This show is the antithesis of Beyond the Table when it comes to intellect, humor, and style, and at a well-produced hour long — some of it reading of books about poker philosophy and literature — it’s pretty much the opposite of Tao of Pokerati, time- and speed-wise. And yet for some reason, as I’m waiting for my turn to call in to a non-poker conference call and am catching up on filing, I love it. Think it has something to do with sitting alone in the office and not being the smartest person in the room.
The 2008 World Series has come and gone and will most likely, in a little less than three months, will come again. In the meantime, while cleaning out the computer(s) we’ve come across these “lost” episodes … recorded in the tail days of the main event. But this is everything … there’s no more, OK? At least not for now. So if you’d like to step back into the WSOP for just a few minutes at a time to the vocal stylings of yours truly and Dr. Pauly, by all means, have a listen/download. Some of it actually seems a little extra interesting with the benefit of a month-or-so of hindsight.
Episode 31: Scotchy Poker
Dan+scotch early in the WSOP day=talk of Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier. (4:02) Episode 32: French Warfare Benjo takes over the mic when Dan calls in drunk, and he and Pauly talk more about Isabelle Mercier live from the Day 2 killing fields. (5:14) Episode 33: New York & Texas Michele Lewis joins in as Dan and Pauly break down the difference between Texas and New York humor, or at least the difference between Pauly and Dan. (2:40) Episode 34: Go Team!
Dallas’ Raj Kattamuri is going deep, and Pauly tracks down Dan in the poker kitchen to find out what it takes to be patched up on Team Pokerati. (2:37) Episode 35: No Wiener
Benjo is not his usual jovial self as the main event comes to a close and he bids farewell to his American friends in the penultimate WSOP episode of Tao of Pokerati. (4:41) Episode 36: Unhookered
The traditional late-late night poker-blogger farewell binge drinking at the Rio’s Hooker Bar, with guest appearances by Otis and Mean Gene. (3:29)
[Actually I started writing this post last night, and somewhere along the way fell asleep ... I know, funny ... but I swear that's not a review of the episode. It was a lovely serenade, and gave me funky dreams about playing pot-limit Omaha in Budapest until the turtle came in and put a stop to my check-raise with just a pair of gypsies ...]
Poker archaeologists recently unearthed this episode of Tao of Pokerati, an ancient recording that carbon-dates back to Day 3 of the main event of the 2008 WSOP. In it, Dr. Pauly and I survey the tournament remains after the slaughter of 6,111 players and speculate on what human life is like so close to the money bubble. Ah, yes, it was a fascinating era — one that witnessed the death of Eric Morris and the survival of Ignacious Rex; a time where players Pauly identifies as “Average Joes” heavily outnumbered “unknown” pros like Pat Poels who knew all too well that further bloodshed and eventual extinction was all but inevitable.
This seems as good a time as any to share with you another leftover bonus! episode of Tao of Pokerati … where Dr. Pauly chats with Change100 (his personal fashion yogini) about Tiffany Michelle’s attire before her Ultimate Bet patchwork became such a major wardrobe malfunction. It’s sickeningly cute as this pokerblogging duo draws the fine line between rocker-chick chic and Tijuana hooker — and further fashion analysis tries to differentiate between the new-money stylings of Alexander Kostritsin, typical “online douchebag” and Mean Gene, and the poker-prep ways of Shronk and Brandon Adams.
Pauly’s got up a great recount up of our whole Tao of Pokerati experience at the WSOP. But guess what, we’re not done yet … still have a few more episodes to share with you, and Brian Balsbaugh and Oliver Tse our agents are in negotiations with French authorities over possible continuation of the show.
Meanwhile, one leftover episode — actually it’s a 6-minute double-episode — that seems particularly timely with the benefit of hindsight was recorded from the dead-center of an emptied out Amazon room, shortly after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. Here Dr. Pauly and I survey the atmospheric damage as “the last hope” of the main event exits the building … and I argue that she was the only one of the final 27 players with true Chris Moneymaker potential — meaning her performance wasn’t so much about her own abilities to win big cash as it was about the future of poker. Comparisons to Scotty Nguyen and college basketball as well, before one of your not-so-gracious hosts goes through severe WSOP separation anxiety.
I continue to work the hallways and set up executive-journo shop this time outside the payouts cage — where Pauly teaches me how to figure out who’s really backing whom … but not before we get distracted by a player sponsorship deal taking shape right before our very eyes, as a PartyPoker representative exchanges pleasantries with guys who clearly love the show Entourage agents from Poker Royalty. (Nothing would become of these pre-negotiations, however, as the lone remaining PartyPoker player would go from chip leader to out in 71st place in less than a day — falling just 62 spots short of the ever-valuable final table that various poker bizzers are jockeying for a piece of.)
