip with my brother in years.

Senor's flight from Rhode Island was delayed and by the time he arrived at Red Rock, I had already put my bets in at the sports book. We were at the sports book three hours before game time to ensure we had good seats for the games while Change100 was cleaning up in the adjacent poker room. Derek and Miami Don started drinking heavily by 1pm. It started out with cocktails chased by double shots of Patron. Total animals. By the time I left Miami Don at 11pm, he was still going strong.

Yesterday was one of those days where I'm going to look back and think, "Holy shit! I wagered more money in a five hour period than my old man used to make in a month."

Of course at the time, the concept of American currency ceased to exist. I was betting on numbers on the big board. Gambling on a bunch of 20 year olds in uniforms as I'd trot up to the window and mutter, "Number 668. Ummm... $1,100 to win $1,000."

And when it was all over, I emerged the day as a winner. I went 2-2 overall for the gut wrenching session. I split my two smaller bets, lost my medium bet, and won the monster bet on UCLA. Seriously, nothing in life is sweeter at a sports book than cashing that four figure ticket. (But wait, how about five figures? Of course that would be swell and dandy, but then you have to deal with tax forms and all that mess. It's always best to keep those bets under 5K and make multiple ones if necessary.)

We also bet on four NHL games (went 1-3 on our parlay betting home dogs) and two NBA games. Although the Grizzlies covered against the La-la Lakers, I took the Nuggets with the money line as they lost a one point game to the Bulls on a bucket with 0.2 seconds remaining. As Miami Don said, "Talk about getting rivered."

I'm 24-14-4 overall since March Madness started last week, and up gambling wise. The dogs went 3-1 yesterday. The one pick I had the least confidence in (Memphis +3.5) ended up winning. Ohio State made one of the most amazing comebacks that I had ever seen in the Sweet 16. Down by 20, they came from behind to win and almost covered. They won back-to-back heart attack games.

I blew donkey cock on Kansas. Horrible pick. Alas, no one is perfect.

For Friday's plays, I decided to bet all of the dogs, especially UNLV heavily. I'm taking the Runnin' Rebels with the points and I think they are going to win outright, so I'm going with the money line as well.

Here are the lines courtesy of BoDog as of 10am:
7:10p Butler +10 Florida
7:25p Vanderbilt +7.5 Georgetown
9:40p UNLV +3.5 Oregon
9:55p USC +8 North Carolina

Here are today's bets:
Butler +10
Vanderbilt +7.5
UNLV +3.5
USC +8
UNLV with moneyline +140
I might also hedge with a parlay with the favorites and take UNC, Georgetown, and Florida. But that will be a game time decision.

Derek likes Florida because as he said when they win, they win big. But I'm feeling the dogs today. Friday is the day of the dog. On paper, Florida has covered in five of the last six games. But in reality, Butler is one tough team and if they can convert from downtown, they can keep the game close. I don't need them to win, just to not lose by more than 10! I know that UNC, Georgetown, and Florida are all going to win their games. Alas, I'm betting that they'll win close games, kinda like Kansas and Ohio State yesterday.

UNC is my favorite team (along with pick to win it all in my pool). It will be hard to bet against them, but it's for cash so I'm willing to swallow some Carolina pride for the love of money. The Vandy game is a tough one, but since all the teams from Tennessee covered yesterday (Memphis, Tenn, Grizzlies, and the Predators) we have to go with Vandy!

Here's an unofficial update of the Pauly's Pub March Madness Pool where the chicks are dominating:
Top 5:
1 warren coolidge all-stars (Hector31) 690
2 Logan's Run (Gracie) 670
3 Capt. Tom and the P.O.B.s (Change100) 650
4 Ladies Love Mean Gene 2 (Mean Gene) 620
4 Chico's Bail Bonds (Derek) 620
Oh in case you were wondering, I played an hour of $10 Pai Gow with Change100 around Midnight last night. She dropped a buy in and stormed away from the table after getting cold decked and losing 7 hands in a row. I won $3 and tossed my winnings to the dealer as a tip. My Pai Gow losing streak has finally come to a close.

I have not played one hand of poker since I arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday. And you know what? I hardly miss it, although I signed up for 8/16 Hold'em with a half-kill yesterday and by the time I was called, the first March Madness game was underway.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Flight of the Stripper and March Madness Sweet 16 Day 1 Betting Lines

By Pauly

My brother and I were on the same JetBlue flight from JFK to Las Vegas. We both booked separately and ended up getting seated in 19D and 20D. He was right in front of me sharing a row with an old guy. My row was empty and just before the flight attendants closed the airplane doors, two extremely loud women with Fendi purses rushed in and sauntered down the aisles. One was a skinny black woman wearing oversized Chanel shades carrying a pink jacket. The buxom blonde wore a pink Juicy track suit and had the biggest and worst fake boob job I had seen since the days when I lived at the Redneck Riviera. Her tits look like she had two pugs stuffed in there. Her weathered face suggested that she had been living a hard life of booze, drugs, and whatever else accompanied life on the pole. Even the botox could not hide the fact that everyone on the plane knew that they were strippers. And they were seated right next to me in 20E and 20F.

"I think your brother got a better seat assignment," the WWII vet joked with Derek. "He got the broads while you got stuck with the old fart."

Despite all my bad airplane karma the last few months having to sit next to crying babies and having several canceled and delayed flights, I finally got lucky and had two NYC strippers on their way out to Vegas to work the clubs or various hooker bars for the weekend. Man, sometimes I fuckin' miss the underbelly of Las Vegas. Sometimes.

The strippers next to me were like finding 10-10 in a short-handed game with four callers and then watching three overcards flop. It looked good pre-flight, but by the time the plane flew over the Rockies, sitting next to strippers got old.

They retired to the bathroom every thirty minutes (on a five and a half hour flight) to snort lines of blow. The black chick carefully climbed over me. She was thin enough to squeeze by. The blonde was not as limber. The one time she did that, I nearly suffocated in a sea of silicon. The bitches never even offered me a bump.

They yapped incessantly and drank like AlCantHang and BigMike on a bender. The blonde guzzled Skyy vodka and Sprite while the black chick ordered double Bloody Mary's.

"Are you going to drink with us?" they'd squeal everytime they ordered another drink.

"Nope," I said. "I'm high right now. On Jesus."

I lied. I wasn't high on Christ, just generic Vicodin. But I discovered that when you mention the Lord's name in vain, annoying strippers tend to leave you alone.

"By the way, where you girls working this weekend?" I asked somewhere over Ohio.

They were not happy that I called them out on living the total cliche of a life of a stripper and one muttered, "I'm retired."

They constantly rang the flight attendant light which drew the ire of the crew who did not like to be bossed around by wasted strippers. On our descent into McCarran, one flight attendant got snippy with the strippers because they wouldn't stash their purses underneath the seat. The other fussed around with her Blackberry and wouldn't shut it off.

"So strippers don't have to follow FAA rules?" I muttered. Their act was old and I couldn't wait to get off the plane.

When we finally arrived in Las Vegas, the buxom blonde shouted, "Time to double down!"

"If you're working at the Rhino, tell Brandi Hawbacker that Pauly says what's up," I mentioned as I gathered my bags and rushed off the plane. I hope that I didn't contract hepatitis C or some other venereal disease.

Moving on...

It's the Sweet 16, so who really cares about my random interaction with strippers, right? You junkies want the lines and to see who I'm betting on. I had gotten off to a hot start and that run fizzled out on Sunday. I'm still up for the tournament at 22-12-4 and looking to cash in big time as I'm going to throw out bets no less than 1K over the next four days.

Here are the betting lines for Thursday's games courtesy of BoDog as of 8:30am ET:
7:10p Southern Illinois +9 Kansas
7:25p Texas A&M -3.5 Memphis
9:40p Pittsburgh +3.5 UCLA
9:55p Tennessee +5 Ohio State

Here is what I'm betting on:
Kansas -9
Memphis +3.5
UCLA -3.5
Ohio St. -5
I have two games that I feel great about and two games I keep wondering if I should go the other way. On Sunday night, my gut shouted out Kansas, Memphis, UCLA, and Ohio State. I'm sticking with my gut because everytime I switch a pick at the last minute, I get fucked.

I can't wait for that UCLA game to start and wish I had the balls to put 10K on it. Alas, I don't but it will be my big bet of the day, as I hope UCLA comes to play. Pitt fucked me after blowing that 19 point lead against VCU and I'm bitter with those guys. UCLA has been shooting better from the FT line the last few games, while Pitt is 4-8 against the spread in the last 12 games, although UCLA has not fared well against Big East teams.

Memphis is the only lower seeded to team to be an underdog. Why? The game is being held in San Antonio Texas, which makes the game a virtual home game for Texas A&M, which is located just down the road in College Station. This game is the toughest on the board and I keep waffling. The numbers are against Memphis who has had a tough time covering recently. Acie Law is too good of a player to bet against, but Memphis has some very quick players. I'm praying that Memphis overcomes that loyal hootin' and hollerin' A&M crowd to prevail. They are the only dog I'm taking today and will be the smallest bet that I lay out. Very little confidence in Memphis, but they are hard to ignore getting points.

The Salukis' run should end today. All the numbers point towards taking them as the heavy dog against Kansas, but I'm not. I definitely liked the spread earlier in the week when it was at 8. After the games I saw, Kansas is much stronger and can beat S. Illinois by ten or more. I usually pick the better FT shooting team and that's what is going to be the difference between a 5 point Jayhawks victory and a 10 point win... knocking down those FT's in crunch time. Everyone I know likes the dog in this game, which means I'm going against convention and betting on a Kansas blowout.

The Ohio State pick is a game that I have confidence in, just like UCLA. A lot of action in Vegas is going on Tennessee because they have a solid record as a dog. After that scare against Xavier, I'm betting on that OSU will get their shit together and play much smarter (and better defense) against the running and gunning Vols. OSU is a better FT shooting team, a better defensive team, and a better rebounding team. In their matchup against Tenn this year, OSU won by 2 but failed to cover. They are going to have to play better perimeter defense to shut down Tenn's barrage of three-pointers. Teams that live by the trey, often die by the trey. Aside from chucking up shots from the cheap seats, Tenn's half-court offense is weak. If OSU slows down the pace of the game, the Vols will get impatient and force up several bad shots. If there's a day when their shooters get cold, I hope it's today.

Sometimes in the stock market and in sports betting, you have to go against the tide and ignore what the pundits think. I'm doing just that and sticking with my gut for the Thursday games. I'm favoring the OSU and UCLA games so if I lose the Kansas and Memphis games, it won't really affect my March Madness roll.

Oh, and I might just play a little poker or even some Pai Gow today as I wait for my buddy Senor to arrive from Rhode Island. When Senor is in town, you know what we end up doing... strip clubs. Last year, we took an epic side trip to Scores with Grubby, JoeSpeaker, and Change100. That's when the stipper twisted my nipples and made out with Change100. Perhaps later tonight we can stop by the Rhino and say hello to those strippers on my flight to Vegas?

