Last night was one for the books. I loved every minute of it. Moon played hard, Cada played scared, then the tables turned. The call on the river Cada made to put him back in the game was one for the history books. Brilliant call and not an easy one to make.

The entire thing was well done,riveting and a cliffhanger. Would like to see poker, as with all other sports, gravitate to a level where boo-ing is felt unnecessary, but guess we’re not there yet. Cheer on your guy all you want but why boo the other guy?

I thought Moon handled himself like a champ. Calm, collected and showed the pros a thing or two. All those who thought Cada was a shoo-in couldn’t possibly appreciate how hard he had to work to get there. It was great, great poker.

After the rest of the world watches Monday Night Football, poker nuts are heading to the Rio to watch heads-up play for the WSOP Main Event title. I suspect it will be either a very short final table or a very long one. Either a couple of all-in’s early or an arduous teeth-pulling of an evening. I hope its the latter as it makes for far better poker.

The heads-up finale starts at 10 p.m. tonight, which baffled me when I picked up my tickets on Saturday evening … but after watching them play for 17 hours on Saturday into the wee hours of Sunday morning, one day off may barely be enough to recharge the mental batteries. Will be interesting. I’ll report as I learn.

Went to the Rio to watch the Final Table of the WSOP and to go to Mike Sexton’s Hall of Fame Induction. A cool night all the way around.

Watching the play I was not surprised at the results. No doubt Joe Cada got lucky to beat JJ with threes and to do it again later with 2’s. No doubt BUT what I admired about his play was he was willing to get in there and gamble. I didn’t find that to be the case with Shulman or especially Ivey. They just got blinded off. Ivey was in a better position than anyone else at the table to play without cards because ..he’s Phil Ivey. The entire poker world thought he would win and those other 8 players knew his reputation. I really don’t think he even began to capitalize on that and had said early on I did not think he would win.

I felt for Darvin Moon as he made some missteps and struggled as a result. However, as I too have learned the hard way, you can’t get real final table experience unless you’re at a final table. Moon – as did I – got his on national television. I think he did fine.

The best player at the table, in my opinion, was Eric Buchman. After losing a big pot he began to push, more needless than necessary (easy for me to recognize the trait as I suffer from it also) and tried to run back up the top of the mountain instead of slowly climbing back up.

All in all I enjoyed this more than in the past. Having played the WSOP every day this summer, following and knowing some of the players, I was intrigued with how this one played out. I’ll be at the heads up match tomorrow to watch with great interest.

Doing Holiday cards, almost finished. Always my goal to have it done in October so I’m a little behind schedule. So much to do before leave for Panama on Wednesday .. will be a good trip. Some of my oldest and bestest friends in the world get together once a year for the International Political Consultants Conference around the world. This year Panama .. next year Paris … can’t wait to catch up.

Venetian is running their Deep Stack tournaments. I almost never play there as I just HATE the smoke. They advertise (falsely) that their tournaments are non-smoking, then they cordon off an area outside the non smoking poker room … for the tournaments. You’re surrounded by slot machines and second hand smoke. There were 388 players and 300 players down and four aspirin for my throbbing smoke induced headache .. I was out and glad to leave .. wonder if the poker players band together and tell them if they would do anything about it … certainly a deterrant to me returning.

I’ve always tried to help young people during my career and find now I get as much satisfaction out of it as I once did in running campaigns. Got a cold package from a young man in the mid-west, impressive credentials and impressive package – so I picked up the phone and called him. I’ve spent a little time steering him to certain firms and will stay with it until he lands what he wants. Today, out of the blue I got the nicest note, very unnecessary and unexpected, which made it even nicer.

He said: I want to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation for your help these past few weeks. Having never even heard my name before, you took time out of your day to help a young person who aspires to accomplish a fraction of what you have. That speaks volumes about the content of your character …

I like this mentoring gig and its nice that its appreciated.