Recorded a couple days ago, as we were nearing the bubble … Benjo dropped by Tao of Pokerati studios to give his opinion on poker agents (they suck the blood out of the poker economy), France’s best WSOP hopes (they’re all gonna make the money), and how bad at poker Polacks are (can’t even win their own tourneys … zee eediotes).
For some reason that’s really kinda hard to figure out, everyone likes Mike Matusow … maybe its because he encompasses the issues of every emotionally disturbed pre-adolescent boy any of us knew or were. So when you can be entertained by his downswings, how can you not celebrate his successes and root for more? After all, if this guy who clearly got in lots of trouble in elementary/Hebrew school can do it, why can’t we, right?
That’s just a guess, really, on my part. But Pauly tries to get down to the brass tacks of it all by talking with the Poker Shrink, who happens to be working on Mike’s autobiography with Amy Calistri. And in doing so, we learn not only about Mike’s strategy that brought him to Day 5 and what he’s looking to do moving forward, but also the Shrink tells us about Mike’s performance enhancing drug use — and the mutual benefits of Adderall, a drug that keeps certain people sane and happens to help them focus on the poker at hand.
A little leftover T-o-P audio, recorded late-night on Day 2B, as I throw the entire observant media for a loop by setting up shop outside the standard media home bases for the biggest Day 2 in the history of poker. People are baffled, and some want to know who’s winning … when all we really know is that about 200-an-hour aren’t. Special appearances by a tournament floor supervisor and some Euro-friends from PokerListings, PokerStars, etc. devolves into prop-betting over the gender and race of people emerging from a set of doors.
The 2008 main event gets into the money, and 666 players in the World Series of Satan Poker experience $20,000+ of pleasure. It’s an exciting time as a bunch of people take pleasure in one man’s demise (who then get’s called up on stage to see if he can resist screaming “Fuck You!” to the whole crowd. Before all is said and done, Juan from PokerNews-España informs us of one player — Fernando Gordo — who didn’t show up for Day 3 and survives with two chips and a chair. Can you imagine how fast his table must’ve wanted to play while the others were wanting to go slow? Regardless, forget imagining … listen for yourself, and experience the only “sport” where 667th place comes with such intense agony and ecstasy.
Phil Gordon is still alive and well in the main event — and because he clearly doesn’t have his podcast priorities straight, I got to sit in for him on ESPN’s The Poker Edge. This was new poker podcast territory for me, as co-host Andrew Feldman made me talk about actual poker players and chips — as if we were tracking some sort of athletic competition or something. But in doing so, we actually get down to the brass tax of it all, and break down what this field size, blind structure, and remaining-player make-up means for various stack sizes going into Day 3.
Sorry for the brief delay in getting new episodes of Tao of Pokerati to you. Our production crew was being held hostage by our fellow podcast colleague/competitors at Poker Road and ESPN! They apparently went to all lengths possible to keep the T-O-P down, but we knew it was only a matter of time before the military arrived, freed the T-O-P crew, and deprogrammed the secret mental suggestion they implanted in the hosts’ brains to drink more and podcast less.
This special double-album episode starts out with an update from my undercover investigative reporting on the trials and travails of branding players with sticky fabrics, and from there, Dr. Pauly and I dig in to what’s at stake in some of the cutthroat agent warfare going on inside and outside the ropes during the main event.
For those of you still alive in the main event, or perhaps those who wish they still were, here’s a good song — you’re welcome to borrow it — to keep you thinkin’ straight and your eye on the prize as the field works its way toward the bubble:
Click below for the lyrics. They don’t speak specifically about the 2008 main event, but if you close your eyes and pretend, they really do have a lot to do with a poker player’s struggle to acquire chips (and keep them) en route to making the money.
Also works as a good soundtrack for reading Pokerati, of course. More…
WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb taking in the spectacle of the main event and whatever it may suggest about what’s ahead on the poker horizon.
All WSOP-long I’ve been seeing Lyle Berman and feeling torn between my journalistic ethos and respect for poker etiquette. Here, the guy who has answers to everything everyone wants to know about the future of the World Poker Tour has been anywhere from 10-feet to 100 yards away from me, but I can’t bring myself to approach him mid-tourney or just after a painful bustout to pepper him with questions about whether or not the business he helped build is crumbling. Call me a wussy journo or poker fanboy, but could I really take a chance of putting Mr. Berman on tilt, especially when WPTE stock is trading for less than a dollar a share and he might really need the prize money?
