Clonie is a favorite of ours here at the site. She has been very kind to us over the last few months and we very much appreciate the time she took to do this.

This is our first installment of player interviews with more on the way. All readers are encouraged to submit questions and we will get them asked whenever possible!

Upcoming pros; Joe Sebok, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Bart Hanson, Kenna James, Shannon Shore, & others!

I wanted to do something different and add some more content to the site on our non-comic days. Now if you look to the top of the website you can see our header image. It has the direct links to each area of the site. We just added the ‘Articles‘ section. If you have not yet seen it. Please take a look. This area will host all of our exclusive interviews and articles. Right now it is a little rough around the edges but I am currently working on a stand alone page for it. It will look better over the next few days.. check back.

“Random Questions” will be done Jon Stewart style. That is probably the best way to describe it. They will be laid back and easy going. Hopefully we can add a humorous twist to the plethora of pro interviews that are done. The questioning will come from various sources such as myself, the forum, and email submissions. The last question asked will be from the pro his/herself and will be presented to the next person we interview. A ‘pro to pro’…if you will.

That said… Some of our interviews such as the Bart Hanson (coming this week) are conducted by individual LaB staff members and will be approached as they see fit.

This is just the tip of the iceberg folks. I wish I could let you know what we have planned but it is a secret right now. sooooon.

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Life’s A Bluff - Random Questions -
Clonie Gowen

LaB: You have probably had your share of rude behavior from men at the table. Do you have any stories you can share where you might have had the last word?

Clonie Gowen: I was playing in Shreveport LA, and I hit a straight flush on this guy on the river. He gets up and kicked me. It wasn’t a joke, he seriously kicked me. About 9 guys jump up and deck this guy. The casino threw him out. He got the last kick, but I got the last word and a bruise

LaB: Are there “cliques” in the industry? Are there any known rivalries between them?

Clonie Gowen: Poker player are ultra competitive people, so on any given night, if you are sitting at the poker table with me, you are my enemy. With that said, I have a lot in common with the same people I play with everyday, and so we are also friends. Even though we sit across from each other and really want to bust each other on a daily basis, that is exactly what makes us friends. I respect people that respect me and so fourth. If a good friend plays me hard at the table.. that is a respectable thing…they are bringing their A game….which gives me so much pleasure when I crush them, and I get to reminded them of their stupid play…until the next game.

LaB: What is it like working inside the Team Full Tilt family? Do they have a New World Order manifesto yet?

Clonie Gowen: I remember the first time I ever had dinner with the team. It was Howard, Ivey, Ferguson, John Juanda, Sidel, Bloch and Lindgren, I was so nervous. Howard and Ivey we discussing a ridiculous math equation, and everyone looked at me…like I had an answer. I just said..”huh…I agree with Chris.” It is hard being part of a team, when you are surrounded by geniuses…I am not a genius I will admit that. But I’ve always been a nerd. I played dungeons and dragons in high school, 4 times a week so I fit in with that group pretty well. They are all nerds…yes NERDS…but they are the ultimate REVENGE OF THE NERDS! Full Tilt is the number one site that everyone wants to be a part of.

To read the rest of the interview, including Clonie claming she can beat Daniel Negreanu HEADS UP, click here.

- Frank Frisina

clonie gowen, interview, daniel negreanu, joe sebok, gavin smith, shannon shore, erick lindgren, erik sidel, howard lederer, chris ferguson, john juanda, andy bloch, full tilt, new world order, jon stewart, bart hanson, kenna james, poker

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random Questions with Hevad Khan
• Random Questions with Raymond Davis
• Random Questions with Annette Obrestad
• Random Questions with Clonie Gowen
• Random Questions with Todd Brunson

We were lucky enough to get fan favorite Daniel Negreanu to sit down with us for another installment of Random Questions.

Only at Life’s A Bluff will you get poker comics, in-depth articles, & this kind of ‘in your face’ questioning.

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Life’s A Bluff - Random Questions -
Daniel Negreanu
LaB: Is your name really Daniel Negreanu?

DN: Actually it’s Danilov Nagasovic, but I figured that Daniel Negreanu was a much more common name that would be easier for people to pronounce. It was either Daniel Negreanu or Chuck Steele.

LaB: How do you pronounce that?… Danny-ell? Or Dan-yell?

