Sunday, May 27, 2007

What's Going On?















[Content Disclosure: Poker 3%, Speculation 88%, Tease 6%]


So what's going on with "Keeping Your Head in the Game"?

Well a couple of things. First, the poker: there really is no reason for me to have a separate poker-only blog when I am writing six days a week over on PokerBlog and writing my weekly column Poker Shrink on PokerNews. Plus all the other WSOP related articles I write for PokerNews. Lest we forget the World Series of Poker begins in five days and our prep meetings start tomorrow.

I mentioned in the past that I have wanted to write more about things not poker and although I have been doing that quite a bit this spring, only a few of those pieces have reached the light of day. So I am going to convert "Keeping Your Head in the Game" to a personal blog with very little poker content. Whether I will pull this off during the WSOP (May 30th-July 18th) or perhaps wait for the mid-summer lull----I am just not sure yet.

If you are in my email eddress book, I will let you know. For the cyber-wanderers who land here--come back soon..... the cards will be changing in most mysterious ways.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Poker and the Summer in Las Vegas

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker; 17% Bitchin'; 13% Whinin'; 4% Commentary on the State of the Species]

As May rolls around and summer looms just around the corner, I paused to ponder just how cloudy and unclear one's future can be when contracts, attorneys, ill-trained managers cum poker players are allowed to run large businesses. I also note that a lot of this mindless paperwork comes from our every growing litigious society and because no one trusts anyone else to actually do what they said they would do, when they said they would do it for the compensation agreed upon. Then there is the ever present "that depends what the meaning of is is" mentality. Coupled with the recurring reminders that not every member of the human species is as evolved from our simpian cousins as we think we are. Reversion is an annoying trait and alpha males are the worst offenders.

OK, now that the mumbling lament is over, here is what summer 2007 in Las Vegas holds poker-wise.

The World Series, of course, dominates the poker scene each and every year. Seven weeks and fifty-five bracelet events will keep everyone on their toes and there will be several procedural and media screw-ups over the summer. The whole media covering the WSOP plans, rules and guidelines are still not fully in place less than four weeks before the first event; so expect disruption, complaints and confusion. All of which will be torturously played out in dozens of witty and whiney blogs.

The WSOP itself is still undergoing growing pains or perhaps better evolutionary emergence. The Harrah's/WSOP team are always looking better ways to present the Series. This means that they are always balancing the wants, needs and desires of the players and the often competing financial goals of Harrah's Entertainment Inc. Then, each year, they present their new and improved vision of the WSOP to 50,000 players over 7 weeks and inevitably they do not please all of the players all of the time.

With this year's Series being bigger in number of events, number of tables, number of total players, number of media credentials, etc. etc. There will be new problems and new successes and all of it will be reported, deported, inverted, rejected, inspected and detected ad nauseum. I will be joining the chorus at the Series in a yet unknown media capacity.

Prior to June 1st, the first official day of the 2007 WSOP, there are two Season Six WPT events here in Las Vegas. The Mirage Poker Showdown begins in a week, personally one of my least favorite poker tournaments but that is another story. Following Mirage is the Mandalay Bay Championship tournament, which overlaps the first two days of the Series.

Lots of poker coming up here, who knows exactly what cards will be in the air? There are more than 52, you know!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Blogger Tag

[Content Disclosure: Poker 23%; Blogging 34%; Me 42%; Jane Fonda 1%]

Well my lack of posting here didn’t go unpunished as Amy tagged me for the 7 Things About Me Blog Chain. I figured I’d better get on it or there would be no one left to tag. This is truly a pyramid about to collapse. I’ve already have 93 things about me but I have only shared those privately. So I have selected 7 exemplars for now and promise to get the full list up to one hundred and perhaps even post it here. No really I will....

11. I was Jane Fonda’s bodyguard for a day
20. I volunteer at the SPCA in the cat wing.

24. I feel the most important feature of a car is head room.

38. The last presidential speech I heard was Richard Nixon’s resignation.

39. I don’t believe in the Cartesian mind/body split.

47. When anyone says their family is dysfunctional, I ask if they have ever seen The Osbournes.
73. I am fascinated by images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Now who can I tag?

Friday, May 04, 2007

Summer Poker In Las Vegas

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker; 17% Bitchin'; 13% Whinin'; 4% Commentary on the State of the Species]

As May rolls around and summer looms just around the corner, I paused to ponder just how cloudy and unclear one's future can be when contracts, attorneys, ill-trained managers cum poker players are allowed to run large businesses. I also note that a lot of this mindless paperwork comes from our every growing litigious society and because no one trusts anyone else to actually do what they said they would do, when they said they would do it for the compensation agreed upon. Then there is the ever present "that depends what the meaning of is is" mentality. Coupled with the recurring reminders that not every member of the human species is as evolved from our simpian cousins as we think we are. Reversion is an annoying trait and alpha males are the worst offenders.

OK, now that the mumbling lament is over, here is what summer 2007 in Las Vegas holds poker-wise.

The World Series, of course, dominates the poker scene each and every year. Seven weeks and fifty-five bracelet events will keep everyone on their toes and there will be several procedural and media screw-ups over the summer. The whole media covering the WSOP plans, rules and guidelines are still not fully in place less than four weeks before the first event; so expect disruption, complaints and confusion. All of which will be torturously played out in dozens of witty and whiney blogs.