I started my blog after I started playing poker. Not many people noticed, but Linda was one of the few who did. I started writing some articles in the spring of 2006 for PokerWorks, then that summer she invited me to move my blog to PokerWorks. Eventually, I wrote 275 articles for PokerWorks, including coverage of the WSOP in 2006 and 2007 as well as many interviews. I’m most proud of some of the interviews I did, including those with Jason Strasser, Jeff Williams, Liz Lieu, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Mike Sexton, Nolan Dalla, Juan Carlos Mortensen, Vince Van Patten, and Charlie Hyde. You can read those and others at the link above.

Poker has been a strange mistress for me. It opened up a whole new world within me and to me. Some people have said that I can write, which I’d never tried to do and never claimed to excel at. There are many people who are much more talented than I in this industry, and I’ve benefited greatly from reading their work and working with them. To Amy and IGGY especially, I simply wish that we had been able to work more closely more often.

Yet this mistress has changed me, and I’m afraid it hasn’t been for the better. I don’t mean poker itself, a distraction filled with frustration and repeated horrific decisions by myself and those others at the tables. No, I mean the broader poker industry. I have tried many times to see if my capabilities could be focused to help in some way, but I haven’t been able to crack to code on how to do that. With that, I need to put my involvement in poker to the side.

There are many people to thank along the way, and I’ll list a few of those here in no particular order: Felicia, Carmen, drizz, Hoy, cmitch, potcommitted, Pauly, Wes, Mook, MiamiDon, Zeem, Ken Prevo, lucko, sprstoner, BadBlood, skidoo, surf, Mean Gene, luckbox, Jordan, Joe Speaker, Dr. Chako, Matt Matros, Haley, Guin, Rav, slb, Veneno, TripJax, the Surly Gnome, Pokerkat, Aaron, Kat, April, smokkee, Falstaff, Iak, willwonka, Wicked Chops, Maudie, jusdealem, bayne, kajagugu, Mark Phillipo, Jason Ackerman, Dan at Pokerati, Johnny, Dan England, AlCantHang, Deborah, and Waffles. Special thanks to Fuel, my bestest poker buddy, and to Otis. Thanks to both, and let me know if I can ever do anything. To Liz Lieu, thanks for letting me into your life and to be your buddy. To Nolan and Gary, I enjoyed working with you immensely. I only wish I could have done more.

Linda has been gracious enough to become a friend of mine, and I don’t throw that word around. She always encouraged me and supported me, regardless of the situation. I know PokerWorks has a great future as she’s allowed to focus on it full time, and I can’t wait to see how it develops.

The name of my blog has been Quest of a Closet Poker Player. Not very catchy, I’ll admit, but telling as to who I am and the journey I’ve been in. Unfortunately, I think poker has been a metaphor for a broader searching that I’m still in the midst of. I think I have alot to offer this world, and it is time that I figure out how best to do that.

I’m not quite sure what that will mean for me. I’ll post updates on my old home. I won a banner by knocking Mook out of his event, so I might change the look a bit. I might build a new home, but that will be a good place to find out about any of that. I enjoyed my experiments with vlogs and plan to do that more regularly. I’ll get a vlog up tomorrow and work on my channel, and I think there is some way you can subscribe to it (not sure how exactly). I’m also on MySpace, although I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be doing there. Exactly. You can always email me at csquard@gmail.com as well. I’ll still be around, and I still want to take down the Mook, so you may find me there or at the MATH or Al’s tourneys. I may even sneak to Vegas in a few weeks if possible.

I’ve struggled with the fundamental question: Am I better because of poker? Unfortunately, I think it has been the wrong, distracting question. The more fundamental question for me should be: Am I better? The answer the last eighteen months or more is no. It’s time for me to get better and starting being better. I have many gifts, and I want to live a life fulfilled rather than an accidental existence.

The most powerful point made by the author is that these underground poker rooms in Manhattan are really a place for poker players to convene and play poker, much like a Bridge Club. Sure, money is won and lost, but these are not the room that Chip Reese and Doyle Brunson played in throughout the country to scrape a living together. These are almost like co-op’s, simply sharing expenses for a comfortable locale with cookies and snacks included. From the NY Daily News, the death seemed to be an accidental bungling by bad guys. No arrest currently, just a widow and child left behind.