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

R.I.P. Tilted Kilt

By Pauly

I ate lunch with a friend of mine in Midtown today. He's your average 40-something New Yorker. He works in advertising, has a Master's degree, and you could barely pick him out of the crowd in a sea of suits on the subway. He's that average guy in sitting in the cubicle next to you in your office and he told me the funniest story today during lunch. He lives in Manhattan and had been dating a divorced woman from Long Island. Out of the blue, he dumped her because he discovered that life was easier getting hookers.

"Here's my situation," he said. "One, she lives all the way out on Long Island. Two, she's a drug rehab counselor and I like to drag a little weed from time to time and have a bump once a month or so. And three, she has two kids. What does all of that add up to? I'll tell you... it says, 'Hey, fuck you buddy!'"

My friend explained that he recently stumbled upon a local business entity that features in call and out call sexual relief services.

"I get a rub and a tug twice a week, sometimes in my own apartment. I don't have to schlep out to the Island just to get laid. Those girls are amazing. It's like the United Nations of hookers. I got a Ukrainian broad the other night. Last week, I had a Brazilian chick that looked like J. Lo. And you know what? She watched the end of the Rangers game with me. She lathered me up in oil, blew me, and then we watched the Rangers blow a lead against Ottawa."

My buddy was not afraid to simplify his situation. He was honest with himself and confronted the fact that he was only in a relationship for sex and that the time and effort he put into said relationship was not worth continuing what he felt was ultimately a dead end relationship.

Here's where I relate visiting hookers to poker. I came to the conclusion that tournaments were like long term relationships that included an arduous courting process where you put in hours and hours into foreplay without getting laid. Whereas cash games are like those ladies you pick up at the Hooker Bar in Las Vegas. You know exactly what you are getting yourself into and although the pay off down the line is not as big as a score in a tournament, you do get instant satisfaction and gratification. If taking a few bucks off the table and walking away with a freshly fucked glow is your goal, then stop playing and bubbling out of elongated tournaments and hit up the cash game orgy. Short-handed NL tables are like singles bars on a Friday night. Everyone there just wants to score. Quickly.

But always be careful, wear a rubber, and don't forget #20 of my infamous Las Vegas Tips... Don't get rolled by a hooker. That's one tip you can apply not just to Las Vegas, but to life itself.

Moving on...

What I love about having my own blog is the freedom to write whatever I want and when I want. I mentioned blow, hookers, and the Ottawa Senators in the first 300 hundred words and somehow pulled a half-baked correlation to poker out of my ass. Believe me, I could write essays and books on pimps and hookers. Life is a trick. You're either pimping or getting pimped. You're either chugging for a paycheck or paying for a good time. And sometimes in my jaded world, I'm the john, hooker, pimp, and vice cop all rolled into one.

The term "Hooker Bar" is an expression that I use for a specific place but it can also be applied to any drinking establishment where ladies of the night congregate to meet potential clients. The bar at the IP last December was an early morning hooker bar. That's where Daddy offered to show a portly prostitute his "vanilla gorilla" if she paid him. And then there's the Bellagio where 3K barely gets you a lap dance from those top shelf trollops.

At the 2005 WSOP, I spent the majority of my dinner breaks drinking at the Hooker Bar with Otis as he picked up Quads eight hundred and forty-six times on the loosest video poker machines in all of Las Vegas. I ignored all the ladies of the night, those annoying dancing cocktail waitresses, and soaked up every moment away from the madness of media row.

At the 2006 WSOP, I found that the Hooker Bar had been discovered by more media reps and poker people. My time away from work was complicated by the same folks I was trying to avoid. The Hooker Bar became that after-work bar that everyone went to and that wasn't where I wanted to be on my breaks. We could never find a spot to sit so we searched out a new destination to destroy brain cells and add on extra weight due to copious consumption of beer. That place ended up being the Tilted Kilt.

The Tilted Kilt featured a full bar and hot food which was a bonus. The average bar food was served by scantily clad waitresses that may or may not have been strippers in a previous or current life. By the end of the WSOP, we knew a few by name and they loved our generous tipping habits. One even admitted that she read my blog. The best part of the Tilted Kilt was that when you entered, you really felt like you left Las Vegas completely and the entire WSOP nightmare had disappeared, if only for sixty Stella-soaked minutes. You were still in a casino, only thirty feet away from a slot machine, yet you could not help but feel like you were in time's forgotten space.

My buddy JW sent me the sad news in an email. It appears that Harrah's is getting rid of the Tilted Kilt and adding a McFadden's there instead. Rat ass bastards! With the Hooker Bar and the Tilted Kilt no longer viable options for me to get soused during dinner breaks, my future is resorted to hanging out in the parking lot and huffing glue with disgruntled WSOP dealers behind Michalski's car. Oh joy.

Writers and bars have always had an unique symbiotic relationship. I've had a few meaningful moments at places like Dooley's in Atlanta, the Blue Moon in Seattle, and the Cedar Tavern in Manhattan. I spent many hours pontificating the utter absurdities of life while slumped on a bar stool at the end of the bars I just mentioned.

Some days I drank because I was happy. Other days I drank because I was sad. Sometimes I wanted to escape, other days to hide out. Sometimes I drank because I wanted to watch the game with other sports fans and share the highs and the lows. Other times I drank because I wanted to get laid. Sometimes I craved the social scene and wanted to be around people while I drank. Other times I drank alone because I needed time away to sit and think.

And sometimes there's so much stress and you hate what you're working on so much, that it takes a sip of liquor at 6pm to take the edge off. You know you got twelve more hours of that shit to shovel, but at least for a moment, work is the last thing on your mind and your biggest concern is whether or not your waitress is wearing panties or a g-string.


