OK let’s get the tournament update out of the way. I made it to Day 2. By the skin of my teeth. I have 43,000 chips. The average is probably 100K. At one point when the blinds were 1000/2000 I was down to about 18000 chips. So I consider myself very lucky to still be in this thing. But as my friend Domenic reminds me, I am a “short stack Ninja”. Let’s hope he’s right.

In total (between Day 1A and Day 1B) there were 157 entries. We are now down to 39 players. 18 get paid. When we come back blinds will be 1200/2400 with a $400 ante. So 43,000 chips ain’t gonna last long – unless I put them to work for me. I’m probably in last or second last place right now. Certainly at my own table I am the small stack. I’ve got my work cut out for me, I can tell you that for free.

So you want to hear a weird funny story? My boys are gonna love this.

A week or so ago there was a news item that may have somehow eluded you non-poker-playing intellectual newshound who are probably far more focused on “real news” like Obama-Care, the interim nuclear deal with Iran, and Justin Bieber’s egg-throwing exploits.

The news item involved some counterfeit poker chips that somehow found their way into a huge tournament at The Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City. This was a tournament with over 2 Million dollars in prize money, but at some point when they were bagging chips at the end of day 3, they realized that there were more total chips in the tournament then they started with. Clearly, foul play was afoot. Obviously someone had counterfeited a large number of fake $5000 chips and was gradually introducing them into the tournament by adding to his stack.The officials were forced to stop the tournament right there and then and award all the prize money to be split between the remaining 27 players. And I believe that they were also forced to reimburse every participant in the event. Big money loss, not to mention the bad publicity that AtlanticCity (eighth wonder of the world, the only hole above ground) could hardly afford.

When they discovered that a crime had been committed, the culprit, a certain Christian Lusardi panicked and realized he needed to get rid of the evidence. (He still had more than a million dollars in counterfeit $5000 chips that he’d yet to insert into the tournament sitting in his hotel room). So you know what he did? He flushed them down the toilet! Where they promptly got stuck in the drain pipe. IN HIS HOTEL ROOM! Needless to say they didn’t need to summon Elliot Ness to crack this case. Mr Lsardi is currently being held on $300,000 bail. No doubt one of his buds will pay the authorities in crisp orange Monopoly hundreds.

Joey and Hank love these stories. They have entire books devoted to imbecilic criminals and their uncanny ability to get caught. So this one’s for you, guys.

Anyway wish me luck tomorrow. I’ll need it.