Blogs

I'm pleased to announce I will be contributing a few articles to Poker Pro magazine starting with the edition that hits newsstands next week. Poker Pro is one of the leading international poker magazines and I'm writing a column under the working title "Adventures of a Poker Dad".

The first couple of articles chronicle my adventures in LA while filming Best Damn Poker Show with Fox Sports. I'm also working on an article exploring the impact of the Internet Gaming law that just had it's two year anniversary, the state of advergaming in the poker community and the new strains of poker working their way into the poker venues including a game with no river and another played with a sort-of pinochle deck. The former has been debuting at Treasure Island and will start appearing at an online site later this year.

I'm excited about this new opportunity to connect with more folks who understand and love the game of poker.

Keep in touch,

John

Yep, you read that right. Life on Tilt and I will be on season two of Best Damn Poker Show, which airs on the Fox Sports Network. I was in LA last month filming the episodes.

For the uninitiated, Best Damn Poker Show is part poker show and part reality show. 24 emerging poker pros are selected from among thousands of folks who audition. Poker pros Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth choose teams from the contestants to battle each other for bragging rights. Players are eliminated based on Annie and Phil's evaluation of their play during brief elimination matches.

The show first airs Monday, October 27. I can't reveal how it turns out, but I will advise you to tune in early if you'd like to see me and the book!

Note - since writing this, one of the hosts of the show has been cast on Celebrity Apprentice and the air dates of Best Damn Poker Show have been pushed to January to coincide with that program.

Okay, I'm going to try to purge my guilt of not adding to the blog by adding a few entries today.

I just returned from visiting the team at Poker Creations in Boston. They run an online site called National League of Poker, or NLOP for short. Beginning October 27, they will be running Life on Tilt tournaments nightly at 7 PM ET for six weeks. The tournament winners get an autographed copy of my book plus points to freeroll into real money tournaments. During the tournament, the skin of the site will change and feature quotes from my book as well as a trailer for the upcoming movie project.

Be sure to check out nlop.com and play...it's free and they have a bunch of other great cash and merchandise giveaways. Plus you can play against their spokesman, poker ambassador Mike Sexton.

Take time to Tilt,

John

The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event is in full swing and Life on Tilt was there. With nearly 6,800 entry fees of $10,000, this year's world championship is the 2nd largest prize pool in history!

I was able to be out in Las Vegas for the first few days of the championship and just posted many photos from the trip (under "Downloads"..."Life on Tilt at the 2008 World Series of Poker"). You'll see many former poker world champs with yours truly. Click on the Details tab to see the captions.

Highlights from the trip include meeting many players who are characters in Tilt and having them read and react to their sections (thankfully in a positive way!), meeting Doyle Brunson - a true living legend and meeting many fans of Tilt. It was also interesting to meet the Vice President of the Phillipines and present him with a complimentary copy of Life on Tilt to commemorate his visit to sin city.

I've just got a few minutes to jump on one of the Rio's premium-priced (!) pcs to post a quick update:

Arrived 3 days ago and it's been a whirlwind. I've been at the Best Poker Stuff booth as my home base. I've met about 50 pros...many of whom appear in Life on Tilt. The reaction to the book has been great and I'll be posting photos with them when I return.

The first day I met a lot of folks who bought Tilt. Yesterday I had an opportunity to be on Gamblers Book Shop podcast and audition for the next season of Best Damn Poker Show. Yes, I made it to the finals and was grilled by Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke. I also had a chance to do a photo shoot with the Rounder Magazine girls. Be sure to check out their site as they've featured a full-page write up about Tilt in this month's World Series of Poker special edition.

First of all, my apologies for not being more diligent about posting blogs. I'm not a blogger by nature, so this is a bit new for me. Thanks for letting me know going two weeks between posts is bad etiquette!

Okay, so what have I been doing besides not blogging, you ask? I had a number of wonderful appearances in upstate NY as the Borders stores in that area helped promote the book in conjunction with Father's Day. I had a great time meeting many folks at the Rotterdam (Hi Brian!), Saratoga (Hi Rick!) and Clifton Park (Hi Julie!) Borders...particularly playing the "Poker Challenge" with customers.

The first published review of Life on Tilt hit the newstands today. It appeared in the June edition of Boom, a local publication aimed at those in the prime of life. Reviewer Madelyn Thorne seemed to really get the book, despite having limited familiarity with poker. I've posted the review in the forum section for your reading pleasure.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting many customers at Market Block Books in Troy (thanks Stanley!) and Borders at Crossgates Mall (thanks Todd!). It was wonderful to chat books and poker with everyone. Saturday night I had the privilege of attending a CD release party for Dead-Lift, a terrific high-energy group who is really committed to their music and their fans. I think you'll be hearing a lot more from them in the future.

I was invited out to Book Expo America last week by the publisher. In case you aren't familiar, this is a major book show which attracts over 25,000 book industry people. I was thrilled that Life on Tilt was selected for the New Title Showcase.

The trip started on Wednesday with a little poker at Player's Park Casino, then a book signing at Metropolis Books in downtown LA (Hi Julie & Kristen!).

Whew!

Had a great release event in Albany, NY on Thursday. I'm posting the link to the article in the paper there. The reporter really got the story of Tilt. I'm also posting a couple of photos from the event.

Friday early AM I was off to Indiana for 3 bookstore appearances and a presentation at Indiana University to the Alumni Entrepreneurs group. Thanks to the Barnes & Noble guys (Hi Casey and Joe!) for your hospitality and to Ann at Borders/Indianapolis and John at Borders/Greenwood. Great working with you guys. I'm looking forward to coming back in September!

Tonight I did a signing in Scotia, NY and survived a contested race for the local school board (go Spartans!)

Hi folks - What a week!

First of all, thank you to all who have purchased the book on its official release date. I'm looking forward to getting a tally tomorrow, but we are well on our way to our goal just with the anecdotal responses received to the emails.

Between the pre-release activity and Kenna being in town, this week has been both a blast and a blur.

Monday night Kenna and I were at our friend Geoff's house at midnight playing poker and eating jambalaya with a great group of guys (yes - and thanks to Francine for being a great hostess!)

Tuesday & Wednesday were packed with media, book store stops, recording sessions and a bit more poker out at Turning Stone.