Off to play in the WSOP

I leave today to go to Vegas to play in the Ladies No Limit Hold Em event on Sunday. Yes, a ladies event. I am very excited! I know, I know, yes, I would rather play with the boys, but I'm going to play with the Ladies, drama and all and I'll give you a few of my reasons. First, it will be a smaller field, and since it's my first WSOP I think playing in a smaller field will make me feel a bit more at ease. Second, I had committed to play the event last year but I became ill with whopping cough and could not play. I am a person of my word. Third, it is a world class event for Ladies only and I believe ladies only poker events will soon fade so I have to play to show my support.

I know many people of both genders believe it is discriminatory to have ladies only poker events and some are quite vocal about their opinion. However, despite how I may personally feel about Ladies only events I do believe there is a need for them for several reasons. Poker has long been considered a "gentleman's game" and been a game that men almost exclusively played. As a result most poker rooms do not "embrace" women at their no limit and high stakes games and therefore many women are too intimidate to attempt to play in a room dominated by men, at a table full of men. A large majority of men feel women should play only the low limit structured games like 2/4 or 3/6 limit. Time and time again when I sit down at a No Limit table at least one man, most often two, will quickly tell me that I am at the wrong table, that I am sitting at a NO LIMIT table and not a limit table even when I am holding a rack of red chips.

A lot of women find it extremely uncomfortable to be the only woman sitting at the table and likewise for many men, a woman sitting at their table makes them uncomfortable. The ladies only events allow women to ease into the poker rooms and become comfortable enough to venture in when there isn't a Ladies only event. I have heard many women throughout the country say they will only go into poker rooms when accompanied by one or more women because poker rooms are so intimidating. Believe it or not, very few women will venture into a poker room alone to play or so they claim. Apparently just as women go to the ladies room in pair’s, women only will venture into poker rooms in at least pairs. I can identify with this to a degree as for many years I wanted to learn to play poker. I would sit at the snack bar beside the poker room at the Horsehoe in Tunica so I could peer into the poker room window and would watch men play for hours. I often asked my husband to teach me to play poker and he would just laugh. I would have never walked into a poker room alone. It wasn't until Natalie and her fiancé, Hoyt Corkins walked me into the poker room at GoldStrike Casino that I ever played poker. I had read a couple of books about poker, including Doyle Brunson's Super System and had watched poker on TV long before the rabbit cam or the WPT with intense fascination. I knew the basic fundamentals of the game, but had not played. Once I stepped into the poker room, I left the craps table, 3 card poker table, back jack table and 21 plus 3 games behind. Poker was and remains my passion but it took that first step, of someone going into the poker room with me, introducing me to the brush and getting me on the wait list for a game to get me started, to ease the intimidation and glares from all then men with that look, "oh,my another woman". So yes, I can identify with these women, even though I venture without hesitation into poker rooms alone now. Keep in mind it was only 3 years ago that the Ladies events were limit and now the Ladies events are no limit. So obviously, the Ladies want to play no limit, so move over fellas, here we come, and yes, we know it’ a NO LIMIT table! lol

GoldStrike

Will publish this post at a later date

Keep the Game Honest

Will publish this post at a later date.

Poker Drama

I'm behind in my posting and I'm going to have to do better to keep it current. Recently Gold Strike held a summer tournament. I opted to play a mixed event rather than the Ladies event. I've been asked dozens of times whey I didn't play in the Ladies event so I'll elaborate here. First, I have to be honest and admit that I was a bit miffed when I made my travel plans to Vegas to coincide with the Nevada State Ladies Championship only to arrive in Vegas to find out the event had been cancelled. Second, there is a lot of drama that in the past has gone along with the Ladies tournaments. Frankly, I have enough drama in my personal life. I partly play poker to escape the drama so I certainly don't want to be thrown into the midst of even more drama. I made the same comment during a cash game the day after the Ladies event and I offended a lady at my table from Oklahoma who played the Ladies event. She huffed and stormed off a couple of hands later saying she couldn't take all the drama at our table. Point made. A lot of the ladies take poker much too personally. During a ladies tournament there are tears and confrontations.

