Friday, October 31, 2008

Benjo Day

By Pauly
Budapest, Hungary

Today my good friend Benjo's birthday, otherwise known as Benjo Day. If you don't know... Benjo is the Tao of Poker's favorite malcontent chain smoking French journalist.

Here's a video that I put together which includes one of my favorite clips from this summer at the WSOP when Benjo explains the incident when a couple of Bellagio hookers got paid off in Bellagio tournament chips.


Yes, I know. It was priceless.

Head over to the Tao of Pokerati Archives to listen to more episodes that feature Benjo.


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

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Lacey Jones Is Hot

By Pauly
Budapest, Hungary

Maybe we should start up Lacey Jones Wednesdays on the Tao? Anyway, here's a sneak preview of the next cover of Bluff Magazine...


I think my column in that particular issue is about my experiences in London during the WSOPE and EPT London or it's about my time at the Borgata. Go see for yourself.

Thanks to the gang at Wicked Chops Poker for letting me rip off this pic.


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

Monday, October 27, 2008

The Slide

By Pauly
Budapest, Hungary

I ended September on mega-tech-tilt after my precious laptop died in the middle of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. I had already busted out and sweated the last couple of tables when disaster struck unexpectedly.

It. Just. Stopped.

Although that laptop was a mere 13 months old, I had dragged it all over the world with me. I used it every almost single day and the machine had taken a beating after having to perform numerous tasks for up to 20-22 hours in a single day. The hard drive was a history of my life. Lots of bootleg concerts from my favorite bands. A smattering of porn. Tons of pictures from my travels abroad. And don't forget all of those doc files from various work assignments and personal journal entries that have never been seen by anyone's eyes but my own. In short, my laptop was an extension of my brain, my heart, my soul. It was dead and a little piece of me died with it as my agony howled and haunted me.

Since that moment when my laptop died and I recovered from a minor panic attack, I went on an epic journey through the teaming streets of London in search of a replacement machine to use until I returned back to the States. The replacement wasn't anything special. Just a Toshiba with a British keyboard. Lucky for me the gang at PokerNews split the cost with me in order to make sure I could cover the EPT London.

Something else happened. I went on a heater playing online poker on the new machine. It couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. I was bleeding money in the market. I had just shelled out a few bucks for a new machine and quickly recouped that expense. I had a couple of trips and adventures scheduled for later this year and in 2009. And of course, Phish decided to reunite and tour again which meant I needed to fund those epic misadventures. Just when I thought my income pool was drying up, I embarked on a winning street.

The streak was phenomenal. Inside of three weeks, I posted only a couple of losing sessions. And they were small ones. All of this happened on the new machine. My broken laptop is sort of like a Mini-Cooper. It's small and compact and can easily fit on a folding tray on any airline. I purposely chose a lighter and smaller model because I like to travel light since I'm always on the road. The new machine had a much larger screen display. I could play four tables simultaneously without any problems. I had forgotten what a big screen looked like. I went from driving a Mini-Cooper to driving an SUV.

Although I struggled adjusting to the British keyboard configuration, I welcomed the new sized screen. It made me comfortable at the onset of the winning streak which started in London and spilled over into Amsterdam. Even on my vacation with Change100, I spent my mornings grinding it out at the limit hold'em tables, before I spent the remainder of the day wasting away again in hashbars.

I focused on cash games and played short-handed tables. Tournaments have always been a leak for me. And SNGs are nothing more than fool's gold, catering to my inner action junkie. I needed to go back to basics. ABC poker. No more bullshit. I multi-tabled as much as I could. I tagged numerous bad players and chased down the fish. I was a hunter on a mission. My win rate was juicy. The more hands I played, the more I won. I started to think, "What the fuck was I doing wasting away all these months when I could have been playing poker to support myself?"

I know deep down that I don't want have to rely on poker as a primary source of income, but I also know that I can supplement a percentage of my income if I play smart and maintain strong bankroll management skills. That money can fund the fun things that make life worth living. I was also realistic and knew that there would be a time when the winning would stop. I lived in Seattle and can tell you that the weather is absolutely magnificent in the summer months. And then it starts raining and doesn't stop for 9-10 months.

I prayed to the poker gods and Ganesha that the sunny skies would remain. They must have listened necause the winning ways continued upon my return to NYC. The heater continued. I won monsterpotten after monsterpotten with sets. My big pairs held up. I hit a couple of lucky gutshots along the way. I made several hero calls and sniffed out a few bluffs. However, along the way, I got a little cocky and over-aggressive upon my return to America. Although I continued to win, I had deviated from the playing style and strategy that led me down the winning path. I was setting myself up for a big fall.

I headed up to Rhode Island for a quick trip. I took the train and played on my way to Providence. I won enough money to pay for my ticket. That would be the last big score for the month. Upon my return to NYC, I received a package. My old laptop. Fixed and ready to go.

I sat on my brother's couch and waited for him to get home for work so we could grab dinner. While I waited, I listened to a Dead bootleg and played online poker on my old machine. It felt so tiny and the smaller screen was obvious. I had a bad session. I made good decisions, but I couldn't seem to avoid a couple of bad beats which was the difference between a break even session and a losing one.

I probably should have cut my losses and accepted a losing day. However, my pride got in the way. As Marsellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction said (way before he was sodomized by the Gimp), "That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride!"

I tried to erase the lose and dug myself a deeper hole. A small loss turned into a big one. I fell out of favor with the poker gods and posted the worst session in months. Ganesha, why have thou forsaken me? It might have been one of the worst sessions of the year. Only losers chase, right?

I was ready to get back in the fight the very next day. As that Japanese proverb said, "Fall eight times, get up nine." I fired up the newly fixed laptop and went to work. I played three sessions that day (early, late afternoon, and evening). I should have quit after the first losing session. Again, I didn't play badly and made solid decisions but I missed flops or ran into situations where A-K lost to A-rag when my opponent spiked his rag on the river.

Rags on the river. Fuckin' nimrod retard assmunchers.

I should have stopped playing but went back for some more punishment. I might be addicted to pain. Aren't we all in some sense? It's one of the moments when we feel alive. So alive that it fuckin' hurts. Most of the time you sleepwalk through life, shuffling down the street, stuck in traffic on the freeway, or phoning it in at work.

I couldn't stay away. I chased the loss and found one of my favorite fish, an Eurodonk from Germany. If I could stack him, I would be more than even for the day. I sat down at his table, yet failed in my quest to get him to donate to my stack. Instead, I became the personal bitch to different player in particular who seemed to have me beat every single time. If I had Kings, he held Aces. If I had a flush, he had the bigger one. If I had flopped a set, he flopped a better one.

I posted two losing sessions that disastrous day. I chased my loss from the previous day and the previous sessions. I should have stopped. But guess what? That monster within said, "Shuffle up!"

I played a late night session. I tilted hard. Made a lot of poor decisions and when I logged off... I discovered that I had a worst day than the day before. What is worst that posting your biggest losing day of the year? Posting another one the very next day. Back-to-back misery. Two swollen testicles.

I nearly wiped out the profits from my time in Europe. I cursed my old laptop. It was like switching baseball bats in the middle of a sizzling hitting streak. I should have never played online poker on my old laptop since I had been posting big gains on the British one. That's when I came to my senses. I'm not a superstitious person (aside from the $50 bills thing). So, why start?

I took a break because I started to think the reason I was losing was all because of the specific laptop that I played on. How absurd, right? The laptop had nothing to do with the cards and my decisions. I woke up the next day and decided to avoid all things poker. A complete break. Since I was in New York City, I took advantage of Central Park. I went for a long walk. I took photographs. I wandered through a museum and found inspiration in several pieces of art. The next day, I took another walk through the park and eventually wandered around bookstores. I got lost for several hours reading.

I eventually came upon the poker section and opened up Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker. I re-read a couple of chapters. I picked up Super System 2 and re-read the chapter that Jen Harman wrote about limit hold'em. I also headed over to the philosophy section and read a few chapters of books focusing on various Eastern religions. I also read a bunch of Alan Watts, specifically a book titled Become What You Are. Upon my return home, I re-read several chapters of Advanced Limit Hold'em Strategy by Barry Tanenbaum.

I wanted a break from poker, and took a day off to appealing to my inner artist. The next day, I discovered that I really wanted to end the losing streak and make sure the bleeding stopped with those consecutive sessions. That's why I instinctively delved into poker books. It is important to re-read books, especially the ones that you found were influential. Remind the mind. Refresh the soul.

I sifted through my hand histories looking for leaks. The obvious one for me was suited Aces (A-9s and below). I overplayed those too much and only won a couple of pots. I had a couple of other trouble hands such as Q-J.

I identified my leaks and found some inner peace. I was ready to play. Guess what? I lost $22. That's still a losing session, but compared to the massive bleeding from the previous sessions, I was happy to book it.

I played at the airport on Sunday before my flight to Budapest. I was excited to visit a new country and even more excited to play online when I was in Europe since that's where my winning streak began. Sadly, I took a small hit and lost $100 or so. Nothing major, but on paper, I posted four losing sessions in a row. I logged off and headed for my gate.