DN: Dan-yell.

LaB: Your Mom makes you meals during your larger tournaments and sessions…does she get a cut and does she cater?

DN: She used to cater actually, for Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, and Layne Flack. The year my mother made Ivey food he won three bracelets and all he got her was some lousy flowers. I take much better care of her, bought her a house and all…

LaB: If you were in jail would she bake a cake for you and include a nail file?

DN: She’d go a step further and convince the cops that she’d give me a beating at home I’d never forget. That she could discipline me better than they could. She’d then feed the cops, and they’d have no choice but to let me go.

LaB: Would she drive the get away car?

DN: She’s a terrible driver. I would drive while she closed her eyes and said, “Daniel, don’t go so fast. You’ll get a ticket.”

LaB: Are you a part of a long standing secret Canadian plot to send comics and entertainers to the US to undermine its culture and take over from the inside out?

DN: First rule of C-Club, don’t talk about C-Club. Second rule of C-Club, don’t talk about C-Club… you get the picture.

LaB: Who would you like to see yourself go against in MTV’s Celebrity Death Match?? (is that show on anymore?)

DN: Angelina Jolie. Why?… er, just cause.

LaB: Poti tu speak si a scrie înauntru Român?

DN: I can speak Romanian and understand it, but I don’t read or write it too well.

LaB: Hockey season is here…your pick for the Super Bowl champion?

DN: Idiot, you must be American! It’s the Stanley Cup and I like the Anaheim Ducks (they dropped the Mighty part).

LaB: Everyone suggests that Ed Norton should play you in a movie. Who would play you in a cartoon?

DN: I’m thinking David Spade cause he has that annoying nasally voice that
often sounds a lot like mine.

LaB: What is the craziest thing you have seen someone do in a poker game?

DN: I didn’t actually see it, but Stu Ungar actually peeing on the dealer is right up there on the list of craziest things anyone has ever done at a poker table.

LaB: How about craziest prop bet you ever made and won?

DN: Well, one night at a playoff game in Sacramento between the Spurs and Kings, Phil Ivey and I were hiding bottle caps under our shoe and making the other guy guess what side is up. We were playing for $10,000 a pop and we ended up even in the end.

LaB: What’s with Mike Matusow?

DN: He’s just a kid in a man’s body. Couldn’t hurt a fly and is totally harmless. I can take Mike in small doses, after a while he gets on my nerves too, so you’re not alone there.

LaB: You are the producer of a reality show…. 6 poker players in a house. Name the players, location, & first person voted out.

DN: Has to be in Vegas.

Sam Grizzle for sure. This guy is hilarious

Phil Hellmuth. Without a doubt, he’d be the first to go.

Angelina Jolie… er, just cause. I know she doesn’t really play poker but she can learn!

Eskimo Clark. The dude needs a place to sleep, shave, and take a shower. Life in the van has to end sooner or later no?

Me. It would be fun to be there and listen to Sam Grizzle jab at Hellmuth. Plus… “you know who” would be there.

Mike Matusow. If I’m on the show, I’d need to have a guy in my pocket that I could manipulate mentally so he’d vote how I told him to. Mike’s mellonhead would be a piece of cake.

LaB: Did we land on the moon?

DN: Ok, this interviewer is definitely on something. Wasn’t sure till right then.

LaB: If yes… what about the Van Allen Belts??

DN: Huh?

LaB: If no…. then explain where cheese comes from?

DN: Definitely tripping. That stuff will kill you buddy, “just say no.”

LaB: Would you rather… sit in a room with Phil Hellmuth and listen to him talk about himself all day…. OR… would you rather jump off a cliff?

DN: Listen to Hellmuth. It’s great material for my blog (which you can find at www.fullcontactpoker.com, that’s fullcontactpoker.com). When Phil and I play poker, we don’t just play poker, we play Full Contact Poker. In your face, Full Contact Poker. (Hellmuth has been teaching me how to be subtle when plugging products or endorsements)

LaB: Question from Clonie Gowen… Who is the sickest gambler ever?

DN: Man, that’s a tough one. It’s a toss up between my two good buddies Erick Lindgren and Phil Ivey.

Daniel’s question for the next Life’s A Bluff ‘Random Questions’ interview;

Q: Daniel Negreanu has widely been recognized as the sexiest man in poker, what do you attribute that to?

