Last June, I wrote a post about the Tiltboys, a group of poker players from the bay area that have become legendary in the poker community over the last few years. Describing the group as "Animal House with high SAT scores", I wrote that the Tiltboys are a living testament to just how amusing a life devoted to excess and debauchery can be. My post caught the eye of Kim Scheinberg, the one and only woman to reach Tiltboy status. Kim was in the process of writing/editing a book about the group and asked if she could use some of what I wrote for the marketing campaign for the book, promising to send me a signed copy of the book when it's finished if I said yes. Naturally, I said yes. So the book is out and today I received my copy of it in the mail (thanks, Kim).
I've barely begun to read the book yet and I'm already laughing. Even the cover of the book is funny, with a picture of them all when they crashed a ladies only tournament in drag (seeing Phil Gordon, who is 6'9", in a gorgeous pink skirt and blouse, is priceless). And they've got some great blurbs like these:
"Thank you, Tiltboys! You've changed my life! It drives my girlfriend wild when I spank her with your new book Tales from the Tiltboys."--Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, 2000 World Series of Poker Champion and Honorary Tiltboy"If enough people buy this book, maybe I won't have to pay Perry to be quiet during tournaments anymore."--Erik Seidel, Six-time WSOP bracelet winner
Perry being Perry Friedman, known as "The Baiter", a man who can drive an entire table to tilt in about 30 seconds flat (when a poker player is upset and making less-than-rational decisions as a result, they are said to be on tilt) with his non-stop talking. Perry has won at least one World Series of Poker event, and I think he won another one this year but he may have finished second (I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment). Phil Gordon, the Tiltboy who hosts Celebrity Poker Showdown on the Bravo network, has finished 4th in the World Series of Poker main event and won a World Poker Tour event. But despite their enormous success at big money poker, they still take their $1/$2 Wednesday night game of Spit and Cross Ding a Ling with a Twist (don't ask) deadly seriously. I urge anyone interested in poker and debauchery - and who isn't? - to check out Tales from the Tiltboys.
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