Playing Bad Poker But Strangely Happy

This season on High Stakes Poker they went back to the original format of playing three eight hour days. I wasn’t scheduled at all for day one, but I was given the opportunity to play all of day two. It was, without a doubt, the best game I’d ever been in on HSP, with loads of action, a $1200 straddle virtually all day, plus, a $2400 re-straddle for much of the night. The lineup was just incredible for action, and to ensure that the game would really take off, a couple of the right people got stuck and a little steamed up. The session was pretty uneventful for me. During the entire session I had AK one time, and also was dealt 88 once, the best pair I had all day. I did make one interesting play early in the day: Eli Elezra limped for 1200, I called, another three players called and Sammy raised from the blind another $7,000-$10,000, I’m not entirely sure. Everyone else folded but me. The flop came 9s 9h 2c and Sammy bet $15,000. All the while Sammy and I were doing a little talking and he told me that he had me on a small pair. When the flop came out and he bet, I said something like, “Wait a minute hear, I might just have 9c 10c.” Then I squeezed my cards. After squeezing the first card, I revealed it to Sammy. Remember now, this is REAL poker, with no interference from tournament directors that are trying to take the psychological aspect of the game away from us. Frankly, it’s a tragedy what these tournament directors are doing. The players need to unite and get rid of this ridiculous rule that prevents players from showing their hole cards in heads up pots. I don’t know of ANY professional player who thinks this rule has any value. Ask anyone from Phil Hellmuth to Howard Lederer and they will tell you that the right to show a card is part of the game. Anyway, after I showed Sammy the 10c I paused for a moment, before raising the bet to $30,000. Sammy hesitated for a while, finally putting me on 10-10, he says, and folded his hand. What do YOU think I had in the hole? Interesting question no? Adds more to the game of poker, no? I think so. Well I’m not telling you all what I had just yet, but you’ll will find out eventually when the show airs! Taking this out if the game is so unnerving to me. What’s next, no speaking at the table? No prodding for information? Then finally, no bluffing at all? It’s absurd! I would happily challenge Matt Savage, Jack McLelland, and any other tournament director in favor of this rule to a public debate on the merits of it. The only reason I’ve ever heard them give is that it prevents people from “needling” their opponents. Give me a break! We are poker players here and don’t need anyone out there to hold our hand. It’s free information, and if the guy doesn’t want to look, he doesn’t have to. Has anyone ever heard of a poker player getting upset, and thinking it was “unfair” that an opponent, in a heads up pot, showed him a card either during or after the hand? Are you kidding me? It’s time that we rethink some of the rules and ask ourselves if they really make any sense at all. This one, the “show one show all” rule, clearly doesn’t. Today’s lineup appears to be much tougher, with a special twist that I’m not sure I should mention in the blog. What this “twist” will do to the game remains to be seen, but it could potentially cause for some monster pots. I’m not scheduled to play the full day today, but I’m basically on call for an open seat as one becomes available. *************************************************************** Outside of HSP I haven’t played poker really, as I’ve been golfing again and also playing pool on my new table, as well as improving my Nintendo Wii skills. What a system that Wii is, just wow, incredible. I think the golf game might actually be improving despite not having played for about six months. The last week or two I bought a training tool called the David Leadbetter Swing Setter and it’s the greatest invention ever. If you’ve never heard of it, you should definitely check it out. It helps me make sure that I have a proper grip, that I break my wrists at the right time, that my tempo is good, and also that I finish my swing high. I would be happy to endorse the product and I’m not looking for any kickback. Speaking of kickbacks and endorsing products, Phil Hellmuth played with me in HSP all of yesterday. He let us all know that he has a new wine label coming out, and also a new soap bar, a candy bar, a bottled water, Phil Hellmuth suspenders, the Phil Hellmuth fridge (be careful, if you tilt the fridge it will get red hot), the Phil Hellmuth Grill (much better than George Foreman’s), and a few other products. He also informed us that he patented the “super quick call when you flop a set.” If any of you out there call an all in bet quickly by sloppily pushing all of your chips to the middle, be weary, apparently you will owe Phil royalties. In all seriousness, he was actually trying his absolute best and you could tell. I’m sure it helped that he didn’t take a bad beat, but all in all, it was, in my opinion, his best performance in a cash game that I can remember. Of course, the real test would be to see what would have happened if he lost $100,000 to a gut shot straight! LOL. Jamie Gold also “came to play” and made some bold moves as he’s known to do. Luckily