The poker boom of the past few years has been a lot of fun to watch, and must be mind-blowing to old school card players who are used to being looked at as the low rung of society. I was just reading a little article from Greg Raymoer about how he spent his Thanksgiving. Raymer, just so you know, woon about $5 million or so by finishing first in the main event of the World Series of Poker in 2004, making him world champion for a year. Unlike the previous champion, Chris Moneymaker, Raymer has proven he is no fluke by competing successfully in several major tournaments since.

Anyway, Raymer was asked to be a celebrity in a Pro/Am golf tourney, and gladly accepted. Tiger Woods saw him and, before Raymer said a word, Tiger says, "I know who you are, and I'm not going to play poker with you." Then they talked about blackjack and Raymer, as he did with all the other golf pros, offered to trade poker lessons for golf lessons. He chatted with John Elway, who was brushed aside by a fan wanting Raymer's autograph. Fred Couples and Paul Azinger also knew exactly who he was and expressed interest in his trade. Pretty amazing how far poker fame has come in such a short time.

As an aside, I bought Barry Greenstein's book on poker, Ace on the River, the other day. I got it probably more because it's jsut a beautiful, well crafted book than for the actual content, though I'm sure that will be first class. Barry said he wanted to do the book his way, and no major publishers were interested in his demands, so he got it self-published by a smaller player, and it's just simply amazing.