The Coolest City in Europe

Will and Kat just boarded their plane to Seattle and I have an hour left here in the Philadelphia Airport. Seems like a good time to write!

Most of you know how much I love Europe. I think that Barcelona was the coolest city I've ever been to and that's saying a lot. It's hard to describe what makes it so great but Barcelona has all the old architecture and history that I love about Europe yet remains one of the more progressive and hip places I've ever been. I'd really like to move here someday soon and I'll be applying to their business school next year.

I really feel strongly about the above paragraph. I think that I often overexaggerate things and always romanticize the place that is freshest in my mind but this isn't the case here. I think my favorite cities in the world are ranked in this order: Barcelona, Istanbul, Budapest. Of course Seattle will always be number one but that goes without saying.

At the tournament, no less than 3 people asked me if I had gained weight since Mone Carlo. I immediately went to the bathroom and purged my paella.

I forgot to thank Conrad and the entire PokerStars team for giving me the chance to play in this tournament. I was on TV for a while so that has to make them pretty happy. I have a great relationship with those guys and I really hope that it continues.

Pauly (http://taopoker.blogspot.com) is a really funny and cool guy. I told him that I read his blog and he acted really flattered then went on to tell me about the million different people that he's met and told him that they read his blog. He was probably more excited when Isabelle Mercier said she read his blog than when I said that I did. I read his blog the other day and he introduced me as "the best player under 26 that you've never heard of". Obviously this is quite an exaggeration but I really hate the fact that he has to put "26" now insted of "25". Growing old sucks.

The best player under 25 that you've never heard of? Carl Olson. He's an absolute machine and continues to amaze me. I stayed up until 7AM one morning in Barcelona to watch him win almost $60K in an online Pot Limit Omaha tournament. He was getting advice along the way but it's amazing that he really doesn't know PLO that well and relied on his sick tourney skills. Congrats, Carl. He's now committed to going to Foxwoods in November and I'd really like to qualify and hang out with the guys who taught me how to win at poker.

It's nice to be back in the states, albeit for less than 24 hours. I'm off to Japan tomorrow morning and I hope my body can handle all this travel. I think I'm still running off of the huge meals that we had in Jacksonville. I can't wait to get to Tokyo and hang out with Katsumi again. I'll post my Japan schedule tonight, once I get home to San Diego. Hopefully I'll be able to hook up with Scott, Laura and my cousin, Shigetoshi. Talk to y'all later.