I was fortunate enough to make a trip with the Image Masters crew to Biloxi, MS to document how this amazing community outreach program has made such an impact in post-Katrina Mississippi.

They help low-income and homeless families with ANYTHING they need, often employees were using their personal monies. I saw a woman come by to see if they could help her pay her $34 electic bill because she didn’t have the means to pay it, a deaf man that stops by to pick up newly donated clothes because people keep breaking in to his FEMA trailer and stealing things at night since they know he’s deaf, a woman so grateful to have her own dishes again in an apartment that they found for her.

So if you have a roof over your head, peel a few off the bankroll and donate to this worthy cause.

Even better, if you find yourself playing one of the Biloxi Casino’s events, call and ask if they need a volunteer for a day - very humbling to see what these people do every day.

www.backbaymission.com
Email: backbay@datasync.com

Back Bay Mission is located at
1012 Division St
Biloxi, MS 39530

And for this week’s installment of “Joy Miller’s Friends Are Great Poker Players And She Can’t Figure Out Why She Is Not”….
Good Luck to DEVO a.k.a Bryan Devonshire a.k.a our Fantasy Football League Winner that I owe $250 to still a.k.a The Chip Leader at the World Poker Challenge in Reno right now.

He’s an astonishingly great player whose MySpace mathematical percentage fights with Rick Fuller make for great reading material when I want to fall asleep.

I’m hopin’ for heads-up against Ivey so we can all fly out and be the loud, proud friends again! GOOD LUCK, DEVO!

(secretly excited that my friend’s Michael and P.I. are doing well, too!)

But GOOOOOooooo Deeevoooooooo!

Wonder if he’ll tip? Guess I’ll have to read some forums to find out Ouch, that wasn’t nice of me.

The good news is that the people the run tourneys in the Green Bay area have started one in my hometown. Even better news is everyone that plays there except my friends are absolutely terrible. Now for the bad news, I have bubbled both times I have played in it.

They have a point system and I’m doing OK in that since I’ve been deep both times. If I do well enough in the points I get an entry into a tournament for some free trips like money to buy in to a WSOP event. However, this weekend is probably going to be my last week playing in it before that time, so I need to win. The winners each week are invited to the special tourney also. We’ll see how it goes; after bubbling twice I feel kind of sick about it.

The nice thing is I’ve easily made those buy-ins back online in the last few days. I discovered heads-up cash games and it has been ultra juicy for me. One session I was down over two buy-ins and managed to come back and be a small winner. It has been a little crazy at times. In that particular game my opponent was holding over me for the first 80 or so hands and it was just sick. I knew I was the better player though so I stuck in and grinded my way back. The really strange thing is that everyone comes in firing at me, but after 80 hands they are playing really passive. Maybe I just make them change their style.

I hope all of you running bad can find your niche to help get you off the slide. GL everyone.

So….my article on forums here on Wise Hand from last month seems to apply to my friend Brandon Cantu right now. (Why Forums are my Arch-Enemy)

Not only did a writer incorrectly put in an article that Cantu dated Brandi Hawbaker (he’s never even MET her), but now the 2+2 forums have had a 36 page field day on a subject that probably 97% of them will never encounter - correct tipping after winning a major tournament.

It’s a shame that after playing so well, being so gracious in his win, and having fun with his family and friends that came out to see him…the thing everyone will remember is that someone made a public deal about something that wasn’t anyone’s business.

And we wonder why people think poker doesn’t take “skill”

Garry Gates is no longer a contributing writer/blogger for WiseHandPoker.com.

He is currently writing for PokerNews.com.

We left Garry Gates’ bio page on our website as a courtesy for the work he has done while writing for WiseHandPoker.com,

Wise Hand Poker Staff

POKERROAD FREEROLL!! $100 and Free Prizes
2008 March, 20

In order to show our appreciation for our users, we are hosting a Freeroll event on FullTilt! You will have a chance to show off your skills to members of the PokerRoad team including Joe Sebok, Gavin Smith, Scott Huff, and Joe Stapleton, who will all be playing in the event. As well as giving you the chance to win some free cash, we will be giving away five PokerRoad T-shirts to the top five finishers.

All you have to do to qualify is Sign Up for the PokerRoad Newsletter. The password to the freeroll will be sent out in the newsletter prior to March 29th.

Hey y’all,

just a quick note to let you know about tomorrow night’s show. I know i always say its going to be a good one, but considering current events and the importance of a guest’s ability to converse, I’m convinced this is going to be one of our best.

First we’ll be having Brandon Cantu on the show. if you’re living under a rock, Brandon just won the bay 101 Shooting Star in dominating fashion, collecting a (confirmed) record six bounties en route to a seven figure win. Brandon’s going to be talking with us about the tournament, the reasons he took time away from poker just before it and how his life, which includes living next door to Jeff Madsen, has been affected by the turns of wealth and stardom it’s withstood.

After Cantu, we’ll be bringing on a more experienced warrior of the felt. Layne Flack is one of hte most charismatic characters in the poker industry and he’ll be joining us tomorrow to talk about the art of table captaincy, the rigors of withstanding an extended dry spell and some of the misconceptions about his career. i haven’t had many chances to get to know Layne, so I’m looking forward to the convo.