For example, when I played the Ladies Tournament at the Grand as part of the WSOP Circuit event, I was moved to a table with a very aggressive player. She had quite a few chips but fortunately I had much more because I had knocked bout about 7 or 8 players before I was moved to her table. This player raised preflop every hand, even when out of position and continued to raise throughout the hand. Hand after hand she played this way and she was controlling the table. Well, either she was the luckiest player I've ever seen or just a plain ole table bully but my thoughts were she was just very aggressive and she couldn't be getting that many good hands. Unfortunately, I was getting garbage and had nothing that I could call her on. Finally I got a playable hand, the mother of all preflop hands, two black Aces. She was to my right and acted before I and as always she raised preflop 5 times the blind, I reraised enough so that if she called, she would have very few chips left thinking she would either go all in or fold. My thought was if I went all in she wouldn't call and she was aggressive enough that I thought my reraise would seem odd to her and make her go all in. The other two players folded, however, she only called. The flop came Ad Kh Ah rainbow. I thought for sure she would check but she immediately fired out all her chips. I paused for a moment, partly in disbelief as to how quickly she acted and then said call. She jumped out of her chair, pulled out her Ipod ear buds and asked me how could I call her? DUH? How could I not? The dealer asked her to turn up her cards and she revealed, Jc 10s unsuited then I turned over my cards to reveal As Ac. She had a straight draw but I had flopped four Aces. She was steaming. She glared at me and after she was knocked out continued to stand beside me and bless me out because I called her large raise preflop. She continued to ask, how could you reraise my raise before the flop? I bet enough you should have folded, just ranting and raving. I know pocket Aces don't always win, nothing does, but I was not about to fold pocket Aces preflop no matter what the raise. Anyway, the floor had to come and ask her to leave the tournament area. Five minutes later we had a break and she was waiting for me at the entrance to the Ladies room and started at it again.

After break in the same tournament, I'm on the button and in the 10 seat and I'm dealt As Qs. There are 3 callers in the pot before it comes around to me plus the blinds. I make a large raise and the player to my left in the one seat calls. Everyone else folds. The flop comes Ac Qc 7s. The other player makes a large over bet. I come in and reraise her. She thinks for what seems like eternity. Another player calls time (I would never call time on a player, especially a hand in which I was not involved). She folded then leaned across the dealer and said with claws revealed and with a glaring challenging look, "I was on a straight draw" and I replied in true southern smart ass fashion, "well, bless your heart, I was on a full house draw". She then replied, “a full house draw? There's no such thing". She paused and asked you had trip sevens? I just glared. She then told me she had 8 9 hearts and that if a 10 and a Jack had come out she'd have had Q high straight. I never told her what I had, she didn't pay to see it and had she called my re-raise, she just might have drawn the cards she needed but I made it so expensive for her to call she opted to lay her cards down.

Shortly thereafter a player at another table dressed in a pale pink shirt ran through the tournament area after getting knocked out crying hysterically. Although the men may feel like doing these things, I've yet to witness such actions from them, so I prefer to play with the boys. I'm a middle child and the only one who could be called "sister" so maybe that's another reason why I prefer playing with the boys. I'm not sure because my experience as a child was that the boys didn't play fair. They cheated, lied and beat the living daylights out of you anytime they halfway got a chance but confront you or cry, never!

God Be With You

Ok, what can I say, my trip to Nawlins and the Gulf Coast has caused me to divert from the subject of poker and please accept my apologies. One of my favorite sayings is " to thine ownself be true" or as Aunt Baby so poetically said in her southern way, "Bee what you is because if you bee what you ain't, then you ain't what you is". This is my attempt to stay true to myself.

You've all seen and heard the news stories of the wrath of Katrina and the damage done by the breaking levees but until one visits the area and sees it first hand and feels it, you can't possibly comprehend the destruction. Pictures simply can not capture the enormity of the destruction. A drive around the city, particularly East New Orleans and the 9th Ward area down Claiborne Avenue will serve you up an ample piece of humble pie and bring a tear or two to even the strongest of the strong or the coldest of the cold. The water lines that were over 9 feet high on homes and the multiple escape holes in roofs of homes only give you a glimmer of the tragedy. In a city known for Voodoo and Hoodo, and tales of ghosts and zombies, nothing is quite so chilling as taking a first hand look at these areas. It's not only the immediate damage but the collateral damage, the disruption of lives still some nine months after the storm that will deeply touch you. I do not have the words to express the sadness and compassion I continue to feel.

As we almost quite literally ate our way around the city, I could not help but notice that many people, would take off their hats, caps, and bow for minutes of prayer before they ate. It was the one and only clear way of distinguishing the locals from the tourists. Not once did I see a local not bow their head to pray before eating, even if it was just beignets and coffee, or a hotdog and a coke for they are truly a thankful people, as they should be, as should we all. I was deeply and forever touched by the things I saw and the stories I was told.

