The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show, Episode 18: Gun Shy Gambler

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I know I did. Needed it, too, after a fairly exhausting week of work and “real” life stuff. Week began with that marathon sequence of plane rides back home from Kyiv, so it took a few days for the body and mind to resume all the normal rhythms. Wasn’t ’til Friday that I was back in sync, to be honest.

What did I do? Played some poker. Missed out on that “WCOOP Bloggers Freeroll” thing that happened yesterday over on PokerStars -- a freeroll satellite that awarded 18 seats into a World Championship of Online Poker event. Got the email but somehow overlooked the details and so never registered.

I did, however, get an invite to another freeroll happening this week, something called the “PokerStars WCOOP Journalist Event” which is also going to be awarding some free tickets into WCOOP events. Will try to make that one. Would be very cool to sneak my way through and somehow land a free seat.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing pot-limit Omaha, mostly six-handed, and doing fairly well. In addition to collecting some cabbage, I managed yesterday to reestablish my Silver Star status on PokerStars for September. Have maintained that for the most part all year, and with it have been trading FPPs for cash whenever possible.

Also this weekend I pulled together and posted a new episode of The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show, this one called “Gun Shy Gambler.” Show starts with a reading from the John Fox book Play Poker, Quit Work, and Sleep Till Noon! (1977). You might recall I wrote something about that book about a month ago. The excerpt is a funny anecdote in which Fox tells about a scheme he came up with to gather statistical data at the poker tables. It is called “Counting Beans,” and yes, the title is meant literally.

The rest of the show is taken up with an episode of the old time radio show The Lone Ranger. A pretty good one, involving a gambler who becomes gun shy after having killed a man, then is forced to deal with his problem when the brother of the man he killed returns to confront him. There’s some card-playing, too, in there.

You can download the show by clicking here. Or just play it right here, if that’s how you roll:



By the way, I have been chatting with someone about the possibility of having the Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show start airing on one of these internet radio networks. Would probably start out going back to the first episode and playing the old shows -- sort of like putting them into syndication -- then add new ones when the time comes. We’ll see where that goes. I’ll certainly let you know about it here if and when that happens.

One other bit of extracurricular activity this weekend was my first post over on FilmChaw, the movie blog established by our friend and esteemed author of Stupid/System, Julius Goat.

Ever since I saw the 1980 film Humanoids from the Deep, I knew I had a desire to respond. Thanks to Monsieur Goat for affording me the opportunity to do so. Lot of good writers and cool stuff over there at FilmChaw, so if you are into movies (both good and bad), check it out.

Let’s all have a good week. Fall is almost here. Our high temperature today is in the sixties, if you can believe that. Time for football. And the WCOOP! I’ll be doing some writing over on the PokerStars blog for that, recapping a few events and helping live blog the Main Event at the end. And if this freeroll thing works out, maybe I’ll be playing in the sucker, too. A massive schedule -- 45 events! -- this year, with satellites running ’round the clock, natch. For the complete sked and a ton of other info, go to PokerStars’ new WCOOP website for the skinny.