On Poker and Faith...

I've been keeping up with my man Daniel Negreanu (you can tell the true fans cause they spell his name without looking) at the World Series of Poker this past month. Now I know it's pretty unlikely that you care anything about competitive poker, but I had to pass along his latest blog because he talks about how his faith effects his poker play. Now I don't know Kid Poker personally but you can tell even in his writing that his relationship with God is pretty important to him, and he is right when he says it's not something he talks about a lot, so this glimpse is pretty cool.

Check it out here.

So who is Daniel Negreanu and why should we care? Well, not sure you should, but as to the first question he is considered by many to be the best poker player in the world, and it's denied by no one that he is the most popular. The main reasons for this is his fun loving personality and his uncanny ability to stare an opponent in the face and tell them exactly what cards they have. By and large, reading your opponents cards is a thing of fiction, made up for movie moments, but Negreanu is the "Enchanted" of the poker world, he somehow brings these fairy tale moments to life.

By the way, he is doing great so far in this year's WSOP (currently ranked 2nd in WSOP Player of the Year rankings) and in the most prestigious event of the Series (the $50,000 HORSE tournament, where rounds alternate between the 5 main types of poker) he is entering Day 4 2nd in chips with 24 players remaining. These two events mark 2/3rds of the Poker Triple Crown (the third being the WSOP Main Event) and if he managed to win 2 of them that would be an unheard of feat, let alone all three.

You can check out his daily video updates at rawvegas.com (winning this week's award for nonporn website that sounds like it should be, "Honey, What were you doing at rawvegas.com?", "It's a Christian poker player babe, I promise!")

Here's the latest, before heading into the end of Day 3 last night (he would finish the day with over a million chips).

Rosebud and the Death of the Spoiler

Well it’s official! My wife and I finished Season 6 of “24”, Fox’s amazing real-time counter-terrorism action drama. This is one of the greatest modern show’s of all time. If you’ve never watched it, I suggest you Netflix Season 1 and enjoy the ride. To quote a local race track slogan, “We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge!”

I’m behind the times. I know that. Some of you are mocking me even as you read this. You are saying cruel things like, “You are so behind, man.” and “Hey, Mister Behindy-Pants.” And even the painful, “Would you like some Pop Rocks in your Classic Coke, Mister 8-Track player, Behindy-Parachute-Pants!”

And although I may not be completely caught up with every current show (I watched the first episode of “Lost” 2 weeks ago) I AM NOT ALONE!

With TV shows being released on DVD, and hundreds of hours of TiVo capacity, and now the revolution of watching shows and movies online, it’s time to end the madness. I’m beggin’ ya!

You see, I’ve learned that the watercooler is no longer safe. You can’t assume I watched last night’s episode of [Plug in your favorite show title here]!

Maybe I recorded it.

Maybe I missed it, and I plan to watch it online.

Maybe I wait to buy the season of “24” on DVD so I don’t have to wait until next week to find out how Jack will escape and find another needle-in-the-haystack lead to catching the terrorist, and yet somehow have a near-miss with that elusive thing called love!

I’ll admit, I had plenty of time. But I watched “Citizen Kane” with Orson Wells for the first time 3 or 4 years ago. Granted, it’s been out since 1941, but give me some time. Our world isn’t limited to 8:00pm on 3 networks anymore. Cut me some slack.

Officially, here and now, I am calling for the Death of the Spoiler.

Here’s what I need to make it happen:

1) Morning News Shows . . . Stop telling me what happened on last nights episode. You’re ticking me off before I’ve had my coffee.

2) People . . . When you call right after a show to talk about it, don’t let the first thing out of your mouth be, “What did you think about the Colts throwing away the game in the 4^th quarter?” Buck Rogers and I paused live TV, and we’re not done with the game yet!

3) Finally . . . Buy a sled for your kids, will ya! You’ll never know what it might mean to them.

--Andy