Meet Sharron, the new tourney director at The Lodge.
There are lots of amateur poker leagues out there, and with all due respect, we don’t pay as much attention to them as we used to unless there’s allegations of grift and/or a plot to kill the guy running it with snakes. However, the Lodge Amateur Poker League has always been near and dear to Pokerati’s heart.
Back in the early boom days, All In magazine called it “The best amateur tournament in America!” Ahh, we were having some good after-church strip-club times every Sunday, with more and more players getting better each week … in pursuit of not just gift certificates and lap-dance coupons, but also, and believe it or not more important than seeing boobs for most, a seat in a $1,500 WSOP event (travel expenses included, of course).
But like so much in poker, after Dan left it eventually lost its way. The tournament carried on, but allegations of chip dumping and cheating (yes, in an amateur tourney) made it lose its luster. Then came the Texas sin tax that made this “free” tournament a $0+5 NLH — with that whole $5 going to the State — and field sizes continued to dwindle.
Courts have since ruled that tax unconstitutional, so the game is free again … and now the Lodge — named Best Strip Club in America at the 2008 Exotic Dancer Awards in Las Vegas, btw — has renewed its commitment to making its weekly amateur poker tournament not just the best in Texas, but tops anywhere. The new TD cracking the poker whip: Sharron Nix.
🙂
More…
One of the great WSOP traditions is fast becoming the Bluff/Sapphire party (3rd year?) … where hundreds of Amazon-entrenched pokerers — from pros to media to dealers — who have lived for more than a month in a pen mostly void of conjugal relief gather to collectively release steam before hunkering down for the main event … and what a perfect night when the other big party is the “elitist” Ante-Up for Africa afterparty. There’s something delightfully egalitarian about being entertained by 98-percent naked aspiring starlets making money while having a grand-ole beglittered time … personal degeneracies be damned.
AlCantHang fills in for yours truly to record the first ever Tao of Pokerati episode mid-lapdance — an “event” joined by DrizzTDJ and (briefly) Calfornia Jen. Change100 gives the (awesome) play-by-play. Plus Kathy Liebert … and is that Tom McEvoy?
Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV
Episode 11.27: The Best Party of the Year (feat. AlCantHang)
1:27
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_SapphireAlCantHang.mp3]
Episode 11.28: Grindcore Poker (feat. Change100)
2:51
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_Sapphire_Change100.mp3]
(Interlude …)
0:05
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_Interlude2.mp3]
Good episode of the Degen Report — bringing you more of the real WSOP, nearly a month in, as tempers flare, bankrolls fluctuate, and the general grind begins to wear. In this vid, we learn about rumors of who’s rolling whom (Jeff Madsen mugged at a Strip Club? Should help his rapper cred), near-broke folks making big scores, and @Dutch Boyd jumps in with an anti-Euro beef regarding the not-so-British way they do battle with Americans.
Watch Bryan Micon and Dutch Boyd Get Degenerate on RawVegas.tv
From here, it all gets really interesting — as the two discuss the enforcement of language and abuse penalties, the WSOP penalty “book”, and bring into question a potentially flawed rule that prohibits checking the river with the nuts … contending that indeed, there are situations where you might want to do that (particularly in split-pot games) without regard to soft-play perceptions.
The money bubble bursts in the $40k NLH — Neil Chriss suffers — and Pauly, Benjo, and I are there to capture it live while talking about sheep hookers. By the time this event gets to the final table, it’s about whether Greg Raymer is old-school or new-school, and if I would ever spend my Sundays at a strip club. (A few hundred Lodge players, of course, know the answer to that.) Plus: how a four-figure strip-club bill in Week 1 turns into a five-figure blowout by Week 6, and who knows what kinda party’s in store when a Frenchman wins a bracelet.
Special appearances by Short-Stacked Shamus and a lovely French woman.
Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV
Episode 11.7: Bubble Party
4:01
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_BenjoBubble_08.mp3]
Episode 11.8: $40K Final Table Dance
4:25
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_40K_final9_08.mp3]
