Orel Hershiser, winner of the 1988 Cy Young and the World Series MVP, who in that year set a major league record with 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched, now has another record to boast about.  This one, however, is in poker.   As reported in the Las Vegas Sun, Hershiser got to the quarterfinals of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and he did this by defeating three superstars in poker: Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, and Freddy Deeb.  Hershiser takes home a cool $75,000 for making it as far as he did in the tournament. 

Hey Orel - after this amazing poker-playing accomplishment, would you ever be so kind as to give PokerMoments an interview?  Just a few questions for my fans, many of which are baseball enthusiasts.   Pleeeeeese 

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?

Chip Reese, considered by renowned poker players like Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein to be one of the greatest poker players who ever lived, died of a heart attack at the young age of 56.

I knew nothing about Chip Reese, that is until I saw this YouTube clip of him on Bill Rini’s blog.

After watching this video my curiosity about Chip Reese was piqued. I went to Barry Greenstein’s website and listened to Barry say extremely nice things about Chip.

A friend sent me a New York Times obituary about Chip Reese. In the obituary Chip is quoted as saying the following: “I can bet $100,000 and feel nothing,” he said in an interview with People magazine in 2003. “If you think about the money and what it means, you’re gone.” This is why I’ll never be a great player like Chip Reese. I only think about the money.