Lunch with the Stahs

Just got back from the Pokerstars lunch where they trotted out all the spokepeople. Reigning World series of Poker champion Joe Hachem was there, but I missed him. Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier was hanging around. The diminutive French chick won the WPT womens title in 2005 and is apparently a brutally aggressive player. Looking at her I can tell she probably learned an aggressive style as meathead after meathead tried to bully her out of pot after pot The best women players generally seem to develop aggresive styles. You don't see many conservative women pros, most likely for the reason I just mentioned. Conservative pros in general are on the downward swing. It seems aggressive and super-aggressive play is the style of the day. From what I am told, European players tend more toward conservative play and become unnerved at overly aggressive American strategies, which tend to feature a lot more all-in style betting than they get over here.

2003 World series of Poker champ Chris Moneymaker showed up, donned in pokerstars garb from head to toe. ya know, he's much shorter than he looks on TV. The guy is a tad pudgy, and his jowels on the tube just make him look massive. he is actually smaller than me, if you can believe it. He must be about 5'7" or so.

The announced a couple of other European players, but their names didn't ring a bell.

The room was not exactly oozing warmth. Was most struck me was the eight zillion gorgeous women in the open area immediately before I got the Iceland room, where our luncheon was held. They were part of a company called Nicotin or something like that that apparently sells fruit flavored gum or something designed to help you quit smoking. I don't know- your guess regarding the product is as good as mine, but the babe count is irrefutable.