Daniel Negreanu knows her as “whackjob surprise” … and though we have a feeling that might be what the Schneiders call Tom’s annual birthday present, well-informed, loyal Pokeratizens know her as “Angry Julie” (from back in the Beyond the Table days) … and as the main event nears the money bubble, she’s the frontrunner amongst the women for WSOP Player of the Year.

(Woot! Congrats, Julie!)

According to Julie, men don’t know what it’s like to have to dodge tilt at a final table on a heavy-flow day … but she didn’t let that get in the way of her finding success. With just the main event left to play — making it still anybody’s game, but statistically unlikely that anyone passes her — here’s the breakdown of the top women in the WSOP POY standings:

1. Julie Schneider – 65 pts
2. Vanessa Rousso – 60 pts
3. Millie Shiu – 60 pts
4. Annie Duke – 40 pts
5. Jennifer Harman – 37 pts

Karridy outlasted and out-intimidated “Century 21 Rocks!” and every other student-player at WinStar.

Karridy’s in Oklahoma this weekend, attending the WSOP Academy at WinStar … (note to Texas legislators) … and, sure enough, after a day of schooling, he won their big tournament last night. I don’t know the details — I think it was like 40something players, two of whom may or may not have included instructors Greg Raymer and Mike Gracz … and the prize is something like a fancied-up trip to Vegas and seat in WSOP-A’s tournament of champions. Anyhow, nice job K-man! That’s 2-for-2 for him when representing Team Pokerati.

ALT HED: Karridy Don’t Need No … Edu-ca-tion

Oh, wait, I’m forgetting about the two WSOP 1500’s where he busted out early on Day 1. But regardless, in what is something of a rarity, the entire Beyond the Table hosting crew (SitNGo Steve excused) was playing poker Saturday night. While Karridy was winning his tourney, I was kicking a little ass playing 1/2 online, booking my second $1,000 win in two sessions (might I actually have learned something at cash games college?), and Tom was playing the main event of the LAPC, where he won his seat via satellite but would soon be busting out not too far into Day 1, thereby making him happy for his amateur BTT cohorts, but not so happy about being the biggest loser of the bunch.

Hevad Khan, the most infamous member of last year’s WSOP final table for example, took down the $10,000 Caesars Palace Classic and the $1,000,000 first place prize earlier this morning. The behavior that earned him his own rule for the 2008 WSOP (will there be a Scotty Nguyen rule in 2009?) has been severely toned down since then. Now that Beyond the Table has returned, does this mean the return of Genghis Khan to call in to congratulate him as well? The rest of the tournament results can be found over at the best tournament database out there: www.thehendonmob.com .

Just got back on the grid and playing electronic catch-up … here are some of the things that are making good browser viewing, but not quite stimulating a full-fledged post:

Jay Busbee (from Bluff) has a good State of the Poker Union address on ESPN.com, where he officially declares the poker boom dead. Also interesting to see ESPN, for the first time I remember in a long-long while, running (non-affiliate) PokerStars ads. [ESPN.com]

Poker Shrink Cranky Olde Coot has a good post wondering why FIDPA still hasn’t made the “new rules” they’ve long ballyhooed public. [PokerBlog.com]

Full Disclosure: FIDPA is one of my MySpace friends. [MySpace.com]

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley shares a story about John McCain going on some extremely unpresidential tilt at the craps table. (The TJ Cloutier of Politics? Tons of success, a sometimes dangerous love of craps, and never quite able to win the Big One?) [The Daily Beast, via Huffington Post, via Short-Stacked Shamus]

Beyond the Table has a new home online. [Podcast.com]

I think Dr. Pauly’s starting to get a little miffed at me for not working out some production kinks and posting our re-constituted incarnation of Tao of Pokerati, but I think I can make him feel better by simply reading his blog. [Tao of Poker]

With all the talk of what really goes into a world-record endurance poker session, I forgot to send y’all to live-forum coverage of The Poker Den 3 — PartyPoker’s 36-hour high-stakes televised cash game. [MatchroomPoker.com]

Dutch Boyd apparently bought Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio in a semi-hostile takeover. Poor Steve … but he has found a new home for his poker updates/pictures of attractive Asian female dealers. [Pokerfolio.Spruz.com]

Also, the X-10 electronic table — a knock-off of the PokerTek PokerPro popping up in so many places — sharing the same name as a hidden camera used by so many pervy peeping toms before a few lawsuits encouraged them to re-market themselves as a security device. [SlipperyBrick.com]

And long overdue, here’s a great tale of a totally degenerate poker blogger/gambler rescuing his bankroll by poetically chasing/hitting the Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. [TheTrooper97, via Up for Poker]

There’s more, too, coagulating in my bookmarks and inbox. News stories, forum threads, tourney results … Who knows … maybe I’ll get to them for your reading pleasure, but as is always the case from Head Slacker at this Little-Ole Poker Blog, no promises. It’s good to be back with you all.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Lacey Jones is getting ready for her co-hosting duties of Real Deal, the pokery interactive musical at The Venetian, which kicks off next week. [PokerListings.com via LasVegasAdvisor.com]

