As most of you know, I enjoy writing these blogs. And I take great pride in my precise spelling and punctuation. And that’s a good thing, ‘cause that’s all I have to offer with this posting.

Well, my good friends and supporters, FishLips will not be the 2008 European Poker Champion. The hard stats: 579 entrants. 56^th or better finishes “in the money.” I busted out about an hour ago, in 89^th place.

Poker tournaments are a tough ride. You need tons of patience, excellent math skills, and the ability to make the most of very limited opportunities. I will not mention the luck thing, ‘cause I don’t really don’t give that a whole lot of weight. My “luck” is no better or worse than anybody else’s. (But, getting some decent cards sure does help.) And just like in football, you cannot make mistakes.

Though I finished out of the money, this was a solid tourney for me. My decision-making was as good as it’s ever been. And by my reckoning, in 12 hours of high-stress poker, I only made one “mistake.” And, that singular mistake did not cause me much damage.

So, now what? Of course, the majority of people here are tournament bust-outs, like myself. And as such, there are some pretty lively cash games going on round the clock. They are played in the local Czech currency, and each unit is worth about 5 cents. So, though it sounds huge, sitting down with 50,000 Czech Coronas is not as big as it sounds. I am a stronger cash player than tournament dog, so that’s an option. Also, three additional tournaments, all with smaller entry fees, will kick up starting this evening. The largest one, which starts (and ends) on Saturday, has a 3000 euro buy-in, and that’s pretty beefy. It sounds kind of tempting. So, I am still here, and I’m gonna bring home some sugah ($$), from the Old Country, one way or the other.

Dobrý den.

It is now Thursday morn, about 8:00AM, Central Euro Time. Day #2 for me will begin in 4 hours. Y’know…I have played a zillion hours of poker, but for some reason I have yet to fully understand, my level of anxiety is off-the-chart. I have been struggling trying to understand why, on this particular occasion, I am so out of sorts. I think the strangeness of playing primarily against non-Americans might be what’s irking me. I have noticed that players from the same country have similar idiosyncrasies; yet each country’s patterns are quite distinct. I know this sounds kind of icky, but personal hygiene habits for many of these players are also distinctly non-American. And here’s a strangity – personal space. Many of the people here, both players and non, have differing protocol when it comes to personal proximity (crowding). To both me and my wife, it feels kind of rude and offensive; doubly bad when the hygiene issue leans in as well. Hmmm. But, I am keenly aware that I am, in fact, the foreigner here, and my American oddities surely stand out more loudly than do those of the Euros.

Today’s play will be hard. This is typically the stage where the pros start to slice up the amateurs, like myself. I’d say there are about 10 top pros here, including Gus Hansen, and the guy who just won the 2008 World Series of Poker about a month ago in Vegas. I believe his name is Eastgate. Like Hansen, he is also Danish. There are also a handful of young Brit online heroes who play very recklessly. These guys are kamikaze-like, and they’re willing to die on every hand. Many of them have died, but for those who have not, their chip stacks are, not surprisingly, formidable. I fear these guys the most. Felt terrorists.

While Day #1 was all about survival, today will largely be about chip accumulation. And that’s a very different type of play. It requires a lot of aggression, and well-timed bluffs will be a necessity. Since I am mostly a cash game player, I am not especially good at knowing when/where to bluff. This day will be tough on me; I will need to draw on some not-so-well-developed skills. Regrettably, good opponents will read my bluff dis-comfort with ease. Perhaps I should wear two pairs of sunglasses, and lie on the ground, face down, after every wager. But I guess that would be a tell, wouldn’t it? Ah shoot.

Anyway, I’m gonna snooze for a couple of hours, and then get to work. I will post results later today.

As always, I have heard from many of you, and though far far away, I feel the support. It is deeply appreciated. Thank you all.

Today I spend in Prague. It is a true treasure of a city. If you’re an East Coast brat believing Boston is the bomb, I encourage you to put yourself into a time-out. Come visit Eastern Europe.

From what I can gather, Prague, known here as Praha, kick-started itself somewhere back in the fourth century. Largely Bohemian farmland, the place was yet another Catholic outpost, and the church influence more or less called the play in what went on during those times. Historians describe the next 500 years as not so good for residents of the town.

Now, remember King Wenceslas from all those Christmas Carols? He showed up here in Prague during the 10th century, and did what he could to improve the lives of the locals. In addition to being a decent fellow, the Good King had some political savvy. He purposefully distanced his countryman from Bavaria, and in so doing, bought his region a louder voice with the Vatican. Positive changes were to follow, but Wenceslas ultimately got knocked off for playing too smart.

Well, then another 400 years rolled by. And a local here in Prague, Charles University’s professor Jan Hus, started to kick up some dirt around the schoolyard. Sensing that the Catholic hold on the area was tighter than appropriate, he started shaping his own flavor of Christianity. A Jan Hus (Hussite) religious reform was to ensue. And religiously speaking, Prague started to take a very different shape. If you were to walk the streets in 1402, you’d pass Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and growing number of people claiming no particular religious connection. Additionally, Jan Hus, in an attempt to create something distinct for the people, served up a special language dialect – the beginnings of what we know today as the Czech language. In fact, if you look at written Czech, the letters are heavily ornamented with whacky accents and symbols, known as diacritics. Well, these diacritics give the Czech language its flavor; and that’s the handiwork of Jan Hus. Though today’s Czech language sounds cool, Hus got knocked off for messing with the alphabet.

Well, then another 400 years rolled by. The 20^th century was tough on Prague. Of course, by proximity alone, this region was but a doormat for Hitler and the Nazis. Prague fell quickly to Nazi rule, and 90% of the Jews were wiped out. And of course, the conclusion of WWII left all of Czechoslovakia under USSR dominance. Prague deteriorated for the next fifty years. But with the 1989 fall of Communism, Czechoslovakia re-grouped itself, and Prague re-established itself as home to all of the country’s leaders. Feeling kind of frisky (politically speaking), the country split apart in 1993, creating Slovakia to the south. But Prague continued on as the capital of the northern piece; what we know today as the Czech Republic.

Back in the States, the Hilton has conferences for Amway. And this is what the Eastern Block Hilton is up to.

Well, it’s now Tuesday, 10:30PM here in Prague. I am back in my room, and de-compressing a bit. My friends and supporters…I am very pleased to report that I am a Day 1 survivor of the European Poker Championships. Most players get killed off on Day 1, so moving on to the next day, which will actually be Thursday for me, is big news. Furthermore, I am doubly-pleased to report that when I left the table a short while ago, I was the chip leader at the table. Now, I don’t really know exactly where that places me in the tournament overall, but quite possibly I am in the top 10.

Today carried me through the normal gauntlet of poker emotions. The most noteworthy event – with a ton of chips in play, I pushed another player all in with a big full house. There was still a card to come, but I was a 50-1 favorite to take the pile. But my opponent's 2%er showed up on the river, and my boat (full house) was sunk by the improbable four-of-a-kind. That crushed me down to almost nothingness. But, as they sometimes say in the card room – “a chip and a chair.” Patience and some prudent decision-making brought me back. The recovery however, took more than six hours. Lots of bumps and bruises along the way.

This tournament is so large that they break the starting entrants into two groups; each half is known as a flight. I was part of flight A, which went today. Flight B plays tomorrow, and that’s why I have a day off. So, I won’t really really know where I stand until late tomorrow evening. But no matter. Today is history.

FishLips lives.