Find out the answer to that question, and who answers it next week!

A big thanks to Daniel for his time. If you would like to know more about DN and don’t know where to look. Try fullcontactpoker.com and they may be able to point you in the right direction.

- Frank Frisina

——
Contributors;

Frank Frisina
Adam LaBare
Matthew Waldron
Colleen Frisina
Theresa113
Kristin Cranford

poker, comics, articles, interviews, random questions, daniel negreanu, clonie gowen, mike matusow, phil ivey, erik lindgren, eskimo clark, angelina jolie, full contact poker, phil hellmuth, stu ungar, sam grizzle

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random Questions with Hevad Khan
• Random Questions with Raymond Davis
• Random Questions with Annette Obrestad
• Random Questions with Clonie Gowen
• Random Questions with Todd Brunson

Life’s A Bluff - Interview -
Bart Hanson

This interview was done by our own Matt Waldron when he had a chance recently to spend the day with the good people over at the Bicycle Casino, and the Live at the Bike team.

Bart Hanson is a professional poker player and is the announcer on the LATB show. Bart knows his stuff and this was a very informative read.

The contest to win a poker padz will be the subject of the next blog post.
——

- Frank Frisina

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random Questions with Hevad Khan
• Random Questions with Raymond Davis
• Random Questions with Annette Obrestad
• Random Questions with Clonie Gowen
• Random Questions with Todd Brunson

Life’s A Bluff - Interview -
“Cowboy” Kenna James
Bicycle Casino
October 2006
Matt Waldron

Poker and good stories seem to go hand in hand. I’m not talking about your run-of-the-rail bad beat stories, but the ones that follow the greats based on their lives and crazy times. There are lots of great stories about players like Scotty Nguyen, Freddie Deeb or Sammy Farha overcoming tough odds to make it to the States and make it big. Or business barons like Andy Beal and Jerry Buss, that donate huge sums of their winnings to charity every year. Or the legends of the game like Doyle Brunson, Stu Unger and Chip Reese that have given us poker as we know it today.

You don’t hear much about the average guy from the Mid-West, who worked his way up through the ranks the hard way. Someone who wedged his way onto the televised tournament circuit and made it big, but still gives back to charity in time and money? Well, that’s because there haven’t been a lot of people like “Cowboy” Kenna James.

Brought up in Chicago, moved to California, Kenna worked on his dream of being a top poker player well before the “Moneymaker” boom of 2003. In fact, Kenna started out in 1996 at the not-so-glamorous L.A. card room and race track, Hollywood Park as a dealer. A year later, he started to play in the myriad of lower-limit tournaments around Southern California. By 1999 he was setting up and directing tournaments internationally as far away as Moscow and playing professionally at home as a prop at the Crystal Palace Casino. Like many professional gamblers, he had his swings; he went broke, bounced back and kept on climbing. He credits good friends and relationships as the keys to surviving those times in his life. Now, as a WPT Champion and multiple major title holder, “Cowboy” James hasn’t forgotten the people that got him there or who he is at heart.

While I was watching Kenna at the Bicycle Casino’s Big Poker Oktober shoot-out event, talking with him between breaks and on the cash table floor, as well as interviewing him, he was inundated with well wishers and pats on the back from staff, friends, acquaintances, random passer-bys, sports figures, business luminaries and celebrities. No one else saw more ‘action’ wherever he went. This was compared to attendees at the Bike during my stretch there such as Jerry Buss, James Woods, Don Cheadle and Makai Pfifer, (that in itself is a fun footnote to the evening). Kenna was friendly and warm with every single one of these well wishers regardless of their social status. He even took the time to plop down at an open cash table and give a pro-hopeful advice on developing their game and making it into the pro circuit. It was a brilliant conversation that I was allowed to sit in on and made the trip well worth the money I blew on the tournament buy-in the previous day.

The biggest feather in that black cowboy hat, however, is Kenna’s charity work with The Wounded Warrior Project. Being from a family that has served in the US military for as many generations as we can count back, its principle is pretty near and dear to the hearts of the whole Waldron clan. Kenna received a bit of fan-email from a member of Screaming Eagle Poker about their project and helped to set in motion charity events that would raise a significant amount of money for a worthy charity. Rather than listen to me blather on about it, I’ll let Kenna tell you in his own words from this great interview from the Big Poker Oktober tournament at the Bicycle Casino.

