Poker

Tomorrow is the start of the World Series of Poker main event and today I've got some poker stuff to get off my mind.

First off - links:

- Jackpot Jay has a very good column about Stuey Unger and Barry Greenstein. There is a new biography out on Unger and Greenstein has written a book on poker and life that I'm looking forward to reading. I always root for Greenstein - he just seems like a genuine good guy.

- Good article on defending WSOP champ - Greg Raymer.

Second off - quick story:

The other week I went down to Foxwoods to play some poker. I ended up at a pretty friendly no-limit table where the guy next to me happened to be the guy who won ESPN.com's online tournament to win a seat at the WSOP main event. The guy's name was "Borak" I believe (not his actual name but his nickname). Anyway, he said that he got pretty lucky. He went to ESPN.com looking for a Boston Celtics score and he saw the thing for the ESPN Poker Room.

He explained that basically he just sat at his PC smoking weed and popping Vicodan in his underwear. He got some good hands, didn't make any stupid plays and he ended up winning. I say good luck to him.

He also explained that he's not real happy with the people from Degree who are the sponsors (along with ESPN). He said that Degree told him that they're only paying for his hotel room up to the day after he's eliminated. Way to instill confidence in your contest winner! The room is just $130 per night (per "Borak") and he was a bit peeved that they wouldn't sponsor it for the whole week.

Good luck to you buddy!

Third off - Andy Glazer

Andy Glazer was the Babe Ruth of poker journalists. He died last year on July 4th at the age of 48. With the phenomenal growth of poker - you'd think that there would be some better remembrances of Andy.

He was well liked and universally respected by poker insiders but very few know his name. I think ESPN would be greatly remiss if they didn't do a feature on Andy during this year's WSOP coverage. I also think that Andy has been given short thrift by his journalist colleagues. Poker is huge and what sports editor could refuse an article on poker through the lens of the life of the best journalist to cover the sport? Yet besides his obituary - very little has been written about Andy.

Andy was also an excellent poker player in his own right. I think a proper memorial to him would be the following:

1. The casinos and poker magazines put together a fund that would provide the entry fee to the WSOP main event.

2. The entry fee would be given to the journalist who wins the annual journalists tournament that is part of the WSOP.

3. This journalist agrees to split his potential winnings 50/50 with half going to a scholarship fund set up at he UNLV School of Journalism (if there is such an animal).

I think this would be a proper remembrance for the greatest of the poker journalists.