#310 - Happy New Year; Ticket Prices to Rise 30%

Happy New Year!

My Dad used to own season-tickets for the Detroit Lions. He might still own them but I know he doesn’t like going to the games much. In fact, he never seemed to like it much but he once had FIFTY season-tickets. His uncle, a bizarre and colorful character named Barney who died in about 1970, was an usher at Tiger Stadium and bought them back in the Fifties, mostly likely reselling them as some part of a scam. My Dad inherited the tickets and continued selling them, though I don’t think he had inclination for graft of Barney.

Anyway … Dad told me the Lions would always announce their ticket-price increases on New Year because that was the day the fewest people read the paper.

In that spirit, here are my New Year’s announcements:

1. I’m going to continue posting my favorite moments from 2007. From the feedback I’ve gotten, either you really like being reminded of those moments, or not many people read them the first time.

2. The poker world hits the ground running in 2008. Aussie Millions starts on January 5 and there is going to be a big Full Tilt contingent. So big, in fact, that Jay Greenspan will be contributing to The Full Tilt Poker Blog from Australia, to let you know about the action and the hijinx. Jay has written in this blog before, most recently from last year’s Aussie Millions, won by Gus Hansen. (I understand that Gus has a book coming out this year in which he describes how he played every hand of that tournament. It should be fascinating.) Jay and I will both be posting to the blog during the Aussie Millions, though I’ll be stateside.

3. There’s plenty of other poker action in January: The World Poker Open and the WSOP Circuit both head for Tunica, starting January 3. They conclude, respectively, with a WPT championship and a WSOP Circuit championship. The Borgata Winter Open and the L.A. Poker Classic both start later in January, as does the WSOP Circuit tournament at Harrah’s Rincon near San Diego.

4. Things REALLY heat up in February and I’ll start getting involved in the action, hopefully as both a player and a commentator/observer. There’s an outside chance I’ll play the Rincon Main Event. I’m taking a trip to Vegas for the NBC Heads-Up Championship satellite event on February 17 at Caesars. (This assumes that some screw-up has led to my missing my invitation to the event.) I want to be part of the Heads-Up Championship in some capacity, and that starts the very end of February. In any event, Jo Anne is supposed to end chemotherapy - my estimate - on February 21 and I’m planning on playing a bunch of events at Wynn Classic II, which starts February 27.

5. Ticket prices for the blog are NOT increasing. It will remain free to all, one of the greatest bargains in poker for the second year running.