they weren’t against me, because I swear to you, I sniffed out every one. Jamie is a talker, as am I, and much of what he said tipped off his hand in my opinion. I promised Jamie that I’d tell him how I knew he was bluffing this one hand and… oh wait, it’s kind of a neat hand so let’s go back a moment: On the river Jamie was heads up with Eli Elezra. The final board read Qc Js 5c 7c Qh. Jamie bet about $10,000 and while Eli was thinking, he showed him the 4c. I love it! Who thinks this is bad for poker??? Seriously, does anyone think that showing cards in this situation makes the game any less entertaining, or for that matter, hurt the integrity of the game in any way? No, instead, what it does is makes the game MORE interesting, and in this case Eli has to ask himself, “Why would he show me that card? Does he really have the flush? What else could he have.?” Jamie, as usual was doing lots of talking, but there was one thing in particular that he said that completely gave his hand away, and both Jennifer and I looked at each other when he said it. Eli finally folded, and Jamie turned over… the Ah! A stone cold bluff, beautiful. As for what Jamie said, again, watch the show and see if you can figure it out. Man, I keep ranting about that stupid rule, but I’m pessimistic about any changes happening and that’s just a crying shame for televised poker tournaments, as well as poker in general. The last thing we should be doing is putting rules in place that make the game less of a chess match, less entertaining, and discourages people from “coffee housing.” It’s about 11:00am now and I’m going to jump in the shower in the hopes of getting into the game early. I just ordered my new bar of Phil Hellmuth soap and am dying to try it out! ]]>

So here is the lineup, no joke: Antonio Esfandiari
Shawn Sheikan
Mike Matusow
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Laak
Myself It was a total blast and nobody wanted to go broke because I think everyone was genuinely having fun and enjoying each other’s company. The needle was out in full force and I think it’s going to make for some excellent television. You’d be surprised what people are really like without the editing. A perfect example of that is a guy like Sheiky. I REALLY like Sean and think he is hilarious. He has acted like a jerk on TV, but that’s kind of the point, it’s really just an act and he doesn’t mean anything by it. When he says things like, “Doyle can’t play a lick, none of you —- —–‘s can,” it’s all tongue and cheek. I went golfing today with Gavin, Erick, and Sheiky and it was good times. We ended up all going to dinner together after at Kona. During the golf, we had like 14 carts following us, many of them with TV cameras. It should make for some entertaining viewing in the near future. Speaking of entertaining viewing, I just finished watching Phil & Antonio’s new show called, “I Bet You,” which airs on Mojo, a new hi def channel. I actually watched it online at www.mojohd.com. I was expecting a train wreck to be honest with you. I thought it was going to be pretty stupid and silly, but man was I taken by surprise. The show is absolutely brilliant! I was laughing through the whole thing. The concept for the show is pretty simple. You have Phil & Antonio roaming around LA betting on all kinds of random things from how much a shirt costs, to who can make it across town faster without spending any money. One of my favorite scenes was the breathalyzer. They both made a bet to see who could get closer to a blood alcohol level of 0.08. They could drink as much as they wanted and take the test when they thought they were close. I seriously think I would crush either of them on that bet as I own a breathalyzer myself and have plenty of “practice.” The thing that really makes the show work, though, is the chemistry between the two and the “lack of shame,” if you will, when it comes to talking to random people. Few people are comfortable enough to do that sort of thing, and these two seem very comfortable asking complete strangers if they are wearing panties. I wish them luck with the show, but if the rest of the shows are as good as the premiere episode, they won’t need any luck.
]]>

]]>

The place I lived before wasn’t exactly horrible, but it was clear, that along with my wife Lori, it was becoming a little cramped. She has an Emelda Marcos like shoe collection, I have a few too many hockey jerseys, and overall, we found that we had little closet space which made things cluttered around the house. That’s not a problem anymore. The new house is about 5000 square feet and there is tons of closet space. (more on that later) Since we moved into the new house Lori and I have been getting along even better than before. She seems really happy, which in turn, makes me happy. We aren’t quite done yet, with boxes still unpacked, but it’s already starting to feel like home. For me to feel good about myself and my path in life there are several important things that need to be in order. Organizing my priorities allows me to live a much better life: 1.God When the other things in my life are well organized, it helps me to put away some time each day to spend with God. Whether it’s reading a devotional or some scripture, feeding on the word of God on a daily basis is essential for me to make good life decisions.
