By Pauly
New York City

It’s the first Monday of the new year, which means that many of you are utterly miserable that the holidays are over, where as many of you are utterly elated that the holidays over. At any rate, for the first Monday of 2011, I have a few nuggets of news and other gems that you can masticate on while you count down the days until the weekend.

So let’s begin…

The SuperStar Showdown continued with enigmatic Scandi Idildur1 taking on a new opponent. This one was none other than Tony G. Love or hate the G, the Sunday match drew a lot of attention. Change100 covered the 12-hour long heads-up battle in a recap titled Isildur1 sends Tony G on his bike, banks $44,280. (PokerStars Blog)

If you don’t know by now… both Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth officially left UB, and Lee Jones parted ways with Cake Poker. (Riding the F Train)

And los hombres dedicated a podcast to discussing the departure of two of UB’s big dogs. (Wicked Chops Poker)

Check out Shamus’ three-part series pointing out some of his best writing from 2010. Must read. (Hard-Boiled Poker)

Congrats to Otis for winning the Pauly’s Pub Football Pool. Congrats to “Joe” for winning Sundays with Dr. Pauly’s TOC over at Sundays with Dr. Pauly. (Rapid Eye Reality, Fantasy Sports Live)

If you’re a Phishead, then check out this video, Behind the Meatstick, that included the behind-the-scenes rehearsal of the massive and intricate New Year’s Eve number at Madison Square Garden. (Coventry)

Waffles contributed something to my new group project. He eloquently rambled on about the Catholic Church in a piece called My Name Is Waffles and I Know Things. (Tao of Fear)

And the new issue of Truckin’ has been published with five short stories. This month’s scribes include Dan England, Gerald C. Cruz, May B. Yesno, Ernest, and yours truly. My contribution this month falls under the “junkie fiction” genre. Take a peek at Waiting on Eastman.

And if you like what you read, I encourage you to vote Tao of Poker for Best Poker Blog in Bluff’s Readers Choice Awards. Thanks for your support.

That’s it. You know the drill. NGTFOOMO.

Tags: catholic | Link Dump | month | phish | pokerstars | sports | sundays with dr. pauly | tao of fear

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

It’s Tuesday and I’ve been sick the last few days with the Vegas crud. I always get sick after I cover the November Nine. Not enough time/energy to write, so here’s a few links to kill some brain cells with…

How to Fix the WSOP Ratings Problem? is a must read and one of the best pieces of constructive criticism I’ve seen about how to cover the Main Event from the TV angle. Well done, gents, well done. (Wicked Chops Poker)

Thanks to Amy Calistri for a warm fuzzy review of Lost Vegas. Reading the manuscript caused groovy flashbacks for Amy and she shared her thoughts on what it was like to be a member of the poker media in the immediate years after the poker boom, especially in 2005, which she dubbed the poker media’s “Summer of Love.” (Aimlessly Chasing Amy)

Let Their Hearts Rule Their Heads is an eloquent piece by Vicky Coren about how professional poker is slowly becoming on honorably choice of professions. (The Guardian)

My favorite breaking poker news site is the Poro Report. Poker finally has its own Drudge Report. Well done, chaps. (Poro Report)

Sorry for the lack of updates in regard to Sundays with Dr. Pauly on Fantasy Sports Live. You should check out the FSL blog because that’s where you can find weekly updates and an overall standings. Season 2 of Sundays with Dr. Pauly is complete and Olliewood took it down and locked up a seat in the TOC. My brother Derek, playing under HermWarfare, won Season 1. The third and final season starts this Sunday and will run for five weeks (NFL Weeks 11-15). Feel free to join us. Click here for rules and more information on Sundays with Dr. Pauly. If you don’t have a FSL account, you can sign up for a FSL account today. Funding your account is easy — just use your credit card. It’s 100% legal in the US. (Fantasy Sports Live Blog)

Do you like the Simpsons? Fan of Goodfellas? Then check out Goodfellas at Moe’s a remix of the infamous “shine box” scene from Goodfellas featuring some of your favorites from the Simpys. (Tao of Pauly)

Bacon freaks rejoice. Tao of Bacon has been updated! And I officially own TaoBacon.com. Bookmark that juicy nugget for future food porn viewing. (Tao of Bacon)

That’s it. You know what’s up next… NGTFOOMO!

Tags: 2010 WSOP | download-poker | Link Dump | lost vegas | nfl | season 2 | sundays with dr. pauly | thoughts | TOC

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

It’s that time of the week again, as I scramble to throw together my fantasy football team based on injury reports and whatnot, and settle into a mind-numbing day as my assprint settles into the couch for a long day of shouting at the TV. Anyway, if you’re looking for a few bits of pokery news to read at halftime, or if you’re looking for something to kill during the grind of Sunday tournaments, here’s a few poker and non-poker bits for you to masticate upon.