She also hosted an interesting event at Cathouse (as simply Lacey J) where women showed up for a seductive-attire contest where the winner got a boob job. [Photobucket.com]

Meanwhile, there was a hardcore SWAT-team poker raid in Fayetteville, NC. A firsthand account as well as some non-poker media coverage here and here. [Triangle Poker Journal]

Click HERE to Listen    
Listener Line: (888) 820-8091

In the grand tradition of Rocky Balboa, Return to Mayberry, and The Brady Girls Get Married, your favorite poker podcast returned today with a brand-spankin’ new episode. Five months after announcing their “retirement” — has it really been five months? seems like three — the group collectively determined the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts, and have thus decided to try and recreate the adventure, the thrill, the magic that is Beyond the Table.

Or, as Tom puts it, “We all got bored with our lives.”

The return show finds our intrepid trio (plus Sit-N-Go Steve) in classic BTT form, managing to cover a wide range of topics despite (or because) Dan is sitting on his mute button. Following the awkward reintroductions (“uh… do I know you?”), the fellas discuss the recent WCOOP successes of Tom (a.k.a., “luvgamble”), team poker tourneys, political prop-betting, the differing concerns of amateurs and pros at the WSOP, and UB cheating scandal rumors.

They even get down to brass tacks and answer some poker-related listener calls, suggesting that if you were to call the listener line — (888) 820-8091 — they might well answer your question sometime during the next six months or so, too! You can also email ’em at theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com.

Episode 7 of The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show

Click here to listen/download

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.

Mike Wattel just went out in 17th place in the $50k HORSE event, finishing one shy of the money. Can you imagine anything worse? Wattel was tiny-stacked with 20 players left, and managed to hang on with hardly an ante until Barry Greenstein raised in a 7-stud hand, and Wattel, looking at two queens, went with it … only to say Barry make a runner-runner-runner flush.

Unlike any other bubble boy, after 3+days of solid play, Wattel just missed out on a $124k payday and instead ended up the same -$50k that his fellow Arizona buddy Tom found after only a day-and-a-half. I’m sick to my stomach and I hardly know the guy. (You may recall his similarly unfortunate 6th place finish in the 2007 WPT Championship … my guess is he’s currently tilt-gorging on Corona’s, nickel slots, and old archived episodes of Beyond the Table.)

The remaining players:

Table 32

Seat 1: Patrick Bueno 730,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed 900,000
Seat 3: Joseph Michael 575,000
Seat 4: Scotty Nguyen 1,050,000
Seat 5: Phil Ivey 635,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein 1,300,000
Seat 7: Doyle Brunson 60,000
Seat 8: David Bach 800,000

Table 39

Seat 1: Erick Lindgren 355,000
Seat 2: Raymond Davis 1,200,000
Seat 3: Michael DeMichele 1,010,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman 1,100,000
Seat 5: Andy Bloch 120,000
Seat 6: Ralph Perry 1,635,000
Seat 7: Daniel Negreanu 1,480,000
Seat 8: Matt Glantz 1,460,000

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.

One can only give up podcasting for so long … there’s something about semi-intelligent banter kinda-sorta about poker set to mono.

So please, enjoy the first episode of Tao of Pokerati … featuring Pauly of WSOP poker blogging fame, and yours truly … sharing the insight, wisdom and general frogginess of a Beyond the Table expat.

Episode 1: Game On!
[audio:TOP-Episode1.mp3]

By the way, so far at the WSOP, three separate people have approached me saying, “Are you Pauly?” Each time I’ve chuckled and laughed, because they weren’t even looking at my bald spot for the mistaken identity. Anyhow, shout out to Jenzilla, who was kind enough to deliver my new radio cohost pens.

The World Series isn’t the only poker going on in the world right now — and Karridy tried to remind us of that with Pokerati’s new Citizen Stack Reporter thingy (beta – come join the fun with our shiny new toy!). The text he sent in that didn’t quite make it on the first go-round (but will now and in the future):

3 of the BTT cast are at a charity tornament in Dallas vying to win a WSOP entry. The TD tells us that Home Depot donated a $100 (!?) hammer for any player who takes one down with Dan’s favorite hand. As its announced, a guy to my left says “sounds like one of Dan’s ideas”. Turns out that Whit is a pokerati reader and made me from the player list. A few moments later, SnG raises a limped pot with 72o and is rewarded with two pair on the flop. Here’s a pic of SnG just before he asked if there was a receipt.

Before we make 2008 The Year of Bitching about Tom’s Lack of Coverage (Again) — because really, if it weren’t for that, what would Angry Julie have to scream about? — I do want to point out that ESPN Correspondo Gary Wise did pick the Donkey Bomber to be on his WSOP fantasy team. Looks like he was a 5th-rounder.

Isn’t the proper etiquette to wait two weeks when responding to a prop bet challenge via a blog post?

Ok, so in my defense, I was actually out-of-town when Karridy posted his challenge.  The 9 days since I’ve been back in town? Karridy stole my other defense – so I’ll just go with “I’m a slacker”.

