Hurricane Ike and WSOP Europe

Hurricane Ike messed up Houston pretty bad. I took these pictures a few hours after the storm. All of them were taken within a quarter radial mile from where I live, so this is by no means a handpicked photojournal of the worst damage throughout the city. Michael and I did things kind of backwards: stayed here for the storm and then left shortly thereafter. We stayed in Louisiana casinos for six nights playing craps and online poker while waiting for Houston to be repaired. That trip was nearly as damaging to my bankroll as Ike was to Houston... but I guess that's fitting.





















If you look way in the background of those last two pictures, you can see the Wachovia from which those sign panels were carried by the wind. I tried lifting one of them up... it had to weigh 35-50 pounds. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the middle of that thing's flight to the other side of the street.

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Later today, I'm flying to London for WSOP Europe. I've been a little distracted from poker lately due to the financial crisis and my exposure to the Presidential election. Since I can't really control the stock market or the election, I decided to ignore that stuff for the next few days and pour all of my focus into this tournament. It looks like I'll have 100% of my action and first place should be somewhere in the $2,000,000 range. I'm ready to do what an abrupt 3-outter stopped me from doing in the American version of this tournament... crack the top 158, obv. ;)