When I start to think I can do things on my own, and neglect God’s role in my life, that’s when I suffer. That’s when the ugliness inside me often comes out. It’ll always be that way and I’ve learned not to be too hard on myself when I slip up, but each day, I want to grow closer and closer to God. I’ve been ridiculed countless times for my belief in God, but it doesn’t weaken my faith or make me any less willing to say that I am a believer.
In fact, in Matthew 5:11 Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsly say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” I find that to be a pretty powerful passage. It can be really tough for most people to deal with any ridicule they may face for being vocal about their belief in God. That passage should help make it easier to share your personal beliefs with others. 2. Family I’ve been more focused on doing things that will make my wife happy. Rather than thinking about how this or that will efffect me, if I put her needs and wants first I end up getting exactly what I want anyway. Its amazing how that works! It really does. When you give to someone it feels good. When you recieve gifts it usually makes you want to give back to that person. That’s a good place to be in any relationship whether it’s your friends, wife, mother, etc.
My brother came out for the move with his high school buddy Victor who has been a part of my extended family for over 20 years now. They did an unbelievable job moving me in here. A two man wrecking crew that not only moved all of our furniture, but did electrical work, tiling, and a whole slew of other things. By the way, they both flew out to Las Vegas from Toronto with less than 24 hours notice! That’s pretty special and I’m extremely grateful. No chance we’d be all moved into this house without them. No chance.
I only regret that my mother couldn’t be out here. She spends about half the year in Toronto and the other half here in Las Vegas. She can’t come back for another few weeks, but I can’t wait to see the look in her eyes when she sees our new kitchen!
In our previous house, we didn’t really have a guest bedroom. We turned it into a closet. Well, now when Lori’s side of the family comes out to visit we’ll actually have mattresses for them that they don’t have to blow air into! 3.Health I started out the year working out and feeling great. As usual, though, that faded and I was back to being a lazy bum. No more. This week we have a Bowflex on the way and that will go a long way to ensuring that I stay on track.
Food wise, Whole Foods is less than two minutes from my house now and that will help make sure that I’m getting a good amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, tofu, etc.
In the backyard we have room for lots of stuff. A large swimming pool with a huge yard that I can practice chipping on. Also, a basketball net to shoot some hoops. Swimming, Bowflex, basketball… that’s going to help me get into good shape for the WSOP. 4. Poker Ready to get back on the horse. I’m going to be completely honest here, and say that I’ve NEVER felt like I’ve put in a solid year of poker where I was at my best for the whole year. Even in 2004, I feel like I could have played even better than I did. There are several things that get me side tracked, but this new house should help cure those problems. 1) being my relationship with God and making sure he is at the center of my life. 2) a good, healthy relationship with my family. 3) Being in better physical shape will allow me to play good poker over longer periods of time. If you look at the “modern poker player” they look more like Lance Armstrong than, say, Babe Ruth. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all. When I’m not prepared to play in tournaments I just don’t do as well. Period. Seriously, I can look over all of my victories and failures and attribute how I did in those event to how prepared I was to play. Knowing this, I try to only play in tournaments when I feel like I have all my ducks in a row. 5. Stuff Always helps make life a little more fun, and with the new house there is a lot more room for some of the things I’ve always wanted as a kid: -Pool Table. I bought a beautiful Briarwood Brunswick table.
-Swimming Pool. A much nicer pool and room for a volleyball net.
-Golf Stuff. Eventually I want to build a green in the yard, but for now I bought a chipping net.
-Basketball net. A small area for a net.
-Game Room. Two Arcade Games (Golden Tee, NBA Showtime/NFL Blitz), and X-BOX, X-BOX 360, Playstation 2, and a Wii on the way. Dart Board, Putting Green, etc.
-Home Gym. A mirrored room designed for working out exclusively.
-Craft Room. That’s all Lori, I won’t be spending any time in there!
-Office. A sweet office for my computer. A plasma on the wall, trophies, books, DVD’s, etc.
-Poker Table. A custom poker table perfect for 8 players, but could fit 10 easily.
