mookie99

Congratulations to DrPauly on winning his first Mookie title while securing a BBT4 TOC seat.  Here is his profile…

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Champion: DrPauly

Blog: Tao Of Poker

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Q: How did you get into poker?

DrPauly: During college, my fraternity brothers played Spades and low-stakes poker particularly stud-variants and guts-themed games. The sessions would run for hours on end in our fraternity house and we also played in friends’ apartments off campus. Gambling. Drinking. Smoking. The games started around 10pm and ended at sunrise. Those are my warmest poker memories.

Q: Do you have any poker related goals and if so what are they?

DrPauly: The concept of “poker goal” is constantly changing for me as my involvement in poker has drastically evolved over the years. I originally got into poker for the social aspect. In short, it was fun and I’m someone who actively seeks pleasure. When I lost my job on Wall Street, I played poker in the underground rooms in NYC to generate an alternative means of supporting myself. When I started losing, I supplemented my income by writing about poker… something that I only thought would be a temporary thing. I quickly got swept up in the poker media during the pinnacle of the poker boom. I got a glimpse behind the scenes in the entire industry and realized there was more money to be made off the felt. I focused on the international business side of poker over the last few years. I made a significant amount of money, but I lost my soul. Six months ago, I somehow walked away from a horrendous car accident in Las Vegas. My life flashed before my eyes and I decided to eliminate the heavy veil of darkness that descended upon me via poker. I shifted focus to the artistic side of poker and cranked out what would become the first draft of the Lost Vegas manuscript. And now… I’ve come full circle. Poker is fun for me again. I’m in it for social reasons. Life is too short. Lucky for me, I realized that before it was too late.

Q: What are key improvements that you’ve seen in your game over the last six months, and what is one priority you have for improving? (Submitted by CC)

DrPauly: I stopped playing PLO cash games which was a tremendous leak for me. Sure, the swings are massive and the rush is unmatchable, but in the end, all I’m doing is satisfying a morbid addiction for action and that personal liability spilled over to the tables. Sadly, I see that happening all the time. If you have a leak in life, at some point it will come out at the tables. Plug the personal leaks, and your game will evolve.

Q: How would you describe your poker style?

DrPauly: Sedentary, with a hint of precociousness.

Q: What would be your first piece of advice for someone wanting to learn to play poker? (Submitted by Maudie)

DrPauly: Reading is fundamental to enlightenment. Always continue to educate your mind. Also, make sure you sign up for a rakeback online poker account.

Q: What level of static do you get over your poker habit? (Submitted by Drewspop)

DrPauly: The Tao of Poker was spawned almost six years ago because my non-poker friends went apeshit and created a mutiny over at my original blog, Tao of Pauly. They exiled my poker scribblings to new corner of the web which I dubbed the Tao of Poker. They all jeered and poked fun at me for getting into poker, which at the time was still considered a scummy way to make a living. My artist friends scoffed at the notion that I was a “ gambling writer” and selling out instead of focusing on my real passion… being a novelist. Meanwhile my former Wall Street friends gave me tons of shit for fleeing Wall Street for the Las Vegas Strip. They were relentless arrogant cocksuckers. Of course, five years later after the economy tanked and they lost all their equity in CDS, I’m having the last laugh because I saved all the money I made on the Tao of Poker. The last time I checked, all of my self-righteous artist friends are asking me for loans. And my former Wall Street friends are to asking me to help them find jobs in the gaming industry. The former Masters of the Universe had to fire their maids and now have to put their kids in public school.

Q: What was the first poker blog you read?

DrPauly: Iggy sent me an email telling me that he loved the Tao of Poker that he also started a poker blog. That was in 2003. We’ve been close friends ever since that initial email.

Q: Who would be at your 6-handed SNG?

DrPauly: Non-poker: Thomas Jefferson, Philip K. Dick, Jerry Garcia, Neal Cassady, and John Coltrane.

Poker: Justin Shronk (RIP), Gavin Smith, Liz Lieu, Poker Champ and Johnny Lodden.

Q: Between Nihilism and Masochism, which do you think better describes why you play poker? (Submitted by Iakaris)

DrPauly: I’m a nihilist. I believe in nothing.

Q: What’s the last book you have read?

DrPauly: The last poker book I read? Mike Mautsow’s autobiography called “Check-Raising the Devil.“ The last few non-poker books I read? “This Is Your Brain on Music” a fascinating investigation into how your brain processes sounds. I finished “Weapons of Mass Instruction” by John Taylor Gotto a former NYC school teacher who sheds light on the shadiness of compulsory schooling in America. I’m currently reading “McMafia” by Misha Glenny, which is an in depth investigation into the rise of world wide organized crime that was spawned after the fall of Communism. On deck is “Mr. Nice” an autobiography by Howard Marks, a notorious drug dealer who had links to the MI6 and the CIA.

Q: Tell us a little known fact about yourself.

DrPauly: I was playing guitar in a Steely Dan cover band in Silver Lake, but we recently broke up due to creative differences. And just this past week, I auditioned for Los Pollo Empanadas, a Latin-funk-jazz band.

Q: When in a large group, what is the most effective way you have found of subtly working into the conversation that you are a Mookie champion? (Submitted by Hoyazo)

DrPauly: When I get a big crowd at my attention, I recant the shakedown in Mexico when the federales shut down the LAPT in the middle of the tournament. That’s a nice segue to… “So once I was playing in the Mookie on Full Tilt… I had the chiplead with seven to go and over 42% of the chips in play… then the fuckin’ site crashes… and the next thing I know, I won by sheer default.”

DrPauly’s question for the next champ…

Q: Which Simpsons character best describes your poker play?

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Congrats again to DrPauly and thanks for participating in this profile.

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