Why I Play Poker… and other stuff

2nd Daniel Negreanu $ 10,874,018
3rd Joe Hachem $ 10,744,616
4th Phil Hellmuth Jr $ 10,681,368
5th Allen Cunningham $ 10,306,817
6th Scotty Nguyen $ 10,017,543
7th Phil Ivey $ 10,007,716
8th T.J. Cloutier $ 9,373,135
9th John Juanda $ 9,330,774
10th Erik Seidel $ 9,294,401 I have a slim lead on the all-time WPT money list and I need to start playing more of those to strengthen that lead: 1st Daniel Negreanu $ 5,491,232
2nd Carlos Mortensen $ 5,260,360
3rd Tuan Le $ 4,490,643
4th Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi $ 4,168,766
5th Gus Hansen $ 4,110,801
6th Alan Goehring $ 3,929,407
7th Joe Bartholdi Jr. $ 3,760,165
8th David Chiu $ 3,615,036
9th Nick Schulman $ 3,127,762
10th Justin Cuong Van Tran $ 3,077,798 The WSOP stats are where I really fall behind and need to put a few good years together in a row to make some moves on those lists. With my three WSOP cashes in Europe that gave me 8 on the year, but just 33 overall in 11 years for an average of 3 a year which is much lower than some others. How about this stat, though, Layne Flack has only cashed 19 times at the WSOP but won… 6 times! That’s pretty sick. There are 18 people in the world with more WSOP bracelets than me. My 33 cashes puts me 33rd on the list, Juanda has a total of 45 cashes by comparison. I rank 25th in WSOP earnings with $2,984,419, while Allen sits fourth on the all-time WSOP money list with $7,341,873. Both Ivey and Juanda have also earned more than I have at the WSOP. Ivey has the most WPT final tables with 8, and an impressive group of players follow him: 1 Phil Ivey 8
2 Daniel Negreanu 7
2 Gus Hansen 7
2 Scotty Nguyen 7
5 David Pham 6
5 John Juanda 6
7 Barry Greenstein 5
7 Erick Lindgren 5
7 JC Tran 5
7 Ted Forrest 5 All-time WPT cashes list is headed by: 1 Alan Goehring 16
1 Barry Greenstein 16
1 Erick Lindgren 16
1 Erik Seidel 16
1 John Juanda 16
6 Daniel Negreanu 15
7 Casey Kastle 14
8 Chau Giang 13
8 Lee Markholt, Jr. 13
10 Kathy Liebert 12
10 Surinder Sunar 12 I surf through all this stuff all the time and have a ton of fun with it. Also helps motivate me to climb the ladder or in some cases maintain a lead. I don’t really care all that much about money, I really don’t. I play poker because I love the competition.
I read Doyle’s last blog and agreed with him in so many ways about the way poker was and how it is for most of the higher profile players today. Doyle obviously loves poker and it seems he can do without the headaches of “all things poker” that don’t include actually playing. **************************************************************** I spent a couple days at home and now it’s back on the road. I spent as much time with Mushu as possible and he doesn’t hate me which is good. Yesterday I played golf, shot myself a cool 130 or something from the blues at TPC Summerlin. Ok, so the game needs work! It had been a month since I touched a club so it was to be expected. I made a ton of putts, though, unfortunately they were usually for an 8 or a 9.
After golf my buddies all came over and we did what we do. Played a mini-pool tournament, a fun PLO tournament, and I schooled old Teddy boy on the Golden Tee. It was a lot of fun and I definitely missed hanging out.
My personal life isn’t something I can get into too much, but with certain things on my mind recently, hanging out with the boys was something I sorely needed to help get my mind off of “stuff.” **************************************************************** Obama is not a Muslim! I still get these random e-mails from people and this last one was just special. Essentially they listed like 12 random acts that have been perpetrated my male Muslims. Killing, kidnappings, etc. all dating back to 1968. Then the tag line, “How can Americans vote for Obama?” It’s kind of annoying actually that people still spread this junk around, yet when you ask them for some kind of evidence or proof, they are dumbfounded. Has Obama been seen praying to Allah? Worshiping in a Mosque?
Throwing this around as fact is about as responsible as saying that McCain is a lesbian! They also throw around this anti-Christ stuff claiming that Obama fits the description of the anti-Christ and that we shouldn’t vote for him. OK, now let me point out how silly this talk is. Suppose for a minute that you can take the Bible at it’s word and that everything written in it will come to pass. If Obama really is the anti-Christ then these people should realize that these e-mail campaigns are foolish since he is destined to win. He cannot lose if he is the anti-Christ! You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you think Obama is the anti-Christ for whatever reason, then accept the fact that you aren’t going to change what is written by sending out e-mail blasts claiming Obama to be the anti-Christ. For those that don’t know, here are the facts: Obama was mostly raised by two white grandparents in Hawaii, they were not Muslim. His Kenyan father that he met twice essentially, the last time at age 10, was an atheist. His grandfather in Kenya, a man he’s never met, did in fact convert to Islam from Christianity. I sent an e-mail back to the group I got it from with these facts and they didn’t take too kindly too it. I asked them why they thought he was a Muslim, and this brainwashed woman replied, “The name says it all!!!!!!!”
Hmm… voting for a candidate based on his name, ya, that seems reasonable?
I also saw on CNN that there is a parking lot owner that won’t allow Obama supporters to park there. This is just crazy! If you have an Obama sticker on your car, he won’t let you park there. Some seriously insane stuff… how can that be legal? Yikes.
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