The Fat Guy and Fluxer

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

Life is incredibly precious, short, and confusing. Depending on the time of day, life walks the fine line between heaven and hell. Cherish what you have.

I'm writing this post with sincere sadness and grief about two old school poker bloggers -- one took his life a few weeks ago and another has come to face to face with his own mortality. If you know what the WPBT is, then you should sit down because I'm about to reveal a bit of heavy-handed information.

First of all, I want to point you out to the Fat Guy's courageous post revealing his battle with cancer. He wrote it in the typical Fat Guy format -- no bullshit. He's always been a straight shooter since the first day I've read TFG.

Almost nightly, I used to play online poker with the Fat Guy circa 2004 on Party Poker and Empire Poker. Fun times for sure during the halcyon days of online poker. Most recently during the WSOP, I exchanged a series of hysterical emails with the Fat Guy because he's the tech guy behind the Pokerati empire. You can only imagine the hilarity that ensued when Fat Guy and I tried to figure out how to upload raw files of Tao of Pokerati episodes onto the server. Long story short -- he was drunk when giving instructions and I was too baked upon reading them -- but we finally cracked skulls long enough and solved the problem.

Anyway, stop by the Fat Guy's site today and see if you can help him out. The Fat Guy is truly one of the few good guys I've met in poker.

Now onto even more depressing news...

If you don't know Fluxer... he was the blogger behind Wired Pairs (site has been taken down for over a year or more). Fluxer took his life a few weeks ago. The news was startling but did not come as a surprise because those close to him know he struggled with the simplicities of life for some time now. Just like Veneno, I've been wrought with guilt because I might have been able to pull him out of his doldrums.

Anyway, Veneno created a tribute site for Fluxer. So, if you've ever played online poker with Fluxer, please stop by. RIP Fluxer.

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My apologies about being such a Debbie Downer on a Monday of all days.

Rest assured, I'm on the tail end of a vacation and will be returning to regular posting on Tao of Poker shortly. We have a plethora of sportsbetting opportunities on the horizon with the baseball playoffs and the start of the NFL season. In addition, I'll be playing more cash games in the future and detailing my poker progress with as much jaded snark as I can conjure up. Until then, I have to finish up packing up my office, because I'm on the move...