Chrysler employee wins WSOP event

There is at least one lucky person who works for an American car company. Chrysler employee Ray Foley won a World Series of Poker event last week in dramatic fashion.

Numerous times during heads-up play, Cantu had Foley on the ropes. All-in and behind for his tournament life, Foley hit the cards he needed to keep his dream alive. Foley will never forget two hands during heads-up play: The first was a split pot in which he was holding A-7 versus Cantu's A-Q (8-8-5-6-5) and the second was when he hit a two-outer on the turn with 10-10 versus Cantu's K-7 (after Cantu hit a king on the flop). It just wasn't meant to be Cantu's night.

Foley's haul?

$657,969.

Not bad.

Online poker

In the New York Times magazine there was a really interesting first-person account of a mom whose son becomes consumed with online poker. I don't want to give anything away, but it is definitely worth a read.

So go read it.

Obama speaking at Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner

Before John Hodgman went up and analyzed whether or not Barack Obama is really our first nerd president (video here), Barack Obama went up and cracked some jokes as well.

World Series of Poker through the eyes of Doyle Brunson

I am always intrigued by seeing poker on TV. About half of my friends are the types who will talk about the latest developments in the World Series of Poker while the other half can't change the channel fast enough if they change to ESPN2 while the WSOP is on (which seemingly is every day).

ESPN.com has an article on Doyle Brunson "the only legend."

Brunson won two WSOP main event titles, back in the 1970s, and has ten overall bracelets. And he thinks he could have even more.

Focused on cash games, not recognizing the value that would one day be placed on bracelets, Brunson failed to win one from 1979 to 1991, opting only to play in the main event and 2-7 lowball championship each year. "I never did play in many tournaments," Brunson admits. "A guy like Phil Hellmuth has played three times as many tournaments as I have. I have no idea how many bracelets I'd have today, but obviously it would be more. I didn't pick a couple of mine up because I had so many. I'd given a bunch to family members and didn't think it was worth it to go get them."

An interesting read.

Friday night links

So you're stuck in at your house on a Friday night, nothing to do? Here are some interesting links for you to look at while you drink your Bud Light Lime by yourself while listening to Coast to Coast AM.

• Lo-fi Sci-Fi
  
  Some of the coolest science fiction covers you'll ever see (example to the right) are from Orion books. And Creative Review took a look at some of them. It's times like this that I wish I had any sort of artistic ability. But, alas, I do not.


• Scientists put psychic's paranormal claims to the test
  
  Via Bad Astronomy... again.
  
  Do you have paranormal abilities? If you do then you can win a million dollars, provided you can prove it in a scientifically viable way. A Guardian article looks at professional medium Patricia Putt trying to win the million dollars from the Randi Educational Foundation.


• Lesser-known poker hands
  
  I have no idea the point of this, but if you like poker than you might enjoy this. Then again, you might not. But the tags on the post ("poker, I hardly know her") reminds of 1) someone I went to college with and 2) This Psych episode.


• Obama welcomes Phillies to Washington
  
  The 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies got to meet the new President in the White House. How much more excited do you think they are to see Obama than they would have been to visit George W. Bush?