The Trailer - Jack Tripper Stole My Dog

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

Soon come.


For more information, visit the website www.jacktripperstolemydog.com.

To get the inside dope on the release date, follow @JackTripperBook on Twitter.

Shamus and The Biggest Game in Town

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA


Every May since 2005, I reread two books as part of my the "Spring Training" preparation that I undertake before I migrate to Las Vegas for the summer to cover the WSOP. One of those books is Al Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town. I won't reveal the other because it's an obscure book that is non-poker related and not Vegas-themed. During the last two or three years, I took the last week off in May to relax with my girlfriend on the beach in Malibu before the WSOP insanity began. During that mini-holiday, I dug my toes into the sand and devoured Alavarez's words.

The poker community dubbed Doyle Brunson as the Godfather of Poker, so it goes without saying that Alvarez is the Godfather of Poker Writers. I've always said that the Brits are among the best poker writers in the business and Alvarez blazed the trail that has since been followed by Tony Holden. It's no coincidence that some of the best poker scribes in the modern area (Howard Swains and Snoopy, to just mention a couple) hail from the United Kingdom.

Alvarez is a fantastic poet, which is why his descriptions of the WSOP in The Biggest Game in Town are enriched by compact and layered sentences that are hearty, illustrative, and powerful -- all in one punch.

In homage to Alvarez, Short-Stacked Shamus recently completed a sensational and entertaining six-part series titled "Rereading The Biggest Game in Town." It was so damn good that I decided to devote an entire post to linking up each part.

Rereading The Biggest Game in Town: Prelude (1 of 6)
Rereading The Biggest Game in Town: Poker’s Challenge to “Reality” (2 of 6)
Rereading The Biggest Game in Town: Losing (3 of 6)
Rereading The Biggest Game in Town: Playing Jimmy Chagra (4 of 6)
Rereading The Biggest Game in Town: Reality and Romance (5 of 6)
Rereading The Biggest Game in Town: America, Where Gambling is a Form of Patriotism (6 of 6)

Well done, sir. Shamus got me all excited to reread The Biggest Game in Town much earlier than May.

By the way, help support independent writers and buy a copy of Shamus' pulp novel Same Difference.

Tao of Poker Nominated for Best Poker Blog

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA



The gang at Bluff Magazine decided that Tao of Poker was worthy enough for a nod in the 2009 Bluff Reader's Choice Awards.

As always, I'm humbled by the nomination. I'm pretty sure that I am not going to win and finish second to los hombres at Wicked Chops Poker. If the category was "best writing" then I wouldn't have anything to worry about. Alas, I can't compete with tits and ass, tits and ass, tits and ass. Congrats to everyone who got nominated. I wonder who Michalski had to pay off to get his nod?

The only way that Tao of Poker has a shot of winning is through your help. As it's always been, I write here for free, so if you like what you have seen over the last 12 months, then I encourage you to vote for Tao of Poker.

There's a bunch of other categories as well. Here's a list of all the nominees.

Click here to vote.


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.

Cezanne = The First Tournament Reporter

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

Paul Cezanne is regarded as one of the leaders of the post-Impressionist painting movement as his extensive body of work bridged the gap between the Impressionists (like Monet) and the Cubists (like Picasso).

Cezanne's paintings fetch millions at auctions in the 20th and 21st century (his biggest seller was listed at $60.5 million 93 years after his death) but much like the majority of his peers, Cezanne struggled to make ends meet while he meticulously worked on the paintings that would someday grace the walls of museums around the world.

Artists are habitually broke. In order to supplement his income, Cezanne took a couple of menial jobs including a stint as a tournament reporter on the short-lived Aix-en-Provence Poker Tour.


Three-handed
Cezanne's painting helped freeze time as we can take a glimpse into the every day life of the rounders of that day. Action was down to three players at the final table. Claude Benyamine (yes, the great-grandfather of David) held the chip lead for majority of the final table. Clad in his unusual purplish-blue overcoat, Claude aggressively built a stack.

Cezanne accurately depicted the rail in his paintings. Yes, even in the late 19th century, broke dick players were a pain in the ass just as they are today. The busto peasants frequently hovered over the final table players seeking a handout... a baguette, a bottle of wine, a buy-in to a PLO cash game.

