DOYLISM OF THE DAY: ‘Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.’

With no high limit games in town it seems all my time and energy is going into the Real Deal at the Venetian.  Our show is getting better and better.  Five o’clock is a little early for a show on the Las Vegas Strip and the producers are trying to get a later starting time.  The audience is bigger each week and they seem to enjoy the show.

After researching when my father died in 1957, I am the same age today as he was when he passed.  It certainly doesn’t seem like it was fifty years ago and it makes me consider my own mortality.  The reality is that we should appreciate and enjoy every day we live.  I think I take after my mom’s side of the family. They (all 10 of them) lived into their 90s with three of them breaking the 100 year mark.  At least that’s where the family tells me I got this bald head.  Perhaps the people who say I am getting old and senile are right.  I can’t believe I responded to what people posted on a public forum.  I should have learned my lesson a few years ago on Rec Gambling when some nut accused me of cheating and running all the high limit games in Las Vegas.  According to him, no one could play unless they had my or Chip Reese’s permission.  He said all the games were fixed.  I tried to defend myself but lots of the folks that posted there seemed to believe it.  You can’t win in a situation like that so I won’t make that mistake again!

After Dewey Tomko and Harry Ornstein were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame it made me wonder which of the young guys will wind up in there.  There are some obvious choices right now but time has a funny way of changing things.  At best we have a pretty good idea who the first African American will be.  I think Dewey was a worthy choice because in the 80’s and early 90’s he was a force to be reckoned with in both the cash games and poker tournaments.  Henry, if for no other reason, deserved it for the invention of the hole card cameras.  He wrote a great book, I Want To Live, about his survival of a Nazi Concentration Camp.

CADDY:  Sir, why do you carry two pair of pants when you play golf?

DANIEL:  In case I have a hole in one.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Experience teaches only the teachable.”

I can’t help getting feedback from some of the forums and conversations around poker tables I’m not playing at.  A person should be able to take criticism because the Good Book says:  “I had rather be criticized by a wise man than praised by a fool.”  Still, if I write things that offend you, don’t read my blog.  I just say what I think and what I do and neither might be right.

One thing I would like to clear up is about Johnny Moss and Nick ‘the Greek’ Dandolos.  They most definitely did play in 1949-50.  Des Wilson wrote Ghosts at the Table and did a ton of research but he missed it when he said the match never happened.  I talked to my friend, Jack Binion, and he told me they did play and the stories might be exaggerated a little but Moss beat Nick and made him quit.  Des wrote a good, entertaining book but no one can always be right about what happened in the past.

We can talk about The Real Deal now that the press release has gone out.  It is a new poker show that is starting October 1st at the Venetian Hotel.  It is an audience participation show with chances to win big prizes.  I’ve been approached many times about new ventures and have done some of them but most of them fail.  But, when I found out Merv Adelson was the lead person in this show I was happy to be included.  I knew of Merv through his former partner and my good friend, Irwin Molasky.  So, I knew he would have all his ducks in a row with adequate financing and competent people working.  Sure enough, he has put together an amazing team and we are going to have a ball with this show.

I’m off to Montana in the morning, so it may be a few days before I update my blog. I’m as excited as a rookie playing in his first WSOP.  I hope I don’t hurt myself in those mountains! 

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “No one ever saw a cowboy on the psychiatrist’s couch.”

Yesterday was a big day for me. After sitting at my desk for three months, everything happened at the same time. I had three important meetings; the Extreme Poker Show at the Venetian sent a group in to discuss tactics as did High Stakes Entertainment – the golf tournament guys. The third meeting was maybe the most important…my bookie who owed me money from basketball. That would have been a full day but they came on a day I had two doctor appointments. I had these doctor appointments scheduled for weeks and couldn’t cancel so I tried to make all five meetings.

My first appointment was with my dermatologist. I had a bump on my head that I couldn’t get rid of. Actually it was more like a large pimple and after my experience with melanoma cancer 46 years ago I was more than a little concerned. The doctor looked at it and announced it was a type of cancer that needed to come out. Just what I needed at 9:00 in the morning. Usually at 9 a.m. I roll over for another hour of sleep! The good news was that it was a squamous cancer that didn’t spread easily but it could bore straight down. That was cool; it could penetrate my skull and eat up what few brain cells I have left. The doctor said he would have to make a large and deep incision to be sure he got it all and it would leave a bad scar. I’ve got enough scars on my face and head that it looks like I went through a Viking war. So I told him to be sure and do the operation up right because I was pretty sure Cameron and Drew wouldn’t want me to do any more love scenes in the movies with them. So now I’m walking around looking like I’ve been in a fight at the Hogs and Heifers Bar.

After a thirty minute wait, they said no problem, they got it all. After I went home and changed my shorts I felt fine.

I ran to the meetings with Extreme Poker and High Stakes Entertainment before my three o’clock appointment with my cardiologist. I had taken a bunch of tests at my last visit and she had the results. After chewing me out for gaining ten pounds she said I was in pretty good shape for someone my age. My cholesterol was 179 which is really good but my bad cholesterol – whatever that is – was high. So her advice was to cut down on red meat, don’t eat cheese and to exercise a lot. Yeah, right. I did notice she didn’t tell me to have more sex or do any fun stuff. But, I guess I’ll try to do what she said.

There is an island in the Pacific called Brunson Island. That is where all the bookmakers go after they have me for a customer for a while. They retire and live like kings on my money. This time I had a lot of money coming and my bookie didn’t have it.

No wonder I had to take 2 ½ Vicodin to go to sleep. What a day! – DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Opportunity is a bird that never perches.”

While the cash games aren’t as big as they were in Las Vegas, there are still plenty of low- and medium-stake games. I found a one hundred dollar ante, three hundred/six hundred blinds, 2-7 lowball game that was really gambling. The six players had between $20,000 and $100,000 each in front of them. I’ve always said that chips are preferable to cash in poker games. That is because most players find it easier to put chips in the pot than cash money. However, the flip side of that is that the players like to win money that they can see.

So, I sat down with $50,000 in cash and it was like putting new meat in front of Old Yeller. Every time I put a bundle of $100 bills in the pot it stimulated the action unbelievably. I played a few hours and had a $34,000 win. It would have been closer to $100,000 but Johnny Chan beat a pot eight for me. It was a good game and I intend to visit the 2-7 low ball game regularly.

I’ve decided to miss the WPT event at the Commerce Casino in Las Angeles. I had a meeting at the Venetian Hotel about a major TV poker show that will be starting in a few months. I will be involved along with nine other top pros. The people who are putting it together are big time players in the television business. I can’t tell you about it right now but it is going to be an exciting event (or I should say events).

If you are fortunate enough to make the final table at the Commerce you would have to break your neck getting back to Las Vegas for the preliminary party for the NBC Heads-Up tournament. It looks like they could schedule these poker tournaments where they don’t overlap. Now it is totally impossible to play in the celebrity tournament right after the WPT tournament.

It looks like it is going to be Obama vs. McCain for President. I think Obama is a cinch to beat McCain where if Hillary was the candidate, it would have been a coin flip. Obama’s base is too strong for McCain which is a good thing. God help the internet gambling business if McCain does happen to win – DB