The Tilted Kilt is no longer going to be a part of my life, and that makes me shed a little tear. I actually have some semblance of warmth in my cold black heart. Alas, beer is beer, but I'm really going to miss all that hot ass the most.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Interview with Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot

By Pauly

3:30am. Sunrise, Florida. I sat in a corner booth at Denny's a couple of weekends ago and sipped an unsweetened iced tea with my voice recorder on as I captured a rare interview with Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot. While I had been soaking in some amazing music, he had been roaming around the parking lot of the Langerado music festival hustling hippies and frat boys while knocking back Jack Daniels and Lemonade and shooting dice. He's the TJ Cloutier of the Keno circuit. He was born in Texas, just like TJ. He constantly wins, just like TJ. But has a horrible weakness for craps, just like TJ. Here are his thoughts on Keno, life, and other topics.


Pauly: Let's talk about your humble beginning in West Texas. Is it true you started out as a competitive eater in Lubbock, Texas? I heard a story that as a teenager, you once ate forty-seven chitlins inside of ninety seconds. Fact or fiction?

NF: No! No! This is why everyone hates you crackers in the media. I'm only doin' this interview with you to set the record straight. Muthafuckas be talkin' shit out there and be gettin' shit all mixed up. So I used to play football. Started three years until I blew my muthafuckin knee out. I used to drink malt liquor in the parking lot behind Dairy Queen for cash. I was the fastest chugger in Lubbock County. I schooled all those muthafuckin crackers and then I slept with their bitches.


Pauly: Did you really get shot in an illegal bingo game in the basement of the Second Christ Baptist church outside of Big Spring, TX?

NF: Yeah, I've been shot at and shot at. But man, you are gettin things mixed up. When I used to play bingo, I ruled that game. Those muthafuckin blue hairs feared PKPNF (Profesional Keno Player Neil Fontenot). They'd be pissing in their Depends as soon as I walked into the church hall. But the reason I got shot was that my baby's momma was pissed that I slept with her sister. She grabbed her granddaddy's shotgun and went after me. Man, I'm lucky that bitch was a bad shot, or I wouldn't be here talkin to your muthafuckin ass.


Pauly: What are your favorite Keno numbers to play?

NF: Listen up muthafucka, I'm not gonna tell you what my favorite muthafuckin' numbers are. Reveal the secrets of PKPNF? You must be a crazy cracker. I play my shit and my shit works. Pauly, you're a cool dude but you gotta learn some muthafuckin respect.


Pauly: Come on, humor me. You don't have a favorite number?

NF: (Sighs). Fo! Yeah muthafcka and forty-fo.


Pauly: What was the worst losing streak of your life?

NF: Dice. Man, dice is my own personal Vietnam. I used to roll up to Plano, TX to steal money from the high school punks. Then I'd lose it in dice games in Hamilton Park. Lost every day for like two muthafuckin years. That's when I had to get a job driving a muthafuckin taxi in Vegas driving around dumb ass drunk tourists all night. I started dating a Mormon stripper from Glitter Gulch and we both got addicted to crystal meth.


Pauly: Why did you decide to relocate to Reno, NV?

NF: 775 in the house! Reno people are God's people. My kind of people. I roll with the people who know the playas. Not those muthafuckas who think they are playas in Gay Vegas. 702 was yesterday. 775 is the future, kid.


Pauly: You are not just one of the best pros on the Keno tournament circuit, but you are also considered the best Bingo cash game player in the world. How does it feel to routinely fleece senior citizens out of their social security checks?

NF: I'ts not just social security. Those muthafuckin blue hairs give me brokerage account checks. Granny don't have to worry about her RMD when PKPNF is in town.


Pauly: Outside of the gambling and Keno world, who do you draw inspiration from? (i.e. famous politicians, athletes, musicians, philosophers...)

NF: UFC fighter Tito Ortiz. Anyone long dickin Jenna Jameson got my respect. You wanna talk about politics? Anyone who runs on the platform of pussy and ass kicking has my support. I also have to give a shout out to my boy K-Fed. We've been tight ever since we met at the Playboy Mansion. He got caught up with that Britney bitch and look what happened? She's a muthafucka pyscho cutter. She shaved her head and snorts too much crystal meth. She's bad news for K-Fed. When he sorts all this shit out, were gonna cut a record together.


Pauly: You used to play football. Any pros you admire?

NF: Just like T.O. is God's gift to football, I'm God's gift to Keno.


Pauly: Describe your pre-game Keno ritual.

NF: I usually roll over to the back of a 7-Eleven to play a muthafuckin' dice game with some poor punk ass kids who think they are from the streets. After I school them, I'm ready to roll in Keno.


Pauly: Do you have any superstitions that we are not aware of?

NF: I hate midgets, man. Short ass muthafuckas freak me the fuck out.


Pauly: In the summer of 2002, the pro Keno circuit was rocked with the infamous "Grannies on Blow" drug scandal, of which they are finally recovering from. Although you were never convicted or found guilty, a lot of Neil Fontenot haters in the press have printed false rumors attributing your success to usage of steroids, horse tranquilizers, and injecting Geritol into your stomach. Care to comment?

NF: See this is the shit I'm talkin about. All lies! Don't the crackers in the media have anything else to talk about like Bush and Iran or some serious shit like that? I've been clean for five years. I haven't touched muthafuckin crystal meth since the incident with my pregnant Mormon stripper girlfriend in the fruit section at Smith's in Vegas. That lawsuit is still pending so I can't talk shit about it.


Pauly: What are the female groupies like on the Keno circuit?

NF: Leathery. Round. Soft. And they smell like muthafuckin ultra 100 methols. Wanna smell my finger?


Pauly: You spoke about one of your kids. How many do you have exactly?

NF: I got four from four different bitches. Only two were from groupies though. I love my kids. Every dollar I make that I don't lose at muthafuckin dice goes to them. Be careful of women who only think about money. Never trust 'em. The bitches always say they are on the pill, when they're not. They were just after my roll. But I love my kids. More than God and the Dallas Cowboys combined.


