I am THE James

Why am I horny?  Besides being male?  I have a good reason to be, but I digress.

I’ve been doing some freelance writing lately.  Trying to pick up some writing contracts.  So far it has been slow going, but I have one guy that is using me to write some poker related content.  I’m also waiting to hear back from a couple others.

I’m no longer obsessed with Holdem.  Thanks for asking.

Did anyone here ever see the episode of Press Your Luck where the guy won over 100k.  He memorized the light and slide patterns.  I watched the episodes and it was blatantly obvious that something was up.  The guy got his money, and apparently was an idiot in how he spent it.  I guess he got a life Whammy. 

For those of you wanting to see more Melissa Castello, she will be covering the APPT in Macau.   Yay Melissa!

Also thanks to Amy Calistri for adding me to her blogroll.  (You know some of you other folks could do the same.  Slackers.)

Why do the trees wave at you in the morning time? Their branches wave back and forth as to say, “Hey! Look at me and how chipper I am at 9 am.” Don’t they know I am not a morning person? I mean c’mon, don’t you think they would have better things to do?

Do you ever stop and try and figure out what dogs are saying when they bark at you? I do. Sometimes, I will try and bark back at them in the same pitch and voice. Sometime they stop and look at me like I’m crazy. They just need to learn how to speak English and make things simpler. Yo no hablo woof woof.

Cards are in the air. One time, I would love to see a dealer go, “52 Card Pickup!” and toss the cards everywhere. Then the saying would actually fit.

I’m still waiting for my Egg McMuffin Jolyn.

Have you ever seen a pink and purple polka dotted elephant wearing an athletic V-neck top? I have. And I was sober.

I was talking to the floorwoman (see egg mcmuffin above) one day and she told me about the first time they held the Roshambo tournament at the World Series. At the time she was a dealer and the only Roshambo she ever heard of was SOUTH PARK ROSHAMBO. Suffice it to say she REALLY wanted to see how that was going to go down.

Gluing a phone to a camera does NOT make a camera phone.

Pink Monkeys are not blue.

And last but not least,

Wet Dogs Smell Pretty.

During the main event of the World Series of Poker, I mentioned to one of my field reporters that Barbara Enright is in his section and he should follow her. He replied that he knew and jokingly said, “Who cares about Barbara Enright?” Well lets see, just a majority of the poker world and the Poker Hall of Fame. That’s all. Enright just took down her third title of the year on sunday when she won the Ladies Event at Legends of Poker. So far this year, Enright has three wins, 6 final tables, and a cash at this past World Series of Poker. Maybe it me, but that sounds like someone worth following.

Great job Barbara, keep up the great work. Let’s see a deep run in the LOP Main Event!

We really had some fun with names this past World Series of Porno, I mean World Series of Poker.  For your amusement, I am going to dramatize a hand between some players.

Zelong Dong Comes Up Short

Zelong Dong limped in from early position.  Strong Wang then raised from middle position.  Woody Deck sat upright directly after the raise and then made the call.  Dong called as well.   On a flop of A-5-6, Zelong Dong checked and Strong Wang splattered some chips in the amount of 2,000.  Woody Deck made the call.  Zelong Dong called.   The turn fell the 4 of clubs and Zelong Dong checked to Strong Wang, who again bet out in the amount of 4,000.  Deck folded and Dong called.  The river fell the 2 of diamonds and Zelong Dong checked out Strong Wang for a moment before checking.  Wang bet out 12,000 and Dong decided to look him up.  Zelong Dong showed A-5 for two pair, while Wang showed A-3 for the wheel.  Strong Wang yanked in the pot.

A lot of interesting and strange things happened at the WSOP this summer.  Some good and some bad.  Below are some things I discovered:

Harrahs truly does try and accommodate all players.  We had deaf players, legally blind players, players in wheelchairs, players with no arms, and even a quadriplegic.  (With that being said, the media is TOO SENSITIVE in trying not to offend handicapped players.)

Mike Matusow is just as insane off the camera as on.  (Proven by him coming up to me and randomly ranting about his chip stack during a break.  Why did he come and rant to me personally?  I made eye contact I guess.  I don’t know.)

David Singer complains a lot….

John Phan would get a ticket in Oklahoma for playing too slow.

People take $10,000 whims….

Blogs do indeed take on people’s personalities.  (I wrote some blog entries during one event and for two days people came up and TOLD me that I wrote that.  Didn’t ask me.  They told me.  And most didn’t even know my name.)

The phrase “One time” is probably the most overused phrase in history.

Followed by “bad beat.”

Followed directly by “ship it.”

Playing connect four is so much fun, but YOU play alone, cause you’re a virgin.

People have a hard time grasping the concept as to why a decent poker player would rather do something other than play poker.  (You have no idea how many times I was asked why I didn’t play.)

Younger players need to learn more about the history of poker beyond Doyle Brunson, Stu Unger, and Johnny Chan.

Jean-Robert Bellande may appear to be a jerk but he does have an honorable side.  In the Limit Shootout, he was heads up and his opponent did not return on time from break.  He refused to take his seat and let the dealer pass the blinds around until his opponent arrived.

“If you don’t lose a hand heads up, you will eventually win a tournament.”  - Words of wisdom from Tom Schneider referring to Daniel Negranu’s bracelet win.

