And yes, I have even been inside Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago mansion, even though I am not rich.

So I am happy to see this very cool event coming to the land of the rich and famous.

The World Series of Poker is coming to Florida for the first time ever – setting up shop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club for two weeks.

It’s now allowed because of a change in state law that allows high-stakes poker games.

Previously, Florida had a $100 cap on poker buy-ins, preventing it from participating in big tournaments like those of the World Series of Poker.

Which is ridiculous. Palm Beachers think of $100 like you or I think of a 1 cent piece.

“We are very excited to have the Rolls Royce of poker tours coming to Florida and partnering up with us,” said Joseph Conti, tournament director for the kennel club.

The event is expected to generate 800 room nights for Palm Beach County.

The Kennel Club is expecting 500 to 800 players each day of the tournament; buy-ins for the 10 ring events start at $300 and go to $1,600, while non-ring events start at $65.

Got a secret for you though…in the mansions along A1A, high stakes poker is always being played. Now, it’s just out in public.

Will Rush Limbaugh participate? Hell, he has a fabulous mansion in the area.

Go figure. What’s it like to be 23 years old and on top of the poker playing world.

Huh? What’s it like Jonathan Duhamel… to be a multi millionaire and have the world at your talented fingertips?

Reports from Las Vegas, where he won a few nights ago, are that Duhamel is laid back and just a damned nice guy.

Who is a great poker player.

So, he won the big tournament. How ya feeling big guy?

“I really haven’t had time to think about it at all,”  Duhamel said . “I don’t think I realize what I just did.”

Well, I did. And the thousands of fans who read this posting did too.

It’s almost impossible to imagine that all this began with a simple $100 investment to open an online poker account three years ago, but that’s what makes Duhamel’s story so freaking interesting.

Things were not always this easy.

He wasn’t always calm at a poker table.

He didn’t always have an instinctive knowledge of when to put pressure on his opponent with bluffs and when to wait for cards — a balancing act he pulled off masterfully over the weekend while building a dominant 6-to-1 chip lead going into heads-up play Monday against John Racener of Florida.

So, all hail Duhamel. And may he win again. And again. And again.

He said he has no idea what he will do with his winnings, other than travelling and continuing to play poker to prove his big win was no fluke.

I love this story, which I first heard about through the Catholic News Service.

It’s about a very cool, poker-playing Catholic priest, who just beat one of the world’s top poker players in a national poker contest aired on a Fox TV show, winning $100,000 that he says he’ll donate to his church’s new building fund.

The Rev. Andrew Trapp, assistant pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church, gathered Sunday at a viewing party with 300 boosters in a Garden City Beach, South Carolina, gymnasium to watch a previously recorded episode from a poker tournament that began online with 10,000 contestants.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach says the crowd cheered when Trapp beat poker professional Daniel Negreanu (nuh-GRAH’-noo) with a final hand. Supporters wore T-shirts reading: “We’re cheering for the poker playing priest.”

I thought this was an amusing photo my wife sent me from the site “I Can Has Cheez Burger“.  I think cats would make much better poker players than dogs.  They are much more conniving and fearless.

I’m always curious about the origins of odd little bits of popular culture, especially when they relate specifically to things I like. So when I was thinking about pop culture references to poker, this was one of the first things I thought of. Everybody has seen these pictures but few know where they came from.

They date back to 19 03 from the artist C.M. Coolidge and were originally commissioned for cigar ads. Along with poker, I also love cigars. These maybe these kitschy things aren’t so bad after all. Sixteen were produced in the series though not all of them featured poker. Waterloo and A Friend in Need are probably the most recognizable. The above pictured His Station and Four Aces less so I’m sure. Though most people probably couldn’t immediately picture one of these; they just know the concept because it is so ubiquitous in the culture.

Its amusing to note that the company which comissioned them – Brown & Bigelow – also produced Noraman Rockwell’s work. Some become good old Americana while others are destined for tacky infamy.

Historical info courtesy of Wikipedia. Heres a site with some more of the pics in case anyone wants to indulge in these timeless classics. http://www.dogsplayingpoker.org/gallery/browse.html