Ignatius of Guinness and Poker AKA Party Poker Blogs is making that great leap to professional poker playing. He’s been playing poker at B&Ms and online for years and years, and he’s finally going for it:

This is truly crazy stuff. Hell, I might get bored in a month and end up taking another job, who knows? I’ve discussed this ad naeseum with the wife and a few others and it all comes back to the same thing: I’m open to the Possibilities. I’m now recalling the classic dialogue from the movie Risky Business:

Miles: Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, “What the fuck.” “What the fuck” gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.

Who am I to argue with 80’s cinema, much less Booger, Curtis Armstrong?

K, enough about me for now.

What the fuck indeed.

Iggy also reports that Mr. Wil Wheaton will be joining us in the Poker Blogger Tournament. There are now 49 players registered. It’s sure to reach 51 before the day is out. You have two days left to join in the fun.

This self-imposed no-poker bullshit is driving me nuts. If it weren’t for work and school, I’d have the time and energy to devote to ring games. A little clarification: I know I said I was swearing off online poker, but really I’ve sworn off playing ring games at Party. I’ve got a few dollars in my Pacific account and play a few low buy-in SNGs now and again because they require only an hour of my time and I need the practice. So all you nit-picky bastards should piss off! That’s right, I mean you, Glasstrack and eight23!

Talk about getting off-topic. I meant to go on about how I would ideally devote two-three hours every night (120-180 hands) to playing poker, but it’s just not really feasible at this point. My degree program has a 400 hour internship requirement, and since I didn’t do jackshit last year, I need to max out my internship hours from now until May to make sure I get it done. So far I’m just shy of the halfway mark, which means that I should have it cleared by January. A triumphant return to playing poker regularly would make a nice birthday present. Of course, as I’ve said before, winter break should give me a nice block of homework-free time (for better or worse) to devote to pounding the tables. Until then, it’ll be the weekly game, the blogger tourney, Vegas, and the occasional Pacific SNG here at StudioGlyphic.

The Poker Blogger Tournament now counts 41 sign-ups. Remember, this is open to bloggers and readers, so go ahead and throw in your chips and get a piece of me.

Begin Rant:

Wireless networking cost me a SNG win last night. I was sitting on big slick on the button. MP/Big Stack limps, I limp (see PokerNerd), SB and BB go all-in with their short stacks. MP calls, I call. Flop is AXX, all hearts. I have the King of hearts. MP throws out a bet, and I’m about to raise him 6 times his bet when the wireless cuts out. By the time I reconnect, my hands been folded and BB sweeps the pot with a pair of aces. God damn technology! I don’t know what his kicker was, but I will bet good money that it wasn’t going to beat mine. BB and I end up heads up and he knocks me out in second when my J9o goes up against his sevens and I don’t improve. Grr.

End Rant.

In other news, HD celebrates his one-year anniversary of poker/blogging over at the Cards Speak. Go on over and say howdy.

Back when there were fewer than twenty signed up, I didn’t really think much about the upcoming blogger tourney. No expectation of winning, but no real feelings about it one way or the other. Now that the number of players is over thirty, I’m getting somewhat nervous. Last night I played a couple SNGs on PacificPoker and felt completely disoriented after having played a couple days of Omaha 8. I think I’ll have to try out a few more SNGs this week in preparation for Thursday.

For those of you who want to watch, the tourney starts this Thursday at 9PM ET on PokerStars.com. You can open an account without putting any money in if you just want to watch from the rails. Look for the “Guinness and Poker Blog Tournament” under the Tournaments: Private tab.