One of the final table players was actually a pimp and the woman sitting behind him was one of the fillies in his stable of working girls -- who were acceptable forms of currency in cash games and rebuy tournaments similar to the scene in Almost Famous during the road managers poker party when Stillwater's chief lost Penny Lane and two other Band Aids to Humble Pie's manager for the total sum of $50 and a case of Heineken.


Heads Up
Some of Cezanne's best work was during the heads up championships in Provence. His choice of muted colors in the background symbolized the darkness of the poker scene at the time, yet the fuzzy brushstrokes and gradations attempt to distort the view in order to portray the thick and suffocating smoke of gambling halls that also dubbed as brothels.

Cezanne had a tremendous amount of respect for the players -- which is why they are represented in brighter colors especially their hands and fingers.

Cezanne's paintings were versions of a hole cams. Even though the actual cards were not revealed, Cezanne simply used white to depict the winning hand and grey for the losing hand.

Cezanne's short stint as a tournament reporter ended in 1890 and he moved his family to Switzerland to focus on more meaningful pursuits with his painting talents.


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.

Farewell to the Shrink

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA



One of my friends has said good-bye. Please read this juicy post first... Exit Interview from the World of Poker.

I first met Tim Lavailli, aka The Poker Shrink, at the 2006 WSOP. I had read his articles and reports for a few months. Amy Calistri (then the editor of Poker Pages) had hired him as a staff reporter. During one of my initial conversation with the Poker Shrink he recommended a book called... The Devil's Picnic: Travels Through the Underworld of Food and Drink. We had been close ever since.

I had the opportunity to work with the Shrink when John Caldwell hired us to help launch Poker News' new tournament reporting site in early 2007. We both headed down to Australia to cover the Aussie Millions. If you have worked for Poker News as a reporter or simply followed along with their WSOP coverage, then a lot of what you see today (both good and bad) was spawned from trial and error experiments (on the initial release of out-dated software created by Lithuanians who never played poker) that Caldwell, Shrink, Jonno Pittock, and I performed during the 2007 Aussie Millions. So you have us to blame for any grievances.

The Shrink didn't last too long as the helm of TR at Poker News. I wish he elaborated more on the real story aside from "creative differences" but maybe some disputes are best kept behind closed doors.

Although the Shrink and I never worked together again at Poker News, there were plenty of chances to collaborate. He submitted a couple of entertaining stories for Truckin' and I got to glimpse into the non-poker mind of the Shrink. You should check out... Five Dollars for the Colonel and Three Strikes and You're In.

At the 2008 WSOP, the Shrink made a cameo on a Tao of Pokerati episode where he spoke about Adderall and Mike Matusow. It was one of my favorite pieces of reporting from 2008. You can listen to that episode here... Madderall.

At the 2009 WSOP, I took off 20 days to follow Phish and conduct research for a new literary project. During that time, I hired some friends to help me out with content on Tao of Poker. The Shrink stepped up and delivered with Ladies of the Night: WSOP Version and World Series of Penny. He more than earned his spot on the Tao of Poker All Stars.

The most significant contribution that the Poker Shrink made to the poker world was his stellar work with Amy Calistri in unearthing the "extra chips" scandal at the 2006 WSOP. They stepped up and wrote a real piece of journalism instead of the usual fluff pieces. Kudos to them. You can find links to those articles here.

Of course, the Shrink was also a part of the writing team who penned Mike Matusow's autobiography Check-Raising the Devil. After there horrible experiences with their publisher, their situation inspired me to seek self-publishing options for my future manuscripts.

The weeks leading up to the WSOP are exciting because we show up to Las Vegas and bump into people that we only see exclusively on the tournament trail or solely at the WSOP. After our initial greetings, the next question that inevitable comes up, "So, who you working for?"

The answer often contains the name to a different organization. Ah, the revolving door of poker media. Same reporters, different people signing the paychecks. Sometimes my colleagues are moving up the chain, sometimes, they're clutching at straws hoping to hold onto one more year in the poker world.