ADDENDUM

Check out these two posts by Annette “annette_15″ Obrestad regarding her WSOP Europe bracelet win.  Post 1 and Post 2 

“Hi, I’m Jimmy Fricke, and I took 2nd in the Aussie Millions tournament last year and received a large amount of television coverage. I’m coming back for all the tournaments this year, and was curious if Full Tilt would be interested in sponsoring me in some of the events or maybe the main event in exchange for wearing full tilt gear and maybe some
other things. I’m unaffiliated with all sites right now and I have a bunch of friends coming to the tournament who are strong online tournament players who also have no affiliation. Let me know if you’re interested in doing business.” 

Their response, with Lederer’s email comments at the bottom:

“Thank you for your interest in becoming a member of Full Tilt Poker.  Unfortunately FTP does not take open solicitations from players wishing to join the team. It is an invite only process that does not have set standards or qualifications. In the future, if we are interested in adding you as a FTP representative we will contact you directly. We wish
you the best of luck and we hope to see you at a final table soon.

The guy’s a freak and a very weird dude. He is also quite young. I think we should stay away.”

========================================================

None of this is very unusual.   FullTilt obviously has every right to add or subtract to the seventy-plus team of players they are endorsing.  They have every right to use any criteria they like in determining who to be associated with.  And which of us hasn’t accidentally forwarded an email, message, chat, or voice mail to someone exposing out thoughts and impressions meant to be private?

Yet this seems to be one of a long list of data points that put the poker industry in a poor light when it comes to the basics of doing business.  Examples include the multiple accounts of ZeeJustin et al, the WSOP operational disasters (e.g., registration woes, the Heads-Up event debacle), the Absolute Poker debacle.

How different is the Poker Industry to the dot-com businesses before the NASDAQ meltdown six years ago?  People grabbing cash left and right, where management capabilities lagged the need to gogogogo for the next round of investors or projects.  With the poker boom in full force before the IUGEA, businesses involved were almost printing money.  Magazines popped up, established players thickened with ad pages, online sites spread advertising dollars far and wide, and site after site launched to get in on the cash.

When the free flow of funds started drying up, business models and management skill started to kick into gear.  Companies and investors had to start answering some tough questions:

• Can we provide excellent customer service?
• Can we attract new customers and keep our best existing ones?
• Can we create value and excellence in our industry?
• What are our core values as we aspire to our goals?
• Can we reinvent our culture while we streamline our operations?

And all of this boils down to management, to executives in charge who have experience in their discipline of expertise, who can work effectively to foster a team of managers and employees, and who can navigate a strategic direction while driving tactical improvement.

What does this latest incident tell us about the state of poker, this FullTilt Lederer email leak?  Sloppy email practices aside, it gives us another glimpse into the gap in management expertise within poker.  I’ve never met Howard Lederer (through my own fault, as Linda invited me to his WSOP party each of the last two summers), and I don’t doubt his intelligence nor his poker expertise.  But why is his opinion relevant regarding who FullTilt should use as part of their stable?  Exactly who is the target customer for new customers to online poker sites?  High school and college age males.  What exactly does Mr. Lederer know about this market segment?

It actually in my mind is not very different than Harrah’s having Annie Duke on their Players Advisory Council.  Ms. Duke is a well-known advocate of doing away with tournaments for women, this after the largest WSOP Ladies event in the history of the World Series.  Women are vastly outnumbered in the ranks of poker players, so why would Harrah’s want someone advising them who clearly does not have the pulse of a market segment ripe for growth?

And does any of this matter for any of us?  Is poker an industry of excellence or of mediocrity, and is it even a relevant question?  More thoughts to come.  I’d be interested in what you think, and I’ll have more next week.  Have a great weekend.

107 players turned out on FullTilt, although the host was out in Vegas with MiamiDon and unavailable to play.  I mixed very tight play with aggressive shoves at limped play to make it through half the field, and I stayed very light in chips for much of the middle of the event, I think looking at 22nd out of 22 or 23 at one point.  I made it to the Final Table in 5th and got up to 2nd at one point.  The last hand is probably an easy fold.  I’d been tight at the Final Table, but I would be interested in the play of others here.

