My New Job

Someone actually hired me. And I wasn't even looking for a job.

PokerNews.com, the internet's number one site for poker news (oddly enough) and live tournament updates, has given me a job as a reporter for the 2008 World Series of Poker, to be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Basically, my job will consist of tracking noteworthy hands as they happen and blogging them onto our Live Reporting page, so that people all over the world can follow along in real time. Many, many thanks to my friends Dallas Jenkins and Jeremiah Smith for helping me get my foot in the door, and providing me with a stellar recommendation. PokerNews has the exclusive rights to the up-to-the-minute chip counts and the live hand reports directly from the tournament floor. The dates for this year's WSOP are Friday, May 30th through Wednesday, July 16th.

First though, I will be headed to New Orleans on May 18th to cover the final WSOP Circuit Event at Harrah's New Orleans. This will be a chance to get my feet wet with PokerNews and to get some practice as both a blogger and a floor reporter. I have never been to Nawlins before, and am very much looking forward to checking out the digs. After a few days there, I am flying very briefly back to North Carolina to do a load of laundry, repack, and catch a flight to Vegas. I will be out there until about July 20th. PokerNews has rented us a house just off the strip; I'll post some pictures when I get there and get settled in. Should be flippin' sweet.

I am looking forward (*understatement*) to the chance to escape North Carolina for a couple months, to go out west, to work hard, to have fun, to meet new people, to explore new opportunities, and to be immersed in the greatest spectacle in all of poker. Further updates as events warrant!

Ante Up For Africa

Visit the official website

Over the last four years, fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan has left 200,000 dead and driven another 2.5 million people from their homes. Now, having survived violence, atrocities and abductions, they are living in squalor in refugee camps in Chad and Sudan.

The situation is definitely grim but there is some good news: the world is finally starting to pay attention, in no small part due to concerned citizens who are ratcheting up the heat on political leaders and demanding an end to the violence.

Numerous magazines and newspapers have written about the impact that the citizens’ movement has had on influencing important players to take the appropriate action. A concerned population is refusing to allow Darfur to fall off the radar of the public’s consciousness.

By merging our desire to contribute to a resolution of this crisis and our passion for poker we are raising money and public awareness for this important cause.

Please take just a moment and donate whatever you can scrape together by clicking the button below. Anything you can donate is very much appreciated, and 100% of all money raised will be used to support this cause.

Click here to donate now!

Grand Opening, Prices Slashed

Typically, when I hear the word "blog", the hair on the back of my neck stands up straight and I break into a cold sweat. Worse yet, "blogger", "microblog", "blogroll", "blogosphere", "blogstorm", or the vomitous "vlog". But somehow, something in the dark reaches of my brain has conned me into producing one (or three) of my own. As if I've ever stuck with anything longer than a month. Apparently I'd rather type my thoughts into an awkwardly-colored webpage text box than speak them audibly to an actual person out loud. Hmph. Perhaps I'm easily amused. In any event, my only intention is for this to be a binary junk drawer littered with my insignificant drivel. My original plan for this blog -*cold sweat*- was to focus on hockey, and specifically the greatest team on the planet, the Carolina Hurricanes. But wait, there's more! Ramblings about sports in general, leisure, music, poker, cooking, travel, newsy stuff, and the occasional rant about something completely trivial will also end up here, pretty much whatever tumbleweed idea happens to roll past my brain. This is for my own mental workout and entertainment more than anyone else's truthfully, but I do hope you enjoy at least small portions, even just a couple words here and there. Or not.