Poker and fine dining

I’ve recently begun using PubSub to follow a few topics, people mostly. One of my keyword subscriptions is for “thomas keller”, the noted chef. A new item comes across the wire every day or so, usually from someone who is trying out a recipe from Keller’s Bouchon cookbook.

Then one day I noticed an item about Keller playing in a poker tournament. “Hmmm,” I thought, “I didn’t know he played poker. Must be participating in one of those celebrity tournaments that are all over the cable television.” Over the next few weeks, I discovered that Keller evidently played in a lot of celebrity poker tournaments. “Must be really into poker as a hobby,” I thought, not really reading any particular item very closely.

Then it got ridiculous…there was an item every few days about Keller’s poker playing exploits. How on earth does this guy have time to run his restaurants when he’s playing all this poker? Has this famed perfectionist workaholic chef found a new obsession? Does Thomas Keller have a gambling problem?

And then the obvious truth hit me…wrong Thomas Keller, stupid. Thomas “Thunder” Keller, aged 24, is the youngest person to ever win a World Series of Poker event. Perhaps I can take consolation in that somewhere out there, there’s a young poker fan as confused as I was about his hero “Thunder” shirking his card-playing responsibilities to write a cookbook about French bistro cuisine.