Is that your dorsal fin or are you just happy to see us? — Overheard at the office on Halloween.

While the boss dressed up as a man getting eaten by a shark, most of the rest of the office dressed up as the boss. It turns out that making fun of the boss was a good stress reliever after a near-cataclysmic month in the market – well for everyone except maybe the boss.

I had a personal best for Halloween this year. I got 160 kids before I had to shut off the lights at 8:25 pm. My favorite costume was worn by three teenage girls: they came as rock-paper-scissors. I’m so glad we got to turn back the clock this weekend – I really needed the extra hour. Although the down side is that all morning long, I’ve had Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” in my head and it’s really freaking me out. Now if I could talk them into turning back the clock say 240 hours I might get caught up.

I was able to sneak in one poker indulgence this week. I spent an hour on Rounder’s Radio with Lou Krieger. I had to give up the weekly show with Lou when my schedule got overloaded, but I still need my fix once in awhile. We generally don’t plan ahead much -we just kind of let it flow. This week we talked about the lack of mainstream promotion and sponsorships for the November Nine –the benefit to the players was used as a justification for moving the final table. We also talked about how Russ Hamilton not only bilked amateurs out of their money – he apparently targeted his poker pro “friends”. He’d call them on the phone to set up heads-up matches, he’d transfer money to their UB accounts which they then paid him in cash for, and then he’d cheat them. So not only did he cheat his friends out of millions, he used them to unwittingly launder his money. At least that’s the scuttelbutt. If anyone wondered why his accounts transferred so much money to other, seeminly unrelated, accounts – that could be why.

We also got a listener question about how I felt about Tiffany Michelle’s behavior during the WSOP and whether I thought she was good for women and poker. This question was sort of hard for me. I’ve worked with Tiffany (picture swiped from PokerNews) many times, including our seven week stint at the 2006 WSOP. Personally I always liked Tiffany – she was always very laid back, had a great sense of humor, and gave terrific backrubs. But reading the accounts of the WSOP this year, and then watching the TV coverage – albeit highly edited – I was a little disappointed. I’d never seen Tiffany’s snarky side, although I guess I might get a little snarky down the homestretch of one of the biggest tournaments in history. Stress and pressure rarely inspire our best behavior. And while she was able to amass a big stack by playing a little fast and loose in the middle of the event, I was sorry she wasn’t able to ratchet that back in the later stages. But then again, she finished 17th and I didn’t play a hand – so take that for all it’s worth. And 17th totally rocks, make no mistake about it.

I guess my biggest disappointment with Tiffany was her ill-advised UB sponsorship. With everything that was known about the UB situation at the time, I found this to be an unfortunate choice.

And just as a side note, I’m not sure I would use any of the available poker agents out there to represent me. Truth be told, individual players can negotiate as good a deal for themselves directly with the online sites, without having to pay an agent’s cut. And for mainstream endorsements, players are much better off securing the services of a mainstream agency.

Rounders Radio is also conducting a poll to see which poker player you’d like to see as president. During the show, a Mike Matusow supporter called in. Lou Krieger, one of the polls “candidates” threw his support Matusow’s way – but was lobbying for Pamela Anderson as Mike’s running mate. Luckily we ran out of time before we could delve into a Palin (photoshop hoax) vs. Pammy (all her pictures are way too scary) debate.

I’ve been trying not to obsess about the election, but once I got my early voting out of the way, my obsession actually grew. But I have a good outlet for Election Night. I’ll be heading over to Professor Galbraith’s for the festivities. Since graduating, I’ve had to rely on media outlets to see my professors. Galbraith was recently on Bill Moyers discussing the economy and his new book, The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. I was also tickled to see Professor Black as the “star” of this video on the Keating Five produced by the Obama folks. Black’s book, The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry not only offers an interesting look back at what we assumed would be the biggest post-Depression banking regulatory failure of our time, but it also offers an interesting lens with which to view our current, and avoidable, failure.