Pauly: What are their names?

NF: I named the three boys after the cities they were concieved in. Des Moines, Boise, and Reno. And then there's Marley. She's my angel.


Pauly: Keno is catching like wildfire overseas. You were named Croatia's most popular Keno player for the last two years. In Japan, you are considered a cult hero and fans flock by the thousands just to catch a glimpse of you. How has your international rock-star status affected you as a person? And how has it affected your game?

NF: This is exactly why I moved to Reno. I gots to keep a low profile. 775 represent!


Pauly: What's currently on your iPod?

NF: K-Fed, Vanilla Ice, Insane Clown Possie, Creed, ABBA, Ludakris, Christina Aguleria, and ZZ Top.


Pauly: When is your book coming out? And what is the title going to be?

NF: "Yo Bitch! Get Out of My Casinio, I'm Playing Muthafuckin Keno" will be in stores at the end of the summer.


Pauly: What's the coolest thing about being a professional Keno player?

NF: Shit, Pauly, you don't get it, dogg! Ain't nuthin cool about bein' a muthafuckin keno player! My world is tuff. (Laughs) But I make this shit look eeeaaasssyyy cause I'm Neil fukkin Fontenot, professional keno playa!


Pauly: What advice do you have for young players who are considering dropping out of college to become a professional Keno player?

NF: Stay in school muthafuckers. Anyone smart enough to get into college needs to stay there. You want thrills? Play online poker at PokerStars with all the other crackers, you sissy pussy ass muthafuckas. Keno is a street game, yo.

* * * * *

I will be doing a follow up interview with PKPNF in a few weeks. Please submit your questions (shoot me and email or leave them in the comments) and I'll be sure to ask him.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

March Madness Round 2 Sunday Picks

By Pauly

I hate writing about bad beats in poker, but I won't refrain from mentioning two that I took yesterday in sports betting. That meaningless basket at the end of the OSU-XU game killed me. OSU rallied back and was up by 9... in overtime! Yet, they didn't play defense on the last play of the game and I lost by one point. Unreal. And I pushed in the Texas A&M game. That's never fun. Plus two of my teams blew big leads late in the second half. They came back to win, but failed to cover as I ended the day 3-3-1. I'm still up overall at 20-8-3, but that OSU-XU debacle had me on tilt the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Anyway, the second round games on Saturday were some of the most exciting I had seen this year. Three OT games? One double-OT game? The suits at CBS must have been jizzing in their pants.

I also developed a new found respect for two freshman guards. Mike Conley from OSU went to high school with Greg Oden. He hit several big shots including the first seven points in overtime. He's been overshadowed by his friend and teammate, but the kid can flat out play. Then there's Edgar Sosa from New York City. Rick Pitino snagged him up and he's an amazing catch for Louisville. The kid lit up Texas A&M and showed no fear. He missed a couple of clutch free throws and a shot to win the game, but aside from that, the kid played nearly flawless. I must say that I'll be keeping an eye on both Conley and Sosa. Those kids can shoot the rock and can drive to the hole.

Here are the betting lines courtesy of BoDog as of 8:30am ET:
12:10p Tennessee -3 Virginia
2:15p Purdue +12 Florida
2:30p UNLV +5.5 Wisconsin
2:40p Virginia Tech +1.5 Southern Illinois
2:50p Winthrop +4 Oregon
4:45p Nevada +5.5 Memphis
5:00p Kentucky +8 Kansas
5:15p USC +3 Texas

Here are 7 games that I'll be betting on today:
Tennessee -3
Florida -12
Wisconsin -5.5
Winthrop +4
Memphis -5.5
Kansas -8
Texas -3
Another tough day. In the first round, the favorites prevailed. Yesterday, it seemed like the underdogs were hot going 6-1-1 for the day. I should go with that trend, but my gut is telling me otherwise. I was going to skip the Florida game, which means they'll win and cover, so I decided to pick them afterall.

Can Winthrop head to the Sweet 16? They are the highest seed still playing. They are 13-4 on the road this year and you gotta love their best player Craig Bradshaw, who is a Kiwi and has played for New Zealand's Olympic and national teams. He dropped 24 against Notre Dame and needs to come up big for tiny Winthrop. Besides, Oregon fucked me on Friday when I but the Ducks and they failed to cover.

UNLV is having their best season in years, but their run is going to end. They'll have a tough time with Wisconsin, who finally got their shit together late in the first round game. High scoring Tennessee is going to outgun UVA. I have a tough time betting against the Salukis from S. Illinois, even with them playing the erractic Hokies of Va. Tech. That's a game I should probably avoid and at the last minute, I decided not to give that game any action.

That 5.5 spread in the Memphis-Nevada game looks like a trap game to me. Memphis should win by ten, but why is the spread so low? Because they can't shoot free throws. Usually I avoid betting on teams with poor FT shooting percentages. Not this time. Let's hope they hit enough to cover.

I'm going with Kevin Durrant and Texas over USC. The Trojans had an easy game in round 1 but they are going to have their hands full with Durrant.

Bill Self should have his #1 seeded Kansas Jawhawks ready to whoop on Kentucky. They score more points, play better defense, and have a better record on the road. Kentucky is a better FT shooting team but that won't be enough to win.

I have a bad feeling about today. You might want to fade a few of my picks. You have been warned.