FullTiltPoker Game #4105221954: The Mookie - Loretta Wynn (30733111), Table 1 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold’em - 1:28:37 ET - 2007/11/08
Seat 1: corron10 (32,378)
Seat 2: csquard (33,559)
Seat 5: twoblackaces (40,873)
Seat 8: Kajagugu (41,991)
Seat 9: dnasty13 (172,199)
corron10 antes 300
csquard antes 300
twoblackaces antes 300
Kajagugu antes 300
dnasty13 antes 300
twoblackaces posts the small blind of 1,200
Kajagugu posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [As 8s]
dnasty13 folds
corron10 folds
csquard raises to 8,750
twoblackaces raises to 40,573, and is all in
Kajagugu folds
csquard calls 24,509, and is all in
twoblackaces shows [8h 8c]
csquard shows [As 8s]
Uncalled bet of 7,314 returned to twoblackaces
*** FLOP *** [9d Ks 6h]
*** TURN *** [9d Ks 6h] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [9d Ks 6h 9s] [Jh]
twoblackaces shows two pair, Nines and Eights
csquard shows a pair of Nines
twoblackaces wins the pot (70,418) with two pair, Nines and Eights
csquard stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 70,418 | Rake 0
Board: [9d Ks 6h 9s Jh]
Seat 1: corron10 folded before the Flop
Seat 2: csquard (button) showed [As 8s] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 5: twoblackaces (small blind) showed [8h 8c] and won (70,418) with two pair, Nines and Eights
Seat 8: Kajagugu (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: dnasty13 folded before the Flop

Thanks to Lucko, who railed me and cheered me on after he busted from FTOPS #1.  He had some sort of side bet with Fuel that I could get deep, so that kept me going after Sweetie came down to see me before heading to bed.  You can see the Leaderboarrd for the Battle of the Bloggers2 here.

I decided I was a good tourney player and tried my luck at an FTOPS satellite (this one a 6-max Re-Buy for FTOPS #10).  I ended up as runner-up for a +$55 take home rather than the $300 buy-in top prize.  I’m not much of a re-buy player, so it was probably best that I didn’t win the first place.  I did have a nice hand that kept my opponent alive, where I was a big chipleade HU and came over the top of his button raise with 33.  He called with 34, A2x on the flop, and a 5 on the river to keep him alive.

Playing with friends is what I’ve missed in poker, I’m pretty sure of that.  I need to do more of it.

Here is the Slate article, and I watched it while listening to my new Simone Dinnerstein’s Goldberg Variations from Bach.  I must confess that I don’t really know what the word surreal means, but maybe that was it.  Enjoy.

I have some sort of computer glitch happening now, which has also been a bit frustrating.  Everything has gotten bigger on the screen than it normally has, and I can’t seem to figure it out.  Any help would be appreciated.

The boys and I worked through the weekend fairly well with one big hiccup that I’ll get to in a bit.  Friday went fairly well, with a later than normal dinner (around 8:00) after soccer practice and a stint as a referee for a make-up game.  I passed out with the Little Guy in his bed, then somehow woke up for the 8:00 and 9:20 games Saturday.  We thought about heading to a movie but passed on it.

The Little Guy ate part of his lunch, and I sat the paper plate with his “salad sandwich” on the eye of our gas stove (salad sandwich means there is lettuce on it).  It is an island stovetop with a vent that rises from the island.  We put food there sometimes to keep our Gordon Setter from eating it.  She’ll grab any food, with the high point of the week being the consumption of a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for Halloween.  So, All-In goes to a friend’s house, and The Big Guy aka Hawk, The Little Guy, and I head to the basement for probably 2-2.5 hours.  When we head up, The Big Guy tells me that there is a fire in the kitchen.  A burnt crisp of a paper plate is left along with the ashes of a sandwich with a bit of bread left.

Either The Little Guy or the dog turned the eye of the gas stove on.  You have to turn it just right for the click-click-click of the gas to light, so it was very bizarre.  How the  house didn’t burn down is anyone’s guess, but the house smelled like smoke.

