Sleep With the Fishes, Dine on the Whales

Who is Hurricane27?” Within the last year, I got asked that question a lot.  Make sense I co-own a site devoted to poker on the Gulf Coast, I live outside of New Orleans and suddenly an online account of a player located in Metairie just starts crushing.  Also, the community of “crushers” who press buttons is fairly small, somebody should know who this is, but nobody did. In some ways, I was the right person to ask, but in some ways, I wasn’t.  Pre-Black Friday (wow, we’ve been around for a while now) my co-owner Gene D did a much better job keeping up with online accolades than I did.  He’d know what TK Miles did on Full Tilt, the Chemist did on Poker Room (?), and would always know if somebody did something on a random Sunday on Stars.  But we don't live pre-Black Friday. These days, I don’t play online so, I’m even less aware of what’s going on at America’s Card Room or Bovada or any other site.  That said, all this chatter got me intrigued....

Lots of things happening right now... -Soon, I'll get that Hurricane27 article update.  Spoilers:  Super nice kid.  Not a bot.  Owns your soul online.  How he found poker is an anomaly.  More to come.  Soon, I promise.  I'll find the time to write it up and do it justice. -Wouldn't it be cool to have a GCP.NET Championship?  We think so.  Hopefully, it can happen... somewhere, sometime, soon (?). -About to go Back to the Beau.  How can you not love the deeper stacks and better structures the Beau Rivage will offer when they go heads up with the WSOP Circuit event in early September.  The pros will be in town chasing points but over at the IP.  Methinks I'll be chasing all that money at the Beau.  Plus, they got Henry Garrison, Derek Dillman, and Paul Dutsch coming in to help.  Great crew there.  Think we are pretty lucky as players on the coast with the staffs at the Beau and with what's being p...

The November Nine, a great (okay, make that "a pretty good") idea that never lived up to expectations has been killed.  Put out of its misery for a lack of interest. Everybody, it seems sighs and says that's just poker's plight these days.  A fad, that's come, gone, and now is back to being a niche game.  Black Friday! Poker scandals!  Blah, blah, blah! Oversaturation!  I disagree. The truth is the November Nine died, not because of any of those things, but because we let it wither on the vine.  And by "we" I mean us poker players who entrusted the WSOP and its broadcasting partners to do what was best for our game and our signature event.  Sadly, as usual, when it comes to poker, we put our faith in the wrong people. In a better world with ESPN as a broadcasting partner, the following would have happened with a November Nine. In the summer nine diverse players, hopefully including a talkative villain/hero (depending on your perspective), a coup...

Three videos I enjoyed recently. First the pain of fandom.  Funny if you aren't a Kentucky fan, but heartbreaking if you are:  Second, this kid is just the truth. Not sure if you don't play or follow soccer if you can see how good he is in these clips or if it's just patently obvious. To me, it's incredible to see how soft his touch is on the ball, the perfect weight on his passes, the vision of a point guard at times coupled with the accuracy of a QB threading a needle. There are glimpses of Messi like greatness. And he's 18. And he's American playing against full grown men, but already the best player on the field for his national team. He makes a handful of mistakes in this video as all pros do, but when he's on it's a thing beauty. I never "got" baseball, so I'm sure a compilation video of Greg Maddux painting the corners of the plate would be somewhat lost on me, but then again sometimes when people are really good at what they ...

It's been a hectic year.  Somehow worked in a family vacation to Disney World. Some thoughts that might piss off Disneyphiles.  My apologies for besmirching the mouse but... 1.   In most ways, Disney World is still just awesome.  My youngest is a die hard Indiana Jones fan.  He's three but like all my kids spends a ton of time with his Pappy who has introduced them to King Kong, Fred Astaire, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. So he sports an Indiana Jones hat around the house and would wear, every day if he could, the costume that hat goes with it that my eldest son wore one Halloween.  He doesn't speak too much but will randomly quote obscure quotes from the movie.  Usually, it takes a while to figure out what things like "Nice try, Lao Chiang!"  are in reference too.  So... obviously, we went to the Indiana Jones show at Hollywood studios.  Yeah, that's a moment that will resonate a long time, him on the edge of seat spellbound.  ...

Just want to say a big congrats to all the locals who kicked butt at the Beau Rivage Million Dollar Heater and the just recently completed Boomtown HPT event.  Nice to see some of the good guys run good. First and foremost, my partner Gene D went deep at Boomtown despite being deathly ill the morning of day two.  Great result for a class act.  He earned that one, and faded the bubble breaking with an all in at the same moment as the eventual bubble boy Maurice Hawkins go it in. Jeff Sager went deep at the HPT, somehow holding late on Day two when he got it in with Pocket Kings and was called by I think Queen Jack?  Good for him.  Big Phil is a regular at the Harrahs weeklies and bar tournaments and he confesses to being on fire right now.  Great for him.  He's playing well too.  Saw it first hand at Boomtown where he kept applying the pressure.  I know he bluffed me off at least one hand. Chris Canan pounded the satellites at Boomtown t...

As always since this is first a poker blog let's start with poker. first. Boom! Finally, there is another option for tournament poker players in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.  Have heard great things about the Heartland Poker Tour.  Will get to see it firsthand at the end of the month.  100k guarantee on the reentry event, an 1100 Main Event with multiple flights, and lots of ways to get into all the tournaments cheaply through single and multi-table events.  Big update on the front page of www.gulfcoastpoker.net. Heater! Going to the Beau.  I still have yet to put together my package.  A lot of folks are rolled over into it.  And a number of ya'll have asked me for details.  I think I should get it done by Monday Night. My buddy Kenny will be wearing a dress for Flight A because he lost a bet. You better believe I will be there for that.  Especially, because things seem a little tense between him and his good buddy Charlie who ...