Joe Sebok

'Black Friday' Fallout/My Final UB Statement

Mon, 09 May 2011 12:42:54 -0700

I apologize to those of you who have reached out to me recently regarding UB post Black Friday as I have been unable to comment on things. Myriad legal reasons precluded me from doing so, as well as I really haven't had any answers for anyone, and I didn't want to contribute to the panic going through the community with my own speculation or possible misinformation. I just thought that would be incredibly irresponsible. Some within the playing community wanted promises and assurances and I wouldn't have been able to make or give them. It wasn't a situation of running or hiding; I just simply couldn't contribute anything of any value and didn't want to add more noise. Additionally, I didn't want to do anything whatsoever that could possibly endanger American players getting their money back, despite not knowing what those things might be.

I'm not sure where to start with all of this. I am deeply sorry and heartbroken about player's situations on UB/AP where their money is currently frozen right now. I understand how many of you depend on this money to live and have been put in dire straits by all of this. If there was anything I could do to get your money to you, I would do it. None of us could have foretold "Black Friday" and just how black it ended up being.

When I signed with UB, I really thought I could change the world. I worked harder than any of you will ever know to try to do just that. In the end though, it seems that I was more na?ve than I thought I was. I thought that I would be able to will change to happen, as I had always been able to in past positions, but I simply didn't have that power at UB. I would make suggestions and hope that they were enacted, but that wasn't always the case, as at the end of the day I was a consultant for the company and not actually calling the shots. I don't want to give the wrong impression here though. There are some really great people at the company who work hard and try to do the right things, but there were just some obstacles I couldn't get past and realize now I probably never would.

I was never privy to the deep inner workings of the business. How money was moved around, whether it was held in segregated accounts, etc, was nothing I ever worked on, and to be honest with you, ever thought about before April 15th. I really put a lot of faith in the people I worked with, and the company itself. I really believed that management thought the past was the past and that they wanted to have things be different in the present and the future. I wanted to believe that with all of my heart, and in fact I completely staked my reputation on it.

I apologize to all of you for not being able to accomplish all that I wanted to. I never had any mal-intent and I certainly never knew of anything that I would have considered to be morally questionable. The involvement of Scott Tom, etc, if it was there, was certainly something that was always shielded from me, despite my constant questioning and bringing it up. I had many very personal conversations where things were continually refuted and my fears were assuaged in very personal ways. "Seebs, I wouldn't do that to you. You've been here through so much of this shit and I would never put you in that situation. No way.", were things that were told to me. At some point you make a decision to trust people or you just don't. I made a decision to trust. I think when all the dust settles from the current situation, we will have a better idea of how na?ve I really was. I also traveled to Costa Rica several times to view operations, and never saw anything that seemed out of the ordinary whatsoever. I inquired with staff along different levels and divisions continually to make sure stories were checking out and culture had changed for the better, and it always had.

Regarding the current state of AP/UB, I haven't given up hope that all of you will get your money back. I believe that UB is making many, many efforts to get you that money. You may say, "Well, if there were lies before..." and that's totally fair, but their is absolutely a segment of that company trying to do the right thing. I dearly hope that they are successful. I have been told by upper management that ongoing discussions have been happening between the DOJ and UB with that being the focus. There is a lot of misinformation being thrown around and it really saddens me that so many have fanned the flames of panic when, in truth, they simply do not know what is going to happen, just like me. UB and their legal team is trying to work creatively to get that money back to players, I have been told. I haven't been promised that that can happen, but I have been informed that is the goal. This was never going to be a short process though, which leaves so much room for speculation. I am trying to not engage in that, hope, and be patient. It's not easy.

I wish I had more information, as I know that's what all of you want, but I am sitting on the sidelines through all of this as well. I have no say in how things are developing. I believe there is a lot of information, as well as misinformation, coming out and I don't think any of us know what it all means quite yet. I am holding out hope that just because UB may or may not be shutting down, they will still be able to take care of all the players. I believe they want to. I know that is the goal.

I hope we will all know how this is going to shake out within a week or two. That's not a guarantee, as I don't have the ability to set a timetable, but from what I can piece together it seems like it may be a semi-reasonable one.

In closing, I want to apologize to the poker community for where I may have failed you all. I worked hard to try and accomplish a bunch of goals, more than perhaps I ever had any chance of doing. Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew, and I may have done exactly that in this situation. I'm not sorry for trying though. I honestly don't regret it. I just regret not being able to do more.

Best,
J

PS- This statement was written without regard to today's UB-sponsored pro player layoffs. I have been communicating with upper management at UB regarding the current issues. The pro's monies are still tied up on the site as well, so on that level we are all in the same situation as the general poker public.

Turning the page for the New Year at UB; Hermosa Beach, CA - Turning the page for the New Year at UB...

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 13:40:49 -0800

What an incredible couple of months it has been for us over at UB. Nothing like a little, or in this case a lot, of change to ring in a new year with excitement and freshness. 2010 sees us parting ways with two icons of the poker world, Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke. These two legends in our industry have, quite literally, helped to build UB into what it is today. Phil and Annie have been the face of the company for years now, and we thank them for their unbelievable contributions and bid them the utmost in success moving forward. With that said, we look forward to 2011, and I believe it will be the finest year that we have ever had at UB...

We plan on kicking things off with our UBOC6 in January, and things simply just keep getting better and better with our UBOC's. They keep growing and the player's keep getting more and more excited about them every time out. We are, of course, looking for our sixth iteration to be even bigger and better than the last five. Should be some serious fun with over $5 million in guaranteed money, a high roller event, watches given away to event winners, and of course the chance to compete with Team UB in each and every event.

Speaking of Team UB, while it's true that two of our members have moved on, don't think that we aren't restocking the talent. We'll be announcing our newest Team UB member next week and I am crazily pumped about it. UB has, and will continue to have, a whole new look and feel for our team and our newest signing exemplifies that, so stay tuned for that announcement next week. Going to be a bit of a doozy...

A whole new marketing direction will be another new addition in 2011, so get set for that change as well. We are going to be redefining what UB is, what poker is, and what it is to be a member of the strongest online poker community there is. There will be new additions to the game client, some incredible new functionality that you've only just dreamed of yet, and more little nuggets that I don't quite want to let out of the bag yet. Let's just say that we are going to be bringing more of the feel and nuances of live poker directly into your online UB experience, so buckle up...

A lot more surprises and changes are in the coming this year, and I think that all of you are going to be very pleasantly surprised at how we are pushing the envelope for you for now, as well as the future. Here's to 2011 and here's to innovation...

peace,

UB Hand Histories Follow Up; Los Angeles, CA

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:19:49 -0700

http://blog.ub.com/2010/11/hand-histories/

The long-awaited blog from Paul Leggett at UB has finally dropped and we have some clarification on what has happened to the missing hand histories that we all have wanted to see so badly. By all admissions, even Paul's, this is not the resolution that we all were looking for. The data missing is about as disappointing as it gets and I'm left thinking, "Where do we go from here?" The only reasonable solution seems to me to have a third party group come in and confirm the findings that the Excapsa hardware/software/what have you did in fact fail in some way and that data is no longer there or retrievable. I think this is logical and will hopefully give us the final answer on this matter.

