Poker Politicos, Poker Media Backlash, Brian Nadell, Footballers Playing Poker, Flag Day Trivia, and Hot Vegan Poker Activism

OK, gonna try again at this link-dump thing … no writing, no context, not even any particular order or story arc here … just a random assortment of Safari tabs and windows over-cluttering my computer while I try to do Pokerati\’s WSOP thang-luu …

\”We all agree that one political party is stupid and the other is evil; all we are debating is which is which.\” Something for certain poker media types to think about when we go twitter-crazy trying to spread political insight on current events, but really may be just contributing to negative stereotypes of tourney journos being little more than (poorly paid?) chip counters. [Poker Shrink]

Crap, guess that\’s technically writing right there … before you know it, brevity with a single href= spins out of control into its own multi-link set of tangents, as happened when I tried to note, simply, that Harry Reid won a primary. [Pokerati]

Ask Brian Nadell what happens when poker players step into potentially hostile political territory. He may be an accomplished poker pro with 13 cashes and eight final tables at the WSOP, but that doesn\’t necessarily make this online player at PokerStars suited for Washington DC.

At least he recognized as much before June 1, and dropped out of the Nevada senate race. One look at his campaign video and you\’ll see why sometimes, no matter how badly you wanna win, it just makes sense to chop. [Hendon Mob, Nevada Appeal]

Good move?

Blowing off the primary homestretch did leave Brian Nadell with extra time (and presumably cash) to play early events at the WSOP. And on Monday this week, he appeared on Poker Road Radio, live from the Rio. [Poker Road]

One more Nadell link: an interview circa 2006 bemoaning the fate of a longtime player who never quite learned the meaning of FTW! [PokerStarsBlog]

Back to chip-counting, Daniel Negreanu calls out PokerNews for poor updates. [Daniel – Poker Journal]

PokerNews normally does a really good job with everything they do, but what in the world is up with the chip count coverage at the WSOP this year? They have a page for it, but clicking on it would be a complete waste of your time because not only is it rarely updated, it\’s also nowhere near accurate.

Yeow. Can you imagine if Negreanu and @AllenKessler had children?

Similarly, a generally fine poker granny pundit has strong feelings about the quality of this year\’s WSOP reporting, saying, \”the live coverage has reached a new low.\” [Poker Hag]

Looking forward, btw, to what looks to be the second coming of Poker2Nite … This Week in Poker. June 15, on the internet. [Wicked Chops]

Be sure to check out Change100\’s Fashion Report where she looks into disturbing trends in douchebaggery. [Tao of Poker]

But does douching really matter if you\’re buying tournament shorts from Tom? [Loudmouth Golf]

Now let\’s take a momentary break from linking for …

Pokerati Trivia: Which international flag hung proudly in the Brasilia Room last year, but is not on display in the Pavilion Room this year — despite it\’s strong connection to poker?

Ooh, I know!

An email yesterday from a poker media-y colleague: \”today officially started my World Cup fever!!\” I agree. Lots of jerseys showing up at the Rio, and peeps starting to make plans for where they\’ll be watching the first matches. Just two days left to fill in your Wicked Chops FC brackets. [Soccerati]

Man-U midfielder Darren Fletcher\’s Scottish national team didn\’t qualify for the Cup, so instead came to the WSOP; he lasted about 90 minutes in the $1,500 donkament that The Other Guy (not-Durrrr) won. [PokerStarsBlog via CalvinAyre]

Annie LePage, one of Pokerati\’s favorite Las Vegas small-tourney rounders, comes to the 2010 WSOP looking to cross the 5-figure line in cashes. While she would make fine Team Pokerati material, she instead is representing for PETA (and the Maven). Check her out as she expounds on the evils of meat + good poker health via Vegan living. [Hendon Mob, PETA.org]

OK, cool, but that\’s not counting barbecue, right? On that note …

Extra-big ups to The Fat Guy, who used to write about poker, but now just writes about \”Food, Music, Books, and Tractors\”. TFG recently overhauled Pokerati\’s technological infrastructure to better accommodate Tao of Pokerati. With bigger online media ops facing early-WSOP heartache and unconstructive criticism due to \”faulty hamster wheels\”, I\’m pretty thankful Scott (and his trusty sidekick Ed), have kept Pokerati\’s machinery running relatively smoothly for five years — pretty much 24/7 actually, ever since the Great Crash of 2007 when we ran out of duct tape. [Tao, The Fat Guy]

OK, good enough for now … More-better random links TK. OK, maybe one more …

Funny: the Bad Beat on Cancer banners seen around the Rio show a hand that isn\’t actually a bad beat — the pocket Aces got there on the river! [Poker Grump]