I arrived in Budapest on Monday morning and moved into an apartment that I rented for a week. It's an old historic building that is located one block from the Danube River. I'm sharing it with Danafish (otherwise known as Snoopy's girlfriend). We're both working for PokerNews covering the PokerStars.com EPT Hungarian Open... the first ever EPT stop in Budapest. That starts on Tuesday.

My old Hungarian landlady did not speak a lick of English. We had to converse in broken German. As soon as I figured out how to connect to the intertubes, I fired up an online poker site. The anticipation is why I play. The rush and excitement before the cards are dealt intoxiate me. Like a junkie ready to shove a spike of China White into his veins... like an alkie slowly bringing a glass of hooch up to his lips... like degenerate gambler tossing the dice on the felt at the craps tables.

Theres a Phish lyric that always seems appropriate in those moments, "I'm sinking down, what a glorious feeling/To make a big difference, my body is reeling."

I was in a new country. A new city. A new place. I wanted to explore and wander and observe. But that had to wait for a bit because I had a losing streak to demolish. Europe must be good to me because I snapped that losing streak and kicked it to the curb like a flea-infested three-legged dog.

Now that I'm back on track, it's time to wander the streets of Budapest before my work assignment starts tomorrow.


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

Sunday, October 26, 2008

2Tall_Saint Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
New York City

27 runners on a lazy Saturday showed up for the latest installment of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly, including a slew of rowdy Canucks such as Bam Bam and Kat. When it was all over, 2Tall_Saint from London would take it down.

My starting table included CheckRaise70, BamBamCan, Derek, marnisl, 8 PEOPLES, and Skow-go.

Yosoyveneno was Gigli. Alas, I missed the hand but think it happened on the second or third hand.

Early on I crippled Derek with Ah-Ad-Kc-Js. I flopped a full house. I fired out at the flop of Ac-8c-8d. Derek potted and I just called. The turn was a blank. I checked, Derek bet to put me all in and I called. Derek flopped trips eights. My hand held up and he was left with next to nothing.

I increased my stack to 3.7K and hit a couple of draws, then I doubled up StB. I went back near the top of the leaderboard when I won big hand with As-Ks-Kh-5s.

At the first break, I was 5/15 with 4.2K while Kat was chipleader with 7K.
The Final Table:
Seat 1: S.t.B (8905)
Seat 2: 2Tall_Saint (2305)
Seat 3: zagga (6655)
Seat 4: Vernicle (5955)
Seat 5: 8 PEOPLES (1590)
Seat 6: dredful (1500)
Seat 7: Katitude (6115)
Seat 8: DrPauly (6050)
Seat 9: ResdentEvil (1425)
I was doing well, but blew my chip advantage. The Last King of Scotland was short, but he doubled up with Aces.

I took a hit with Qd-Qh-3c-2h in a three-way pot. 8 PEOPLES took it down as dredful was eliminated in ninth place. I slipped to 4.3K and was fifth in chips.

I bottomed out at 2K before I attempted a comeback with a couple of steals. Alas, the run was over when I busted out in 8th place. I made a move in late position and ran into StB's Aces in the big blind. Busto.

Here's one of the biggest pots of the tournament. It was battle of the blinds. 2Tall_Saint called the small blind and zagga checked his option. The flop was As-6s-4h. 2Tall_Saint bet 800. Zagga potted to 3,200. 2Tall_Saint min-raised to 6,400. Zagga shoved all in for 9,810. 2Tall_Saint had him covered and called.

2Tall_Saint: Ad-9s-4c-3d
zagga: Ac-Qs-6c-2s 6c

Zagga's two pair was ahead. The turn was the 3c and the river was the 4d. 2Tall_Saint rivered a boat and Zagga (Acornman) was eliminated in fifth place during one of the biggest pots of the tournament. 2Tall_Saint was the chipleader before the hand, but he took out the only other big stack at the final table. He jumped up to 30K and had over 75% of chips in play.

Kat went out on the bubble with Kings against 2Tall_Saint's Aces. She was Bubble Girl. StB hit the rail in third when his Kings ran into 2Tall_Saint's Aces.
Heads Up Chip Count:
Seat 2: 2Tall_Saint (36140)
Seat 4: Vernicle (4360)
Vernicle made a run a doubled up on the last hand before the second break. He increased his stack to 12.7K as 2Tall_Saint slipped to 27.7. He won a couple of more pots and looked like it was going to be a match. However, 2Tall_Saint maintained his lead and eventually finished off Vernicle on the 28th hand of heads up play. 2Tall_Saint had 34.3K in chips to 6.1K. 2Tall_Saint raised to 1,800 and Vernicle called. The flop was 8d-7s-4s. Vernicle bet 3,600 and 2Tall_Saint called. The turn was the 10h. Vernicle bet his last 720 and 2Tall_Saint called.

Vernicle: Ah-Kc-10c-10s
2Tall_Saint: Qd-Jc-9d-8c

Vernicle had a set of tens against 2Tall_Saint's straight. The river was the Js and 2Tall_Saint won with a Queen-high straight. He won the pot and the tournament as Vernicle was eliminated in second place.
The Money Winners:
1. 2Tall_Saint - $135
2. Vernicle - $81
3. StB - $54
Thanks again to everyone who played and pimped the event. I appreciate your help. Congrats to 2Tall_Saint for the victory. Hope to see everyone next week. I'll be playing from Budapest!


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

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Fantasy Football Week 7 Update

By Pauly
New York City

Congrats to Any Given Sunday (J. Stryker) for winning Week 7 of the Tao of Poker football pool! PatsRevenge2008 has taken over the overall lead.
Tao of Poker Football Pool - Top 10 (Thru Week 7):
1 PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) 72
2 jaguar9499 (r. zacharki) 71
3 Scotty's Mich Ultra (P. Grotjohn) 70
4 bookmakers 51 (T. Drysdale) 69
5 Rummy's TaoPicks (E. Rummel) 68
6 Oyster Bay Moore (J. Moore) 67
6 PokerFool's Purple Power (P. Fool) 67
8 Gupta1 (S. Gupta) 66
8 chitwood's picks (G. Shields) 66
8 Part-Time Models (J. Smith) 66
8 The Great Cornholio (D. Goerisch) 66
8 VinNay (V. Catanzaro) 66

* * * * *

The second series of Sundays with Dr. Pauly continued over at FantasySportsLive.com. I had yet another dismal week as V-man took it down with a 135.9 score. We had 46 runners overall.
Week 7 Results
1 V-man 135.9
2 Mattazuma 132.1
3 Kev 129.7
4 THE MFL TODAY 118.8
5 Expensive Wino 113.9
6 Chuckdnb 113.1
7 Brian 112.1
8 Randy 110.5
9 Resino 109.9
10 Resino 109.9
11 spitball 108.6
12 ebk03001 104.3
13 Mark 104.3
14 Big Pirate 102.8
15 cwfoot 102.7
16 belly2bar 102.6
17 Buffalo66 102.3
18 AlCantHang 100.1
19 TaoPauly 99.7
20 Mr. Decker 98.9
21 Joe Speaker 95.9
22 Olliewood 94.6
23 bayne_s 91
24 Sconie 90.7
25 jrf361 90.3
26 stickman 88.5
27 repete oiffenders 87.3
28 lakewoods 86.9
29 Kaiseroll13 86.6
30 RTrizzle 85.4
31 StrangeLuck 85.4
32 jbvolfan 84.8
33 Pokerpeaker 82.7
34 jek187 82.6
35 Chewbot 78
36 BobbyBracelet 77.9
37 bonds 76.2
38 FSLFSF 73
39 jbvolfan 72.2
40 BigHeeb91 71.5
41 23skidoo 65.8
42 HermWarfare 62.2

Super TOC Entries by winning a 5 week series. ($25 for winning seat + $125 added): Expensive Wino (Week 1-5 Series)

TOC Entries by Beating Dr. Pauly's Score 3 straight weeks ($200 added): Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang, Buffalo66, Chewbot, Resino, Greengoddess, Kaiseroll13, Chuckdnb, Brian, ebk03001, Belly2Bar

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry: spitball

High Weekly Scores for the Season ($75/$25 added):
1st Jag 141.8 (Week 2)
2nd PayME 141.1 (Week 4)

Series 2 Standings (Winner gets seat in Super TOC):
Expensive Wino 249.8
spitball 237.5
ebk03001 232.6
jrf361 225.8
Kaiseroll13 223.6
Resino 220.6
belly2bar 220.3
Buffalo66 217.3
Chuckdnb 207.2
Olliewood 204.6
Brian 203.1
Sconie 202.8
Joe Speaker 198.3
RTrizzle 195.4
repete oiffenders 192.3
TaoPauly 190.6
BigHeeb91 190.2
cwfoot 188.4
jek187 186.6
StrangeLuck 180.9
bayne_s 178.4
AlCantHang 174
bonds 172.1
BobbyBracelet 171.7
23skidoo 170
FSLFSF 164.3
HermWarfare 161.8
Pokerpeaker 160.2
Mr. Decker 155.6
V-man 135.9
Mattazuma 132.1
Kev 129.7
THE MFL TODAY 118.8
DARTHraider 112.7
jakehead 110.7
Randy 110.5
Predator314 107.4
Mark 104.3
Humperdink 104
Big Pirate 102.8
greengoddess 96.3
only1calvary 94.1
stickman 88.5
lakewoods 86.9
jbvolfan 84.8
Chewbot 78
helliott 74
rumpranger 73.1
KenB525 64.4
And if you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.


