Well the WPT Championship finished in Vegas this week, and of the final table 4 of the 6 players were rec.gambling.poker regulars. I sure hope a "Presto Hand" makes it to TV. 8.5 Million prize pool and around 340 players each buying in for $25,000. Amazing.

Poker has comea long way baby!

Friday night, I took the night off from grinding the fish on Party Poker to go see The Strokes and The Raveonettes at the Aragon Brawlroom in Chicago. The Raveonettes are great, they have a really excellent and unique sound, think rock and roll soundtracks to 50's leather and motorcycle B rated horror movies. Plus lead singer Sharin Foo is a cutie, I actually found her after the show and thanked her for the excellent performance.

I only snapped a few shots of the show, as the lighting made taking good pictures nearly impossible, but here they are anyway.

The Strokes once again knocked Chicago on its collective asses. There's something amazingly simple and pure about a Strokes show.

The music is great, and although many people in the crowd are there to be part of some "scene", those of us there for the music really see what's so special about this band.

First of all, the lead singer (Julian Casablancas) introduced the band himself. Proceeded to play a blazing 70 minute set, even broke out Clampdown, from the Clash.

The Strokes don't do encores. They are 110% rock and roll without the bullshit. If they are coming to your town, check them out.

In other news, I got e-mail from Party this week about a 15% reload bonus before April 30th, so I'm emptying all my accounts so I can deposit $667 and get my maximum $100 bonus. Then I can start working off the 1000 raked hands I'll need to play to get it released.

I've still be enjoying the 6 Max NL tables party has gotten and been making quite a bit of cash from them. I'd recommend NL players to check them out, especially if you want to play a lot of raked hands quickly [you know, to release a bonus]. I find lots of action, and you can buy-in short if you want too, and wait for a killer hand to go all in with to minimize your risk. Min buy-in for the NL$25 is $5, $10 for the NL$50 and $20 for the NL $100, so get in there and double up!


--Chris Falco