LaB: Matt Waldron
KJ: Kenna James

LaB: OK, so this is Matt Waldron here with “Life’s A Bluff” talking to Kenna James. I’ve been listening to him and following him around today, so it’s been great to have him put up with me and let me listen in to all the amazing things going on with him right now, but the thing I’m most interested in is talking to you about is the “Wounded Warrior” project which, correct me if I’m wrong here, but basically collects funds for family members and soldiers coming back from Iraq that have been wounded?

KJ: The Wounded Warrior Project is an organization that assists wounded men and women coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever, who now have lost an arm or a leg or limbs and pretty much their military service has ended and now they have to adjust to civilian life and certainly there’s some change and shift that happens especially with the 19, 20 and 21 year old that come back and have to go back to their family and the workplace. It’s a non governmental agency that helps with rehabilitation, prosthetics, stuff like that. And gets them back, you know, into the swing of things here. I think it’s the least I can do, these guys put their lives on the line and there isn’t a lot for them when they come back like this.

LaB: So can you tell me how they set it up? I mean is it a percentage of tournament winnings? Is it. . .

KJ: No, how it started was, I first heard of, somebody hit my website from Screaming Eagle Poker which is this group of soldiers and they play poker out there on the front lines and they support this cause because it’s their brothers and sisters. They see them when they get injured and they want to support them when they come back home injured. So through them I was linked to this charity. I was going to try and get over to Iraq and play with the guys, and just try and boost morale when that got shot down, I just looked for another way so we ended up some poker here. The internet company that sponsors me (Sun Poker) agreed to host a charity event and so we did that and we raised over $70,000. And then Mike Sexton donated $100,000 of his Tournament of Champions winnings, so it was over $170,000 that went to the Wounded Warrior Project. So it is primarily things like that and I donate 1% of all my tournament wins to them throughout the year. Then the other thing is the Screaming Eagle guys that are coming back from overseas and we’re going to have a big just shindig, BBQ, seminar and tournament at my house here in a couple of weeks in Las Vegas.

LaB: That is pretty awesome and I know that I thank you and many, many more unheard-from people thank you.

KJ: You’re welcome, like I said, it’s the least I could do.

LaB: Because the point of “Life’s A Bluff,” it’s a humor oriented site. It’s a little bit of fun and advice aimed at people who are not willing “serious” enough to sit at the 2+2 forum but to get together in a community setting to share the humorous side of poker and help each other get better while sharing a laugh.

KJ: Yours is a very important part of life. If you don’t laugh at it sometimes, we’d be crying too much. Certainly some of us need to find the humor in things, so I’ll look forward to checking out the site.

LaB: Good deal, we’ll look forward to having you check it out. I’m also curious to know if the PPL, that you will be a part of, is going to help out a group like the Wounded Warrior project. What will they be bringing to it?

KJ: I mean the PPL is gonna be having a lot things going on to begin with, but I think in short order, it will have charity functions and tournaments tied into it at some point. I’m not sure even, it’s gonna be a new organization that is going to be fighting for its life. You know like a newborn baby, but certainly I talked with Chip Reese who’s heading up the organization and he’s already said that there will be on special tournaments through the year for charity in which all the proceeds will be donated. Some of them, probably from the players that are involved like Barry Greenstein, you know with Children’s Charity’s, or perhaps the Wounded Warrior Project or I’m sure there’s a lot of the players now that are involved in a lot of different types of charities, and I’m sure the PPL will look to make a difference in people’s lives and share its success..

LaB: Commenting on a very similar thing, I think the stigma is that poker players are the degenerate guys, they’re gamblers and they’re not these useful people. But as I’ve often told people, the people I play poker with regularly, I’d take every cent I had in my wallet and hand it to them on a loan, but I have family that I wouldn’t give $20 to if I every planned on seeing it again.

KJ: I don’t know if I’d lend it to a poker player either. I don’t think he’d steal it from me, but he’s more likely to lose it in a game. (laugh)

LaB: Fair enough, you can’t dispute that possibility. On the other hand, you see all these things going on like, Gavin has kept the media closely involved as he has raised thousands of dollars for the Baby Hannum Fund and other top pros as well donating time, dollars and their celebrity to earn money for worthy causes. Have you heard about this stuff Gavin has been doing?