But lo and behold, WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb showed up at the Rio yesterday, and he wasn’t playing! He was just taking his annual tour of the WSOP main event with buddy Jeffrey Pollack … which seemed like a great time to trip him by the shoelaces, pin him down on the ground and shove a recorder in his face while threatening to pop him with a loogie. Alas, no one had a concealed watergun in the pressbox and he was wearing loafers, but still … Lipscomb did sit down with Pokerati for almost a half hour during the main event and give some frank(ish) answers to whatever softballs I could hurl at him.
(NOTE: I didn’t know at the time that the WPT had laid off about 10 people last week and was about to give a few more their walking papers today — but now his comments about hating that part of the job make a little more sense.)
Pauly and I step into the Poker Kitchen to discuss Ante Up for Africa — essentially the We Are the World of poker tournaments — and in doing so chew on the difference between ’80s famine and Darfur genocide, life outside the WSOP bubble, the mindset of pros playing for a good cause with a tournament underlay, and a lack of charity signage in what’s supposed to be a charity WSOP VIP lounge.
I meet up with Pauly in the Amazon Room, observing the end of Day 1A, where we speculate on on the over/under for the overall main event field size and the price of my watch. Otis then jumps in with tales of being forcibly removed from the tournament area by a mocking floorman amid fears of over-soiled chips and accusations of semi-murder at the tables.
Poker pros, poker media, WSOP execs, agents, and interns convened a couple days ago at the Sapphire Club for the Bluff Magazine party — a delightfully rancorous fête celebrating the end of regular WSOP season and kicking off the main event playoffs … and of course, Tao of Pokerati was there. In this episode, Pauly gets a lapdance, I miss my days in the strip-club biz, and Otis tries to arrange a $1,000 beer pong game with Doyle Brunson. All in all, the poker field trip to the industry’s favorite Vegas titty bar leads to lower-midstakes ballin’ at its most pathetic finest.
We take you into Tao of Pokerati studios on a random Sunday evening bustling with action. Pauly and I look at Kiddie Table HORSE and discuss how a new player-of-the-year point system — with Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren at the Big Dog HORSE final table — presents real possibilities for a WSOP Triple Crown. Special appearances by Isabelle Mercier, David Benyamine, Donkey Bomber, Jerry Buss, Cyndy Violette, Richard Brodie, and Chris Ferguson.
The Daily Show had its Stephen Colbert and Happy Days gave us Mork from Ork. At Tao of Pokerati we’ve got Benjo, the sometimes Angry, sometimes -orny Frenchman. While a little drinky at the Gold Coast, the top blogger in all of Europoker stepped up to the mike for the betterment of American and non-American listeners alike. In these episode add-ons, Benjo reports on what you learn from watching poker on a colleague’s computer; Bellagio tournament chips being used to pay (stupid) hookers; and the under-the-table pressures on a grown-up French schoolboy working the WSOP …
Tao of Pokerati walk across Valley View Blvd. to enjoy cheap (but good) beer, low-stakes gambling, and conjugal visit weekend as the WSOP gets ready to kick into high gear.
Pauly and I take the Tao of Pokerati studios remote — and set up shop in the Milwaukee’s Best Light Lounge to watch the chipstacks of a PLO/8 final table (on dinner break) as Eric Seidel goes for bracelet #9 (against Casey Kastle) in what may or may not be a record final table. While Phil Hellmuth has the decades left to stay ahead of the pack, Seidel stands a better chance than Doyle Brunson of catching him, chronologically at least.
And Tao of Pokerati is all over it a day and a half ago! Listen live, or at least semi-live, as Pauly and Benjo (filling in) speculate on my whereabouts (and the Pokerati sex slave business empire) when their hardcore reporting and potential slander of California Jen is interrupted by Doyle Brunson’s cashing for $124k in the Big HORSE event.
Tuscaloosa Johnny, representin’ for the first few levels in $1,500 HORSE at the 2008 WSOP.
Here’s Tuscaloosa Johnny’s “bustout interview” — you can feel the pain of a man who falls short of his dreams and must face the reality that he’s a long way away from the $50k HORSE final table, aka poker’s grandest stage … because really, when your two-pair run into rolled-up 10s that turn into a straight in 7-stud what can you do? I mean other than hit stuff fold.
Sorry for the ToP delays … but Tao of Pokerati gets back to the mike … this time railbirding the $50k HORSE masseuses as we have our first semi-topless guest on the show (from a distance) and question massage strategy.
Yeah yeah, I know … this is really Episode 13. But Pauly and I figured this edition about hallway backing deals was a little more timely — we get ahead of ourselves sometimes — and I’m a faster typer than I am a click-and-dragger, so it’s easier for me to explain why the numbers don’t line up than it is to go in and actually change a couple file names, re-upload, click OK a few times … actually, huh, that probably wouldn’t have been too hard, but hey, I’m a busy guy … and we’re no PokerRoad.