* * * * * Random Live Updates * * * * *

11:52am... Pauly's Pub March Madness Update: Through Day 3, JoeSpeaker is in first place with 430 points with Senor not far behind in second. One of my sheets is tied for 5th. Everyone's favorite Hollyweird blonde is tied for 3rd.
1 Backdoor Inuits (JoeSpeaker) 430
2 Stimulation (Senor) 420
3 Capt. Tom and the P.O.B.s (Change100) 410
3 warren coolidge all-stars (Hector31) 410
12:50pm... It was the J.R. Reynolds show as he took control of the game. UVA snagged the lead with 8 minutes to go in the first half as Reynolds scored 22 of UVA's first 32 points. Tennessee struggled fron 3 point range and picked up a few ticky-tack fouls. They were up 7 early on before Reynolds schooled them and UVA umped out to a 9 point lead with 5 minutes left.

1:10pm... UVA had an 11 point lead, but Tenn came back and outscored them 10-2 in the last four minutes. Tenn trails 38-35 at the half. They can score a lot in a small amount of time, but they need to shut down J.R. Reynolds who is playing out of his tits.

1:45pm... With Wayne Chism on the bench with four fouls, Tenn tied it up with 16 minutes to go. They opened up a 10 point lead after a couple of treys from Ryan Childress and a few buckets from JaJuan Smith.

2:37pm... With 2:30 to go JaJuan Smith nailed a three-pointer to put Tenn up by 5. Sean Singletary nearly killed me when he hit a three to make the score 73-72, as he scored seven straight points for UVA with 0:13 to go. Tenn's Chris Lofton hit six clutch FTs in the last thirty seconds to help me push my bet as Tenn won 77-74. The day starts with a non-loss. 0-0-1.

3:07pm... Florida chipped away at Purdue's big lead and tied it up with 1:22 to go. At halftime Purdue is up 31-29 after an unimpressive and flat performance from Florida. My buddy JW sent me a text, "I'm gonna play Florida big in the second half." Man, I hope they get their shit together.

3:21pm... The Badgers can't score in the first half. That much is obvious after watching them for the second time in three days. Unless they start knocking down some shots, I'm toast. UNLV up by 12 at the half.

4:18pm.... Wisconsin stormed back to take a five point lead after UNLV blew a 15 point lead. Florida should win their game, but they were up 9 and then played Swiss Cheese defense and let Purdue hit a three. Covering would be a miracle for both teams.

4:27pm... Florida won by 7 but didn't cover. I slipped to 0-1-1 for the day. I originally didn't ant to bet Florida and got gun shy with the S. Illinois game, so I took the Gators instead. I blew it and should have stuck with the gut.

4:40pm... UNLV upset #2 Wisconsin 74-68. They didn't play like a #2 seed. UNLV advances to the Sweet 16. Another bad pick on my end. 0-2-1 for the day. Ugliness. Dogs are 2-0-1 so far.

5:03pm... If you faded my picks, you'd be 3-0-1 right now. Winthrop got thumped like a cheap hooker. How come when I bet on Oregon on Friday, they didn't cover? Bastards. I slipped to 0-3-1 for the day. I need to go perfect for the rest of the day to save any sort of dignity. Thank God I decreased my bet sizes on Sunday due to the utter lack of confidence in my picks. I have all favorites in the last three games; Kansas, Memphis, and Texas. Time for my luck to change.

6:06pm... All three games are at the half. Kansas, Memphis, and USC all have small leads.

6:45pm... With five minutes to go, Memphis is up by 4. Texas is getting their arses whooped by USC. Kansas opened up a 14 point lead as UK's offense went dry.

7:07pm... Memphis led Nevada 64-62 with 6:17 remaining. That would be the last time Nevada scored as Memphis shut them down and won 78-62. Finally! My first win of the day. 1-3-1.

7:27pm... #1 Kansas rolled against Kentucky with a 12 point victory. Hey, a team I picked actually covered! 2-3-1 for the day.

7:35pm... It's official. USC upended Texas as the Trojans advance to the Sweet 16. That was one of the few games I actually had confidence in. Oh well. Kevin Durrant dropped 30 in what might be his last game in college before he jumps to the NBA. 2-4-1 to finish the anemic day. My first losing day in four tough days of betting. 22-12-4 overall for the first two rounds. I'm down for the day, but still ahead.

9:27pm... Pauly's Pub March Madness Pool Update: At the end of Round 2, Hector31 is the unofficial co-leader with Sweet Sweet Gracie.
Top 6:
1 warren coolidge all-stars (Hector51) 510
1 Logan's Run (Gracie) 510
3 Ladies Love Mean Gene 2 (Mean Gene) 500
3 Meat Me in the Urinal (Daddy) 500
3 Stimulation (Senor) 500
3 Paboo's Phighting Phalli (Pabbo) 500


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

March Madness Round 2 Saturday Picks and Happy St. Patty's Day

By Pauly

First of all, congrats to Katja Thater for making the final table of EPT Warsaw. You can follow the action over at Poker News's Live Reporting section. If you didn't know, I'll be a part of the live coverage team for the EPT Grand Finale Championships in Monte Carlo at the end of the month. Best of luck to Katja!

* * * * * *

St. Patty's Day usually falls sometime around March Madness. What could be better than binge drinking and gambling on schools you never knew existed until the brackets came out a week before?

The luck of the Irish will be out in full force today. I usually have awful results on the Ides of March and pick up the slack on St. Patty's Day. This year was different, however.

I actually had a decent Ides and started out 8-3-1. Yesterday's outstanding 5-0 start to Day 2 really helped me as I struggled with the early evening games. The night games were stressful until my teams finished strong to end the day. That helped push me to 9-2-1 and a mind-blowing 17-5-2 overall.

I never expected to be doing this well so early in the tournament. I'm afraid that I used up all my good mojo early. Round 2 starts today. There are eight games total as all of Thursday's winners will be slugging it out to see who advances to the illustrious Sweet 16. I'm going to pay less attention to the stats again and go with the gut since that's the strategy which got me to this point.

