I played the nlhe shootout to match play. I had about T2600 in the fast structure (20 min levels, blinds doubling) when I lost half my stack with A5 to KT and then lost the other half with 88 to KJ. Gerdog was the beneficiary and won bustout prize #1 (a Mighty Ducks foam hockey puck).

Congratulations to ADB Jester (Jeff Woods). Only half of him showed up at BARGE...he lost a ton of weight and looks great. So does Bob Ogus who also lost a ton of weight. Jester said that he lost weight by playing online poker on his treadmill....

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Ted Stevens was indicted today on corruption charges. The Alaska Republican Senator was one of the biggest porkers in the Senate, and was the originator of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere."

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There's been a big breakthrough in LED (light emitting diode) technology at my father's alma mater, Purdue University. According to this report, Purdue scientists have discovered a method to produce LED solid-state lights on regular silicon wafers. This should reduce costs dramatically. And since LED's are far, far more efficient in converting electricity into light this could have a tremendous impact on electricity usage in the United States. I'd expect this to take three to five years to actually be available in commercial production but this probably spells the long-term end of CFLs.

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Tomorrow at BARGE: I'm not playing the lowball. I will be picking up Oscar tomorrow morning at McCarren, and attending the Ethiopian dinner. Who knows what's in between. I do know how my day will start: a conference call with a client at 6am PDT. And yes, he will be paying me for that hour....

I had only 413 emails to look at tonight....

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Yesterday was day one of my pre-BARGE activities. I played some nlhe at the Venetian with Adam and Bob Ogus. That wasn't successful. We donked it up at the Orleans and played some ll O8 (I won $17)....Had dinner at the Oyster Bar with Schmengie, Sabyl, Omaholic, Rick M., and the Stine brothers.

This morning was the chip fondle followed by the Venetian nooner tournament. There were 145 runners; I finished about 60th. Not a good day there: Lost with 55 to Q7 (board rivered two pair to counterfeit me), followed by losing with AKs to AQo (Q on flop).

Had dinner with Nick C at a very nice Greek restaurant somewhere on Sahara near Summerlin. The place was empty but the food was very good.

Tomorrow I may again hit the Venetian noon tournament. It's a good tournament, and I love the structure.

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I've been researching the tax policies of Obama and McCain for a series I'll be running in my tax blog after my vacation. As I told Nick this evening I'm unimpressed with both candidates' tax policies, and solely from a tax viewpoint and solely based on their own stated policies (and not that of their parties) it's a choice between the lesser of two bads.

There are several scare emails making the rounds about Obama's tax policies. They state that he wants to bring back the old inheritance tax, and generally raise taxes to very high levels. I think Snopes has some posts debunking them, and I'll add that they are (in part) false. However, the problem comes not from Obama but from Charlie Rangel, chair of the House Ways & Means Committee. He'd like to really, really, really increase taxes. And I don't see a President Obama vetoing legislation from Rangel.

So this does bring up another legitimate issue. If you add up the dollar costs of all the programs that Obama has personally advocated it comes up to somewhere between $700 billion and $1 trillion. There's no way that can be paid for without additional taxes -- or not having all of those programs (or some combination thereof).

I'm not sure where this is taking me but I will post factual critiques of Obama and McCain's tax plans. The short version: neither candidate's proposals are good. You'll have to wait for the posts in mid-August on my tax blog for the long version.