Calistri's Corner

I know I said I was going to be home in Austin until the end of April. I lied - as here I sit with plane tickets to Vegas for tomorrow. I’m also sitting with a pile of papers and spreadsheets that consititute my taxes that need to be sent off to the accountant today. I finally have him trained to deal with the fact that I file a neteller statement in lieu of a W2. Of course next year may be another matter.Â

Usually when I travel for work, the vast majority of my suitcase is dedicated to electronics; camera equipment. headphones, digital voice recorder, and my laptop cooler (I carry on the laptop).  But since I’m not covering a major tournament this time, I think I’ll forgo the camera in exchange for a sufficient number of pairs of underwear.  The trip is still poker business related, so all the other electronics will be in play. Â

The high season for Vegas poker will be starting shortly, kicking off with the Mirage Showdown, moving over to the Mandalay Bay, and cruising into the WSOP. The Mirage also traditionally marks the beginning of the new WPT season. But in covering the WPTE’s 2006 earnings report for PokerNews, I noticed that the WPT and the Travel Channel still haven’t come to terms for season six. The negotiations were originally scheduled to complete March 10th - but have now been postponed until April 1st. And there are a sufficient number of not-so-positive rumors on the street. I’d do some more digging, but since the facts will be known in a couple of weeks, I think I can wait this one out.Â

Continuing on the poker news/rumor front: The rumors had almost beat themselves to death waiting for the news that Harrah’s had chosen Bluff Magazine over the heir apparent Card Player for the exclusive media rights to the WSOP. Of course my favorite rumor exchange on the topic was the one I wrote about here.  I also noticed that a poster at 2+2 is doing the same sort of trash talkin’. Get over it guys. If you had expended this much effort when you had the exclusive rights, you might not have lost them.  Â

Well there was news on this front - sort of. Harrah’s announced that they had signed a letter of intent with Bluff (coverage here). Letter of intent? Honey, that’s like sitting at the edge of the bed, tellin’ me how good it’s gonna be. For anyone that’s been involved with covering any aspect of a WSOP, you know that planning and resource commitments have to begin a full six months beforehand - and even that’s cutting it close. And this year there will be even more bracelet events to cover - and even more events running simultaneously per day. Ink this deal already.

I guess I had better pack. Oh - the taxes - that too.                 Â

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 8:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized.