Boulder boy Paul Wasicka plays as it lays. And he plays it good.
At 26, he’s a poker player. Since turning pro last year, he’s made $7,369,496. Not bad.
His big wins include first at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship this year for $500,000, fourth in the L.A. Poker Classic this year for $455,615 and second at the World Series of Poker Main Event last year for $6,102,499.
He lives in Las Vegas, but he’s buying a house back in Boulder this week.
He moved to Boulder with his family when he was 7, “and that’s where my competitive drive kicked in,” he writes in his blog at kwickfish.com. “While in high school, I played five sports a year. I ran track, and cross-country, skied, wrestled and played volleyball.”
Then came the night his buddy Thomas Fuller drove him to Denver for an underground poker tournament. Out of 100 people, he came in ninth. He went home up $110. A player was born.
Now he’s traveling the world. He hired his best pal, Truman Bradley, to be his manager, and they’re living very large indeed.
“It’s going to be a great year,” he writes.
Bet on it.
Beware of the Dog
When you see Duane “Dog” Chapman in town, don’t run. The star of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” isn’t after you. He’s in town this month with the entire TV crew and cast to film “Dogography,” a special for the series, which is skedded to air in August on A&E.
The doc will look at Chapman’s Denver roots, where he grew up – poor, tough and in trouble.
No more headaches
My podmate, Denver Post feature writer Doug Brown, is a hot topic in the blogosphere this week. The pending sale of his book, “Just Do It,” is getting NYC’s publishing world all worked up.
The book follows family man Brown and his wife, Annie, as they pledge to have sex for at least 100 days straight. One passage cited in New York magazine’s blog: “We did it on top of a mountain. During the porn industry’s annual flesh circus in Las Vegas. In a yoga ashram, and in a remote yurt. In an ostentatious hotel, a cheap motel, and a Very Victorian bed-and-breakfast in Wyoming in the dead of winter. In our basement. …”
No wonder he looked tired at work.
Says Brown: “It’s really a love story more than anything. And it was my wife’s idea. Bless her.”
Once the book sells, we’ll have all the deets here.
Sushi to Jacks
Seven years ago it was Sushi, Sake & Sumo. Over time it morphed into Blues, Booze & Boxing; Tapas, Tequila & Twister.
After a visit to Rise, then Invesco, it’s back at the Fillmore as Jacks, Queens and Kings – with Almost Queen tribute band playing as you eat like a king and drink Jack Daniel’s at 8 tonight. $65 goes to Generations Cancer Foundation.
City spirit
Wayne Brady is the joker at the Oct. 12 Girls & Guys Night Out party for Girls Inc. … Mary Chapin Carpenter has canceled her summer tour, including June 2 at Chautauqua. … Sez who: “Studies show that four out of five people think the fifth one is an idiot.” Kevin Nealon
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at denverpostbloghouse.com/husted.