-Doggie Door. Hopefully Marley will continue to use it and our carpets can remain clean! For the first few days that I was here I didn’t have internet access. The funny thing is, is that I really didn’t miss it? I realized that I waste far too much time surfing the internet so I decided to make a rule for myself: no more than two hours a day online. That’ll give me enough time to answer my e-mails, check out the FCP forums, check some hockey stats, etc. Obviously if I have some writing to do I may go over two hours. Anyway, my two hours is almost up, so I’m headed out to the backyard to go for a swim with the dogs.
]]>

. I should have moved ages ago. The house I’m in now has limited space and we have a crazy neighbor next door. Lori talked to me recently about making a move, but it always seemed like a bad time. Whether it was this tournament or that, there just never seemed to be a good time to move. I told her we could start looking in August after the WSOP, but then realized, you know what, we have time now. Let’s just make the move this week! We bought a beautiful home from some friends of ours with a big yard that the dogs just love. The yard I have now is all rocks and stones, but the new house has a huge patch of grass for them to run around. I’m most excited about the fact that I’d now have enough room to actually have a pool table in the house. Since being a teenager, that was always a dream of mine. I looked online and found the perfect table. I’m a big fan of Brunswick tables so we ended up deciding on a Briarwood table with kind of a European flavor. The house isn’t exactly the “dream house” I had in mind, but it is a major step up from where we are now, and the dream house will just have to wait. I’ve already moved a bunch of little things over there this week, but for the big move, there is no better person to call then my brother Mike. He can fix anything, seriously amazing. Anyway, we had the TV people over to see what we’d need to do to get my TV and surround sound system into the new house. It seemed like a real hassle because of the shape of the walls, and the TV guys told us we’d need an electrician for some of the wiring. I called my brother today and basically said, “When is the next flight to Vegas?” I got Patty to book him and his buddy Victor on a flight here, and they get here in the morning. The plan is to move all of our stuff into the new house by Thursday, and then on Friday, the TV guys are going to uninstall my system and then install it in the new house. It’s pretty exciting, and Lori loves it. Talk about closet space, wow, now she actually has room for all of her clothes! The house is in a much safer area also, in a gated community complete with a security guard, etc. It’s a move that was long overdue, but I’m glad we are doing it now. The key thing for me is getting all of this done before the WPT championship in the next little while. *************************************************************** High Stakes Poker. I watched the last few episodes and oh my goodness, was the level of play extremely high end. I knew it while I was playing, but watching it reminded me of how impressive the play actually was. I’m looking forward to next season, which will be filmed sometime in May. *************************************************************** Fantasy Hockey. I did a pool with some of the guys in the FCP hockey forum. Not only was I in the pool, but I was running the whole thing, acquiring MSN addresses, setting up the chat rooms, etc. We had over 40 entrants, and I didn’t know until today that MSN will only allow 20 people in a conversation. So I had to set up three windows and copy all the information to the other windows. There was that, plus trying to track which players have been taken, and also re-inviting people that would get booted from the chat rooms. In the end it all worked out well. There were 44 of us I think, and I drew the first pick. Frankly, I hated that pick as it was a snake draft so it meant I’d get #1 and then like #88 and #89. I took Daniel Briere, Buffalo Sabres with the first pick as he seemed to be the consensus number one pick with Buffalo hosting the Islanders in the first round. By the time it got back around to me, I had to develop a strategy quickly. The Buffalo team was gorged of it’s scorers already, so I had to go another way. I decided on Alexei Zhitnik and Scott Mellanby, both of the Thrashers. Then with my last two picks, I went with two more Thrashers in Jon Sim and Steve McCarthy. So obviously I need Atlanta to do well, but at least I have a shot. Each team consists of only 5 players since we had so many people show up for the draft. *************************************************************** Poker. I’m going through a phase right now. It’s plagued me all of my poker career. I’ve always had difficulty playing at a high level for extended periods of time, so I’ll often go through periods of extremely bad play before righting the ship. When I play bad, it’s not just a little bad, it’s just extremely bad. Knowing this, I’ve tried to not play any poker in the hopes that I can recharge my batteries for the important events coming up soon. The WPT championship followed by the WSOP. I’m hoping to be ready in time. I’m not ready at the moment and I know it, but I’m also confident that I will be ready in time for the WPT event. If you can’t gear up for that event, you are in some trouble. ***************************************************************
