We Love Katamari (until it hurts)
Not much in the way of poker play to relate today, as we spent the weekend celebrating my youngest son's birthday, complete with bowling party. Then, it was back home to play with toys all day Saturday. And that's where my subject line comes in to play.
When it comes to children's birthdays, I have adopted a strategy which my parents used, which is that when one has a birthday, the other also gets a token gift. That keeps everybody happy and minimizes the fights over new presents. So, this weekend turned into a video game holiday, with the birthday boy getting a Nintendo DS, while my oldest son got "We Love Katamari," the sequel to "Katamari Damacy." Now, if you haven't played "Katamari Damacy" before, you probably won't understand, because it sounds so damned stupid. But it is probably the singlemost addictive game, ever. Basically, it involves rolling stuff up into a ball. That's it. You have a ball, you roll it onto other stuff, the other stuff sticks to the ball, rinse, repeat. That's it for the gameplay. Of course, the stuff you roll up can't be bigger than your ball, or else it won't stick. And you're usually trying to roll up enough stuff to get your ball a certain size before time runs out. But yeah, it's a whole rolling-stuff-up-in-a-ball game. It's very, very simple, but it's also somewhat challenging, and that's what makes it so addictive. You're playing, thinking the task before you should be so easy to accomplish, and then you fail, so you play again, and again, and again, and then it's 3:00 in the morning and you know you have to get up and go to work the next day, but you just want to finish this game, no wait, one more.
Anyway, I woke up this morning with a blister on my thumb roughly the shape of Georgia, but thankfully only as large as a small county. Unfortunately, this is also the same thumb I attempted to sever the other night. I was making a salad, saw we were out of ham (well, non-rancid ham, anyway), and I think that subconciously I must have decided to substitute with thumb instead, as I proceeded to slice the very tip of my thumb about halfway off. Not a cut, a failed amputation. I've not tried yet, because it would hurt like a bitch if I did, but I'm thinking that if I held it out the window while driving really fast, it would probably attract all dogs within a mile radius by functioning as a veritable wound-whistle.
So, between the blister and dangling flesh, my thumb is throbbing and very sore, not to mention uber sensitive. I don't have to actually touch anything, all I have to do is get near something and it hurts. I'm thinking of renting it out to geologists, as I'm fairly certain that it can detect subtle variations in the earth's magnetic field.
But, enough whiny stuff. I think I've got it out of my system now.
No, wait, I forgot. I could talk about my play at the poker tables, which has, since my last writing, taken on an uncanny resemblence to demolition derby (crashing, burning, self-destruction). But, unlike my thumb, I'm thinking (hoping, praying) that I've stopped the bleeding in my game and can hopefully get back on a roll.
Definitely enough whiny stuff. How about some poker news?
If, like me, you've been wondering what in the hell happened to to the World Poker Tour's offshoot Professional Poker Tour and why it hasn't been on TV yet instead of all the damned WPT repeats, here's part of the answer:
In case you're wondering which "other broadcast network" is being referenced, it's ESPN.
And you know how you hear a story and you think, "Dear God, that's the weirdest thing I've ever heard related to poker," and for a while it is? But then, just when you are growing comfortable in the notion of possessing knowledge of the weirdest poker story, something else comes along and blows it away? Here's that something else:
Yeah, the weirdness doesn't stop there. When you sign up, you get a profile page, which in and of itself isn't all that unusual, except that you're asked to list your death date and a "mortography" (mine says, "shot by a jealous husband"). In fact, they're all about the death thing.
Other than that, however, the site looks nice. I keep looking for a real-money hook, but haven't found it yet. It looks like it truly is just a play-money site. The graphics are pretty cool, as they've used models to create actual photograph avatars, and you get to pick your own. I will gripe that none of them looked sufficiently evil enough to fit my evilbilly moniker, but really, the only one I've ever seen that does is that clown at Full Tilt Poker.
When it comes to children's birthdays, I have adopted a strategy which my parents used, which is that when one has a birthday, the other also gets a token gift. That keeps everybody happy and minimizes the fights over new presents. So, this weekend turned into a video game holiday, with the birthday boy getting a Nintendo DS, while my oldest son got "We Love Katamari," the sequel to "Katamari Damacy." Now, if you haven't played "Katamari Damacy" before, you probably won't understand, because it sounds so damned stupid. But it is probably the singlemost addictive game, ever. Basically, it involves rolling stuff up into a ball. That's it. You have a ball, you roll it onto other stuff, the other stuff sticks to the ball, rinse, repeat. That's it for the gameplay. Of course, the stuff you roll up can't be bigger than your ball, or else it won't stick. And you're usually trying to roll up enough stuff to get your ball a certain size before time runs out. But yeah, it's a whole rolling-stuff-up-in-a-ball game. It's very, very simple, but it's also somewhat challenging, and that's what makes it so addictive. You're playing, thinking the task before you should be so easy to accomplish, and then you fail, so you play again, and again, and again, and then it's 3:00 in the morning and you know you have to get up and go to work the next day, but you just want to finish this game, no wait, one more.
Anyway, I woke up this morning with a blister on my thumb roughly the shape of Georgia, but thankfully only as large as a small county. Unfortunately, this is also the same thumb I attempted to sever the other night. I was making a salad, saw we were out of ham (well, non-rancid ham, anyway), and I think that subconciously I must have decided to substitute with thumb instead, as I proceeded to slice the very tip of my thumb about halfway off. Not a cut, a failed amputation. I've not tried yet, because it would hurt like a bitch if I did, but I'm thinking that if I held it out the window while driving really fast, it would probably attract all dogs within a mile radius by functioning as a veritable wound-whistle.