I would like to offer that possibility up to a third party group; the opportunity to come in and be able to examine the drives to determine their own findings in the matter. If there is a group that is interested in doing this please contact UB, or myself, and this is something that can now be arranged. My only caveat though is that it simply has to be a group that is only interested in discovering the truth in this matter. I always said that I didn't trust two kinds of people when I first started working on all of this: 1) those people who desperately wanted to prove that UltimateBet had no fault in any of this and were perfect, and 2) those people who vehemently wanted to prove that UltimateBet was the devil and wanted to crucify them. Both of those opinions are simply far too fraught with veiled interests here to have any real or trustable conclusions. With that said, please step up if you are interested in examining the UB files/drives, etc.

I think it's important, as unpopular as it might be, to point out that the current regime at UB isn't the one responsible for all of this. They aren't the individuals who cheated their customers, and they aren't the individuals who reportedly used poor software/poor hardware/poor methodology to store data and information. That's not to say that the new regime hasn't made mistakes along the way, we know that they have, but the individuals that you really want, and the issues that come up time and time again are from the past group who owned and ran UltimateBet at that time. I wish that we could just scoop those people up and prosecute them for all of this, but that's impossible at this time, as we know.

We still want to make it as right as we can, and I still would like to be a conduit to serve that purpose. The final step in that process may just be having a new group come in and take a look at things, so here's to that happening soon. Please throw your hat into the ring if you are interested...

peace,
J

PS- I also wanted to clear up a few things that I am getting information on from my side of the ball:

1. Uri Kozai, from all of the information that I have been told, is actually one of the persons responsible for much of the mistakes that were made with the data. I was told that his company supported the data and that that company was responsible for the loss of it.

2. The earlier script which was written and pulled some of the hand histories out based on when the "suspect" did not contribute to the pot in any way is completely different from the current information about the hand histories which have been lost entirely. That script that was used to pull data for players that requested their hand histories against the cheating accounts pulled every hand in which the suspect contributed to the pot. There may have been gaps in these hands for two reasons; a) The suspect folded preflop, b) The data for those hands was lost. As explained the financial records for all hands played by the cheating accounts are intact, missing hole card data has no repercussions on player's refunds. Missing hole card data has no repercussions on player's net win/loss against the cheating accounts.

3. Another point to hit on briefly is one that Paul touched on in his initial blog. The length of time that it took to get to this point was massively affected by the fact that UB has been trying to recover the lost hand histories for quite some time. It seems that often there would be a possibility of recovering them or the potential to do so, and then would not pan out. This kept pushing things back further.

Usual Madness, Life is Grand; Las Vegas, NV

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:44:17 -0700

Just arrived in Vegas yesterday and it's going to be a seriously busy week or so. This is all on the tails of just leaving Florida (for an incredible charity event with Vinny Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning) and also heading down to the UB offices in Costa Rica to get working on some interesting marketing possibilities. I think it's going to be a fun year...

Let me talk about the NOW though. It all kicks off tomorrow when I will be teaching a morning (class? lecture? discussion?) talk for the WPT Boot Camps over at the Golden Nugget. I consider myself to be much more of a facilitator rather than a teacher, so I think it's going to be a lot of hands-on discussions more than anything else. Going to be talking about being a pro poker player, what it's all about, and considerations thereof. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous. I don't lecture so it's out of my comfort zone a bit. My guess is that I'll just try and make everyone laugh...like I always do.

As soon as that is finished up though, I need to head on over to the Rio for a truly incredible event. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the Special Olympics event, "Over The Edge". Basically we raise money for Special Olympics, obviously try and get more of the word out, and contribute as much as we can. The kicker is this though; we are also rappelling down the face of the Rio to support. That's right, attached to a rope and climbing down the damn building. Once again, I am more than a little nervous, but what am I going to do? Say no? Come on. Not my style. I'm pumped for it and I think it's going to be an amazing experience.

All of this fun tomorrow, not to even mention the fact that next week we are finally going to be jumping out of an airplane for the "Skydive With Sebok" tournament that was won so long ago. As it turned out the winner of that tourney was a Russian chap who wasn't able to get his visa sorted out to come to Las Vegas. We made sure we kicked him a little something though and my boy, Jared Weston, who finished in second place, is going to be jumping with his guest, his dad. I think him bringing his pops is incredible and I can't wait for that day. I think it's going to be absolutely killer. Love jumping out of planes!

All that AND the WPT Bellagio beginning next week?! I can barely catch my breath, and I love it like that. Nothing more fun that doing good things with good people and having a ton of fun along the way. Well, that and maybe winning about a million at Bellagio would be nice. Haha...

In closing, just wanted to throw a little love out to the toughest girl in poker, Thuy Doan. She is struggling with her cancer again and while everyone is talking about how unfair it is and what bullshit it is, Thuy is going about her business fighting her ass off, smiling, and not complaining for a second. We can all learn an amazing lesson from her. She's in my thoughts, and I dearly hope that she will be in all of yours.

Hope all are doing ok out there...

peace,
J

UB Scandal Saga-Last 12 Months; Hermosa Beach, CA

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:42:05 -0700

Roughly one year ago I signed with UB, and pledged to put in as much effort as was possible to do three things; 1) get the account names involved in the super-user scandal released, 2) get all the hand histories out to those who requested them during the cheating scandal, and 3) attempt to get out the physical names of the actual cheaters, and those who helped them cheat, released to the public...

We were able to accomplish #1 fairly quickly. #2 has proven more difficult for a number of data reasons on the Cereus network side. It seems there were many issues when the network was began and the old data/servers were migrated/changed/what have you. I have had many talks with Paul about this and he has offered to write a blog to attempt to clear up exactly what the issues are on the UB side in terms of this data. I appreciate this greatly as he understands those processes many times better than I ever could. I have been just as frustrated as many of you at how long this whole process has taken. It creates a picture that suggests that UB may be hiding something, when I don't believe that to be the case. However, I live and work in LA, not Costa Rica, so in all honesty I can only do so much to move things along there. While I communicate and work with the team almost daily in some capacity, I can't actually go and retrieve the data myself and I don't face the same issues and problems that they do with doing so. That's a mouthful, all leading to just saying that Paul will address why we have had some problems with hand histories in his own blog, and I'm hoping that will clarify the situation for many of you.

