Party Poker Blog

"I’m not sure if reading Iggy’s blog will make you a better poker player but you sure as hell will have a good time reading it. Iggy spends his days swilling beer and surfing the web in search of obscure and often humorous poker material and then he somehow finds a common thread between multiple stories and voila you have an uber post. Your boss will hate Iggy but once you start on an uber post you can’t put it down."
Bill Rini

Too funny and inspiring for me to get back on it when my man, Bill, offers his perspective on the top ten poker blogs worth reading and I made the cut. It's encouraging to realize I just need to free up time and get back to posting here.

Bill's also got a nifty interview up with one of the Tiltboys, Rafe Furst. A worthy read.

So I watched the Day Three ESPN WSOP coverage and finally saw myself twice. It's not a big deal for my friends, the poker reporters, as I see them on there all the damn time. In fact, in the opening sequence you can clearly see Otis and FTrain watching a brutal river suckout card on the money bubble with the winner standing next to them, hands up in the air with a victory scream.

I'm right there, hiding behind that guy. That was my table and the old guy to my right got brutally knocked out. FTrain was certain that hand would make the TV and it did, but just not the whole thing. I made a point of getting the hell out of my chair and away from the cameras cause I'm goofy like that.

Next year I'll make a point to mug or perhaps make obscene gestures at the camera.

Or maybe just wear a wife-beater. That seems to work.

When they showed Men the Master's wife, the camera follows her walking back to my table. I had to freeze the screen so I could get a glimpse of my stack at the time. I actually played a bunch of hands on the bubble (giving my friends a near heart attack) and built up to somewhere north of 170k.

Whew, that bubble was brutal. I think ESPN did a decent job of capturing the tension in the air at the end of the day.

At the time, I was astounded how they handled the hand for hand process.

As each table completed a hand, the dealer was forced to stand up, signifying such. That's a lot of dealers/tables to keep track of. Next, they had floor people handling small sections of tables, communicating with the Central Office by walkie-talkie. It was a tedious ordeal.

I just don't get it. We can put a robotic science drone on fucking Mars but can't use better technology in the WSOP beyond walkie-talkies and dealers standing up?

It was cool hearing the words "blogger" bandied about on the telecast in reference to Jeremiah Smith, the chip leader. He was a really nice guy and made for a great story.

He also knocked me out on Day Four. I guess that's my only possibility of being shown since ESPN was there to capture it for posterity. I can't imagine why they'd show that hand, when my stack was inconsequential to his at the time, so my super secret identity will surely remain safe for now.

I'm actually starting to anticipate the November Nine at the final table on November 4th. Mostly because the old guy, and chipleader, is from my old hometown of St. Louis. And also, because the 4th biggest stack, and youngest player, Peter Eastgate, is a guy I played with almost for the entire Day One. A very strong player. If Peter wins, he'll beat Hellmuth as the all-time youngest Main Event bracelet winner, so that alone is reason to root for him.

Except he's a Swede.

I'm got my gambling urge well oiled. Good chance I'm gonna hit the boat tomorrow evening.

So in celebration of my half a second of TV time, allow me to throw some random wacky, wild links at you.

Here's the only poker related one, albeit a potential biggie. The LVRJ is reporting that: Senate bill calls for regulating, not banning, online poker

The effort to roll back an Internet gambling ban has reached the Senate, with a bill by Sen. Robert Menendez that calls for licensing and regulating online poker and other "games of skill" instead of outlawing them

I'm not allowing myself to even consider something like this getting passed. I am, however, going to rebuild my shrine to Chris Moneymaker in my office in hopes of helping the karma.

This story is one of the greatest robbery stories I've ever read: Armored truck robber uses Craigslist to make getaway

This next video is beyond explanation. Get a quick taste of what commuting is like in China right here:



And finally, but certainly not least, in celebration of the historic debate tonight between Mrs. Palin and Mr. Biden, I discovered this wonderful ad:

From Craigslist:

Looking for a Sarah Palin lookalike for an adult film to be shot in next 10 days.

Major adult studio.

Please send pix, stats etc. ASAP

Pay: $2000-3000

No anal required

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