I’m in London

D Stefan Elliot, COL.
F Derek Stepan, NYR.
F Zach Budish, NAS.
F Philippe Paradis, CAR. My team is stocked and a favorite to once again win my division in a cake walk. Posted in the order of their salary for this season: DEFENSE:
Scott Neidermayer, ANA.
Cory Murphy, NJ.
John-Michael Liles, COL.
Brent Seabrook, CHI.
Tom Poti, WAS.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, SJ.
Alex Goligoski, PIT.
Kris Russell, CLB.
Andy Sutton, NYI.
Steve Staios, EDM.
Greg Zanon, NAS. FORWARDS:
Simon Gagne, PHI.
Henrik Sedin, VAN.
Alexander Semin, WAS.
Olli Jokinen, CAL.
Anze Kopitar, LA.
Kyle Okposo, NYI.
Andre Kostitsyn, MON.
Jason Pominville, BUF.
Corey Perry, ANA.
Eric Belanger, MIN.
Ryan Malone, TB.
Steve Ott, DAL.
Darcy Tucker, COL.
Miroslav Satan, UFA.
Jim Slater ATL.
Aaron Voros, NYR. GOAL:
1. Vancouver Canucks (Roberto Luongo)
2. New York Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist)
3. San Jose Sharks (evgeny Nabakov) FARM TEAM (players listed by age) DEFENSE:
1. Marc-Andre Gragnani, BUF.
2. Taylor Chorney, EDM.
3. Mike Ratchuk, PHI.
4. Keith Seabrook, CAL.
5. Ivan Vishnevskiy, DAL.
6. Jamie McBain, CAR.
7. Jonathan Blum, NAS.
8. Jake Gardiner, ANA.
9. Brandon Burlon, NJ.
10. Nick Leddy, MIN.
11. Stefan Elliot, COL.
FORWARDS:
1. Benoit Pouliot, MIN.
2. Bobby Ryan, ANA.
3. Jack Skille, CHI.
4. T.J. Oshie, SYL.
5. Nicklas Bersgfor, NJ.
6. Derek Stepan, NYR.
7. Evgeny Grachev, NYR.
8. Zach Budish, NAS.
9. Philippe Paradis, CAR.
This pool is like the funnest thing in the world for me. I’m a two-time champion and lost in the finals last season. ***************************************************************** I promised a poster by the name of maximose a shout out and here it is. I got an e-mail sent to me claiming that I Carlos Menci’ed him by stealing his jokes for my blog. I was like, huh? He apparently wanted a share in my profit from my parody blog since he had written a post that was a parody of both Roy Winston and Alec Torelli’s blog. The core of his take on both blogs was very similar to mine, but he wrote his first. So I told him he can have 50% of my salary that I’m paid for my blog… which comes to precisely zero dollars and zero cents! Haha. At first I thought the guy was really pissed, but I think it’s all good now. I didn’t see his post when I wrote my blog, but when I did I found it hilarious, because he found some major similarities that I also found. Torelli’s long winded, deep blogs, and Roy Winston’s man crush on a building named Borgata. By the way, I actually like the Borgata too, it’s the only place I’d stay in Atlantic City, but I would not, under any circumstances, hump the side of the building and caress the neatly trimmed bushes surrounding it. ***************************************************************** The Caesars Cup is set to go off in about 2 hours and I’m looking forward to a fun day and a fun format. Our team is a good one, as is the European team. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to announce my last two selections just yet, but here is a hint on one of them: I personally think that when he is playing his best, he’s possibly the best poker player in the world and he also has an incredible heads up record in the format we are playing. As captain of the time, it was my job to help with the selection of the players and it will also be my job to match up my team into two-man teams for this unique, Ryder Cup like format. There will be four matches played as teams. For example, if John Juanda and I were paired together, we would either play as a team playing alternate streets or alternate hands. Alternate streets would mean, for example, I act pre-flop, John acts after the flop, my decision on the turn, and John would take over again on the river. Two teams will also play alternate hand, meaning that they play two hands, both the button and from the big blind, all the way to the river, and then their partner would tag in and play two hands as well. The first team to 4 points wins, so if you sweep these matches it’s all over. After the two-man matches are complete, it will be my job to send in a player to represent the team in a heads up match for one point. If neither team is at 4 points after that, I’ll send in another. A total of 3 players could potentially play the heads up portion.
It’s going to be a fun day, and I’m “guessing” with the likes of Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Patrik Antonius, and Zigmund all taking part, that there just may be some side action 🙂 I already have all the pairing in mind, but won’t release them until the event starts. You can find all that out by checking my tweets at RealKidPoker. ****************************************************************** My mother is doing better! They have her sit in a chair during the day now, supposedly that helps with avoiding pneumonia. The problem is, she absolutely hates sitting up. When I was there she kept pointing to her bed and essentially begging me to put her back in bed. My brother says she does that every day, but the doctors say it’s important for her development. She isn’t talking yet, but we are definitely communicating. She understands everything I say and will nod or make hand gestures. She tries to talk, and I try to read her lips, but I just can’t make any of it out. Hopefully if she can every get off of life support she’ll have an opportunity to speak. That would be awesome, but things like this take time. She’s been in ICU for almost 8 months now, any every time I go see her I see improvement. It’s exciting, but I’m being careful with my expectations…
]]>