The winner of the land based final will have his/her tuition paid by Mr. Sub and then will face off against me in a one on one heads up match for an additional $1000. If I happen to win, the money will be donated to charity.
The only people eligible for this event are those that are currently attending a Canadian College or University.
Prot
I’m sitting at the airport right now, waiting for my flight to Miami. As I was waiting in the first class line to check in, guess who showed up? Freddie Deeb! Freddie has his laptop open right now checking out FCP for the first time. As for me, I decided to write a little bit before the plane took off. I said my goodbyes to my wife and to my dog. Lori I’m not worried as much about as she knows I’m coming back! Mushu, though, has never been away from me for a month and a part of me worries that he’ll think I abandoned him. But anyway, so why am I nervous? Well, I’m nervous because I’m so excited about “going on the road” and playing some tournament poker. The last two tournaments I played had my juices flowing as I felt like I had a chance. I feel great about this month. I’ll be fighting fatigue from all of the travel, but I’m taking this month as seriously as I’ve ever taken poker tournaments. I want to start 2006 on the right foot, but I’m sure my opponents do too! Oops, looks like my plane is leaving without me!!! Bye for now!]]>
Ok, it’s official, my dog is a full blown racist. I’m not kidding. I never raised him to be a racist, I always tried to teach Mushu that people are people and you should respect all people. That’s how I grew up, and those are the values I tried to instill in my dog. My dog doesn’t like black people. Ok, I said it, and I know it might not be politically correct or what not, but my little buddy is a full blown, racist dog. When I arrived at the Las Vegas airport recently Mushu and I were waiting for our bags, while a couple of WHITE girls wanted to pet him. That went off without a hitch, his tail was wagging, he was licking their hands- all smiles. Then a young black girl tried to pet Mushu. He looked like Cujo, the rabies diseased dog from the movies! His eyes bulged out of his head and it was clear that he didn’t take kindly to the young black girl. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time my son has shown a propensity for racism. As a worried father, dealing with a son that speaks no English, I’m at a loss. My dog is an ignorant, General Lee lovin’ red neck! It’s sad I tell you, really sad. Personally, I don’t hate very many people in this world, but I find it hard to control my anger towards red necks. I should clarify what a “red neck” is, as it doesn’t relate to
So all in all, I feel more than comfortable playing and signing the release. In some respect, there is simply no “smoking gun,” if you will, and no precedent for all of the WPT release bashing. Now, if an issue does arise in the future, then we’d sick em’ like rabid dogs! However, since there is no “issue” and no reason to believe that there will be, I’d rather bury the whole thing and get back to playing some poker! On that note, I’m headed over to www.fullcontactpoker.com to play some heads up limit hold’em- man that game is fun!]]>
Seat 2: David Benyamine
Seat 3: Me
Seat 4: Gus Hansen
Seat 5: Chip Reese
Seat 6: Ming Ly
We were playing a “min” version of the big game, playing 10 games but everything limit wise was cut in half including the cap:
Hold’em
Stud
Stud H/L
Omaha H/L
2-7 Triple Draw
Limit Omaha
Stud H/L Regular
Pot Limit Omaha
No Limit Hold’em
2-7 Single Draw NL
The game seemed pretty dead for some reason. I played for about 4 hours and won a “peanut,” or $24,000.
***************************************************************
Today I played for a little bit online at www.fullcontactpoker.com with “Pokergirl” $100-$200 limit hold’em, heads up. It was back and forth for a while and then I finally quit after winning $500 and change.
I later checked my e-mail and saw one that was from Steve Lipscomb. The tone of the e-mail was very positive, and I agreed with most of it, but there was something written in there that is… well, horrifying.
Steve wrote: “But, the story does not end there. The World Poker Tour is a business. We value our relationship with WPT players and have always acted with great care and deference when using player images. The few players now trying to stir up controversy around player releases are lost in hypotheticals not reality.
A perfect example occurred recently. Without my approval, a banner ad featuring three prominent players was used by a WPT affiliate to drive people to our online poker site. Within an hour of hearing about the ad, I had it removed not because we were legally obligated to, but because the players asked us to and we take their concerns seriously.”
The scary sentence? “I had it removed NOT BECAUSE we were LEGALLY obligated to, but because the players asked us to and we take their concerns seriously.”
That right there, is an assertion that the WPT would have had the legal right to use that banner if they chose to. In other words, according to Steve, they would have the legal right to put Doyle Brunson, mine, and Gus Hansen’s picture on an online banner for WPTonline.
If that is in fact what he is saying, then there is simply NO WAY I could play on the WPT if they expect me to sign a release that gives them the right to use my name and likeness to promote the WPTOnline.
It’s important to note that I DO trust Steve Lipscomb and Lyle Berman enough to know that they would never do that. What I don’t have, is a guarantee that for one, it’s solely up to them, and two, that they would NEVER sell the WPT to someone else.
If an outside entity took over the WPT they could use these releases and then we’d all be knee deep in legal bills.
Personally, if it went to court, I don’t think that the WPT would stand much of a chance, but I seriously hope that day never comes.
However, until further notice, based on that scary e-mail, I just don’t think I’d be able to play on the WPT and that would really, really suck. I love playing on the WPT and hope that something can be done in time for Bahamas. ]]>