Jay Greenspan

I've always felt that Jay Greenspan, author of Hunting Fish: A Cross-country Search for America's Worst Poker Players, was a writer's writer and a gambler's gambler. But even Jay impressed me when I learned that his wedding vows included a high stakes game of Roshambo (rock-paper-scissors).

Apparently the bride and groom used a winner-take-all Roshambo "one throw" to determine who would have to say their vows first. Although clearly more experienced than his lovely bride to be, Jay consulted with tiltboy and 2006 WSOP bracelet holder Rafe Furst.

To find out who prevailed, you'll have to check here.

See April's review of Hunting Fish

Despite our rapid acceptance of online poker and the ease with which it puts us in nearly every game/limit combination imaginable, most poker players still imagine themselves living the life of Doyle or TJ, hitting the highway in search of a game, chasing after the win that'll make it all worthwhile. It's a poker players dream - pack a suitcase, hit the ATM, and leave all responsibilites behind as you travel coast to coast to see if you've really got what it takes to play among the best.

For Jay Greenspan, the dream not only became a reality; it got sweeter when he sold the idea of a book chronicling his cross-country poker trek to a publisher. The result is a fantastic narrative about the successful search for truly terrible poker players, and the drive great players have to put themselves to the test.

Greenspan starts his trip as a man on a mission - travel from his home in Brooklyn to the $10/$20 no-limit Hold'Em game at the Commerce Casino in California. Along the way, he'd hit as many casinos and backroom cash games he could find in order to build the bankroll he'd need to take a seat at the Commerce game. Greenspan played at Foxwoods, in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, and sought out home games in South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, changing the names of his hosts to preserve their privacy, and meeting a cast of characters undoubtably similar to the ones you find sitting across from you when venturing to the non-virtual felt.

You've heard about the media restrictions put on us, but I've got to say, things are much better today. There is a separate area behind the rail for the media, allowing us to get right next to the tables without having to fight spectators for a spot, and now that we're down to just five tables on the main floor (plus the featured table, for six in total) we can pretty much see everything.

This is a big improvement over yesterday. Yesterday the media was sequestered in a roped off square just off the side of the tables, and away from the spectators. It resembled an animal pen, and we were informed that we could move anywhere within the 4x4 space, but were not allowed to step outside of it. While in the area with a fellow media member, he proposed that we work together to move the ropes and thereby gain access to anywhere we wanted. "We can move this thing anywhere in the casino, and then we're not breaking the rules." I pointed out that we'd probably need a third person to help us, to which my media friend replied "Oh, I was kinda counting on you to take care of that. I can handle one of these posts, I was expecting you to carry the rest."

Tonight, while watching the action from the new and improved media rail, the topic of yesterday's "media pen" accommodations came up, to which Jay Greenspan (all around great guy and author of the new book Hunting Fish) replied "Well, they put out water for you at least."

Maybe you had to have been there, but it made me laugh quite a bit (and still does). I admit that's probably largely due to the fact that it's 11pm, I'm sleep-deprived, and have been hitting the Energy VitaminWater pretty hard.