Say Goodbye to the Wheaties. Say Hello to the Monkey

It's the MonkeyTourney, courtesy of ISS Spock, who I found out has an unpronounceable first name spelled "Mike." Same time (8:30 ET) Same Place (PokerStars, Tourney, Private tabs) and same password (monkey).

Same people (we hope). Last night was a somewhat disappointing turnout of only 19, which I guess goes to show the drawing power of Wil Wheaton, even when he was playing in his name tournament only intermittently. But we hope things improve. If you have a PokerStars account, and either have or haven't played in the Wheaties before come on by. Good people, good poker, usually a good time, win or lose.

Me, the PokerStars curse continues for me. I placed a lousy 12 in a field of 19; really poor for me in what was essentially a two-table MTT. Absolutely card dead and bad luck when I did have the cards. My all-in with an Ace flush ran into a Kings full of 5s full house, reducing me to 300 chips. I played short stack for awhile, finally doubling up with a suckout Trips that was pure luck; and eventually went down with another all-in and a pair of 10s. Unfortunately the big blind had a pair of Kings, naturally called, and when a King hit the River, that was all she wrote. I went out right before the first break, having survived for all of an hour. In contrast, I've been burning up the tables at UltimateBet, and wish there was a simple way - like there used to be - to get money between the two sites.

The only one who fared worse was Spock himself, who was the first player out in his own first tournament.

In any case, I know you guys are out there: Iggy, Maudie, dsheep, denial, xkm, WWonka, BrainMc, all others! Come in out of the cold and come back to the tournament, that loves ya, huh?