I’m not sure what to make of this video … I think I like it, but I also like documentaries about insects and the Steve Wilkos Show … and if Tao of Pokerati can talk to hookers with the likes of Benjo and Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot, then why can’t Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho walk the streets of San Jose in pursuit of hockey tickets, which they acquire with assistance from Layne Flack and Rick Fuller? Would dismiss it as just a personal non-pokery vid (and not worth posting) but they did add music to the background:
During the big blogger get-together earlier this month, one of my most mind-tickling new friends I made was Human Head. He’s a great writer, a cosmological thinker, and has a really big head … as in physically, not egotistically. (No offense, Sang, you’re #2.)
Anyhow, as HH writes up his trip report, he spends a fair amount of digital ink discussing my atrocious bustout hand against my most kidney-jabbing new pal, PKPNF. Argh, for nearly five years now I’ve been trying to build up an “image” as a weak-aggressive player … setting myself up for a bigger, long-term win. But considering I have hardly made it past a break in a blogger tourney, I’m not sure that’s going so well for me. In Human Head’s (accurate) analysis … my play that day was clearly inspired by this.
Sure, the Bellagio 5-Diamond is a pretty big deal to the pros — it’s one of those tourneys that harkens back to pre-boom days of the WSOP, both in competition and relative size of the buy-ins. Every table is star-studded, and the no-names who make it to the Fontana Room have fought hard to get there, knowing mathematically maybe one or two of them stands a chance of doing something truly special.
Postcard from the Venetian: Wish you were here not really.
You wouldn’t know anything about it, though, from the 82 bloggers who were in town for the fourth or fifth (anyone know?) annual Unnamed Winter Blogger Holiday Gathering — this year honoring the netty nuptials of Pablo and Gracie (ceremony officiated by Rev. AlCantHang). While all that mattered to the professional world was going on at Bellagio, what attracted reps from the other 99.9 percent of poker players out there was shaking down and out at the MGM and Venetian … where friends, colleagues, and acquaintances gathered for boozing, boasting, bitching, and busting chops, all surrounding a big-but-affordable challenging tourney that would reward on-the-felt bad-assness with real American dollars while everyone else still enjoyed ever-festive poker-bloggery times.
A full moon was closer to Earth than usual, naturally enhancing the funk. Dr. Pauly busted out the portable satellite Tao of Pokerati studio, and before you knew it, our recorded commentary degenerated into lunar analysis of semi-annual drunkfests, slumped-over gambling addicts, donk-ass keno play, and, of course, hookers in a down economy on the late-night Vegas prowl. Recorded live from an extended weekend’s worth of bars, sportsbooks, bedrooms, bathrooms, and casino floors … with guest appearances by Derek, Human Head, Bobby Bracelet, Mean Gene, and PKPNF, before and after his unsuccessful relationship with Betty Underground.
I was playing really well — having a great chatty time, too, with my fellow poker blog-geeks, and was set to put in the long hours required to go deep in the 2008 Winter Bloggerfest Tourney (a $135 deep-stack at the Venetian), until I got into a hand with the above. Such a ass donkey in the truest sense … at least that’s how I felt when he called my all-in check-raise with third pair on a paired, straighty, and thrice-suited board. Went from being happy about seeing some random d-bagger wearing a Pokerati patch to thinking we need standards around this place, and by this place I mean the internet/earth.
My bad, of course, for walking through a war zone and kicking a shiny piece of metal really hard to see if it’s a landmine. Click below for hand details:
UPDATE: Neil’s “people” tell me he is not “Neil Fontenot the Professional Keno Player”, but rather “Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot”, aka PKPNF. Pokerati offers our sincerest apologies for the error.