Here are the betting lines courtesy of BoDog as of 10am ET:
1:10p Xavier +8 Ohio State
3:20p Butler +6 Maryland
3:40p Louisville +3 Texas A&M
5:40p Vanderbilt +2 Washington State
5:45p Boston College +8.5 Georgetown
5:50p Virginia Commonwealth +7.5 Pittsburgh
8:05p Indiana +7.5 UCLA
8:15p Michigan State +10 North Carolina

Here are 7 games that I'll be betting on today:
Ohio State -8
Butler +6
Texas A&M -3
Vanderbilt +2
Boston College +8.5
Pittsburgh -7.5
UCLA -7.5
The games are extremely tough today. I'm avoiding the UNC game because I picked them to go all the way and they are my favorite team in the tournament. And you can't bet with your heart. That is unless I'm really stuck for the day and then I get desperate and put out a last minute bet on the Heels.

The boys in Vegas set some difficult lines today and I only had less than a day to examine the picks. One point either way and I could easily go with the other team. I'm having these thoughts like, "Georgetown is gonna win, but it's going to be a close game. Have to pick BC and their flex offense."

I feel the same way about Maryland against Butler. The Terps will win a close game, so I have to pick Butler and the points. How could you bet against A.J. Graves who's from Daddy's hometown in Indiana? It will be interesting to see how Butler's slower pace matches up against Maryland's running and pressing fast-paced style of play.

Wazzu is a headache for me. I don't want to get into that trap where I bet against one team in Round 1 and lose, so I take them in the second round and promptly lose. Or I bet against one team the entire tournament and they fuckin' win every game. I'm praying that Vandy and SEC player of the year Derrick Foster comes to play. Vandy needs to shoot better from downtown. Both are tough defensive teams, but teams that play great defense and don't score much often struggle in the tournament. That's why I picked against Wazzu in the first round. They average around 66 points a game compared to Vandy's 76. I'm also hoping history is on my side. Wazzu has never won two games in the same March Madness tournament since 1941.

Indiana has a less than impressive road record and if UCLA can shut down their guards, they can coast to a ten point victory. I also think that VCU shot their load against Duke, who wasn't as strong as most people expected. They beat one of the worst Duke teams in recent years. So what? They will have a tough time with Pitt's big trees down low along with Pitt's defense. I only wish the spread was a point or two lower. Don't we all?

In case you were wondering, the Pauly's Pub March Madness Pool had 39 entrants. We had 40, but DoubleAs forgot to do his picks! First place should pay out $400 and the top 4 win prize money. Paboo is out to a quick lead after picking 30/32 first round winners. The only two ladies in the tournament not far behind in third place. Yes, it's true, Gracie and Change100 are tied for third. Visit the Tao of Pauly for a complete update.
Pauly's Pub Round 1 Update... The Top 6:
1 Paboo's Phighting Phalli (Paboo) 300
2 Stimulation (Senor) 280
3 Logan's Run (Gracie) 270
3 Capt. Tom and the P.O.B.s (Change100) 270
3 warren coolidge all-stars (Hector31) 270
3 Backdoor Inuits (JoeSpeaker) 270
* * * * *


By the way... the last time I pimped Miami Don's Big Game on a Saturday, I won it!

* * * * *

1:25pm... Ohio St out to a slow start against Xavier, who are holding their own on the boards. OSU has 11 to XU's 9. Xavier scored 6 unasnwered to take a 10-9 lead, as Oden picked up a carless offensive foul.

1:50pm... Jamar Butler drilled two treys (one from way way downtown in NBA range) as OSU pulled out to a 6 point lead with six minutes to go. Xavier strugled from three-point range missing their first 7 attempts. As soon as Oden went to the bench for a breather, XU took advantage and attacked the basket. Brandon Cole was fouled on a layup. He scored but failed to convert the conventional three point play.

1:53pm... Five point swing. Oden was called for basket inference as Xavier came down and hit their first three-pointer of the game to pull within 1.

2:00pm... Halftime. Just when OSU looked like they were going to close out the half strong, XU's Josh Duncan hit another three. OSU headed into the locker room with 4 point lead and has seriously outrebounded XU 21-14. OSU needs to shoot a lot better in the second half if they are going to cover for me.

2:30pm... Xavier came out fired up and took the lead as Justin Doellman lit them up. XU were up three until OSU tied it up with 15 minutes to go. OSU needs to cut down on those turnovers, and Oden has to stop missing those layups!

2:45pm... The lead keeps changing hands in this exciting match-up as Xavier is living and dying by the threes. They extended their lead to 6 after Justin Cage dropped another three. Oden picked up his third foul (and his second offensive foul) with 10 minutes to play. At this point, I'm worrying less about OSU covering and need them to win outright to keep every pool I have intact!

2:55pm... Justin Cage is playing out of his tits. They took an 11 point lead after a barrage of three-pointers. OSU is starting to panic with plenty of time left. Oden picked up his 4th foul with 5 minutes to go.

3:11pm... Both teams played below average for the first 30 minutes. I expected that OSU would step up and outplay XU in the last ten minutes, like #1 seeds are supposed to do. Alas, they kept turning the ball over, failed to convert on the offensive end, and was unable to stop Xavier's sharp shooters. After starting 0-7, they went 8-12 from downtown. Then it came down to who had the biggest heart in crunch time. OSU rallied to within one point after Jamar Butler rained down a big three and then OSU picked up a steal on the inbound pass, followed by a bucket from Ron Lewis, a foul, and a FT. With a minute to go, XU has a two point lead.