As for my last blog, and my reasoning behind it, I felt as though the portrayal of my friend through other blogs and hearsay was completely unfair. Much had been said and/or written about the incident, and I felt like only one side of the story was made public. Had the other side of the story not been made public first, I never in a million years would have discussed a private matter in my blog. However, once it was already written about in other posts and blogs, it ceased to be a private matter. ]]>

For Easter dinner, Lori and I met with Cece, Hayden, Barbara, Jenn, Marco, Patrick, Maya, as well as Jennifer and Marco’s two boys. We ended up at a beautiful restaurant where we could sit outside on a beautiful night. Obviously, with the group at hand, poker was the main topic of conversation for most of the evening. Patrick told me about how unlucky he’s been, I told him some horror stories as well, and finally, Cece told us about how her quads were no match versus a royal flush in a recent Bellagio tournament. After dinner we all headed over to Jenn and Marco’s place. Not only was it us humans, but we also had Jenn’s dogs, Cece’s dogs, and our dogs. In total, it was, Mushu, Marley, Brittany, Peter, Dexter, Guaglione, Stolie, Squirtolino, and oh, I can’t forget Todd Brunson (who was also there with his lovely wife). Here is where things go a little haywire. At dinner, Patrick and I talked a little bit about pool and I was certain that he was much better than me. No question about it. Nonetheless, we decided to gamble a bit on a pool match, but I negotiated a little spot for myself in 9-ball. We agreed to play a race to 4, but with me starting out with a 1-0 lead which seemed fair. Last time we did this I crushed him, so I figured I could beat him for a big number. I won the first game but ended up losing the first set. We played another seven sets, playing for double or nothing each and every time. First I was down $10,000, then $30,000, then $100,000, and before I knew it I was stuck close to $1.8 million. I never won one stinkin’ match. Of course, losing that badly, I had no choice but to tell Patrick to buzz off, and that I wasn’t paying him one cent. It’s true, that the last time we played I beat him for $300,000 and he paid me the next day, but after this debacle I wasn’t even willing to give him his $300,000 back since the match was clearly unfair. He argued that if I didn’t want to pay him, or thought he was hustling, that I should have quit playing a long time ago. Bleh, whatever man. I was just trying to get even. If I got even I wouldn’t have said anything and just not played with him anymore. Since I lost the way I did, though, I had no plans of paying him anyway. Patrick tried to make some other ridiculous points that I found laughable: He said, “I didn’t even make the match.” That’s true, I came up with what I thought was a fair match, but in the end, I realized that the match wasn’t fair at all which I think justifies me not paying. He then said, “Why did you keep kicking it up if you thought it wasn’t fair?” That is so silly! I didn’t realize that it was an unfair match until I lost every single time and played very poorly! I was kicking it up because, duh, that was the best way for me to get even! He then said, “Did I put a gun to your head and force you to keep playing? How can you beat me for $300,000, then when I win, you don’t want to pay me?” Duh Patrick, it’s called covering your butt dude? Seriously, if I got even I just would have forgotten about the whole thing, but when you beat me for that kind of money I’m going to just have to come up with some excuse not to pay. The whole thing got rather heated, so I told him we needed to just talk about this whole thing face to face, mano e mano. He just wouldn’t see my side of the story, so I told him we’d just need to get an arbitrator to settle it. He had no idea what an arbitrator was, but after I explained it to him he said, “What is there to settle? You made a match with me and I agreed. You kicked it up repeatedly, kept playing over and over and lost. When you beat me for $300,000 I didn’t hear you complain one bit? What is there to settle?’ *************************************************************** Ok, so that’s not exactly how it all happened. Patrick and I actually played two sets at Jenn’s house, he won the first and I won the second. We broke dead even. Now, the above story, as outlandish and unbelievable as it may sound, actually happened to a very good friend of mine recently. Much of it has been talked about in various poker forums. My buddy, would represent Patrick in the above story. Mar Wasvani and Clark Badmin represent me in the above story. Now, to be fair, I’ve only heard one side of the story, but it seems like the evidence is overwhelmingly compelling in favor of my friend. As Doyle Brunson put it, “——-, did you put a gun to their head and force them to keep playing?” Of course not. What happened here is a couple of “hustlers” lost more than they felt comfortable with, continued to press, and press, and press, their bets hoping to get even. Then when they failed to get even, they cried fowl, claiming, “This wasn’t a fair match.” Are you freakin’ serious? You played for days, and days, and days, continued to raise the stake unprovoked, set the rules for the game, etc., then after losing, are trying to get out of paying? I seriously can’t even comprehend this. I lost a lot of money on the golf course last year. Most of the matches I had were not in my favor. Yet, knowing that I was “the sucker,” never for a second did I consider not paying it off. Not for a second. I took my lumps like a man, paid the money I owed, and learned a lesson or two along the way. My buddy still hasn’t received a penny of his winnings. What’s really just mind boggling and ridiculous, is that my buddy hasn’t even been paid the money he lost to these guys! I’m not making this up! Not only is he out the money he won on the golf course, but he’s also out the money he paid them when he lost! So while this situation is extremely ugly, the situation between Patrick and I was rather tame. He took me to dinner, wined and dined me, gave me his coat when I was cold, and complemented me on my attire. He was a gentleman and extremely well behaved, which is good, because I’m not that kind of guy anyway 🙂 As for my buddy versus Wasvani and Badmin, their situation remains unsettled. I’d love to hear their side of the story, but my goodness, I can’t imagine what justification they could come up with for not paying the money they lost. I mean, at least paying the money they happily won! It really is the craziest gambling story I’ve heard in a long time. It

