Boy, I had a great day... and this is gonna be kinda long...but chipperworthy.

We have a new friend in the hobby, Ian Durias, and I met him today. You might have seen his posts here on the board. I played in the Aces & Queens Invitational No-Limit Hold'em Tourney w/clinic by Annie Duke! Ian was the organizer of this event which raised over $1,000 for charity. Ian isn't a member yet but I was selling him on the fact that he NEEDED to send in his $20 (cheap!) and get set up. (I've got your phone # Ian!) Ian is a very nice young fellow and very smart and funny too. I can vouch for him as being the kind of chipper that fits right in the hobby...he gets it, if you know what I mean.

Annie Duke. Wow. I'm a fan for life now. Forget the garbage you've seen posted on the 'net about this woman, she's a good person doing her best in this here life. Funny, WAY smart, and like al said, hot. She came in and Ian led her around the room (about 45 of us standing there round-eyed, mouth open) and we each got a gracious how-de-do and a handshake. I ended up standing next to her, evesdropping as the other beautiful red-head in the room came over and started chatting about which tv shows they each were going to be popping up on. Annie: I've got that same exact sweater! Other Great Red-Head: You wear green alot don't you? Annie: Yeah! Believe me guys, it was great. After that Annie commenced the clinic. The crowd was younger than me (no, really!) mostly, poker literate, doing well in Portland OR. and like most of us rustics, awed by Annie's charisma. Annie found out that we knew poker (aw well, you know...) and we weren't gonna ask much in the way of questions. I was surprised by the cheek of Ian when he read, with permission of Ms. Duke, the part of McManus' Positively Fifth Street where Annie picks Tony Ma's card out of the muck to check for aces! She has taken a LOT of flack over that action by people that aren't part of the pro poker world...people like Jim McManus. And internet flamers. They were aces BTW. As I would say in my best Barney Fife, "Yeah, me and Annie got that McManus feller pegged." She thought it was a hoot that the first out got a copy of Phil Helmuth's book but said later on that it was important to read as many poker books as you could, even Phil's. She said it was part of every pro poker player's duty to rib Helmuth! Actually the best part and the part that everyone really wanted to know was NOT middle connectors in late position but, you know, what's it really like to be a big time poker player, you know. She gave us a rundown of her flight time for the last couple of weeks. The televised events she needed to be at. The sit-com based on her life that she's executive producer of (!). and consulting on the movie about her (!!). Las Vegas, Portland (umm, she lives here you know), Los Angeles, Portland, New York and Aruba somewhere along the way. BTW, she's single and has four kids and a super nanny that's making it possible for her to go out and get them little ones set by being a succesful card player. For the locals, she's moved out of Irvington into Laurelhurst...dang, she's my neighbor! Annie would start talking about something and take off and manage to cover everything she knew you wanted to know. The poker part of the clinic was an eye-opener. You can't hang at a poker table with Annie and her equals. They know everything about the game like you know your own face. She was cruising along at about mach 6 talkin' about when and how to bet vs. weak/tight with postion and consideration of the blinds but only in tournament situations on day one when she realized that we in the room looked real little cuz she had left us way behind. She talked about physical fittnes for big tournaments (she's a great example...whew!) how long it takes pros to size up new players, the new internet players, Gus Hansen and the "Unibomber" as neat guys and how when she's at a table with Mike "The Mouth" Matowzac, she's likely to have her ipod turned all the way UP! Well, since this was a charity function, this was the only way you could get her away from her kids ("It's good for them to know how important charity is too!" she says). We were really fortunate to meet this remarkable person. She stayed a few more moments as long as someone had something for her to sign or chat about. I asked for the autograph you see below and asked her if she knew my friend Gene Trimble. She said yeah, he's move over to the Palms and she'd seen him the other day. It's nice to have these independent Trimble sightings don't you think.

Anyway the poker came next, first no-limit for me. Poor Ian couldn't play, had to keep track of the tables, blinds etc. Won the first pot, nice raising action back and forth with a nice young lady. Up, down, down some more, all-in double through a couple of times, mid-sized for awhile and out perhaps just past mid-field with playable hands. We played in a couple of adjacent condos in a revitalized warehouse district ("vibrant" is the word The Oregonian always calles it) with a convivial and handsome group of folks that any chipper would love to meet.

I finally decided to forego Jim Munding's Reno show but this was a great way to spend the weekend. I feel swell. Thank you Ian Durias! Thank you Annie Duke!