It’s sad how one’s perception of snow changes as one gets older. As a kid I delighted in those rare times when we had major snowstorms. Not only would school be closed, but we could go out and play. One time I came home and my mom asked me where my other boot was. I looked down and realized one of my feet was uncovered. My feet were so cold I didn’t even feel it. A week later when the snow melted, there was my bright red boot, snagged on the branch of a bush.

Now I look at snow as a pain in my butt — digging out the car, worrying about getting in an accident, etc. With my bad knee, I feel particularly vulnerable walking to and from my car. When you live near the ocean snowstorms aren’t the norm, they are the exception. Usually the ocean temps keep the snow at bay.

Well, the winter of 2009-2010 has been one for the record books. We’ve had two major snowstorms already with another on the way. I live in Somers Point and I woke up at 6am Saturday morning to discover our power was out. I have a built-in power outage alarm. I sleep with a bi-pap machine. When the power went out my machine turned off. Instead of providing air, my mask was filling with the carbon dioxide I was exhaling — that will wake you up right quick. My mom and I scrambled to find flashlights, candles and a radio. I was bummed that we couldn’t watch the news, and that we might be stuck playing cards or that I’d have to work on organizing my paperwork.

We didn’t have to worry about food prep since we have a gas stove. Making homemade pizza for breakfast brought back a little of the childhood fun of waiting out the storm.
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Jeff Madsen

While “snowmageddon” was the big story around the region this weekend, poker pro Jeff Madsen generated some heat just in the nick of time Friday by winning $625,000 in the Borgata Winter Open’s main event.
Madsen’s win came Friday evening, just about when the flakes started to fall.
“It feels good,” Madsen tells The Borgata’s poker blog after beating Sirous Jamshidi (Broomall, PA) heads-up to take the title and the first place prize of $625,006. “It takes a while for it to set in, but in a few days I’ll look back on it. It was a really good tournament.”
Madsen was the tournament’s chip leader after day 2 and Jamshidi had the chip lead going into the final day. The two ended up playing the final hands for more than an hour heads-up. Finally, with about 10 big blinds left, Janshidi went all in for about $1.9 million in tournament chips with queen and deuce of spades. Madsen called with king of hearts, 10 of diamonds.
The board came out jack of diamonds, seven of hearts, six of clubs, king of diamonds, five of clubs, giving Madsen a pair of kings and the win.
Madsen, a two time bracelet winner at the WSOP now has more than $3 million in tournament cashes.
“I’ve had success in the past,” Madsen says, “but it feels good to get these big wins and to continue to prove myself in the poker world.”
Here’s a list of the final table payouts:
1. Jeff Madsen, $625,006
2. Sirous Jamshidi, $367,794
3. Tom Marchese, $190,027
4. Barkley Hamilton, $165,508
5. Nick Kamen, $140,988
6. Al Grimes, $116,468
7. Dave Fox, $91,949
8. Ross Mallor, $67,429
9. Chan Pelton, $49,039
10. Matt Matros, $31,876
For a recap of the last table action go here.

Just came in from the Taj Mahal:

“Due to weather circumstances beyond our control, The Wailers show that was scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2010 in the Xanadu at Trump Taj Mahal has been postponed to Saturday, June 5, 2010.

Tickets sold for the February 6th show will be honored at the June 5th show.”

Greate Bay Country Club

The Greate Bay Country Club golf course in Somers Point has achieved status as a “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary” through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for golf courses, an Audubon International program.
Kenneth Thomspon, Greate Bay’s course superintendent, has led the six-year effort to obtain sanctuary status on this course and is being recognized for Environmental Stewardship by Audubon International. Greate Bay Country Club is only the 27th course in New Jersey and the 794th in the world to receive the honor — an honor designated to just two percent of the golf courses in the world
“All of the members, management and staff are extremely proud of our designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary,” said Greate Bay C.C. president Mark Benevento in a release to the media. “It’s gratifying to see the programs that we have implemented with Audubon International’s support and guidance begin to make many positive impacts on the course and to the environment.”
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According to several reports, Pinnacle has scrapped plans for Atlantic City casino and hopes to sell its land.

Due to the projected blizzard heading towards Atlantic City later today, The Tropicana has canceled both Festival Carnivale planned for tonight, Feb. 5, and Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing fight card planned for Saturday, Feb. 6. Both events will be rescheduled and dates will be announced at a later time.

The AC boardwalk is expected to get 12-15" of snow tonight and tomorrow.

I left my office yesterday nursing my painful knee and stopped at Sam’s Club on the way home for milk and a cooked chicken. Little did I know I would run into a perfect storm of the impending blizzard and Super Bowl party shoppers.

The parking lot was nearly full, my first clue. Cars were following people as they walked towards their cars to get the next available spot. I managed to find one, then entered the insanity zone. The usual five o’clock buzzards were waiting around for the next batch of cooked rotisserie chickens, nothing unusual there. I decided to grab my skim milk, and instead of usual dozens and dozens of milks, I was lucky to grab the last gallon of skim milk visible.