Even with those issues, I believe that we have gotten out upwards of 90% of old hand histories back to people who have requested them. At least those that have come across my desk. In most cases, the requests were legit and people have been great to work with. They have been frustrated, as I have, when we have hit snags, but generally understanding and overall very cool. There were many people who thought they might have been cheated, but more often then not the people who contacted me were just angry and wanted to vent. I completely understand that position and was more than happy to listen to them, as well as look into their cases. Most of these ended in dead ends though, obviously.

Now, #3 was always going to be more of a bitch, for several legal reasons. To say that the information was murky and many individuals who were directly involved would never talk to us is certainly an understatement. Nevertheless I believe that the poker community deserves some answers and some justice, in as much as that justice can be delivered. With that mindset I set about trying to put together what I could to make this a reality. I began working on a list, culled from many different sources. Some were at UB, some were outside of UB, people who knew the situations and knew the people involved. I always knew that I would need much outside help other than just sources for this story and thus once I had what I felt was a good list of people to work from, hopefully very close to the actual KGC list, then I went to where the intelligence was on this matter: the forums.

I quickly discovered that there was one main authority and that was "Mookman", from the 2+2 community. I asked him to take the list that I had put together and add as much information as was possible, as well as add his own names to the list, which he did. He worked his ass off and did an incredible job putting the meat on this skeleton that I had brought to him. I finally felt that we had a solid list that we could do some investigating from. A lot of time passed here though and things didn't move quite as quickly as I had hoped they would. I wanted to partner up with another site, as I felt that putting out the information from me or putting it out through PokerRoad.com was just too much of a conflict of interest. I wanted all of you to know that many hands were involved in this process, and it wasn't just myself putting something together alone, and thus several third parties outside of UB have worked on the list and the story.

I approached several sites to run the story with me, but for various reasons they decided not to. Finally I sat down with the team over at WickedChopsPoker and we put together a plan to actually investigate the names on our list, talk to the people, reach out where we could to individuals from the past with all of this scandal, and just try and put something concrete down. WCP had already done quite a bit of their own investigating, including chasing Russ Hamilton down on camera a while back, so in many ways it was a continuation of some of the work they had already been familiar with. When I say "we" I really mean "they" here quite often. WCP has done an incredible job over the last 3 months of seeking people out, finding ways to talk to them, and piecing this whole thing together. I owe them an incredible debt in helping me to make this happen. None of us necessarily feels that our story is the final word in this matter, we do feel that we have taken it just about as far as we personally could, and also hope that more individuals come forward to fill in more pieces.

With that, probably most of you have read the posts on WCP and if you haven't, you should:

Part I: http://wickedchopspoker.com/the-ultimatebet-super-user-scandal-part-i/

Part II: http://wickedchopspoker.com/the-ulti...matebet-super-user-cheating-scandal-part-ii/#more-8541

I know that many will not be won over by these names, this list, or this story that we have put out. Many will say that I am just part of some UB propaganda machine, and that it is all a snow job. This couldn't be further from the truth. Now, the story may not be complete somehow, or we may have been lied to at some point along the way, but this story with these names is what we have found over the last 12 months of tireless work from many individuals. This story and these names are what I believe is the closest we will ever get to arriving at the truth in this scandal. I understand it's not as sexy as everyone would like it to be. Many out there want us to name Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, and a whole host of other professional players who were involved in this cheating, but that's just simply not what we found. I delved into the scandal with one singular goal, and that was to discover as much of the truth as was possible. I immediately became distrusting of two kinds of people: a) those that wanted to prove that UB was innocent and everything was perfect there now, and b) those that desperately wanted to vilify UB and condemn them moving forward. Both of those viewpoints seemed couterproductive to my quest to find the truth. With that said, the story presented is the reality as we have researched it and put it together.

To those that want more done in this matter, I simply say that I agree with you and would like to accomplish more. I wish we were a police force, but we are not. I wish we could really round up all of these people and interrogate them, but we can't. I believe we did as much as we possibly could to this end though. I also wish we were a court and we could try them all and jail the convicted, but again, we cannot do this. The poker community would be a better place if we could, but as of right now this just isn't possible. If it was, believe me, I would be working on it.

Finally, other than the big 3 goals mentioned above I also developed another final one; to see if there was anyone from either of the cheating scandals at UB and AP that was still involved in the company in any way. I have heard whispers, as well as yells, about former employees still being involved in the company who were also involved in the cheating scandals. I have researched them time and time again, spoken with countless sources, and spoken with the accusers and every time I have been unable to come up with any proof at all that any of those individuals are still with, or involved with the company in any way. At this point I am going to need a little more than just hearing from someone that one or more of those former cheaters are still at UB or AP. The time for talk has come to an end and the time for proof is now. To this day, I still haven't seen anything pointing towards these accusations being true, other than "so and so said this" and "this person swears it". Obviously, if there is real evidence, I would want to see it and the poker community needs to see it. That just simply hasn't happened.

Personally, it has been a difficult road for me. I have had fans call me out personally as a cheater, and insinuate that I am now a cheating poker player. This couldn't be further from the truth. While you could criticize my decision to join UB, but please always try and remember one thing: we are on the same side. We all are engaged in the search for truth, whatever that truth might be. Besides, if I was now a cheating poker player, don't you think I would perhaps WIN a little more than I do? Ha. Sorry, had to...

I digress though. When I signed with UB I wanted to be a part of something moving forward. I knew that there was unfinished business from the past though to be dealt with and thus I set upon trying to handle that first. I believe that, as much as it can be done, we have done that. I don't know any other way to make things right with the scandal from the past. I wasn't there when it happened and I can't provide those answers always, but I truly believe that we have done all that we can do here. I know a lot of you out there will never be satisfied and I commend you for your dedication. I really do. Something terrible happened and I understand anyone's decision to never come back. I, however, think it is time to look to the future of UB, rather than continuing to live in the past.

With that said, I am excited to be able to hopefully close this chapter and move onto the next. Now, if anything else pops up I will be happy to get back into it and delve further, but as of right now, as of August 2010, I don't see any deeper I can get into this scandal or any more we can do to close it. I think the next year or two are going to be the most exciting in UB's history and I am happy to now turn my attention and focus towards that. I understand if many of you do not want to join along, but for those who are up for it, it's going to be one hell of a ride...

Thank you to all of those who have put in time with me over the last year on this. I appreciate all of your efforts and am happy that we all wanted the same thing in the end: the truth.

On to bigger and better times...

peace,
J

PS- I just wanted to add that most of the people we have spoken with agree with this version of the scandal story. I have had some people come to me over and over saying that it isn't true and there are so many things going on I am unaware of, and this and that. I have always said the same thing, "No problem. Just show me something, other than your word, or someone in the forums saying it is so, and I will immediately get into it". They have never been able to actually show me a piece of proof. It is always just someone saying something. I need more than that at this point. If I ever do get more than that though, I promise you, I will reopen myself to the scandal all over again...

And We All Exhaled; Hermosa Beach, CA

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 23:42:44 -0700

WSOP I

Another WSOP passed us in the blink of an eye. Jeez, it came just as quickly as it was gone. Almost feels like it didn't happen at all. It's funny, leading up to the beginning of the WSOP, no one can possibly imagine spending every waking moment at the Rio, and then 2 days later...it's like we never even left the year before. The human mind is a strange, strange thing sometimes...

My WSOP was...bizarre. I played about 13 or so events, cashed my first one out of the gate, and thought I was poised for a great series. My first 6 events or so I made four day 2's, but always seem to hit some shit luck on those day 2's. I mean, some really gross luck. Despite that though, I was quite happy with my play and felt great, still very confident that '10 was going to be a great year for me. As the series wore on though, I wasn't able to make much headway or push through on the felt in any way. It's always difficult to tell, as a bad run goes on, just if you are running bad or beginning to play bad. I knew I was running bad during the WSOP, but I suspect I began playing worse and worse as I didn't achieve the results I wanted to. Poker is a fickle lover though, and we all know that tune of the song...

I thought the Main Event would change things and I was poised to make another run like last year's, but it was the same 'ol 2010 song, as I simply couldn't win a hand on that day 1. I always had the worst hand and my opponents just had me in trouble all day, so a deep run there was not to be.

Besides, there's always next year...

WSOP II

On a much happier note, much like last year, there were some amazing days during the Series. Last year it was my boy Brian Lemke, Shronk's cousin, who took down his first bracelet and I began a friendship with. This year it was one of my oldest friends in poker, Gavin Smith, who we welcomed into that bracelet club...along with a family member, my cousin, Mike Linn. We all know Gav's tales of chasing that elusive hardware and poker, truly the entire community, rejoiced when he took his down. It was a very special night for my friend, and I was so happy for him.

Now, the name Mike Linn most of you probably do not know...but you will. His bracelet this year was just the first of many he is going to win. He is a beast on the tables and has been online for quite some time now. You'll be hearing plenty from him in the years to come...trust me on this one. Also, a very special night. To be able to sweat him to a late night win was so cool for me.

The combination of these two days helped erase my own frustrations about my lack of results and just celebrate with these two chaps...great stuff...

PokerRoad Radio

It seems that PRR has hit a bit of the end of the road with Gavin DEFINITELY retiring from the show. He says he won't be back, but I know the Caveman and we'll see him from time to time pop up on a show. He likes it more than he lets on. Gav has been incredible over the years, working with me for nothing, staying after he busts at tournaments, and just helping build up some of my projects on his back. We will miss him terribly, but that goes without saying.

We are still figuring out what the next step is for the show. I just can't imagine that people want to keep listening to me prattle on about nothing for another year, so we are probably going to look at a few possible options. It's a tough job though, so not sure who wants to step up and take on the reigns. PokerRoad is a living, breathing organism though, so whoever drives the ship will have plenty of support from the team, as well as the community...

I've been trying to relax a bit since the WSOP, but that really hasn't been working. With weddings and bachelor parties, not to mention simply my own personal madness rolling around in my head, rest and relaxation is a difficult thing to find. We'll find a little somehow though, I promise you that...

Be looking for the conclusion of the "UB Scandal" piece on WickedChopsPoker.com very soon. Looking forward to getting the rest of that information out. Also, Paul owes me a few blogs (and by owe, I mean I have begged him to write them...haha) about questions regarding past/current UB employees and some of the data issues we have had with some of the hand histories as well. As always, lots to work on, lots to accomplish...

Until then...

peace,

Summer Is In Full Swing; Las Vegas, NV

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:40:04 -0700

Whew, so much to cover this time of year. The poker world is going a mile-a-minute and it's tough for anyone to catch their breath right now, but it's something that we all love. If you aren't happy during the WSOP (well, I guess that's a sort of day to day thing...haha) then you just aren't a poker player.

WSOP

My WSOP has been pretty strange this year. I've probably played about 9 events and only have 1 cash to show for it. You would think I would be pulling my hair out and gnashing my teeth every day, but I'm really not. I've played deep in almost every event, with a nice slow and steady build of my chips all day, and very often into day two of any given event. It seems that I lose steam about there though, as I either have been taking a beat or losing a big race at a critical time, which is obviously pretty tough to guard against. I couldn't be more pleased with my play though, and I expect to break through sometime soon as long as I keep my head in this positive space and keep playing my game.

I think this is the best poker I have played since we started PokerRoad about 3 years ago, so I'm happy about that. The poker tournament gods are finicky though and things need to align perfectly to final table, and eventually take down, an event. It's coming though. I'm building up stacks and playing too well for it to not. I hope. Haha...

I'm very happy that Paul has begun writing more blogs, and writing them more frequently. We sit down and discuss things often and I always want him to tell the public the things that he tells me so people can get more of a feel of his position and understand the difference between fact and rumors. Be looking for more of those as the weeks go by addressing things like A) UB's place in the industry, B) the technical issues with getting hand histories from before the Cereus network was began, and C) the rumors that old employees and owners are still involved in the company and are running things. I think it's important to simply open up lines of communication and let information flow and I'm happy we are doing that better now. Here's his most recent: http://blog.ultimatebet.com/2010/06/blogging-blogs/

Be looking for the full story from the super-user scandal on WickedChopsPoker over the next week or so. Part 1 is here: http://wickedchopspoker.com/the-ultimatebet-super-user-scandal-part-i/ , with part 2 to come next week. I'll write a blog following up once the boys over there are done putting it all together.

That's all I've got, kiddies. Looking forward to game 7 tonight. Would have been an incredible one had Perkins not gone down for the Celtics, but we'll take what we can get. It's already been a great sports summer for me, as my Blackhawks took down the Stanley Cup this year! That drought was ended fantastically and I got to believe all my sports teams aren't cursed for a year! Life is great...

Talk to ya...

peace,

Regular Blogs From UB COO Paul Leggett; Las Vegas, NV

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:16:47 -0700

There are so many questions swirling around UB and past issues, as well as some current ones, that it seemed to make sense to establish some sort of regular communication between UB management and the poker community. I attempt to answer as many as I can but the truth is that many of them I simply do not have answers for. I don't work in Costa Rica obviously and I do not actually run the company, and thus often don't have responses to specific questions. Rather than me try to come up with them, which would be unfair to the poker community, I sat down with COO Paul Leggett and we both agreed that it made more sense for him to begin a regular blog answering questions that I bring to him. To his credit, he loved the idea and agreed to begin immediately, doing a biweekly address.

It's my hope that this will begin a dialogue of sorts, in which I may serve as a conduit to Paul, bringing him the most pertinent questions that the poker community has to ask, and then he can supply those answers, hopefully dissuading many of the negative rumors that sprout up online. Regardless, it will begin a back and forth through which we will all learn more about situations that it seems so many of us talk about continually.