Anyhow, a couple days ago, your ToP hosts camped out in the hallway between the Amazon Room, the Satellite Room, and the Payout Cage to discuss some hallway wheelin’ and dealin’, and end up in our own negotiation over a sliver of the action in $50k HORSE; the fine line between Layne Flack’s life coach and Eskimo Clark’s backer, too. Yep, Tao of Pokerati serves up lots for you to chew on in three minutes … but hopefully is giving you a good taste of the real WSOP.
Dan and Pauly discuss getting over the WSOP hump, and what kind of pressures build on players, backers, media, and just about anyone else who camps out for the duration — providing a glimpse of what weekend WSOP warriors may be stepping into when they fly in for a $1,500 “Donkament”. (Hi Karridy!)
Just a fun little flashback … the “final” episode of Beyond the Table talks a little bit about the WPA, and because Tom and I aren’t too sure how to explain what they’re up to, we bring in Fake Karridy to interview Fake Jesse Jones in hopes of shedding light on the matter (about 21 min in - click here to listen/download). Shortly thereafter we obviously had little choice but to pull the plug on BTT and walk away with our heads hung in glorious shame.
UPDATE: Karridy, SitnGo Steve, Ryan, Tom, and Dan are all in town … Karridy is already trying to see how many mikes he can hook up to his iPhone … Tom busted a couple hours ago out of the $10k World Championship of Omaha Hi-Lo, a bit shy of the money.
I swear this isn’t some sort of tribute to Pauly just because his heart recently skipped a few beats and his head may or may not be more messed than usual … his car accident just reminded me: Oh shit! I forgot to post the next podcast … um, I mean are you OK? Need anything? OK … yes, so WSOP … post podcast.
This time Dr.P and I take a leisurely stroll through the Amazon room while discussing bad t-shirts, sunglass technology, and the relationship between Milwaukee’s Best Light, the WSOP, college kids, and Annette_15.
Today’s topic is cliche imagery at the WSOP. Frankly I think Pauly and I hardly scratch the surface this go-round … but we do shed some light on old guys using Doyle Brunsony scooters, broke suckers that just won’t go away (and a new dynamic in rail-sweating as everyone looks for their piece of a shrinking poker pie), and, in ‘08, the relative lack of hussies and swag.
Lance Bradley wrote a prescient article in the current issue of Bluff highlighting five online young-guns to watch out for at the 2008 WSOP, and two weeks into it, all of them had cashed and then some. But at the same time, they’ve hardly dominated or taken the Series by storm. In this episode, Pauly attempts to educate me on who’s who when it comes to crossing over from online studliness to WSOP success. Durrr, Gobboboy, Yellowsub, and Good2cu, previously of the shipithollabolla crew, et al.
Today the good doctor and yours true venture into the new 65-table Brasilia Room … and contemplate what a $2,500 PL Hold’em/Omaha tourney in this new locale may or may not mean for the WSOP, and what it says about the state of the greater Las Vegas economy. Yo … heavy.
Today Pauly and I wax poetic with an Ode to NL 2-7 Lowball Single-draw with Rebuys. In doing so, we touch on small big-money fields and what makes for good poker television.
Shouts out to our loyal, super-longtime listeners, and welcome any new ones. We’re putting these podcitos together in the secret WSOP basement, and if you need to find your favorites to listen to again and again (without the nuisance of all those words and pictures here and on Pauly’s site) you can now bookmark the Tao of Pokerati WSOP podcast archives.
The ladies event is always, um, special. In this episode Pauly and I scope out potential sugarmamas from the remaining $1,000 no-limit hold’em field as the female players fight to get deeper into the money.
I didn’t get to the Rio until way late yesterday — like 11:30 pm — so you’re getting yesterday’s episode today … which seems strangely appropriate considering in this episode Dr. Pauly and I are watching Vinny Vinh and his ever-encouraging railbirds at and around the final table in the $1,500 limit event from the Milwaukee’s Best Light No-Limit Lounge.
This show is the antithesis of Beyond the Table when it comes to intellect, humor, and style, and at a well-produced hour long — some of it reading of books about poker philosophy and literature — it’s pretty much the opposite of Tao of Pokerati, time- and speed-wise. And yet for some reason, as I’m waiting for my turn to call in to a non-poker conference call and am catching up on filing, I love it. Think it has something to do with sitting alone in the office and not being the smartest person in the room.
Phil Gordon is still alive and well in the main event — and because he clearly doesn’t have his podcast priorities straight, I got to sit in for him on 