So that’s the deal. The show starts at 8PM EST over at roundersradio.com tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I hope you’ll come and listen in; I think you’ll be missing out if you don’t. See you there,

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

Vote

http://www.pokerroad.com/_/polls/prr_poll1.php

Here are examples of two possible examples:

http://www.pokerlistings….1-shooting-star

(and I am fully aware that everyone in the poker media has already used this pun, but i like it anyway!)

Instead of my weekly Top Ten list, I’m going to drop The Good and The Bad from Brandon Cantu’s historical WPT Bay 101 win.

Good: At 4pm, I successfully convinced my homie Jeffrey Madsen (aka “The Kid”, aka My Child, aka MC JMad) to drop everything he was doing in Los Angeles to get on an airplane with me and fly to San Jose to watch Brandon at his Final Table.

Bad: By the time we navigated LA traffic and got to the airport, we were informed that the 7pm flight only had one seat available and the stand-by line was “extremely long” Boo.

Good: My unwaivering determination that we were both getting on that flight. I managed to convince a supervisor to put Madsen 2nd on the standby list.

Bad: All the unfortunate people who had been waiting for hours on the standby list that were relegated to waiting even longer for another flight since Madsen cut the line. Those death stares gave us the willies.

Good: We also convinced our friend Jim Shipley to fly in from Vegas last minute

Bad: We forgot to get him a room, therefore accidentally setting him up for sleeping on the floor of Ali Najad’s suite at 3am.

Good: When we arrived in the WPT Final Table tent, all of Cantu’s friends and family that flew in were sitting together and having a great time. E-Tay, Hudy, Fuller, Angela, Jake, Palmer, Ali, Grandma & Grandpa, and Mom.

Bad: Layne Flack stole my seat so he could sit next to Madsen and heckle people.

Good: He made up for it by asking TD Matt Savage why he was wearing Jim Carrey’s suit from “The Mask” (hilarious evidence here http://www.pokerlistings.com/blog/wpt/season6/bop-brandon-cantu-wins-bay-101-shooting-star )

Bad: We were THAT group of loud friends at the Final Table

Good: We were THAT group of loud (supportive, amazingly proud) friends at the Final Table

Bad: Cantu had his back to us for the heads-up

Good: Heads up was only 2 hands, Cantu sprinted in to the crowd to watch his winning hand, and we all got to jump around and celebrate it right with him. Yeeeaaaah!

Bad: I cried a little (in joy, but still).

Good: My college boyfriend, who knows NOTHING about poker, came to watch the last hour with us. He was so excited by the end that he called someone and said, “I just watched a dude win a million dollars!” Also, Matt from PokerListings, the CardPlayers guys, and photog Joe did a marvelous job of providing covering the entire event.

Bad: Final Table finished at 12:30am, therefore ruining any chances of us being able to go out and celebrate since bars in the Bay Area close at 2am. So we made do with The Dolphin Lounge in the middle of Bay 101. Cantu runs so good that he got off without having to buy bottles at a big Vegas club - he probably spent $300 max on drinks for the whole bar.

Good: Cantu had the genius idea of sending me and the ex to 7-eleven to get beers so we could continue to party in our suite later.

Bad: I went a little overboard and got 9 cases of beer for 12 people. We had to donate about 5 of those to the Front Desk the next day.

Good: 2nd place finisher Steve Sung - and his clever bending of the rules that allowed him to sport an Obama shirt (YES WE CAN!) - came over and played cards and hung out with us in the suite after. What a guy!

Bad: The food at Bay 101. Suck isn’t even a strong enough word to describe it. EVERY meal was a monstrosity.

Good: Cantu paid for it.

Bad: Esther (E-tay) and I thought it would be funny to switch passports and see if the airport security would notice. Esther is Korean with straight black hair, I am African-American with an afro of brown hair. And we successfully made it through with EACH OTHER’S passports and tickets without ONE word from anyone checking our tickets. But all 5 of the boys were searched and frisked. Sad proof of my theory that having airport screening is a waste of money and time, and was probably solely invented to make me constantly late for flights.

Good: There was no one on our flight so all eight of us got to fly together.

Bad: When Shipley went to drive me and Palmer home, he had left in such a hurry (see GOOD thing #3) that he couldn’t remember where in the Las Vegas
Airport he had left his car. I had to bat my eyes at some bike security to ride around and look for it. (Bonus BAD: The guy checking us in at the San Jose airport spelled his name SHITley. Wait, change that to a GOOD thing because it provided us with giggles for hours!)

Good: One of my dearest, favorite friends whose an amazing poker player overcame a poor showing at the WSOP last summer to play dominant poker for the last few months. Finally winning another major title and showing the poker community that his bracelet wasn’t a fluke and that he’s a viable threat at the table.

Bad: I didnt take a piece of him. So I’m as poor as ever - but rich in memories of his incredible win! Photo Proof!…
http://www.pokerlistings.com/blog/wpt/season6/bop-brandon-cantu-wins-bay-101-shooting-star

Just wanted to say GOOD LUCK to one of my Besty friends, Brandon Cantu. He’s just DOMINATED the WPT Bay 101, all three days…he claimed FIVE bounties for $25,000, plus was chip leader on day one earning him another $10,000 bonus. He went on an amazing run yesterday at one point winning SEVENTEEN hands in a row, and now goes in today as chip leader with 3,323,000. Mama needs a new pair of shoes, Cantu! So happy to see him doing well again - he won a WSOP bracelet in 2006 - here’s to a WPT win to add to your collection!

P.S. John Phan and Jen Harman are at the table too - a secret good luck to my other two friends as well
http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/14167