I just read a story in the New York Post about this 21-year old guy named Nick Schulman, who won $2 million by winning the 2005 World Poker Tour finals at Foxwoods Casino.  Two things in this story piqued my attention.  One, Schulman is thinking about going back to college to study philosophy.   A sign of real intelligence.  I just hope he doesn’t study Continental Philosophy.  Two, he learned how to read peoples’ body language from playing pool, because a number of people who play pool ”play an angle” to win money.   Here are two of his tips that I think are worth remembering:

• People are friendlier when they’re bluffing.
• People stare at the board more when they missed.

Hey, Nick, fellow philosopher, would you be willing to give PokerMoments an interview?

So how can a kitten get you to Vegas?  What’s going through your mind?

Win a kitty?

No, you don’t have to win the whole pot.

A sex kitten?

No, Bridget Bardot won’t be calling you to join her at the Mirage.

Pussy Cat Dolls?

No, PCD doesn’t need a new member in their group.

The answer’s much easier – and more innocent – than those ideas.

I Can Haz Cheezeburger is having a “Poker Cats” Contest – the prize is 2 tickets to Vegas, a 2-night hotel stay, and $500 cash.  So how do you win?  Just write the winning caption for any cat picture at their site.  The deadine is March 18.

If you enter, let us know and we’ll promote your caption.  Good luck, tiger!

I finally saw Rounders (1998) last night.  It was a good poker movie.  There were, however, a couple of weak scenes.  For example, Mike McDermott, played by Matt Damon, is supposed to be this brilliant poker player.  But he looks pretty amatuerish in the opening scene, when he loses all his money in one hand to this guy called the KGB guy, played by John Malkovich.  Also, there is a difficult to believe scene when Mike McDermott and the Worm, played by Edward Norton, have a dialogue after both are beaten up for cheating.  Despite their bloody faces, then don’t seem as sore as they should be given the way they were manhandled.  

There were some decent poker quotes in the movie.  Here are my five favorites (all are taken from IMDB):

1. If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker. (Mike McDermott)

2. In the poker game of life, women are the rake man.  (Worm)

3. You can’t lose what you don’t put in the middle.  But you can’t win much either. (Mike McDermott)

4. It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money. (Mike McDermott)

5. In “Confessions of a Winning Poker Player,” Jack King said, “Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.” It seems true to me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can’t stop thinking about the way I lost it.  (Mike McDermott)