Poker Palooza!

Sorry Folks, but the Fourth of July has been canceled. I don't mean that American has canceled the holiday, I just had to cancel my Fourth of July cookout. But I have a very good excuse. I received an offer I could not refuse to have a booth at the Poker Palooza (Gaming Lifestyle Expo, renamed and rebranded.) I will be in booth 722 which is right across from the Crown Casino booth. The fun begins Thurs. July 2 at 11 AM and continues at the Rio through Sun. the fifth. If you are going to check out or play in the main event, you will be herded through the Palooza. I hope you will make time to check it out and come on by booth 722 and visit a spell.
On another poker subject, I will not be playing in the main event this year. I didn't win a seat and this has been a financially difficult year for many, myself included. I have had several offers to buy a "piece of me" but have passed them up for several reasons. One is my confidence level. Please read on; my personal confidence is just fine, it's my confidence level in the "new breed" of poker player. I could write a book on how the texure of a no-limit game has changed since '02. The game itself hasn't changed, but my oh my, how the players and what they do during the play of a hand has changed! I am a good player, but my biggest concern are the Internet kids and the new breed of players and how they attack the game. When a player raises with a Q-8 under the gun, how do you put that player on that hand? When I read an article about a winning kid who brags about three-betting with any two cards, well, it's like walking through a mine field with no idea where the explosives are. So many of these "Hot Shots" have won literally hundreds of thousands of dollars playing on line and the $10,000 buy-in is treated like it is $10. There lack of respect for money is difficult for me to overcome. It's one thing to see this crazy play in smaller buy-in tourneys but I'm just not going to face it in a $10,000 buy-in event for the luckiest player during that time to end up the winner. I call it the "Killer Bee" syndrome. If one or two Killers are after you, you have a chance for survival but if a whole herd of thousands are after you - forget about it, you're a goner!
On the brighter side, my 2009 World Series play has not come to an end. I will be on Team Simpletrak for the Dream Team event July 12 and (hopefully) 13 for the finals. My teammates are Michelle "Sassy" Richey and John Robertson.
For those of you who wanted to invest in my poker ability, maybe next year and thank you very much for the offer!