Things have been going great in my life recently. I went to a Rodeo here in Las Vegas and many of the best rodeo guys recognized me and dropped by to kiss my hand. (Billy Bob Sway, John Marx, Jethro Hull, etc.) In fact, they even put me on the jumbotron and had me saying, “Run pigs! Run for your lives!” A movie about my life is about to be green light as well. It’s called, “I can dodge bullets baby,” and will star Emanuel Lewis and Charlie Murphy as my brother. My wife will be played by Bobby Lee from MadTV. It’s a big time production, the budget is well over $35,000. I was also asked to be the face of a new soft drink called, “Poker Superstar” for poker players “Tastes better than Dutch Boyd’s pee pee or your money back!” I will be drinking 10 of these a day at the WSOP and will be refilling the cans with my own urine for resale. I will also be happy to autograph the cans for an additional $8.95. I was asked to be the face of a new poker video game also. In this game you can actually go into “KidPoker mode” which means you can see everyone’s hand and know when you are beat. There is a small glitch we are working on with that software, though, because currently the software makes you call anyway even when you are beat. I have launched a new children’s line of clothing as well. On the chest of each T-Shirt is a big picture of me smiling. However, when you shake the picture, or put it on “tilt,” my smile will quickly turn to tears and you’ll hear one of the following great one-liners of our time: “You can’t even spell poker!”
“If it weren’t for luck, I’d win every tournament.”
“I can dodge bullets baby.”
I also have a new poker course available at kungfukarate.com. This course is chalk full of over 8 minutes full of useful information. AMAZING!!! Right now I’m in Flint, Michigan, in a $23 a night suite with an excellent view that is out of this world! The other night, I ordered a can of 1967 Welch’s grape juice for 47 cents from the pimp on the corner. Yum yum! After all this I decided to play Chinese Poker with three Chinese men that were staying in the room next door. They only had one chair so we all sat on the kitchen floor. None of them spoke any English at all and were so freakishly lucky it was unbelievable! We started out playing for a penny a point and I was quickly stuck $247. I was a little steamed up so I decided to see if they wanted to kick it up to $1000 a point. They all seemed like honest people with high paying jobs in Flint. Then, in 100 straight hands Chin-Su and Min-Li had royalties and scooped me! They ended up beating me for $2.7 million. What was I going to tell my wife, “Honey, I just lost over $2 million playing Chinese poker with three Chinese guys?” The next morning I had to play the tournament in Foxwoods. It started at noon but I decided to show up at 8:00pm when the day was almost over. Would I let one big loss destroy me? Other people have, but I’m not other people. As the night ended, several questions came to me: should I spend $9 on a bottle of Figi? No more taking the bus across country to tournaments anymore. If I’m willing to lose almost $3 million to three random Chinese guys in one night, I’m going to start taking the train to tournaments! Should I go back to Flint to play those Chinese men again? After all, they were freakishly lucky. How could I be so unlucky? Is my ego out of whack? How do I take this huge negative, and turn it into me tapping into all of my super powers right now? Then boom! It all clicked! I called my wife and ORDERED her to do a good deed for someone. With her being my wife, that would count as me doing half of the good deed since we are married and all. I instructed her to write out a check for $8.35 to “Poker Dealers Across America,” a wonderful organization that teaches dealers how to cope with abusive poker players. I then told her to go down to the homeless shelter and to give each and every person there a copy of my new book, “Why I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread.” Along with a copy of the book, I figured that it would inspire the people there to have a bobble head of me that they could cherish each night before bed. It would give them the inspiration to know, that while they could never be me and will probably lead miserable lives in the shelter…. I care about THEM. And I will break records… for THEM. It always feels good to give. Giving those homeless people a piece of me makes me feel entitled to win big and set records. I’m not just playing for me anymore, those homeless people will now be living their lives vicariously through me and I can’t disappoint them. With all this, imagine what a “Super Powered Daniel Negreanu” is capable of at the WSOP in 2007? If I use all of my powers, who can stop me? Someday I will thank those three Chinese men for taking my money.