Sadly, the days following the WSOP are filled with swirling rumors about our futures. More musical chairs. More cutbacks. A handful of my peers who were "freelance" might have gotten lucky and landed full time jobs for the rest of the year based upon their performances from the summer. Others were given the boot based on their anemic performances during the summer due to too much booze, too much degening away their paychecks in the pits, too busy worrying about playing poker to focus on the task at hand.

Every once in a while, you hear an idle threat about a colleague leaving the poker world. Most of it is hot air and mere frustration because frankly, outside of Las Vegas, many of us are virtually unemployable. That's why we ended up in poker media in the first place -- me especially. Some people disappear for a bit, only to show up somewhere down the road working for some obscure Scandi site.

I was shocked two summers ago when Amy Calistri informed us that for the first time in a decade, she was not going to be in Las Vegas for the WSOP. She took a job in the financial sector and never looked back. Amy was part of an elite unit of poker scribes who had the ability to work outside of the gambling universe. She still hung around long enough to help co-pen the Mike Matusow autobiography, but that was part of a deal that she and the Poker Shrink has signed many many many many months before that got delayed by suits, lawyers, agents, and publishers.

At the 2009 WSOP, Oliver Tse mentioned to us many times that this would be his last WSOP as a poker agent. He said his goodbyes to the poker media a few years earlier and finally hung up his hat after a foray into the rigorous and cuthroat world of poker agents. I knew that Oliver's departure was imminent but never saw the Shrink's exit coming.

When the 2009 WSOP ended, I did not expect that would be the last time we would see the Poker Shrink. I knew that he was in the middle of a re-organization of his life... aren't we all? If you know the Shrink, you know that every few years he shakes things up and take a stab at a different profession. I figured that he was in the process of a "life shuffle" and I didn't really take his hints too seriously. After all, he just had a book come out, he was working on a screenplay, and his head shrinking services were still in high demand.

If there's one thing I learned about working in the poker industry -- there's a significant amount of individuals in poker who are completely fucked in the head.

The media room is riddled with debt, severe brain damage, Swine Flu, STDs, alcohol poisoning, and post-traumatic stress syndrome. The Shrink's presence on the circuit was detrimental for the physical well being of my peers, but then again, he was tragically overwhelmed by psychologically-tormented reporters, players, and tournament staff. The Shrink's daunting task mirrored a medic on the beaches of Normandy a during the D-Day invasion in 1944. Under heavy fire, the Shrink had a little bit of gauze and a couple of syringes of morphine to try to heal an entire beachfront of GIs mangled and torn to shreds from Nazi gunners. He did what he could to stop the bleeding and I always asked him to hook me up with more morphine.

When the Shrink stopped by the press box at the 2009 WSOP, he was a doctor making morning rounds in a hospital, checking out charts, and chatting with patients. Sometimes we'd talk for ninety seconds. Sometimes we'd chat for ninety minutes. Most of the time I was trying to flush a Pink Floyd song soaking in my brain... "There's someone in my head, but it's not me" ...and the Shrink was often able to give me a kick in the right direction.

For that assistance, he will be dearly missed. Thanks for all the guidance, sir.

I got a chance to get to know the man behind the Poker Shrink, and I'm a better person for that. The Shrink is nowhere near the twilight of his existence, but he knows all too dearly how precious life can be and he didn't want to donk off another half of a decade in a transforming industry with a murky future. He's moving on and I wish him the best of luck.

By the way, did you leave any extra prescription pads lying around before your departure?


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.

O.E.

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA


When I was in high school, I used to drink Olde English 800 out of paper bags. We bought O.E. in bodegas because the Asian or Middle Eastern immigrants who worked behind the counters never carded us. These days O.E. takes on a whole new set of meanings in my vernacular. In case you were wondering, almost twenty years later, O.E. now stands for Op-Ed.

I'm starting a new weekly assignment next Sunday. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'll be writing Sunday morning Op-Eds over at Poker News.

When I was a little kid, newspapers were titans in the media industry and still meant something then circa the late 1970s. Newspapers were the major source of news in that era before the change shifted towards TV and cable news in the 1980s and then shifted again to the internet at the turn of the century. I always held Sunday Op-Ed writers in the highest regard. They were often feature writers (who didn't write for that paper) sounding off on a hot topic.

