Pauly's got his groove back

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you may have noticed that the 2006 World Series of Poker kicked off yesterday. That means a lot of things. It means that dream will be made, hearts will be broken, hookers will be double-jointed, Otis will fall at some point.

But more importantly, it means that the muthafuckin’ master is back where he does his best work. Pauly is again covering the WSOP from Tao of Poker, and if you don’t check that shit out every single day, then you ain’t reading the real shit.

Here’s a brief sample of why the big media locked in exclusive deals for WSOP live internet coverage, because they don’t have ANYBODY that can hang with the finest poker writer working today. Period.

But I'm not. I'm in Las Vegas for a second year in a row covering the biggest event ever in the history of poker. I want to be at the Rio everyday and tell you what I see, hear, and smell. I'm not going to sugar-coat the poker coverage and tell you how awesome it is to be at the WSOP. I'm not going to write 2,500 words on how cool it is to see Gus Hansen and Jen Harman and Annie Duke play poker. They are degenerate gamblers just like you and me. They happen to be better at it than us but that doesn't make them rockstars and Gods among peasants.Poker is a dark and ugly entity. The media has created an aura of nebulous sanctimony and the masses are flocking to it like it's the cure for the void that they have in their sad and empty lives. I should know. I fell for it too. For most of my life I was empty and sad. Poker was the light at the end of the tunnel. I bought the bullshit like everyone else. But unlike you, I got to see behind the scenes of the poker world for the last year. I peeked behind the curtain and saw the great and powerful Oz. And he's not great, nor powerful.Poker is an old dirty whore. Poker is a $10 crack rock. Poker is an illusion and a momentary distraction from the harsh world that we live in.Instead of asking ourselves the real questions and seeking out real answers, we're hiding from the repulsive truths of this world. There are twenty-one year old internet pros making six figures a year while kids their age are getting limbs blown off by roadside bombs in Baghdad. Tell me how important poker is to our troops overseas? A coinflip to them is not 7-7 vs. A-J. Their races and coinflips are life vs. death.

That, my friends, is the man who inspired me to start writing again after a ten-year hiatus. Now bookmark his shit. Cause it just doesn’t get any better.

Tags: WSOP, Tao of Pauly