Let’s start with poker stuff…

If you dug my most recent post on bracelets, then you have to read Shamus’ take on WSOPE bracelets in something he wrote Are WSOPE Bracelets ‘Real’?

Kevin Mathers made his first official appearance as a guest on This Week in Poker. Awesome job, KevMath, and thanks for the bit of praise you tossed my way! (Wicked Chops Poker)

I’m not one to sound off on political matters, especially when it comes to poker, but thankfully, Michalksi and crew are better educated than me in those matters, plus they cover that beat much better than anyone else in poker. Read how PokerStars is sticking it to real money players from the state of Washington.(Pokerati)

And in non-poker section…

Congrats to Prohel for winning Week 3 of Sundays with Dr. Pauly. (Fantasy Sports Live)

Otis eloqiently writes about dogs, but with an astute writers there’s multiple stories being told there. (Rapid Eye Reality)

Thanks to Marty Beckerman for pointing out this gem about a letter that Hunter Thompson once wrote about seeking employment to a Vancouver newspaper. (Leader-Post)

I’m back to writing almost semi-regularly at my main joint. I cranked one thing out that was one of the more favorite things I scribbled down in while that only took five minutes to write…. The Alley Cat Wars, Vol 1. And for you documentary film buffs, or those who have a love/hate relationship with the shittards in Hollyweird, then I encourage you to let my review of I’m Still Here sink in. (Tao of Pauly)

Yep, that’s it for now. Kick off is moments away and I got some money to make and brain cells to kill. NGTFOOMO!

Tags: 2010 WSOP | fantasy-sports | marty-beckerman | pauly | pokerstars | review | sports | vancouver | week

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

Football junkies rejoice… SWDP returns to Fantasy Sports Live this Sunday.

If you don’t know about Sundays with Dr. Pauly, here’s the cool promotion that Fantasy Sports Live is running all season long…

Sundays with Dr. Pauly 2010 With; $1,000 to $2,000 Free Bonus Cash Added

For 2010 we thought we would step things up a bit with our Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion and increase the free bonus cash up to $1000. For qualified sports or gaming bloggers this year, all you need to do is play in our regular SWDP leagues, and we will double any bonus cash you win for up to an extra free $1000. That increases the potential amount of bonus cash added up to $2000. Not bad for just playing some fantasy football. The details are below and week 1 leagues are already forming.

FantasySportsLive.com announces the new and improved Sundays with Dr. Pauly promotion for 2010 with at least $1000 in free bonus cash added. In Sundays with Dr. Pauly you get to compete against one of the top gaming bloggers in the world, Dr. Pauly himself, as well as against the other participants in the challenge. Sundays with Dr. Pauly will run throughout the 2010 NFL football season and offer multiple ways to earn free bonus cash. Simply enter the weekly fantasy football leagues called Sundays w/Dr. Pauly to qualify for your share of the free bonus cash. Bonus cash will be distributed as follows:

– $150/$75/$25 will be distributed to the top three individual weekly fantasy football scores obtained during any week that Sunday’s with Dr. Pauly runs.

– The series will be broken out into three 5 week mini-series with the winner of each series receiving $75 and entry into the week 16 Tournament of Champions

– $250 will be added to the Week 16 Tournament of Champions. To gain entry into the Week 16 tournament, you need to either win a 5 week mini-series or beat Dr. Pauly’s fantasy football score over four consecutive weeks during weeks 1-15. Anyone beating Dr. Pauly’s score in the TOC will receive a pro-rated share of the $250 added based on the amount they beat Dr. Pauly’s score by. If Dr. Pauly scores highest in the TOC, he wins the entire amount.

– $150/$75/$50 will be awarded to the top three cumulative scores over the entire 17 week NFL season. Only the top 15 scores will be counted for each entry, so you can miss a week or two if you have to and still earn the bonus cash.

As an additional bonus, if you are a sports or gaming blogger and participate in the challenge we will double any bonus cash you receive. To be eligible for a doubling of the bonus cash prizes you must have an active sports or gaming blog that has existed for at least one year prior to September 1st 2010, and must post the Sundays with Dr. Pauly image, with a link to www.fantasysportslive.com. Approved blogs will have links to them shown in the Sunday’s with Dr. Pauly standings that will be updated on the FSL blog.

Sunday’s with Dr. Pauly leagues will have an $11 entry fee and payout 91% of the fees in regular cash prizes not counting the added bonus cash. We will offer a choice of either a 25 player league paying the top five or 10 player leagues paying the top 3 each week. We will try to keep SWDP leagues available until the league start-time, but we can’t guarantee this, so please enter the leagues early to reserve your seat.

Hope to see you on FSL this weekend. If you don’t have a FSL account, you can sign up for a FSL account today. Funding your account is easy — just use your credit card. It’s 100% legal in the US.

Tags: consecutive | download-poker | entire | ept | fantasy-sports | over-the-entire | paying-the-top | rio | sports | sunday | sundays | sundays with dr. pauly | week | wins-the-entire