And by the way, the NBA season starts next week. Fantasy Sports Live will be the place to go for daily NBA contests. And in cse you were wondering, the NHL ones are super soft.


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

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Wednesday Hump Day Link Dump - The Outside Providence Version

By Pauly
Providence, RI

I'm on a short holiday in the smallest state in the union. I saw a stellar concert last night in Providence and caught two Trey Anastasio Band shows since last Thursday. I wrote reviews for Coventry Music Blog. Check out Trey Anastasio Band - NYC - 10/16/08 at Roseland Ballroom and Trey Anastasio Band - Providence, RI - 10/21/08 at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel.

I have been diligently working on my photo galleries. The Pauly Food Project is up to 418 photographs of food and food stuffs. I also added a new gallery of my recent trip to Amsterdam which includes 58 photos.

Speaking of Amsterdam, you should check out Change100's recent gem titled... 16 Bars.

By the way, Wil Wheaton is on a episode of Criminal Minds tonight. Check local listings.

Ah, I forgot about Iggy's 5th anniversary. Congrats, sir!

And thanks to Bill Rini for selecting Tao of Poker as one of the Top 10 Poker Blogs Worth Reading.

Have you been keeping up with all this nonsense down in Kentucky involving poker domains? Head over to Pokerati for complete coverage.

Ah... I almost forgot about this gem... Fox says "Greed is gooder" by fast-tracking Wall Street sequel. Although I was not tapped to write the sequel to one of my favorite flicks of all eternity, the gang at MovieMake-Out.com think I should! Super flattering. Here's the blurb...
The new details are that Allan Loeb (21) will be its writer, probably based on the fact that he used to be a stockbroker in Chicago. I cry shenanigans on that, and think that former trader-turned-poker blogger Paul McGuire would be better suited to write it because he’s got a sharper edge to him.
If I had an agent in Hollyweird, I'd be pressing them to get me a meeting with those damn studioheads!

And for all you Wall Street heads, how could you not be reading the gang at DealBreaker?


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

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Triumphant Return of Liz Lieu Tuesdays

By Pauly
New York City

Today is a travel day for me. Not too much time to write. Feeling nostalgic. How about a pic of Liz and Lacey to brighten things up today?


Courtesy of www.LizLieu.net


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

Monday, October 20, 2008

London Leftovers

By Pauly
New York City

I'm in one of those phases were I'm constantly on the move. The next three weeks will find me in New York City, Providence, Budapest, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. It's been two weeks since I left London and a week since I departed Amsterdam. And somewhere along the way, I let this post slip on by. It's really a collection of my notes from the PokerStars.com EPT London assignment which I used to piece together a column for Bluff. I used some of the tidbits and cut the others.

Here's a glimpse of some of the things I took note of during my time in London covering the EPT London at the Vic...

A couple of celebs were in the field on Day 1A including actor Michael Greco who was most famous for his work on East Enders. Although I didn't see famous skier Alberto Tomba in the mix, Max Pescatori told me that he played and busted early.

French Actress Alexia Portal was also playing despite being seven months pregnant. Even with a bun in the oven, she's still hot. She was seated at the same table as Vanessa Rousso.

John 'The Razor' Phan showed up as an alternate. The EPT London was originally capped at 500, so each flight would be 250 max. However, they allowed approximately 40 or so alternates. One of them was the Razor. He stood at the bar and sipped coffee while he wondered when he would take his seat. When his name was called he sat down at Frenchman's Nicolas Levi's table.

Phan might know my real name but he's been calling me "Poker News" for the last two years. When I'd pass him in the hallway at the Rio he'd nod and say, "What up, Poker News?"

As I wandered by his table at the Vic, Phan called me over. He stood up and handed me his iPod mini. "Hey Poker News, I'm out of juice." When I returned to the media room, I powered up his iPod on my laptop. I checked out some of his music library. Tons of Vietnamese pop, but not one track from Thao and The Get Down.

Patrik Antonius was seated at the same table as Erica Schoenberg. Her guy, David Benyamine, was seated nearby and would wander over to check on her progress. At one point, Benyamine walked up to Patrik Antonius and kissed him on top of his recently shaved bald head, which was immediately followed up by a huge smile from both players. Those two guys, like most Europeans pros, rarely show emotion at the table. Yet those two were all shits and giggles. A rarity indeed on the tournament trail.

Katja Thater was milling around Day 1A despite the fact she was playing on Day 1B. She told me that her horses back in Germany were not doing well. A few were sick and one needed an operation. "I need to make some money in London to help pay for my animals' medical bills," she said. "If anyone tries to steal my blinds I will tell them that is cruelty to animals."

The staff at the Vic fed the players during action. They brought over bowls of curry or salmon. A waitress also wandered through the cramped aisles with bottles of wine. Red in the left hand and white in the right hand. One local member of the media joked that the wine was a special touch added by management to loosen up the action.

"Get a couple of more bottles of wine flowing and we can go home early," he said.

It didn't matter. The action was super fast with one hour levels and the field flooded with 'Eurodonks' which was a term dubbed by many of my colleagues to describe the play of newbie poker players scattered all over Europe with more money than they knew what to do with.

A gaggle of Eurodonks were seated at former EPT London champion Vicky Coren's starting table. She had a great read on them and was slowly adding to her stack when a floor person came over with bad news. Her table was next on the list to break. She vehemently protested. She wanted to stay with her batch of Eurodonks. She was eventually moved to Beth Shak's table.

If you have not been to the Vic, well there's a dining room adjacent to the poker room. The staff added several tournament tables to the dinning room to accommodate the overflow. I didn't focus on those tables for the first couple of hours of Day 1a. I finally wandered over and sweated a table that included Chad Brown and Sorel Mizzi. Former world champion Joe Hachem (scheduled to play in Day 1b) stopped by the table to chat with Chad Brown, a fellow member of Team PokerStars. Several photographers from various European outlets cluttered the sparse space in between tables to snap photos. The dining area immediately became illuminated with flashes as they rushed to shoot Joe and Chad shooting the breeze.

While the media seized an opportunity for a quick photo op, there was an ongoing hand. I caught the action a little late. An unknown player raised from the button. Sorel Mizzi reraised from the small blind for 6,000 more. His opponent went into the tank for several minutes while photographers continued to snap photos of Hachem and Brown. Eventually the player from the button called.

The flop was 6h-5s-3c. Mizzi fired out 3,500. His opponent moved all in and Mizzi called for the remainder of his chips, or 7,450 in total.

Mizzi: 9h-9d
Opponent: 10d-10s

The turn was the 7d and Mizzi picked up a gutshot draw. The river was the 8c. Mizzi spiked his straight and avoided elimination. He doubled up and increased his stack to over 33,000.

"I love this game," declared Hachem as the dealer pushed the pot towards Mizzi.

The Vic is so classy that they have a small plate of mints at the end of the Roulette tables. That shit would never fly at the Bellagio.

On Day 1b, a confused Ylon Schwartz wandered around the crowded poker room at the Vic unable to find his seat. He stopped and asked me, "Do you know where I'm supposed to be?" I pointed him to the list that was projected on a big screen on the wall of the poker room. He thanked me and looked up his assignment. A couple of other November Nine players were in the mix including Chino, but it was fellow Nov Niner Ivan Demidov who was making waves across town as he advanced to the final table of the WSOPE.

Boris Becker and Joe Hachem were seated at the same table. Lots of ginger jokes in the media room about Boris. The former German tennis pro loves to compete.

My colleague Snoopy ate some of the bowls of fish that were going around the poker room. He had a knack for knowing the exact moment of food service particularly dessert time when the Vic served ice cream. Snoopy also wore purple socks one day.

Benjo looks a little bit like Antonio Esfiandari. He's been mistaken for the pro on a few occasions, especially at the Bellagio where a bunch of frantic poker fans once stopped Benjo and asked, "Can we have an autograph, Antonio?"

"Benjo has an alluring French accent. Antonio can't compare with that," added Homer.

One local photographer was crouched low trying to get a good shot of a semi-famous player. A waitress did not see him as she scooted by the very narrow areas in between the tables. He stood up as she tried to pass with a tray of drinks. The result? He accidentally hip-checked her and the tray of beverages fell onto a cash game table.... PLO to be exact.

I also watched Devilfish felt a guy at that same table shortly before the accident. Devilfish flopped a set of Queens without any redraws. It held up against his opponent who managed to miss a ton of outs.

Conrad suggested a good book for me to read about cricket by E.T. Smith. Sadly, he did not give me any tips on fixed cricket matches to bet on. I have been curtailing my sports betting these days and only bet on games/matches/fights when I hear that the fix is in. I did hang out out at a couple of the betting shops. Billy Hill and Ladbrokes are all over the place. I put in a couple of small bets on NFL parlays or what the Brits call accumalaters.

