PokerBlog.com

[Content Disclosure: 110% Poker, 26% My Life, 39% Writing, 12% Multiple Personality Disorder]

A lot of my current writing is done over on PokerBlog. You might say that is my day job or at least my morning job. I try and write about a topic that is current in the big, wide world of poker. I also have a backlog of thought pieces and slightly different perspectives that look in at poker from a place removed by a step or two. Poker only seems a massive phenomenon from inside. The majority of the world has no idea that the game has boomed. Life really goes go on without poker; at times I try to make that a bit more clear to the poker addicts and afficionados of the world.

I should confess that I also get to play out some of my multi-personalities on Poker Blog. Most readers in the poker world know me as the Poker Shrink and the majority of my work on Poker Blog is done under that pseudonym. However, when I get annoyed at governmental intrusion or bureaucratic interference in the game, then I use the Cranky Olde Coot to vent and rant. Lenny is my sleazy testosterone driven persona and when I just need to dispense some tidbit of information or get in touch with my feminine side, I use Lindy the Librarian.

I shill a bit for Party Poker and Party Gaming on Poker Blog because they pick up the tab, but I must say they give me complete freedom to sink the hook wherever I feel it is needed. I write about 20 or so posts a month on Poker Blog, sometimes when the news bin gets full I write a bit more and when the noize is less, I can reach into my personal archives for some thoughts I have had back burnered for a time.

All in all, the writing is satisfying and provides an nice sense of daily completion that books or longer articles do not. I like putting another red notch on my white board for a uploaded Poker Blog entry. It happens a lot more often than chalking up a finished chapter or a published print article. Little pleasures.

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Capital Punishment and the Constitution

[Content Disclosure: 0% Poker, 12% Politics, 13% Supreme Court, 9% Strict Constructionism, 19% Pure Rant, 29% other]

I was listening to NPR the other day in the car. I am not, like some of my friends, addicted to National Public Radio. I do, however, listen to it in the car rather than the noize on most other stations. So here was this NPR "news" piece covering a hearing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The case involved whether or not the current methods of lethal injection to administer justice in capital punishment cases was cruel and inhuman. Why? Well because according to some, who have studied this; the current three drug cocktail may not be as painless as the single drug administration of a strong barbiturate.

Now there was some political silliness and political stupidity on both sides of the case but what I was struck by was the questioning by the various Justices of the court. One in particular caught my attention as the very essence of legal system, as practiced today, in the United States. The attorney advocate for changing the lethal injection to a single drug had made the case that this procedure would insure a painless death; he had further made the point, supported by medical testimony, that the current three drug cocktail could leave some patients paralyzed but able to feel their slow, agonizing death by suffocation.

A Justice asked the attorney where in the Constitution he found the stipulation that the death penalty must be administered in the least painful manner possible.

Just sit with that a moment.

There in the allegedly hallowed halls of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, a member of that Court actually wanted to know, if the revered Founding Fathers, gathered to write the Constitution of the newly freed country of the United States of America; whether these delegates had considered that 220+ years in the future that perhaps their descendants would need guidance in order to be civilized enough to kill a shackled person in the most humane manner available.

But, of course, that is not what the esteemed Justice meant. What he meant was that he only is able to make judicial rulings based on what is actually written in the Constitution. Since the delegates never addressed the actually manner of murder by which their descendants would put people to death than, in fact, beheading them as is done in many countries around the world would be perfectly constitutional according to this Justice.

Now once again--who are the Barbarians? and why do they wear those black robes?

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Once More into the Breech

[Content Disclosure: 0% Poker; 56% friends near and far; 38% that time of year; 9% that state of mind]

Annual and decadal resolutions abound. I am torn by this internet spawned wellspring of revelation. My closest friends know that despite the exterior large, white, gregarious male; I am, in fact, a private person and keep my stuff very sequestered. My 100 Things About Me was a stretch to post here and I, at times, struggle with lifting the veil onto my private meanderings (or my cave, as Amy calls it).

So today I am going for quixotic and cryptic, the very best I can do on the cusp of a new adventure.

Texas1 - The water will never go cold.

The other desert - May happiness have finally discovered you.

Inner Sunset - The joy of these last few years.

Australia - Ships passing in the dusk, at times laying over in safe harbours.

Texas2 - It has been too long since I had a very best friend again.

Amish Country - Congratulations on finding what you seek.

