I won’t write about the Main Event until it starts to air on ESPN. I had no idea how many people don’t want to know anything until they see it on TV until I went to my home game last week. With my work day starting at 4:00 am during the WSOP and not ending until after 6:00pm, I just couldn’t manage my Wednesday night poker fix. I was so happy to be returning to the game. But when I walked into the room, half the people said, “Oh no, she’s here.” “Don’t talk to me” “I hope you don’t sit at my table.” huh? Everyone was afraid I’d just blab about the WSOP all night long (which had been my plan) and they just didn’t want to know.

Once we settled on a spoiler-free night, a good time (as always) was had by all. We did talk a little about the WSOP because one of the guys had gone to Vegas to play – and money – in his first WSOP event. Although he’s played poker a lot of years now, he said he was really nervous in the early going. But the first flop he saw was three aces – and he held the fourth. It turns out that quad aces can really settle your nerves (I’ll have to remember that). In the home game, I managed an early bust out in the bounty tournament which got me some serious time in the cash game. I’m not sure why they play no limit Omaha hi/lo – but I’m sure glad they do.

I got a press release from the WPT saying that they had signed on with Fox Sports for the upcoming season. I looked for what they were getting as a licensing fee per episode, but couldn’t find it in the release. I also looked on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website. No mention of money. My guess is the WPT might get a cut of the ad money, but FSN is not upchucking the buck for the shows. This is great for a few groups – its good for the players that will still get some air time and potentially some sponsorship dough – its good for the casinos that will get more pros because of TV – and its good for Steve Lipscomb who will still be able to draw down a salary for the next year. It pretty much sucks for WPT’s shareholders, however. I suspect the WPT is using its US TV brand name as sort of a loss leader – but since their online money business doesn’t operate in the US, it’s a little less compelling of an idea. And I doubt their subscription business can pull up the slack created by their production costs. Ah well. One more season at least.

One of the reasons I haven’t written in awhile is because of my ridiculous schedule during the WSOP. The other reason was Sammy. It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about how Sammy would wake me up like clockwork to put in my WSOP recap shift. Except one morning – just days after I wrote about it – he didn’t. It seems poor Sammy’s kidneys were failing – his little body just started to shut down. I so wanted more time with the seven toed wonder, but in the end, I couldn’t let him suffer. So I had to put my furry friend down.

Sammy defied the odds for a long time. They say it takes a village to raise a child- well it took a neighborhood to raise Sammy. He was twice abandoned before the neighbors on my street saw to his care. He was also adopted by another stray cat in the neighborhood who protected Sammy. But when his stray pal died, Sammy was more vulnerable living outside. He was also diagnosed with FIV. At that point, now five years ago, I took him in. Sammy was not like any cat I had before him; he loved company. There was nothing aloof about Sammy – he gave and received attention unconditionally. Weeks later, I’m still heartbroken.

Work has actually been a good distraction. And strangely enough, I’m finding a lot in common between the poker and investment worlds. Our new office building is currently being renovated and our temporary space has one shared bathroom. While there is rarely competition for use – on the rare occasion that more than one person is vying for the travertine palace’s throne, Roshambo is the accepted method for dispute resolution. I think I’ll try rock today.