Annie Duke's Show Flops!

Poker News: Annie Duke Poker Show Goes Bust

Sad, but seemingly true. I was excited that the first sitcom about poker was going to be based on Annie's life, and Annie was going to be played by Janeane Garafolo, but I guess the pilot crashed and burned.

I was also excited because it was a network show, and cableless me needs something to watch other than that ill-conceived Heads Up Poker Tourney on NBC. Maybe I only found it dull as paint because the Poker Prof told us all who won in March?

Nah. It was a silly idea.

When they close down the Poker in NYC, Where does Toby go?

The Taj in Atlantic City, of course. On a whim, I jumped on a bus with the picture-taking Matt, and after checking out BAlly's, we plunked ourselves down at an Omaha hi/lo game for about, oh, well, 5 hours. Then we got dinner, checked out the wait at the Tropicana (far too long), headed back to the Taj, got back on the same Omaha table, and played until 4 am.

We met quite the cast of characters in our hours there, including people I dubbed Mean Fatty Macallister, "I Gotta Go," Mrs. Greenshirt (who, as far as we could tell, played for 12 hours straight without getting up to go to the bathroom, despite the steady stream of White Russians), The Cop, Mr. No-toothy, and more.

Good times, good times.

New York City Poker Clubs Busted

Funnily enough, I was just discussion the legality of the poker clubs on Monday with people at Pauly's going away game, because I've been thinking of taking up dealing both to pick up some extra cash, and also because I thought it would be an interesting way to learn. But now, according to the morning news and Newsday, the NY players club and Playstation were raided. Interesting.

And I thought I would only get arrested for riding my bike!

Update F Train, who was one of the people I was just discussing poker clubs with, has all the links and info on the raids.

So Much Poker, So Little Time Left to Write About It

I missed the first going-away game for Pauly on Saturday, but managed to make it to last night's game at the Blue Parrot with Derek, FTrain, Coach, Julie, and Marie. We played dealer's choice -- and you could call either a single hand of the game or a round -- with lots of Omaha 8 and Razz, which I'd never actually played before. I mainly just folded my Razz hands, I think rightly, but I can't say for sure about that. Anyway, you can't lost money you don't bet, right? Much fun was had (including some very entertaining stacking of a deck and the hammer), and I left with 5 whole dollars more than I started with! Wooo.

Now maybe I can double my money at Pauly's freeroll tonight! Then they'll be no stopping me.

I object, New York Mag: Best Poker Lessons

NY Mag reports that "MIKE SCELZA AND JOHNNY MARINACCI" offer the best poker lessons or classes in New York City. But did they come to one of my classes? They did not! New York Magazine -- why hast thou forsaken me??

So NY Mag, if you are reading -- come to my next class on May 25th at the Baggott Inn 7 PM for a free smackdown lesson.

Interested in coming yourself to my poker classes? Find out more here.

Book Club Poker

So here's a weird and fun experience -- my book club that I've been going to for about 4 years now read my book. And instead of just talking and drinking about the book, we played poker. It was really fun -- and I get to do it again for my mother's book club. That will be interesting -- I'm a "guest author." I think I will be a "guest author" at my parent's apartment, where my old room is the guest room now.

Meanwhile, seriously, Pacific Poker may not let me multitable, but who cares? I just made 91 dollars in 25 minutes. At a 1/2 table. Seriously. Now I've cursed myself by saying that and I'll probably start losing money there now.

In other news, I'm back to the corporate blogging. It cuts down on the energy for good old poker blogging. Rats!

Also, finally: Happy Birthday Pops!

The Bike's are Back in Town!

Yay! I got my bike back this morning. Just in time for... the second half of Bike Month here in NYC. Anyway, I retrieved my bicycle from a mysterious warehouse in Greenpoint, which is naturally located next to a "recycling plant" where they recycle rocks into dirt and gravel. There was a man there watering the rocks as they went through the pulverizing machine. Why? To keep down the dust? To keep his pet rocks from getting too thirsty? The world may never know.