Jessica - PtC

Outer Sunset - A joy to have someone who speaks to me and hears me and hopefully I for you.

Texas3 - "The great ambition of women is to inspire love." Moliere

Marina - So good to hear life in your voice again.

Fisherman's Wharf - The longest and the best.

Sonoma - New beginnings with a tinges of jade and olive.

Green Valley - Wonderful to be in your life and you in mine.

7000 - It is not all one-way; never was.

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That Time of Year

[Content Disclosure: Poker 0.0%; Meanderings 44%; Ponderings 37%; Prattlings 19%; Memories, Dreams and Reflections Jung%]

Other's words on the path over the last year, the last several years and all those years ago; even though it all was just a moment ago.

"Before you love, learn to walk through snow leaving no footprints."

Always choose the second best quote, it leaves you in much better company. For instance:

"Happiness isn't happiness without a violin playing goat."

A personal favorite for many years:

"An ass is but an ass, even though laden with gold."

And as a long overdue remembrance to one once loved and lost:

“As a bathtub lined with white porcelain, when the hot water gives out or goes tepid, so is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion, my much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady.”

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European Union and United States Reach Trade Agreement to Continue Ban of Online Gaming

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker, 14% Fascism, 9% Stupidity]

The hope of many US poker players was that the huge compensation over the WTO trade ruling would force the Federal government to back off on the UIGEA. Well quietly today the EU and the US have agreed on a trade deal that will allow the United States to continue to block European gaming sites from soliciting customers using US based computers.

The European Union has accepted a compensation package the U.S. has offered, in response to its withdrawal from World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements on gambling and betting services. "A bilateral agreement was signed in Geneva, which provides EU service suppliers with new trade opportunities in the U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors," the Commission said. "The U.S. also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector."

The WTO ruled in 2005 that the U.S. gambling ban -- which exempts certain domestic services, for online horse-racing -- effectively discriminates against foreign companies seeking to offer similar services in the U.S. market.

The European Union said it will also "continue to press for non discriminatory treatment in U.S. internet gambling legislation."

Meanwhile, a WTO decision on what sanctions the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda may impose on the U.S., over its refusal to allow U.S. citizens to gamble at foreign online casinos, has been delayed, Reuters reports.

Antigua has asked the WTO for permission to impose $3.44 billion in annual trade sanctions, while the U.S. says the country should be entitled to $500,000 in damages.

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The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

[Content Disclosure: Morose Material 3%; Travel Plans 4%; Current Visitations 8%; Moderate Poker References 12%; Life, The Universe and Everything .065%+/-]

There actually is a winter here in Las Vegas. We haven't seen 70 in over a week, this after 108 straight days this summer of 100+. The nights are almost too cold for the hottub but then I remember the tub on Sunset Road in the snow and I feel much better about dipping my toes and other parts into the warm liquid.

Amy is in town and we are working on several projects including, of course, our current book with Mike Matusow. We have met with our New York agent (doesn't NYA just sound good!) and we will be hanging out at Bellagio the next several days to pick up interviews with other players who play prominent roles in portions of Mike's story. We (that would be Amy and I) also have to formulate our "Big Push" plan to finish the text, as it appears our proposal will be seeing the light of several big publishing houses in early January.

So this little laptop and I are becoming even better friends.

I am going to write through holiday #1 and then make the trek north to Mt Shasta (actually Weed, California) for the turning of the calendar day. I haven't been to the Great North of California in several years and I miss the Sloth of Shasta. Back in the desert early in the year and back to the challenge of becoming an author on paper rather than just an editor of the ether.

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San Francisco & Cyberspace

[Content Disclosure: my work 37%; my travels 22%; me 43%; poker 9%]

I have returned to the Nevada desert from a week+ in San Francisco with my friends. Now that I am back I can begin anticipating my trip to Mt. Shasta for New Year's Eve. In the meantime, there is much work to be done in Cyberspace and on "The Book".

Just as an update for those who really want poker content, I can be found in several and/or many iterations on:

Poker Blog, Online Poker-Beginner's Poker Blog, Chili Poker and even moderating a brand new All Poker Forum.

The book with Mike Matusow is now with our New York publishing agent and we should hear something before the end of some year.

On a personal note: I am now married and have three darling children. And yes I still have those acid flashbacks but I am feeling much better now.

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