As I walked into the Vic one day and made my way upstairs to the tournament area, a sizzling hot blonde walked by. I mentioned something to Benjo and he said, "Ah, so you met Devilfish's jailbait girlfriend?" A couple of the young Scandis had their hottie girlfriends hanging around on the rail. That's what I lovea bout the EPT... an influx of hot Swedish ass.

On the start of Day 3, Rich from Full Tilt, Dan Shak and I stood on the rail together. Dan was sweating his wife Beth and I was trying to get descriptions down of the few players that I did not know left in the field. One superpokerfan held out a copy of UK Poker News magazine and asked Scotty Nguyen for an autograph. Scotty flashed his big smile and accommodated the fan's request. The fan turned to Dan Shak and asked him for his autograph. Rich joked, "Why do you want Dan's autograph? Pauly is more famous than him!" Shak let out a hearty chuckle and the fan handed me the magazine and asked me to sign it. Just below Scotty's signature, I scribbled down "Avoid the clap!" and then added my John Hancock.

The final table coincided with Day 1 of the High Rollers event which was a who's who of not just British poker (Neil Channing and Devilfish) but the field included the big dogs like Phil Ivey, Jesus, and Gus Hansen. WPT Borgata winner Vivek Rajkumar decided to throw down with the big boys.

Philippe D'Auteuil from Canada is a prankster. He made the final table of the EPT London and he's buddies with American Eric Lui. They supposedly play big cash games online together. D'Auteuil's bustout interview was super short after he got cut off by the production crew. He was trying to be funny, but the folks in charge didn't know and took his offcolor remarks at face value.

Moments after his departure in 5th place, hostess Kara Scott asked D'Auteuil about the EPT London which appeared on the live internet feed. He said, "This tournament structure sucks." She quickly followed up with a slightly different topic and asked him who he thought was going to win.

"The Chinaman, you know that Japanese guy," D'Auteuil joked alluding to his buddy Eric Liu.

The producers gave him the quick hook and ended the interview. Were were sort of baffled in the media room and hoped that the kid was just trying to be a funny guy. British poker writer Homer turned to the Canadian writers (Owen and Martin from Poker Listings) and remarked, "You see? This is why we don't let Canadians speak on the telly..."

I love British sarcasm. They are truly the kings and queens of the backhanded compliment.

* * * * *

And here's some orphaned quotes that I scribbled down in my notebook but never got to use...

"Look at the hot German girl smoking a cigar," said Benjo as we stood in the smoker's lounge.

"Don't shove stuff up your nose in the bathroom of speakeasy in Soho that you just scored from a dodgey looking guy," said one wise anonymous media rep.

That same night another anonymous member of the media whiffed on a chance to hook up with a certain promiscuous female who frequents the tournament circuit. We gave him a ton of shit for actually using the line, "Can I go up to your room to use your internet?"

* * * * *

Saving the best for last. This risque bit appeared on Tao of Pauly but it was cut from the final draft of the version of my column that I sent to Bluff.

I had a couple of drinks one night after work at the bar with some of my fellow writers from Canada, Sweden, and the UK. Pinky and Mrs. Pinky joined me for a couple of shitty French beers and we chatted a lot about different London neighborhoods, the media, and British TV shows. I had a nice buzz when I left the casino. I missed the last tube and took a night bus back to my flat in Soho that I shared with Gloria and Change100.

The night bus let me off in front of McDonalds. It was Friday night in London. The binge drinkers were out in full force. The lines at McDs were out onto Oxford Street. There was a 24-hour Subway next door. I had the munchies and ordered a six inch meatball sub for £3.50 or almost $7.

I ate the sub as I sprinted past Charing Cross Road towards my flat. There's a club in the ground floor of our apartment complex. The music pumped out into the street as party people stood outside smoking cigarettes. Two old immigrant women attempted to sell everyone roses and other assorted flowers. One stopped me as I passed by eating my meatball sub.

"£3 for one," she said.

I counter offered £1. She refused to budge. I walked away and she grabbed my arm.

"£2. I have five children to feed."

I repeated my counter offer. She refused to let me go. I took another bite of the meatball sub and asked her where she was from.

"Romania," she said.

"Ah, Romania.... Chauchescu?"

"Chauchescu is dead!" she screamed and then angrily spit on the ground.

I tried to walk away and she finally caved in. She handed me a rose (which I would give to Change100) and I gave the old woman one quid.

I walked about forty feet when I saw two people. One guy leaned up against the wall while another figure pulled down the guy's pants. It was another guy and he began blowing him in full view of the smokers and the Romanian flower women. They were engaging in a lewd sex act only few steps from the entrance to my flat. I had a couple of bites left in my meatball sandwich and finished it off as I stood in amazement as I watched one guy blow another guy. Ah, just another glimpse into the streets of Soho at 3am on a Friday night.


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

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Fantasy Football Week 6 Update

By Pauly
New York City

Sorry for the delay in updates. I'm getting spanked in the Tao of Poker football pool!
Tao of Poker Football Pool - Top 10 (Thru Week 6):
1 jaguar9499 (r. zacharki) 61
1 PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) 61
3 Rummy's TaoPicks (E. Rummel) 59
4 Scotty's Mich Ultra (P. Grotjohn) 58
4 PokerFool's Purple Power (P. Fool) 58
6 Oyster Bay Moore (J. Moore) 57
6 Donkey Herder (C. Stewart) 57
6 The Great Cornholio (D. Goerisch) 57
6 bookmakers 51 (T. Drysdale) 57
6 VinNay (V. Catanzaro) 57

Week 5 Winner: hammerspace (E. Harrison) - 11 Wins
Week 6 Winner: Donkey Herder (C. Stewart) and The Crushinator (E. Lee) - 10 Wins
Keep up the good work, everyone!

* * * * *

Well, how about Sundays with Dr. Pauly over at FantasySportsLive.com? Series 2 kicked off with Week 6. And I had an awful week as Kaiserroll took down Week 6!

According to Blinders, "We had 46 runners in Week 6 of the Sundays with Dr. Pauly. Kaiserroll13 put up a score of 137 and takes the early lead in the second five week series. Pauly put up a score of 90.9 which was 33rd best. Everyone who beat Pauly's score in week 6 is shown below, as well as status on the $500 in added bonus cash."
1 Kaiseroll13 137
2 Expensive Wino 135.9
3 jrf361 135.5
4 spitball 128.9
5 ebk03001 128.3
6 BigHeeb91 118.7
7 belly2bar 117.7
8 Buffalo66 115
9 DARTHraider 112.7
10 Sconie 112.1
11 Resino 110.7
12 jakehead 110.7
13 Olliewood 110
14 RTrizzle 110
15 Predator314 107.4
16 Resino 107.3
17 Picko De Kyle 106.9
18 repete oiffenders 105
19 23skidoo 104.2
20 jek187 104
21 Humperdink 104
22 Joe Speaker 102.4
23 HermWarfare 99.6
24 Olliewood 96.9
25 greengoddess 96.3
26 bonds 95.9
27 StrangeLuck 95.5
28 only1calvary 94.1
29 Chuckdnb 94.1
30 BobbyBracelet 93.8
31 FSLFSF 91.3
32 Brian 91
33 Pauly 90.9

Super TOC Entries by winning a 5 week series. ($25 for winning seat + $125 added):
Expensive Wino (Week 1-5 Series)

TOC Entries by Beating Dr. Pauly's Score 3 straight weeks ($200 added):
Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang, Buffalo66, Chewbot, Resino, Greengoddess, Kaiseroll13

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry: bonds, Chuckdnb, Brian, repete oiffenders, Humperdink, jek187, ebk03001, Joe Speaker, Herm Warfare, RTrizzle, Belly2Bar, Olliewood, Sconie

High Weekly Scores for the Season ($75/$25 added)
1st Jag 141.8 (Week 2)
2nd PayME 141.1 (Week 4)
And if you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.



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

Saturday, October 18, 2008

FiveFingerz (aka Ricky Bobby) Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
New York City

Thanks to all the cool folks who showed up to play in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly even though I had a major fuck up and created the wrong tournament. I've been running this series for almost 40 weeks and this is the second error. A couple of months ago, I set up a Limit Omaha High tournament and this Saturday I screwed the pooch and made it heads up PLO.

If anyone who played wants a refund, shoot me an email with your screen name and I'll return your full buy-in.

As it turned out, the heads up format was sort of exciting to watch and I think that I'll do another one sometime in the future.

We had 34 runners and the top 8 got paid. 32 is ideal for heads up grid which meant that 30 people got first round buys and there were two matches in Round 1. Haley beat former champ Arctic Action to advance to Round 2 while Change100 lost her match against drunkenlush and she was Gigli.

