Last night was the Teacher of the Year Banquet in Irvine. Given that I am President of the Exchange Club of Irvine (which hosts this event), I had to go. Actually, the event went off very well. The teachers weren't that inebriated this year; the dignitaries all enjoyed the event; it went exactly on schedule; and the Marriott did their customary excellent job. The event will be written up in the Irvine World News, probably next Thursday's edition. We filled the Marriott's ballroom--this event is the largest annual banquet in Irvine--about 1000 people attended.

I have only one more event to host in my run as President (my term ends June 30th). The Senior Scholar Athlete Awards Banquet is Thursday, June 8th at the Irvine Marriott. This event honors the student athletes who have also excelled in academics in the four high schools in the Irvine School District. If you're interested in attending, let me know, and I'll get you ticket information.

---

Real poker is coming for me.

I almost played today. I was going to go to the Bike but my stomach was quite queasy this morning, and I elected to stay home, and relax today. But next Friday I'll be playing at the Bike (most likely; it's possible I'll hit Commerce instead). Then next Sunday I'll be in Las Vegas for a tax seminar; I'll hit the tables on Mother's Day (and probably Monday and Tuesday nights, too). If anyone is in Vegas and wants to catch up with me, let me know.

---

This evening I played in a $27+$2 satellite to the Stars $200+$15 tournament on Sunday (tomorrow). Here are some hands. The humor is in the chat that follows the first hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?326023

Now, I think *everyone* (except the Mrs. Goldmans of the world) would play this hand like I did (or in a very similar fashion). But the short-stacked player that I eliminated went off the deep end:

JLande [observer] said, "oh wow your really good"
JLande [observer] said, "how do you play AA so nicely?"
PassDaMota said, "dude stf"
PassDaMota said, "punk azz kidz"
JLande [observer] said, "wtf? u fking Punk... ****"


I elected to stay quiet; after all, I did go on to win the satellite....

---

Book Update. Why You Lose at Poker is now almost completely in the hands of the publisher. Scott and I will be working on the website over the next two weeks. The galleys are, thankfully, back with Chuck. There is no more tedious, time consuming task than editing the galleys. But let me share a story.

My mother is also a published author. Back around 1967, I remember her sitting on the kitchen table editing the galleys for her second book. Back then, the galleys were ~11" x 17" paper; you had to mark the errors on the galleys. You mailed the galleys back to the publisher. Three months after returning them, you'd get the second set and have to repeat the process. I remember my mother hating it, and dreading the second go-round of the process (one of my earliest childhood memories).

Today, we're lucky that technology has come a long, long way. Scott and I can read the proofs on the pdfs. The process of writing the book to the book going on sale takes under a year. I'm positive it took two to three years for my mother's second book to get on the market.

Oh yes, there will be an excerpt from Why You Lose at Poker in the upcoming edition of ConJelCo's Intelligent Gambler. The book is available for pre-sale on Amazon (click here to pre-order on Amazon); it will also be available from ConJelCo soon (we'll put up the link when it's available). It's so good that you should buy two copies. (Well, I'm a bit biased....)