When Paul writes a blog, I will also write a blog, letting you know that his is out there and you can, as always, send me questions and follow up questions, to pose to him. With that, here is the first blog from Paul, addressing UB's formula for how UB's refunds were calculated...

http://blog.ultimatebet.com/2010/05/coo-blogging/

Subsequent blogs will attack bigger and headier issues. Again, I can't thank Paul enough for agreeing to this arrangement. Most in his position would not...

Talk soon...

peace,

UB Encryption Issues; Los Angeles, CA

Tue, 11 May 2010 12:17:51 -0700

Sorry for the delay everyone. It was one of my best friend's bachelor parties and I obviously needed to attend that this past weekend.

It goes without saying that everyone is shocked and concerned, rightfully so, over the most recent UB security issues that have gone down. I have received numerous emails from people asking me how another cheating scandal could have gone on there. This is not true. There has not be another incident of cheating that has been found, but rather a scary security hole that was discovered. This is an email that I received that I wanted to share with you all with some inside information directly from UB:

"I wanted to touch base with all of you as I know there was some concern with this recent encryption issue found on our network.
Please understand we fully see the frustration you have with this type of issue as we do as well. However, I am very confident in stating this was a relatively small issue and one that was remedied quickly. Please remember that for someone to have exploited this vulnerability, they would have to have the technical capabilities to crack the encryption/cypher method that we used prior and they would have also had to hack into your local network in order to gain access to sensitive data. It is possible that a hacker could try to develop a system to intercept communication through the internet but this is even more complicated and we believe it is even less likely than the first scenario described.
The method we used for encryption/cyphering was outdated. As soon as they reported the issue to us, we immediately began working on solutions. We released a new version of our software the next morning to address the security vulnerability.
Again, we have no reason to believe anyone has exploited this vulnerability but we have just begun investigating users that our players have requested. We are reviewing all serious complaints to see if any player was able to exploit this vulnerability and we will investigate any other serious requests we receive.
We fixed this issue by implementing a more advanced multi-layer encryption, and we have also implemented logic that will prevent any manipulation of this encryption.
We have also started working on a more advanced solution, which is the implementation of the OpenSSL standard for our client encryption. We expect to have this live in a few days.
We have been in communication with 3^rd party companies who we will be working with us to test the new encryption that we are using and the OpenSSL version that we are working on now. We are also discussing the possibility of PokerTableRatings (PTR) engaging the poker community and auditing our complete security in order to ensure we are doing everything possible to provide a secure gaming environment."

Clearly with the history that UB has had, everyone was incredibly concerned about the situation. It seems that it has been dealt with at this point and it is my hope that ANY members of the poker community get involved and attempt to test the security as they can. I have spoke with CEO Paul Leggett and he has assured me that he welcomes any and all of those members to not only test security but also to go through past records as well regarding other issues that many still feel that haven't been addressed.

I continue to work with the team over there to attempt to make sure that there are open lines of communication between the poker community as a whole and the UB management. I have asked Paul to write a semi-regular blog addressing some of the issues that some of the poker bloggers bring up and he has agreed that that is a good idea and something that we need to do. Whether it is hand-histories, ownership issues, or security ones like the one above, often I am not in a position to directly answer them as I do not work in Costa Rica at the home offices and actually help run the company. I advise, and again, try to serve as a conduit for information to flow through when issues are brought up, but in truth I don't often have the answers. I wasn't with UB when many of the negative issues originally happened and thus don't always know the answers, but I want to be able to put Paul in a position where he can answer them. I am hoping that this will bring more truth into the light and hopefully assuage people's fears.

On the latest issue, Paul has instructed me that he is currently working on a list of FAQ's that UB will be using when they call players as well as posting on the blog. He will be posting that later on in this week.

As always, I can be emailed for any number of issues from anyone in the community. I am continuing to attempt to handle most hand-history related questions, although some are in the queue. I always have some frustration at the time that it takes to get things sorted out, as well as the fact that there are some issues on the UB side with retrieving the data occasionally, I'm usually told that are based in the fact that the Cereus network was began not too long ago and much of that data is held elsewhere. I would like Paul to write a blog explaining the issue there as well...

That's it for now. Talk soon...

peace,
J

Another Birthday, Baby; Los Angeles, CA - Getting Old(er) Is Cool; Los Angeles, CA

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:49:35 -0700

Well, I am officially the big 3-3 as of this week. Where does the time go, man? I swear, just yesterday I was at Cal, going to football games, going out, studying here and there and just living the life of a college kid. The time goes quickly. Sometimes too quickly, sometimes not quickly enough. I will tell you this though: make sure that you have no regrets. Live your life the way that you want to live it, with no compromises. We only have one go at this thing and you need to chase whatever dreams you have, while you have them, as things change quicker than you think.

I finished up school in '99 and have been all over the place since then. I have lived in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. I have started businesses, changed careers several times over, driven all over the USA, slept in my truck on many more than one occasion, and somehow have found myself in the position that I am in today: living in Hermosa Beach, right outside of LA, running my own business, involved in a company that is pressing forward into an exciting future, and in a career that I could never have seen coming...like ever. I am so damn lucky, it's just stupid really. I get to be on a television show, as well as a regular radio program as well. Like I said, just stupid lucky. Through it all though, there has been one constant...and that would be chasing my dreams and not compromising on what I wanted out of life. I might just be the luckiest person in the world. I really believe that if you chase what you want though, you will wind up in that position. It's truly incredible.

I get to have way more fun that any person could ever reasonably expect, and I have surrounded myself with people that I probably don't deserve. My friends and family help me in countless ways that they will never understand and I could never thank them enough for that. I was really touched by a famous quote from the last year that I really think sums up life so well, and so effortlessly:

""...nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen..."

It was said by Conan O'Brien in the midst of all the turmoil over his former show at NBC. Somehow in the midst of all that bullshit, he had the ability to take a step back and see his life for what it was: a gift. He understood that we all end up in different places than we though we would, but that those places are incredible and wonderful in their own ways. I really try and live by that quote and keep my head held high when things might not be going the direction that I want them to be going. To understand how lucky each and every one of us really is is an incredible thing...and we are all that lucky.

Stay positive. Stay true to yourself. Work your ass off. Love people and treat them well.

You'll be alright if you just keep these things in mind as you travel through this life. These are the thoughts that are rambling around my head on the eve of my 33rd birthday...

Get after it, people. Life is out there to be had, but you have to take it.

peace,

Falling Star This Year; San Jose, CA

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:19:39 -0800

***warning: whine-fest about to commence*** haha...

Well, broken record time. 2010 is starting to shape up pretty brutally thus far. I am in one of the worst runs of my professional career, ever since the Main Event at the WSOP last summer. I can't do a thing, regardless of what I try. If I zig, I should have zagged and vice versa. When I raise, I should have just called and when I get aggressive my opponent's always seem to have the goods...