It only 15 minutes before we started Round 2. I was heads up against BoscoDon. He's a regular participant and he always seems to get the bad end of things at Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. Not this time. He busted me on a hand I should have gotten away from, but didn't. It was only the fourth hand of heads up play. We were both even in chips. I had Js-10s-5h-4c. I min-raised and he called. The flop was 9s-6s-4d. He bet half the pot. I raised to 120. He re-raised to 520. I called. The turn was the 4s. He checked. I bet 680. He called. The turn was the 2d. He moved all in for 1,720. I tanked for a second and figured he would have slowplayed a bigger hand. All I had was a Jack-high flush... on a paired board. Ah, fuck it. I called. He had 10c-8d-6d-6c. He flopped a set and turned a boat. Ooooops. Bad call and I was out.

After I busted, I focused on sweating some interesting match ups such as Bayne vs. Jeciimd and last week's champion Acronman was taken out by linkocracy. Another big matchup was Derek vs. Last King of Scotland. That battle featured 5 total Saturdays with Dr. Pauly titles. And it ended up going the longest in Round 2. First hand after the break... super coooler... set over set. Derek lost the lead. He eventually busted in in 17th place.

And we were onto Round 3 or the Sweet 16!
Sweet 16 (Round 3):
BoscoDon vs. salmonlicker
Haley vs. etl4
Bayne vs. Lineside
Syndey 8 vs. MrMojo
FiveFingerz vs. ResdentEvil
mplsT vs. BingoFan
SmBoatDrinks vs. yosoyveneno
Quinedge vs. Linkocracy
The featured match up was between FiveFingerz vs. ResdentEvil. FiveFingerz was down to less than 1K in chips and made one hell of a comeback. Their match would last the second longest of the round. When the dust settled, FiveFingerz slayed the Last King of Scotland. The Saturdays with Dr. Pauly title would no longer stay on Scottish soil after last week's champ went out in the previous round and Scotland's last hopes were on the shoulders of the Last King of Scotland.

The last match of the round was Baynes vs. Lineside and Lineside bubbled out in 9th place.
Elite 8 (Round 4):
mplsT vs. yosoyveneno
salmonlicker vs. Haley
linkocracy vs. Bayne
FiveFingerz vs. Sydney8
The final eight players cashed. This round went the quickest.
Final 4 (Round 5):
mplsT vs. Bayne
salmonlicker vs. FiveFingerz
The match between mplsT and Bayne lasted four hands. I almost missed it. Both players got it all in on a flop of Jd-8d-6c. Check. Bet. Raise. Re-raise. Four bet. Five bet all in. Call. Bayne was ahead with a bigger two pair. However, mplsT boated up on the turn and Bayne did not improve. He was out in 4th place.

The Salmonlicker and FiveFingerz match was back and forth. FiveFingerz had Salmon on the ropes but couldn't deliver the knockout blow when Salmon cracked his Aces with a straight. That hand gave Salmon the chiplead. FiveFingerz grinded back and eventually won the match. On the final hand, both players got in all in on the turn. The baord was Kc-9d-7s-2d.

FiveFingerz: Jc-9h-6s-2c
salmonlicker: Ac-Qd-Jd-6c

The river was the Ks. Salmon missed his flush draw and FiveFingerz won the pot and the match.
The Final 2 (Round 6):
mplsT vs. FiveFingerz
Both players started with 48,000 in chips. Blinds were were 320/640...

On the 36th hand or so it was over. FiveFingerz held almost a 17K lead. mplsT raised to 4,444 and FiveFingerz called. The flop was Ah-Qc-10h. FiveFingerz checked. mplsT bet 5,555. FiveFingerz check-raised to 11,110. mplsT shoved all in. FiveFingez wrote, "Oh no lol. Badcall I guess."

FiveFingerz: Ac-Jh-9d-8c
mplsT: Kh-Kc-5d-4h Kc

FiveFingerz was in the lead. His hand held up and mplsT was eliminated in 2nd place. FiveFingerz won the first ever heads up version of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. Congrats!
The Money Winners:
1. FiveFingerz - $119
2. mplsT - $68
3. salmonlicker - $34
4. Bayne - $34
5. Sydney8 - $21.25
6. CawtBluffin - $21.25
7. yosoyveneno - $21.25
8. linkocrazy - $21.25
Congrats again to the money winners especially FiveFingerz (aka Ricky Bobby) for taking it down. He's had one heck of a week. He won a seat to the PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure and he added a Saturdays with Dr. Pauly title to his tournament wins this week.

Thanks to everyone for their understanding this week with the scheduling error. And thanks to everyone who pimped and plugged the event.

See you next week!


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
Sorry for the Fuck Up

By Pauly
New York City

I messed up and set up the wrong tournament. Instead of a full ring MTT, I set up a heads up PLO match. Oooooops!

I apologize for the inconvenience. If you played and would like a refund, please shoot me an email and I'll send you back your $11.

Again, sorry about the major error.

Yours in the bong,
Pauly


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

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Live Politics Is Rigged or Fuck the Doomed

By Pauly
New York City


I'm not a political person. Everyone knows that I firmly believe that politics is rigged on an national and international scale, and that you only really have a say in local politics. What's going on in your hometown or county? Because in the end that's what matters the most.

At heart, I'm a Jeffersonian Anarchist. I firmly believe there needs to be a revolution every seven years and that men should govern themselves instead of a corrupt central institution. You can imagine how disappointed I was when I returned from a trip abroad and saw the streets of America empty. Not one single protest over the economic crisis or the oil wars or the dozens of other shit piles that our leaders have steered us through. Kids today are more interested in updating their MySpace or Facebook pages than taking the the streets like the youths of the 1960s. Post-modern America is the place where more people vote for the next American Idol winner than vote in the national elections.

I have a degree in political science which means jack shit these days. But I have worked on multiple congressional campaigns in Georgia during college in the 1990s. One of them was for Ben Jones, the actor who played Cooter on Dukes of Hazard. He left the sketchy backlots of Hollyweird for the sketchy backrooms of Washington.

I also worked on a Presidential campaign. I'm a registered Independent and used to pimp out for the Green Party when I stumped for Ralph Nader in 2000. My main job was smoking as much pot as possible then standing out in front of a subway station in New York City handing out pamphlets while subversively trying to pick up hippie chicks.

I eventually lost interest in politics and said goodbye to hope after several friends of mine died on 9.11.

When I lived in Seattle at the end of the 1990s, I met plenty of community activists and that's when I started to believe in the grassroots movement. I also had some faith restored in government and politics. I saw that there was a need for strong leaders on a local level. Several of my friends to this day are still very active in their neighborhoods and communities. They have been fighting the Man on a daily basis. They are not looking for glory or fame, rather, they want to have a say in how they live their lives and help form the kind of community that their children will grow up in.

I always encourage my friends to stop wasting their time watching the idiots on the alphabet news networks and to stop arguing about the actors and snake oil salesmen that were propped up by the Bilderbergs for this upcoming election. You cannot stop the machine, but you can affect what happens in your local community. Do the research and find out who the local politicians are and if the decisions they make will affect your livelihood as an individual, as a parent, or as a poker player.

There was an incident that happened when I was a kid growing up in the Bronx. We lived in a predominately Irish neighborhood and there was an older guy (We'll call him Irish Kevin) who wasn't a politician in the formal sense. My old man called Irish Kevin a "backroom politician" which means he would sit in the smoky backroom of the local pub and make deals. Irish Kevin was the guy who was really in charge as he mapped out our futures.

Irish Kevin had brothers and cousins in the Catholic church and in both the NYPD and the NYFD. Even the local Italian mafia-types had to work with Irish Kevin. You couldn't run for any office without his approval. Irish Kevin had a tight grip on my neighborhood but seemed like a normal guy. He drank with my old man at the pub. He attended church every Sunday and even coached little league baseball. But his own hubris was his downfall. He eventually got busted for rigging an election.

We had tons of nursing and retirement homes in my neighborhood. Those voters were huge commodities. Irish Kevin had come up with a valuable service where the local college kids would shuttle the elderly from their homes to the polls. It seemed like an amazing idea to help get everyone in the community (both young and old) involved with politics. However, his reasons were not altruistic. Instead, he had some of the kids drive the old folks to more than one voting area. He also managed to use some of the elderly women in our neighborhood to pretend to be someone who passed away earlier in the year. Yep, Irish Kevin was the king of getting people to crawl out of their graves and cast a vote. This was still in the late 1970s and early 1980s where you could get away with that blatant form of voter fraud. That's the first time I heard the expression... "Voter early and vote often!"

That little bit of corruption went on for over a decade. It was Irish Kevin's safety net to guarantee that his guys would win their various elections ranging from fixing the head of the local school board to propping up a state senator.

Irish Kevin eventually got busted and his grip on local politics was lost forever. There was an ensuing massive vacuum of control and the political vultures swooped in to try to pick up the pieces and seize power. Local politics in my old neighborhood really hasn't been the same since. I cannot condone what Irish Kevin did over the years, but at least you knew who was in charge. If you had a problem with potholes or garbage issues, you went down to the pub where he would be drinking every night. Good luck today trying to wrangle those used car salesmen into a one-on-one conversation. They pretend to be there for the people when they are only looking out for their political futures. I know this because one of my uncles is firmly entrenched in the new local machine as President of the American Legion. He's as crooked as they come.