With my timeliness out of the way – let’s get back to the challenge.

I’m definitely a “Hell Yeah!” for another prop-bet challenge.  The loser “has to wear a dress all the way to Vegas”?  I’m gonna go with a big “NO” on that part:

1. You already frequently wear a dress as a fill-in for: Dan’s lover Sang; and for Tom’s daughters.  How then is that a punishment to you when you lose?
2. Now that you’ve decided to play in more than one event – we are flying out to Vegas at separate times.  How will I get good video to share with everyone of your traveling to Vegas in a dress if we aren’t on the same flights?
3. The terms of the first prop-bet state that the loser of that bet would be the one issuing the rematch.  So – the initial terms should come from me.
4. I’ve proven I’m a good sport when it comes to the prop-bets:
   
   so I don’t want to hear any bitching from you about how you won’t be able to wear a dress.

The inspiration for my challenge hit me as I was reading Pokerati on my mobile device from the shitter my “other office”.  It got me thinking of an old Beyond The Table episode where I was lamenting of how I was the only one of the crew who was not attending the 2007 WSOP.  I declared then that I would attend the 2008 WSOP.  As things tended to do on BTT - the conversation then went down the drain… literally.  While there, I promised that I would interview people “Senator Craig” style from the safety of my own stall – asking questions like “Do you know who Tom Schneider is?”.  I think an even better idea is that the loser of our prop-bet has to conduct interviews from a restroom frequented by tournament players at the Rio, with the audio then posted on a public website.  Some, or all, of the interview questions would come from suggestions from our fellow pokerati.

Here then is my official challenge (we can haggle on further specifics in private):

• SitNGoSteve to play Karridy in a best of 7 heads up match in No Limit Hold ‘Em. 
• The matches must be completed before May 30th, 2008.
• The loser will conduct interviews from a bathroom located in the Rio hotel in Las Vegas that is frequented by WSOP 2008 players.
• The interview(s) must be conducted between May 30th, 2008 and July 7th, 2008.
• The loser must conduct the interview from within a closed bathroom stall – it is NOT sufficient to just ask questions while in the bathroom (i.e. while people are washing their hands).
• The interview questions will mainly be comprised of, but not limited to, suggestions from our fellow pokerati.  Karridy and SitNGoSteve will finalize the specific questions before traveling to Las Vegas for the WSOP 2008.
• The official interview list will contain no less than 5 and no more than 10 questions.
• An interviewee is defined as a person who has answered and responded to all of the pre-defined interview questions OR has at least responded to the majority of the questions.
• The loser will interview no less than 3 people and will produce no less than 15 minutes of audio of interviewees responses.  The only exception is as interrupted by security or law enforcement.
• The loser can NOT utilize any written materials to communicate with an interviewee.  i.e. no slipping paper under the stalls that say things like “I lost a bet and have to interview people in the bathroom”.
• The audio must be published to a publicly consumable website within 14 days of the loser returning home from Las Vegas.
• The audio must be of “acceptable” quality.  i.e. the loser should place their recording device below the bathroom stall divider to hear their interviewees responses clearly.
• The winner, or a pre-defined appointee of the winner, will be present in a capacity that will verify that the loser met and honored the spirit of the above terms.

What say you Karridy?

p.s. California Jen: Karridy only shared his sushi with you because he doesn’t really like Sushi – so that shouldn’t stop you from rooting for me to win!

If you’ve heard my permanent Wolfman Jack impression while listening to Beyond The Table, you might not be surprised to learn that my voice is not naturally this sexy. I had a little help from my friends. Actually, I had a LOT of help. Before the age of 6, I had undergone over 30something surgeries on my throat and vocal chords. Some of those were emergency surgeries to open my airway, and some were simply maintenance to avoid more emergencies. The end result would be a voice that only a mother could love. Well, her and a disproportionately large number of black women. Apparently, I sound like this guy. But unfortunately, they usually look like this girl, and never like my new chocolate crush, this girl.

The bottom line is that the good people at Cook Children’s Hospital saved my life more than once, and I couldn’t be more pleased to tell you about the Jeremy’s Friends Poker Tournament, coming up on Saturday, May 31st @ 6pm.

How’s this for quality charity poker – 1’st place wins a Main Event entry w/airfare and hotel! Runner up gets a phat entry into the upcoming $3,000,000 tournament at Winstar, which I hear is being televised. There won’t be much fight for 3rd to 9th place, as EVERYBODY else at the final table will win $440 Super Satellite entries for the same Winstar mega tournament. Not bad, guys! Too bad we all know that charity poker is rigged! 🙂

If you are in the North Texas area and would like to battle it out against me and a few other do-gooders, contact Jeremy’s Friends by emailing: [email protected]

Still no word from SnG Steve on whether or not he’s man enough to wear a dress.

I’m sure he’ll say that he was busy at work… Whatever. Stephen, if you’re truly afraid of the dress, you can always get iced out.

The rest of you haterz can get yo Poker Grillz HERE.

SnG Steve… You can run briskly walk, but you can’t hide.