Happy birthday bro!

I know this must be old, but I’ve never seen it, and damn is it funny.

I don’t really know what to think of this. At first glance, it really kind of bums me out.

Heres the deal. I read Paul Phillips blog. Good times, I highly suggest it. Anyway, Paul Phillips is a professional poker player. He’s also a little out there. That usually makes for good reading. Well Paul has been saying for a while that ESPN actually fabricates drama during the hands by showing hole cards that are incorrect. Looking at some of the hands in question, and some of the video proof he has, it’s hard to argue with it. It’s also easy to dismiss it, seeing that Paul can be sort of a conspiracy theorist.

There was a hand, in one of this years WSOP circuit event broadcasts, that was played out in a way that had a lot of people saying “there is no way that happened”. It was between Phil Ivey and Jeff Lisandro. Lisandro had Pocket 10’s, and Ivey had Pocket 9’s. The flop was 444 and Lisandro bet, Ivey called. Turn card was a 5, Lisandro bets, Ivey moves all in over the top, and Lisandro folds. Now, Lisandro was chip leader and had Ivey covered by a pretty good amount. He had also put a bunch of money in the pot already. With the overpair, it’s hard to see how he could lay this down. But when they showed his hole cards, you couldn’t see both of them. You could only see one card, the 10 of spades.

The day after the broadcast Paul posted on his site that he was sure that ESPN had fabricated the second 10, and there was no way Lisandro held it. Reading his reasoning, it makes sense. So there has been a bunch of talk about it on all the poker forums. Well some savvy reader from 2+2 sent an email to ESPN about it.

Here is the post from 2+2:

From Steve Rosenbloom’s mailbag column at espn.com:

And I received this response from Bob Chesterman, head honcho for ESPN’s original entertainment broadcasts: “We do not reshoot any hole cards. The cards in question were not clear. In some cases, when we can trust the player, we ask them what they had afterwards.” The first year we did reshoot some hole cards because we had cameras that went down. We have learned from our mistakes and do not do this anymore”

“when we can trust the player”

Let me let you all in on a little inside tip. You can never trust the player. While at the table, I lie about hands all the time. Even when it’s not that important at the time. We do it to give the perception of how we want everyone to think we are playing. Tight, loose, whatever. The fact remains that you can not trust what a player says. ESPN is not only trusting what they say, they are building drama and broadcasting it!

Dutch Boyd said that after (the 04 WSOP, I beleive) he recieved a phone call from ESPN. They asked him “hey on this hand against this guy, what did you have?” He replied with “dude, I have no idea”. They countered with “the board was blah, blah, Queen” to which Dutch said, “I don’t know, say I had two Q’s”. ESPN said thanks, and hung up.

I look forward to the new WSOP broadcasts every week. This news, for me at least, is a HUGE buzz kill.

It is Monday today right? So, I get here to work at 7:20am, no one is here. That’s pretty normal. What’s not so normal, is that it’s 7:40am, and there is STILL no one here. It would be kind of funny if today was actually Sunday though, wouldn’t it? The guys in the back could be here, they just weren’t here when I was back there at 7:32. But no one is here up front. So no one is answering the phones. Nice huh.

In case you were wondering, and I know you were, I STILL have C3PO neck. WTF? 4 days and running!

For anyone interested, there is a cash game going on at Joey’s house today. Call me, and I’ll give you details. He hosts one every Sunday at 2:00pm. I’m looking forward to going there to play today, even if I can’t turn my god damn head.

I’m pretty sure it is. So happy Friday. I’m happy this week is over. For the second time this week, I woke up this morning with C3PO neck. I must be sleeping all screwed up. So I’ll continue to walk around work looking like a whiplash victim.

So, I get a phone call this morning from my Mom. She calls to tell me that she saw something on TV about Scott Peterson. You know, the ass clown that killed his wife Lacey. Anyway, turns out that Scott has been posting online, some forum or something. The interesting part is he’s been going by the online persona of Scotty 2 Hottie.

…..

Okay, what the fuck? Am I going to have to write a letter to this dickhead to inform him that someones already cornered the market on that name? I’ve used that in online forums and shit for a long time now. There is no way I’m just going to let some asshole, murdering prick come in and steal my name. And of all people, I mean, murderer aside, this guys a complete and total douchebag. I couldn’t get a cool murderer/internet stalker? Wait, I guess that’s a good thing. Sill though, fuck that guy.

I remember, not too long ago, I used to have to turn people away from playing poker with us. Our games were always packed, running 10 people at one table, or 16 at multiple tables. Now, it’s hard enough even finding a game. The funny thing is, I don’t mind people saying they don’t want to play, but I hate the non-return phone calls. Two individuals in particular, are on their last chance. No call back, and they’re off the fucking list.

I decided, because I didn’t have any time this past weekend, to take Tuesday off, and get some yard work done. Is it okay for me to take a day off, considering what’s going on at work right now? I have no idea. My boss never came in today, so I couldn’t tell him. I guess he’ll figure it out tomorrow when I’m not there.