The presidential election is rigged and has been too many times to count. We have the illusion of democracy in America. Been like that since inception. But as I stated earlier, you can make an impact on a local level. Find out who your local politicians are. Figure out who the Irish Kevin is in your neck of the woods. Talk to him. Get him drunk. Show him pictures of your kids. Tell him your problems and fears and concerns. If that doesn't work, then talk to your neighbors. Band together. Organize yourselves. The Man has been trying to divide you and keep you isolated. But when people get together and focus on a unified goal... I firmly believe that they have a shot at changing things. Gather. Discuss. Mobilize. Make a difference. Because the suits in Washington don't give a rat's ass about you and your family.

That's my only politically themed post this year. Maybe forever. I have said my piece. Stop worrying about what you cannot change and focus on the local scene where you have a chance of making a bigger impact. And if that issue is poker-related, then seek out your local politicians and try to talk to them about your issues. Don't trust any elected officials in Washington since their number one priority is to cater to the needs of the corporations who got them elected in the first place.

I have avoided all the 2008 election hype as much as possible. I tuned it out. Being overseas helped and oxycontin in small doses makes it easier for you to become very apolitical. I stopped following the news or reading some blogs and friends' Twitter feeds until after the election is over. I'm not missing anything.

This scene from Where the Buffalo Roam sums everything up the best....
[Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, posing as a reporter for The Washington Post, is alone in an airport restroom when the "Candidate" aka Richard Nixon enters and starts using the urinal.]

Thompson: Hi sir, it's Harris from the Post. Can I get you anything sir?

Nixon: How's the family Harris?

Thompson: Oh the family, well that's bad news. The screwheads finally came and took my daughter away. Let me ask you a question sir, what is this country doing for the doomed? There are two kinds of people in this country, the doomed and the screwheads. Savage tribal thugs who live off their legal incomes, brow deep out there; no respect for human dignity. They don't know what you and I understand, you know what I mean.

Nixon: You ever play football, Harris?

Thompson: Yes sir, thank you sir. I played in college, and they're gonna get your daughter too sir. I've heard their rallies, they like Julie but Tricia... and they really hate you sir. You know that one and a half of the State Senate of Utah are screwheads. You know I was never really frightened by the bopheads and the potheads with their silliness never really frightened me either, but these goddam screwheads, they terrify me. And the poor doomed, the young, and the silly, the honest, the weak, the Italians ... they're doomed, they're lost, they're helpless, they're somebody else's meal, they're like pigs in the wilderness.

Nixon: Come here Harris, come here. Fuck the doomed!

Indeed. Fuck the doomed.


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

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Test me, Test me, Test me... Why Don't You Arrest Me?

By Pauly
New York City

I woke up super early this morning. It was still dark as the sun on the verge of making an appearance. I wrote for a couple of hours before I headed outside and jogged two miles. It was unusually warm for this time of year in the city. A Phish show from Halloween 1998 in Vegas blasted on my iPod as I sweated out all the intoxicants that I had ingested the night before... and the days and weeks before. It was the first real workout since I returned from Europe. And it was the first time I actually pushed myself and ran flat out since the car accident this summer in Las Vegas.

After two miles I was hurting, but it was a good hurt. It boggles the mind that you subject yourself to physical pain now in order to improve your physical health later. I tried to translate that into poker terms. I guess all that inner turmoil you experience at the tables eventually leads to something special. Take solace in all the bad beats and ass kickings and swollen testicles and labias from two outers and bruised and bloody fists from punching walls after another devastating suckout. At some point, it will all even out, right?

Nope.

But, every day.... every session... you get an equal chance to do something special. Make something happen. That's why you play tournaments? Maybe today will be the day that you'll get a little extra lucky and the poker gods will shine down their warmth and compassion unto you. And your opponents will continuously make bad calls with second-best hands or make bad folds when you're totally bluffing with air. Or you get sent packing after losing a race. Losing coinflips after coinflips can suck the life out of many a man's soul.

I have been playing a steady stream of online poker the last couple of weeks. The results at the cash game tables have been positive, but I know that it's all about the long haul. I'm grinding out small wins. I'm hitting and running. Back to basics. ABC poker. Nothing too fancy. I sit and wait for my opponents to make mistakes. And I see so many.

I have been searching for the fish and hunting them down for the kill. I'm cold-blooded in that way. No remorse. It's not my problem that you suck at poker, or have misguided goals, or you're simply a degenerate gambler who doesn't know when to say stop.

Sometimes I don't see my favorite tagged players for weeks at a time and I wonder if they will ever reload. Most of them are Americans and I wonder if they'll ever find a easy way to reload.

Man, I miss the orgiastic days of pre-UIEGA Party Poker when you could reload your account in a matter of minutes via Neteller or other funding options. You can fleece the fish for every cent in their accounts and then lick your chops as they sit out and wait for their reload to be approved. And if they got wind of me following them around, I would switch over to my secret Empire Poker screen name and continue the pillaging.

Alas, in these days of uncertainty, those profitable opportunities are few and far between. This isn't 2006 when everyone in poker was making money. Times have changed and only those who are able to adapt to the current and future environment will be the victors. Everyone else will be roadkill.

Where do you go when the lights go out? When the fish go busto, they seem to disappear for good. That's why I immediately jump into the fight when I see one floating around.

* * * * *

Tony Holden is one of my favorite writers. Lucky for me, we happen to work in similar circles so I often get to run into him while I'm covering the poker tournament circuit. My last encounter with the author of Big Deal was at the Vic casino. Holden was playing in the PokerStars.com EPT London. He had a tough draw with Thor Hansen, the godfather of Scandi poker, to his immediate left. We spoke for a bit before the event began and Holden has a new book coming out. Unfortunately, his run at the EPT London was a brief one when he busted early after he had his Aces brutally cracked by Queens.

Holden reminded me about his Tuesday Night Game which was yesterday. He hosted the event over at PokerStars. Due to the time difference, the tournament was in the middle of the afternoon. I finished the second draft of my column for Bluff and was ready to celebrate with a pharmaceutical cocktail. My assignment was complete and it was time to relax, have fun, and party it up.

The Tuesday Night Game featured a ton of British players. This installment had 70 players with the top 7 getting paid prize money. The last time that I played, Change100 made the final table.

I had delicious background music blasting. My brother got me the latest live release from the Grateful Dead which was recorded during several performances at the pyramids in Egpyt during September 1978.

For the first hour of the tournament, I managed to stay in the top 10 in chips. I got most of my chips when I missed a straight flush with Qc-9c but managed to win the pot when I turned a pair of Queens against a guy who overplayed his small pair.

Then I lost some chips just before the break. I doubled up a short stack when my A-K lost to K-Q to a running straight. Damn RiverStars strikes again.

At the first break, there were 45 players left. I had 2.6K and was 15/45 with Tony Holden not too far behind in 19th place.

Change100 bit the dust in 44th place. She made a move and ran into Aces. I headed past the 3K mark and was 10th with 40 to go. Then I got crippled when got caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

I busted out soon after. Ugly hand. My 5-2 suited lost to 3-2 off suit. A trey on the flop ended my run. I was eliminated in 29th place. But I had a blast playing with Tony Holden and his crew. Good times.

* * * * *

I was multi-tabling during Tony Holden's tournament and played cash games on Full Tilt. I found a fish playing 10/20 LHE shorthanded and went in for the kill. Talk about a wild game with more fluctuations and volatility that the Russian stock market. The biggest pot I won all day came down to a kicker. I had top pair with K-J on a Jack-high rainbowed board which was better than my opponent's J-10.

I also won another decent sized pot when my Qs-Js took out Big Slick. Action was three-bet three-way preflop. The flop was Ks-Jh-9s and I had plenty of outs (could I really spike a gutshot straight flush?) while my opponents did not have any redraws. I missed my straight and flush draws, but I backdoored trips when a Jack fell on the river. It was good enough to win and my opponent with A-K wasn't thrilled with my hand selection.

In the immortal words of Thom Yorke, "The big fish eat the little ones. Not my problem, give me some."


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

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

New Tao of Pokerati Episode: Conspiracy Theories

By Pauly
New York City


We're back! After a short hiatus, Dan Michalski from Pokerati and myself finally recorded and uploaded a brand new spanking episode of Tao of Pokerati... the shortest poker podcast on the intertubes. Here's a disclaimer... we taped the episode via Skype almost two weeks ago when I was in London. I think my headphones are better than Michalski's because my audio is a tad louder than his. We apologize in advance for that slight technical error and have our crack team of experts working on the issue.

Without further ado...
Episode 2.1: WPT Bailout Rumors

Here is Michalski's description... Pure conspiracy theory... inspired by the winner's pic of "Harold and" Vivek Rajkumar proudly displaying his WSOP WPT bracelet at the Borgata. Without even a rumor to base this on (just circumstantial observations and wild speculation) I called Pauly hoping we could start one. Pauly was in London after covering the entirety of the last WPT event in Atlantic City, and had a brief stop-over in Amsterdam, which I figured put him in the exact right frame of mind to feel the rhymes I was droppin'... and sure enough, by the time our jam was done we'd have Full Tilt moving in on PokerStars' brick-and-mortar territory by bailing out Steve Lipscomb & Friends in an effort to challenge the EPT.
For older episodes, head over to the Tao of Pokerati Archives.