Mother's has eight FEMA trailers parked in their parking lot beside their restaurant, housing employees who lost everything but their jobs. We spoke to a man who has worked for Mother's more years than he can remember and he said he was the first person back to work, and has the first trailer next to the building. He was thankful to God for sparing his life and to Mother's for allowing his trailer to be parked in the lot and for having a job. He said many were not as "blessed". Blessed. Remember that word, for it is indeed a powerful word and a word I heard people speak consistently when they spoke of Katrina.

As we traveled to Biloxi we went thru East New Orleans. Mile after mile of homes, businesses, shopping centers and malls for as far as one can see on an elevated highway are totally demolished. The enormity of the devastation is hard to grasp and comprehend even as you drive past it. It is totally mind boggling. East New Orleans was obviously hammered by both water and very high winds.

As bad as things were in Nawlins and remain, my heart I think actually stopped beating as we drove thru an area called Delisle, Mississippi all the way to my beloved Biloxi. Delisle is about 15 miles west of Gulfport along the north shore of Bay St. Louis and some 35 plus miles from Biloxi. I understand from all accounts that just west of that area, in Waveland, is where the eye of the storm hit and I'm here to tell you I do not have the heart to see anything worse than what I saw from Delisle to Biloxi. I was told by locals that Waveland was literally blown clean off the map, and from what I saw, I don't think they were talking in figurative terms but quite literally. I brought my camera and intended to take photos, but I was so overcome with shock, disbelief and grief that pictures seemed totally inappropriate and disrespectful.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way attempting to make light of what occurred in Nawlins, by no means, but what I saw along the Gulf Coast Highway was complete devastation, literally wiped out. I still can’t believe what I saw! Bombs would have left more standing and inhabitable than Katrina. We saw some 35 miles of complete devastation that was minimally three blocks deep and in some cases miles inland. It is an area we visited often and envisioned living in the area when we retire. It is an area where things will never be the same or even close to the same, where life as people formerly knew it will never exist again. It is an area forever and completely changed.

I was struck that at a home site where once a great antebellum home stood, there had been a new flag pole and American Flag erected with a sign that simply read, "God Bless America". God Bless the Gulf Coast and New Orleans as they face what is already being called a very active hurricane season. My continued thoughts and prayers are with you all. May God be with you.

For those of you you haven't been to the area since Katrina, GO. I can't stress that enough. The area needs your support both financially and morally. Your tourism dollar will mean more to this area than to any other area of the world. Visit New Orleans, drive to Biloxi and see for yourself, but be sure to fill your tank up and grap a bottle of water before you go to Biloxi. I promise you the trip to New Orleans will be a trip you will enjoy and one you will always be glad you made. It will make a big difference in the lives of many, including your own.

I am blessed and plan to visit New Orleans several times in the remainder of 2006 and will make it a point to go several times a year for many years to come. I can not even begin solve the myriad of problems the Gulf Coast is facing for many years to come, but I can help by visiting often and giving them my tourism dollars and so can you. Make a difference in the lives of fellow Americans, go visit Nawlins. They are ready for you. May God and many tourists be with you.

Laisser les bon temps rouler!

I would be remiss to not write about food after visiting New Orleans or as I pronounce it Nawlins is a town of "good eats". The city is full of mom and pop eateries ranging from hole in the wall joints to fine five star restaurants. No matter what your budget or your taste buds require, you can find it in Nawlins. Some of my favorite places were open and back in business, others were still working on reopening, trying to recover from the wrath and devastation of Katrina of which I will write about in a subsequent blog. One place Camilla Grill appears to be closed forever. We will miss the Camilla Grill but cherish the memories of the folks that worked and ate there.

Our first evening in Nawlins, my husband, Mike, 16 year old son, Nick, Natalie, Hoyt and I went to K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. Mike and I had the pleasure of meeting Chef Paul Prudhomme several years ago when he was a quest chef at the Grand Casino in Tunica as part of their Great Chef Series. Chef Paul prepared a feast fit for a king, or in this case the casino VIPS. For years, I've used recipes out of his Louisiana Kitchen cookbook so it was only natural we eat at his restaurant. The food and service was impeccable. Nick devoured his drum fish entree, which he said was the best fish he had ever eaten. I recommend this place highly. It's fabulous! The dinner specials and menu changes nightly at K-Paul's. Chef Paul is the chef who made blackening famous so try his blackened fish.

