Archive for August 2004

Old Guard has a Party

Last night was very special to me and it brought back many memories from the early days of tournament poker; the early days being the year 2000. This was the year that about 150 of us would travel the then tournament circuit to beat each others brains out. It’s also a time where if we got busted out we’d eat dinner together or go to a movie.

Sounds strange to call 2000 the old days, but it was a time when we wondered who we were going to be playing poker against when we got gray. Looking around the room in those days, you saw no 18-21 year olds, hardly any women and very few “bad boys”. Ok, Phil was around then but you know what I mean.

Last night was Pic Club Bounty night at the online site Poker Host. I’m proud to be on the Pic Club pro Team and have a great time doing so. Every Monday night at 8 PM eastern we all head to www.holdemradio.com and do an internet radio show. The show is a relaxed atmosphere where we talk about everything poker in a no holds bar format. That means that any and every subject is on the table, including some things not poker. Wade from Hold Em Radio and DB host the show, which is sponsored by the Pic Club and the online site that we’re playing at that night.

There are usually some great guests on and it provides a forum for the Pic Club to air whatever’s special and new.

The reason last night brought back memories was because of the line-up. Included last night was Amir Vahedi, T.J. Cloutier, Barbara Enright, Young Phan, Kenna James, Tom McEvoy, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh, Sam Simon (The Simpsons), Dule Hill (West Wing), Yancy Arias (Night Rider) and last night Kato Caitlin stopped by before he headed over to Dick Van Patten’s house for a home game.

That group includes some of the “Old Guard’ as I like to call them, and me. We came from a time where the WSOP was the only real big event we had all year. While the rest were important to us it paled in comparison to the big one. It was a time we’d fly to the other side of the country to play in 200, 300 and 500 events. It was a time for very few bad beat stories, because one of us was probably the guy or woman who knocked the other one out. More importantly, it was a time when we discussed strategy together, where one discussion was a round table of some of the best poker knowledge you could imagine.

Then the fun begins because we all head to the site we’re on that night and play what’s usually a small buy-in bounty tournament where all the pros have a bounty on their head. Last night someone asked via forum chat on the site can the pros be competitive in low buy-in events? Well, last night TJ won the event, last week Barbra Enright was 2nd, 2 weeks ago I won the event.

It’s funny, win or lose we all have fun and mostly enjoy chatting with the players and from what we’re hearing they love to play with us. Many of the pros get on the radio during the event and think thru their plays right on the air. For the avid poker player, this is the element I think is missing in on air poker. It’s one thing to see the whole cards like we see on televised events, but to hear the thinking process as the hands are played is amazing and shouldn’t be missed.

Joining the Pic Club is a special experience and I’m very glad I did. It’s aptly named as it is a Club and besides being the best new and innovative way to get funds on the internet, members are getting benefits that I didn’t even expect to see. Great idea guys keep it up!

You can join to at www.picclub.com

See you on the radio LOL

Hope that helps

Warren Karp