Our local high school was in the state AAAAA Girls Volleyball Championship, so we headed to the Northwest Atlanta suburb of Marietta for the finals.  They were ranked #1 in the state and played the #2 team.  I’d never been to a game before, and it was really, really great.  I would highly recommend catching a high school or college girls volleyball game.  Very fast paced, cool digs and spikes, very interactive.  We ate at Marietta Diner at the end of the night, and All-In made me look like the best solo father as he ordered a waffle with two scoops of ice cream and chocolate syrup.  My mother-in-law would have me arrested for that meal as a supper, but I was pretty oblivious.

Sunday was home church (where I play guitar, we sing, read some Bible verses, then have prayer).  We took The Little Guy to a birthday party at Monkey Joe’s, a kid party place with a dozen inflatable bouncy slides, towers, and mazes.  We ate afterwards at a Korean BBQ place, and we all loved it (although the kimchi and raw garlic is still with me 24 hours later…).

I snuck to Target to buy every type of apple potpourri and scent producer (candles, oils, etc).  When we got home, I cranked all of it to try and rid the house of the smell of smoke and ashes.   I cooked the potpourri, which I don’t think I was supposed to do.  Regardless, we made it through with the house smelling liked overcooked potpourri rather than like Dresden in WWII.

All of that to say I haven’t played any poker since a final fateful Halloween, losing another $1k to bring October’s losses to around $1.8k or so.  I decided a nice break would be in order, and I either took it or am taking it.  I’ll let you know.  Hope you had a great weekend, and have a nice Monday.

PokerStars Game #12945302525:  Hold’em No Limit ($25/$50) - 2007/10/30 - 20:01:47 (ET)
Table ‘Kleopatra II’ 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Marion ($4700 in chips)
Seat 2: thegrumpyone ($5922 in chips)
Seat 3: El Ðiablo ($14016 in chips)
Seat 4: RoyLSampler ($4575 in chips)
Seat 5: 20 Buck Spin ($28307 in chips)
Seat 6: cts687 ($4972 in chips)
El Ðiablo: posts small blind $25
RoyLSampler: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
20 Buck Spin: folds
cts687: raises $125 to $175
Marion: folds
thegrumpyone: folds
El Ðiablo: calls $150
RoyLSampler: folds
*** FLOP *** [7h Ac 4s]
El Ðiablo: checks
cts687: bets $350
El Ðiablo: calls $350
*** TURN *** [7h Ac 4s] [7s]
El Ðiablo: checks
cts687: bets $1050
El Ðiablo: calls $1050
*** RIVER *** [7h Ac 4s 7s] [2s]
El Ðiablo: checks
cts687: bets $3397 and is all-in
El Ðiablo: calls $3397
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cts687: shows [Ah Ad] (a full house, Aces full of Sevens)
El Ðiablo: shows [7c 7d] (four of a kind, Sevens)
El Ðiablo collected $9991 from pot
cts687 said, “ffs’”
thegrumpyone said, “wow”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $9994 | Rake $3
Board [7h Ac 4s 7s 2s]
Seat 1: Marion folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: thegrumpyone (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: El Ðiablo (small blind) showed [7c 7d] and won ($9991) with four of a kind, Sevens
Seat 4: RoyLSampler (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: 20 Buck Spin folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: cts687 showed [Ah Ad] and lost with a full house, Aces full of Sevens

Jury duty sucked, and it isn’t over.  I waited around all day Monday after being assigned to a jury pool early.  At 4:30, I was told the entire jury pool had to be back Wednesday, and I have to be there an hour earlier than the others to be questioned.  If I’m chosen, the trial should be three days.  I’m not sure if it would start tomorrow afternoon or if it would be Thursday/Friday/Monday.  I unfortunately look like a good candidate.  I was chosen the other time I went to jury duty, but they settled after the jury was chosen.

I thought I had a chance at gaining some late ground to get to $4k for the month until this hand.   I knew this was a possible hand for the villain but didn’t want to believe him.

