Past, Present, and Future

Still in San Fran. Will be heading home on Sunday. I had thought I might get over to Lucky Chances today, but that ain’t gonna happen.

Had the opportunity to reconnect with a friend from way back and this afternoon was the only time we could make it work. And tomorrow Vera is finally free from her conference-related duties, and I surely couldn’t abandon her on our one free day together in S.F. Could I? No, no, no. Talk about negative EV . . . .

Was glad, though, to have squeezed in that quick trip over to Emeryville to the Oaks Card Club, as I hadn’t really expected to play any live poker at all on this here voyage. Incidentally, for those of you with an interest in northern California poker, Sports Illustrated has recently made all of its articles available on-line (going back over fifty years, I think), and there was an old article from 1985 titled “If You Play Your Cards Right, You Can Make It Big in Tiny Emeryville.”

(A poster over on Two Plus Two went searching for old SI articles pertaining to poker and created a list with links. Check it out.)

Had a good time having lunch with Tim Peters yesterday. You know Tim as the book reviewer over at CardPlayer. You can read all of his reviews and other good stuff at his website, “The Literature of Poker.”

We ate at a Mexican place near Union Square. The place is famous for its many varieties of tequilas and Margaritas, but as it was midday we settled for iced teas to wash down a tasty sampling of appetizers, tortillas, and chips.

We talked about reviewing books (something I’ve done myself from time to time), hard-boiled fiction, and, of course, poker. Tim told me about the time he covered the 2006 World Series of Poker for CardPlayer. If you happened to have followed CardPlayer’s coverage that year, you might recall the “CardPlayer Daily” -- a nifty four-page newsletter that appeared every single day of the WSOP. Although he had some help, Tim was the primary writer and editor for that. You can still read ’em all over at CardPlayer.

Tim described the experience as intense, but incredibly rewarding. I told him I was glad to hear him say that, because I’ve just learned I’m heading to Vegas this summer myself to cover the 2008 WSOP. That’s right. Yr short-stacked, fedora-wearin’ friend is Rio-bound to join the PokerNews crew at this year’s series. (More details to come.)

Gotta run meet my friend now. Has been almost exactly five years, so it’ll be interesting to try to gauge how much we both have changed. Five years is a long time. Hell, just look at what’s happened to poker during that period . . . .

Have a good weekend, all. I’ll see you when I get back.