No trip to Nawlins would be complete without a trip to the French Market's Central Grocery which is a combination of Italian Deli and grocery famous for their Muffulettas. Central Grocery is located on Decatur Street in an Italian import store where the sandwich was invented about a century ago to satisfy the hungry Sicilian stevedores on the nearby docks. Their Muffuletta, a meal packed into a pizza-sized Italian bun with layers of salami, ham and provolone lavished with their delicious olive relish is an experience to remember. A whole Muffuletta is enough to feed a normal family of four or one Mike Nutzell, so be sure to bring a friend to share the experience. It is like no other Muffuletta in the world.

Forget all the folklore you've ever heard about not eating at anyplace called Mother's. Mother's, located on Poydras Street is a must on the list of eateries and has been featured on TV's Good Eats show. Mother's has been in business since 1938 and pride's itself in its working class origins. Nobody gets treated better or rose than anybody else at Mother's, regardless of your "social status". As owner Jerry Amato says, "Everybody gets fed, Everybody comes back". Mother's is known for their Poboys and their famous baked ham, which Mother's claims is the world's best. Mother's serves breakfast all day and now also serves a host of local Cajun/Creole favorites including Shrimp Creole. Seafood Gumbo, Crawfish etoufee and Jambalaya. Let me just say during the five days we were in Nawlins, we ate at Mother's three times, including eating there twice in one day! I recommend the Shrimp Po Boy which you can order either fried or grilled. I preferred the fried, which is lightly battered and flash fried. Be sure to have your sandwich "dressed" which means it will have a combo of Blue Plate Mayonnaise, yellow and Creole mustards, shredded cabbage, and sliced sour pickles. Also be sure to get an order of fries, which are cut and fried to order, but bring a friend. The regular sandwiches are large enough for two people to share and an order of fries is a whole plate full of delicious fries. Enter the side door, grab a paper menu and stand in line. Don't take too long to decide what to order as the line moves quickly. Be prepared to wait awhile once you order. Take your drink, find a seat and listen for your name to be shouted when your order is ready. Be prepared to be called baby, darling and sweetheart by the fine folks at Mother's. If you order a Ferdi special, be sure you pick up a fork and knife as the debris and gravy will make your French bread soggy. It's a messy sandwich, filled baked ham and roast beef but one that will fill you up and keep you going for hours.

Another must is the Gumbo Shop located in the "Vieux Carre" aka French Quarter on Saint Peter about 1/2 block from Jackson Square. Opened since 1920, the Gumbo Shop has become a staple for both visitors and locals. It is a picturesque place as the building is 200 years old and has an inviting tropical courtyard under a canopy of banana trees. You could almost hear Stanley Kowalski from Tennessee Williams play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” yell “Stella”. The Gumbo Shop has lots of history and ambience so I recommend a cocktails and a leisurely meal. For an entrée, I recommend their combination platter which gives you an ample sampling of Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya and Red Beans and Rice. I believe they have the best Shrimp Creole I ever ate! Be sure to get a side of either their Creole creamed spinach or their smothered turnip greens. For those of you who are vegetarians, their vegetarian special of the day is delicious. It was black beans and rice on Sunday when we visited. Also, don’t forget to order either a Bloody Mary or a lime Frozen Daiquiri, I recommend the Daiquiri. It’s unlike most, and is made with fresh limes and made to order. It’s not one of those frozen drinks that swirls around in a machine for hours or days on end and being the Daiquiri lover that I am, I found it simply a bit of heaven.

Don’t forget to stop by Aunt Sally’s Creole Praline Shop on Decatur Street in the French Quarter in the French Market. You can watch their expert candy makers and enjoy a free sampling of their delectable sweets. For those of you who are chocoholics, I highly recommend Aunt Sally’s Triple Chocolate Praline and her Chocolate Pecans; it just doesn’t get much better.

And no trip to Nawlins would be complete without a stop at Café Du Monde. There you will find the famous chicory coffee served Café Au Lait style with hot beignets. I recommend wearing a light color when you visit as the dusting of powdered sugar on these hot treats will ghost your clothes.

New Orleans Harrah's - Show One Show All

this was our first visit to the N.O. Harrah's. Throughout our travels we've been to many Harrah's properties and I think the N.O. property is one of the prettiest. Harrah's has captured both the decor and the feel of Mardi Gras and N.O. in the casino. I especially loved the poker room which is reminiscent of the French Quarter complete with wrought iron balconies with hanging fern baskets that overlook the poker room. The brush did an excellent job keeping the lists current and moving people quickly into games when openings became available. I enjoyed playing in a poker room where the dealers did not have to yell to get the brush's attention. The use of radio/walkie talkie devices and the computer made the room not only efficient but very pleasant for the players. Harrah's is to be commended for the efficiency of this very busy poker room. Great job! There are lots of other poker rooms who should implement similar systems.

