Who is your favorite New Kid on the Block? No offense to Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, or Danny, but Donnie will always be my favorite. Not because he was the one who always wore the Yankees hat (though I am a New Yorker and I do appreciate it) but because of the incredible charity work he does.

Recently,I was able to attend the Send a Kid to Camp Celebrity Charity Poker tournament, hosted by Donnie Wahlberg, for his brother's Mark Wahlberg Foundation. 

The charity is pretty self-explanatory, but basically Donnie and Marky Mark get together to send inner-city kids to sleep away summer camp. The event was a huge success, as many kids will be going to camp this summer.

There were tons of Boston sports figures. For the record, I've never really gotten the whole Boston/New York hate thing, but then again I'm a New Yorker and I've clearly been spoiled by the fact that we reign supreme.  Regardless, Boston greats like Cedric Maxwell, Doc Rivers, Kevin Faulk, Ray Bourque, and Paul Pierce were all in attendance.

PokerStars played a role in the event as well. They gave away three prize packages to the North American Poker Tour, and one for the 2010 World Series of Poker. It was easily one of the best charity events I have attended. It was well organized, and a lot of fun. What more can you ask for?

It'sreally amazing the way the entire city comes together for Donnie's event.  I don't know if I've got the same kind of clout, but I think I'm going to attempt to do something like this in New York in the next few years.

I attended this event on a Tuesday, and the very next day I was back in New York for another charity tournament in New York, this time for TheChildren's Medical Fund of New York.  Another great event for a great cause.

On the poker-for-profit front, I made it to day two of the PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian, but unfortunately I didn't make it any further. I got it all in with two kings on a jack-high board and was called by pocket sevens. A seven came on the turn, and that was it for me.

The good news is that I did satellite in through PokerStars, and I've already won my seat for the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun. That makes my two for two for satellites to NAPT events.  You can satellite in for as little as a few dollars on PokerStars, so I'm basically free-rolling.  I'll take it.

I did want to share one hand that I played online with you guys though. I was playing in the PokerStars Sunday 500 one weekend.  I am really starting to enjoy playing online, and it's become even more enjoyable now that I've realized a) how easy it is to tilt people and b) how badly they want to give you their chips.

I was deep in the event when I decided to open ship with two Aces under the gun. The Villain whom I had beaten in a few pots already practically beat me into the pot (for 100k) in the cut-off.  I expected to see no worse than Ace-King, so I was shocked whe he turned over [10h][9h]. 

This is basically a suicide play, based on steam, and tilt.  Villain has to know that he's not ahead of anything with that hand, and he's calling purely to try to get lucky.  Best case scenario, he's up against a smaller pair, and then he's flipping a coin at best.

Well, this kamikaze attack did work in this case, and the USS Ramdin was sunk.  Even though the play ended up working out for him, this is a prime example of why emotion can be so dangerous. 

When it comes to poker, it's ok to take a punch without necessarily having to punch back. 

Sunday night I chopped the $100 rebuy on PokerStars, splitting about $80,000 in prize money, so that was a pretty good score.  This score has got me oh so fired up for the upcoming SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) on PokerStars!

They say we can tell how many weeks of winter we have left by whether or not a groundhog sees his shadow. Well, I can always tell how well my poker year is going to go based on how well I do at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Things went pretty well for me there, so I feel like this is going to be a big year. No, I didn't win the main event at the PCA. In fact, I only min cashed. But any other tournament pro can tell you: you can do a lot worse than starting off the year with a cash.

I did very well in some of the side action as well. Sure, there were the $1k Sit 'N' Goes, of which I won three, and cashed in three others, but I'm talking about the real side action.
ThePokerStars event in the Bahamas is held at the Atlantis Resort, and there's always plenty of fun and games going on off the felt as well. I went 0-2, in heads-up matches racing down the waterslides - losing to both Hevad Kahn and Joe Cada. We (Noah Boeken, Chad Brown, and myself) also narrowly lost the sandcastle-building competition when we were rivered by Vanessa Rousso and Gavin Griffin's last-minute addition of a two-car garage.

Overall, I was very happy with the way I played the event, and I was especially pleased with the cash considering I should have gone broke on day one: very early in the event, I raised under the gun with pocket queens. So much of poker is situational, and about paying attention to your opponents, and I had noticed that there was one fellow at the table who hadn't played very many hands at all. When he did, they were very strong hands. I also noticed he was wearing headphones.

When action came around to him, he tossed out some chips, and then seemed surprised when his action was declared a call. He had not noticed my raise! He also failed to announce "raise" on his end, so instead, he only called my bet. In poker, you have to use everything you can to your advantage, so I already had more information about this guy than I should have.

The flop came an ace with two rags, but also two spades. I already didn't like it, considering I knew he wanted to raise pre-flop. I didn't want to get raised, so I checked. At this point, he bet something very, very small, so I hung around to see if I could peel a queen off on the turn. Sure enough, I turned a set of queens. Now I check again, hoping to check-raise. Only this time, he does not bet small. He bets the entire pot. In any other situation, when I turn a set of queens, I'm going to use this as a way to get all of his chips in, right now. But now, I'm a little suspicious. Is it possible that he has a set of aces? Is he trying to protect his set from the spade flush coming out on the river? I can't raise, but I can't really bring myself to fold either.

Luckily for me, the river was an action killer - another spade. I check again, and "Headphones" makes another small bet on the river that I have to call. As I suspected, he had three aces. I lost about 50% of my stack on that hand, but I think a lot of other people go broke there. I was able to fade that big hit early on, and still cash in the event. I'm hoping I can continue making good, educated decisions for the rest of the year.

After the PCA, I played in 2009 November Niner Steve Begleiter's charity event to benefit the Fallen Heroes of 9/11 aboard the USS Intrepid. The place was full of cutthroat, mathematical geniuses. No, not poker players. Stockbrokers. Some of the best in the world. The event was a blast, and we raised a lot for charity. A win-win. I was joined by friends Dennis Phillips, Kevin Schaffel, and Dan Frank (my agent).

And, even though it's February, I thought I would share with you my New Year's Resolution: play more online poker! I know, it sounds crazy, but I feel like I've finally figured out how to start winning a bit online, and I'm going to put it to the test. If you want a hint: I've already told you - play more. No, not necessarily more often, though practice makes perfect. I've just realized that I can't only play one game at a time. I get too bored. Now, I play at least 3-5 tournaments at a time, and I find that it keeps my adrenaline pumping enough that I can actually focus and not get bored.

I decided I'll be playing all the Sunday tournaments on PokerStars at least three out of the four weekends of every month. This means at least 36 Sunday Millions this year. PokerStars has such great structures, and if I can start winning without ever having to leave the house - fantastic!

I think I've finally broken through online. I'm still learning, but it's a great experience. For the first time in my life, I made it to the TLB for the month of February, and I've set a goal for myself that I'd like to be on there for at least six months out of the year. That means logging a LOT more hours online. Look for me, and say hello!

If you want to say hi in person, after playing the NAPT Venetian this week I'll be at the next NAPT stop at Mohegan Sun. I'm really excited for this new tour. "By poker players, for poker players" - sounds great to me.