Came into San Jose to play one of my favorite tournaments of the year, the Shooting Star here, and my ass just got waxed. I lost basically every single hand from the moment I sat down and it wasn't even a little pretty. I actually had a hand where I held AK vs. Soheil Shamseddin's J3...and I won it! Joe Stapleton let me know that that was the first all in that he had seen me win since the WSOP. "No, is that even possible?!", I thought to myself. That is really scary if so. I mean, sickly scary. I did win that one, however, but the very next hand I lost it all back, and then some, with my 99 vs. Soheil's KQ. Had I won that one I could have righted myself and gotten back into the game. It didn't happen however and I finally lost when my AK was cracked by my opponent's AJ in gross fashion. He ended up going runner runner straight on me and that was that. Big time garbage cans. Big time.

Sooooo, what next? I'm running so filthy bad, but I can't help that. Is it affecting my play? Probably, in subtle ways, that I may not even realize. Seems that I just need to play through it though if I feel that it is mostly just running bad. At any rate, something must give eventually, as the universe is really racking up some variance and owes me pretty huge. If you play poker, you go through these times and that's just the way that it is. I'm actually very lucky in many respects; I have so many other projects that can take my mind off of being so frustrated with the game itself, that it really is a blessing. Most players can only focus on the game more, and that can be bad sometimes...

I'll keep plugging though. I always do. No quit in this Seebs...not now, not ever...

Sorry for the whine-fest, ya'll! Just whats going on is all...

peace,

25k Sin City Blues; Las Vegas, NV

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:45:19 -0800

Real bummer of a trip to Las Vegas this go around. I came out for the NAPT 25k High-Roller event, which was actually a very cool format. It was a shootout with 7 tables of 7 players each. You win your table and you move on, pick up $75k and get to compete for the win. I even had a table that was on the easier side, comparably that is. Obviously all these tables were absolute killers. It was myself, Phil Laak, Justin Bonomo, David Williams, Joe Cassidy, Yevgeny Timoshenko, and Tommy Vedes. I was pumped and ready to get things rolling...

Sadly for me though, I was never able to get anything going. I have been on this streak lately of simply never picking up any hands and never making any hands either. Over the 4.5 hours that I played I picked up four hands: A4 suited, KQ suited, AJ off and 44, once. I got into one lucky spot when I got Tommy to move into me when I held that A4 on a flop of A72, with him holding 88. It wasn't to be though, as he took the hand down with a runner-runner flush. Had I won that hand I would have had some breathing room and had a chance to perhaps start to play. It seems that I am always operating from a short-stack for quite some time now and it's killing my ability to ever make any moves or be aggressive at all. I busted 4th out of the 7 and didn't make a dime. Ugh, something's gotta give before the LAPC starts this weekend. I'm not one to complain about running bad, but man, it's time to start to reverse all of that as soon as possible...

On a brighter note, "Poker2Nite" returns next week, this time on a new channel, Versus. I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of network programming, but most people I have spoken with think that this is a very good change, with the only downside being the dispute between Versus and DirecTV, so let's hope somehow that gets ironed out sometime soon.

Gonna head back to LA soon. This trip just has left a really bad taste in my mouth all the way around...

Holler at you...

peace,

My Skydive Freeroll on Ub...PASSWORD!!; Los Angeles, CA

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:01:50 -0800

Password is released! Get on this...Now!

Password reveal video: http://www.skydivewithsebok.com/password/

1. Download the UB client if you don't already have it: http://www.pokerroad.com/click.php?name=ub_sebok728x90_2

2. Click on the "Tourneys" tab

3. Click on the "Freerolls" tab

4. Scroll down and open up event "Seboks Leap Of Faith" (it's in BLUE!)

5. Enter password: rainingsebok

Do it! Do it! Do it! FREE TOURNAMENT!!

******************************************************************************************************************

Sometimes I really love my life. Love it! This blog has 2 parts, so please be sure to read both!

"Sebok's Leap of Faith"

We hatched up something pretty sick over at UB for an incredible giveaway that I have been wanting to do since I first arrived there, and they are finally giving me the opportunity to do it! Winning money at poker is great, obviously, and it's why we play the game in addition to the thrill of winning, competition, etc., but let's come up with something more. I always wanted to give winners in tournaments something more than cash, something that they can't do just anywhere, and finally I can. Over at UB we are holding a freeroll tournament complete with $2000 in cash and prizes, but the first place prize is a little different this go around...

1st place in the "Sebok's Leap of Faith" freeroll gets to fly out to Vegas, with a guest, and come skydiving with me!

Yep, that's right. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you have seen the strip off in the distance rocketing up at you at 200 mph. Sick! For those of you who are a little spooked at the notion of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane though, I totally understand. If someone takes down the tournament but doesn't wanna go skydiving, we have an equally awesome experience out in Vegas that doesn't require you hurtling yourself towards the Earth. I'm cooking up something and I'll let you know soon...

To follow updates, be sure to hit http://www.skydivewithsebok.com/.

Either way, we will have a blast in Vegas, get into some crazy stuff, and we can chat about anything that might be rolling around that head of yours...

Sooooo, here are the details: the freeroll (as in completely free entry) is going to be on February 17th at 9pm (est), 6pm (pst), and we will figure out when we can fly you out to Vegas after we have a winner! This is so sick, and something I have wanted to give to someone for a long time! Also, keep in mind, there just may be a few cameos from professional players who might make the jump with us. Not promising anything, but there is quite a lot of interest and I know quite a lot of pro poker players. Yesssss!

Get on this! The freeroll will require a password to enter and we'll get all of that info out to you guys shortly. The password will be released via the UB Twitter account so be sure you're following http://www.twitter.com/ultimate_bet to get the inside scoop!

"UB Pro Competition"

Alright, I told you guys that this email had a second part and here it is: Not only do I get to throw this unbelievable freeroll and jump out of a plane with one of YOU, but we are also having a little competition over at UB amongst the pros. That's right, a few of the gang will also be cooking up their own experiences and throwing their own freerolls and we'll have our own winner for whose does the best. So, suffice it to say: WE NEED TO WIN THIS THING!

Not only for pride, but the WINNER of the UB competition gets a night out on the town in Vegas, complete with dinner, drinks, and perhaps a show or club (Do I smell another Twitter contest here??), and the LOSER has to serve as concierge for the entire night! That's right! Sweet monkeys swinging in a tree, please help me to make sure that Annie or Phil have to wait on me! I can think of nothing sweeter than ordering either of them around as their faces turn a nice shade of crimson. "They're putting too much lime in their vodka tonics at this bar, Annie. Can you come over and speak to them about it...in person???" Wahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

So there you have it, everyone. The complete two-part breakdown. We are going to have some serious fun so get yourself into their tournament, both to help yourself win a trip out to Vegas for some good times, but also to help me take down this competition!