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

Monday, October 13, 2008

Light Up or Leave Me Alone

By Pauly
New York City

I have written extensively about Zhuangzi, the father of Taoism, over the last five years on my multiple blogs. I find solace when I can incorporate the philosophical teachings into my everyday life. And sometimes, those little nuggets of wisdom seem so appropriate in my poker life.

There are three basic tenets of Zhuangzi that I have been focusing on the last couple of weeks.
1. Be open to new ways and flexible in incorporating them into your way of life.

2. Understand both the usefulness and limitations of convention.

3. Cultivate skill to the point of spontaneous flow.
Those three teachings seem so profound, yet so simple. The difficult task is applying them to your life.

It seems as though every few weeks, I am at a new crossroads. My volatile outlook on life often sends me on an intense journey of personal reflection, yet no matter what, I always seem to end up on the same path in the poker world despite my burning desire to escape and carve out a new trail.

The current events of economic turmoil both domestically and internationally seemed to put a halt on my plans. I was so ready to leave the scene, quit the blog, and live among the hippies again. Colorado or Amsterdam seemed like such a more healthier alternative than brooding under the misleading lights of Sin City. Alas, a decision had to be made and in a time of potential turmoil, I have turned to some of my most influential philosophers and sages for solace, wisdom, and guidance.

In short, I'm not going anywhere and I'm going to ride out the vicious financial storm. I survived two terms under the Bush Junta, the UIEGA, and the great Google wipeout of the summer of 2008. When this is all over, we'll continue to live life with what I have left.

Yes, the Boogeyman is coming. He's already transformed your children into brain dead consumers and pop culture junkies. He also managed to keep you distracted. While you were too busy updating your Facebook friends, he wiped out your savings accounts.

I'm prepared to go heads up with the fear mongers. I have an Armageddon bag with the necessary supplies to survive the revolution. I'm also sitting on a horde of Euros and never felt more safe keeping my money in multiple online poker accounts.

And despite the tumultuous storm on the horizon, I have been playing more online poker in the last three months than I have all year due to a combination of more free time and an actual desire to play. I have rediscovered some of that passion and the fire in the belly has been getting me excited to play. I cannot tell you how many times I suffered personal burn out over the last five years. And in a pursuit to rediscover all the good and positive things that poker has to offer... I managed to remind myself that poker is still just a game... and it was a game that I thoroughly enjoyed playing.

Poker can be an unbearable and frustrating entity when caught up in the middle of a losing streak. However, the hardest obstacle to overcome is succumbing to a wanning interest in poker when things have been going great. My problems always focused around the negativity of the poker scene in general. That infectious mode of think infiltrated the rest of my waking life, so when I had a free moment to myself, the last thing I wanted to do was play poker. I rebelled against my livelihood in an eternal clash between art and commerce, an ongoing war being waged inside the hallways of my mind and also fought here and on the many pages of my various other blogs.

I gotta keep the artist within happy but at the same time I have to make some money. Sometimes the compromises that I made catered to the needs of one side moreso than the other. And that's the root of the bitterness which builds up until I explode like a volcano and utter stuff like, "Fuck this nonsense."

I'm also motivated to make money playing poker. I'm friends with a few pros and know how difficult it is to actually playing poker for a living and turn a consistent profit. That's not a life I want to pursue, nor is it something that I think I can handle. However, I still feel strongly enough in my ability as a cash game player that I can make a modest amount if I logged the hours and I managed to stay off life tilt. And if poker can help supplement my lifestyle and pay for my travels and trips in 2009, then that will alleviate a lot of pressure. I will have to write less for others for a paycheck and that will free up more time for me to utilize for other personal projects and more invigorating creative endeavors.

Lucky for me, I don't have a huge nut to make every month. And my new philosophy is this... there are places I want to see and experiences I want to undertake. Those fun projects and multiple music festivals do not fund themselves but if I can win enough money at the tables then I can embark upon those little adventures that make life worth living.

My bankroll is at a point where I don't need to keep building it up. My original goal was to building the roll to move up into higher stakes at the 30/60 and 50/100 LHE level. Along the way, I found a comfortable level that I know I can beat consistently instead of worrying about trying to beat a game that is crawling with pros. I want to be the shark hunting the fish and not being the frightened fish hiding from the Boogeyman.

My current bankroll is more than sufficient to fund the lower levels that I have been playing (anywhere from 5/10 up to 15/30) which means I can withstand several massive losing streaks and continue to play at that level without the fear of depleting my bankroll. And I can pocket whatever profits I earn at the tables towards the funding my misadventures such as the Phish reunion or living the bohemian life in some European city for several months while I finish up a screenplay about the fragility of life.

I spent last week on a holiday in Amsterdam. Change100 and I rented an apartment and hijinks ensued. I played online poker every morning. The timing was perfect. It was between 9am-11am local time which meant it was 3-5am on the east coast and between Midnight-2am on the left coast. I caught players at the tail end of their sessions. My opponents had massive stacks and were playing looser or they were stuck badly and chasing a loss.

I cannot explain why... but I always seem to play well when I'm in Europe. It definitely has to do with the time that I'm playing. Game selection is key and I always want to opponents where are not playing optimally. I was fresh and sober every morning. I hit and run for a nice profit. I made enough to actually pay my share of the rent for our Amsterdam apartment.

I had one losing session since I returned to the States. That was during a rare full 10/20 LHE ring game on Full Tilt. I made a bad decision on one hand and folded the eventually winner. I took a bad beat a couple of hands later. Instead of hitting and running for a couple of hundred, I posted my first losing session in over a week.

Despite the bad session, my spirits are in a healthy place. I wake up every morning wondering when I'll have some free time to play online poker. Or as Zhuangzi aptly said, "Cultivate skill to the point of spontaneous flow."


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

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Zagga aka Acornman Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly; Scots Continue Domination

By Pauly
New York City


I missed the action this week. Sorry folks. Next week I should be able to play without any problems.

We had 25 runners this week. The top 3 paid out. Special guests included poker pro Andrew Webking and everyone's favorite internet hothead... SirWaffles.

When it was over the crown returned to Scotland. Alas, it wasn't the Last King of Scotland who won it. Rather, it was a fellow countryman... Acornman.

Bingofan was Gigli. I finished in 12th place as I posted and folded the entire tournament. I was hoping to make the final table again by sitting out.

Previous multi-winner Syndey8 was the bubble boy.
Week 36 Money Winners:
1. zagga - $125
2. BugHeeb91 - $75
3. hovibaby - $25
Congrats to Zagga aka Acornman for winning it all and beating BigHeeb heads up. Andrew Webking managed to take third in his first ever Saturdays with Dr. Pauly.

We will be back next week... at 4:20pm. Hope to see you then!



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

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Sundays with Dr. Pauly - Expensive Wino Wins Series 1; Series 2 Starting on Sunday!

By Pauly
Amsterdam

Congrats to Expensive Wino for winning Series 1 of Sundays with Dr. Pauly over at Fantasy Sports Live!

Series 2 starts on Sunday and will run for five weeks during Week 6-10 of the NFL season. New chance to get in on the action or you get a clean slate if you got housed in Series 1.

Series 1 - Final Standings for Top 20:
Expensive Wino 581
Buffalo66 580.9
bonds 576.3
AlCantHang 550.6
Mattazuma 542.9
greengoddess 536
bayne_s 533.1
Chuckdnb 532.8
Chewbot 516
Brian 512.1
repete oiffenders 503.6
TaoPauly 499.2
Big Pirate 487
Humperdink 484.4
jek187 484.4
ebk03001 482.4
Joe Speaker 475
HermWarfare 472.7
Kaiseroll13 468.5

TOC Entries by Beating Dr. Pauly's Score 3 straight weeks ($200 added to TOC): Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang, Buffalo66, Chewbot, Resino

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry:
Mattazuma, bayne_s, Greengoddess, Kaiseroll13, LTLover, jbvolfan

High Weekly Scores for the Season ($75/$25 added):
1st Jag 141.8 (Week 2)
2nd PayME 141.1 (Week 4)

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the skinny. I'm running a series of contests over at Fantasy Sports Live where you can win some cool shit. There will be three different series held over the NFL season. Each series will be five weeks long, which means that if you are busy now, you still have two chances to play later on this football season.

Here's the breakdown...
FantasySportsLive.com is proud to announce our second annual Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion. Compete against Dr. Pauly in weekly fantasy football contests on FSL and earn bonus cash for your efforts. $500 total in bonus cash will be added by FSL over the season long promotion. There will be four ways to earn bonus cash, and each $11 weekly 10 player contest will also pay out $50 for 1st, $30 for second, and $20 for third. Anyone can enter the Sunday's with Dr. Pauly contests, but only your first entry each week will count towards the added bonuses.

Four ways to win bonus cash...

1) Beat Dr. Pauly's fantasy score for three straight weeks and get a free entry in the season ending Tournament of Champions. Beat Pauly's score in the tournament of champions and take home some bonus cash. All TOC entries who beat Pauly's score in the TOC will split $200 in added cash equally.

