Poker blog round-up: Raptor, Green Plastic, Acbarone and Scampmanio

Pud's Poker Progress / Matthew Pitt / 24 July 2009 / Leave a Comment

It's poker blog round-up time and although the past week or so has been a bit of an anti-climax after all the goings on in Vegas, there have been some excellent blogs written, a selection of which are mentioned in the text below.

First up is David Benefield, also known as Raptor, a high-stakes cash guru and Cardrunners tutor. Mr Benefield seems to have fallen out of love with poker to a large degree and looks to be leaving this crazy game behind to concentrate on furthering his education. I can't even start to try to imagine how the lifestyle change will affect him, sitting in a classroom studying instead of battling it out for pots in excess of $100k on a daily basis. Saying that, he will almost certainly be the most balla student on campus and I am sure he will return to poker refreshed and a more rounded person for doing this. Best of luck Raptor.

Another high-stakes cash player heavily involved in Cardrunners is Taylor Caby, otherwise known as Green Plastic. The founder of the training site seems so level headed for someone his sage and with the money at his disposal it is uncanny. Anyone who has followed his blog and progress over the years will know his is one of the most laid back people you could meet so imagine how surprised I was when I read a security guard nearly ejected him from The Rio whilst he was railing a friend at the World Series of Poker Main Event!

Aaron Barone , a SNG grinder from San Diego keeps a blog called 'The Rant' which makes for a good read. In his career thus far he has played over 30,000 SNG and amazingly has never had a losing month, until July 2009. From the start of the month until the 16th he had a total of 10 losing days and admits that it has gotten into his pysche and has played his last 1,000 game poorly, calling his play "abysmal." He should be OK though as he grinds like a maniac and plans on playing another 1,500-2,000 SNG in the last two week of this month! What out for carpal tunnel!

Last but not least is Scampmanio who told of a funny tale whilst playing a tournament in Las Vegas which made me laugh out loud, especially as I am good friends with a number of Scousers. I would have wet myself if this had happened at my table. He informs us, "I was sitting at a table in the Bellagio one morning and two Scousers were at the next table chatting away, until the dealer leaned over to them and said in total sincerity 'Guys, English only at the table'. I nearly spat my frothy coffee on the carpet I laughed so much. What was even funnier is a couple of the Americans at the table nodded their heads! Classic." Absolute genius!

Well that is all for now, make sure you tune in next Friday for your dose of other poker blogs but until then, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!