(As strange as it sounds, a friend of mine had a very similar epiphany recently. Checkout his blog here: BiggestLossEver)]]>

American Idol is an amazing show that’s captured the American audience, but this season, the whole franchise is in jeopardy due to a hateful group of people that are deliberately trying to sabotage the competition. There is a website called “Vote for the Worst” that tries to convince people to vote for the worst singer left in the competition. That person this season is clearly Sanjaya. A sweet 17 year old kid who actually has some talent, but is clearly outclassed by all of the other competitors remaining, as well as the other finalists who have been voted off due to this prank. A guy like Sundance for example, who clearly had potential and a big voice was dispatched while Sanjaya remained. Those that have already been eliminated aren’t the only victims in this. Sanjaya himself, a bright eyed 17 year old is being mocked and ridiculed in the media. It’s not his fault, but he will undoubtedly have to live with the embarrassment of being the butt of an ugly joke for the rest of his life. Why do we do this to such a seemingly nice kid? Why do we take pleasure in his failures? What kind of person takes pleasure from such a thing? It amazes me how silly, foolish, and hateful our society can be. This also happened with the NHL All Star game when a group decided to start a website called, “Vote for Rory.” The NHL allowed fans to vote for anyone they wanted to be in the all-star game, and Rory Fitzpatrick, a below average defenseman with one goal, in like, six seasons, became their boy. Disregarding the fact that if they were successful, they’d be robbing a player who earned and deserved a spot, a chance to play in the All-Star game. How hateful are we? What other explanation can there be aside from liking to watch people fall, mocking people, and destroying something good? It reminds me of an episode of Sopranos called, “The Happy Wanderer.” It was one of my favorite episodes. Anyway, in this particular episode Tony Soprano is explaining that he has hate in his heart and he can’t rationalize it, saying, “I see a guy walking down the street, whistling, happy, and I want to break his face in. How sick is that? I should say, good luck to him. I’m happy for you. But instead, I want to break his nose. What are you so happy about!!!” People in America love American Idol. If you don’t, that’s your right. Trying to sabotage the show, though, just seems like such a hateful thing to do and I can’t imagine that anyone who does that genuinely feels good about it afterwards. It’s a crying shame when a small group of people ruin things for the rest of us. It’s a shame because they often get away with it, as they have this season with American Idol and how that site www.voteforrory.com also came close to making a mockery of the NHL All-Star game. Frankly, it’s not all that much different from what terrorists are trying to accomplish. They want to take your liberties and your freedom away from you. They’ve accomplished a lot, and anyone who’s ever been to an airport since 9/11 should understand that. Terrorists don’t want you to be happy. They don’t want you to enjoy things and if they can find a way to destroy something you enjoy, they’ll try. Obviously making a comparison between American Idol and terrorism seems absurd, and it is, but it helps illustrate my point. If enough hateful people thought this prank was a good idea and ended up backing the winner, it would destroy the show. Completely destroy it in it’s current form. The most likely scenario would be that America would no longer get to choose the winner. Either that, or the show would be cancelled entirely. I really hope that doesn’t happen and Sanjaya is eliminated this evening. I actually really like him and think he’s shown a lot of maturity in what has to be a tormenting experience for him. I want this nightmare to be over for him. I have empathy for him because he seems like a good soul. A little naive, but this world would be a much better place if everyone had a heart like his. He doesn’t deserve this. I just hope that the “American Idol terrorists” don’t hurt him so badly that it hardens his heart and changes him as a person. There are some amazingly talented singers left in the competition and I think everyone will he happier when the Sanjaya saga is over. At least, everyone except the owner of the website “vote for the worst” and his followers. Here