DOYLEISM OF THE DAY: “Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.”

I got to play in a big cash game in L.A. last week. It was a bunch of fun guys (rich, too) and I really enjoyed it. One of the regulars was a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen for 35 years. He didn’t have two nickels to rub together when I knew him and now he has hundreds of millions. I’d say that is a pretty good success story. I played twice winning one time and losing once.

When I got to the house the game is played in, I couldn’t believe it. It was 5 stories high on the top of a mountain overlooking the city. The lift was broken and I climbed the five stories of marble stairways with my crutch. My legs and knees are so sore I have trouble sleeping at nights. I’m not going back until the lift is fixed.

At the top of the house where the game is sits a piano.  It was Nat King Cole’s instrument and I sat down and played a song my mom taught me when I was six years old. I didn’t know I could play anything besides chopsticks. Yep, me and Nat.

Every time I fly I think about how unfair our system is. I usually get a wheelchair to ride to my gate because of my bad leg. Every single time, because I have a metal implant in my shoulder and set off the alarm, I go through an intensive search that takes a long time because not only do they shake me down completely, they go over the chair with a fine tooth comb. I suppose it’s necessary but it seems a little extreme. The funny part is that almost all of the security guards must be poker fans and they recognize me. However it doesn’t keep them from being very thorough on their final examination. I even have to take my shoes and belt off along with the usual stuff. I guess it’s better safe than sorry though.

My publicist, Lara Miller, sold everything she owned except what she could carry in a backpack. She left her business and embarked on a 3-4 year journey around the world. She is currently in India and she regularly blogs and sends tweets about her trip. She has a $14 a day budget and plans on hitchhiking across Asia and Europe. I can’t imagine all the dangers she is going to encounter doing that. But, she is determined to do so even after I tried to talk her out of it. Can you just imagine an attractive 34 year old woman hitchhiking across some of those countries? I told her the only way she could possibly not get raped is to carry cards in every language and give them out at the opportune moment. The card would say, “Go ahead, but I have aids.”  That might save her but I really fear for what could happen, being all alone in foreign countries.

I just got a tweet from Lara saying she is having a great time. She says the only poker players the folks in India know are “texdolly” and the “unabomber”. Can you imagine that? The world is a funny place.

Someone sent me an e-mail about the World’s Shortest Books. I thought some of them were very funny so I tweeted a few of them on Twitter. The response was amazing. I got hundreds and hundreds of humorous jokes about short books. I retweeted the ones I thought were the best and they just kept coming and I kept retweeting them. I had 346,000 followers when I started and I lost 900 of them because they didn’t like it because of the volume. After two days of travel and no tweets, I’m back to 345,500. The one that I received the most was “Humility” by Phil Hellmuth. My favorite was “Different ways to comb your hair” by Doyle Brunson.

I’m almost through with my seven implants (yeaaah-). It’s time to make my way to Montana for a relaxing time with my dogs and my family. I’m gonna beat Todd at the shooting range this time. Adios 110 degree weather, hello 81 degree weather!!

-DB