Joe Speaker

A couple weeks ago, AJ and I went to the local Food and Entertainment Restaurantorium for some crappy grub and a seizure-inducing night of video games and skee-ball. It is always a danger taking him to these places because the dangling carrot of Zombie Attack and NASCAR Race For the Cup grate on his 5-year-old’s patience while we wait for food.

It’s not just his age which contributes to fidgety whininess, but also his genetic makeup as I too am guilty of quick irritability when I deem events progress unnecessarily slowly. True to form, the Restuarantorium wait staff soon put me on What The Fuck Is Your Problem Tilt.

(more…)

“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.”

–Abraham Lincoln

I wonder what Honest Abe would think of the UIGEA? And is it really being enforced “strictly” if the arrests of the Neteller execs were under the Wire Act? They say if you want to stop the beast, you cut off its head. Using the Wire Act to force Neteller to suspend US operations is more like severing the cartiod artery and ending the flow.

(more…)

Last night, I partied like it was 1998. I learned a couple things. One, it’s not 1998 and I have to go to work early unlike back then when I could sleep ’til noon before my swing shift. Two, IÂ must permanently strike the phrase “Make it a double” from my vocabulary.

(more…)

Two icons of the entertainment industry have re-surfaced in recent days, grabbing the attention of a nation which considered them long irrelevant and stuck in their Era–the 1970s–forever.

But Kelly Leak and Mr. Kotter are nothing if not resilient.

(more…)

What a fabulous football match. The much-maligned hero finally taking down the multiple Title-winners after years of failure.

Of course, I’m talking about Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0 for their first League win against the Holders in two-and-a-half years.

(more…)

It has been many moons since I have played a freeroll. Well, not exactly a freeroll, but a tournament that didn’t cost any money. The last time I entered a tournament with Frequent Player Points, it was a WSOP sub-qualifier last spring. I advanced to the next round where two seats were being given away to the Main Event.

I finished third. I spent two hours setting a guy up (he liked to make huge river bets and I couldn’t wait to trap him into making one when I was Huge). When I got there, my flopped set of Aces went down to his turned straight (with 43o). To say I was dismayed is like saying Pamela Anderson has made some interesting relationship choices (Scott Baio? Really?)

(more…)

As far as tempers go, mine is solidly medium. It takes a lot to get my pot to boileth over and even those episodes are brief abberations. Last night though, I went all Bobby Knight on my balcony, hucking a chair with considerable force and malice aforethought.

The catalyst was not my flopped set drowning on the river to 73 s000ted in the 25K Guaranteed on Full Tilt. Calling that “kindling” wouldn’t be off base, but the fire was raging long before that.

(more…)

Of all the interesting plays this past NFL playoff weekend, the interception–and subsequent fumble–by Chargers safety Marlon McCree is the one that bugs me most. Less because it was an idiotic play on two levels, but that he vociferously defended his stupidity on tape and in print afterwards.

He knocks the ball down, it’s Charger ball, further up the field. He intercepts it and falls down, it’s still Charger ball. What he did? Not so much Charger ball.

(more…)

The coldest Southern California winter I recall was in the early ’90s, though it might have had less to do with the actual temperatures than with the situation under which I endured them. My friends and I lived on the absolute fringes and were forced into unusual choices to survive.

(more…)

Erick Lindgren just won a million bucks in what was essentially a two-table SnG. Of course, there were some names you might recognize at the tables. Fellas like Negreanu, Hansen, Juanda, Ivey, all of whom ponied up $100K for the pleasure.

I’m on Bankroll Envy Tilt.

(more…)