Monday Morning Nuggets: Ali Tekintamgac Partouche DQ, Maria Ho Joins UB, James Frey's Sweatshop, and Prince Funk

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

It's been a while since I offered up some juicy nuggets of information for y'all. In honor of this lovely Monday morning, here are a few items that should keep you content for a while, especially a batch of new (yet old) music to help lift your spirits at the onset of the week.

Another shootout at an underground poker game. This time, it turned deadly when guns went blazing at an warehouse in Anderson County, SC. (Pokerati)

If you haven't heard the recent sponsorship news... for the last couple of years Maria Ho was considered as one of the better and most marketable female players without a sponsorship. But that's not the case anymore because Maria Ho is joining UB in yet another attempt to help clean up their controversial image after the superuser scandal that nearly destroyed the legitimacy and respectability of online poker. (Wicked Chops Poker)

If you can read French, then check out Benjo's take on the recent cheating scandal, Affaire Tekintamgac in Europe, where Ali Tekintamgac got disqualified from the final table of Grand Final of the Partouche Poker Tour because he used "faux poker media" to stand inside the ropes and help tip off opponents hands to him.. Shamus wrote (in English) a two-part series on the scandal titled No Cannes Do (Part 1 and Part 2). (Off the Record, Hard-Boiled Poker)

Most of you already knew that author James Frey was sketchy. Now word is out about the horrendous conditions in his publishing sweatshop where writers are bound to immoral contracts. In short, they do all the work while Frey gets all the money and credit. He's currently trying to exploit the youth adult market (one of the few sections of consumers that actually buy books) with an rip-off version of "Twilight" -- instead of vampires, he's replacing them as aliens living among brooding teens. Writers from Ivy League and other top MFA programs are selling their souls as indentured slaves in Frey's sweatshop, where they get paid $250 to write a book (half up front, half upon completion). $250 to write a book? Are you fucking kidding me? But that's what happens when people will do anything to get ahead or become famous. Shit, Frey should branch out into poker, because the James Frey Problem is already rampant in poker media. (New York Magazine, Maureen Johnson Books)

I have an amazing music collection mainly because my friends tip me off to new, obscure, and forgotten about musicians and bands. The Joker came through in the clutch once again with a blast from the past -- Prince funk. Seriously, how about some delicious slice of funk to liven up your Monday? Let's flashback to 1977 when Prince was a 19-year old aspiring musician and he busted out some serious funk with a few other musicians during the Loring Park Sessions. (Coventry Music)

I wrote a short story titled Hot August Night. I might of pimped it before, but I have no shame plugging it again for the recently published November issue. (Truckin')

OK, you know the drill. NGTFOOMO!