One of the best things Jeffrey did was to seek out a lot of peoples’ opinions about issues that matter to the poker world. Believe me, if he could put up with me and my squawking, he could put up with anybody. I didn’t agree with some of the things he did, and let him know about it, but eventually we became very good friends.

Nobody has said a word to me yet as to whether Jeffrey resigned because of the new position that Harrah’s created one level above his, so I don’t know whether that affected his decision. When Jeffrey called me (and other members of the P.A.C.) a day before the announcement came out, he didn’t say a word about his reasons for resigning.

He was pretty much in control of the World Series. Obviously, he had to answer to corporate management, but he was as high up as the WSOP went. Now, this new position has been created. If I’d done all the things he’s accomplished during the short time he’s been “the commish,” I don’t know whether I’d like it if somebody fresh was brought in that I had to answer to about something that I helped create, somebody who’d be a buffer between me and top management. Beforehand, I think it was just Jeffrey and Howard Greenbaum and Seth Polansky, head of marketing. They were always involved with the P.A.C. and everything to do with the WSOP, including the hiring of Jack Effel, who has done a great job as the director of the WSOP.

Just look at the P.A.C. We started out with Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, myself, and Barry Greenstein. Then Robert Williamson came in and a coupla years later, they brought in Steve Zolotov, Tom Snyder and David Williams. Later, we added other players to expand the scope of experience. Then they asked for the name of an amateur who should be on the committee, someone who would look at things more from the everyday, amateur standpoint than from the pro standpoint. Of course, the first people who came to mind were Bob and Maureen Feduniak. I knew that anything they said would be strictly for the benefit of the WSOP and the players. And since Bob had retired as a full partner of Morgan Stanley, he could also look at the business side of things and weigh that against the poker players’ side of things.

People don’t realize what a strong committee we are. It’s hard to estimate all the different things we’ve dealt with … and the huge amount of time we spend discussing issues through our e-mail chains and our conference calls with management. We’ve achieved a lot of things, too. For example, when Jamie Gold won the bracelet in 2006, he committed several infractions of the rules during the play, but nobody called him on it. We knew that wasn’t right. The crew that worked that final table didn’t give penalties when they should’ve been given, so that whole crew was taken off the duty roster for the final table. And since then, the rules have been pretty uniformly enforced.

We’ve also discussed the make-up of the tournament, which events should be added, which should be eliminated, and special events like the $40K no-limit hold’em tournament they ran last year to celebrate the WSOP’s 40^th anniversary. We all talk a lot to air our opinions, especially Howard and Daniel Negreanu and Steve Z. Then I chime in from the old-timers’ point of view. Of course Annie and Jennifer are always right in there, too, as well as Clonie Gowan.

I give credit to Pollack for coming up with the idea of the P.A.C. and putting it all together. He also was instrumental in getting big corporate sponsors for the Series that included Jack Links, Planters, Miller Brewing and Betfair. Of course, I started complaining right away that part of that sponsorship money should go to the players. By bringing in these sponsors, Pollack made millions of dollars for Harrah’s, and what did Harrah’s give up? A $10 coupon … and they made players like it! They never added a cent to the prize pools, and further, we had to pay to stay at the Rio. What a marketing job he did for Harrah’s … to increase attendance (especially during the recession) and bring millions into the business, while getting players to accept it all.

To sum up, Pollack did a fantastic job of running and branding the World Series of Poker. Harrah’s is really going to miss him. So will the world of poker. Till next time, this is T.J. signing off to the world from the rain on the plains of Texas.

I have long thought casino environments bring out the worst in people. Let's face it, ubiquitous greed for money, which veiled only by the excess one can buy with it, is enough to make anyone with their eyes half open throw up. The interesting thing is that these kinds of things are rarely discussed. Well, they are, but it's mostly behind the curtain. No media outlets ever report on it-and rightly so- because it's not anything that would help grow the industry which provides their advertising dollars. Well, tonight, I say to hell with that. Why not tell things as they are. So, here's a full dose coming up.

After sitting 5-10 cash for 8 hours today, I began to piece together experiences -both current and past- in coming up with an idea of what really makes many players tick. For almost an hour tonight, I listened to a round table discussion of how broke the majority of poker super pros really are. Is this dirty little fact true? Absolutely. Is it anything that most of you that play poker regularly have never heard before, of course not. This stuff gets thrown around all the time amongst us. What I realized tonight is why. The fact is, at least the way I see it, players aren't overly impressed with each others accomplishments. It's actually the opposite, as the reality seems to be that people thrive on each others shortcomings and misery in order to justify some sort of misplaced vulnerability (ego) in their own lives. God, it sounds horrible but I really feel like it's true. I mean, how many times do you hear people say things like, "yeah, he won all that money but he's broke now" or "He seems like he's good, but he's just gotten hit with the deck and really is just a bad player overall." Sound familiar? I have played at casinos all over the country and everyone says the same garbage, even if they are talking about top players. It's really rare that you ever hear nice things said about people. Really rare. It doesn't matter who you are, there is always someone who has something bad to say about you, your play, or any number of vices you may or may not have. It's just a fact.