Gonna be some serious fun...holler at you all soon...

peace,

Haley's Blog, Tattoos, & Skydiving; Los Angeles, CA

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:35:00 -0800

Haley's UB Hand History Blog

I had Haley Hintze's blog brought to my attention recently (http://haleyspokerblog.blogspot.com/). She brought up a few good questions in relation to some UB hand histories that Bear had received. She had combed through Bear's UB histories and had found there were many hand numbers that were out of sequence, would jump around, or would be missing entirely. Naturally you want to know what was up with that and where those hands went. Soooo, I shot a message to UB security to get an explanation...

They hollered back and told me:

"Transactions that have no monitory value or financial impact on the hand have not been considered. Transactions types like sitting at a table or balance that have no wagering implications on the hand have been excluded. All other transactions types have been considered."

So what the balls does that mean? It basically means that that the script that is used to retrieve the hands from the database only considers hands where the suspect contributes to the pot, hands where the suspect is sitting at the table but is sitting out or folds preflop are not retrieved. This applies to all hand histories that have been sent out. The data guy has mentioned that this is because the script to retrieve hands pulls hands where the suspect contributes to the pot and not hands where the suspect is simply dealt cards.

Just wanted to pass along the information as it came to me...

LAPC Tattoo Prop Bet

Well, I have to be honest, not really stoked about this tattoo prop bet coming up at LAPC between myself, Gavin, and Madsen...now that BOTH of them have won tournaments in the last month (congrats, boys). Do I have some seriously solid timing or what? We'll gut it out though and try to outlast those currently-crushing-tournaments-goofballs though. No quit! No surrender!

This could quite possibly be the stupidest prop bet in history and whoever loses it (keep in mind there are 2 losers) is going to be pissed. It's not going to be funny or silly, it's just going to suck. I made a late plea to call off the bet in the name of sanity, but it was shot down, so on we go! I tried, people, I tried...

Come Skydiving With Me!

Also, don't forget to hop into my freeroll coming up on Feb 17th at 9pm est/6pm pst! It is going to be sick fun and the winner gets a trip out to Vegas to come and jump out of a plane with me, and whoever else I can lock up to do the same! www.skydivewithsebok.com. You've gotta get on this!

Holler at ya'll soon...

peace,

Seboks Leap of Faith Freeroll; Los Angeles, CA

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:19:30 -0800

Sometimes I really love my life. Love it! This blog has 2 parts, so please be sure to read both!

"Sebok's Leap of Faith"

1st place in the "Sebok's Leap of Faith" freeroll gets to fly out to Vegas, with a guest, and come skydiving with me!

To follow updates, be sure to hit http://www.skydivewithsebok.com/.

Either way, we will have a blast in Vegas, get into some crazy stuff, and we can chat about anything that might be rolling around that head of yours...

"UB Pro Competition"

Gonna be some serious fun...holler at you all soon...

peace,

"Sebok's Leap of Faith" Freeroll; Los Angeles, CA

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:51:35 -0800

Sometimes I really love my life. Love it! This blog has 2 parts, so please be sure to read both!

"Sebok's Leap of Faith"

1st place in the "Sebok's Leap of Faith" freeroll gets to fly out to Vegas, with a guest, and come skydiving with me.

Either way, we will have a blast in Vegas, get into some crazy stuff, and we can chat about anything that might be rolling around that head of yours...

Get on this! The freeroll will require a password to enter and we'll get all of that info out to you guys shortly, probably first released first via the UB Twitter account and then mine as well at some point...

"UB Pro Competition"

Gonna be some serious fun...holler at you all soon...

peace,

Hermosa Beach, Here I Come; Los Angeles, CA

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:09:55 -0800

I'm still smarting from a terrible play I made on the bubble in today's UB UBOC $2500 event. Sick! Sometimes I play poker so badly! Brutal! Played really well all day and played 1 hand terribly to lose all my chips. Ack, man, big ack... Poker be messing with your mind sometimes...

Anyways, other than that it was an absolutely killer day. I met up with Brian and Colin (of Wicked PR fame) and we then met up with Kristan Cunningham and her bf Scott in Hermosa Beach. Kristan is a super-star designer and we had approached her and asked if she would have any interest in designing my new place in Hermosa. Unbelievably, she was into it (!) and we hatched a plan about her designing the whole place using twitter, facebook, blogging, vids, and more to communicate with me back and forth. We are really going to try and turn this whole process into an experiment using social media and seeing how cool it will be to let all of you participate and weigh in as well with your thoughts, following along with our conversations in media. It might be a little rocky, as I don't think anyone has every tried to do this, but it'll be a blast nonetheless, and I get to have Kristan Cunningham design my place, man!

For those of you that don't know, Kristan is about as big as it gets in the design world and is a regular on tv these days. She's currently been working on a huge project with AOL and shooting that. I'm incredibly lucky to get her involved in this project and I plan on getting every ounce out of her while I have the chance! Can't thank her enough! Her sites not quite finished yet, but it'll be www.kristancunningham.com, when it's ready to roll...

You guys should start following her, both on facebook and twitter, to watch how the whole process unfolds, as well as just to see what she's up to next. She's sick good, so you won't be disappointed, I promise...

www.twitter.com/kcdesign

www.facebook.com/kcdesign

I move into my new place on February 1st, but I think the whole process will take longer than that, so I may push it off a bit to get the completed effect in total. Can't wait, and it's gonna be a blast...

Other than all that excitement, I've just been getting ready to play some UBOC events, as well as cooking up a pretty sick promotion with UB that we'll be announcing, and when I say sick, I mean SICK! You're gonna flip...

We'll keep bringing you "Poker2Nite" for a while as well, as it looks like we have locked that down for a bit. Also, more radio on the way from the LAPC, coming up later in February. Man, it's gonna be a nutso month...

peace,

Congrats, Saints, btw. City of New Orleans really deserves this and I couldn't be more stoked for them...

UB Update, 4 Months In; Nassau, Bahamas

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:29:52 -0800

Wanted to give a quick update as far as past hand histories on UB go. As far as I know as of right now, there have been 131 requests for personal financial summaries and of those, there have been 48 requests for complete hand histories, with 1 outstanding hand history that is being compiled right now. Please remember that after you request the initial financial summary that you also need to request the actual hand history file after that. At any rate, those are the numbers that were reported to me as of a week ago.

I continually hear about people saying that they either still don't have their hand histories or they aren't happy with them. If anyone hasn't received their hand histories, please shoot me an email or PM me on the PokerRoad Forums and I will look into it for you, as there shouldn't be any more of that. I always hear of people that are upset, but I never actually have those people come to me and ask for help, so I'm forced to chalk most of that up to general frustration and not reality. If I heard more specifics I could take that particular complaint a little more seriously and look into it. I presently am researching two cases for players histories where they felt that they were cheated, so I am looking into cases.