POKERSTARS GAME #12941776136:  HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($1/$2) - 2007/10/30 - 16:58:49 (ET)
Table ‘Aisakos III’ 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: saywhat_agan ($211.90 in chips)
Seat 2: Selldinho ($85.50 in chips)
Seat 3: tbone75 ($32.45 in chips)
Seat 4: pnoles ($372.30 in chips)
Seat 5: neverwin24 ($117.25 in chips)
Seat 6: csquard ($478.35 in chips)
csquard: posts small blind $1
saywhat_agan: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [7d 7h]
Selldinho: folds
tbone75: folds
pnoles: raises $6 to $8
neverwin24: folds
csquard: calls $7
saywhat_agan: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd 7s 2c]
csquard: bets $12
pnoles: raises $20 to $32
csquard: calls $20
*** TURN *** [Kd 7s 2c] [5c]
csquard: checks
pnoles: bets $46
csquard: raises $94 to $140
pnoles: raises $192.30 to $332.30 and is all-in
csquard: calls $192.30
*** RIVER *** [Kd 7s 2c 5c] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
csquard: shows [7d 7h] (a full house, Sevens full of Fives)
pnoles: shows [Kh Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Fives)
pnoles collected $743.60 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $746.60 | Rake $3
Board [Kd 7s 2c 5c 5h]
Seat 1: saywhat_agan (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Selldinho folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: tbone75 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: pnoles showed [Kh Ks] and won ($743.60) with a full house, Kings full of Fives
Seat 5: neverwin24 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: csquard (small blind) showed [7d 7h] and lost with a full house, Sevens full of Fives

For the day, I’m down about $550, all the wrong way.

I just went to the link, and that music may drive me to go on some sort of Suburbia rampage here in the next few hours.

This play makes the Cal-Stanford play look like a QB sneak.  Millsaps is in Jackson, MS, and I’m not sure about Trinity.  Over/under on the number of laterals on the play is probably 24.

References to lucko, fuel, Hoy, Mook, AlCantHang, and Battle of the Bloggers2.  Have a great weekend, and let me know if the video blog is a good thing or not.

Sweetie and I took the boys to see a movie (The Seeker) after All-In’s cello lessons yesterday.  It was a 5:00 show, and The Little Guy spent most of the movie alternating between drinking Diet Coke and heading to the bathroom.  It was a bit scary for the boys, but they made it through.  We ate out after the movie, and The Big Guy and All-In stayed with me to shoot Bighorn Sheep after dinner.

When we got everyone to bed, I settled down with Sweetie to watch Bionic Woman.  As soon as she started falling asleep (twenty minutes into the show), I sent her upstairs and decided to hit the Mook.  Fuel sent me an earlier email about a last longer bet, but I really had little confidence in my tourney play.  I’ve played very few tourneys in the last three months, so I didn’t have alot of motivation to make a $50 sucker bet that I would somehow survive.

It was a tough first ninety minutes.  Sweetie called my office phone around 10:30, telling me The Little Guy was up.  I sat out at the Mook and headed upstairs.  He had gone into our room and was crying in that sleep-fog cry that all parents have seen and dread.  From 10:30 until around 11:30, I would play a bit then sit out trying to work through things with him.  He wouldn’t take any Motrin (the wonder-drug for kids), and I finally convinced him to come to the basement.  He laid in the floor, asking once to go back upstairs for the medicine.  By midnight, he’d finally fallen to sleep.

I patiently treaded water for much of the tourney, down to 2550 with half the field gone.  I doubled through whiskigrl when I shoved pre-flop with 3’s to a K-10.  I knocked out pokerenthusiast when I raised with A-10o and had to call a Js-6s shove.  After a UTG limp with aces that flopped a set (no one had anything) and a decent pot when I bet at a J-9-9 board with a pocket pair, I’d climbed up to 10,600 in chips.  I made some timely aggressive moves against good players, shoving to Irongirl’s raise with a pocket pair among others.  I got extremely lucky when I was up against Mean Gene’s big slick when I held AJ0.  We caught the wheel to chop the pot, and I was still alive.

I blinded down below 6k but was able to chip up.  Up to 12k, I shoved with big slick after oossuuu754’s raise.  My AK held up vs his AJ, and I was finally a bit flush with chips.  I folded a couple more orbits until I knocked out Mookie in this hand.