Thanks to Matt Parvis for bringing me aboard for the rest of the year. I welcome this prestigious opportunity to tackle a slightly different aspect of poker. Check back in with Poker News next Sunday September 6th for my first contribution.


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.

Soon Come.... 2009 WSOP and the Tao of Poker All Stars

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA


One of my favorite bars and live music venues in New Orleans is called the Maple Leaf. If you have ever been there, you know that it's one of those late night gin and music joints that rarely comes alive before 2am.

There are dozens of places like the Maple Leaf scattered around the Crescent City and they have been operating for decades and decades primarily catering to local musicians. That's where they congregated at the end of the night after playing different gigs all around town. They drank, talked music, swapped stories, and got up on stage and jammed together until sunrise.

There are two kinds of musicians... working and not-working. The majority of the working musicians in New Orleans with steady gigs often played sets at the different tourist traps in the French Quarter, while other musicians played gigs at joints Uptown for wealthy locals and Tulane students. All of these working musicians performed for a salary and very rarely did they have the opportunity to play their own music, instead playing mostly cover tunes and standard Jazz favorites. When the Saints Go Marching In didn't exactly satisfy the soul for the musicians (mostly black) who played the song night after night to a crowd of drunken tourists (mostly white). Luckily, those musicians had another outlet which kept them sane.

Sometimes creative people have to suck up their pride and sell a little bit of their talents to the art profiting mongers because they had bills to pay and families to support. The New Orleans musicians adapted to the reality of the situation. There was a demand for musicians, but they had very little if no say on the music they produced on a daily basis. Sure, they were deeply fortunate for the chance to play their instruments, let alone play for money. But those gigs? Just a day job.

However, the city's best musicians poured their souls out onstage during soused late night jam sessions in the dark and smokey clubs like the Maple Leaf. The best music that New Orleans had to offer and where the real magic happened in the wee hours as night bled into day. Some guys played two or three sets at different tourist traps around New Orleans. Even though they were bone dead tired after their sets, they rushed to the other side of town to the Maple Leaf where they pounded a few shots of whiskey, dragged a little reefer, and stepped on stage to speak their mind.

The musicians didn't want hordes of tourists pestering them to play material and compositions that where not theirs. They simply wanted to express themselves and allow the music to flow through them as it should... unfiltered and from the heart. The Maple Leaf and places like it were a refuge for musicians and the place that they looked forward to getting to at the end of the night.

This summer will be my fifth WSOP. Every year I have tried to do something different that I did not do the year before. Last summer, I incorporated Twitter into the mix. And this year? I hope to apply the Maple Leaf concept to the Tao of Poker. Simply put, I'm opening up the stage to some of my closest friends and colleagues. I'm excited that there will be several guest posters and contributors throughout the WSOP which I'm dubbing the... Tao of Poker All Stars.


These contributors all come from all walks of life and offer up unique perspectives on poker. They have been a part of the traditional poker media and because of circumstances beyond their control, they are not permitted to fully speak their mind. During the days, they will toe the company line and keep the wheels in the great poker machine running. However, there is one bastion of freedom and I do not use that word lightly. They will have unfettered access on the Tao of Poker to say the things that they cannot say during their day jobs.

They will tell us their stories. Unfiltered and raw and the way they should be allowed to express themselves.

Some of my friends are extremely talented scribes but have never been able to flourish due to the fluff-factor that drives the poker media. Their talents will not be wasted on sterile hand histories and chip counts, rather, they will tell you the straight dope on what's happening at the WSOP.

Since 2005, the Tao of Poker has always been the place on the web to get the inside scoop on the WSOP and take a peak behind the scenes. That tradition will continue in 2009 because I'm assembling some of the best writers in the industry.

So who's going to be part of the Tao of Poker All Stars? Here's a little clue...


The WSOP begins in three weeks. And in case you were dying to know, I will be writing exclusively for the Tao of Poker, along with several friends of course.

Click here for the 2009 WSOP Schedule.

Stay tuned for more info...


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.

Check-Raising the Devil: The Mike Matusow Autobiography

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA


In America, we're suckers for a rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-rehab-to-riches stories.

