Poker Hottie?!

It seems that a Poker Hottie (Brandie Hawbaker) was chip leader after day 2 of the Fiesta el Lago Tournament at Bellagio. Unfortunately, she "busted" (see pic link and then look at the pic on the right of the page) out on day 3, but she surely made some waves at the table with her low cut dress......

Fabulous.

Are you LOST?

Yes, I'm addicted to this show. Shut it...it's good. It's certainly not the best, but how many shows actually make you think, make you guess, surprise you, and intentially will not close all the loose ends. You can watch recent episodes on ABC.com.

24 is great, but LOST is better. It's too bad that when LOST premiered, it never hinted at what it could be....I had no desire to watch the premiere, even when billboards were pasted all over the city 3 years ago. I had friends that worshiped the show, but there seemed to be no premise. It was just a plance crash.

Every once in a while, the show plays an "omnibus" episode which encapsules the better part of a season (or two) in one hour. There was such a show available before season 3, which is how you can get people hooked on the show. I watched such a show in the middle of season 2, when the World Poker Tour was a repeat....and now I have a DVR so I don't miss it.

Well, thanks to those people who kept the show alive. Now, the story lines are facinating. I suspect the DVDs are good as well, but I suppose a DVD set once the story is fully told (it can't go on forever), would be even more enlightening. You can tell they are writing this on the fly.

Speaking of which, monitoring the blogs and bulletin boards is one of the best parts of the show. It's the LOST experience (no, not the internet searching version) that makes us all conjure the conspiracy theories.

Here are some sights to visit. Some take this VERY seriously.

http://www.thelostexperience.com/
http://lost-reviews.blogspot.com/

OR....you can look at Pop Candy on USA Today, where I've even made a post or two
http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2006/10/lets_talk_lost__1.html#comment-24121650

Is it really Black Friday (the 13th)?

Today, the President signed the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, which many may know includes the attached Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the final hours before the end of the session. Who would veto a safe port act....hmm? I don't blame the President...what can he do?

I blame Bill Frist. I won't even glamourize him here....I'll just post the picture to the right.

Well, all is not lost. Partypoker is likely pulling out of the US Market (and losing my business), but FullTilt, PokerStars, and Interpoker will now catch my eyes. FullTilt has rackeback, which may be better for me than bonuses....I've paid an incredible amount of rake.

The article below gives more details. Cardplayer has been at the forefront w.r.t. reporting this issue.

Below courtesy of Cardplayer.com

President Signs Unlawful Internet Gambling Act
Bush Really Signed the Safe Port Act with Unlawful Internet Gambling Act Attached
President Bush today signed the port security bill that also includes legislation to limit the ways online poker fans can deposit money into their favorite accounts.
The official name of the bill is the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. On the last Friday in September, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist worked into the night to get the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGE) attached to the port act. Congress passed the act nearly unanimously in the last vote before an extended election-year recess.
Earlier that week, Frist tried to get the UIGE attached to a major defense spending bill, but both Republican and Democrats spoke out against this action because of the importance of the defense spending bill.
Several online sites, including PartyPoker and 888.com, said they will stop allowing real-money players located in America to play on its sites after Bush signed the bill.
Other sites like PokerStars, Absolute Poker, Bodog and Full Tilt said they will still do business with Americans in the U.S. even after Bush signed the bill into law.
Click here to read a story about the act’s passage, and click here to visit CardPlayer.com’s archive of legislation articles.

Several Bad Beats

No, not my hands specificaly. Friday is the pseudo-doomsday for online poker, though the activity will still persist as the bill passed by the Legislature is not enforceable and does not create new law (note that it is an "enforcement act").

There are some great articles on cardplayer.com from an attorney's perspective about the online gaming enforcement act. These are great writeups.

OK, back to card playing....I picked up this thread from a poker discussion at The Motley Fool, where some people were sweating Mike Matasow and Eric Lindgren on FullTiltPoker.

So here we go...

How you know God hates you:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1083579448: Table Canfield (6 max)
$200/$400 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:10:00 ET - 2006/10/09
Seat 1: PimpOwnage ($39,400)
Seat 2: Erick Lindgren ($16,000)
Seat 3: Erik1223 ($40,000)
Seat 4: Mike Matusow ($35,888)
Seat 5: TexasLimitKing ($5,598.50)
Seat 6: dazzy ($51,297)
PimpOwnage posts the small blind of $200
Erick Lindgren posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Erik1223 raises to $1,400
Mike Matusow calls $1,400
TexasLimitKing folds
dazzy folds
PimpOwnage folds
Erick Lindgren folds

*** FLOP *** [9c 6c 9s]
Erik1223 bets $2,400
Mike Matusow calls $2,400

*** TURN *** [9c 6c 9s] [9h]
Erik1223 bets $4,800
Mike Matusow calls $4,800

*** RIVER *** [9c 6c 9s 9h] [8c]
Erik1223 bets $17,800
Mike Matusow raises to $27,288, and is all in
Erik1223 calls $9,488

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mike Matusow shows [9d Ad] (four of a kind, Nines)
Erik1223 shows [7c 5c] (a straight flush, Nine high)
Erik1223 wins the pot ($72,373) with a straight flush, Nine high
Mike Matusow is sitting out

*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $72,376 Rake $3Board: [9c 6c 9s 9h 8c]
Erik1223 showed [7c 5c] and won ($72,373) with a straight flush, Nine high
Mike Matusow showed [9d Ad] and lost with four of a kind