Harrah's New Orleans offers a variety of games and was accommodating when players requested a different game and immediately started an interest list. The room offers bad beat jackpots for stud, omaha and structured Texas Holdem games. (limit) In general I found the games to be tight with an occasional lose player coming into the game. The room had some differences from the Tunica casinos where I play weekly, and I think they are worth mentioning. You can not use ANY electronic devices while at a gaming table. This includes cell phones, blackberries and Ipod type devices. For those of you like me who have become accustomed to listening to an ipod, this was a bit unsettling, particularly when you had a loud boisterous chatty Cathy sitting next to you. I mean, I like to chat and socialize at the poker table, admittedly a lot more than I should, however, I find it particularly annoying when I'm in the middle of a hand, particularly one that requires a lot of thought, to be sitting next to someone who is engaging in loud, boisterous animated conversation. Since there was no ipod to rescue me, I had to revert to the Mother in me and tune out, but unfortunately when I do that I tune out everything. Also of note is the fact they never have a dead button. Instances where normally you would have a dead button, the button moves to the small blind, and that player has both the small blind and button, and the next two players are both big blinds.

Due to a change in our travel plans, I missed the Ladies event. However, I had the pleasure of playing with the winner of the ladies event, , in a 1/2 NL game on Sunday evening. She commented that she won the tournament because she played aggressive positional poker against players that were playing extremely tight. Ok, I'm not the best tournament player around but I thought, is there any other way to play a tournament to win? I mean I've always thought, positional aggressive tournament play was key to winning. That and having a flop, turn and river that were with you! LOL. I also played with Daniel, JT and Chef Paul Prudhomme along with many other players.

I did find some of the poker dealers lacking in their ability to run the table. One evening the table had 3 guys sitting on the end who kept showing each other their cards, and those of us on the other end never had the opportunity to see those cards. It appeared after a while that those players were playing in collusion with one other since they were winning the majority of hands. Finally, a dealer, Joseph (who goes by Lynn) came to the table and during his down, he took the cards and showed everyone, stating very simply, "show one, show all". When the player who had shown his cards to his buddies complained stating he'd been doing it for the last several hours and no other dealer had done that, Lynn simply replied, "well, I'm running this game now, and I follow the rules, show one, show all." Interestingly, during the next three hands, the players left, one players leaving each hand. Kudos to Lynn, for properly running his table. You've got my vote for New Orleans Poker dealer of the year award!

For those of you who play video poker, Harrah's N.O. had plenty of video poker games ranging from 5 cents to 5 dollars. Slot machines were in abundance and I did not see one machine that took actual coins, so be sure you have lots of paper money on hand. There are cash redemption kiosks located conveniently throughout the casino.

For those you who enjoy table games, Harrah's N.O. had plenty to choose from. I was surprised to find that all the tables had a 15 minimum, which I thought was odd considering how hard the Gulf Coast was pounded by Katrina.

I enjoyed playing at the New Orleans Harrah’s. I enjoyed both the poker room and the players. I’ll be back!

High Stakes Poker

Mike and I just returned from an 8 day trip to Vegas. The trip was a little slice of heaven. It started upon our arrival when our daughter, Natalie phoned to tell us she could not pick us up at the airport. She and Hoyt were at The Palms for a taping of High Stakes Poker and Hoyt had been called in to play. She told us to take a cab to the Palms and we could watch the taping. We arrived at The Palms to find them in the middle of taping. As we entered the room where the taping was taking place, we passed Jennifer Tilley on her cell phone. I knew immediately that Phil Laak was around somewhere. Upon entering the room we were greated and seated to a screen and headset. We were behind the curtains of the set and they had it set up where we could see and hear everything. The set looked liked a living room. Sitting at the table were David Gray, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen and the living legend of poker, and my poker idol, Mr. Doyle Brunson, in the flesh. I was excited beyond words. The last time I got to really see Doyle play close up was at The Bicycle Casino in 2004 when he won the Legends of Poker. I was priviledged to get to see that event and proud to be the ONLY person in the audience wearing a Doyle's Room baseball cap. Trust me, there was not a person there who wanted Doyle to win more than I did, including Doyle himself. It will always be one of my fondest memories of seeing the living poker legend win the Legends of Poker. In my opinion, no one deserved more to win than the legend himself, Mr. Doyle Brunson.

