Friday, July 20, 2007

vegas................................

walked by Shannon Elizabeth(chick who gets naked in American Pie)- she's a pro/semi-pro poker player now for those who don't know.(I dunno if she makes much money though, from what I've heard she gets mad when she loses at like $2/$5 no-limit in casinos) Her husband/ex? was walking with her. He must have some serious game cause she's like 47 levels out of his league.

I got my picture taken with the legend, Patrick Antonius. One of the top 3 poker players in the world and basically the man. If I can figure out how to put the picture up I will.

My friends saw Kevin Durant wandering around the casinos. I wasn't there yet I don't think.

Lebron James got turned down trying to get into Pure, which is supposed to be like the best club in Vegas. They have a dress code, and Lebron was wearing baggy jean shorts and sneaks with a t-shirt, and they wouldn't let him in. Who the hell turns away Lebron James from your club. He probly woulda dropped like 10 G's on bottle service. That's like what, a 30 second time out's pay for him.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

vegas continued.......

I didn't have time to find a money belt before I left. I'm not talking about one of the money belts you wear around your waist so everyone knows you are carrying money. I want one of the ones you can wear hidden under your shirt. I haven't seen many online yet, but am going to start looking around. I first saw one in Atlantic City when I was playing at the Borgata a couple months back. Some young kid is playing high stakes and an older guy starts talking trash to him telling him to 'get some more money kid' or something. The kid says , "I've got plenty more" as he lifts up his shirt to show that he's got stacks of money lined up all around his waist in this money belt or whatever you call it.

So, wanted to feel safe with a lot of cash on me, so I decided to break out my aikido shirt for the trip. I took aikido last year for a bit, and got a t-shirt when signing up that says "Mushin Kai Aikido" on the front with a guy flipping over a dude. I figure, if someone's gonna try and rob someone, they probably aren't gonna target the guy wearing the aikido t-shirt. So that's my traveling attire. Keeps me safe on the road.

So Vegas, 2nd or 3rd day, we're playing some blackjack. Garrett is betting like $1,000 per hand. We are staying at Hooters, so for Hooters it's like the biggest action ever for them.(side note: Hooters is wayyyyy cheap to stay- like half price of other decent hotels, well worth it imo) Anyways, we get approached by some suits. Alright, just one dude. So he tells us to come back to his office when we're done playing.(and by us, I mean Garrett, but it's a given we are down for the VIP meeting) He gives Garrett his card and heads back to his office. So after Garrett is done winning some money, we head back to his office. So this guy is like, "I take care of people who bet a lot, etc, etc...." He's telling us to have a good time while we're in Vegas, charge whatever we want to the room, and come see him before we leave and he'll take care of it. "Sky's the limit" he says. We are glad to hear this and head out talking about getting limos, maybe getting helicopter rides, etc...

Monday, July 16, 2007

vegas

I'll post some stuff that happened in Vegas in the next few entries. It may be out of order some. I'll post it as it comes back to me.

My friend Garrett played in the main event for the World Series of Poker. So the first day we went to watch. We passed by '12-pack' on our way into the Rio from the show "I Love New York." Saw him again later at the expo walking around. Saw a bunch of pros while walking around- Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Marcel Luske, Joe Hachem, etc...

A bunch of friends from Arizona came down to watch Garrett and to hang out in Vegas for a few days. We went into the poker room to watch Garrett for a bit. He made it past the first break, and was doing pretty well. A while after we started watching from the rail, he put a big bluff on a guy at the table with air. We started cheering. Andy Black, who is a well known pro at the table behind them turned around and said something along the lines of, "I guess they don't make IQ a requirement to get in here huh?" Good one Andy.

Unfortunately, Garrett busted out day 1 with 2 pair vs. a straight.

Met up with 2+2er Pbjaxx a bit later. We hung out/drank a bit, then headed over to Red Rock Casino to meet up for a dinner with a bunch of 2+2ers.(for people reading this who aren't poker players, 2+2 is a website where a lot of professional poker players frequent to talk strategy, etc...) mig.com- the guy who won a world series event recently was in front of us in the taxi line so we introduced ourselves. So we have dinner at the Red Rock, with like 30 2+2ers. Was real cool meeting all the guys. There was a couple people I might not have met there since there were like 3-4 tables of people. A bunch of guys were gambling/flipping before dinner came.(the people running the restaurant eventually put a stop to it) Before they could though, I think Tufat flipped for like $100, $200, $500, and then $1000, martingaling to win his money back.(could be off on the amounts, but something like that.)- Flipping for people who don't know is when you get 2 cards and you bet all your money before the flop comes, so you play for the money you wagered no matter what 2 cards you have. Martingaling is doubling your bets to try and win your money back. Tufat tried to get me to flip for $2,000 but I turned him down. Tufat is the man.

After dinner a bunch of us headed over to Caesar's to play in some private games that were arranged for us. We drank and played a bunch of games no one knew how to play. Actually, some people knew how to play them, I was probably the worst player there. I only play hold em so all these games were new to me. I was learning as I went. We played 2-7 triple draw, some games I can't even remember the names to, etc... I was the fish at the table no doubt. Once we switched everything to no-limit, I benefited a bit since I was not afraid to shove all-in at anytime, including betting $400 into $20 pots pf. Could have cost me lots, but I didn't get caught. Was lots of fun and only cost me a couple hundred bucks to learn the new games. We finished off playing lots of double board hold em. That's a GREAT game.

I'll post some more later.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

back from vegas

Haven't updated because I've been in Vegas. Just got back after stopping in the midwest on the way back to check out a property I'm buying. I'll update a lot this week, and will put up some good stories.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Best month ever

June was by far my best month ever in poker. Actually made almost double my previous best month, so was a great month. I played mostly 2/4 this month. I played some 1/2 and 3/6 as well. My internet kept going out tonight(30th) so I had to cut my session short.

Leaving for Vegas in 4 days. Debating how much money I want to bring cause I'm not sure what stakes I want to play while I'm there. The games are playing pretty deep in Vegas from what I hear, so I'll probably end up playing 5/10, but was debating playing some 10/20, since I'm not really there in Vegas to work, more to have a good time. Would be cool getting some experience playing tough players in the 10/20 games. Don't know if I feel comfortable playing with $5,000+ in front of me against really tough pros though, so we'll see.(would probably need to bring a bunch of buy-ins too, so chances are I'll end up playing 5/10)

I'll need to get comfortable playing larger stakes with deep stacks soon, because in September I'm planning on going to Commerce again out in LA and playing in the 10/20 games out there. Also been debating trying the 10/25 game at the Borgata this summer since I'm so close to Atlantic City, but the buy ins are crazy for that game. Supposedly most of the regulars buy in for $10-$20k. I wouldn't want to buy in with like $5k and be the short stack.

Gonna kind of relax for the next few days before Vegas, and then get back to grinding when I get back the middle of July. Time to celebrate the big month.