DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “One generation opens the road upon which another generation travels.”

Home at last! I’ve still got pretty good endurance but 3 1/2 weeks in Europe got the best of me. In the main event at the WSOPE we were down to seventeen players at the dinner break. I was a little short stacked with $200,000 and I could see it was going to be a long night to get to the final table and it would be another long day after it was down to the final nine, so I decided to play very fast and to accumulate a lot of chips or go out. I moved in the first hand after the dinner break and was eliminated.

I had hurt my left hip and left knee somewhere and with my bad right leg I was in a lot of pain. These long hours in the tournaments may be a little too much for me. But as I always say, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Congrats to Barry Shulman for winning the tournament. Wouldn’t it be something if his son Jeff, who is at the final table of the WSOP, could win. That would be a record that would never be broken and what a great thing for poker. I read where day 4, which was when I went broke, lasted 15 hours and the final table lasted 17 hours. That would have been tough if I could have been lucky enough to have won.

Betting on the NFL is suicidal. I lose every close game besides wasting my time watching. Gone are the days when you could determine the winners. I’ll spend my spare time playing poker at DoylesRoom.

I’ve got to jump on a plane for Todd’s tournament in Montana this weekend. That’s the last thing I need after 3 1/2 weeks in Europe but I’ve got to support my son. Layne Flack and Gavin Smith were supposed to be there to play but both are now doubtful. So, my daughter Pam, Hoyt Corkins, Todd, Ed Brogden, Ken Hale and myself will be the pros playing. We should have a good time even though the weather is below freezing and there are fires and storms going on right now. The waves got so high on the Flathead Lake it wrecked my dock, my jetski and my pontoon boat. The wind blew 50 to 60 miles per hour for a day and a half. That’ s a scary lake when storms hit.

After watching a TV show featuring a handicapped preacher, I feel pretty bad about complaining about pain, injuries, or anything else. This young man was born with no arms or legs; only two small feet attached to his body. What a dynamic speaker! Just listening to him makes all your problems seem insignificant. He has written a book called, “No Limbs, No Limit.” I can’t wait to read it.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

I played day one of the WSOPE where I could get home if I  got knocked out.  I made it through and have 93,000 in chips when the average is 45,000.  I rested through starting day two and we don’t start until 5:30 p.m. today because of a Jewish holiday.

Besides my bad right leg, I’ve managed to hurt my knee and my hip on my left leg.  I hurt all over in this damp cold weather and can’t get any relief from the pain.  I’ve seen everything the hotel has to offer by way of movies in the room, been to three movies outside the hotel, been to Leeds Castle, Hever Castle (the childhood home of Anne Boleyn), been to a portrait gallery, and now the only thing I am anxious to see is the Las Vegas skyline as the plane touches down there.  Then home to see my lovely wife, my daughter, and my two dogs.  Europe is ok, but there is no place like home!

I’ve always liked Phil Helmuth and have defended his tantrums because that is Phil being Phil, but these grand entrances he makes are too much!  He came to my table dressed as Julius Caesar along with trumpets and scantily clad girls.  It embarrassed me just being there.  I would have liked to applied for the role of Brutus.  I am a poker purist and stuff like that detracts too much from what a great game poker is.

In my opinion Harrah’s should change the WSOPE venue every year.  London is just too expensive for the beginning pros to play.  The Empire Casino is where we play now and it needs to be bigger.  The tournament would draw many more players if it was in a different European city each year.

I am very sorry to hear Bob Stupak passed.  Regardless of his shortcomings, Bob was an important part of Las Vegas history.  My condolences to his family.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Recognize a failure early and go on to the next idea.”

The Bellagio tournament is the greatest!  There is no dinner break and you can be home in bed by 10:00 pm if you choose.  It is really good if you are a little long in the tooth.  I had a decent 1st day and am sitting with $95,000 in chips.  I could have had 50,000 more but I threw away 2 kings preflop.  I was convinced the other player had two aces and couldn’t believe when he showed two jacks after I passed.  That is the fifth time I have passed two kings preflop in tournaments.  I think this was the first time I’ve been wrong.  Oh well, who knows, he might have caught a jack and really crippled me.

I’ve seen and heard about these great tables in tournaments, but this is the first one I’ve been at in a long long time.  If I could have held a few hands I would have won a mountain of chips.  Eli Elezra was the only player I knew at my table and three players were real action guys.  It makes it a lot more fun when you know you are going to get played with every time you come into a pot.  However, all three of the action guys got broke and were replaced with tough players, so I was glad when the day was over.

I don’t think I mentioned that I busted my butt when I was in London for the WSOPE.  I tripped over a cord that went to a TV camera and crashed right on a concrete floor.  I cut my arm pretty badly and an infection set in that is giving me problems.  That is the first fall I’ve taken since I started using a crutch.

I heard my picture was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.  There was an article about the seizure of 141 domain names in Kentucky and DoylesRoom was one of them.  Actually, just about every poker site was included and the judge ruled that the state could take the names.  I doubt if the decision stands when the case goes to the appeals courts.

The Real Deal opens tonight.  I can’t wait!

Caddie: “Sir, you look like you are in pain – what’s wrong?”
Daniel: “I just hit two of my best balls…….I stepped on a rake!”

DB

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.

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Remember that great achievements sometimes involve great risks.”

Back from London and feeling like that train ran over me again. My wife wanted to go upstairs and make love.  I told her to choose one or the other, I couldn’t do both.  I don’t think I was completely over my trip to Macau but I felt I had to go to WSOPE.  There were lots of improvements over last year and whoever was responsible for the structure of the games should be complimented.  There was tons of play because the limits went up very slowly.  Also, there was only one casino hosting the event, which made it easier.

I know London is supposed to have great food, I just haven’t found it.  My favorite spot was Subway, which was located next to my hotel.  Of course it is twice as expensive, but so is everything else over there.  I thought I played good because I went deep in all three of the poker tournaments I played in.  One thing I noticed was how much better the Europeans play Hold’em.  The Scandinavian players, and there were 5 of them at my table in the main event, were really impressive.  The last I heard, John Juanda was the only American left.

In the HORSE tournament there were 8 American pros at my table.  Talk about a bad draw!  Chad Brown, Max Pescatori, John Juanda and 4 other pros were waiting on me.  I really don’t mind who is at my table for HORSE because most of the guys have at least one bad game.

I played last year’s WSOP Main Event winner, Annette Obrestad, in a heads-up match for ESPN.  We started with 20,000 dollars each and it was supposed to be two out of three, but I held some lucky cards and beat her the first two.  She seemed to be comfortable and played well.  It was a good thing for poker that she won the 2007 WSOPE.

I just watched the vice presidential candidates and was impressed with both.  Palin was supposed to take a beating but she held her won.  It will be interesting to see who the media thought won.  I read Lee Watkinson’s blog and I’m glad to see another poker player get passionate about politics.  I always have e-mails and discussions with Daniel Negreanu and Eric Seidel.  Of course, I was a George W. Bush man last election, so I’m listening to everyone now.  I still haven’t made up my mind but everyone should get out and vote.

-DB

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