I met Mr. Brunson's nephew and received a new Doyle's Room cap, keyring and pen. It was like Christmas morning in May. I was so excited. It was very interesting to watch the players and hear all the table chatter, alot if not most of which will be edited out. It gave me alot of insight to the player's personalities. Out of respect for being allowed to be there, I won't comment on what I heard and saw, nor the outcome of the game as that just wouldn't be right. I can however, recommend highly that you tune in and watch the game! A big thank you to the crew who so graciously let us in and to the Palms folks who made sure after a long day of travel we had food and drink. The Palms folks were great!

We waited for hours for Hoyt to get called into the game. We saw players go and come but never Hoyt. Grinder and his wife Lily came onto the set and visited as did Jennifer Harmon and her husband Marco. Gavin Smith was there for a awhile AS were other noteable players. Finally it was down to Hoyt but Phil Laak who had been in the game earlier and left wanted back in so Hoyt and Phil more or less drew straws for the seat. Phil won and Hoyt was left waiting again.

We watched the taping until about 1:30 am at which time Hoyt who had grown tired of waiting decided to call it a night and go home. We were exhausted and glad to go to Hoyt and Natalie's and hit the hay.

Thanks again to the crew of High Stakes Poker and to the staff at the Palms. You made us feel welcomed and we appreciated the opportunity to watch.

AMNUTZ Poker Begins!

I've met more and more people who have suggested that I start my own poker related blog so I thought I'd give it a go and try it!

My home casino is the infamous GoldStrike Casino in Robinsonville, MS, aka "Tunica" for the county in north Mississippi that is home to 9 casinos. I played my first poker game at the ripe old age of 47 in the GoldStrike Casino on Friday, Nov. 13, 2003 and have been playing ever since. Once in a while I venture back to my first gambling love, craps, but it is poker that has captivated my mind and heart. It is poker that is my passion.

I now travel about the country, playing poker at various casinos, both live games and tournaments. I miss the Gulf Coast casinos and look forward to their reopening once they have rebuilt. Although I've never cared for the Grand poker room in Tunica, I loved playing at the Grand Casino's poker room in Biloxi. The poker room was comparable to the bar of "Cheers"; full of colorful characters and personalities and a place where you soon made friends and felt a sense of belonging; a very unusual feel for a poker room. The games were fast, loose and fun which also pretty much describes a lot of the personalities there. There was big Doc, little Doc, and Mr. Kennedy, regulars you could always count on seeing and could count on remembering your name; sagely older men who had years of poker experience and hundreds upon hundreds of interesting poker yarns to tell. I will be disappointed if upon their reopening I don't see the Docs and Mr. Kennedy. I often wonder how they faired thru Katrina and have kept them in my prayers.

My daughter, Natalie is soon to be the wife of poker pro and champion, Hoyt Corkins which also helps feed the passion for poker. I enjoy watching Hoyt and sweating him in tournaments. In fact, if I didn't have a job, I'd travel with them and follow them around from tourney to tourney. Other people enjoy watching various size balls being kicked, hit, bounced, dunked and sunk into various size holes, but me, I enjoy the drama and suspense of a poker game, not so much of the playing of cards, but the playing and manipulation of people. It's addictive. I don't even care that I can't see the hole cards, for the cards is not what I'm watching. I'm watching the expressions, the body language, body posture, positioning, power plays, trapping, and the general manipulation of the situation. What drama! What suspense! Hoyt is one of my favorite players, not just because he's soon to be my son in law (gosh that makes me sound as old as I am!) but I love his style of play, aggressive, emotionless; put the screws to them kind of play. I also admire the fact he keeps his composure and I've never seen him act a fool or make a spectacle of himself like so many of the popular players. Hoyt brings respectability and sportsmanship to the game which is known to be a gentleman's game and that above all for me makes him one of the greatest players, right up there with Doyle Brunson who is simply a legend in his own time.

So I hope you have enjoyed my blog and that you will visit again. Your comments are welcome.

Oh, before I forget in case some of you ask why AMNUTZ poker............very simple, my name is Amy M. Nutzell........and thus AMNUTZ poker. amnutz has been my computer sign on since 1978. You know what I say........you may be crazy about poker.......but I amnutz!

May the flop be with you...............