The reason that the hand histories take a little while right now, at least when going back to the times of the cheating, is that they are combining hand histories from both the old network and the new one to complete a total hand history. This is what takes the time I am told. Anyone who just wants their recent hand histories, it should be very quick.

I still have hopes that more of the story will come out and we'll be able to piece it all together with names sometime soon, but it's a complicated process. I know everyone would like it to be simple and clean, but it's just not that kind of situation. I know those out there are frustrated by that statement, but there is no company in the world that is just going to let everyone in on the inner workings of their business. It just doesn't exist and I understand that from UB. I can already see the forwarded posts on forums starting that it should be that way, but that's just not reality. You have to be realistic with this stuff, as painful as that may be sometimes. I said I would work diligently to make this happen, but I never said I would guarantee it, because that last piece is the piece that I knew would be the hardest, and it certainly has held true to form.

So far since I have signed with UB, we have gotten the screennames of all the cheating accounts released, had complete hand histories released, as well as several additions to that information that have been added, like cheater's hole cards, etc. I am happy that UB has worked with me to make these things happen and I do feel that we have something to build on, and point to, since my signing. It's not like I, or UB, have been sitting on our hands over the last 4 months.

I won't lie and say that all the shit people say about me doesn't bother me from time to time, but you take the good with the bad. Those who call me a liar and say all the terrible things about me, well, you don't know me at all. I am not a liar and I actually work and collaborate with UB leadership and security on a regular basis to piece things together, as well as make improvements. I'm not really going to attempt to sway any of your opinions, but it's silly because I am on your side and I work to get as many of the answers that you want as I can.

It's offensive to hear people say that I made everything up about wanting to correct things at UB and make sure it is a company we can all trust moving forward, and really just wanted the money. The fact is that it's a job that I have accepted and I am doing that job. Of course UB pays me, and I work with them to make it a reputable and honesty company. If I had no intention of doing any of that work that I said I was going to, I would have just signed, taken the money, and not said a word about it. I do not lie and I won't moving forward. I have always said that. People will believe what they want, and in all honesty I'm too busy to read most any of it. I usually see it when Bear mentions it to me or forwards it along. At any rate, I will just keep working on making things the best they can be moving forward.

Everyone who has offered support, I am indebted to you...

peace,

joepoker (at) joesebok.com

PCA Bound & New Prop Bets; Los Angeles, CA

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:52:01 -0800

Sitting here in the LA airport, about to board a flight to Miami, and eventually Bahamas for the PCA. We just finished filming "P2N" so it's been a bit of a hectic day. We wrapped for the day, and headed out for a quick bite of mexican food before heading to the airport. Always rushing, baby, as it's myself and Stapes who are going to make the trek out of the country, both to play the actual main event (for me) and to do a batch of "PokerRoad Radio" shows (both of us). Gonna be some fun!

I would be remiss though if I didn't at least check in briefly with you about the first idiotic prop bet of 2010...and wow is this one a doozy. Some of you may know about the last longer bet between Gavin Smith and myself at the LAPC a few years back. If not though, I massacred him and he ended up having to get a tattoo (!) with my initials on his back. Personally, I think it probably helped him get girls, but that's neither here nor there. At any rate, we felt like we didn't do it up quite right, so we have reawakened the prop bet for this year...with a vengeance!

Sooooo, Gavin, myself, and Jeff Madsen have all entered into a blood pact...quite literally...in the form of another last longer bet, and another tattoo consequence. This time a little scarier. Whoever is the fist person to bust at this year's LAPC in Los Angeles will be forced to immediately get the other two fellow's ugly mugs tattooed on his body...their damn faces (!)...right then...by an in house tattoo artist! The next to bust will only have to get the ultimate winner's face tattooed on himself, so he gets out pretty easy. The last standing, of course, merely gets to laugh and watch as the other two get their new ink.

This is a sick, sick prop bet, and I am really just beside myself for ever agreeing to it. We are still working out lots of the logistics, but you get the general gist...and wow, is it a serious gist. It is really just beyond anything sensical and I may secretly try to find a way to get out of it. We'll see!

Holler at ya'll soon...be good!

peace,

My End of Year Top Albums '09 (Take II); Los Angeles, CA

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:21:17 -0800

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Ok, no one's perfect, right? Upon several recommendations from fellow audiophiles, I have decided to have a late addition to this year's albums list. I hadn't spent nearly enough time listening to music this year (haha!) and thus spent today listening more closely to a few albums, and I would like to add 4 to this year's final list...hey, it's still '09 after all!

Matt & Kim, "Grand"

Phoenix, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"

30 Seconds To Mars, "This Is War"

Owl City, "Ocean Eyes"

As you were, and apologies for these absurd oversights. 2009 is further strengthened as THE year in music...

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Time to put a ribbon on this year and finish it up. It was the most amazing, wack, gorgeous, painful, perfect, and most screwed up year I have ever had. In short, it was just as life usually is...life in a blender anyway.

The one constant, of course, was my music and I honestly think...deep breath...that 2009 has been the best year for music during my lifetime (1977-2009). There were more sick incredible albums released this year, covering every type of musical style, that I honestly have just lost track and became disoriented in my musical ecstasy. I was left speechless again and again by each band's new offering and I felt like a kid on Christmas...all year long.

With that said, here are my MUST HAVE picks for this year, with the absolute "go out and get these albums immediately if you don't have them already in your collection" grouping right up on top. Truly incredible stuff...

Here's to ending this decade, having a safe New Year's, and perhaps if we are all lucky, a little less tumultuous year waiting for us in 2010, and a lot more love...

Dig into this stuff!

Silversun Pickups, "Swoon"

Passion Pit, "Manners"

K'naan, "Troubador"

Muse, "The Resistance"

Iron & Wine, "Around The Well"

Dave Matthews Band, "Big Whiskey & The Groogrux King"

Them Crooked Vultures, "Them Crooked Vultures"

Dredg, "The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion"

U2, "No Line On The Horizon"

Zero 7, "Yeah Ghost"

Phish, "Joy"

Pearl Jam, "Backspacer"

Monsters of Folk, "Monsters of Folk"

Kid Cudi, "Man On The Moon"

White Lies, "To Lose My Life"

Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

Green Day, "21st Century Breakdown"

Jay-Z, "The Blueprint 3"

Doves, "Kingdom Of Rust"

Colin Hay, "American Sunshine"

Bruce Springsteen, "Working on a Dream"

Bruce Hornsby, "Levitate"

Ben Harper, "White Lies For Dark Times"

Alice In Chains, "Black Gives Way To Blue"

Florence and the Machine, "Lungs"

The Flaming Lips, "Embryonic"

Paramore, "Brand New Eyes"

Dead Weather, "Horehound"

Eels, "Hombre Lobo"

peace...& cheers,