2) Score the highest weekly fantasy score in any Sundays with Dr. Pauly contest all season and win a $75 bonus. Second highest for the season gets a $25 bonus.

3) Win a 5 week series and get $25 plus an entry in the 4-way Super TOC. 5 week series run Weeks 1-5, Weeks 6-10, and Weeks 11-15. Super TOC week 16. Highest total points scored over the 5 weeks wins the series.

4) Beat Pauly's score in the 4-way Super TOC. Players who beat Pauly's score in the super TOC will split $125 in added prizes. Dr. Pauly will add a personal prize to the winner of the super TOC with is TBA.

Note: Dr. Pauly gains free entry into both TOC and super TOC and can win the added prizes if he wins either TOC outright. Don't let him do this. Win Dr. Pauly's money!

I ran this promotion last year over ten weeks. It was a ton of fun. This year we decided to run in over the entire season and breaking it up into three different series.

Any questions? Shoot either me or Blinders and email.

And if you don't have a Fantasy SportsLive account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.



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

Friday, October 10, 2008

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly... Saturday at 4:20pm ET!

By Pauly
Amsterdam

I doubt that I will be able to play this week. Regardless, the show must go on without me. Sting11165 is the defending Champion. Try to take him down!


Previous champions include... Grouse14 (twice), The Rooster, Buddy Dank, DrPauly, StB, Bikom, Family Ice, Bettercheck4, 23skidoo, USC55ND24, I_CrackQuads, Bayne, MrMojo, and Resdent Evil (three times including back-to-back), CSauve (twice), holdin-ragz!, Sydney 8 (twice), OneEyeKeith, Derek (twice), SmBoatDrinks, Boscodon, NoTalentTom, quinedge, GoIrish89, Quak Quack, ValpoProf, dfense072, Bad Blood, ArcticAction, and Sting11165.

If you have problems finding the tournament, look in the Tourney tab, and then the Private tab.

Oh, and if you don't have a PokerStars account... sign up for one today. Download PokerStars software.


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

Monday, October 06, 2008

Michael Martin Wins 2008 PokerStars.com EPT London

By Pauly
London


Photo courtesy of Jay Luck

I covered the final table of the EPT London which featured a WSOP bracelet winner, one of biggest cash game players in France, two Team PokerStars pros, and one of Brandon Schaefer's good buddies...
The Final Table:
Seat 1: Eric Liu (USA) - 1,308,000
Seat 2: Johannes Strassmann (Germany) - 434,000
Seat 3: Philippe D'Auteuil (Canada) - 476,000
Seat 4: Antony Lellouche (France) - 1,022,000
Seat 5: Michael Tureniec (Sweden) 1,331,000
Seat 6: Alan Smurfit (Ireland) - 396,000
Seat 7: Marcin Horecki (Poland) - 309,000
Seat 8: Michael Martin (USA) - 718,000
Yeah, if you don't know... Saturday night (er, Sunday morning) at 3am Michael Martin called Brandon Schaefer who was in Germany for Oktoberfest. Brandon found a flight and flew to London on Sunday morning. Martin's mother and girlfriend flew in from the Philly area last night/early morning to sweat him on. Their journey was worth it because the young American came from behind to win £1,000,000. The kid went on a sick run. He was down to 100,000 in chips and inside of 15 minutes, he went from the super short stack to the chipleader as he took out fellow American Eric "peachykeen" Liu.

For the first time in a very long time, it was a pleasure to see one of the good guys win. Congrats to Michael Martin.


Photo courtesy of Jay Luck
The Final Table Results:
1. Michael Martin - £1,000,000
2. Michael Tureniec - £525,314
3. Marcin Horecki - £303,439
4. Eric Liu - £234,920
5. Philippe D'Auteuil - £195,766
6. Alan Smurfit - £153,351
7. Johannes Strassmann - £120,723
8. Antony Lellouche - £81,569
That's it for now. My next assignment will be the EPT Budapest at the end of the month.

I will write a recap of the entire PokerStars.com EPT London very shortly. For now, I'm off on a week long holiday in Amsterdam with Change100.


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

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Sting11165 Wins Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

By Pauly
London


We had our second London installment of Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. This time, I was heavily distracted with covering the EPT London and could not give the tournament my full attention.

However, we had a good turnout with 26 runners. Top 3 got paid prize money.

Special guests included Wil Wheaton, Katkin, Jose from South America, and BamBam.

Sunoo5103 was Gigli.

I showed up a few minutes late. The tournament began when I was on the floor of the Vic Casino logging a big double up by French high stakes cash game pro Antony Lellouche.

I eventually busted out early. I couldn't even tell you the hand, I was so busty multi-tasking. I went out in 20th place.

Niktak was the chopleader at the first break with 14 to go.
Final Table:
Seat 1: holdin-ragz! (5530)
Seat 2: Wil Wheaton (4270)
Seat 3: Trane420 (5710)
Seat 4: MyLuckyGirls (2985)
Seat 5: Sting11165 (4590)
Seat 6: HermWarfare (2250)
Seat 7: DoubleDave (3825)
Seat 8: niktak (8720)
Seat 9: ResdentEvil (1120)
At the second break, Derek opened up a massive lead. He had Aces a couple of times and busted a few players. With 7 to go, he had 13K... twice as much as second place. He had 1/3 of the entire chips in play. Then donked them all off. He'd finish up in 6th place.

Holdin-ragz ended up the Bubble Boy. The Last King of Scotland failed in his quest to win his record-shattering 4th Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. Alas, he finished in third place. John Katkin (from Murder's Row fame) finished in second behind eventual champion Sting11165.

Here's how Sting described the final hand... "I had 7s As Qh Js in the 2K big blind and checked after he limped. Once the flop came Qs 8s 3c I was plotting how to get all the money in the pot and I started by checking. The turn was the 6d and I checked again, hoping Nik would take the bait. And he did, although he only bet the minimum. I went ahead and bet the pot and was happy when he made a 'Screw it' push. No, seriously, he actually typed "Screw it" and pushed an open-ended straight draw 4c 5h 2d Tc. My hand held up to his 6 outs and I took my first Saturdays with Dr. Pauly title!"

Congrats, sir.
The Money Winners:
1. Sting11165 - $130
2. niktak - $78
3. ResdentEvil - $52
And thanks again to everyone who played this week. And thanks for pimping the event.

Sorry that I could not give it my full focus this week. Next week might be tough for me to play since I'll be on holiday. Regardless, Saturdays with Dr. Pauly will run as scheduled.

Congrats again to Sting!


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

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Fantasy Football - Week 4

By Pauly
London

Uncle Jodd's Band had an amazing week in the Lamont Jordan Fantasy Football League. We improved to 2-2 and posted the highest total for the week which netted us a cash bonus. Sweet. The bad news is that Boldin got fucked up last week. He's our top receiver.

And in the Tao of Poker pool, I continue to struggle. I'm tied for 64th place. PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) is in sole possession of first place. There's a four way tie for second place.
Tao of Poker Football Pool Top 5:
1 PatsRevenge2008 (E. Kalis) 44
2 Oyster Bay Moore (J. Moore) 42
2 jaguar9499 (r. zacharki) 42
2 PokerFool's Purple Power (P. Fool) 42
2 Rummy's TaoPicks (E. Rummel) 42

Click here to view the overall standings in the Tao of Poker football pool.
* * * * *

According to Blinders...We had 39 runners this week for Fantasy Sports Live's Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion. SWDP rookie PayMe put up the high score of 141.1, and Pauly has a score of 102.5. Players who beat Pauly's score in Week 4 are shown below. Pauly beat the scores of the three people who had two week streaks against him, so no new entries into the TOC this week. After Week 5 is complete we will have our first entry into the Super-TOC.


TOC Entries by Beating Dr. Pauly's Score 3 straight weeks ($200 added)

Jag, Expensive Wino, AlCantHang

Needs to Beat Pauly's Score Next Week for TOC Entry

Buffalo66, Chewbot, Kev, Resino

High Weekly Scores for the Season ($75/$25 added)

1st Jag 141.8 (Week 2) 2nd PayME 141.1 (Week 4)

Week 1-5 Series Standings (Winner gets $25 + Super TOC entry with $125 added)

Expensive Wino 467.3
Buffalo66 459.9
AlCantHang 451.7
bonds 442.3
Mattazuma 435
Brian 430.2
greengoddess 428.4
Chuckdnb 425.5
TaoPauly 421.3
Chewbot 416.4
bayne_s 412.4
Humperdink 382.8
jek187 382.8
Mr. Decker 381.5
repete oiffenders 379.7
Joe Speaker 378
Jag 375
Big Pirate 374.2
ebk03001 372.4
HermWarfare 366.7
Kev 365.9
Kaiseroll13 351.2
Pokerpeaker 346.5
RTrizzle 313.2
23skidoo 308.5


Click here for more details on how to participate. We will be running three series this season. This will be the last week for Series 1. Series 2 begins on Week 6.

If you don't have a Fantasy Sports Live account, you can sign up for one today! It's legal in the US and you can fund your account with a credit card.

Open to all FSL users. $500 in bonus cash is added. Enter contests called "Sundays w/Dr Pauly."



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