DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “There is never a wrong time to do the right thing.”

Just to be clear about my Doylisms, not all of them are original.  People come up to me and say, “I read that somewhere before.”  I read a lot when I have time and jot down sayings that make an impression on me.  There is a wide variety, all the way from Will Rogers to Winston Churchill.  Other Doylisms come from things I’ve heard in conversation and some are original ones that I create.  Anyways, they are lots of fun.

I’m in the middle of a minor domestic dispute with my wife.  Louise is an absolute jewel and needs to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for putting up with me for 47 years.  But sometimes, I’m reminded of an old Texas saying, “There are only two times in a man’s life when he doesn’t understand women.  Before marriage and after marriage.”

There is no high-limit poker right now.  Everybody has gone to the Bahamas for a tournament.  As I have repeatedly said, internet poker and tournaments have ruined live cash games.  I may go to Ireland for the Irish Open, but I’m not going to do much traveling.  Las Vegas and California have enough tournaments for me.  I really like the slowdown structure most of the big tournaments are going to.

If you read my last blog, Margaret Hussman, a 15 year old girl from El Paso who is diagnosed with untreatable cancer, is trying to do fun things for the duration of her life.  She went to New York, took a helicopter tour of the city, went to a musical on Broadway and bought tons of souvenirs.  Send Margaret some words of encouragement to anne@ddgoose.com Maybe, just maybe, the doctors will be wrong and Margaret will make it.

The University I went to in Texas has sent me a letter informing me that I’m to be inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame there.  This came after years and years of my friends and teammates trying to get me inducted.  My name was brought up to the selection committee 10-15 times and was rejected.  Why?  Because I’m a Pro Poker Player and the University is a Baptist college who doesn’t approve of gambling.  I don’t mean to toot my own horn but my credentials as an athlete during my college years certainly qualify me.  I’m in a dilemma if I should accept.

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Accept the fact that sometimes you are the pigeon and somedays you are the statue.”

I don’t know if everybody is following this extortion attempt that is going on in Kentucky.  The out of state attorneys that started this attempt to seize the urls of internet gaming sites are making ridiculous claims that internet gaming is hurting Kentucky’s citizens and prevents them from having money for horse racing.

I’m not going to go into all the legal issues but Kentucky is in for a hell of a battle and every legal opinion I’ve heard says they don’t have a chance of winning.  I’m sure all the poker sites have backup domain names in reserve.  The judge has taken 7 days to give a verdict and I certainly hope he gives a just and favorable decision.

I’ve been home from London for a week now and while I’ve recovered physically, I still feel it would be hard to focus enough to play high stakes poker.  I can’t get caught up with my e-mails, snail mail, phone calls, and appointments.  Chip Reese and I used to laugh about the fact we can never get our desk cleaned up.  A real gambler just isn’t programmed to take care of business matters.  It seems like I have to take all my time with different business opportunities, my obligations to DoylesRoom online poker, and worrying about what to do and when to do it.  When I look back ten years at what my life was like and then look at what it is now, I get sick.  There is no life that is as good as being a pro poker player with no other concerns.  I could play when I wanted to and didn’t have to answer to anyone or anything.  You might not get mega rich but a good poker player would always make plenty of money.  I wish I could get a time machine to take me back in time, I would do a lot of things differently.  One thing I know for sure, if I could do that, I would leave myself time to play the game that I love.

I watched the debate between McCain and Obama tonight and it appeared to me that McCain won.  That is in stark contrast to what everybody thought earlier in the campaign.  Obama was supposed to destroy McCain but it looks like McCain was underestimated.  I’m still not sure who I am going to vote for because to tell you the truth, I don’t like to think of either one of them being my president.  I will vote however and if you don’t do the same, don’t complain about the economy, the war, or anything else.  Nevada is a tossup state and a few votes might be the difference.  It looks like Obama has 13 states, McCain 23 with the rest undecided.  Obama has the important electoral lead and is probably going to be our next president.

Barry Greenstein started his own debate about an Omaha 8 or better hand on Poker Road.  It seems I had a different opinion then most of the other pros but i feel they all followed Phil Ivey’s lead of three betting a hand.  I’m a real bottom line guy and I only know I’ve lasted 50 years following my gut feelings.  So until some of these players come to the cash games for a few years, I’ll reserve judgment.

I get more comments about the jokes about Daniel’s golf games.  It’s amazing, all the way to Macau and back to London, lots of people comment how much they like them.

Daniel – Please stop checking your watch all the time.  It’s really a distraction.

Caddy – It’s not a watch – it’s a compass.