Mike Matusow epitomized the American Dream and an E! True Hollywood Story all rolled up into one... white trash roots, lived a wild yet misunderstood childhood, harnessed an innate genius to become famous and rich, partied to excess, got in trouble with the law, went to rehab, and bounced back into the spotlight as one of the most noticeable pros in the game.

One month from today, on May 12th, the highly anticipated Mike Matusow autobiography will be released... Mike Matusow: Check-Raising the Devil written by Amy Calistri and Dr. Tim Lavalli (aka the Poker Shrink).

Check-Raising the Devil was not the first attempt at extracting an autobiography from The Mouth. Michael Craig was originally attached to the project circa 2006 and spent the better part of the Christmas holiday in 2006 interviewing Matusow in Las Vegas. Within a couple of weeks, Craig left the project due to creative differences with Matusow's agent, and that's when Amy and the Shrink got a crack at the book. They officially jumped on board after the 2007 WSOP and they have been attached to the project ever since. Craig even offered up all his notes and interview tapes that were approximately fours hours in length. It total, the Shrink accumulated over 70+ hours of audio interviews with Matusow which were the genesis of the book.

I'm friends with both authors and obtained first-hand knowledge regarding the trials and tribulations of the entire process. From the get-go, Amy and the Shrink had major obstacles to overcome beginning with hold-ups and delays in securing the contract to write the book. There were plenty of challenges dealing with a volatile personality such as Mike Matusow and keeping him focused enough to talk about specific and difficult points in his life.

The book was not an easy birth. Amy and the Shrink were bogged down in hellacious struggles between themselves and the publishers during the editing process. The original first chapter was cut and hopefully Amy and Shrink will share that will us someday. I'd actually love to read the original "authors'" cut before the publishing company hacked up and re-organized their manuscript.

Amy wrote on her blog...

"Getting a book out is like having a baby. At first, you're all starry eyed with the romantic notion. By the end of it, you're calling everyone in the delivery room a cocksucker.

The only difference is that just as you're ready to push out your book, the doctor starts saying things like, "Are you married to the name? Let's change the name" or "It would be a lot easier to deliver if we could lose a few appendages. Look, it's never gonna be a Major League pitcher. We can lose a few fingers and the kid won’t even miss them." In the end, you hope that what comes out resembles the vision you had going into the project.

Yet despite all the behind-the-scenes bullshit, Amy and the Shrink pieced together an entertaining autobiography that depicted Matusow's rise from humble beginnings in a Nevada trailer park to achieving rock-and-roll status after winning millions of dollars on the poker circuit. The dark side of Las Vegas, morbid addiction, and fame preyed on Matusow and he quickly fell from grace. And when you fall in Vegas... you fall hard and fast. After time in rehab and a stint in prison, Matusow eventually sought salvation and with the proper guidance he's headed towards redemption.

According to the Poker Shrink....

"I am glad that poker fans will finally get the opportunity to hear Mike's side of the story. I can only promise that some of the tales will seem like Mike is covering up his guilt or blame, others will surely seem like way more of a confession than you ever would have expected but finally, there are stories in the book that no one has ever heard before and Mike was honest enough to tell them like they happened and never once asked us to tone them down or clean them up."

Check-Raising the Devil was written in the first person. The editors obviously cleaned up a lot of Matusow-speak, which is sort of like watching The Breakfast Club on TNT in a edited-for-TV sort of way. That's not to say that they censored all the partying and drug scenes. All of the mischievous hijinks were included (although some of the names were changed) and and if anything, they held back on a few scenes.

It's been widely known in poker circles that Matusow had a penchant for street drugs for many years for both recreational and self-medicating purposes. His struggles with drugs affected his poker play in both positive and negative ways. The book discusses that aspect in great detail... how meth was initially a wonder drug for Matusow and he went on a million-dollar rush tweaking his ass off... but in the end, the addiction and reliance upon speed led to his downfall at the tables.

Thee heart of the book included chapters discussing the recovery > sting > arrest > trail > prison. After realizing the partying and meth was rotting his brain and destroying his future as a professional poker player, Matusow had cleaned up his act and was trying to turn his life around when he got set up doing a coke deal for a couple of friends who turned out to be a DEA agent and an FBI informant.

