For work reasons and pure poker interest I’ve followed a lot of the World Series of Poker on WSOP.com and PokerNews Live Reporting.
The $50K Poker Players Championship finished up yesterday/early this a.m. The Grinder has set a new record, being the only one to ever win that championship twice, he’s pretty amazing. His brothers aren’t slouches either. Both Robert and Michael were at the final table of the Poker Players Championship in 2010 and all four of them cashed in the Main Event…they’re just little record setters, that’s all. Good on them!
Thinking on some of those feats, and looking at all of the same PRO names that are at the final table and cashing in events over and over and over, it’s hard to understand why our wonderful and wise government leaders can’t figure out that poker is a game of skill. Or does Kem or Bicycle or Copaq or any other brand have a few witch doctors and fairies that whip some hoo doo on the cards during manufacture so the same people win? That’s a lot of hoo doo. I suppose Shuffle Master would have to be in on it too…somehow…some way.
Another thought on all those wonderful feats that players are wracking up, with all the bull shit in online poker, the noise it created in the media and other areas when the US government handcuffed it and guillotined it without a fair trial, it robbed the players that should be courted by online poker sites. It robbed the players that could make a living from it by locking up funds that would have been in play – online and live.
Everyone that excels in poker wants to be recognized and acknowledged for overcoming their inner demons and maintaining the balance it takes to handle a professional poker playing career; that includes bracelets, trophies, big cash wins, and poker sponsorships.
Winning a WSOP bracelet is a huge feat, yet last year when the world should have been reading about poker as an enterprise of excitement and opportunity, they were reading about the latest spin on how someone was being indicted by the US government or Full Tilt was not going to pay off player’s accounts and all the ugliness that really isn’t what poker is all about. The ugliness is what greedy companies, greedy people, and governments are all about, but not poker. The players and the game suffers.
I guess this turned into a rant of sorts although it didn’t start that way.
Ahhhh…well, we all know you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to beat the game of poker but having some of those hoo dooed poker cards wouldn’t hurt a thing.
This picture was taken about a month ago. She’s a beauty!
Congrats to the Mizrachis and all the girls and boys that are playing their hearts out at the WSOP right now. Let us all hope the celebration returns to poker and all things being equal, I’m sure it will.