I no longer am going to try to explain. Instead, I will simply refer all those curious to Pauly’s fantastic new book. It’s all there – the good, the bad, the ugly, the crayon-eating. To really “get” it; you have to live it and Pauly certainly has. Lucky for us he has retained some amazing memories and stories and possesses the skill enough to weave them together into a highly entertaining read. I can’t recommend the book enough. I devoured it in just two days.

Even those of you who’ve been reading Tao of Poker for years now will find something new in the book. Hell, I was actually there for some of the things he writes about and had completely forgotten them myself. Thankfully now instead of trying to explain why remembering something like “Clown vs. Cowboy” made me burst out laughing on the beach, I can just hand over the book and say “Read this. Start here.”

Go now and get your copy. You’ll not be disappointed.

Well, it will be THAT time in about 5 months. But right now it’s that other time, the time where we start planning for and looking forward to THAT time.

For those of you unaware, THAT time I’m referring to is the WPBT Winter Classic; the annual poker blogger gathering in the happiest place on earth – Las Vegas. If you’ve never been before, consider this your open invitation and welcome. If you’ve never missed a gathering before and have no intent of starting now, fantastic. If you haven’t been in years but are planning a triumphant return, even better. Here’s what you need to know.

WHEN: The tournament will be held Saturday, December 11th. Folks will start to trickle in Thursday night, December 9th. Come for as long as you can!

WHERE: Tournament will be held at Aria. If you’ve never checked the place out before, now’s your chance! Cards in the air at noon.

HOW MUCH: Buyin will be $100+$20. For simplicity sake, we’re using the Aria Nightly Tournament structure. Start with T8000 and 25/50 with levels increasing every 30 minutes. For point of reference, last year at Caesar’s we started with T7500 and 20 minute levels.

WHERE TO STAY: Many people have booked at the MGM Grand already, thanks to the awesome specials they’ve been running. (And happen to be running right now). However, if you were to choose to stay at Aria, God knows I would not argue with you. Have you SEEN those rooms? They’re amazing. I will absolutely cheat on the MGM Grand with Aria should the opportunity present. If you choose to stay at the IP (looking at you Dawn Summers) I might have you committed.

OTHER STUFF: Tradition will hold and Thursday night the 9th you’ll find us at the Geisha Bar at the IP (but don’t try to text anyone!!!) and Friday night we have the MGM set up for private cash games. Specifically, I reserved table 16. “Ace Finder!” Sunday is always spent in the sportsbook, if we want to do Legasse’s again I will leave that to someone with a bigger credit card limit than I.

GET ON THE LIST: Because it worked so well last year, there will again be a Facebook invite for the tournament sign-ups. For you Luddites please go ahead and comment here or email me. Just be sure to keep track of what name you sign up with, as you’ll need to give it to the cage when you buyin for the tourney.

NEXT STEPS: Start saving your roll, find a flight, secure your party pass from your spouse, and book a room! We want to see you!!

Thanks go out to CK for making introductions at Aria, to Adam Altwies in the Aria poker room, and as always much thanks to Mike Green with the MGM poker room, who continues to take good care of us and has a secure spot on my list of favorite people.

Questions? You know where to find me.

Aria photo from FlipChip at LasVegasVegas.

Yes, I am sick. Well, getting over it at this point. Now just rocking a near-complete loss of voice as I finish up the Z-pack. As for the other member of the family who was sick, well, he’s apparently going to be just fine. Vegas (and I) thanks you for all your concern. He had a couple of rounds of IVs, a few blood tests showing things normal, and then the final all-clear. Still he was seeming a bit listless; as I told my friend Jessica at lunch one day – I’d know he was really feeling good again when he was back to that typical “teenage” punk dog disposition of “oh, are you here mom?” and not laying his head on my lap every night, etc. You know, when you could tell he wasn’t feeling bad. Two days after that as I was getting ready for work it was all Barky McBarkerson going on in the front of the house (squirrel) and as I left for the day and said goodbye to my dear sweet pooch, he lifted his head and looked at me with that “what? i’m sleeping here” look. Yep. All better.

And now, to the pokers. How about that AlCantHang, huh? I’m going to add “Mad Genius” to his list of monikers for cooking up the BBT5. He’s got the hair for it. I played in the first event Sunday, despite my weakened condition, and was your bubble girl, finishing 16th out of 79. Congrats to Maigrey and jjok for winning their TOC seats!

I’m looking forward to playing more events, though week nights can be a bit tough sometimes (whine whine work whine whine work). As my BFF Dawn Summers tweeted, it was great seeing everyone together playing again – so much fun. Thanks Al, and thanks FullTilt. And now, to steal from Dawn stealing from Astin the BBT5 prizes writeup and what not:

If you haven’t checked out Al’s post with all the details yet… you should.

$50,000 in prizes. 3 WSOP Main Event packages! A whack (that’s a lot… about $14,000 worth or so) of $2000 freerolls and bracelet race packages!

I’ll be doing my damndest to make every tournament. That would include the invitationals on Sundays @ 7, The Poker From the Rail games on Mondays at 10, and of course, the venerable Mookie on Wednesdays at 10.

I’m actually most stoked about the new Monday games. I’ve long lamented the loss of The MATH tournaments and their $26 buy-ins. The higher price brings with it a smaller field and better play than the $11 Mookie (but I still love the Wednesday staple). The Sunday games could turn out to be some of the most interesting though.

And the best part? This starts this Sunday and end in just over a month! No 3 months of slogging through fields. No points-whoring. It’s quick, and you have to win to get in to the ToC.

You really need to be playing these games with us. They’re too much fun, and these prizes are awesome. See you tomorrow?

I still have them.

Easter Sunday, sporting a SMOKIN’ sunburn with convertible seatbelt tanline I head to the parents for dinner. I notice Vegas is absent from the greetings and am told he ate a plant in the backyard that my father had dug up, then threw up a little after. Oh, that crazy Vegas. Always something with him, right? Still, odd for him to not rustle from his bed upon hearing my voice… I went to check on him and find he’s been sick again. Throw out the bedding, clean him up and the cage. He’s got zero energy and just lays on the living room floor. It’s at this point that we begin to wonder… perhaps that plant…?

I grab the iPhone and hit the Googles and then panic. The plant is a Sago Palm – and if you have one, get rid of it immediately. In our case, it was a gift from our landscaper – no one knew how toxic they are to pets and children. Fatality rate ranges around 70%. We took Vegas to the vet immediately, where they were optimistic due to him having done his part on getting it out of his system so quickly, but still cautioned on the roller-coaster ride most people go through with pets who have ingested these plants. Apparently they’re quite common in Houston – vet had just seen 3 cases in the last week. I was too scared to ask the outcome.

I joke that Vegas has a stomach of iron; I’m hoping that he’s also got a liver to match AlCantHang. So far it’s promising – his first blood tests had him in completely normal range, second one today were only a little bit higher but that’s normal given the IVs he’s been on. Took him in for another round of IVs today and he’ll do another round of test tomorrow. Apparently if that comes back normal, he’s good. I imagine I’ll insist on another one just to be sure. I’m pretty much eating Ramen for the next two weeks anyway.

And those fifties? Breaking them on the first beer vendor I see at Minute Maid tonight.

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 402561