Las Vegas- June 30, 2008 Las Vegas may be the most fictional of any real place on the map. It's either a glamourous city of glitz or a romanticized mecca of depravity. Even calling Las Vegas a black hole gives it too much credit. A black hole has, at its center, a singularity of such incredible mass and gravity that nothing can escape. At the heart of the dark Las Vegas hole, there is only another hole. Las Vegas is not exotic. It is not mysterious. Las Vegas is a busy airport and a place our unconscious mind...http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/las-vegas.html 2008 WSOP: First impressions, late game- June 26, 2008 I've gone to the bathroom in one particular room in the Rio more times than I can count. It's one of those constants in Las Vegas. Things rarely change. There will be the guy smoking and pretending he doesn't know or care that it's against the rules. There will be the guy in a stall doing things that he probably would be embarassed to do in the privacy of his own home. There is the drunk guy who thinks it's perfectly reasonable to be intoxicated at breakfast. The urinals are usually...http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/2008-wsop-first-impressions.html Wanting to Think About Vegas...- June 25, 2008 I will be wheels up for Vegas in about 24 hours, but I can't really think about it. You see, I'm currently at the end of an 18 hour work day that started after just about 2 hours of sleep. It's all because some crazy guy decided to shoot up his workplace after getting into an argument with his boss. He even called his girlfriend two hours earlier saying, "I'm going to shoot my boss." She apparently didn't believe him. Six people are dead, including the gunman. In our business, we don't...http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/wanting-to-think-about-vegas.html Bad-Blood-Bath- June 24, 2008 I started really looking foreward to last Friday's game a full week in advance. Of course, that guarantees a bad night. As a rule, the more excited I am about sitting at a game the worse I'm likely to play. Add to that the following problems and I've got almost no chance: 1. An Unfortunate Table Dealer1s: Broccoli 2s: Wes Nile Virus 3s: Falstaff 4s: TeamScottSmith 5s: The Anti-Christ 6s: BadBlood 7s: G-Rob 8s: Gucci Rick 9s: Drizz 10s: Otis Table selection is an art AND a science..http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/badbloodbath.html Charles Barkley: Ready to gamble again- June 20, 2008 It's been less than one month since G-Rob noted Charles Barkley's vow to quit gambling...for now. Now, Barkley says he's going to gamble for the greater good. Barkley is among a number of celebs planning to play in the Ante Up For Africa event in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. The entry fee is $5,000 and Barkely says he will donate all winnings to charity. MORE But, really, it's not about the winnings is it It's the losings. Listen, we're sitting in a pretty fragile glass house here,..http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/charles-barkley-ready-to-gambl.html Vegas: Ramping up slowly- June 19, 2008 "I equate gambling with being an asshole. If you don't have a life, go to Las Vegas, you dick." --Henry Rollins I should take offense to that. Instead, I laugh every time I hear it. I received a dubious reprieve this year. Questions were hashed and rehashed, decisions were made and remade, and when it all came out of the oven, I was "granted" a four-week leave from covering the World Series of Poker. This life change caused no small amount of consternation for this humble writer. More...http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/vegas-ramping-up-slowly.html Before They Were Stars: Poker Blogs- June 18, 2008 The past can be a funny thing. Remember your hair style circa 1987 For most of us, it's changed drastically. For the rest of us, we're GRob, and were born with the same hair we have today. What about what we were wearing I don't even want to imagine what would happen if our high school year books were suddenly splashed on our blogs. But it's not just how we look... it's what we write. These crazy poker blogs of ours have become written records. They show our growth, our pain, our naive..http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/before-they-were-stars-poker-b.html Remembering The WPBT Holiday Classic- June 17, 2008 It was December 11th, 2004 when about 30 bloggers gathered in Vegas for a seminal moment in the explosion of poker blogging. None of us really knew what to expect and none of us were disappointed by what we found. Many of the experiences were hard to describe, yet we spent thousands and thousands of words on dozens of blogs telling our handful of readers what they missed. By the time the next poker blogger event rolled around, our numbers had surged past 70. It wasn't long before we'd reach.http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/remembering-the-wpbt-holiday-c.html Pros In The WSOP Main Event- June 16, 2008 A quick note of congratulations to a couple of friends who qualified for the Main Event of the WSOP this weekend. PokerStars ran a 200 seat guarantee for the ME this weekend with satellites all week long. Congratulations to IGGY and Brian the Pro who both won a seat. We'll be sweating both and hoping Brian will be bringing some of that WSOP cash to a homegame near us. I got the note from Brian early this morning: Ship it... Won my WSOP 2008 Main event seat last night on that minefield...http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/pros-in-the-wsop-main-event.html Gambling On The Internet- June 15, 2008 Good god! Gambling leads to depression! It's true! There was a scientific study. In the world of obvious investigation, this study "Gambling Linked To Depression" stands out. Right now, I'm depressed about the fact that I got down to four handed in a sit-n-go and then went broke with a flopped set of Queens. He turned a set of Kings. Such is a depressing life. That said, look at this awesome information: GAMBLING is often a symptom of mental health problems, according to Melbourne...http://www.upforanything.net/poker/archives/gambling-on-the-internet.html |