So, between the blister and dangling flesh, my thumb is throbbing and very sore, not to mention uber sensitive. I don't have to actually touch anything, all I have to do is get near something and it hurts. I'm thinking of renting it out to geologists, as I'm fairly certain that it can detect subtle variations in the earth's magnetic field.
But, enough whiny stuff. I think I've got it out of my system now.
No, wait, I forgot. I could talk about my play at the poker tables, which has, since my last writing, taken on an uncanny resemblence to demolition derby (crashing, burning, self-destruction). But, unlike my thumb, I'm thinking (hoping, praying) that I've stopped the bleeding in my game and can hopefully get back on a roll.
Definitely enough whiny stuff. How about some poker news?
If, like me, you've been wondering what in the hell happened to to the World Poker Tour's offshoot Professional Poker Tour and why it hasn't been on TV yet instead of all the damned WPT repeats, here's part of the answer:
WPT Enterprises in Dispute With the Travel Channel Over the Professional Poker Tour
LOS ANGELES -- WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE) filed suit in the California Superior Court on Monday, September 19, seeking to keep the Travel Channel ("TRV") from interfering with WPTE's prospective contractual relationship with another broadcaster in connection with WPTE's new program, the Professional Poker Tour (the "PPT").
Under an existing agreement between WPTE and TRV for the World Poker Tour program (the "WPT Agreement"), TRV is afforded the right to negotiate with WPTE with respect to certain types of programming developed by WPTE during a sixty (60) day period. Pursuant to the WPT Agreement, WPTE submitted the PPT to TRV and began negotiation but failed to reach an agreement with TRV within the allotted negotiation window. Consequently, WPTE began discussions with other networks. While WPTE and TRV later revived their attempts to reach a deal after TRV's exclusive bargaining window had ended, WPTE ultimately received an offer from another network. WPTE submitted this offer to TRV pursuant to TRV's contractual last right to match the deal as specified under the WPT Agreement. Thereafter, TRV sent letters to WPTE and the other broadcaster asserting, among other things, that WPTE was not entitled to complete a deal for the PPT with a third party.
In response to TRV's communications, WPTE filed a suit alleging that TRV interfered with WPTE's prospective contractual relationship with a third party as well as attempted to contravene WPTE's express contractual right to produce non-World Poker Tour branded programs covering poker tournaments.
WPTE and TRV have worked closely for three seasons delivering quality poker television under the World Poker Tour brand. Steven Lipscomb, Founder and CEO of WPT Enterprises, Inc., said "We have forged a strong relationship with the Travel Channel over the last three years and are in the middle of producing Season IV of the World Poker Tour, the most successful show in the history of the Travel Channel." Lipscomb further said, "We need to be very clear that this dispute is not about either side's commitment to further building the WPT franchise together. This is simply an issue of process and contractual interpretation with regard to the new Professional Poker Tour program."
TRV's fifteen (15) day right to match the deal expires Tuesday, September 27th. If TRV does not exercise its right to match by that date, WPTE intends to sign a PPT deal with the other broadcast network.
In case you're wondering which "other broadcast network" is being referenced, it's ESPN.
And you know how you hear a story and you think, "Dear God, that's the weirdest thing I've ever heard related to poker," and for a while it is? But then, just when you are growing comfortable in the notion of possessing knowledge of the weirdest poker story, something else comes along and blows it away? Here's that something else:
Dead Man's Estate Funds Free Online Poker Site; Eccentric Millionaire Goes ''All In'' One Last Time
LOS ANGELES -- Today LastCallPoker.com (www.LastCallPoker.com) a free Texas Hold' Em Web site designed and funded by deceased millionaire, Lionel "Lucky" Brown was launched on the Internet. Last Call Poker uses the web's most sophisticated poker system, featuring a no-download Flash engine, an in-game chat system, and a level of graphic design and interactivity unmatched in the online games industry.
Brown, upon his death, willed five million dollars of his fortune to the creation of LastCallPoker.com to facilitate the development and maintenance of this online game site. Lucky Brown always said that a hand of poker he won at the end of the War gave him the seed money for his fortune.
As his final resting place has been kept secret, an undisclosed amount of money has been set aside for "wakes" to be held in cemeteries nationwide where poker fans will play Tombstone Hold 'Em, a poker variant Brown invented while serving in Europe at the end of World War II. Graveyard Games are currently scheduled for cemeteries in San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and others to be announced. Rules for Tombstone Hold 'Em and a calendar of events can be found at www.LastCallPoker.com.
Yeah, the weirdness doesn't stop there. When you sign up, you get a profile page, which in and of itself isn't all that unusual, except that you're asked to list your death date and a "mortography" (mine says, "shot by a jealous husband"). In fact, they're all about the death thing.
Other than that, however, the site looks nice. I keep looking for a real-money hook, but haven't found it yet. It looks like it truly is just a play-money site. The graphics are pretty cool, as they've used models to create actual photograph avatars, and you get to pick your own. I will gripe that none of them looked sufficiently evil enough to fit my evilbilly moniker, but really, the only one I've ever seen that does is that clown at Full Tilt Poker.
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There's more going on at Last Call Poker than just poker, methinks. Haven't you noticed that everyone is dead?
We're trying to solve the mystery at Unfiction and can always use some help. Plus, it's more fun to play poker with friends. Come on over and introduce yourself. ;-)
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