DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Talk is cheap because the supply exceeds the demand.”

I’m always glad to see Christmas come and then glad to see it leave. It is a time for family holidays. Our family does an overkill on the gift giving. Our Christmas tree is overloaded with presents and even overflows our living room.  Actually, we have just about everything we want, so I don’t know where or why we give so much. The Christmas dinner is always a treat!

I need a break from poker. I’ve been on a terrible losing streak. I broke my own rule. I’ve always said if you lose four or five times in a row, you should always take a break. But, the games look good and I couldn’t stop, and I’ve paid the price by losing seven out of the last eight plays. I won’t get close to another poker table until 2010.

If anyone is a Nostradamus fan, the History Channel has a program on DVD called, The New Book of Nostradamus. It seems a book that nobody knew existed was found containing more of his predictions.

The Vatican in Rome supposedly had the book in a secret vault because Nostradamus predicted the fall of the Catholic Church. Previously in his Quatrains, Nostradamus predicted things like Napoleon, Hitler, 9-11, the death of the Kennedy brothers and many more events that took place after his death in the late 1500’s. It’s really scary when in both his Quatrains and the recently found new book, he predicts the earth will end in 2012. Something to do with the alignment of the planets and today’s astronomers agree there is reason to be concerned. Oh well, nothing we can do about it.

As the year winds down, I can’t help reflecting on the past. The thing that bothers me the most is the foolish things I did when I was young and the fact I can’t go back and do them again. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good, and when it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “The most valuable gift you can give another is a good example.”

One thing for sure, Anurag Dikshit is appropriately named!  Dikshit was one of the owners of Party Poker and became a multi-billionaire when Party went public.  It looks like he would feel a sense of obligation to online poker, the industry that made him a rich man.  Instead, he folded up like an accordion and plead guilty to breaking some kind of mystery law and is paying a 300 million dollar fine and a possible 2-year jail term.  It certainly created some ill will from the other online poker sites.  I personally can’t imagine what was going through his mind when he made his decision.

The Brunson family had a great Christmas, but as usual, everyone had way too many gifts.  My wife and I gave specific instructions to our children and relatives to not give us any presents.  We threatened to give any gifts that were given to us to the Salvation Army.  At least we slowed down the gifts, but there were stacks of presents for the rest of the family.  I got one present I’m not giving away, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seasons of “Two and a Half Men”.  That show cracks me up.

I’ve already got a “football headache”.  Even Casper won’t stay in the same room with me when the games are going.  I can’t believe how dumb some of the football coaches are.  They need to have a gambler on their staff to advise them.  After all the pro games and bowl games I’ll be lucky if Louise doesn’t throw me out of the house.

Speaking of my dog Casper, he charges the front door every time the bell rings.  He sleeps on my desk and jumps off when he hears someone at the door.  He has dislocated a front leg and a back leg landing on the hard floor.  I’ve got to put some padding on the floor where that won’t happen again.

We had another cash game on High Stakes Poker.  Again, I can’t talk about it but I will say I’ll be going for my 15th straight win on the TV cash games next time I play.  I read somewhere that I play too tight in the games.  Hello!  I thought the object was to win the money, not put on a show to please the viewers.

Daniel:  Did I hear a Mexican golfer got shot yesterday?
Caddy:  Yes sir, They call it a hole in Juan.

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “A minute of thought is worth more than an hour of talk.”

Even though the tournaments at the Bellagio are by far the best, it still seems to me that the rewards are greater in the cash games.  I played 25 hours, 3 days, beat 432 players and won less than $10,000.  I realize that coming in #66 gave me a great shot at winning the 1.5 million first prize, but there are just so many good tournament players now it is hard to win consistently.  Maybe it’s time for me to back off from tournaments because I was actually tired at the end of the 3rd day.  I’m playing tomorrow in the $200,000 buy-in cash game on High Stakes Poker and I’m looking forward to that.  I’ve won in each one of the previous 12 I’ve played in.  At least it will be real poker for real money.

Layne Flack came up to me and insisted he had been misquoted in the CardPlayer article about buying a bracelet.  He said they were printing a retraction of his statement.  I have no reason to not believe Layne.  We have always been friends and I probably reacted too quickly.  I should have learned by now not to pay any attention to what people say.  Anyway, I’m putting it behind me and I’m sure Layne will do also.

I don’t know if anyone else notices, but Andy Bloch seems to go deep in every tournament.  It’s pretty impressive when you consider he doesn’t really have a poker background like most of the great players have.  I hope he wins a few where he will be recognized a little more for his excellent play.

It’s time to go out for the dreaded Christmas shopping for my family.  I love Christmas because the family gets together, but we have taken the gift giving to the extreme with the stacks of presents under our tree.  We need to remember what Christmas is all about and I wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Daniel:  Do you see any improvement today?
Caddie:  Yes sir, you had your hair done.