So, is the whole picture? Of course not. There are a lot of great people in the poker community that a lot of us would consider friends. I think the issue is that some of us take this friend concept too far, and, to a lesser extent, although equally important, look at poker as a team sport. Poker will never be a team sport. You can pretend all you want, but when push comes to shove, and you are up against it, think about who will really be there for you. I think you will find you have a pretty short list, if you have a list at all when it comes to your "colleagues." I have heard some pretty crazy stories from the biggest names out there about how they were let down by the people closest to them when they really needed their help. That's a tough thing to stomach and get through. If you do get through it, however, then I suppose you have taken a big step towards increasing your longevity in this sport. Slow times are inevitable, but having planned backups in place to help yourself out is paramount--i.e., cash reserves, investments, and, most importantly, friends and family who will love you and be there for you no matter what.

As far as my cash game tonight, I didn't play particularly well. Well, I did for about the first two hours, but then proceeded to blow through my profit and 1k of my own money before I finally decided to leave in liu of sitting longer and playing worse. The sad thing is that I should rarely be a loser in this game considering that the level of cash play in the casinos here about as soft as I have ever seen.

Not long ago I told all of you about the great games up in Niagara Falls, but I have to say the games in East Chicago trump those games by a mile. They generally have multiple 2-5 and 5-10 games running and they are all live. From my observations, even the players who probably consider themselves winners in these games can't be. Their main problem is having a major no-fold button issue. This is also known as not understanding correct hand values. Once money is in the pot, they are in it to the end hoping to pick off a phantom bluff that never existed to begin with. Of course, this is where my session went wrong tonight. One thing I have learned over the last couple of years is that it's never enough to even know exactly which two cards your opponents are holding. What's also equally important is what they are likely to do with their holdings. Although I see both things today, there are times -be it very rare- when I still push the action in order to induce the proper fold or raise from my opponents. But, sometimes they just aren't going to yield to the correct play. That's great actually, but that's when it's important to take the bluff portion of your game out. Obv posting a losing session isn't the end of the world, but when the games are this easy, you deserve to beat yourself up for a while. Why lose any money at all. I shouldn't, but I know I can always get it back+ on my next trip over there.

At the end my session, after having pushed my last $250 post flop with two aces against two other opponents and getting one caller, I was slow rolled by one of the players who held a set of fours. Normally, I wouldn't even mention something like this because it's not the first or last time some hero will decide to give me some preamble before taking 20 seconds to roll over a hand like that. Normally, I would forget a guy like this before I even leave the casino because I know a player of his caliber will release all of that money back into circulation and I will get it, whether it's 3rd, 4th or 100th hand. Eventually it will all come back. The reason I thought it worth bringing up is that it just feeds into my point of the environment in which we are all playing. This is why I keep to myself when I am at cash tables and don't say that much anymore. I'm there to rake a profit and that's it. When I'm done, it's back to my family. If I'm playing a tournament, on the other hand, you will def see me talking quite a bit more as the dynamic there is a bit different and sparking some fun conversations during a 12 hour day is sometimes a lot of fun, especially when it's two in the morning and everyone is completely slap-happy, slurring their words and generally making no sense at all. I love that stuff.

Anyway, I think this might be one of the longer blogs I've written and I think it's very different then most of my other posts. Maybe it worth less or more to you, I don't know, but I gave all of you a good idea about what's going on inside my head ATM. There may only be pieces of it with which you agree, but hopefully you can fine some sort of positive take away. Of course, that may be hard on this one, lol. Also, For those of you out there that are genuine people, I always appreciate you tuning in. I'm always happy to talk with any of you at the casino during a tournament series, so feel free to come over and say hi.


Someone sent me this poem not long ago and I thought it would be worth sharing:

" Poker is my dream, but it's our passion. Although we walk different paths to our goals, our experiences are probably not all that different. I am the heroine and you are the villains. We will fight, but that's good. Without each other there is no competition, and there is no poker. Everyday I wake up healthy enough to meet you on the front lines and for that I'm grateful. "


See you at the tables,

MJ

* Please feel free to email me at mjsatellite2421@yahoo.com with any questions or comments