In other news, I finally won 1st for the 1st time in an online multitable tournament -- pot-limit Omaha on Absolute. Yay. The buy-in was only $5, so I didn't win much, (esp. if I break it down to an hourly rate, which I haven't because I don't want to figure it out just how little I earned an hour) but I'm happy to know it's possible for me to get above 3rd in a MTT. It's funny, because I feel like I'm always about to swear off online gambling, but ten minutes ago I signed up at Full Tilt because, I'll take 100% signup bonus. Hey, Free Dummy! And of course, I'm running ok these days online -- and I have to admit, the bonus-chasing is totally helping my bankroll.

Anyway, looks like a fine weekend filled with picnics, parties, and poker. My favorite 3 P words! Yes, I'd rather picnics than pornos. You can have your own 3 Ps, and I'll have mine. Close for fourth: Phooey.

Boston, MA reading

The majority of the people in the audience are family, friends of family, and people from my publishing house, but it was a good experience for me. Since I knew almost everyone, I wasn't nervous, which is saying something, since I once had to literally jump up and down before a poetry reading I had in NY. At the podium. Yes! I'm a crazy poet girl! In a flowered dress even!

Anyway. I read the chapter, "Playing the Dumb Blonde," because it had the most narrative flow and the least lingo, then I took questions. All in all, it was over in an hour.

The radio show was fine too -- I hate the sound of my own voice, but my pops did a good job of making me appear like less of a moron than I am.

The hardest for me to deal with was the TV show -- I haven't been on TV since I was 8 years old, and I didn't have a speaking role then. Since all the Divas who Dine show no evidence of actually dining, I looked fat in comparison. I know I'm not fat, but I felt relatively fat. I don't know. It was weird. I haven't watched it again, but undoubtably once I get my hands on the DVD copy my parents have burned for me, I will watch it repeatedly and focus on every flaw and stutter and so on. My favorite personal moment that they kept in was a showdown where I declared one woman had "nothing" and the other woman won with a pair of sixes, like I can hardly believe it. It was funny.

Meanwhile, I've been playing lately at Absolute and Pacific. I hate the software at pacific, esp. the fact that you can't multitable, but their tables are so easy (especially Omaha) and their bonuses, esp. the refer-a-friend, is lovely. $100 bonus just for getting someone to deposit any amount? Sweet. Thanks my 2 friends who signed up! I've almost cleared it all and soon you will have your thank you drinks!

Busy, Crazy, Lazy

A combination of things has made it hard to post. My friend is out of the ICU and out of the hospital, which is great. I also ended up "tied up" on Friday as part of this story. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about it, so I'm wary of posting more. Let's just say it was a jailarious Friday night.

In the lamest possible excuse for a post, here's what I'm doing this weekend:

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Upcoming Bookstore Appearance
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My first reading is this Friday, May 6th in Boston. I'm looking forward to it and hoping I can maintain my Badass cool in the face of my Dumbass stage fright. A few friendly faces in the audience would help.

The reading/discussion will take place:

May 6, 2005 7:00 PM

Borders
300 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone: 617.630.1120

*Upcoming Readings in June*

June 9th, 7 PM --- Borders, Rockaway, NJ
June 23rd, 8 PM -- Borders, Syosset, NY


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Hear Toby on All Mixed Up on WBAI, 99.5 FM, Saturday 5-7 PM
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I can't say it any better than the listing from Time Out NY:

"Host Peter Bochan welcomes his daughter Toby--author of the recently published Badass Girl's Guide to Poker--who will make yet another attempt to explain the rules of Texas Hold'em to her old man. She also plans to shamelessly flog her appearance on the Discovery Home Channel Program Party Girl tonight at 8pm. Gambling-themed songs by artists ranging from Wilco to Madonna round out the show."

As for the nepotism, well, at least we Bochans are upfront and honest about it.

Even if you're not in NYC, you can listen to the live web stream!

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See Toby Teach the Divas Who Dine on Discovery Home's Party Girl
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Here's more shameless flogging. May 7th at 8 PM, the show I was lucky enough to be part of is airing. I haven't seen it either, so I have no idea how much I end up in it, but it I had a great time shooting it and it should be a fun show. According to the host of the show, Cathy Riva, I'm "in it tons." Sweet.

Have a life and no TiVo that will prevent you from watching? It's on again at 11 pm and then Sunday at 7 am, noon, and 3 PM.

Now back to "work."