The prison chapter stood out from the rest of the book. Matusow painted us a word picture of what it was like being in jail from the different jobs he had (kitchen detail, laundry, and landscaping) to his multiple experiences with getting thrown in the hole. Supposedly, someone from the inside kept messing with Matusow's status and he was constantly moved around from the mellower parts of the prison to the dreaded North Tower where the hardened criminals were quartered. On Matusow's first night in the North Tower, his cellmate threatened to kick his ass if he snored. That instantly scared the fuck out of Matusow and he did everything possible to stay awake. He eventually dozed off and he woke up with his cellmate choking him. A scuffle ensued and Matusow quickly asked to be transferred. The guards gave him two choices... stay in the cell with the psychopath... or get thrown into the hole. Matusow chose the hole.

Hard core poker fans will love the detailed hand analysis from different highlights in Matusow's tournament career (first bracelet win, the 2005 Main Event final table, and the TOC victory), however, those were some of my least favorite parts. The specifics slowed down the pacing of the book and after a while, I skimmed those sections and feasted on the juiciest parts such as the prison chapter.

As a known drug fiend, I was intrigued with the self-medication vs. doctor-prescribed pharmies battle. That's one of the most intriguing parts of the book even though Matusow's mental stability was just a back-story. Obviously, the strengths of the Poker Shrink where shining through on those sections.

Several poker biographies/autobiographies were released over the last few years and Matusow's story is by far one of the most fascinating stories that I read in recent memory. You can pre-order the Matusow book today via Amazon. The book will be released in stores on May 12.


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.

Published Articles Archives

Here you go...

2005
Online Poker Screen Names: Hidden Tells? (Pokertv.com)
How To Get Thrown Out Of A Poker Game (Poker Magazine)
SNG Strategy (Professional-Poker.com)
Book Review: Internet Texas Hold'em by Matthew Hilger (Professional-Poker.com)
Book Review: Tao of Poker by Larry K. Phillips (Professional-Poker.com)
Benny Binion and The Horseshoe Casino (Professional-Poker.com)
European Poker Tour (Professional-Poker.com)
Sad Amy (Poker Player Newspaper)
Poker Tournaments and TV Coverage (Pokertv.com)
Gaining the Edge in Online Poker (Poker Player Newspaper)
Poker Hall of Fame (Professional-Poker.com)
Party Poker Review (Poker Magazine)
Play Poker Like the Pros... and Go Broke (Poker Magazine)
Avoiding Tilt Online (Poker Magazine)
The Next Champion? (Poker Player Newspaper & Fox Sports)
Full Tilt Poker Review (Poker Magazine)
Those Cheating Games (Poker Magazine)
Poker Movies (Professional-Poker.com)
WSOP: First Impressions (Fox Sports)
WSOP: An Amazing Second Week (Poker Magazine)
Reategui Runs Over the Final Table (Poker Player Newspaper)
T.J. Cloutier Wins Event #13 (Poker Player Newspaper)
T.J. Cloutier Interview (Professional-Poker.com)
Erik Seidel Wins Event #9 (Poker Player Newspaper)
Son Rise (Fox Sports)
Mark Seif Wins 2nd WSOP Bracelet (Poker Player Newspaper)
A Guy Named Charlie (Fox Sports)
The Mighty Quinn Strikes Gold (Lasvegasvegas.com)
Phil Ivey Wakes Up to Win 5th Bracelet (Poker Player Newspaper)
Johnny Chan Makes History with 10th Bracelet (Fox Sports)
Doyle Brunson Wins 10th Bracelet (Fox Sports)
Actress Jen Tilly Wins WSOP Ladies Event (Fox Sports)
Joe Hachem: 2005 WSOP Champion (Poker Player Newspaper)
Before They Were Pros (Poker Magazine)
Jumping the Poker Shark (Poker Player Newspaper)
No Limit Life: A Book Review (Poker Player Newspaper)
The Stupidest Games I Ever Played (Poker Magazine)
Purity at the Poker Tables (Poker Magazine)
A Look at Joe Hachem (Poker Player Newspaper)
EPT: Frenchman Wins Barcelona Open (Poker Player Newspaper)
Al Ardebili Wins WPT Borgata (Poker Player Newspaper)
Minh Ly Wins Doyle Brunson North American Classic (Poker Player Newspaper)