KJ: I did, I know. . .Gavin’s a friend of mine, and he helped me out and came to our V.I.P. silent auction, he bought an Iraqi flag that was sent back that was signed by the guys on the front line, so that went to the charity. He bought that for $5,000 as well. So he’s actively involved in charity and yeah, there’s a lot, of course Barry Greenstein, Phil Gordon, and there’s a lot of players involved now, and people realize that you actually win giving back. That’s a concept that you learn, that was foreign to poker players maybe a couple decades ago, but the game has certainly changed. I don’t think that with the popularity of poker today and everybody playing it (people are) realizing the misnomer, so I don’t think that we are burdened with that stigma anymore.

LaB: So, obviously not to cast a shadow on yourself, but where I was pointing it, is that you see all these charitable acts going on, you see all these things going on, in a sport in its infancy. Meanwhile you see guys at the pro level in other sports, that unless they have a massive corporate TV sponsorship relation, like say the United Way, there is little organized action. We have to take out examples like Reggie Bush who’s done phenomenal work but still has Pepsi as a sponsor. You just don’t see that kind of work in major league sports, and here in its (poker’s) infancy people are taking up their own time, their own money without any guarantees or corporate ties between these things. I think it just goes above and beyond, and maybe I’m bragging too hard.

KJ: No, no I think it’s hard to say, because I was watching something on TV the other day there’s still a lot of people in major league sports that are watching the New Orleans game that are still working on that Katrina Fund. I think there’s a lot, there’s a lot of big things, charity events that people do, and when you’re fortunate enough to be a professional, whether it be in poker or sports that you realize a sense of obligation, duty to give something back, we’re so blessed to earn a good living doing something we like to do and probably it’s just a good feeling to be able to make a difference in someone else’s life and appreciate what you have.

LaB: Well, that is very diplomatic of you and I appreciate the input. I think it’s absolutely wonderful what you’ve been doing. Is there anything else you got going on that you’d like to talk about?

KJ: So much going on. I’m excited about the new Professional Poker League. That will kick ass. Then I try things, right now, you get on (along?) with the success of poker and how things got so big so quickly, some of us, at least for myself, I’ll speak for myself, kinda the way our lives got taken over in a certain aspect. It got on a rat wheel so to speak. We’re going to keep up trying to build websites, marketing and you know, to this mass media crowd that came along all of a sudden. You know, I’m trying to get perspective on that and slow down a little bit. I try to keep an honest blog on my website, KennaJames.com to let people know what it feels like to be out on the tour and it’s not always as romantic as it sounds, traveling around the world and playing poker tournaments. It is exciting, it’s definitely that, I’m not saying that it’s not. I’m saying that it can be grueling, emotionally and physically taxing. So adjusting to that and catching up in the grind of the past couple of years, running to try and keep up. And I’m not even sure what the question is, I’m just kinda rambling. . .

LaB: That’s ok, just a few other things you’re excited about. . .

KJ: I’m really excited about the Professional Poker League that it is going to be established and run out of Vegas, so I’ll be able to stay at home, spend more time with my children. Not be on the road, week in and week out. So that will give me more stability and sanity in my life, which I’m looking forward to.

LaB: and you’re family is in Las Vegas. . .

KJ: well, my kids are from my first wife, so it’s important that when I do have them, I have the time to spend with them, so having a home at The Venetian, it will be nice. It’s like what Dorothy said it’s great to travel around the world but ‘there’s no place like home.’

LaB: We might be posting the Kenna James version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from earlier today. (see below)

KJ: (laughs)

LaB: Well, it’s well past both our bed times and it has been a long, fun and poker filled day so we’ll just cut things off here and look forward to seeing the entertaining and altruistic “Cowboy” Kenna James on the felt and on the TV in the near future.

KJ: Thanks, it’s been fun.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random Questions with Hevad Khan
• Random Questions with Raymond Davis
• Random Questions with Annette Obrestad
• Random Questions with Clonie Gowen
• Random Questions with Todd Brunson

Here is a little more of Kenna…

Possibly Related Posts:

• Random Questions with Hevad Khan
• Random Questions with Raymond Davis
• Random Questions with Annette Obrestad
• Random Questions with Clonie Gowen
• Random Questions with Todd Brunson