The checkout lines were 10 deep as people were scrambling to get their Super Bowl goodies and food essentials before the blizzard that will begin around 3pm today.

ShopRite was even worse, so I passed on picking up a few items and went home. My mom took over the task of getting pre-storm essentials at 7am this morning and ShopRite was already busy. She reported that the red meat aisles were empty, although there was chicken to be had. She grabbed the last loaf of FiberOne bread and was happy to get it.

We haven’t have this much snow by the shore in at least a decade, so I guess people are over reacting a tad, behavior that tends to snowball (pun intended).

If you don’t have, milk, eggs and your Super Bowl chips and dip by now, good luck finding them.

The following press release arrived this morning from the NJ Assembly Democrats. Worth reading as a lot of what is on the agenda Monday could effect the Atlantic City region. There are also links to the full agenda below as well as a live stream of Monday’s (Feb. 8)  hearings. The full committee agendas can be found here.

(TRENTON) – Legislation to update New Jersey’s economic stimulus legislation, help pave the way for sports wagering at Atlantic City casinos and racetracks and protect consumers from check scams and toxic jewelry top Monday’s Assembly committee agendas, with panels also set to discuss ways to ease burdensome business regulations and save thousands of port jobs.

Assembly panels will also hear bills to help businesses save on energy use, combat bedbugs in apartment complexes and protect consumer debit card account numbers.

All hearings will be streamed live here.

The Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee will consider legislation (A-2059) sponsored by its new chairman, Albert Coutinho (D-Essex), to update the landmark New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009. Coutinho was the prime sponsor of that 2009 law.

“Democrats took a broad approach last year toward jumpstarting local economic development projects and creating new jobs, but clearly we have more work to do and this bill is a step toward that goal,” Coutinho said.

The panel will also hear testimony on the need to address the Bayonne Bridge’s low clearance and keep New Jersey’s port economy vibrant. The Bayonne Bridge is too low to allow new super-sized cargo ships to reach Port Newark and Port Elizabeth.

The new Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee will hear testimony on ways to improve New Jersey’s regulatory environment. It will also consider legislation (ACR-98) to  ask voters to authorize the Legislature to enact laws allowing sports wagering at casinos in Atlantic City and at racetracks.
“Sports betting already exists in New Jersey, but only the criminals are enjoying the profits,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester/Cumberland/Salem), the panel’s chairman.
The sponsors noted Las Vegas expects to see $100 million in wagering on Sunday’s Super Bowl, while Atlantic City will see no such activity on professional football’s biggest day.
“There are multiple dividends for New Jersey if sports gambling were to be provided at Atlantic City’s casinos,” said Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-Cumberland/Atlantic/Cape May). “Atlantic City’s casinos again lose out as bettors flock to Las Vegas.”

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You would think that Mel Gibson would be on his best behavior, doing publicity for his first major film role since 2002’s Signs. In my review of Edge of Darkness, I tried to look objectively at his current work as an actor, not as a controversial figure.

Of course it is hard to do that when Gibson goes and puts his foot in his mouth again. While doing a TV interview with Chicago reporter Dean Richards, Gibson got annoyed when the line of questioning went back to his 2006 drunken tirade. Gibson suggested that is all in the past an asked Richards to move on with his questions. Richards then ended the interview at which point Gibson said goodbye but before the satellite feed shut off, Gibson muttered under his breath, “Asshole.”

This was stupid enough considering his tenuous connection to his fading fan base, and the power of youTube, but to make matters worse, he and his publicist tried to spin the remark. Gibson said the insult was hurled at his publicist, who was making faces at him off-camera. Please Mel, we are not that stupid.

Later in an interview on French television, he admitted that he has a short fuse. Ya think!

It’s been a frigid time for players in the Borgata Winter Open as the casino has struggled the last couple of days with a lack of hot water due to a water main break on Monday. Bad timing to be sure, but the Winter Open is being advertised for those with ice in their veins. Well, now it’s in their showers too (some hot water was supposed to be back Wednesday.)

Matt Matros

Still, poker pro Matt Matros has the day four chip lead with $1.978 million in tournament chips. Matros is a poker coach for stoxpoker.com and has seven cashes at the WSOP. You can follow his blog about his play at the Borgata here.

Jeff Madsen, the chip leader going into day three finished up sixth with $1.291 million and was at the center of some big pots throughout the day Wednesday.

Another pro we kept tabs on, Dan Shak of Bryn Mawr Pa. got sucked out just after the bubble was broke and placed 69^th for a $6,130 payout. That’s a far cry from the $1.2 million he won last week at the 100,000 Challenge at the 2010 Aussie Millions in Melbourne. Shak held a pair of 9s when king, queen, 9, came out on the flop. His opponent had king, queen. Shak’s trips looked good until a king on the river killed him.

Three tables remain with today’s action pairing down to a final table. The winner gets a $625,000 payout. You can follow the action on Borgata’s poker blog.