This past Monday, I returned from my stint at the World Series of Poker as a blogger for PokerNews.com. It was a fantastic experience, one which I hope to get the chance to do again sometime. Playing in the World Series is a lot different from reporting the World Series. I actually enjoyed the later more this time. One reason is that I didn’t have the stress associated with playing. The last two years, I was burnt out by the time the World Series was over. This year, I could have continued on past the time my contract expired. I was glad to be done though. By the time 4-H Camp time arrived, I was sort of regretting my decision. I ended up figuring out later on that was just due to my missing camp. I talked with several people about camp, and things went well. Step will be taken to where I can attend next year. There is a small hole in me that is noticeably missing due to not attending camp. At the same time, we must make sacrifices in our lives at time to make our overall life better, or at least put ourselves in said position. (more…)

I covered Event #29, which was a $3,000 NL Holdem event. As most of you know, I hate NL Holdem, but I will play it and I will cover it because thats where the money is at. Tuesday night was the final table of the $3k NL event. John Phan and David Singer were two of the pro’s at the table. (more…)

I am writing from Event #29, the $3,000 NL Event.  Since I have last posted, we finished event #22, the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.  Jens Voertmann won the event, but it was a fantastic final table with Marcel Luske, Steve Zolotow, Hoyt Corkins, and Jennifer Harman.  Out of those four, only Marcel had any real shot to win as he finished 3rd.  He was up and down a long time but finally his loose style caught up to him.  I am glad that Voertmann won out of the two left, especially after one hand late.  Doug Ganger and Voertmann were playing a hand of Omaha Hi-Lo where Ganger slowrolled Voertmann.  After that hand, it was as if Voertmann said, “Ok, we play now.”  He just flattened Ganger after that point.

Today, I am covering the $3,000 NL event.  Some big names, but a lot of the top tier names are over in the $10,000 Limit Event.  I would much rather be there, but I guess I have to do time in the NL jail.  Actually, it’s not too bad to cover.  Its actually simple.  I think thats the point.  Its so simple a game that after a while, everything is routine.

After this event, in three days I cover the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship.  That should be a lot of fun.  The only down side to all this is that I am beginning to miss some of my friends, which was to be expected.

Unless I make a last minute change, I probably wont play in a WSOP event this year.  I am planning on playing the Stud 8 or Better event down at Binion’s on the 24th, but right now anything else will depend on my schedule and how I feel.  I may hang around and play over at the Orleans open next month, but I haven’t decided.

Anyway, I will try and write again before the end of the 3k event, but this event isn’t all that exciting.

Well, the 10k Stud World Championship is behind us and Eric Brooks wound up winning the event.  With 16 players left we had Chad Brown, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel left in our field.  Out of all of those, only Seidel made the final.  Seidel could never amass a huge stack at the final and as a result finished 5th.

I was not surprised in the least that Kostritsyn finished 3rd.  In fact, if not for some card catching, he should have been out long before then.  He made a lot of rookie mistakes during the final table.   From what I saw of his play, it amazes me that he even cashed, much less finished third in the event.  He was a prime target to trap and take a lot of chips from.  Eric Brooks caught on to this and took two huge chunks out his ass at the final table.  I told my partner Heath that was covering the event that the true stud players would take advantage of him, and they did.

Today begins the 3K H.O.R.S.E. event.  This should be a very stacked field as you will have mixed games specialist and a lot of pros trying to make their way through a smaller field.  I would not be surprised if we had 400 or more players in this event.  500 wouldn’t shock me.  I will be covering the event for Pokernews, so head over there and click on live reporting.

Finally got my first paycheck for this gig, so I finally have some money.  I haven’t played much my last two days off due to the fact I was nearly broke.  I mostly just hung out.   Summer called me today and told me that she might fly out to see me while I am here.  That would be good.  I miss her.   Of course that will just get a couple more guys talking more than they already are.  I will go into that further in a future post.

Anywho, got to go get ready for work.

Well I have been officially working for two weeks at the World Series of Poker and I must say that this has been a fantastic experience.  I have worked at least parts of 3 events so far.  I first worked Event #2, which was the $1,500 buy-in NL event.  I worked that for days 1a and 1b.  I had a couple interesting posts about Scotty Nguyen on day two in which we talked a little.

Next, I worked Event #6 which is the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event.  That was a great event.  I worked it from start to finish.  Saw a couple of people I knew and had a good time.  Got to cover my first final table.  I even got in a couple of media shots and I “may” get to be on TV as a result of that one.  We will see this fall.

Right now, I am working Event #14, which is the $10,000 buy-in Seven Card Stud World Championship.  This one has been the most fun so far.  I am doing a lot of coverage on a living legend of Vegas,  Archie “The Greek” Karas.  He is the man that came out to Vegas with $50, ran it up to $40,000,000 and then lost it all back.  It’s been a lot of fun covering him and all the other pros.  I will be covering the Stud World Championship to its conclusion.

Of course, if you want to follow my stuff, go to www.pokernews.com and click on the live reporting link.  Any of my events, look for the nick of compncards, and you will find my stuff.

Got to go.  I have to be at work in an hour.  (If you want to call it work)