FullTiltPoker Game #3959477963: The Mookie - Slowrollin’ Dooosh (29914381), Table 5 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Hold’em - 1:11:53 ET - 2007/10/25
Seat 3: katitude (10,653)
Seat 4: Astin (86,946)
Seat 5: summer_babe (45,062)
Seat 6: mookie99 (7,433)
Seat 7: irongirl01 (17,841)
Seat 9: csquard (17,306)
katitude antes 200
Astin antes 200
summer_babe antes 200
mookie99 antes 200
irongirl01 antes 200
csquard antes 200
csquard posts the small blind of 800
katitude posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [9c 9h]
Astin folds
summer_babe has 15 seconds left to act
summer_babe raises to 3,200
Astin: probably 10th
mookie99 raises to 7,233, and is all in
irongirl01 folds
Astin:
csquard raises to 17,106, and is all in
katitude folds
summer_babe folds
csquard shows [9c 9h]
mookie99 shows [Qs Ac]
Uncalled bet of 9,873 returned to csquard
*** FLOP *** [7d Td 4s]
*** TURN *** [7d Td 4s] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [7d Td 4s 2c] [2s]
csquard shows two pair, Nines and Twos
mookie99 shows a pair of Twos
csquard wins the pot (20,466) with two pair, Nines and Twos
mookie99: doh
mookie99: gg
mookie99 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 20,466 | Rake 0
Board: [7d Td 4s 2c 2s]
Seat 3: katitude (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Astin folded before the Flop
Seat 5: summer_babe folded before the Flop
Seat 6: mookie99 showed [Qs Ac] and lost with a pair of Twos
Seat 7: irongirl01 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: csquard (small blind) showed [9c 9h] and won (20,466) with two pair, Nines and Twos

I made the final table with 29k, good for 5th in chips behind ricky424 (78k), Astin (75k), IGGY (46k), and irongirl01 (34k).  I took down a re-raised pot with jacks, then immediately doubled up AlCantHang with my A7o from the sb vs his early all-in of 6,321 with AK (blinds were 1k/2k with a 250 ante).  I folded my way down to five players with nothing.  I was 4th out of four with 37k against Astin (143k), IGGY (79k), and ricky424 (77k).  Unfortunately, we had a quartet of poker players left.  I was able to hold tight with a few walks and taking pots in position.  This was my last hand.  It didn’t work out, but I feel good about the play.

FullTiltPoker Game #3959735665: The Mookie - Slowrollin’ Dooosh (29914381), Table 4 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Hold’em - 1:44:55 ET - 2007/10/25
Seat 1: Astin (160,067)
Seat 2: ricky424 (66,783)
Seat 4: csquard (32,618)
Seat 5: summer_babe (76,532)
Astin antes 400
ricky424 antes 400
csquard antes 400
summer_babe antes 400
ricky424 posts the small blind of 1,500
csquard posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [9d 8d]
summer_babe folds
Astin folds
ricky424 raises to 9,000
csquard raises to 32,218, and is all in
ricky424 calls 23,218
csquard shows [9d 8d]
ricky424 shows [Ad Jd]
*** FLOP *** [4c Jh Js]
*** TURN *** [4c Jh Js] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [4c Jh Js 4d] [3d]
csquard shows two pair, Jacks and Fours
ricky424 shows a full house, Jacks full of Fours
ricky424 wins the pot (66,036) with a full house, Jacks full of Fours
csquard stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 66,036 | Rake 0
Board: [4c Jh Js 4d 3d]
Seat 1: Astin (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: ricky424 (small blind) showed [Ad Jd] and won (66,036) with a full house, Jacks full of Fours
Seat 4: csquard (big blind) showed [9d 8d] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Fours
Seat 5: summer_babe folded before the Flop

Congrats to IGGY who bested Astin for the title.  This qualifies IGGY for a seat at the Tournament of Champions, with the winner taking home an Aussie Millions seat.  Thanks to FullTilt for the support for this.  I don’t know everyone who plays in the blogger tourneys anymore, but it was a welcome time to have some fun chat while playing.

Oh, and I had to step away to sign for my new Sony 40″ HD television, compliments of PokerStars.  Online poker may be rigged, but there are some nice fringe benefits.  Congrats to lucko for taking 4th in the $24k Guarantee on FullTilt while we were playing.  That is his second final table in as many Wednesday’s.  A real stud, no doubt.  Trip report from the television set-up, as well as getting the old 1,000 pound television to the basement.