2006
Poker Greats: Johnny Chan (Poker Magazine)
WPT Championship: Sharks Dead, Chicks Rule (Poker Player Newspaper)
2006 WPT Championship Final Table Report (Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Poker: Avoiding Distractions (Poker Player Newspaper)
Poker Blog: The Best of the Rest (Bluff)
Longshot Wins WPT Championship (Poker Pro)
Pauly's Picks: Las Vegas Poker (Lasvegasvegas.com)
Celebrity Endorsements (Poker Player Newspaper)
2006 WSOP Odds (Lasvegasvegas.com)
2006 WSOP Preview (Fox Sports)
Internet Gaming Prohibition (Poker Player Newspaper)
Mike Sexton Wins Tournamanet of Champions (Poker Player Newspaper)
First Impressions: 2006 WSOP (Fox Sports)
Online Legends: Johnny Bax (Poker Player Newspaper)
Dark Horse: Chip Reese Wins $50K HORSE (Fox Sports)
Online Poker Tools and Programs(Poker Player Newspaper)
Hollywood agent Jamie Gold Wins 2006 WSOP(Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Legends: Eric 'Rizen' Lynch(Poker Player Newspaper)
Poker Blogs(Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Poker Tells(Poker Player Newspaper)
Bad Beated by Frist(Poker Player Newspaper)
JC Tran Wins WCOOP(Poker Player Newspaper)
Book Review: Internet Texas Hold'em(Poker Player Newspaper)
More Poker Industry Jobs Lost(Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Legends: Strassa2(Poker Player Newspaper)
Poker Blogs: The Best of the Best (Bluff Magazine)

2007
The Post-Modern American Dream, PART 1(Poker Player Newspaper)
The Post-Modern American Dream, PART 2(Poker Player Newspaper)
Aussie Arrival (Poker News)
Erick Lindgren Wins $1 Million at Aussie Millions (Poker News)
Gus Hansen Wins Aussie Millions (Poker News)
Breaking News: Jamie Gold Lawsuit Settled(Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Hands(Poker Player Newspaper)
Tilt and Flow(Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Legends: Gobboboy(Poker Player Newspaper)
LA Poker Classic: Amateur Wins $2.4 Million (Poker News)
More Online Hands(Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Players Shine in California(Poker Player Newspaper)
EPT Championships at Monte Carlo: Day 1 Recap (Poker News)
Gavin Griffin Wins EPT Grand Finale (Poker News)
WSOP Satellites (Poker Player Newspaper)
WPT Championships Day 1a: Phil Hellmuth & Jamie Gold Show (Poker News)
Carlos Mortensen Wins WPT Championship (Poker News)
Cory Carroll Wins WSOP Circuit at Caesar's Palace (Poker News)
Guide to Online Poker Screen Names (Poker Player Newspaper)
Winning Hands (Poker Player Newspaper)
Online Legends: Annette_15 (Poker Player Newspaper)
Ghost of Stuey Ungar (Poker Player Newspaper)
WSOP Hands (Poker Player Newspaper)
Taking Shots (Poker Player Newspaper)
Stalking Pros (Poker Player Newspaper)
Labyrinth of Avarice (Poker Player Newspaper)
Annette_15 Wins WSOP Europe (Poker Player Newspaper)
Harmonious Bubbles (Poker Player Newspaper)
UIGEA Rules Proposal (Ongame Zone)
The Warrior Within (Poker Player Newspaper)
Amsterdam and Stockholm (Bluff Magazine)
Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) (Ongame Zone)
Barcelona (Bluff Magazine)

2008
London (Bluff Magazine)
Super Bowl Preview - Can the Giants Stop Perfection? (Sports Betting News)
Sun Tzu, Hamlet, and Bruce Lee (Poker Player Newspaper)
NBA: Big Value (Sports Betting News)
Invasion of the Tilt Monkeys (Poker Player Newspaper)
Key West (Bluff Magazine)
Folding Queens (Poker Player Newspaper)
Australia Part 1 (Bluff Magazine)
Back to NL (Poker Player Newspaper)
Australia & New Zealand (Bluff Magazine)
PLO Junkie (Poker Player Newspaper)
WSOP Flashback: June 26,2005 (Bluff Magazine)
Halfrek Wins Two FTOPS (Poker Player Newspaper)
WSOP Flashback: Charlie Tuttle (Bluff Magazine)
Don't Miss Week 1 of the WSOP (Poker News)
WSOP Changes (Poker News)
WSOP 50K HORSE Preview (Poker News)
WSOP: Battle for Europe (Poker News)
Most Underrated Player in Poker: Erik Seidel (Poker News)
Sick Final Tables (Poker News)
Scotty's Brother (Poker News)
Almost Famous (Poker News)
WSOP: Five Young Guns (Poker News)
Celebrities at the WSOP (Poker News)
Baseball and Poker (Poker Player Newspaper)
WSOP Flashback: Binion's (Bluff Magazine)
Leaks in My Game (Poker Player Newspaper)
The Return of Archie Karas (Bluff Magazine)
Tapping the Glass (Poker Player Newspaper)
Michael Martin Wins EPT London (Poker Player Newspaper)
The Brat vs. The Mouth (Bluff Magazine)
Ending the Skid (Poker Player Newspaper)
Atlantic City Upper Crust (Bluff Magazine)
Globetrotting Poker (Poker Player Newspaper)
London Tales from the WSOP-E and EPT (Bluff Magazine)

2009
PCA: Ricky Bobby (Poker Stars Blog)
PCA: Post-Modern American Dream Re-Visited (Poker Stars Blog)
More Hands, More Action (Poker Player Newspaper)
Budapest (Bluff Magazine)
The Year of Badugi (Poker Player Newspaper)
Shining at the PCA (Poker Player Newspaper)
LAPT Mexico - Shakedown (Bluff Magazine)
The November Nine (Bluff Magazine)
Bad Beats in Life and Poker (Poker Players Newspaper)
The Bahamas (Bluff Magazine)
LAPT Mar Del Plata - Argentina (Bluff Magazine)
WSOP FLashback: Doyle Wins #10 (Poker News)
Higher and Higher (Poker Player Newspaper)
2006 WSOP Flashback (Bluff Magazine)
Beverly Hills Home Game (Bluff Magazine)
2005 WSOP Flashback: Cyndy Violette vs. Erik Seidel (Poker News)
2009 WSOP (Bluff Magazine)
Moneymaker the Modern Gatsby (Poker Player Newspaper)
Chat Clowns (Poker Player Newspaper)
WSOP - Embedded With Railbirds (Bluff)
WCOOP - Let's Make It Better (Poker News)
Worlds Collide: Poker and Twitter (Poker News)
Winning Dream Team Poker (Bluff)
You Play to Win the Game (Poker News)
Story of the Ghost: Martonas (Poker Player Newspaper)
Iron Man (Poker News)
Tilting Tourists (Bluff)
2009 Poker Hall of Fame (Poker News)
Nose Bleed Update: Martonas (Poker Player Newspaper)
The Watchers (Poker News)
Raymond Davis - the Badugi Master (Poker Player Newspaper)
Anatomy of the Rail (Poker News)
WSOP Main Event: Overlooking Second Place (Bluff)
Sports Betting Erodes Your Poker Bankroll (Poker News)
Mike Sexton and the Poker Hall of Fame Dinner (Poker News)
Timoshenko Wins $1.7 Million in the WCOOP (Poker Player Newspaper)
Save the Sharks (Poker News)
November Nine: Cada's Crew (Bluff)
Who Is Isildur1? (Poker News)
Isildur1 Wins $1.3 Million Online Pot (Poker Player Newspaper)
Review: 2009 (Poker Player Newspaper)

2010
Dispatches from Costa Rica (Bluff)
The Slide: Isildur1’s $8 Million Downswing (Poker Player Newspaper)
Pai Gow Tales (Bluff)
Digging Out of a Hole (Poker Player Newspaper)
LAPT Punta del Este: Nacho Barbero Wins First LAPT Title (PokerStars Blog)
Slump Busting at the Mirage (Bluff)
Isildur1 Returns... and Busts (Poker Player Newspaper)