3:16pm... OSU could not score as Oden fould out with 14 points. With 9 seconds to go, XU was at the FT line with the lead. Justin Cage hit the first and missed the second. That would cost them the game. OSU rushed down the court and Ron Lewis drilled a three pointer to tie the game with 2 seconds. Overtime! Covering is still a possibility for OSU, but Oden is on the bench with five fouls. What a comeback.

3:21pm... Freshman Mike Conley outscored XU 7-2 in the first 2 minutes of OT, as XU looks flustered. If they pull this out and cover, I owe that kid several lapdances.

3:31pm... OSU came from behind to win by 7. Spread was 8. OSU was up 9, but I was killed by a meaningless basket from XU. Ugly. Fuckin ugly. That's like a classic suck, then re-suck on the river. At least I got a nice head rush for the last thirty minutes. Mike Conley from OSU stepped up big time. That kid has balls of steel. 0-1 for the day.

4:05pm... Butler up by 5 at the break. Daddy's buddy AJ Graves has 9 points, all from three pointers. Maryland is crushing Butler on the boards, but Butler is outscoring the Terps 21-3 from three point range.

4:50pm... Thanks to Mike Jones deft long range shooting, MD erased a six point first half deficit to pull even against Butler 46-46 with eight minutes to go. The Texas A&M and Louisville is tied at halftime. The Aggies led for most of the game.

5:10pm... Butler was up by six, but Maryland came back led by two buckets from DJ Strawberry. With 2:11 to go AJ Graves hit a trey from the corner to extend Butler's lead to 5.

5:22pm... It's over. Butler goes to the Sweet 16 after they upended Maryland 62-59. #5 Butler's win put me at 1-1 for the day.

6:00pm... Lousiville's press has been irking Texas A&M as their lead slipped away. Rick Pitino's NYC recruit Edgar Sosa is lighting up A&M's defense for 29 points. He hit two big baskets including a three to put Louisville ahead by 6 with six minutes to go. I need A&M to step up. Quickly.

6:20pm... A&M up by 1 with less than a minute to go. Another gut wrenching game for me. Edgar Sosa was 15-15 from the FT line and seemed like a lock to drop two. He missed both.

6:27pm... "A push is not a loss!" exclaimed my brother as Texas A&M beat Louisville by 3 points. I feel bad for Edgar Sosa. The Louisville guard played his guts out, dropped 31 points, and then made a couple mistakes late with the two missed free throws and a missed three pointer to win the game. The Aggies advance to the Sweet 16. The push put me at 1-1-1 for the day.

7:11pm... Georgetown went on a 10-0 run take a two point lead over BC with 11 minutes to go. Pitt is up by 15 at the start of the second half, while Vandy took the lead with nine minutes to go on consecutive threes from Derrick Byars.

7:43pm... Shan Foster hit a huge three with 1:08 to give Vandy a one point lead. With the game tied at 60, Wazzu took the final shot and missed as Vandy picked up the rebound with under two seconds to go. The refs used replay and tried to figure out when they actually called the TO. It didn't matter and the game headed into overtime. Second game today. If I had any hair, I'd be pulling out divots right now.

7:47pm... With 1:03 to go, G'town held a four point edge over BC. They locked up the game after a reverse dunk (followed up by the free throw for a three point play) by Patrick Ewing 2.0. They flirted with the spread, but G'town won 62-55 as I picked up my second win in four games. 2-1-1 for the day.

7:58pm... Double OT for Vandy-Wazzu. Pitt blew a big lead and is only up by 3 with three minutes to go.

8:06pm... Pitt played with their heads up their arses for the last five minutes of the game. They scored only five points down the stretch as they pissed away a 19 point lead. Pitt had VCU on the ropes and let them back in the game. VCU took the lead with 55 seconds to go. With game tied, Levance Fields missed two big FTs with a chance to win the game for Pitt. No such luck as the game headed into OT. Third OT game today. Amazing comeback from VCU and Pitt deserved to lose the game. They got a second chance with the OT. We'll see if they can fuck that up. Covering would be a miracle right now. Bastards. You should all be shot.

8:12pm... Talk about an exhilarating game. Two OTs. Big threes down the stetch. Plenty of missed FTs. What more could you ask for? #6 Vandy advanced to the Sweet 16 after beating Washington St. 78-74. That win put me to 3-1-1 for the day.

8:27pm... Pitt won by four and didn't cover. I slipped to 3-2-1.

9:31pm... I was online at FT and donked off my chips in a token event for the Big Game as I ran 6-6 into 8-8. Guess I'll buy in directly. Still working off a bonus. Michigan St. could not stop Tyler Hansbrough who dropped 19 on them in the first half, but they outplayed them in the first five minutes to take a one point lead. UCLA and Indiana played an ugly game. It's 20-13 at the half.

10:03pm... UCLA came out of halftime on fire. They scored the first seven points. UNC opened up a six point lead with five minutes to go.

10:45pm... UNC won by 14 and actually cvered, but I didn't bet on it. The only game today hat I had no action on. Tyler Hansbrough scored 33 points with 9 rebounds. He was everywhere and MSU couldn't handle him. UCLA blew a big lead as Indiana went on a 13-2 run in the last five minutes to pull within 2.

10:59pm... Busy day as three overtime games and a couple of near upsets as eight teams advanced to the Sweet 16. Add UCLA to that list. Indy tied UCLA with about a minute to go, but UCLA prevailed with an ugly 54-49 victory. Once again, a team that I bet on squandered a hefty lead late in the second half and hold on to win, but not cover. Plus add those two games where I lost by a point and pushed. Ughhhhhhhhhh. So close today. Alas, I broke even (minus some juice) as I ended the long day at 3-3-1. I'm 20-8-3 overall since March Madness began. Still up and I have eight games to bet on tomorrow.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.