hurricane magnet

So I heard this morning on the radio that the New Orleans evacuees who are in the Astrodome are being evacuated out of Houston because of the new hurricane. I gotta wonder who the hell is going to take those people. Apparently one of them has pissed off Mother Nature and she's not giving up until this thing is settled.

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H. H. Kramer was one of the origional members of the little chess club we were running here in town. The guy insisted that everyone call him Kramer. He was a marginal, but capable, chess player and a very eclectic guy. Every week he'd show up with something to hand out. One week it was body building books from the 60's ...which was a little odd as the guy is in his sixties, about five foot 3 and maybe 130 lbs. He'd offer magazines, books, and occassionally some bizarre hand carved chess sets. About every month he'd take up a collection and head to New England where he knew where to score black market chess clocks. WTF, black market chess clocks ?

So after a while, someone finally asked, " Hey Kramer...what's the H.H. stand for ?" to which he replied... " Nothing...it's just Kramer." So we started trying to speculate what the heck his name was. It got bad enough that I checked the county's tax roles to find out. In the tax book, he is listed as...H. H. Kramer. " What the hell could it be ?" we wondered. The best would could come up with was Herbert Hoover, although Heil Hitler had been considered a front runner for a while.

Finally someone came up with the idea of calling his house. We'd call until we got his wife then ask her, " Hello Mrs. Kramer, is your husband home ?" Luckily she answered on the first try...." Hello Mrs. Kramer, is your husband home ?", " Why yes he is" she replied, then yelled to him from across the house, " KRAMER, THE PHONE IS FOR YOU !"

7 years later, it remains a mystery.

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Mike Matasow is insane. Well, at the very least he's troubled.

He's a professional poker player best knows for having an emotional meltdown on ESPN at the 2004 World Series of Poker.

After that event he spent 6 months in jail. Someone he played poker with kept asking him if he could score coke. After being badgered over and over, he made a couple of calls and got the guy a little bit of coke to get the guy off his back. Turns out the guy was an undercover cop. The charges were bullshit, and he was told that all they wanted was the guy whole sold him the coke and that they would let him go. He refused to give up the name and got 6 months for some watered down crap.

Anyway, he got out just before this years WSOP and tore it up finishing at the final table and winning a million bucks. In the post event interview he stated that he had no respect for money, that he already owed a bunch of his winnings and the rest he'd probably blow on sports betting. He said he loved the action and it was eventually all going to end very badly. Sure enough, a month later he was online asking for other pros to front him some cash. As he had explained, he was among the best players in the world and there would always be someone to pay his entry, or at worst, mortgage his house.

Anyway, last night he was 5th overall at the Borgota Open in Atlantic City, which is amazing considering that there were hundreds of entrants. At 8:00 pm were 48 players left and they pay 45 deep. Matasow could have, literally, gotten up from the table, walked to the airport, gotten on a plane, and still made a decent payday just letting his chip lay on the table. At worst, he could have just bullied the short stacks and stayed away from the other dangerous players for a couple of hands and he was assurred of $10,000...with the winner getting over a million.

Instead, Matasow went right after the third placed player with a vengence. Finally the 3rd placed player calls him and the flop comes Ah, 4h, 4s. The other player checks, Matasow bets, and the guy raises to $75,000. This is the guy announcing, " I HAVE GOOD CARDS". Any reasonable player walks away from that scenario...Matsow called. The next card falls and it's a king of hearts. For the non poker players I'll explain that the board is threatening 3 of a kind, a full house, and a massive flush. At the very least, Matasow with his pair of Ace - Nine has to fear that the other guy has an ace with a face card. The fire bells are ringing..." GET OUT GET OUT" ....Mattasow pushed all of his $300,000 into the middle of the table. The other player had both a 4 AND the flush.

Mike Matasow is on a plane this morning, going home to Vegas.

Just like he wanted.