Centaurus Games Poker Blog

It’s finally November and so close to one of the great eating days of the year.  That’s why I’m excited to say the winner of the ThanksGIVING $1000 poker tournament will also have a donation made to Feed America (www.feedamerica.org) in their name.  Each year, the Feeding America network provides food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

We’ve got some great tournaments lined up at the Club.  The most exciting news is the 12 WPT Celebrity Invitational seats we are giving away. Congrats to “brockway”, “gobigray”, “HeliFlopster” who have already secured their seats to this event. There are 3 more seats being awarded this month: November 11th, 15th and 25th, all at 9pm ET.  This is a great tournament and a lot of fun. I’ve been lucky enough to participate the last few years and have some great memories.

Last year I was running late and got wait-listed along with about a dozen other people. With some time to kill, I got a cocktail and went over to where they corralled the rest of the players-in-waiting. I started talking to a pretty cool guy named Chris. It turned out he did some work for TVG in the past (interative horseracing) and we chatted about poker. I asked him what he did now…his response: “I host a show called the Bachelor.” My reaction: “Is that job like being the DJ at a strip club?”

My name came over the loud speaker. I thought to myself “good, now everyone knows I’m here”.  I wandered to my seat.  Just my luck, I found myself seated with my good friend Reeve Collins (CEO – Red Lever), WPT CEO and Founder Steve Lipscomb, pros Barry Greenstien and Maria Ho, actors Don Cheadle and Jimmy Van Patten.  I sat down, chatted with my table and nonchalantly glanced at my first hand…pocket eights.  Then the flop came with an 8. One guy put me All In.  What the #*$@!  I’m completely frazzled.  I think to myself how embarrassing it will be to go out on the first hand I play.  But on the other hand I do have a set.  So I do what any self-respecting person in this situation would do…I completely chicken out and fold. I see the guy sign…I got bluffed! Way to start the day, Calapp.

Interesting facts I learned last year:

• Richard Karn (Al from Home Improvement) lives up on Pine Lake in Issaquah, Washington. I went to Pine Lake Middle School.
• Marlon Wayans is just as funny in real life as he is on TV.
• If Lou Diamond Phillips comes up and gives you a bro-hug…go with it…it’s La Bamba for crying out loud. (My wife loves that movie.)
• The line for the bathroom at these events is always long. I found myself in an unusual conversation with one of the guys from Everyone Loves Raymond about germs and how a certain percentage of chips have some really bad bacteria. Lesson to all: Always wash your hands before and after you use the restroom.

Back to the Club. We are giving away two Shuffle Tech ST-1000 automatic card shufflers this month and two more in December.  This is a perfect way to pimp-out your home game.  There are still two seats left for one lucky Club member to win for the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night 09 benefitting DEF (www.decisioneducation.org).  Three club winners are going to play in this great event alongside some of the best and brightest pros, actors and entertainers.  Another seat to a WPT $10,000 event will be up for grabs on Nov 14th at 9pm ET along with $10,000 of cold hard cash on Nov 28th at 9pm ET.

November is Ladies Month for our TAG Tuesday tournaments.  Every Tuesday we will give away 2 pairs of TAG sunglasses (strictly sized for the ladies this month).  We’ve also got year supplies of Blue Diamond “Bold” Flavored Almonds, custom built Big Slik Poker tables, and as always lots of cash.

Foxwood’s World Poker Finals kicks off shortly. Good luck to Club members “jlopez74”, “qhorses”, and “wantsome”.