The Kid

Let us get right to the big news of the day:

Season premiere of The O.C. tonight!

If you're not watching the Greatest Show in the History of Television, then you are...well...not a teenage girl. I'm not technically a teenage girl, either, but I play one on the internet.

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I'm also excited about a new program on the Fall Schedule, "Bobby and Joe go to Las Vegas," premiering this weekend. Join our heroes as they evaluate porn slappers, comment on the hygeine and wardrobe of others and re-raise some douchebags.

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Enjoyably dropped two buy-ins at the Blogger NL table last night. It's possible I may have over-played AJ once or twice. 'Course I also snapped off Iggy's hammer with it once, earning scorn. helixx and I titled The Blogfather by talking about Celine Dion and the time my buddy Salk had sex with a girl who had a stump where her left arm should have been.

Congrats to doubleas for securing a WCOOP seat in a cash qualifier last night and Chad, who got a seat in a Round II satellite in PLO.

Seriously, a guy logs onto the computer to fetch some Czech fetish porn and ends up with a 20-person chat conference, a blogger table and 11 Stars windows open sweating various players. I need like six new monitors and another set of limbs to keep up with you people.

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Actually what I was gonna do online last night was write my impressions of "One of a Kind," the Stuey Ungar bio. I guess now will do.

All I'd ever known about Stuey was what I've read recently, advances for the book. I don't have any historical poker background due to my relative newness to the game. I knew his titles and reputation, but no nuts and bolts. I like nuts and bolts.

It was, without a doubt, a fascinating life and his upbringing made his path a fait accompli. His disregard for money is part of what made him a champion, but it's also what predicated his downfall. Stuey was the ultimate action junkie and the consequences be damned.

The book doesn't sugarcoat his addictions, even amplifies them, though all the while maintaining what a gregarious and generous person he could be. The words from Stuey himself--the book initially began as an autobiography project--serve as an excellent guide to his thoughts and motivations. How his goal was not only to win but to humiliate his opponents, a trait that cost him a lot of potential money since it was beyond him to sandbag or hustle his marks.

His friends remained legion, bailing him out whenever they could. They are complimentary to this day, despite being burned by his behavior on many occassions. He could not have been an easy man to live with, but was, apparently, an easy man to love.

The description of his poker exploits are incredible, will have you shaking your head at his remarkable abilities. So too, will you marvel at how easily he seems to destroy the good in his life.

The pictures are shocking, showing the transformation from his impish youth to a broken down degenerate in just a few years time. Oh yeah, and his wife and daughter are smokin'.

It's a quick read. Took me parts of just two days. A wild ride, to be sure, and in the end, a cautionary tale, a glimpse of what might have been had he managed to keep himself together.