Random Thoughts, Infidelity Edition

I wonder how rough the waters are in the Phil Ivey household these days. Surely his wife is aware of his nickname "the Tiger Woods of poker." That name now has some added connotations for Ivey. My hunch is that the girls at the Spearmint Rhino are a little worse off for it at the moment. Speaking of Woods, it seems like the only "stupid" thing he did which people are talking about was cheating on his wife. That was very stupid, yes, but I might suggest an even bigger mistake was getting married in the first place. He had to know he wouldn't be able to stay faithful to his wife, so why marry her? Or at least why marry a girl that wasn't cool with him having the occasional (frequent?) romp with a Vegas cocktail waitress? (Note: if you ever meet a woman who is cool with this, please introduce me to her. But honestly, I would think a lavish lifestyle and a husband with hundreds of millions of dollars might be enough to get me to look the other way on a few things, anyway I digress...) Tiger's dilemma is just one of several examples that should make high net worth men question why they should get married. If Elin Nordegren divorces him, she stands to receive up to $300 million as a settlement. $300 million! All because he, like most any man in his position, failed to turn down sex with attractive women which was offered to him left and right. Was this wrong of him? No doubt about it. But still, he's only human. I question why he positioned himself in the first place to potentially lose $300 million over something he should have known he wouldn't be able to control. Mad props to the first high-profile, high-earning athlete to shun marriage saying, "ain't no way I'mma be able to stay faithful to my girl, so why bother?" online poker 468x60 As usual, it appears the race for Card Player Magazine's Player of the Year award will be an exciting finish. The final major event of the year, the $15,000 buy-in Doyle Brunson Classic started this weekend. A handful of players such as Jason Mercier, Vitaly Lunkin and Yevgeniy Timoshenko are all within striking distance of leader Eric Baldwin to claim the title. We're rooting for Baldwin. He's been playing his butt off in the second half of this year to try to win the title by spending tireless hours in $300-$500 events that offer a paltry, but perhaps meaningful amount of Player of the Year points to top finishers. It sounds like the PPA is grooming Joe Cada to be a lobbyist for poker. At least they didn't choose Greg Hogan. Huge props to our forum member "Banalanal" who convinced one of his female friends to pose sans-clothes holding up an "I Love PokerTips" sign. (Warning: NSFW). Banalanal's payoff? A free PokerTips t-shirt and lifetime respect from all forum members. Worth it!